“Jesus answered: ‘Watch out that no one deceives you. …many false prophets will appear and deceive many people’” (Matthew 24:4, 11).
I was born and raised as a Mormon. My father and mother are Mormons, as were my grandparents, my great-grandparents, and so on—all the way back to the beginning of that man-made religion established in 1830 by the false prophet Joseph Smith. Of course, I never realized growing up in Mormonism that it was a false religion. I simply accepted what my parents and church leaders had taught me, trusting wholeheartedly that what they were teaching me was the truth of God.
That particular aspect of my story is certainly not unique. Such is the case with all human beings. No one gets to choose the circumstances we’re born into. We’re all raised in conditions that are beyond our control, and we’re all taught to believe whatever doctrines and traditions those who have gone before us inherited. For most people, those doctrines and traditions are then accepted and passed on to the next generation without question.
Ideally, children born into this world would be raised in the pure and perfect truth of the Word of God.
No false doctrines.
No false traditions.
No false prophets.
But of course, that’s just not our current reality. Life in this fallen, wicked world is indeed very far from the ideal. We look forward with hope and great anticipation for the return of the Messiah and the ushering in of the 1000-year-long reign of God’s righteousness and truth on earth—a glorious future time when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of YeHoVaH as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
Yes, with the Messiah reigning as “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16), life on earth will then truly be ideal. May it come soon. Amen.
In the meantime, however, we must always be on our guard, remembering that “many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). This fallen world is full of those dangerous and “ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15) our Lord warned us about: false prophets, false apostles, and false teachers who “masquerade as servants of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:15) but have come hungrily prowling among the flock to “steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10).
In order to ensure that “no one deceives [us]” (Matthew 24:4), we must commit ourselves to studying, knowing, and understanding the Word of God for ourselves. We must meditate on YeHoVaH’s Torah day and night, know it by heart, impress it upon our children, talk continuously of it, and walk each and every day by its purifying light—just as we’ve been commanded:
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).
“Keep this Book of the Torah always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8).
As we work to gain a knowledge and understanding of God’s Word, we must carefully examine those things we’ve been taught to believe and meticulously test them to determine whether they’re in harmony with or contrary to the truth of God’s Word. We must act as the faithful Bereans of old, those who “received the message with great eagerness and EXAMINED THE SCRIPTURES every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).
I did this for myself, and with the help of wonderful ministries like A Rood Awakening International and others, God’s liberating truths eventually had the victory over all the “lies, worthlessness, and unprofitable things” (Jeremiah 16:19) I had inherited from Mormonism. The truth did, in fact, set me free (see John 8:32). HalleluYAH!
In my first few years after coming out from that man-made religion, I had naively thought that Satan’s lies were now all behind me. The enemy’s deceptions and false doctrines certainly would not be found among the believers walking the same path of Torah-obedience I was. After all, I was now surrounded by brothers and sisters that, like myself, were well aware of the deceptions of the adversary and would be immune to his attacks.
It did not take long for me to realize just how wrong and foolish I was to have thought this.
The reality is anyone at any time is vulnerable to Satan’s attacks. The father of all lies is exceptionally cunning. He’s had 6000 years of practice to perfect his art of deception. He works relentlessly to sow his tares among all peoples, all religions, all groups—possibly even working harder at injecting his poison among those striving to walk in obedience to God’s Torah, among those who could pose the greatest threat to his kingdom.
Over the years, I’ve personally witnessed many false doctrines being widely circulated among Torah-keeping believers, but the one I’d like to focus on in this article is one I first saw several years ago—one that I’ve recently been seeing a strong resurgence of:
“It’s wrong to say the name Jesus. Jesus comes from the Greek language meaning ‘Hail, Zeus!’ You’re calling upon a pagan god if you say the name Jesus.”
To this false and ridiculous idea, I boldly and unequivocally say NO.
The name of our Lord in the Greek language is “Iésous” (Ἰησοῦς), and his Greek name has absolutely nothing to do with the name of the pagan god Zeus. These two names may sound similar, but they are entirely different. It’s like the English words “to, two, and too,” or “there, their, and they’re”—sets of three words that all sound the same, but they are spelled differently and mean entirely different things.
It’s the exact same with the Greek name for our Lord. It may sound similar to “Zeus,” but it’s spelled differently, and it means something entirely different.
Part of Paul’s instruction to Timothy was to “command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths” (1 Timothy 1:3-4). These “certain people” Paul refers to are among those who “want to be teachers of the Torah, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm” (1 Timothy 1:7).
For those that have taught this false doctrine—this entirely baseless “myth”—I repeat the words of the Apostle Paul: “They do not know what they are talking about.” Such people have no business being teachers. They do not have the wisdom to rightly handle the Word of Truth (see 2 Timothy 2:15) and need to be sternly warned about so foolishly and carelessly teaching what they claim to be “the truth.”
James, the brother of Jesus, wrote, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1), and Jesus himself warned, “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37).
A sister in Christ recently told me of the pain this false doctrine had caused her. She said, “I did get uncomfortable when I was trying to connect and fellowship with other people in the Torah community because I felt shunned if I said Jesus. I even read in one group on Facebook that they would kick anyone out who said Jesus. … Sometimes I feel I don’t belong anywhere…”
Those words break my heart. Such things should never be had among the body of believers, among those who declare to be disciples and followers of the Master. This faithful sister (and those like her) belong to our Lord. The fact that there are those among the body of believers who made her feel like she doesn’t “belong anywhere” is shameful.
If anyone reading this has at any time condemned a fellow believer simply because they choose to speak the English name of the Messiah, I implore you to immediately repent of this and to never teach such false doctrines again. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with saying the name Jesus. Millions upon millions of people have been saved, blessed, and healed by the name Jesus. It’s his English name, which we have received by the direction of the Almighty God through the translations of multiple languages over a period of 1700 years — from Hebrew, to Greek, to Latin, to Old English, and finally to Modern English.
Now, if it is your personal preference to say the Hebrew name “Yeshua” over “Jesus,” that’s perfectly fine. Both names are beautiful; I regularly use both myself. But our personal preferences should never become doctrines. The moment you engage in the teaching of lies and the condemning of your fellow believers simply for using the name Jesus, you’ve crossed over into dangerous territory. You’ve crossed the line into a man-made religion of your own making — no different than the Pharisees and Sadducees of long ago, those who taught “as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9; Isaiah 29:13).
In the first few years after leaving the false religion of Mormonism, I had foolishly assumed that the days of worrying about false doctrines worming their way among the believers was now behind me. How very wrong I was. We must remember that Satan hasn’t let up with his attacks. His attacks and deceptions will only increase and strengthen, even to the point that he’s able to “deceive, if possible, the elect” (Matthew 24:24). Until that glorious day of our Lord’s triumphal return, Satan will not stop his attacks. Because of that, we must not become slack in our defenses. We must all continually be on our guard, always remembering the first words our Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples on the Mount of Olives:
“Watch out that no one deceives you” (Matthew 24:4).
Amen.
