Can One of God's Elect Be Deceived?
1) Direct Answer
No. The very elect cannot be deceived from the Word. God keeps His own.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Matthew 24:24: “False Christs and false prophets… shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” That “if it were possible” shows it isn’t possible.
- John 10:4-5, 27-28: “My sheep hear my voice… a stranger will they not follow… I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
- 1 John 2:20, 27: “You have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things… the anointing… is truth, and is no lie.” The Spirit in them guards them from error.
- Romans 11:7: “The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.” The elect obtain the truth; the rest are the ones blinded.
- Ephesians 1:13; 4:30: They are “sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise… unto the day of redemption.”
- 1 Peter 1:5: They are “kept by the power of God.”
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- If the elect could be deceived, then Christ’s promise would fail and the sealing of the Holy Spirit would not hold. But the Bible says they are kept.
- The elect may be tested, momentarily puzzled, or pulled at by error, but the Seed in them won’t swallow a lie. The Shepherd’s Voice draws them back to the Word.
- Many are called, but few are chosen; deception catches the called-but-not-chosen. The chosen stand with the revealed Word.
- The Bride—seen overcoming and faithful—cannot be deceived from her Husband-Word.
Short Reinforcement
You see, it’s not that deception won’t be strong; it’s that God’s keeping is stronger. The elect hear the Voice of the Word and will not follow a stranger.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
A deceived Church by the world
59-0628M §15
Each one tries to think he's a little smarter than the other man, each denomination. The Methodists will say, "We got the smartest man." The Baptist will say, and the Church of Christ, and so forth, they all, "We're the smartest. We, our people, we don't let just the ordinary man go out and preach the Gospel." But they hand-pick them. (O God, have mercy!) Hand-pick them; if they're indoctrinated with their certain doctrine, then they put them in the church. God can't touch him in no way. I want somebody to preach t...
The true vine and the false vine
55-0607 §18
The devil takes his man, but the spirit remains just the same. Jesus said, "You're of your father, the devil." Said, "Which one of the prophets that showed forth the coming of the Just One, did your fathers not stone?" and so forth, speaking of the Pharisees. Remember, and right keep this in mind: The antichrist spirit is not communism. The antichrist spirit is religious. Jesus said, "It'd be so close it'd deceive the very elect if possible." It's not something like a communistic anti-God affair; it's a religious s...
Christ is revealed in His own Word
65-0822M §92
All other words---I don't care how well they're placed, who they come from, what denomination they come from, or how smart the man is---is to be absolutely ignored, anything contrary to the Word. If you want to put that Scripture down, it's Galatians 1:8, see. Paul said, "Though we or an angel from heaven would preach any other thing than this that you've already heard, let him be cursed." In other words, if an angel would come to you from Heaven, a bright shining angel, and would stand (boy, that would be bait for...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 9:E-78
"You are blind and naked." Now this is really desperate. How can anyone be blind and naked and not know it? Yet it says that they are blind and naked and can't perceive it. The answer is, they are spiritually blind, and spiritually naked. Do you remember when Elisha and Gehazi were surrounded by the army of the Syrians? You recall that Elisha smote them blind by the power of God. Yet their eyes were wide open and they could see where they were going. The blindness was peculiar in that they could see certain things,...
I have heard but now I see
65-1127E §74
St. Mark 14, we see a woman believed on Him. She had had need and seen He had need for His feet to be washed. She had only to be inspired to go into action. Now listen close before we close. She only had to be inspired to go into action, because she had already heard about Him. She heard that He forgive a woman of her sins, a harlot, and said, "Which one of you is without sin cast the first stone." She had heard about Him, but now she seen Him. She was inspired to serve Him. That's the only thing you have to be. Le...