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.
God hiding Himself in simplicity
63-0412E §46
Notice. Noah in his days (we spoke of it this morning), in his days it was a great intellectual time, and men were smart. And Noah and his great intellectual age, God came down to save the elected people. Do you believe God has an elected church? Certainly He does. And He comes to save that elected. The rest of them, it's just common cannon fodder. But He knows that there's going to be so many of them saved because He put their names on the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. That's exactly acco...
The Hand of the Lord came upon him
54-0403 §51
If the one there who's a prophet, he'll know the secret things. For instance, somebody standing there with a sin: He'd call it out and tell them so. Or, the man or the woman that's sick---looks very healthy---say, "Here's what's in your life. You're a Christian, but you have certain-certain things. You've been a certain place." Then the Bible said, normal people would fall down and say, "Truly, God is with you." 'Course critics, and so forth, that's born to be condemned, they can't say it, because they're condemned...
A blushing prophet
56-1125E §19
Why can't we have faith? Why can't we have greater healings than we do have? Why can't we get ourselves soundly builded? It's because we're putting on corn plasters, because we're putting on stickers, putting on pieces of tape. We're trying to cover the thing up instead of saying we need a transfusion. We're without blood. We're without Christ. Don't let yourself be fooled. Don't let the devil pat you on the shoulder. Say, "Well, I go to church." The devil does too. That's right. He sure did. Come up to God, went t...
The Lamb's book of life
56-0603 §41
The Bible said, in Revelation, that the antichrist would come in the last day, and that he would be so rude. And over in Saint Matthew, also 24th chapter, Jesus speaking, said when the antichrist would come, that he'd be so close, like the real work of God, till he would deceive the very elect, if possible. Watch, deceive the very elect. The elect: where does it come from? From the word "elected." He would deceive the very elected, if it was possible, see. But it isn't. Praise God for that! It isn't possible. Like...
Does God ever change His mind about His Word?
65-0418E §6
There's only one out of that million is going to live. Did you ever think of that? They are the same germ and the same egg, both of them just alike, but there's only one going to live. And that's not determined which one beats there first, because sometimes the egg way back in the back, and the germ might be up in the middle of the sperm, and they'll crawl over one another. It takes an intelligence to know whether it's going to be boy or girl, red-headed, black-headed or whatmore. It's a election of God; it can be...