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.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 5:E-58
But what do we have in this our day? Multitudes are working signs until we have a generation of sign seekers that know little or nothing about the Word, or a true move of the Spirit of God. If they see blood, oil and fire they are happy; it matters not what is in the Word. They will support any sign, even unscriptural ones. But God has warned us about that. He said in Matthew 24 that in the last days the two spirits would be so close together that only the very elect could tell them apart, for they alone would not...
The anointed ones at the end time
65-0725M §53
Now, even Judas, foreordained to the condemnation he was, sat there before Jesus, and Jesus told him, "You are the one! Whatever you're going to do and whatever you've got to do, go do it quickly." Him knowing what he was doing, but for them thirty pieces of silver and popularity sold the Lord Jesus Christ. One of His disciples, the treasurer of the church, Jesus called him His friend, see. The Bible said he was born the son of perdition, just the same as Jesus was born the Son of God. "Deceive the very elected if...
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...