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.
Behold a Greater than all of them is here
62-0715 §26
...ow, today, I was going to preach on a subject that I had... Never preached on it yet. I've tried all up the coast, and haven't hit it yet. But I come up the coast this time because, as I said last night, I believe the great tides move this way and hit the coast. There's a ... there's a curtain here. It can't go no farther. It's God's time curtain. Being that you're talking about curtains, let me warn you something. You've heard of a iron curtain, haven't you? The bamboo curtain of the East? There is ... but there's...
The signs of His coming
62-0407 §57
So now, then if a true prophet stays with the Word, and you see the manifestation of the Word---like Micaiah did, like Moses, like all of them did; then a false prophet would be a one that would cause you ... try to make you dismayed about the signs of God's Word. He'd be a false prophet. Jesus said beware of them, and they will fool or deceive the very elected if it was possible. See, they'll come right up there, and claim to be everything else, but they just don't ... when they go to moving away from that Word, y...
The god of this evil age
65-0801M §88
As she is part of the Groom, true to Him in every point, waiting the Wedding, uniting, not at the ecumenical council, but in the sky, the Wedding Supper. She has been given (this is for our own church) she has been given and revealed to her the seven sealed mysteries of the Bible. She sees the folly of the deceiver, so very close to the truth that almost deceive the elected; she sees it. She... See the two opposing spirits at work in this evil age? Can you see it? Each very religious, Cain and Abel, spirits again c...
The anointed ones at the end time
65-0725M §54
Notice closely as we study on. We'll take another instance over in the book of Kings. There was a prophet, and his name was Micaiah. He was the son of Imlah, and he was a prophet. He was. And there was another prophet, the head of a organization of prophets, anointed ones. The Bible said they were prophets, just the same as it said Balaam was a prophet, anointed one. And there was one of them by the name of Micaiah who was anointed with God and sent by God with the Word of God. There was one, Zedekiah, who thought...
Church Ages, part 9: The ten virgins, and the 144,000
60-1211M §87
But you see, so close, said Matthew 24 ... Matthew 24:24, read it right away, and you'll see. Jesus said that in this last days the two spirits would be so close together till it would deceive the very elected if it was possible. It'll be so close, it'll swing them Pentecostals like nobody's business. Sure. Now, Matthew 24:24. Does anybody have it? I didn't get it right there. You got it there, sister, or some of you? Matthew 24. Got it, Ben? All right, read it. For there shall arise false Christians, false Christs...