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.
Questions and Answers
59-0628E §70
Look, a woman is going to cut off a dress. She's got a large piece of goods. (Let's call it what? calico, gingham, or something another, some kind of a name that you got. Let's say it's silk.) And she's got a pattern. And she looks over this big piece of goods. Now, it's up to her where she lays this pattern. Is that right? She can choose it from any part of this goods, and the whole goods is sanctified, clean. See, it's election. God's election. So what does He do? God takes by election and places this pattern of...
A deceived Church by the world
59-0628M §6
For God can keep anyone and use anyone that will follow after Him, for it's God's business. But when we turn to aside, away from the things of God, then God cannot use us any longer. When we will walk steadfastly after the commandments of God, when we will stay in the pages of the Bible and worship by the written Word, worship Him in the Spirit and in the truth of the Word, then God can use any individual. But when they take a notion to turn aside after something else, then God cannot use that person any longer.
Does God ever change His mind about His Word?
65-0418E §55
Notice here how the spiritual is applied to prove that the natural is wrong. Moses, sent of God in line of duty, is met and challenged by another prophet of God. Can you imagine it! Moses, called of God, ordained of God, standing in the duty of God, moved up into this cold, formal group and was challenged by another prophet of God, what God had blessed and ordained. How would you tell the difference? They both had prophets. God spoke to both prophets. And some of them say, "God said, 'Do this.' God said, 'Do that.'...
What was the Holy Ghost given for?
59-1217 §34
Watch, that spirit will be just as pious and just as sanctimonious as it can be, until it comes to the Holy Ghost, and they'll cut it off right there; that's that spirit. Can't you see it moving up, the antichrist? And Jesus said they'd be so close together in the last days it would deceive the very elected if possible. But remember, it's just the elected that will see it. God calls by election! Aren't you happy that you're one of them? Aren't you people here tonight, knowing that something in your heart tugging, "...
How can I overcome?
63-0825M §28
We see this age that we're living in. It's one of the grandest ages of all ages. This Laodicea church age is the grandest of all the church ages, because it's the ending of time and the blending of eternity. And then, it's the greatest sinful age. There's more sin in this age than there's ever been. And the powers of Satan is many times harder to fight against than it was in any age. See? Here, back there in the early ages a Christian for his profession of being a church---of belonging to Christ could be beheaded f...