Ephesians 4:14 “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;”

In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul is establishing truths of the faith and encouraging young Christians to grow spiritually…

… Which then necessitates him warning them to watch out for false doctrine, and the people that spread it… because false doctrine is harmful to Christian growth.

“Doctrine” is vitally important. It is a word used to refer to what the Bible teaches about anything and everything.

In 2023, the contemporary church is rapidly moving away from “doctrine” as they seek to focus on what we have in common rather that where we differ.

And they do this for the sake of “unity”, and make many concessions on “divisive” truths to have such.

As a result, a lot of false doctrine has been waved along in to the modern church.

Some false doctrine is pretty obvious, like Mormon doctrine, and that still struggles to get in.

But a lot of false doctrine, hidden on blurry lines and much closer to the truth, has enjoyed undetected infusion into the contemporary Christian bloodstream.

And a good way to understand how this happens is by taking note of the word “sleight” found in the verse quoted above.

We all most likely associate the word “sleight” with “sleight of hand” in the world of magic.

We’ve all seen cool card tricks before! Magicians are amazing with how they manipulate cards to make you go wow, how did he do that!?

The photo attached is called a “back palm vanish”, where the magician uses a sleight of hand technique to make a card vanish.

… The audience is amazed that the card has vanished in plain sight (you don’t see the back of his hand)!

But Christians take note! Because the people bringing false doctrine into the church are as good at their craft-iness as top magicians are at theirs.

False doctrine can be very convincing, artfully synchronized with established truth to accommodate all, and most of all gives the modern Christian exactly what people look for in a magic show…

… Entertainment.

Because false doctrine would never get in if people weren’t already dissatisfied and disillusioned with “the faith once delivered unto the saints”.

End result, it’s amazing how much false doctrine has been adapted into modern Christianity over time.

But without the Bible you won’t see it, just like in the same way that a master magician is basically undetectable to the human eye.

But while a good magician and false doctrine can both cloak themselves in legitimacy… remember, the only power that either retain is in their ability to deceive you.

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