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Jeremiah 17:5-8 Thus says the Lord, "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord.
v6 "For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without inhabitant.
v7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord And whose trust is the Lord.
v8 "For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.
In the concluding segments of our study on doctrinal orientation we are noting some of the categories of Bible doctrine that God's Word reveals to the spirit led believer.
We are presently in Col 2:8; where believers are commanded to persist in doctrinal truth in order to maintain stability in their thinking and resist the pressure that comes from the propaganda, deceit and lies that are in accord with satan's cosmic system that are constantly being communicated by the demon mafia and the fake news media.
Paul is telling us to beware of and on guard against the disinformation that is "philosophy and empty deception that is operating in accord with the traditions of men and the demon mafia and not in accord with Christ."
This verse tells us that the disinformation that the false quasi-religious teachers communicate is profitless because it is derived from the vacuousness of human intellectualism that is not in compliance with or in accord with the standards of Christ.
On pages 185-186 of his book Christian Integrity R.B. Thieme Jr refers to this disinformation as the "anthropocentric academic speculation." that corresponds to entrance into the hatred complex of sins that comprise cosmic 2 evil.
Anthropocentric" means "centered in man; considering man to be the most significant fact of the universe; assuming man to be the measure of all things; and interpreting the world in terms of human values and experiences" "not according to Christ."
When one's philosophical assumptions assign central importance to man instead of to God the resultant academic research accumulates an abundance of persuasive false evidence that initially rejects and left unchecked goes on to hate, resist and oppose divine viewpoint. Psa 53:1-4;NET
This is the transition from the arrogance complex of Cosmic 1 that is described as "the fool" in verse 1 into the hatred complex of Cosmic 2 that is comprised of those who do not call out for God and consume God's people up as though they were bread" in verse 4. 1Pet 5:8;
Col 2:8; Be continuously on the alert and watchful so that no one is able to carry you away as prisoners of war through the agency of anthropocentric academic speculation ...
In addition to the lies of man-centered, pseudo-intellectual speculation Paul continues by defining the insidious methods that the cosmic propagandists use as "worthless or empty deception"
The Greek words "kenos apate" are translated "empty deception. Kenos is something that lacks substance and has no value so it is obviously something that is incompatible with biblical truth.
"Kenos" refers to the content of the anthropocentric academic speculation that is contained in the propaganda that is conveyed by those who communicate the lies contained in the fake news.
It is translated "vain" (KJV), "hollow" (NIV), and "empty" (NASB & NET). A good translation is "without content."
Paul uses this word in a similar context in: Eph 5:6; Let nobody deceive you with empty words "kenos logos" (empty words), for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience (people who reject doctrinal truth).
Col 2:8; Paul continues to define the demon doctrines that comprise anthropocentric academic speculation with the word deception translated from the Greek word "apate."
"Be continuously looking out so that no one can carry you off as prisoners of war through the agency of anthropocentric academic speculation and deception without content ..."
"Apate" can be defined by three English words:
Deceive: "to cause to accept as true or valid what is actually false or invalid; implies imposing a false idea or belief."
Delude: " to trick into believing something that is false also implies an inability to distinguish between what is real and what only seems to be real; to deceive so thoroughly as to obscure the truth."
Beguile: "to lead by deception; stresses the use of the manipulation of information into fake "news" to create an emotional reaction.
The definitions of both "kenos" (without content) and "apate" (deceive, delude, beguile) suggest the modern-day concepts of emotional manipulation that results in deception through the use of disinformation and propaganda.
Without rational thought from doctrinal truth emotion takes over and reacts irrationally on the basis of empty "gut" feelings or feelings that have been aroused from the presentation of deceitful lies instead of truth.
Disinformation is false information that is deliberately and often covertly spread by the planting of rumors or "leaks" in order to obscure the truth and influence public opinion.
Disinformation is the use of intentionally false and misleading content combined with half-truths in order to mislead and manipulate.
The objective is to deliberately beguile and deceive people by presenting a distorted one-sided concept of reality with the purpose of advancing a hidden agenda that would normally be rejected.
Scripture contains many passages that warn believers about the deceptive messages of false communicators who mislead to advance a hidden agenda or for their own personal gain.
2Pet 2:1-3 There came into existence false prophets among the people ( the Israelites ), even as there definitely shall be false teachers among you (Church Age believers),
who will insidiously introduce destructive heresies, habitually denying the Master who bought them ( God's grace policy and The Lord Jesus Christ) bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
These false communicators have appealing personalities, a confident demeanor, and their message is deceptively persuasive but it is comprised of empty lies and half-truths.
v2 Many shall follow their hedonistic lifestyle and because of them the way of truth will be maligned;
v3 In their insatiable lust they will exploit you with false words... (propaganda, disinformation and lies )
In verse 3 the Greek word translated "exploit" is "emporeuomai" that refers to buying and selling It is the root of the English noun "emporium" that is used to describe a market where many different kinds of merchandise are bought and sold.
The word places emphasis on those who traffic in the merchandise by traveling around to buy and sell and who in Peter's context, will use any ruse to convince people to make a deal with them.
Peter is comparing false communicators with traveling salesmen who deceive people into buying the snake oil that they have presented as a magic elixir.
The ideas aka "products" sold by false communicators, that in our day take the form of preachers, teachers, politicians and the fake news media comprise an emporium of ideas that is equivalent to traveling salespeople who deceive people into buying their poor quality merchandise.
They travel around selling doctrines of demons such as lawlessness, disarmament of the citizenry, multi-culturalism, internationalism, crony corporatism, and utopian socialism as a panacea for the world's problems that when actually implemented are disastrous.
Many in the media and the academy are unwittingly communicating the destructive propaganda of demon doctrine on a daily basis. They are unwitting because they have deceived themselves. 2Tim 3:13;