In the previous article, I demonstrated that no one has to go see the movie, The Passion of the Christ

Truth, the Main Ingredient of Deception

by Tony Robinson

In the previous article, I endeavored to show that no one has to go see the movie, The Passion of the Christ. Despite the claim of its proponents that one can't judge the movie without having seen it, I tried to show that Scripturally, you can accept the testimony of two or more witnesses concerning this movie without having to view it yourself before making a judgment about it. However, some may wonder, why shouldn't I view it? In other words, some may accept my position that you need not view it firsthand but still wonder, "Why do I need to seek the opinions of others when I can go and view the movie for myself?" This is a valid question and I will attempt to answer it in this brief article.

Beloved, there are certain things you need to be very careful about! As I stated before, you didn't need to go see The Last Temptation of Christ or Harry Potter movies to know they were spiritually unclean. James 1:27 informs us that pure, undefiled religious practice behooves us to remain "unspotted from the world." One of the greatest areas of spiritual defilement occurs in the mind. And what great spiritual defilement occurs in the mind? Deception! Spiritual deception is extremely dangerous. Why? Because the person who is deceived doesn't know it. In fact, a deceived person thinks they know the truth, when in fact, they don't.

The Scriptures have a lot to say about deception in the last days. One such example is found in Yeshua's words in Matthew 24:4. When asked about the sign of his coming, Yeshua explicitly warned His disciples "let no man deceive you." Later, He stated "For there shall arise false Messiahs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect (Matthew 24:24)." Paul used Yeshua's exact words (let no man deceive you) in II Thessalonians 2:3 when he warned of the great apostasy of the end times. Lastly, Paul warned the Corinthians, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (II Corinthians 11:3). Note how deception is connected to corruption of the mind! Beloved, now is the time of deception! These are the last days. These are the days of the apostasy. And these are the days of the corruption of the minds of the saints. The point I want to make is this. The Scriptures specifically warn us of the extreme amount of deception that will be prevalent during the last days. Should we not be vigilant and extremely wise concerning what we take into our spirits and minds?

Now let's see how deception works. Our first clear teaching on deception is found in Genesis 3:1-7 where Chava (Eve) was deceived by hasatan into partaking of the forbidden fruit. What most people don't realize is that the majority of what hasatan said to Chava was true! Please note the following statements made by hasatan to Chava and determine if they were truth or error:

1. "You shall not surely die."—Error

2. "Your eyes will be opened."—Truth

3. "You will be like God."—Truth

4. "You will know good from evil."—Truth

As you can see, after initially telling Chava a lie, hasatan finished his deception with good old truth. That's interesting. As humans, we mainly remember what we've heard last. Therefore, hasatan told Chava the lie first and then followed it with one truth after another. A little statistical analysis shows that he told her 25% lies and 75% truth! Note the recipe for deception. It was composed of truth as well as error. Did you see that? Truth was mixed with error and the consequences were cataclysmic, touching the lives of every person ever born.

Those of you who study my weekly Torah lessons may remember the valuable lesson we learned from Parashat K'doshim. We saw that most of the commandments in Leviticus 19:1-12, 1) observe the Shabbat, 2) turn from idols, 3) proper offerings and 4) using Adonai’s name in vain, dealt with the vertical relationship between Adonai and man. We also saw that most of the commandments of Leviticus 19:12-18, 1) do not steal, 2) lying, 3) cheating, 4) compensation, and stumbling blocks, etc., dealt with the horizontal relationships between men. Furthermore, we saw that this entire section was thematically related to the Ten Commandments! It is obvious that Moses used the Ten Commandments as a template to record the commandments in Leviticus 19:1-18. What most people don't know is that Leviticus 19:1-22 form a complete literary unit called a Parsha P'tuchah. This simply means that these verses are set apart as a sort of paragraph. It is fundamental to understand that each Parsha has one primary theme. Why is this important? Because, Leviticus 19:19-22 is also part of the Parsha. Leviticus 19:19 deals with forbidden mixtures among animals, agriculture and clothing (the Law of Kil’ayim or Forbidden Mixtures). Leviticus 19:20-22 deals with the forbidden mixture of an Israelite and slave. Thus, within this one Parsha (which has one primary theme), we see two apparently different topics. Leviticus 19:1-18 are thematically connected and equivalent to the Ten Commandments, whereas Leviticus 19:19-22 discuss the law of Kil'ayim. So how are these two apparently different topics thematically related? The primary theme this Parsha P'tuchah tries to teach us is that it is forbidden to mix truth with error. We should not mix error with Adonai’s commandments, the very definition of truth! You see beloved, the law of forbidden mixtures (Leviticus 19:19) is thematically linked to the keeping of Adonai’s commandments (Leviticus 19:1-18) by the inclusion of both topics in this one Parsha. Through this connection Adonai teaches us that the mixture of the truth of Adonai's commandments with error is a forbidden mixture. We are not to let it happen! This was the sin of Chava. She allowed the enemy to mix error—you shall not surely die—with the truth of the commandment—do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now let's return to the beginning point I made concerning guarding ourselves from the deceptions of the last days. Beloved, it is very easy for hasatan to deceive the unsaved. The recipe for deception for an unsaved person would probably be something like ninety-five parts error, five parts truth. Having no true spiritual discernment, they will easily swallow huge lies. However, Yeshua warned us that the deception of the last days would be so severe that even the elect would be in danger of being deceived (Matthew 24:24)! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that hasatan will not be able to use the same deception recipe for the elect that he uses for the unsaved. And how might the ratios of the deception recipe change for the elect. I think it would be closer to ninety-five parts truth, five parts error. In other words, the end-time deceptions aimed and targeted for YOU my friends will be filled and overflowing with TRUTH! That's Scripture, AKA "Thus saith YHVH!", not Tony Robinson.

Now you can understand why some, such as myself, are warning people not to view this movie. In the previous article I stated the following:

"Some of us smell a foul odor emanating from this movie. Some of us see the red flags of danger in its mixture of truth and error. Finally, some of us hear the warnings of Scripture, which implore us to try the spirits."

The reason why I think you should consider not viewing the movie is because there is definitely error in it. I believe there is an unholy mixture of truth and error that is intended to defile our minds and spirits. Deception is not a one-time event. It occurs over time. Repeatedly, the enemy of our souls will offer us the forbidden mixture of truth and error. Because the amount of truth outweighs the amount of error, it is easy to just keep gulping it down thinking that one is in no danger. The more one continues to partake of it, the further down the road of deception he/she travels. This is the deceit of deception. That's why you owe it to yourself to guard yourself against anything that mixes error with the truth of Adonai's commandments. In the next three articles, I will try to show you—from the testimony of Mel Gibson himself—how and why I believe 1) this movie mixes truth with error, 2) the goal and spirit behind the filming and release of this movie is not of the Father and 3) this movie crosses a certain boundary pertaining to entertainment and faith.