How to Escape a Bewitched Mind and Twisted Truth
Here at the end of the age, when digital devices provide information so quickly that thinking is no longer needed, people’s minds are inundated with stimulating visual images and constantly updated information. A great deal of that information is unverified but largely believed, because easy access to information has resulted in mental laziness. After all, why should a person think when the device he is using can do the thinking and analyzing for him?Here we find the need to use our minds in order to keep our heads on straight.Historically, the church in Galatia was experiencing a similar issue. From Paul’s words in Galatians 3:1, it is clear that seducing spirits were infiltrating the churches in Galatia. This is why Paul wrote, “O, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you....”The word “foolish” is the Greek word anoetos, which depicts a person who isn’t using his mind. The problem isn’t that the person doesn’t have a mind; that person just isn’t using his or her mind.These individuals were feasting on the spiritual error that was being put on their plates without even thinking about the quality of the spiritual fare they were consuming. And people who don’t use their minds to assess and think things through are the easiest to lead astray.In every generation, there is always a category of ardent students who read, study, and write. However, in this day of continual bombardment with fast-paced moving images, a growing majority no longer analyzes information the way previous generations did. We are told by experts that a large percentage of the present generation has difficulty comprehending linear texts that require analytical thinking. For some in that number, they have difficulty reading anything of greater complexity than the text messages that provide their main means of communication.The most recent statistics reveal that the average young person spends eight minutes a day reading. However, a large part of those eight minutes involve reading text messages on their devices, not reading real text, such as in a book or article. The present generation’s ability to think and to analyze is becoming progressively diminished and dulled as we approach the end of this age. There is no doubt that this trend exacerbates the proliferating mass deception in the days to come.Although digital advancements have brought positive changes to our modern society, these advancements have also been gradually crippling people’s ability to think beyond a surface level. The situation is becoming very serious. In fact, many experts assert that this may be the most gullible and the easy-to-deceive generation that has ever lived. How ironic that the most brilliant, innovative engineers in history have created a digital world that is now producing what may be the most non-thinking generation in recent times — or perhaps ever!Although the brain remains a magnificently complex creation, the continual blitz of easily accessed images and information has had a profound impact. People’s desire and ability to think — to process, gather, and study information to ensure they arrive at an accurate conclusion — has been greatly diminished. This nonstop bombardment of visual messages on social media has had the net effect of causing people’s attention span to be radically decreased.It is our responsibility as Christians to avoid this modern pitfall by keeping our minds renewed by the Word of God and our spirits well-tuned to the Spirit of God. We are not to fall into this “thinking” decline with the rest of society and become gullible with the rest of the crowd. Every moment of every day, we’re called to keep our hearts sensitive and our sound minds engaged so we can keep our heads on straight!
There has never been a more important time in history for Christian believers to read, study, and meditate on the Bible.
There has never been a more important time in history for Christian believers to read, study, and meditate on the Bible. The way to circumvent spiritual seduction and deception is by knowing, understanding, and being rooted in the truth of God’s Word. He is looking for hearts that yearn to continually know His higher thoughts and ways and who therefore embrace and submit to His Word as absolute truth.If the Christians whom Paul was addressing had been using their brains and thinking about what was being put on their spiritual plates before consuming it, they probably wouldn’t have been bewitched. Instead, Paul had to ask them, “Who hath bewitched you...?” The word “bewitched” is the Greek word baskaino, which means to cast a spell on someone. Paul’s language tells us their thinking was clouded, as if they were under a spell. They were mesmerized by a new proposal — a new way of thinking that was leading them off the path of sound doctrine.This foolishness had grown so fast that in Galatians 1:6, Paul told them, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed....” The word “marvel” means to be at a loss of words, to be shocked, to be amazed, or to be completely bewildered. Paul was simply flabbergasted that such preposterous error could find its way into the Galatian church. He was likewise astonished that this seduction could happen so quickly, which is why he wrote, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed...unto another gospel.”Paul identified the type of teaching that was penetrating the Galatian church when he called it “another” gospel. The word “another” is a translation of the Greek word heteros, which means of a different kind. The usage of this word means false teachers had invaded Galatia with a gospel of a different kind. The word “another” tells us that these error-promoting leaders were presenting some elements of the truth to make it sound recognizable and similar to the message Paul had preached, but they were little by little refashioning and repackaging the message, adapting it to meet the objectives of their personal agenda. In reality, what these leaders were promoting was a twisted version of truth. It was error packaged with elements of truth and then stealthily posed to believers in the guise of authenticity to make it more appetizing.In Galatians 1:7, Paul said, “Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.” The word “another” in this verse is very different from the word “another” used in the previous verse. This time it is the word allos, which means of the same kind.The various uses of heteros and allos in these two connecting verses present a strong message: that what these false teachers were preaching was completely different from the original Gospel that Paul presented to the Galatians. Although it might have contained some elements of the original message, it had become so twisted that it ultimately was nothing at all like the original Gospel the Galatians had heard and embraced when they came to Christ.Paul’s words in this verse may sound rough to a modern society in which people generally believe that everyone has a right to say and believe whatever he wishes. Of course, this is true; people do have this right. But Paul knew the Gospel was under attack in his own generation and would indeed always face the possibilities of subversion. He therefore lifted up his voice and declared that those leaders “would pervert the gospel of Christ.”The word “pervert” is a translation of the Greek word metastrepho, which means to bend, to change, to corrupt, or to turn one thing into another. This word “pervert” depicts the modification of something that already exists — to bend it, change it, and remold it — until the original item is corrupted. Then that corrupted version is presented as something improved or enhanced — when, in fact, it is a “perverted” adaptation of what was originally intended.Of course, it’s possible that an errant leader had been genuinely deceived himself along the way and was unaware of the dangerous path he was leading others to embark on. But in those early days of the Church, many false leaders came with the full awareness of their self-serving agenda.False leaders who fit the latter category knew their listeners would reject them if they blatantly and obviously presented a different Gospel. Therefore, over a period of time, little by little, they gradually began to bend it, little by little changing it until it had metamorphosed into a message they wanted it to be.This transformation initially began to occur at a snail’s pace. Then over a period of time, these errant teachers began to quicken their pace in seducing God’s people away from the pure message of the Gospel and into a modified version of the truth — as seducing spirits with doctrines of demons always do.
‘Teaching of a Different Kind’
This assault against the Gospel was occurring all over the Church in the First Century. For example, when Paul installed Timothy as pastor of the church in Ephesus, Timothy had to immediately deal with spiritual leaders, well-known and beloved in the church, who were beginning to add their own twist to the Gospel. This is why Paul wrote Timothy, “As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:3).Paul did not suggest that every leader in Ephesus had fallen prey to this attack of seducing spirits and doctrines of demons; he simply stated that some had succumbed to it. However, those “some” were visible leaders in the church, which is why Paul insisted that Timothy urgently deal with it.The same is true regarding these end times. Not everyone will be led astray in these last days. Many leaders will stick with the truth and refuse to budge from it. But it’s crucial to understand the devil’s tactics in this regard. He aims for vulnerable leaders with influence, because when a notable leader presents a corrupted and modified version of the truth, it has greater impact upon larger numbers of people as the ripple effect of spiritual infection spreads through the Church.
