God of Truth or God of Lies?

Grantley Morris
12 hours ago
44 min read

When God Lets You Down or Does Not Keep His Promise

When Everything Says:

God Lies & Breaks Promises

What could be more devastating than being forced to conclude that God is a liar who does not keep his promises? If God lied to you and broke his promises, you have every right to be reeling in anger, bitter disappointment and confusion. You might feel bewildered beyond words or so betrayed as to hate God with a burning fury. No matter what explosive emotions are raging within, however, you deserve insights that finally deliver peace.

There are two truths I dare not avoid. One is that there are people who claim to speak for God when they are either sincerely mistaken or are moved more by a desire to impress or by greed than by God. The other truth is that this accounts for only a portion of broken promises.

I will sugarcoat nothing. If someone has misrepresented God or misread the Bible, I will say so, but if God has been less than truthful, I will expose it.

I once had a job fixing the computer problems of literally hundreds of people. Typically, people would get everything perfect except for one tiny step, such as switching on the power. Although they often felt stupid when I eventually found a simple error, they were no fools. All of them had above average intelligence (they even had to sit for an IQ test before being employed). Please do not think I am insulting your intelligence if I feel obligated to act like I did back then and eliminate all of the supposedly obvious things before moving on to the more challenging.

So as not to test the patience of readers for whom a particular matter is not relevant, I’ll move at breakneck speed. When, however, it begins to seem that an issue raised might possibly apply to your situation, it is vital to stop right there and explore further by visiting the link provided. Because of their extra detail, the links are often the most important part of this webpage.

If a webpage name is given in italics the link to it is provided at the end of this webpage.

It clearly begs the question as to why God would allow it, but have you noticed how the Bible warns over and over that deceivers will worm their way into churches?

Whereas some fraudsters are devilishly clever, could the devil himself occasionally add his own powers to the cocktail? More should be done to protect innocents from these snake oil salesmen. Nevertheless, people clamor to hear them. The sad truth is that many of us would rather hear that God wants to pamper and prosper us than hear from a God who says we must walk in the steps of the crucified Lord who sacrificed everything for love.

Lest I lose readers whose issues lie elsewhere I must rush on. I remain acutely aware, nevertheless, of how deeply wounding it is to have been hurt or hoodwinked by a wolf in a wool suit, or by a sincere believer like the apostle Peter, who at times could attain such spiritual revelation as to receive Jesus’ high praise for it and yet could quickly slip so far into becoming the devil’s spokesman that Jesus had to say, “Get behind me Satan!”

It is surely no coincidence that both instances appear in the same passage. The inspired writer is ramming home how quickly and easily a sincere believer can slip from attaining such spiritual revelation as to win Jesus’ high praise to being the devil’s mouthpiece.

Matthew 16:17-23 Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven . . .” From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up. Peter took him aside, and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This will never be done to you.” But he turned, and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.”

(Emphasis mine.)

My webpage, Hurt & Confused by Fake Personal Prophecies, is the product of my passionate concern for the many who are reeling in pain because of false prophetic utterances, and if you have suffered this way I urge you to read it immediately for the comfort and support you deserve.

I refuse to whitewash the fact that the blame for only a portion of broken promises can be laid at the feet of spiritual con artists. Just before leaving this, however, I should briefly mention that although misguided preachers differ from fraudsters who claim to be prophets infallibly declaring the very words of God, they can be just as dangerous. There are respected, doctrinally conservative Christians who use the Bible to preach a ‘Jesus’ that only the very discerning can recognize as false.

As one of only twelve divinely-chosen apostles, Judas Iscariot must have been revered as favored by God and a spiritual leader by the thousands who flocked to Jesus. Since the Lord Jesus deliberately chose Judas, knowing what he would do, and the rest of the New Testament keeps emphasizing that false teachers will infiltrate the church, it seems likely that Judas was welcomed into Jesus’ inner circle so as to imprint on the minds of all future followers what to expect. Judas was but the first of a long line of spiritual leaders willing to betray his Lord for a chance to line his pocket.

As Jesus kept on loving Judas, Christians should keep on loving, but that is a world away from being gullible. There will always be those who would rather sell their children for a little fame and a few bucks than preach Jesus’ unpopular message. Will we, however, choose to follow those dripping with worldly success or follow the despised and rejected one? Will we worship those promising we can have what we lust after, or will we choose the one who insisted we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow the one who was spurned and tortured to death?

Perhaps there are those who would promise anything for a fast buck and would gloss up hell’s booby-trapped trinkets, trying to pass them off as heaven’s treasure, but I have no heart to attack anyone. He who is without sin might be qualified to throw the first stone but why, beside Jesus who most certainly did not throw stones, would such an exquisitely perfect non-human choose to visit this planet? I am keen to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. The worry about preachers who handle the Word of God with the integrity of snake oil peddlers, however, is that the way they mangle God’s Word clouds the thinking of spiritually hungry hearers – even when the pure in heart do their best to read the Bible for themselves. Preaching a cheap Gospel is devastating because it seduces the sincere into misreading the very Word of God; reading into it promises that were never there.

Being a victim of a misguided preacher might not apply to you but if it does, it is devastating and I have much support for you. This time it is found in Spiritual Abuse.

Of course, taking frustratingly long to fulfill a promise does not constitute a broken promise. Let’s quickly touch on it, however, before dealing with more perplexing matters.

The Bible insists that God is eternal and works in an alarmingly different timeframe from us. Even the first book in the Bible rams this home. Despite his God-given dream – in fact, because of it – Joseph’s life kept crumbling from bad to worse for year after agonizing year, with his brothers hating him, then languishing in slavery and then rotting in a prison that made even slavery seem idyllic. And still earlier, God promised Abraham a son, but nothing happened year after year until having a child became impossible. That reminds me of Jesus waiting for his dear friend Lazarus to die before finally getting around to helping him (John 11).

God promised the land to Abraham’s descendants but Genesis ends with this promise still unkept. In fact, it was hundreds of years before they got the land. Believe it or not, the reason given for this enormous delay is God’s mercy – the original inhabitants of the land were not yet so despicably evil as to warrant removal (Genesis 15:16). With a God whose responsibility extends to the entire universe and claims to love not just us but his enemies – and our enemies – things get mind-bogglingly complex. In fact, not only is the disturbing statement that with God a thousand years is as a day given as one of the reasons for the Lord’s promise to return to earth still being unkept, the other reason cited is God’s mercy. Every moment he delays, is another moment in which sinners, like we once were, have time to repent and find divine forgiveness before it is too late (2 Peter 3:7-10).

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Hebrews 6:12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Hebrews 10:36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

(Emphasis mine.)

I have an entire book filled with annoyingly valid reasons why God keeps good people waiting. If it is possible that God’s promise merely has been delayed for an infuriatingly long time, you should read Waiting . . . . (The link is at the end of this webpage)

The Agreement

Leviticus 18:28 That the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

Leviticus 26:27,32-33 If you in spite of this won’t listen to me, but walk contrary to me; . . . I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein will be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

Deuteronomy 4:25-27 When you shall father children, and children’s children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make an engraved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the Lord your God’s sight, to provoke him to anger; I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations, where the Lord will lead you away.

Deuteronomy 30:16-18 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce to you today, that you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it.

Joshua 23:16 When you disobey the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them. Then the Lord’s anger will be kindled against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you.

It would not have been fair for God to have removed the former inhabitants from the land because of their sin and let the new inhabitants be equally sinful.

God obligating himself to execute justice fairly, introduces another complication: his need to be moral. There are people who rather absurdly disregard this. For example, a man wrote to me, mad at God because his wife, who had taught Sunday School and belonged to an anti-drug organization, had ended up addicted to drugs and left him, taking the children as well. I replied:

You could have kidnapped your wife and imprisoned her, thereby forcibly preventing her from taking drugs and from leaving you. You chose not to do so because you are too decent a man for that. Do you really expect God to have lower morals than you and forcibly prevent your wife from breaking God’s heart and yours?

We can take to ridiculous extremes the fact that God is all-powerful. Just because God can do anything does not mean that the Holy Lord is so immoral that for him anything goes.

This can never justify the breaking of a resolute promise. It is, however, one of many restrictions under which the good Lord must operate. Just because our puny intellect fails to detect a reason why God should not do something does not mean a vitally important reason does not exist. Our failure to realize this could cause us to try to join the dots and assume God has promised something when, in reality, we have unwittingly stuffed words into God’s mouth and made promises on his behalf.

We will later delve into other divine promises, but promises about prayer warrant priority because they affect so many of us. Moreover, insights uncovered in this investigation can be applied to other biblical promises.

Does God’s promise to answer our prayers mean the Almighty has obligated himself to ignore what we have just discussed and do immoral or foolish things for us in response to selfish or short-sighted prayers?

Our intellect is far too limited to know all the complex chains of events sent skidding off in all directions and hurtling through time whenever the smallest thing is done. If we had God’s infinite intellect, flawless morality and Christlike selflessness, answered prayer would be a breeze. Our strong tendency to ask stupidly, however, turns prayer into something exceedingly complex and filled with roadblocks.

If, instead of ripping words out of the Bible to create our own fanciful collection of divine promises, we respectfully pieced together the entire biblical revelation about prayer, we would discover that God has detailed very many limitations when it comes to answered prayer. Even the eternal Son of God, as he agonized in sweat-drenched prayer in the garden, had to conclude it with “. . . yet not my will, but yours be done,” (Luke 22:42).

The Almighty expects us to treasure his Word by being thoroughly aware of all of it, and to honor him by interpreting everything he says, not only according to the immediate context but according to the totality of his biblical revelation.

The good Lord has good plans for us. Too often, however, we edge toward letting ungodly attitudes muddy our definition of good. If we slip in this direction, what seems to us to be the Spirit confirming to our spirits that we have heard from God could actually be our wayward hearts leaping in excitement about the pipe dream that the Holy Lord might indulge our fallen nature.

John 15:26 When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

Acts 15:28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit . . .

Romans 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.

Romans 9:1 . . . my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 10:15-16 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them: ‘After those days,’ says the Lord, ‘I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;’”

1 John 5:10 He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. . . .

1 John 2:27 As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you will remain in him.

The Bible repeatedly insists we must put to death/crucify, or rid ourselves of, our sinful nature.

It is so important that we detach ourselves from our sinful nature that the Bible uses very many different expressions to describe it. Below are some are some samples. The fact that there are so many indicates not only that it is critically important but that dying to self is not a one-off experience for a Christian. It is a daily battle.

Matthew 10:39 . . . he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

Luke 9:23 . . . If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Luke 14:26 If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard . . . his own life also, he can’t be my disciple.

John 12:25 He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

Romans 8:4 That the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Romans 8:13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Romans 13:12 . . . Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light.

1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee sexual immorality. . . .

1 Corinthians 9:27 But I beat my body and bring it into submission , lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.

2 Corinthians 6:17 Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,' says the Lord. 'Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.'

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. . . .

Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

Galatians 6:14 But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Ephesians 4:22 That you put away , as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit.

Philippians 3:13 . . . Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before.

Colossians 2:11 in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.

Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.

Colossians 3:5 Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Colossians 3:8-10 But now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth. Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator.

Titus 2:12 Instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

Hebrews 12:1 . . . let us . . . lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

James 1:21 Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

1 Peter 2:1 Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking.

1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

1 John 2:15 Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world.

If, however, that part of us we should kill is only wounded, we are in danger. It takes only a little of our old nature to distort our spiritual perception enough for us to be alarmingly vulnerable to deception.

Many of us find it worryingly easy to convince ourselves that the Holy One is a ridiculous mix of a genie in a bottle and our cosmic slave. Could we have things so wrong that we don’t want to serve God but instead want him to serve us? Driven to delirium by less than saintly desires – laziness, greed, lust, envy, self-infatuation, a yearning to exact revenge, lord it over people, be idolized, or whatever – we can make our own wild presumptions about God’s promises. Then, with our fleshly cravings drowning out the Spirit’s whispers, we can top it off by having the audacity to blame God when our self-centered fantasies fizzle in the light of reality.

Consider this much-cited Scripture:

Psalms 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Instead of giving adequate weight to the first part of that statement, the eyes of the self-obsessed latch on to the latter part and think they can use the verse to manipulate the Holy Lord into indulging their fleshly desires. This, along with other Scriptures that seem to say we can ask for and receive anything we want, is similar to St Augustine saying love God and do whatever you want. Augustine could confidently say this because to truly love God is to be so passionate about pleasing God that you would rather die than do anything that displeases him. Those who delight in God (or seek first God’s kingdom, or love their Lord with all their heart, soul and mind, or “lose” their lives, or offer themselves to God as a holy sacrifice and put an end to worldly thinking by the renewal of their mind, or submit to God, and resist the devil, or whatever expression a particular Scripture uses) end up with spiritually transformed desires. Their yearning, like Paul, is to share Christ’s sufferings (Philippians 3:10). They have learned to be content, even when in need or hungry (Philippians 4:12). For them, “to live is Christ and to die is gain,” (Philippians 1:21).

On the other hand, God’s Word is adamant that self-centered prayers are not answered. “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures,” (James 4:3).

Prayer Mysteries: The Joy of Unanswered Prayer, explains in detail why it would be utterly contrary to biblical revelation for God to answer every prayer. The webpage even cites many instances of prayer by New and Old Testament spiritual heroes that were not answered. It also explains why it is comforting that God leaves some prayers unanswered.

Another webpage, Prerequisites for Answered Prayer: When Faith & Prayer Do Not Work delves into the Bible, confirming that God insists that answered prayer has many conditions attached to it besides faith. In just one of the webpage’s numerous biblical references, it lists twenty-seven Scriptures emphasizing that any request from a sinful heart will fall on deaf ears (other than a prayer of sincere repentance).

In another section, the webpage lists eighteen Scriptures commonly used to imply we can have anything we ask for in prayer. It shows that, in each case, the immediate context – usually the same sentence – specifies that the promise is conditional. Sometimes the promises have exacting conditions we have taken no effort to comprehend. For example, correctly understood, to pray in Jesus’ name transforms prayer; making it as radically different from what many of us call prayer as living for Jesus differs from living for self. Daring to do anything in the name of the exalted Lord, the Judge of all humanity, is to put his holiness and reputation on the line.

I will sugarcoat nothing. If someone has misrepresented God or misread the Bible, I will say so, but if God has been less than truthful, I will expose it.

If a webpage name is given in italics the link to it is provided at the end of this webpage.

It clearly begs the question as to why God would allow it, but have you noticed how the Bible warns over and over that deceivers will worm their way into churches?

Just some of the New Testament’s Warnings To Christians About Being Deceived

Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.

Matthew 7:22-23 Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’ Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’

Matthew 16:6 “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Matthew 24:4-5 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

Matthew 24:11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

Matthew 24:24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible.

Mark 12:38-40 As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.”

Luke 21:8 He replied: Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.

Acts 20:29-31 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! . . .

Romans 16:17-18 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.

1 Corinthians 3:18 Do not deceive yourselves. . . .

1 Corinthians 6:9 . . . Do not be deceived: . . .

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be misled . . .

2 Corinthians 11:3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray . . .

2 Corinthians 11:13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

Galatians 1:7-8 . . . Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

Galatians 2:4 This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.

Galatians 6:3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived . . .

Ephesians 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words . . .

Colossians 2:4 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

2 Timothy 2:17-18 Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some.

2 Timothy 3:5-6 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears . . .

2 Timothy 4:14-15 Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. . . . You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.

2 Thessalonians 2:3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way . . .

Titus 1:10-11,16 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach – and that for the sake of dishonest gain. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.

Hebrews 3:13 But encourage one another daily, . . . so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

James 1:16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers.

James 1:22 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. . . .

James 1:26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself . . .

2 Peter 2:1-3 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them – bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

2 Peter 2:18-19 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity – for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

1 John 3:7 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.

1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 John 1:7 Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. . . .

Jude 1:4 For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Jude 1:12-13 These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm – shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted – twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

Warnings to Churches that Spiritually Dangerous People Are in Them:

Revelation 2:14-16 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam . . . Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Revelation 2:20-21,24 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants . . . I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. . . . Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you) . . .

My webpage, Hurt & Confused by Fake Personal Prophecies, is the product of my passionate concern for the many who are reeling in pain because of false prophetic utterances, and if you have suffered this way I urge you to read it immediately for the comfort and support you deserve.

Being a victim of a misguided preacher might not apply to you but if it does, it is devastating and I have much support for you. This time it is found in Spiritual Abuse.

Of course, taking frustratingly long to fulfill a promise does not constitute a broken promise. Let’s quickly touch on it, however, before dealing with more perplexing matters.

God promised the land to Abraham’s descendants but Genesis ends with this promise still unkept. In fact, it was hundreds of years before they got the land. Believe it or not, the reason given for this enormous delay is God’s mercy – the original inhabitants of the land were not yet so despicably evil as to warrant removal (Genesis 15:16). With a God whose responsibility extends to the entire universe and claims to love not just us but his enemies – and our enemies – things get mind-bogglingly complex. In fact, not only is the disturbing statement that with God a thousand years is as a day given as one of the reasons for the Lord’s promise to return to earth still being unkept, the other reason cited is God’s mercy. Every moment he delays, is another moment in which sinners, like we once were, have time to repent and find divine forgiveness before it is too late (2 Peter 3:7-10).

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Hebrews 6:12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Hebrews 10:36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. (Emphasis mine.)

I have an entire book filled with annoyingly valid reasons why God keeps good people waiting. If it is possible that God’s promise merely has been delayed for an infuriatingly long time, you should read Waiting . . . . (The link is at the end of this webpage.)

Anyhow, the Israelites eventually got their land, promised as “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8), only to lose it again, with multitudes going into exile and the rest having to live under foreign occupation. The Jews did not keep their side of the deal (Scriptures). It would not have been fair for God to have removed the former inhabitants from the land because of their sin and let the new inhabitants be equally sinful.

We can take to ridiculous extremes the fact that God is all-powerful. Just because God can do anything does not mean that the Holy Lord is so immoral that for him anything goes.

The Almighty expects us to treasure his Word by being thoroughly aware of all of it, and to honor him by interpreting everything he says, not only according to the immediate context but according to the totality of his biblical revelation.

The good Lord has good plans for us. Too often, however, we edge toward letting ungodly attitudes muddy our definition of good. If we slip in this direction, what seems to us to be the Spirit confirming to our spirits that we have heard from God (Scriptures) could actually be our wayward hearts leaping in excitement about the pipe dream that the Holy Lord might indulge our fallen nature.

The Bible repeatedly insists we must put to death/crucify, or rid ourselves of, our sinful nature (Very many Scriptures). If, however, that part of us we should kill is only wounded, we are in danger. It takes only a little of our old nature to distort our spiritual perception enough for us to be alarmingly vulnerable to deception.

Consider this much-cited Scripture:

Psalms 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Prayer Mysteries: The Joy of Unanswered Prayer, explains in detail why it would be utterly contrary to biblical revelation for God to answer every prayer. The webpage even cites many instances of prayer by New and Old Testament spiritual heroes that were not answered. It also explains why it is comforting that God leaves some prayers unanswered.

Another webpage, Prerequisites for Answered Prayer: When Faith & Prayer Do Not Work delves into the Bible, confirming that God insists that answered prayer has many conditions attached to it besides faith. In just one of the webpage’s numerous biblical references, it lists twenty-seven Scriptures emphasizing that any request from a sinful heart will fall on deaf ears (other than a prayer of sincere repentance).

Here are some selections from that webpage about conclusions drawn from a careful study of the Bible’s teaching on prayer:

I once saw a shop advertising free range eggs. “Look! Free eggs!” I joked to someone with me who enjoys a bargain. To my surprise, she immediately became excited about getting range eggs (whatever they are) for free, not realizing that “free range” refers to uncaged chickens. Many of us are like that with God’s promises; gleefully latching on to a few words without bothering to consider the intended meaning.

If Scripture were to list all the conditions and exceptions every time any subject were raised, we would need a wheelbarrow to carry the Bible around and we would all be complaining about how tedious and boring it is to read.

The Bible’s teaching on prayer is founded on the presumption that those praying have died to self (and hence to spiritual laziness) and are committed to doing things God’s way. Since the Bible’s promises about prayer were usually addressed specifically to people who were already devoted to God, there was no point in continually adding at the end of every verse, “Of course, this only applies if you are living this Book, i.e. have died to self, been spiritually transformed by spiritual union with Christ and are in total submission to God; in everything thinking and acting like him.” Such additions would be as ridiculous as an instruction manual for a high performance vehicle stopping at the end of each statement to explain that what it says only applies to that particular vehicle.

To claim for ourselves Bible promises divinely given to people who were more devoted to Christ than we are willing to be, is as fraudulent as tampering with someone’s last will and testament, by trying to scratch out someone else’s name and replace it with our own. It is not only taking Bible promises out of context, it is ripping them out of Christianity and putting them into a false religion. Hoping to exploit God for our selfish ends might bear similarities to voodoo or witchcraft – I know too little about these religions to be sure – but it most certainly is nothing like genuine Christianity.

To receive everything we ever request would make us as terrifyingly powerful as the Omnipotent Lord. Who would you dare let have such unlimited power? Would it be generous or irresponsible for the good Lord to use prayer to entrust Godlike power to anyone whose motives are not Godlike?

Do we suppose the way to get our selfish way is by prayer to the God who demands we die to self? Has anyone the audacity to think we can trash all that the Bible says about the necessity of studying God’s Word and storing it in our hearts because prayer for wisdom and revelation will work as an alternative? Imagining that prayer can somehow allow us to bypass the need to follow Scripture’s instructions is not only ludicrous but offensive to God. Dare we, for example, defile the holy Word of God by coming to the very Bible that devotes so much space and passion to denouncing the love of money and seizing a verse about prayer as an open-invitation to use faith-filled prayer to feed our addiction to money and perpetuate our adulterous love affair with material things? That would be as perverse as praying for guidance, wisdom and protection in robbing a bank, or praying for God to provide victims for a hideous sex crime.

Do we really think we could dupe the Holy God into giving us anything that by his impeccable standards is unholy, or that he would invite us to pray for such things? If it were possible for prayer to nullify the Word of God, we would not be praying to the God of the Bible.

The unspiritual side of us, however, keeps hoping to avoid God’s way and find some cozy alternative. Alarmingly, the Deceiver has gleefully prepared many such options for those who prefer the easy road that leads to destruction. And he is delighted to let them remain smugly convinced they have got away with it.

God is all about love.

1 John 4:7-8 . . . for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:16 . . . God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

So prayer to the God of love must be all about love – verbalizing our love for God and wanting to know him better, to be more like him and to please him, glorify him and see his purposes furthered. Since love focuses on the beloved, prayer should be God-centered, not self-centered. And trying to make it God-centered just because you think that approach will better aid your attempt to manipulate God into giving you what you crave is no improvement on any other self-obsessed attempt to exploit God’s goodness. God’s piercing eyes expose all such schemes. Prayer should be about companionship and intimacy and yieldedness. If it is all about us or about continually getting rather than giving, it is not real prayer; it’s a perversion.

Romans 8:26 . . . We do not know what we ought to pray for . . . (Emphasis mine).

The rest of the verse explains that the Holy Spirit mercifully compensates for our deficiencies in wisdom. We should not grieve or quench the Spirit, however, by seeking things that offend his holiness or by supposing that we are smarter than him or insulting his love by imagining we have our best interest at heart more than he does. On the other hand, we should not freeze with fear over what we pray for. The Spirit of our gracious Lord is always eager to forgive. Nevertheless, he is also eager that we stop blindly repeating our mistakes, and especially that we not hurt ourselves by pulling back from God through being so foolish as to get mad at him for mercifully not giving us things that to us seem wonderful but are actually inferior – sometimes dangerously so – to God’s plans for us.

Often we are like King Midas, having no idea of the consequences of what we request. In the fable, Midas was granted his greedy wish (that everything he touched would turn to gold) before he realized the devastating implications for every morsel of food and every loved one he touched. God would be too kind to answer such a prayer. How tragic it would be, however, if any of us were to turn our backs on God simply because it is beyond our comprehension how superior the divine alternative plan is to the one we have concocted.

Having seen that it is widely taught in the Bible – though not from the pulpit – that answered prayer is conditional, let’s move on to other alleged promises in God’s Word. Some of them turn out to be statements few Christians have any right to claim as a personal promise, and there are others that modern readers often misapply or warp into something grotesquely different from God’s meaning.

Let’s start with a general observation: An enormous source of conflict between God and us is that we misunderstand him.

Isaiah 55:9 As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Even getting to really know someone who is less complex than the infinite Lord is a lifelong struggle.

Not only do most of us jump to conclusions about what God is saying without devoting years to getting to know him, many of us think we should be able to get away with exploiting God by treating him with the disdain of an insurance policy. We largely ignore him until we have a problem. Try treating a marriage partner that way and see how long the marriage lasts.

Dare we extract perhaps a dozen of the Bible’s three-quarters of a million words and then have the audacity to twist them in an attempt to reduce the Living God – the most dynamic person in the universe – to a lifeless formula? And not only would this insult God by depersonalizing him, many of us do not even give him the respect worthy of an insurance policy. Few of us bother to delve into the Bible to investigate the limits and conditions of the policy and many do not even make the on-going payments required to keep the policy current. And then we have the nerve to still expect a payout when we need it. If we insist on treating God like an insurance policy instead of a person who craves our attention and deserves our devotion, we should know that not even an insurance company will pay out in these circumstances.

“What’s this about ‘on-going payments’? Salvation is free,” you complain.

Well, it was not free for Jesus. Words fail in any attempt at describing how much it cost the one who said we must likewise deny ourselves and take up our cross.

If it doesn’t cost us, why did Jesus insist we should count, or carefully consider, the cost so as to avoid the shame of beginning to follow him and then dropping out (Luke 14:26-33)? It is not that there is no on-going personal cost but that no matter what extremes we go to, we could never pay the price of our salvation.

If you are drowning in the middle of the ocean and someone saves you by lifting you into his boat, no matter how free your salvation is, it depends on you remaining in the boat. Decide to leave the boat and revert to doing your own thing, and you are back to fending for yourself.

Scripture affirms that if we have truly received “the grace [free gift] of God that brings salvation,” it will teach “us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives,” (Titus 2:11-12).

Those of us who have merely skimmed the Bible usually assume that a prophecy of God is a declaration or promise that the event described will happen. This is mistaken. Prophecy is a revelation of what is inevitable, only if there is no significant change of attitude in the hearts of those targeted.

The Lord of the universe seldom bothers giving what to everyone is useless information because there is nothing anyone can do about it. Nor is prophecy God showing off. Prophecy is the loving Lord’s passionate attempt to inspire something beneficial in the lives of his audience – repentance in those who are errant and/or persistence in those who are faithful.

So the outcome of a divine prophecy is not set in celestial concrete but hinges on the response of the human recipients. If key figures in the prophecy change, so will the outcome of the prophecy. For example:

Isaiah 38:1-6 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, . . . And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. . . .

Likewise:

Jeremiah 18:7-8 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation . . . repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.

And again:

Jeremiah 26:13 Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you.

And again:

Ezekiel 33:14-16 And if I say to the wicked man, “You will surely die,” but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right . . . None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.

In all these cases (and for still more, see The Mysterious Nature of Prophecy) it is to our advantage that a prophetic declaration is not a promise. It can sometimes work in reverse, however, with a prophecy of blessing not materializing, as indicated in the verse immediately before the last quote:

Ezekiel 33:13 If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; he will die for the evil he has done.

Egged on by certain over-enthusiastic preachers, many of us have a tendency to find promises in God’s Word that simply aren’t there. Consider this, for example:

Acts 16:30-31 . . .“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.”

It was already past midnight but in the next three verses the account continues, stating that that very night all the jailor’s household (which probably included servants) were gathered and the apostles expounded the way of salvation to them. They all believed the message and were immediately baptized.

As staggering as it seems, over the years I have heard several different preachers seize this solitary statement to an individual and claim it to be an iron clad promise from God that, regardless of what marriage partners and their children do or believe, every family member of every believer will be eternally saved. This is despite the fact that not just the same Bible but the same apostle elsewhere says virtually the exact opposite i.e. that there is no certainty about a family member’s salvation:

1 Corinthians 7:16 How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

I do not doubt the sincerity of these preachers. Nevertheless, it is a serious matter to misrepresent the one to whom we must all one day give account.

Here’s another example of “claiming promises” where there are none to be claimed. The apostle Paul said that he had learned the secret of being content, whether he had an abundance or was so lacking that he was hungry. In this context of having learned to be content no matter what the circumstances, he stated that he can do all things (Philippians 4:11-13). Some people rip those few words out of context, like ripping a fetus from its mother’s womb, and try to apply them to every conceivable thing. Some even apply “I can do all things” to never going without, even though Paul was actually saying that this is the very thing experiences had taught him to do.

Just verses after saying he had gone hungry (a fact repeated in four other parts in his anointed writings) he says, “my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,”

Philippians 4:12 . . . In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.

1 Corinthians 4:11 Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place.

2 Corinthians 6:4-5 but in everything commending ourselves, as servants of God, in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings.

2 Corinthians 11:27 in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.

2 Corinthians 6:9-10 . . . as punished, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

(Emphasis mine.)

(Philippians 4:19). Whatever that means, it is clearly not intended to preclude the possibly of an anointed man of God having to endure times of hunger, and yet some people claim it as a divine promise, not for necessities, for a flashy car. You might find it hard to believe, but the one who said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head,” had surprisingly few cars in his garage. (For help in understanding biblical teaching on this subject, see:

Forgotten Christian Secrets of Prosperity: Prosperity Doctrine

Peace & Contentment: The Christianity that Most Christians have Missed.

A Radical Call to Authentic Christianity

“. . . your word is truth,” prayed Jesus (John 17:17). “Let God be true, and every man a liar,” says Romans 3:4.

“God is not a man, that he should lie,” (Numbers 23:19). The self-sufficient Lord of the universe has no need to try to impress and neither makes mistakes nor has any imperfections he needs to cover up.

Passionately mining the Word of God for promises you can claim for yourself and for other people is a holy task that can bring you and our Lord glory when you “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth,” (2 Timothy 2:15). When, however, we fail to treat the Word of Truth with due reverence and care, and falsely assert that God has made promises that he hasn’t, or we hypocritically assume we have fulfilled the conditions on which those promises were based, we become liars by lying about God.

To portray God as a liar by perverting his holy words into promises he has never made to us, framing the Innocent One for a crime of our own making, is a grave offense. It is not that we knowingly do this. Blinded by greed, lust, envy, or some other failure to learn to be content in all things, we wander off from the Word of Truth into wishful thinking until we begin believing our own fantasies and then have the audacity to blame the God of truth when we crash into reality.

The Holy Lord who sacrificed everything for us has plans to shower us with blessings beyond our wildest dreams, but his ways are not our ways, and they most certainly do not conform to the lusts of this world. We have all been like prostitutes divinely rescued from a pimp, but too many of us expect God to be our new pimp. Christ died not to aid anyone’s quest to become a better class of sinner but to deliver us from sin; not to feed our infatuation with worldly definitions of success but to break that addiction.

Angry at God! Is it Mad to be Mad at God?

God Isn’t fair?

The Spiritual Essentials for Accurate Bible Interpretation

God & Suffering

Truth: An Awesome Responsibility

Major Pages Mentioned in the Body of this Webpage

Hurt & Confused by Fake Personal Prophecies

Waiting . . .

Prayer Mysteries: The Joy of Unanswered Prayer

Prerequisites for Answered Prayer: When Faith & Prayer Do Not Work

The Mysterious Nature of Prophecy

Forgotten Christian Secrets of Prosperity: Prosperity Doctrine

Peace & Contentment: The Christianity that Most Christians have Missed. A Radical Call to Authentic Christianity