Can One of God's Elect Be Deceived?
1) Direct Answer
No. The very elect cannot be deceived from the Word. God keeps His own.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Matthew 24:24: “False Christs and false prophets… shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” That “if it were possible” shows it isn’t possible.
- John 10:4-5, 27-28: “My sheep hear my voice… a stranger will they not follow… I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
- 1 John 2:20, 27: “You have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things… the anointing… is truth, and is no lie.” The Spirit in them guards them from error.
- Romans 11:7: “The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.” The elect obtain the truth; the rest are the ones blinded.
- Ephesians 1:13; 4:30: They are “sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise… unto the day of redemption.”
- 1 Peter 1:5: They are “kept by the power of God.”
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- If the elect could be deceived, then Christ’s promise would fail and the sealing of the Holy Spirit would not hold. But the Bible says they are kept.
- The elect may be tested, momentarily puzzled, or pulled at by error, but the Seed in them won’t swallow a lie. The Shepherd’s Voice draws them back to the Word.
- Many are called, but few are chosen; deception catches the called-but-not-chosen. The chosen stand with the revealed Word.
- The Bride—seen overcoming and faithful—cannot be deceived from her Husband-Word.
Short Reinforcement
You see, it’s not that deception won’t be strong; it’s that God’s keeping is stronger. The elect hear the Voice of the Word and will not follow a stranger.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
God is identified by His characteristics
64-0311 §10
I might drop a little something here. Jesus said, in Matthew, twenty-fourth chapter, that "In the last days, the two spirits would be so close together till it would deceive the very elected if it was possible." Now, that's just like looking at a right hand and a left hand. They both got thumbs, fingers, nails, small fingers, middle fingers, so forth, index, all are different fingers. They, both the thumbprints, only one's just turned one way and one the other, both the same print, made the same way, the thumbprint...
The unity of one God in the one Church
58-1221E §18
Did you notice how that the devil deceived Eve? Everything he told her was exactly the truth, but one thing. Said, "Your eyes will be opened, and you shall know right and wrong, and so forth. And you shall be as gods, because you don't know right from wrong now." And all those things were true. But when she said, "The Lord God said we would die." He said, "Surely you won't die." See, just so much truth in it, and then just a little bit of lie. As Jesus said, on the earth, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." A...
Three kinds of believers
63-1124E §78
But now notice--"Deceive the very elected." watch that group! That's that group that follows right along--"Yes, brother. Hallelujah! Yes! Glory to God!" And right down in your heart you see what they're working you for--have you in church. Why? To draw a crowd to bleed them of every bit of money they can get out of it. You think I don't know that? They might not think I know it, but I know it. Jesus knowed from the beginning who was deceiver! See, see. But what did He do? He just waited till that time. That's what...
Events made clear by prophecy
65-0801E §81
Now put your hands on one another, and just hold it there for a minute. Now, don't pray; just put your hands on one another. Out there in the land... And me myself, I'm laying myself over these handkerchiefs. Now I want you to look at me just a minute. What has God left undone? Look how He's ... what the Word that we have read, the prophecies that we have told, that Jesus identified Himself by the prophecies. Now look at the hour, and these last three weeks where we have placed the hour that we're living. Look at w...
The Harvest Time
64-1212 §116
Same now. Cain's revelation of the word done the same thing that these has. What? Promised her. At the end of time, what promises this Eve now? Listen close now, I'm closing. What promised to this Eve at the end time? Riches, Laodicea, great name, great person, rich. "But dead, and naked, and don't know it." That's what the church age ended in. But she denies the Word. To make Matthew 24:24 real to her, she tries to move in with a lot of noise, and a lot of this, and a lot of social standings, and things like this,...