An historic legend in the Middle East concerns the so called Ancient order of Assassins. This group was a cult branching off of Islam. It was supposedly led by the Old Man of the Mountain, a mythic figure named Hassan. Hassan's method of recruiting men to serve as assassins involved the use of Hashish, a drug based on opium. The words 'assassin' 'hashish' and 'hassan' are perhaps somehow related in Arabic.
Anyway Hassan had a remote mountain fortress where he trained spies and assassins. These men had to be willing to go on suicide missions and obey orders at all costs. Hassan had a way to get them to believe that if they sacrificed their lives on a mission, they would automatically go to Allah's Paradise. There they would enjoy pleasures for all eternity.
How did he do this? Sometime, early in their training, the men would be drugged with Hashish. Then while they were unconscious, they would be taken to another, secret part of the fortress. There when they awoke they found themselves in the midst of luxurious apartments and gardens. There they could indulge themselves on the finest foods and wines. They were waited upon by harems of beautiful women who gave them every sort of sexual pleasure. All the while the men were kept slightly drugged. They were told that this was Allah's Paradise and that all good servants of Hassan would go there when they died.
Next they were drugged unconscious again and taken back to their former quarters. When they awoke to a normal state they believed that they had been to paradise. After this, they would do anything Hassan asked them to do.
Some say that Hassan never existed and the whole thing is a myth. Whether it's true on not, it illustrates a pattern of deception that the enemy of our soul commonly employs.
The pattern of deception.
The pattern of Deception has three standard features.
The Bait. An Experience. The person has or is given a genuine
experience that is either supernatural or way out of the ordinary.
The Hook. A Lie. The experience is followed by a false explanation
of what happened.
Destructive Consequences: Physical and or spiritual death. The
explanation tends to lead them away from belief in God or the Bible
The Ancient order of Assassins
In the case of the assassins the bait was the very real experience of a pseudo paradise.
The hook was the lies that they would go there if they gave their lives in service to Hassan or to Islam.
The consequences were that these men became willing servants of satan leading to their death, both physical and eternal.
The Truth: These men were deliberately deceived by Hassan.
Belief in Ghosts
The Experience: Apparitions, noises and other happenings that hundreds have experienced all around the world and all through history are quite real.
The Lie: These phenomena are caused by spirits of the dead who for some reason are unable to find rest in the afterlife.
The Result: The belief in Ghosts contradicts the Word of God. You end up believing a lie.
The Truth: Ghostly phenomena are caused and created by demon powers who deliberately intend to deceive.
Psychic Phenomena
The Bait: Psychic readers who can tell you things about yourself that they could not possibly know through natural means.
The Hook: The belief that these people have inherent talents that give them this special power.
The Result: People seek to acquire or develop these so called talents for themselves, instead of looking to God for guidance.
The Truth: The psychics get their information from evil spirits who have the ability to know all about you and tell it to them. The psychics themselves have no control over how this happens. They as well as their clients are being deliberately deceived.
Reincarnation
The Experience: People who have dreams of past lives or who are able to remember details of past lives under hypnotism. These details often contain information that the person could not have know by natural means.
The Hook: The Lie is that people have past lives, and that their souls are reborn into other people after they die.
The Consequence: Disbelief in heaven or hell and complete loss of the fear of God.
The Truth: The information and the dreams come from evil spirits who deliberately intend to deceive and lead us away from belief in God.
Evolution
The Bait: Scientific Evidence from fossils and geology.
The Hook; The idea that the earth is very old and that life forms came about by gradually change from simpler to more complex and advance species.
The Consequence: Denial of the Biblical account of God's creation. And hence a denial of God's authority over us and over this world.
The Truth: God Created the Heavens and the Earth. He created man and set the laws that he must live by.
Near death experiences
The Bait: A person dies during surgery and finds themselves aware that their spirit is floating is space above their body on the operating table. Then they find themselves going down a long tunnel and coming out into a bright place where they are met by the spirits of their dead relatives and a host of angels. They are told that life after death is a wonderful peaceful reality and to not be afraid. Then the surgeons revive them and they eventually wake up in their own bodies again. Often they are able to relate things that went on while they were unconscious in surgery. Their experiences are real, but the spirits they encounter are fake and the things they are told are lies.
The Hook: The lie that there is nothing to fear after death.
The consequence: Disbelief in biblical accounts of heaven and hell. Disregard for the consequences of sin and no fear of the Lord.
The Truth: These experiences are deliberately engineered by demon powers intending to deceive. [These kinds of near death experiences never happen to born again Christians. They usually have an experience with the Lord or a vision of heaven in these cases.]
Out of Body experiences
These are similar to the above.
Drug related experiences
These are similar to the above.
UFO's
The Bait. People are constantly having sightings of UFO's. Some are abducted by alien creatures, others are in contact with them through psychic means.
The Hook: That there is intelligent life on other worlds and they have spacecraft they use to visit this earth.
The Result: Once again disbelief or denial of God's creation.
The Truth: These sightings and other happenings are well within the power of Demon spirits to create with the intention to deceive.
Conclusion:
In these end times we are about to go through, we will see many signs
and wonders, Supernatural happenings are about to become commonplace. These
in many cases will be bait, watch for the hook. Beware of any offered explanation
that ignores or denies that God is in control.