One question has lingered in my mind for years. How can we avoid being deceived if deception, by its very nature, doesn't feel like deception? If I believe something that's false, it seems true to me at the time. Otherwise, I wouldn't believe it. So how would I ever know I was being deceived?
That tension puzzled me for years.
Until the day my grandson got a virtual reality game and showed me how it works.
I asked him to hook me up to one of the games because I was so curious! Jace chose the elevator game.
The first thing he did was put the black goggles on me. Suddenly I couldn’t see or hear anything.
It was just black and silent.
The real world disappeared. Everything around me was still. I was completely dependent on what the headset would show me."
Then he hooked the goggles up to the computers so he could see what I saw and talk to me. My directions came as I anticipated the next step. He explained that I would see an elevator door and that I should push the up button.
And so I did.
At least I think I did. I think I felt the pressure. It was real enough for me to believe that I actually had pushed the button! I saw a small crack that showed the elevator rising. I heard the elevator moving and then, when the door opened, I looked out.
I was way above the ground, standing on a small ledge. There was a very narrow plank out in front of me with a cake at the end. I heard my grandson Jace say, “Nona, you can do it, go and get the cake and bring it back to me”
Normally I am not afraid of heights. But there I stood 80 stories above the street on a small ledge! I could see the people below and hear the cars going by and occasionally honking! There was all the noise of a big city. I could see the buildings around me, and I felt like I was high up. I could even hear the wind! And I couldn’t move. My toes dug into the carpet, and I pushed against the bed. My other grandson, Devon, said, “Nona! You are in Jace’s bedroom, and your feet are on the floor! Just walk out and get the cake. You won’t fall”. Right! Did I mention the plank was narrow? Did I mention I was 80 stories up?! The cake didn’t look that good anyway!
No matter what my grandson said, I believed I was on a high-rise ledge! I told my grandsons that I was afraid I’d fall. Jace replied, “Nona, if you step off the plank an umbrella shows up, and you float down, just like Mary Poppins!” Twice now he had spoken truth to me, and I believed him—sort of. The illusion was so real, I just couldn’t take the chance I would fall 80 stories to the ground! I believed this virtual reality, even when Jace told me I would come down like Mary Poppins! Even when he and others told me where I really was!
At that moment, my daughter inadvertently stepped between the 2 computers and broke the signal. All of a sudden, I was in the dark and silence again. The game was gone. Then it hit me!
I had been deceived!
I knew the truth before I put the goggles on; my grandson had told me the truth two times while I was in the middle of the deception, but it took my daughter stepping between the 2 computers and interrupting the signal for me to once again know and believe the truth. She represented the Gospel, breaking the connection between my virtual reality deception and the truth! My grandsons’ efforts to tell me the truth were ineffective. I believed what I saw and felt. Not what they told me. The Gospel alone breaks the connection and interrupts the signals the enemy whispers.
Then I understood. We don't need to argue people out of deception or convince them in one way or another; we need to share the Gospel. The Holy Spirit uses God's Word to open blind eyes, expose lies, and lead people to Christ. The Gospel is God's power to rescue people from deception and bring them into His light. This is not virtual reality. This is the truth.
Carol Eyles