Take Heed That No One Deceives You

by Rolaant McKenzie

In Book 2 of his work, Aeneid, ancient Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BC), better known as Virgil, tells the story of how the Greeks during the Trojan War laid siege to the heavily fortified city of Troy. After ten years without success, the Greeks built a huge wooden horse, hid a number of warriors in it, and rolled it outside the walls of the city. The Greek fleet feigned defeat and pretended to sail away. In celebration, the Trojans pulled the horse into the city as a trophy of victory. But that night as the city slept, the Greek warriors crept out of the horse and opened the gates of Troy to the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of darkness. The Greeks then stormed the city and destroyed it. To this day, the story of the Trojan Horse is an allegory for a deception that causes a target to invite a foe pretending to be weak or feigning friendship into a secure place.

An example of a "Trojan Horse" story can be found in the American science fiction television miniseries V, which was presented in five episodes in 1983 and 1984. An alien race came to Earth in a fleet of 50 massive, saucer-shaped motherships, which spread out and hovered over major cities around the world. From the mothership over the United Nations building in New York City, shuttlecraft emerged and landed on the roof. The aliens that disembarked looked human, but they wore special shaded glasses to protect their eyes and had a distinctive resonance to their voices.

The aliens were called "Visitors," and they said that they came from a planet that orbited the star Sirius. Before revealing their presence, they disguised themselves in synthetic skin to appear human, learned Earth languages, and adopted human names. The true nature of the aliens was that they were carnivorous reptilian humanoids.

The leader of the alien fleet called himself John. He announced that they came in peace, that the Visitors and humans shared a common ancestry, and that they wished to share their knowledge and advanced technology in exchange for some waste chemicals and minerals on Earth needed to restore the damaged environment on their world. Then they would leave in peace. The governments of Earth gladly accepted this arrangement, allowing the aliens to gain more and more influence over them, especially in the area of mass media.

Most of the inhabitants of the Earth were initially mesmerized by the Visitors. The religious paradigms of many around the world were dramatically changed, and they saw the aliens as the solvers of their problems and the saviors of mankind.

John and the Visitor leadership privately viewed Earth scientists as a threat to their true purposes, which were to subdue the planet, steal Earth's water, and harvest the human race as food. They used the media to curtail their activities, especially those seeking to find out more about the Visitors themselves. These were discredited, persecuted, brainwashed, or made to "disappear."

As the Visitors extended their rule over Earth and used increasingly heavier tactics to maintain that control, a group called the Resistance formed, whose symbol was a blood-red letter "V," symbolizing victory over the Visitors. While the Visitor leader John was at a televised press event at the Los Angeles Medical Center announcing a comprehensive cure for cancer, members of the Resistance were able to infiltrate the event and tear the synthetic skin off John's face, showing the whole world his reptilian nature. Though the Visitor leadership attempted to propagandize the people and convince them that what they saw was a hoax, more people worldwide saw and understood what happened, and the Resistance grew.

Some scientists who were not captured or killed by the Visitors were able to collaborate to produce a toxin that would kill the Visitors but leave humans unharmed. This toxin was secretly mass-produced and dispersed all around the world. As the Visitors began to die off in large numbers, they evacuated their remaining forces and left the Earth, and people all around the world celebrated with great rejoicing.

On June 24, 1947, Idaho pilot Kenneth Arnold, flying near Mount Rainier, saw what he described as nine unidentified flying objects (UFOs) traveling around 1,200 miles per hour. They appeared as shiny discs or saucers. Because of this incident, the phrase "flying saucer" became a popular description for UFOs. Since 1947, UFO sightings have significantly increased, with more than 100,000 incidents logged, according to the National UFO Reporting Center in Davenport, Washington.

In more recent times, high-ranking government officials and military officers have replaced the acronym UFO with UAP (unidentified aerial or anomalous phenomena) and have increasingly been speaking publicly of disclosing more of the information the government has compiled over several decades regarding the nature of UAPs and discovered non-human biologics. In a March 28, 2026, interview at the White House with Benny Johnson, Vice President J.D. Vance responded to a question about UFO and alien disclosure in an unexpected way:

"I don't think they're aliens. I think they're demons anyway. But that's a longer discussion."

(Johnson pressed Vance to elaborate further.)

"Well, look, I think that celestial beings who fly around, who do weird things to people -- I think that the desire to describe everything celestial, everything as otherworldly, to describe it as aliens. I mean, every great world religion, including Christianity, the one that I believe in, has understood that there are weird things out there and there are things that are very difficult to explain.

"And I naturally go -- when I hear about extra-natural phenomenon -- that's where I go to is the Christian understanding that there's a lot of good out there, but there's also some evil out there. And I think that one of the devil's great tricks is to convince people he never existed."

That a sitting vice president of the United States would publicly express such a view is quite extraordinary, but how are followers of Jesus Christ to respond to these things?

When Jesus' disciples asked Him about the sign of His coming and the end of the age, His first words in response were,

"Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many." (Matthew 24:4-5)

One of the key characteristics of the end times is deception. Another title for the devil is the "prince of the power of the air." (Ephesians 2:1-2) He performs powerful signs and lying wonders to draw people away from the real Jesus of the Bible to false ones. It is not surprising that there is a dramatic increase in signs in the sky in the form of unknown aerial craft that defy the laws of physics or materials connected to these craft that seem not to be of this world.

Like the Visitors in V, the "aliens" that manifest themselves pretend benevolence and channel messages through their followers, saying that they are our creators or space brothers. Jesus, Muhammad, Krishna, Buddha, and others were aliens like them sent in the past to guide humanity with fundamental spiritual principles, but now they are coming to disclose themselves more fully to transform humanity to a higher level of existence and remove from the Earth those who will not accept this "transformation" (consider 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). Like Satan, they appear as angels of light, but their agenda is quite dark and is meant to turn people away from Jesus and to eternal separation from God in the lake of fire (2 Corinthians 11:14; Revelation 20:11-15).

As the blood-red letter "V" signified victory over the Visitors in V, so the Roman cross covered with the shed blood of Jesus signifies complete forgiveness of sin and overwhelming victory over Satan's efforts to obliterate humanity. It tears away the mask of the so-called aliens and reveals their true evil and demonic nature.

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." (Ephesians 6:10-17)

Take heed that no one deceives you. Let not your mind be perplexed or your heart fail from fear of the expectation of extraordinary things you may see or hear (Luke 21:8, 25-28). Believe God, trust in the one Lord and only Savior, Jesus Christ, and rely on the sword of the Spirit by immersing yourself in the Bible, the word of God, for it is a bulwark against the increasing deceptions of our time.