Spiritual Blindness and Spiritual Veils

When Jesus came to earth, most people did not recognize Him. Crowds watched Christ perform miracles, feed thousands and teach profound truths. Yet the crowds did not comprehend who they were seeing. The Bible says they were spiritually blind (Matthew 13:10-15).

People guessed that Jesus was a prophet, perhaps John the Baptist, Elijah or Jeremiah (Matthew 16:13-14). The spiritually blind asked Jesus for a sign even after seeing amazing miracles (John 2:18).

Spiritual blindness continues today with much confusion about Jesus. Philosophers see Jesus as a philosopher. Historians see Him as a historic figure or a fable. Many religious people still see Jesus as only a prophet. Some see Him as a created angel.

Even most of those who believe Jesus is the Son of God do not follow His teachings. The 2.4 billion people who identify as Christian are scattered among as many as 45,000 denominations (depending on who is counting). Their beliefs vary widely and often disagree with the Bible. Jesus warned about spiritual deception in His name (Matthew 24:5).

What happens to those the Bible says are spiritually blinded? Can the same blindness affect us?

What are spiritual veils?

Spiritual veils are ideas that prevent us from seeing God’s truth (2 Corinthians 3:14-15). They may include ideas about the Bible that sound spiritual.

For example, the Pharisees dedicated gifts to God. Sounds good, right? But they had an ulterior motive, and it seems they dedicated these future gifts in order to excuse their refusal to give support to their parents (Matthew 15:5-6). By doing so, they broke the commandment to honor their mother and father.

When faced with a spiritual veil, we can pray for wisdom and understanding. We need to be close to God and seek His will to defeat the clever arguments of Satan. Such spiritual blindfolds can also be highly creative. Human reasonings and interpretations of the Bible can be spiritual veils. Human interpretations of the Bible do not reach the depth of truth that only God can reveal.

Notice how Paul explained the blindness in Ephesians 4:18:

“Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”

Ideas and doctrines not taught in the Bible or intended by God can become spiritual veils. God warns us to observe what He commands and not add to or take away from it (Deuteronomy 12:32).

Where do spiritual veils come from?

The god of this age has put a veil or blindfold over the eyes of those who are in darkness. Paul wrote:

“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4, emphasis added throughout).

The Bible tells us Satan has successfully deceived the whole world (Revelation 12:9). He influences people to focus on imaginary things that obstruct our view of God. For example, consider how the death of Christ is obscured by the Easter bunny. For more information, see “How Did Passover Become Easter?”

The veil of tradition

Tradition can be a spiritual blindfold. Traditions are ideas that have become accepted over time. Some are compatible with the Bible, but others really are not. Yet once a tradition is widespread enough, the “everyone can’t be wrong” argument adds a layer of blindness.

The Pharisees had added many traditions, like washings (Mark 7:4-7). Over time, these traditions had become more important to them than the Bible God inspired. Jesus called these scholars “blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:24).

The Pharisees’ spiritual blindfold caused strange behavior. When Christ healed on the Sabbath, He was not breaking God’s law, but the Pharisees thought He did because they were focused on the traditions that had been added to the Sabbath.

And they didn’t just attack Christ. The Pharisees called the physically blind man Jesus had healed a sinner and cast him out of the synagogue (John 9:34).

Despite knowing the Scriptures, the Pharisees missed the long-anticipated coming of the Messiah. Their blindness was so profound that the Pharisees demanded the crucifixion of the Son of God.

The veil of redefined words

Words that have been redefined are another type of blindfold. The word God has been reimagined in many ways. Satan has influenced man to create many gods in many shapes and sizes. Elaborate myths have been told in the darkness.

Christianity has reimagined God as well. One of the most popular beliefs is that God is a Trinity. The Trinity is the central doctrine of many churches. Yet the Trinity does not appear in the Bible. Not one of the 40 authors of the Bible mentions the Trinity even once.

Paul gives greetings from the Father and Jesus in all his epistles, but not one greeting from the Holy Spirit. God introduces the Holy Spirit in Genesis 1:2 with the Hebrew word ruach, meaning “breath” or “wind” of God. As our breath is not another person, neither is the Holy Spirit another person in the Godhead.

The idea of a triune God originated long after the Bible was written. Despite what the Bible teaches, most cling to the doctrine of the Trinity as the litmus test for Christianity. For more information, see “The Trinity: What Is It?”

The veil of misquoted scriptures

Another blindfold occurs when a scripture is misapplied or twisted. Satan misused Psalm 91 in an attempt to get Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the temple (Matthew 4:6).

Satan has many false teachers who misapply or twist the Bible in order to deceive (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

The veil of out-of-context quotes

A related type of spiritual blindfold uses out-of-context quotes. A word or phrase from the Bible is viewed in isolation, and with human creativity, a whole different story evolves.

For example, in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Paul wrote about the saints being “caught up together.” By way of the Latin word rapere, this developed into the English word rapture. From this, the idea of a secret rapture evolved, with descriptions of driverless cars crashing and pilotless planes falling from the sky as people are suddenly raptured. Many books and movies have expanded the rapture story. 

However, the secret rapture theory doesn’t fit the Bible’s prophecies about the end of the age. It obscures the prophecies about the second coming of Jesus Christ, including verse 16 of 1 Thessalonians 4: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”

Christ’s second coming will not be secret! And it will be a second coming, not a second and third coming (Hebrews 9:28). “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives” (Zechariah 14:4; see also Revelation 1:7). God’s faithful will be resurrected to meet Him when He returns to rule. For more information see “Will There Be a Secret Rapture?”

The veil of sin

Sin blinds people to the truth. Those who disobey God will suffer the curse of blindness and confusion (Deuteronomy 28:28).

Spiritual blindness can also come from complacency. The Laodiceans were blind due to being lukewarm rather than zealous for God’s way (Revelation 3:16-17). 

How to remove spiritual veils

The best way to fight spiritual blindness is to know the Word of God. Christ successfully defeated the devil’s clever arguments by correctly quoting the Bible: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

God has provided powerful tools to combat these blindfolds of the devil.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

Spiritual veils deceive. We must never accept doctrines or religious practices that are not true. We must look to God for discernment and light. When faced with a spiritual veil, we can pray for wisdom and understanding. We need to be close to God and seek His will to defeat the clever arguments of Satan.

Walking in the light

To see spiritual reality, we must accept God as the source of truth (John 17:17). We must admit that we cannot discover the eternal truths of God by human reasoning and experimentation. We must accept God’s one true religion and make God’s way of life our own.

In this life, we must stay focused on learning and applying God’s way to prevent short-sightedness and blindness (2 Peter 1:9).

Christ is the light of the world. To see clearly, we must follow Christ and not walk in darkness (John 8:12).

For more about this important subject, see our blog post “Can You See Your Spiritual Blind Spots?”