The Bible presents a consistent picture of how sin and deception are related. What is revealed is that, the way we tend to think of deceit is, well, a bit deceived. Spiritually speaking, deception is deeper than merely being tricked or lied to. In order to be saved, one does not need any particular level of intelligence, special ability or wisdom.

Mankind has an unfortunate habit of using increased knowledge to develop more sophisticated ways to sin.

The key to understanding spiritual deception is the fact that we often choose what we want to believe rather than what we should believe, even in the face of the evidence.