In the early parts of this year, actually beginning in mid-December 2010 in Tunisia, protests and violence sprang up in many Middle East nations, so much so that the the protests veered to revolutions and dictators were toppled. It has become known as the Arab Spring. Egypt and Libya's dictators were toppled, Algeria, Iraq, Golan Heights, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Sudan's governments were affected one way or another. But the longest-lasting violence has been in Syria. It began last March and the violence is ongoing, and is getting worse. Many nations, even the allies of Syria in the Arab League have all expressed frustration with the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and called for him to stop killing his citizens. Bashad has been seemingly impervious to resolutions, diplomatic entreaties, threats of sanctions or even heavily veiled military nudges from neighbor Turkey.
Even Moscow is getting impatient now. While Russia blocked a resolution against Syria at the UN in October, they now are calling for the government to engage in talks between the government and its opposition.
As a result of all this, tensions are at a critical height. There is talk of attack. There is talk of military intervention, all-out civil war. Israel has been very busy getting Iron Dome deployed and other military preparations, some say, for a strike on Iran. I'm not so sure.
In any case, the US has now sent the Aircraft Carrier Bush to Mediterranean waters just off Syria. No explanation is given for this action. A no-fly zone is on the verge of being instituted over Syria as Syrian airspace closes. American citizens are warned to leave Syria immediately, as "while commercial flights are still available."
Uh-oh.
It feels like the noose is tightening, doesn't it? That all things are drawing together. And you have to suspect that these overt military actions are being accompanied by many other actions happening covertly. I'm not a military analyst but when the United States deploys an aircraft carrier to an area near the prophetic epicenter without explanation, but that area is in the bulls-eye of prophecy at the close of the church age, I pay attention. That Syria's violence is causing the most tension of all the nations mentioned above, and that Syria (Damascus) is dead center of the most clearly unfulfilled end of days military prophecy ever, then I really pay attention.
The Isaiah 17 prophecy against Damascus, that Damascus will be destroyed, razed to the ground and removed from being a city, seems like it could occur any day. The prophecy is in the passive tense, meaning, it doesn't declare who causes the city to be destroyed, only that it will be. It could be destroyed by Israel, the US, an accidental conflagration set off by Syrians themselves as their chemical, biological, and/or nuclear stockpile gets grabbed by the revolutionaries, by God directly, or by another way we do not suspect. But Damascus will be destroyed, and the prophecy goes on to say it will happen overnight, "Then behold, at eventide, trouble! And before the morning, he is no more." (Isaiah 17:14)
"I observe a simmering threat in the region based on a Sunni-Shiite divide," Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Wednesday. "It ... has the potential to move the Muslim world from the 21st century into the darkness of the Middle Ages."
President Gul speaks truer words than he knows...war is going to come to the Middle East (Is 17, Psalm 83, Ezekiel 38, 39,) and then to all of us (Matthew 24:6, Revelation 6:3-4). And with that, comes the rapture.
We are stunningly close to the rapture. This is the long-awaited event which closes the church age and brings Jesus's church to his bosom (2 Thessalonians 2:1). All people since the cross who have believed on Jesus as the ONLY way to heaven by repenting of their sins to the ONLY One who can forgive them, will be gathered alive and transformed, or resurrected and transformed, and brought bodily up to meet Him in the air. (1 Corinthians 15:51-54). He will lead us to the place to which He has been preparing for us. (John 14:3). This is for the purpose of removing and protecting His bride throughout the Tribulation to come. (1 Thessalonians 5:9; Isaiah 26:20).
It will happen suddenly and without warning. Jesus will interrupt the normal flow of life on earth and poke His head in. Not a representative, He isn't sending Gabriel, He Himself is coming Literally there will be a shout, (1 Thessalonians 4:19).
About that shout...not that the Lord will shout, but in the commentaries I read, they seem to agree that the translation of that word shout means "the word here used is observed by many to signify such a noise or shout as is made either by mariners, when they pull and row together; and shout to direct and encourage one another; or to an army with the general at the head of it, when about to undertake some considerable action, to enter on a battle, and make the onset; Christ will now appear as the King of kings, and Lord of lords, as the Judge of the whole earth, attended with the host, or armies of heaven, and the shout of a king will be among them: perhaps the same is intended, as by the voice of a great multitude."
Wow! Get ready. If you are saved, then your readiness by now should be in prayer, closely walking with the Lord, and growing daily in His ways by reading and being refreshed by the Word. If you are not saved then getting ready means repenting of your sins. He will not allow an unrighteous person into His kingdom, and since we are all unrighteous (Romans 3:10) the only way to be included is to have asked Him to clean your sins and make you righteous by His forgiveness. Repent now.
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Thanksgiving
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a time when we traditionally celebrate the blessings we enjoy in life. Many families have a tradition of sitting around their table and each guest or family member saying what they are thankful for.
I'm thankful for my salvation. For that to be possible I am thankful for the Holy Spirit drawing me to Jesus. For that to be possible I am thankful to Jesus for obeying the Father and dying on the cross. For that to be possible I am thankful for God who created all the world and who is so Holy that His son obeyed Him and took all the wrath that was destined for me on that cross. I am thankful He revealed Himself to us and that we have the privilege of prayer, the Word, the gifts, the fruits, and eternal life. I am thankful for the promises of prospering us in the regenerative process of growing in Christlikeness, for treasures and rewards in heaven, for the promise of rest and peace.
When we attend the marriage supper of the Lamb, sitting at the banquet table, we will be rejoicing. Now, the time after the rapture when we are presented as a bride, and the time of the Tribulation when we are having our purification and our rewards at the Bema Seat, and the time of the Millennial Kingdom when the marriage supper continues...and the final huge celebration at the New Heavens and the New earth after the old one is melted in a fervent heat...I don't know if there will be actual food and actual table. I think there will be but I don't know. So we go forward thinking of this as a celebratory rejoicing in heaven in our real, glorified bodies but unsure of if there will be food actually.
So when we are rejoicing in the Spotless Lamb after the rapture at the Marriage Supper, we will be thankful for His blood-bought purchase of us, for sure. We can personally thank our ministering angels. We can shake the hand of the saints from the Old Testament, such as Abraham, Esther, John the Baptist, David, Jeremiah... we can see God and live! What gratitude we will feel, for He created every good thing. Gratitude is a good thing and we will be experiencing it perfectly and fully!
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I'm thankful for my salvation. For that to be possible I am thankful for the Holy Spirit drawing me to Jesus. For that to be possible I am thankful to Jesus for obeying the Father and dying on the cross. For that to be possible I am thankful for God who created all the world and who is so Holy that His son obeyed Him and took all the wrath that was destined for me on that cross. I am thankful He revealed Himself to us and that we have the privilege of prayer, the Word, the gifts, the fruits, and eternal life. I am thankful for the promises of prospering us in the regenerative process of growing in Christlikeness, for treasures and rewards in heaven, for the promise of rest and peace.
When we attend the marriage supper of the Lamb, sitting at the banquet table, we will be rejoicing. Now, the time after the rapture when we are presented as a bride, and the time of the Tribulation when we are having our purification and our rewards at the Bema Seat, and the time of the Millennial Kingdom when the marriage supper continues...and the final huge celebration at the New Heavens and the New earth after the old one is melted in a fervent heat...I don't know if there will be actual food and actual table. I think there will be but I don't know. So we go forward thinking of this as a celebratory rejoicing in heaven in our real, glorified bodies but unsure of if there will be food actually.
So when we are rejoicing in the Spotless Lamb after the rapture at the Marriage Supper, we will be thankful for His blood-bought purchase of us, for sure. We can personally thank our ministering angels. We can shake the hand of the saints from the Old Testament, such as Abraham, Esther, John the Baptist, David, Jeremiah... we can see God and live! What gratitude we will feel, for He created every good thing. Gratitude is a good thing and we will be experiencing it perfectly and fully!
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Why we name false teachers
Christians are called to love one another. However foremost and primarily we are called to live in truth and protect the truth. So many times John rejoices over the new Christians walking in the truth, in 1 John, 2 John, 3 John... Do not mix up loving the brethren with remaining silent when false teaching comes for the sake of peace. If you love them you will speak up.
The Word is a precious gift, bought with the blood of our own Savior so that it could be inspired by the Spirit to men whom God loves so dearly. It is God's own revelation of Himself to us for Godly living and proper worship. 2 Timothy 4:2 tells us to --
"preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction."
I submit to you that the Word is out of season at this present time. It is very hard today to cut through the accumulated baggage that is American Christianity. There are fads, books, ridiculous doctrines, liberalism, and attacks on the very foundations of the most basic truths of the faith. Under most attack today are the notions of hell as a place for eternal punishment of the unrighteous, that Jesus died for sins and rose again on the third day, and that Jesus is the only way to heaven. One out of season approach to the Word that particularly grieves me is when people say "take God out of the box" we have put Him in and they stay away from conviction of their convictions. No, God is not in a box, He is infinite. But He purposely revealed Himself in the 66 books of the bible and that is the God He wants us to know at this time. He didn't make Himself uninterpretable and He didn't make Himself unclear in that revelation. There is more to God, but for now, we work with what we have, and that is the God in the bible. Which ironically often comes in a box.
Paul warned that a major end times sign is that they will not endure sound doctrine. "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires:" (2 Timothy 4:3). It doesn't say that they will not endure doctrine, but sound doctrine. The Greek word "sound" in the part of the verse 'sound doctrine' means healthy, pure, well as in not-sick. It means as opposed to a debilitating sickness. And that is what unsound doctrine is, sickness.
It reminds me of the verse in 2 Timothy 2:17. Paul urged the workers in the faith to remain strong, refuting the words of false teachers such as Hymenaeus and Philetus, and Paul said something interesting here. He said that their teachings will spread like gangrene. The Greek word used here gangraina means gangrene, just as we know it today. A cankerous, spreading, oozing sore sickness. The US National Library of Medicine defines gangrene as "the death of tissue in part of the body." The church is the body of Christ. Does that resonate with you, or what?
Paul is saying that false teachings kill off parts of the body in oozing, putrid, destructive manner. Worse, the method of death of this tissue is defined as happening "when a body part loses its blood supply." Jesus paid for the body with His blood so when we are cut off from the blood of Jesus by false teachings we are in very severe danger! That is what false teaching does, causes destruction to a part of the Body. The Holy Spirit was so apt in using gangrene as a metaphor! How wonderful He is!
So how do doctors treat gangrene? If it is caught before the infection goes too far, it is removed through a medical term called debridement, a medical word meaning the precise removal in an exact surgical procedure excising just the infected tissue. (I don't want to get carried away with stretching metaphors too widely, but the body of the church is called the Bride...) However, if gangrene is left untreated for too long, a larger part of the body may need to be amputated. Finally, if left untreated for too, too long, the whole organism dies.
As far as the Word goes, I submit to you that failure to correct false teaching in firm manner over the last few decades has led us to the very brink of this apostate time, when Jesus said asked if, when He returns in His second coming, will He find faith upon the earth? (Luke 18:8.) One can almost imagine the gangrenous, disgusting thing that religion will have become by then, left untreated. And the pure parts that are left will have been amputated do deeply there may only be one finger or one toe remaining in light and in truth. Sorry for the gross images, but Paul started it!
So what are we to do when coming across a false teaching? Now I admit it is easier to point to a false teaching when finding a false teaching like Jentezen Franklin or Joel Osteen, or Beth Moore or Billy Graham because they are far away and we can simply turn the channel, walk by their table at the book store without purchasing, or say no to taking up their simulcast. But what happens when the false teaching comes to your church and you have to endure it week after week? Now there is a problem and I tell you up front is the hardest thing in the world to handle. Many, many people won't, can't, or don't. And that is why we are in this apostate situation. Brothers and Sisters, you have to point it out!
But before you do, make sure that you have prayed, loved, walked, studied, waited, watched, and prayed some more. Then and only then when the Spirit assures you the time is right, go public. Be ready for blowback of satanic proportions!
People will question your authority to point out a false teaching, especially if your pastor is promoting it. This is very good, we should be questioned when we say a church leader or pastor is promoting a false teaching. (That is why you have to be very sure that the Spirit led you to the right conclusion). Read these following verses but be sure to read them in the context of the chapters later so you have a thorough understanding of the mandate and burden to publicly exhort against a false teaching.
1 Timothy 5:20: Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that the others may take warning.
Titus 1:13: This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith
Titus 2:15: These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
But am I sure we are to do this to a brother? Yes. When Peter went off the rails in Antioch, Paul opposed Peter to his face. "But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned." (Galatians 2:11-14). What? Wasn't Peter saved? Not condemned? Well John 3:18 says we condemn ourselves by what we believe and Peter had condemned himself by accepting a false teaching. It also could mean that the Gentile believers at Antioch were condemning Peter already. There was a ruckus and it was known that a division was happening in the church there because of the divisive nature of the Judaizers' false teaching.
It was particularly hard because the co-pastor at Antioch, Barnabas, Paul's beloved Barnabas! was now also being carried away too. Gangrene spreads, and Paul must have been grieved to see he was losing Barnabas to the hypocrisy dividing the church there. Peter was the most highly thought of in all of Christendom. But that didn't stop Paul, because Jesus is even higher than that and it is His name we defend. He got to the point in Gal 2:14 where when he "saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel." Paul waded in, knowing that the truth was more important than keeping peace. He opposed Peter to his face. The Spirit saw fit to include that in the record so we must use that as a pattern for today. When public sin against the Gospel encroaches on the church, there must be immediate and unequivocal church discipline to rectify it. Otherwise when we preach holiness and purity but don't get rid of unholiness and impurity, we destroy our own credibility.
Now to the other point. Many people say not to name names. However, throughout the New Testament, we are told who was sinning and why. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, Saducees, Scribes and Herodians. (Matthew 16:6-12 and Matthew 23:15). Paul rebuked Peter in Gal 2. Paul dealt with Hymenaeus, Philetus (1 Tim 1:20), and Demas (2 Tim 4:9-10). Peter dealt with Simon the Sorcerer and Ananaias/Sapphira (though these last two were not false teachers bringing false doctrine, but liars bringing hypocrisy to the tithe or grieving the Spirit). Names were named.
We know the names of the false doctrines too, not just the people perpretrating them. There were the Judaizers/Legalists, (Acts 15:1), Gnosticism (1 Timothy 6:20-21, and likely was what Paul was dealing with in 1 Cor 8), Asceticism (Colossians 2:18-23), Antinomianism (2 Timothy 3:2-9). There are other false doctrines, but suffice to say, why do we know the names of these false doctrines now? Names were named.
Most of these false doctrines are still around today, and indeed it is a blessing that they were named, so we can identify them and combat them in same manner as the forefathers of the faith did.
I have tried to show you that false doctrines and teachings are a gangrenous cancer that must be opposed and excised. It is uncomfortable to do this and it seems excessive to name names. But let me put it to you this way. Knowing now that false teaching kills the body, let us think of false teaching as a runaway train hurtling toward your town and potentially crashing into the houses and businesses lining the track.
The first thing to decide is, IS there a runaway train, and is it on our track? Have we heard the report correctly? Paul saw that they were not straighforward, and to me this means he had examined the issue up close and had proof. It doesn't say "Paul heard..." or, "Paul wondered..."If it is a true report of a runaway train, would you stand by and say nothing? Would you say, "Well, the people in the houses are asleep, they will get mad at me if I call them at this hour. I better stay quiet for the sake of peace." Of course not! But that is what people expect us to do when we spot a false teaching.
Secondly, do you make the call to the house owners in the path of destruction and say this:
"Get out! there is a runaway train coming!"
"Where is it?"
"I can't tell you that."
Well, from what direction is it coming?"
"I can't tell you that either."
"What is the name of the train? Which train?"
"Sorry, I can't tell you."
"What time will it get here?"
"I can't tell you that as well."
"Why can't you tell me the specifics???"
"Because I don't want to offend the train."
What good is sounding the alarm if you won't go into specifics? Failure to be specific on behalf of not wanting to cause trouble for the perpetrators of false teaching is actually saying you prefer to besmirch the name of Jesus because you don't want to offend satan!
It is not easy to do this though. It is not easy to discern false teaching, it takes prayer and study. It is not easy to stand up to the spiritual leaders and say they are wrong. It is not easy to maintain your convictions in the face of blowback. They will make you quail and they will make you doubt.
But look at our gracious God:
Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,” says the LORD. (Jeremiah 1:7). He was true to Jeremiah and He will be with you as well,
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20). We are to go forth teaching and protecting the sound doctrines of the Gospel in the disciples and He will be with us to the end.
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The Word is a precious gift, bought with the blood of our own Savior so that it could be inspired by the Spirit to men whom God loves so dearly. It is God's own revelation of Himself to us for Godly living and proper worship. 2 Timothy 4:2 tells us to --
"preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction."
I submit to you that the Word is out of season at this present time. It is very hard today to cut through the accumulated baggage that is American Christianity. There are fads, books, ridiculous doctrines, liberalism, and attacks on the very foundations of the most basic truths of the faith. Under most attack today are the notions of hell as a place for eternal punishment of the unrighteous, that Jesus died for sins and rose again on the third day, and that Jesus is the only way to heaven. One out of season approach to the Word that particularly grieves me is when people say "take God out of the box" we have put Him in and they stay away from conviction of their convictions. No, God is not in a box, He is infinite. But He purposely revealed Himself in the 66 books of the bible and that is the God He wants us to know at this time. He didn't make Himself uninterpretable and He didn't make Himself unclear in that revelation. There is more to God, but for now, we work with what we have, and that is the God in the bible. Which ironically often comes in a box.
Paul warned that a major end times sign is that they will not endure sound doctrine. "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires:" (2 Timothy 4:3). It doesn't say that they will not endure doctrine, but sound doctrine. The Greek word "sound" in the part of the verse 'sound doctrine' means healthy, pure, well as in not-sick. It means as opposed to a debilitating sickness. And that is what unsound doctrine is, sickness.
It reminds me of the verse in 2 Timothy 2:17. Paul urged the workers in the faith to remain strong, refuting the words of false teachers such as Hymenaeus and Philetus, and Paul said something interesting here. He said that their teachings will spread like gangrene. The Greek word used here gangraina means gangrene, just as we know it today. A cankerous, spreading, oozing sore sickness. The US National Library of Medicine defines gangrene as "the death of tissue in part of the body." The church is the body of Christ. Does that resonate with you, or what?
Paul is saying that false teachings kill off parts of the body in oozing, putrid, destructive manner. Worse, the method of death of this tissue is defined as happening "when a body part loses its blood supply." Jesus paid for the body with His blood so when we are cut off from the blood of Jesus by false teachings we are in very severe danger! That is what false teaching does, causes destruction to a part of the Body. The Holy Spirit was so apt in using gangrene as a metaphor! How wonderful He is!
So how do doctors treat gangrene? If it is caught before the infection goes too far, it is removed through a medical term called debridement, a medical word meaning the precise removal in an exact surgical procedure excising just the infected tissue. (I don't want to get carried away with stretching metaphors too widely, but the body of the church is called the Bride...) However, if gangrene is left untreated for too long, a larger part of the body may need to be amputated. Finally, if left untreated for too, too long, the whole organism dies.
As far as the Word goes, I submit to you that failure to correct false teaching in firm manner over the last few decades has led us to the very brink of this apostate time, when Jesus said asked if, when He returns in His second coming, will He find faith upon the earth? (Luke 18:8.) One can almost imagine the gangrenous, disgusting thing that religion will have become by then, left untreated. And the pure parts that are left will have been amputated do deeply there may only be one finger or one toe remaining in light and in truth. Sorry for the gross images, but Paul started it!
So what are we to do when coming across a false teaching? Now I admit it is easier to point to a false teaching when finding a false teaching like Jentezen Franklin or Joel Osteen, or Beth Moore or Billy Graham because they are far away and we can simply turn the channel, walk by their table at the book store without purchasing, or say no to taking up their simulcast. But what happens when the false teaching comes to your church and you have to endure it week after week? Now there is a problem and I tell you up front is the hardest thing in the world to handle. Many, many people won't, can't, or don't. And that is why we are in this apostate situation. Brothers and Sisters, you have to point it out!
But before you do, make sure that you have prayed, loved, walked, studied, waited, watched, and prayed some more. Then and only then when the Spirit assures you the time is right, go public. Be ready for blowback of satanic proportions!
People will question your authority to point out a false teaching, especially if your pastor is promoting it. This is very good, we should be questioned when we say a church leader or pastor is promoting a false teaching. (That is why you have to be very sure that the Spirit led you to the right conclusion). Read these following verses but be sure to read them in the context of the chapters later so you have a thorough understanding of the mandate and burden to publicly exhort against a false teaching.
1 Timothy 5:20: Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that the others may take warning.
Titus 1:13: This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith
Titus 2:15: These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
But am I sure we are to do this to a brother? Yes. When Peter went off the rails in Antioch, Paul opposed Peter to his face. "But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned." (Galatians 2:11-14). What? Wasn't Peter saved? Not condemned? Well John 3:18 says we condemn ourselves by what we believe and Peter had condemned himself by accepting a false teaching. It also could mean that the Gentile believers at Antioch were condemning Peter already. There was a ruckus and it was known that a division was happening in the church there because of the divisive nature of the Judaizers' false teaching.
It was particularly hard because the co-pastor at Antioch, Barnabas, Paul's beloved Barnabas! was now also being carried away too. Gangrene spreads, and Paul must have been grieved to see he was losing Barnabas to the hypocrisy dividing the church there. Peter was the most highly thought of in all of Christendom. But that didn't stop Paul, because Jesus is even higher than that and it is His name we defend. He got to the point in Gal 2:14 where when he "saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel." Paul waded in, knowing that the truth was more important than keeping peace. He opposed Peter to his face. The Spirit saw fit to include that in the record so we must use that as a pattern for today. When public sin against the Gospel encroaches on the church, there must be immediate and unequivocal church discipline to rectify it. Otherwise when we preach holiness and purity but don't get rid of unholiness and impurity, we destroy our own credibility.
Now to the other point. Many people say not to name names. However, throughout the New Testament, we are told who was sinning and why. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, Saducees, Scribes and Herodians. (Matthew 16:6-12 and Matthew 23:15). Paul rebuked Peter in Gal 2. Paul dealt with Hymenaeus, Philetus (1 Tim 1:20), and Demas (2 Tim 4:9-10). Peter dealt with Simon the Sorcerer and Ananaias/Sapphira (though these last two were not false teachers bringing false doctrine, but liars bringing hypocrisy to the tithe or grieving the Spirit). Names were named.
We know the names of the false doctrines too, not just the people perpretrating them. There were the Judaizers/Legalists, (Acts 15:1), Gnosticism (1 Timothy 6:20-21, and likely was what Paul was dealing with in 1 Cor 8), Asceticism (Colossians 2:18-23), Antinomianism (2 Timothy 3:2-9). There are other false doctrines, but suffice to say, why do we know the names of these false doctrines now? Names were named.
Most of these false doctrines are still around today, and indeed it is a blessing that they were named, so we can identify them and combat them in same manner as the forefathers of the faith did.
I have tried to show you that false doctrines and teachings are a gangrenous cancer that must be opposed and excised. It is uncomfortable to do this and it seems excessive to name names. But let me put it to you this way. Knowing now that false teaching kills the body, let us think of false teaching as a runaway train hurtling toward your town and potentially crashing into the houses and businesses lining the track.
The first thing to decide is, IS there a runaway train, and is it on our track? Have we heard the report correctly? Paul saw that they were not straighforward, and to me this means he had examined the issue up close and had proof. It doesn't say "Paul heard..." or, "Paul wondered..."If it is a true report of a runaway train, would you stand by and say nothing? Would you say, "Well, the people in the houses are asleep, they will get mad at me if I call them at this hour. I better stay quiet for the sake of peace." Of course not! But that is what people expect us to do when we spot a false teaching.
Secondly, do you make the call to the house owners in the path of destruction and say this:
"Get out! there is a runaway train coming!"
"Where is it?"
"I can't tell you that."
Well, from what direction is it coming?"
"I can't tell you that either."
"What is the name of the train? Which train?"
"Sorry, I can't tell you."
"What time will it get here?"
"I can't tell you that as well."
"Why can't you tell me the specifics???"
"Because I don't want to offend the train."
What good is sounding the alarm if you won't go into specifics? Failure to be specific on behalf of not wanting to cause trouble for the perpetrators of false teaching is actually saying you prefer to besmirch the name of Jesus because you don't want to offend satan!
It is not easy to do this though. It is not easy to discern false teaching, it takes prayer and study. It is not easy to stand up to the spiritual leaders and say they are wrong. It is not easy to maintain your convictions in the face of blowback. They will make you quail and they will make you doubt.
But look at our gracious God:
Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,” says the LORD. (Jeremiah 1:7). He was true to Jeremiah and He will be with you as well,
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20). We are to go forth teaching and protecting the sound doctrines of the Gospel in the disciples and He will be with us to the end.
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