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| A Review Of Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life” By David Cloud |
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The book “The Purpose Drive Life” by Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in southern California has sold more than 18 million copies and has wielded a vast influence.
Bruce Ryskamp, president of Zondervan, said, “The Purpose Driven Life is more than a bestseller; it’s become a movement.”
Over 12,000 churches from all 50 states in America and 19 countries have participated in Warren’s 40 Days of Purpose, which is drawn from the book. Over 60,000 pastors subscribe to Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox. He has provided materials and teaching to Christians in more than 117 countries on all seven continents.
Richard Bennett observes, “The movement is becoming a global empire.”
Rick Warren has been called “America’s pastor,” and it is for good reason. He is so shallow in his teaching, so positive in his approach, so slighting of repentance, so neglecting of unpopular doctrines such as hell and judgment, so tolerant of heresies, so enthusiastic of rock music, so soft-spoken on that nasty subject of worldliness, that apostate America can’t help but love him.
All of these characteristics are reflected in his best-selling book.
A FOUNDATIONAL ERROR IN WARREN’S BOOK IS THE EXTREME SHALLOWNESS AND INSUFFICIENCY OF HIS GOSPEL.
In chapter 7, “The Reason for Everything,” Warren explains to his readers how they can become a Christian.
“If you are not sure you have done this, all you need to do is receive and believe. … First, believe. Believe God loves you and made you for his purposes. Believe you’re not an accident. Believe you were made to last forever. Believe God has chosen you to have a relationship with Jesus, who died on the cross for you. Believe that no matter what you’ve done, God wants to forgive you. Second, receive. Receive his forgiveness for your sins. Receive his Spirit, who will give you the power to fulfill your life purpose. … Wherever you are reading this, I invite you to bow your head and quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity. ‘Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you.’ Go ahead. If you sincerely meant that prayer, congratulations! Welcome to the family of God!” (The Purpose Driven Life, pp. 58, 59).
This is one of the most superficial “gospels” I have ever seen. There is nothing here that would offend or convict the Pope or a Mormon. It’s not the gospel that was preached in the book of Acts or Romans.
For one thing, there is no clear dealing with the sin issue. Warren’s book is intended for wide distribution in society at large, and it is not enough in such a context merely to mention the word sin. The average person in North America will admit that he is not perfect and that he is a “sinner” in some sense, but he also thinks of himself as
a pretty good person. When he thinks of himself as a sinner, he does not mean what the Bible means, that he was shaped in iniquity and conceived in sin (Psa. 51:5), that his heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9) and full of evil (Ecc. 9:3), that he is unrighteous and unprofitable (Rom. 3:10-11), that in his flesh dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18), and that his very righteousness is as filthy rags before a holy God (Isa. 64:6). Warren’s incredibly shallow approach allows any person who will admit that he is a sinner in any sense to pray a prayer and then think of himself as a genuine Christian, even though he might continue to deny what the Bible says about sin.
There are many other things we could expose in Warren’s gospel. There is nothing about God’s holiness and justice. There is no clear teaching on what Jesus did on the cross. There is nothing about the blood. He invites the reader to “believe on Jesus.” What Jesus? People today believe in all sorts of false christs, but Warren does not warn them of this nor does he take the time to identify the true Jesus of the Bible in any clear fashion and to distinguish Him from false ones. Just a vague “believe on Jesus” and presto you are ready to heaven.
And Warren completely ignores repentance. There is not a hint here that the sinner must repent of his sin and idolatry. This is not the gospel that Paul preached. Paul summarized his message as follows: “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). Warren says that he believes in the Great Commission and he mentions it in passing in The Purpose Driven Life, but he ignores repentance which is a part of the Great Commission. Christ gave the Great Commission in Luke 24:44-48 and He commanded that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.” Paul boldly preached repentance to the philosophers and idolaters in Athens, and if he were alive today he would certainly preach repentance to the idolaters in America! Paul said that God “now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30), and we can be sure that God hasn’t changed His mind.
WARREN TEACHES A SELF-ESTEEM THEOLOGY UNDER THE GUISE OF WORSHIP AND SERVICE
Though Warren professes that his teaching does not exalt man but rather exalts God and he claims that he does not teach a self help program, in reality he teaches nothing less than a Robert Schuller-style Self-Esteem theology.
Notice the following statements:
“The moment you were born into the world, God was there as an unseen witness, smiling at your birth. … It proves your worth. If you are that important to God, and he considers you valuable enough to keep you for eternity, what great significance could you have? … Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship …You may be gifted at mechanics or mathematics or music or a thousand other skills. All these abilities can bring a smile to God’s face. …. You only bring him enjoyment by being you. Anytime you reject any part of yourself, you are rejecting God’s wisdom and sovereignty in creating you. … God also gains pleasure in watching you enjoy his creation. … When you are sleeping, God gazes at you with love, because you were his idea. He loves you as if you were the only person on earth” (pp. 61, 64, 74, 75).
Here worship is turned on its head by making it as much about me as about God. I am so loveable and so important and so desirable to God that whatever I do brings God pleasure and therefore is worship. Wonderful me! The self-esteem theology is more about celebrating self than dying to self, even when it talks of dying to self! Warren says that if I reject any part of myself I am denying God’s sovereignty.
What about sin and what it has done to “myself”?
Consider another statement from Warren’s popular book:
“If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Christ with his arms outstretched on the cross, saying, ‘I love you this much! I’d rather die than live without you'” (p. 79).
Thus the cross is sanctified by the self-esteem theology so that it is about me and how the Lord couldn’t live without me. Wonderful me!
Consider another statement:
“God is a lover and a liberator, and surrendering to him brings freedom, not bondage. When we completely surrender ourselves to Jesus, we discover that he is … not a boss, but a brother…” (p. 79).
The self-esteem God is dedicated to liberating me. He is not a boss! There’s nothing to fear. He’s just a Big Buddy, a Powerful Pal.
Warren quotes from Olympic runner Eric Liddell. “To give up running would be to hold him in contempt.”
Thus to deny what I am gifted at and what I like to do is to deny God. Isn’t it clever how that Warren has identified self will with God’s will so that they have become one and the same?
In fact, things I am gifted for and enjoy oftentimes come into conflict with God’s perfect will. God oftentimes calls upon an individual to give up even legitimate things for which he or she is highly gifted and qualified. Many men have given up such things when God called them to be a preacher or a missionary. Peter, James, and John gave up fishing. In the 1980s I met a Chinese man in Singapore who was a brilliant chess champion. God had saved him and called him to preach and he was preparing himself in a Bible College. He told me how that for awhile he had written a column on chess for a newspaper for extra income toward his Bible training, but he discovered that it was not possible to keep the chess moves out of his mind when he was trying to study Scripture so he gave it up entirely, though he was highly gifted at it and enjoyed it. That is true dying to self.
Note the following quotes from chapters 30 and 31 of The Purpose Driven Life which deal with finding my place in God’s will:
“Listening to your heart. The Bible uses the term heart to describe the bundle of desires, hopes, interests, ambitions, dreams, and affections you have. Your heart represents the source of all your motivations–what you love to do and what you are about most. … Don’t ignore your interests. Consider how they might be used for God’s glory. There is a reason that you love to do these things. … How do you know when you are serving God from your heart? The first telltale sign is enthusiasm. When you are doing what you love to do, no one has to motivate you or challenge you or check up on you. … The second characteristic of serving God from your heart is effectiveness. Whenever you do what God wired you to love to do, you get good at it. … Figure out what you love to do–what God gave you a heart to do–and then do it for his glory. … What I’m able to do, God wants me to do” (pp. 237, 238, 239, 243).
Note that Warren does not warn his readers that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). What a gross, inexcusable omission! While it is true that you can trust your desires to some small extent when you are a mature Christian who is delighting in God and immersed in His Word and obeying Him (Psa. 37:4), how many of the readers of The Purpose Drive Life are in that condition? A great many of the millions of readers are doubtless complete unbelievers or nominal Christians or novices or carnal, and to teach them that what they love to do is God’s will is frightful heresy. Many are professional sports fanatics, for example. Others are rock & roll fanatics. Others are fanatics about modern fashion trends. Are they fanatic about such things because that is the way that God made them? No, they are fanatic about such things because they are conformed to the world and walk in the way of sinners (Psa. 1:1; Rom. 12:2).
There are many things that professing Christians are gifted for and effective at that are NOT God’s will!
Again we see that when Rick Warren’s theology is examined carefully it is about self fulfillment, but it is presented under the guise of worshipping and serving God.
Warren builds his self-esteem theology upon strange versions of the Bible. Consider an example:
“The Bible says, ‘Noah was a pleasure to the Lord.’ God said, ‘This guy brings me pleasure. He makes me smile” (The Purpose Driven Life, p. 69).
Warren is quoting Genesis 6:8 in the Living Bible. In fact, this verse should say, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” It has nothing to do with God getting pleasure from Noah. It has everything to do with Noah getting favor from the Lord! The Living Bible perverts this verse, turning it upon its very head. Nonetheless, since it fits Rick Warren’s theology he grabs hold of it and pretends that it is Scripture.
Consider another example of how Warren builds his self-esteem theology upon inaccurate versions of Scripture.
“The Bible says, ‘Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self'” (p. 19).
Here Warren quotes Matthew 16:25 in The Message. Actually, the verse should say, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
There is not a hint here about self help or finding your true self. The verse is not teaching about finding your self but about finding your life. What Warren quotes as Scripture is actually a prefabrication by Eugene Peterson, the author of The Message.
The Message also takes away the Lord’s solemn warning that whosoever will find his life shall lose it. This fits in perfectly with Warren’s unscriptural positivism.
WARREN SLIGHTS OVER HELL AND JUDGMENT AND THE FEAR OF GOD
The Lord Jesus Christ preached on hell frequently. There are nearly 100 references in Scripture to fearing the Lord, and God’s judgment is a never-ending theme of Scripture.
But when it comes to Rick Warren, he does not mention God’s judgment, never urges his listeners to fear the Lord, and he makes only one passing reference to hell. This is on page 37, and in the same section he quotes C.S. Lewis twice. Lewis believed that hell is a mere metaphor and a state of mind: “And every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind–is, in the end, Hell” (Lewis, The Great Divorce, p. 65).
Not only did the Lord Jesus Christ preach much on hell, but he preached it hot and furious.
“And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-48).
There is no a hint of this kind of preaching in Rick Warren’s woefully inadequate ministry.
If ever there were an hour in which the people of this world need to hear hell and judgment and the fear of God preached fiery hot and powerfully plain it is this present unbelieving, mocking, blasphemous, pleasure mad, self-loving, self-content, self-righteous age, but the popular preachers won’t touch it. Too negative. Too damaging to self-esteem. Too dogmatic and intolerant. Too likely to offend and cut into the size of my audience.
WARREN PROMOTES EVERY STRANGE BIBLE VERSION
In The Purpose Driven Life, Warren uses 15 different Bible versions, including two Roman Catholic ones (The New American Bible and the New Jerusalem Bible). His favorites are the “dynamic equivalency” versions such as the Living Bible, the New Living Bible, Today’s English Version, the Contemporary English Version, and The Message. The latter seems to be his most favorite.
As a result, it is often impossible to know exactly what Scripture he is quoting because it is so strangely paraphrased and wildly inaccurate.
On page 70 Warren quotes Hebrews 11:7 from The Message.
“By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told … As a result, Noah became intimate with God.”
In the dependable King James Bible this verse says:
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
We can see that The Message adds to and takes away from the Word of God in an amazing manner. It adds the bit about Noah building a ship in the middle of dry land. It omits the fact that Noah was moved with fear. It changes “became heir of the righteousness which is by faith” to “became intimate with God.”
On page 20 Warren quotes 1 Corinthians 2:7 from The Message:
“God’s wisdom … goes deep into the interior of his purposes … It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest–what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us.”
In the King James Bible this says:
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.”
It is obvious that The Message is not a translation in any sense of the word; it is a presumption. It is not God’s thoughts but man’s. It is almost childish, not because it is simple but because it is ridiculous.
Warren claims to have quoted more than 1,000 Scriptures in The Purpose Driven Life, but most of the quotations are similar to the previous examples and have no right to be called Scripture.
When I visited a service at Saddleback Church in 2003, I observed that only a few people were carrying Bibles into the auditorium. The reason became clear when I saw the multiplicity of versions that were used in the preaching. It would be impossible to follow along in one’s Bible. The result is that the people do not bring their own Bibles and do not therefore carefully test the preaching. How could they, when any biblical statement they would attempt to examine has dozens of contradictory variations?
WARREN SLIGHTS SCRIPTURAL BAPTISM
The Purpose Driven Life has a page and a half dealing with baptism, but there is not a word about the mode, which is one of the most important aspects. He leaves the reader with the impression that pouring, sprinkling, or immersion is equally acceptable. Obviously it would offend many readers if he were to present a truly Scriptural position on baptism as a burial in water, but what else would a true Bible believer and a true Baptist do?
WARREN CLAIMS THAT GOD LOVES ALL KINDS OF MUSIC
In chapter 8 of The Purpose Driven Life, Warren becomes a prophet, saying:
“God loves all kinds of music because he invented it all–fast and slow, loud and soft, old and new. You probably don’t like it all, but God does! … Christians often disagree over the style of music used in worship, passionately defending their preferred style as the most biblical or God-honoring. But there is no biblical style! … God likes variety and enjoys it all. There is no such thing as ‘Christian’ music; there are only Christian lyrics. It is the words that make a song sacred, not the tune. There are no spiritual tunes” (pp. 65, 66).
This idea that music itself is neutral and that any music can be used in the service of the Lord has opened the door for the world to come into the churches as few other things.
Though the Bible nowhere says nor even hints that God loves all kinds of music, we are to believe that he does because Rick Warren says so. His only evidence for this outrageous statement is his reasoning that since God “invented it all” he must like it all. But where is the evidence that God invented all music? Are you telling me that the devil and sinful men are not involved in the field of music? That is a ridiculous thought, seeing that the devil is called “the god of this world” and music is one of the most powerful influences among men. Sinful men have used music since Cain’s children built the first society apart from God and made musical instruments to satisfy their carnal pleasures (Genesis 4:16-21).
Styles of music are not neutral. Rock musicians have testified that they play their particular style of rhythm for the very reason that it is lascivious. Frank Zappa said: “Rock music is sex. The big beat matches the body’s rhythms” (Life, June 28, 1968). Gene Simmons says, “That’s what rock is all about–sex with a 100 megaton bomb, the beat!” (Entertainment Tonight, ABC, Dec. 10, 1987). John Oates said, “Rock ‘n’ roll is 99% sex” (Circus, Jan. 31, 1976). Patty Labelle said, “Rock and roll was something that’s hardcore, rough and wild and sweaty and wet and just loose” (Rock Facts, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Ohio). And punk rock manager Malcolm McLaren agreed, saying, “Rock ‘n’ roll is pagan and primitive, and very jungle, and that’s how it should be!” (Rock, August 1983).
Note that they are not talking merely about rock music’s lyrics and associations but also its RHYTHM! These men and women of the world believe there is such a thing as a sexy rhythmic pattern. Rapper Missy Elliot’s album, “Miss E … So Addictive,” was described by as “a seductive cocktail of quirky rhythms and hypnotic beats.”
Why do these secular rockers describe their heavily syncopated rock rhythms as sexy, primitive, seductive, rough, hardcore, naughty, loose, wild, and hypnotic? They are testifying the very opposite of Rick Warren’s philosophy; they are saying that music is not neutral and that the heavy rock & roll backbeat that can be heard on any Sunday at Saddleback Church is sensual and licentious and that is exactly why they love it.
As for the idea that there is no biblical style of music, I could not disagree more fervently. The Bible tells us exactly what type of music to sing in our churches, as follows: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19). Spiritual songs are not the same as unspiritual or sensual or worldly, hymns are not the same as rock music, melody is not the same as raucous repetition. Spiritual is something that is set apart from the world unto a holy God; different in character than the things of the world. The Bible gives Plain instruction about the Christian’s affiliation with worldly things, and any music that draws the child of God into fellowship with the world is to be rejected (James 4:4; 1 Jn. 2:15-16). The Bible forbids the Christian to be conformed to the world (Romans 12:2). Yet the Contemporary Christian Music that Rick Warren uses in his church is nothing if not conformed to the world’s musical styles.
WARREN PROMOTES AN UNSCRIPTURAL JUDGE NOT PHILOSOPHY
The Purpose Driven Life contains extensive documentation of Rick Warren’s dangerous and unscriptural “judge not” ecumenical philosophy.
On page 164, Warren says, “God warns us over and over not to criticize, compare, or judge each other. … Whenever I judge another believer, four things instantly happen: I lose fellowship with God, I expose my own pride, I set myself to be judged by God, and I harm the fellowship of the church.”
In typical New Evangelical fashion Warren makes no distinction between judging hypocritically (which is forbidden in Matthew 7) or judging on the basis of personal preference in matters not taught in Scripture (which is forbidden in Romans 14) and judging on the basis of the Bible (which is required by God).
The child of God has an obligation to judge everything by God’s Word. The believers at Corinth were rebuked because they were careless in this regard and were tolerant of false teachers (2 Cor. 11:1-4). The Bereans, on the other hand, were commended because they carefully tested everything by the Scriptures (Acts 17:11). The Bible says “he that is spiritual judgeth all things” (1 Cor. 2:15) and Jesus taught that we should “judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24). We are to judge preaching (1 Cor. 14:29) and sin in the churches (1 Cor. 5). We are to try the spirits (1 John 4:1).
To test preachers and their message carefully by God’s Word is not a matter of pride, but of wisdom and spirituality and obedience.
On page 34 of The Purpose Driven Life, Warren says: “God won’t ask about your religious background or doctrinal views. The only thing that will matter is, did you accept what Jesus did for you and did you learn to love and trust him?”
If this is true, why does the Bible say so very much about doctrine and why did the apostles call for doctrinal purity on every hand? Paul instructed Timothy to allow “no other doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:3). That is the very strictest stance on doctrinal purity, and it is precisely the stance we find throughout the apostolic writings. Rick Warren has a lot to answer for, because millions of people are basing their lives upon his teaching rather than upon the pure Word of God.
If God is unconcerned about doctrine, why did the apostles spend so much time warning about false doctrines and doctrines of devils? See, for example, 2 Corinthians 11:1-4; Galatians 1:6-12; Philippians 3:18-21; Colossians 2:8; 1 Timothy 4:1-5; 1 Timothy 6:20-21; 2 Timothy 4:1-4; 2 Peter 2; Jude 3-23.
Rick Warren requires his church members to sign a covenant promising to protect the unity of the church (The Purpose Driven Life, p. 167). This is a dangerous and unscriptural covenant. The child of God is not instructed to submit to a church or to its leaders blindly and at any cost. We are commanded to “prove all things” (1 Thess. 5:21), and all things means all things. The Bereans are exalted because they “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). No preacher or church is above being tested by God’s Word. The Bible says, “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge” (1 Cor. 14:29). Preaching is to be carefully judged by God’s Word. The pastor has God-given authority (Heb. 13:17), but it is not unquestionable authority and it is not his own authority; he is not a shepherd over his own flock; he is an undershepherd over God’s and he will give an account to the Great Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:1-4). The pastor’s authority is not in his own word; it is in God’s Word (Heb. 13:7); and if he strays from the Word of God he has no authority over God’s people and he should not be followed. Blind loyalty to a church is Popery and it is a gross heresy.
Warren even claims that “conflict is usually a sign that the focus has shifted to less important things” (p. 162).
If this were true, then the apostles and preachers in the early churches were side tracked much of the time, because they were frequently involved in doctrinal conflicts. Paul was involved in such conflicts almost continually. Many of his epistles contain lengthy sections in which he takes a stand against false teachers. In his epistles to his fellow preacher Timothy, Paul repeatedly warned about false teachers by name (1 Tim. 1:19-20; 2 Tim. 1:15; 2:17-18; 4:12, 14).
WARREN PROMOTES HERETICS
In keeping with his unscriptural judge not philosophy, Warren uncritically quotes from a wide variety of theological heretics, especially Roman Catholics such as Mother Teresa, Henri Nouwen, Brother Lawrence (Carmelite monk), John Main (Benedictine monk who believes that Christ “is not limited to Jesus of Nazareth, but remains among us in the monastic leaders, the sick, the guest, the poor”), Madame Guyon (a Roman Catholic who taught that prayer is not from the mind and does not involve thinking), John of the Cross (a pantheist who believed the mountains and forests are God).
Warren does not warn his readers that these are dangerous false teachers who held to a false gospel.
Mother Teresa and Henri Nouwen, who are quoted at least four times in The Purpose Driven Life, were universalists who believed that men can be saved apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ. When Mother Teresa died, her longtime friend and biographer Naveen Chawla said that he once asked her bluntly, “Do you convert?” She replied, “Of course I convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu or a better Muslim or a better Protestant. Once you’ve found God, it’s up to you to decide how to worship him” (“Mother Teresa Touched other Faiths,” Associated Press, Sept. 7, 1997). Henri Nouwen said, “Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God’s house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God” (Henri Nouwen, Sabbatical Journey).
Why does Rick Warren continually and non-critically promote heretics? The Bible asks, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3).
WARREN‘S SHALLOW ENCAPSULATIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT FAITH
On every hand Rick Warren presents his own shallow encapsulations as the true essence of biblical Christianity. For example, in chapter 39 he lists “God’s five purposes for your life.” They are (1) Love God with all your heart, (2) Love your neighbor as yourself, (3) Go and make disciples, (4) Baptize them into [a church], and (5) Teach them to do all things.
There is nothing in these “five purposes” about holiness, contending for the faith, separation from the world, separation from false teaching, reproving sin and error, and many other things that are emphasized in the New Testament Scriptures. Obviously Warren’s five purposes for life are not the sum total of God’s.
My friends, we don’t need some misguided man’s abbreviated form of Christianity; we need the “whole counsel of God” as found in the Scriptures (Acts 20:27). The Bible as a whole, not a few select parts thereof, is the sole and sufficient authority for faith and practice. The Lord Jesus Christ instructed the churches to teach “all things” rather than a few things (Mat. 28:19-20).
Secrets of the Kingdom of God and the End Times.
In the Parable of the Sower we learn about the four different soils which represent the condition of our heart, which in turn determines if there is a bounty, or famine from God’s word.
Using the four soils as an example, only one person out of four, will respond to the Gospel and produce fruit. This is discouraging that only 1 of 4 people may respond when we share the gospel with them, but…we also find out that it isn’t up to us to change or convert anyone, but it is their response that convicts them. If we do our part, the rest is up to God and that person to respond. So…one out of four isn’t bad…is it? When we look at our world today, this is actually encouraging.
So, what secret of the kingdom of heaven, is Jesus trying to explain to the disciples in the case of the weeds.
Matthew 13:24 “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28. ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. ‘The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29. ‘No’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”‘ (NIV)
In Jesus’ day this very thing would occur. An angry farmer would sow weeds in another mans field. There were strict laws made to prevent this from happening.
So what was a farmer to do when he discovered that there were weeds, (probably darnel which looks like wheat until it begins to mature)growing along side his wheat?
Here is how Jesus explains the parable.
37. He answered. “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38. The field is the world, the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39. and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41. The Son of Man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. (NIV)
While studying this passage I was amazed at how much we are told about the end-times. The field is the world, so this passage is not about different types of Christians, it is about unbelievers who are professing to be Christians that are among us. In what we consider to be the church, (the wheat), there will be counterfeit Christians, (the weeds). They will be among us and we will not be able to always discern the difference. An example of this would be Judas among the other disciples. They had no idea of what was in the heart of Judas Iscariot. Think about how much time they had spent together. They traveled, slept, ate, and preached as a group. Yet…they had no clue.
Jesus said pulling up the weeds may also pull up the wheat, so to let them grow together. The time will come at the end of the world that God will separate the weeds from the wheat. The judgment for the weeds cannot be misunderstood. They will be thrown into the fiery furnace.
What can this teach us? We cannot judge another persons heart, and we are not to. This will be the job of the angels at the end of the world. In the meantime we will have to abide among the unbelievers who profess to love and follow Christ. So God’s kingdom has counterfeit Christians and real Christians. While we cannot judge another’s heart, we do have to be alert to the false teaching from those INSIDE the church. Those who truly walk with the Lord have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit while those professing to know Christ, but do not, are counterfeit.
This is further expressed in the parables about the Mustard Seed and the Yeast.
These two parables are not explained by Jesus. I believe this is so because there is more than one interpretation for each. For the purpose of this study we will focus on the counterfeit aspect of the kingdom. These verses are from the KJV.
The Mustard Seed
Matthew 13:31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: 32. Which is indeed the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”
I have heard a positive interpretation of this parable that says that the tree is the spreading of the gospel to all the nations, and that the church will become a powerful influence in the world (field). The Bible does say that the gospel will be heard by all before the end comes, and this will happen, but let’s look at another interpretation.
This tiny mustard seed naturally grows to the size of a garden herb plant. In this scenario the plant becomes a huge tree of unnatural proportion. This plant is inflated beyond its normal size. It is so large that birds lodge in the branches. A bird that “lodges” has taken this to be its home. This tree represents an inflated kingdom of heaven. What is it inflated with? All throughout the Bible we are warned of false teachings. Many of these false teachings are full of prosperity, inspiration and feel-good messages. One can see how the kingdom of heaven may be artificially expanded with unconverted Christians.
Could the mega-churches of today be part of this apostate kingdom of heaven with birds nesting in its branches. The birds from the previous Parable of the Sower depicted the birds as evil. These birds came and devoured the Word of God. Now we have “birds of the air” residing in this kingdom. These birds also symbolize evil. Many of the sermons in the churches are lacking in truth of the Word. The Bible is no longer taught. The birds have come and devoured the seed, The Word.
What about those who are in the process of establishing the five-fold apostolic ministries of prophet and apostles? They are determined to build a kingdom here on earth so that Jesus can return to claim His church, the spotless bride. They say the billion soul revival is just around the corner. There is a problem with this, which will be addressed a bit later. Those deeply involved in Kingdom Now theology are creating an extensive network that will connect to a world-wide spirituality which will ultimately invite the world ruler to step in.
The Yeast (Leaven)
Matthew 13:33. Another parable spake he unto them: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
Three measures of meal was a common offering in biblical times. In this instance we have a woman hiding yeast in the meal until the whole portion was leavened. The yeast was mixed throughout the flour. We know what happens to dough once yeast is added. It inflates and grows easily to double its original size. The yeast changes the entire texture of the dough. Now in those days yeast was added the same way one keeps a starter of sourdough bread on hand today. It is kneaded in till it is completely infiltrated into the whole loaf.
So what does this mean? Yeast is always spoken of in the Bible as an evil influence. Yeast was forbidden in ceremonies (Exodus12:15) and we are told “Take heed and beware of leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.” Matthew 16: 6.
So Jesus is telling us about the inflation of the kingdom of God and of its unnatual, bloated, puffed-up expansion. The cause? Evil. We have the birds of the air in the tree and the yeast in the dough infiltrating the church before Christ returns.
This kingdom of Christians (the true church) will have counterfeit Christians among us. The Bible predicts a falling away from the faith. II Thessalonians 2:3 says “Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”
So… this inflated kingdom He speaks of will not a righteous, holy, god-fearing kingdom. In fact, this kingdom will be laced with sinful false teachings that will entice believers AWAY from the truth preparing the world for the son of perdition, the AntiChrist. II Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables.”
When Jesus Christ returns this will end the kingdom of heaven as He speaks of it in these parables. This kingdom of heaven on earth will be misinterpreted by those wanting to advance God’s cause for their own desires. These parables prophesy what God’s kingdom sadly will look like before His return. We have already been told the blind will not understand, but to the disciples the mystery is opened to them. As disciples today, we should see what is happening in our churches, see the mangled doctrine, because we have been forewarned over and over again in the New Testament.
Can you see how the three parables, The Sower, The Weeds and the Yeast, build upon each other? The first parable is explained, with us learning that the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven will be understood by disciples but not the world. The world does not comprehend or care, that faith will depart from the earth…not multiply. The gospel will be spread to the ends of the earth but the takers will be few. The seed will not take root. The birds who eat the seed, Jesus explains as the “wicked one”. Along with the wheat, weeds will grow in the field (world), and live side by side. The mustard seed, the tiniest of seeds, grows into a huge monstrous tree with birds (evil ones) nesting in it. The bread (the kingdom) is also expanded unnaturally by the hidden yeast (evil).
Satan himself is introducing false ideas, false gods, and false religion into all of society. This is nothing new, but can’t you see the change in the church? At first little by little, lies are introduced and the congregations like the lies. But why is it that they cannot see the deception? THEY DON’T WANT TO. People don’t have time to read their Bible, or have time for prayer.
The kingdom of God on earth will be populated by mostly counterfeits by the time Jesus returns. My take on this is that the church will be totally infiltrated and those who will not accept this new spirituality introduced by the birds, will have to go underground. Why do i believe this? It is happening today.
Now what about the billion soul revival? This is not biblical because of Luke 18:8. “…when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” In fact, about the end-times, Jesus says in Matthew 24:9 “..and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.” What about Matthew 7: 14? “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” This verse was recently cited to a dominionist who said this was being “nit-picky”. Today Bible believing Christians are being ridiculed and sneered at, being called uneducated and unenlightened. The derision is rampant.
Weeds & Yeast
The secrets of the Parables are not secret to those who walk the narrow path, who have committed their life to the Lord, and who have been empowered by the Holy Spirit. Those who hold to the truths of the Word of God will not be deceived by the hypocrisy and false teachings of the weeds and their rebellious words inflated by the yeast.
Please….examine yourself and the commitment you have or haven’t made to the Lord Jesus Christ. The future for the weeds is less than promising, indeed. The church, the true believers, are the kingdom of heaven today. The perfect kingdom we still wait for…after the physical return of Jesus Christ.
So take heart, brothers and sisters in Christ. Luke tell us in 21:28, “Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”
“Even so, come Lord Jesus.”
It is with great interest that I read about those who are building the kingdom of heaven here on earth. There are many struggling to find peace and unify this world into what they think is God’s kingdom using extra-biblical revelation. Of course, God’s perfect kingdom is not of this world but apparently that is beside the point.
While studying Matthew, it startled me to realize the secrets that are revealed about the kingdom of heaven in chapter 13. Of the seven parables in this chapter, there are only two parables that Jesus himself explains. The Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Weeds.
Each parable starts “the kingdom of heaven is liketh”, except the parable of the sower, which has the phrase,”Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.”
What is it about these two parables that Jesus explained outright to us, that is so important.
First I should note that parables were used because those who were sincere in wanting to understand the truth, those who were truly seeking Jesus, understood. Those who did not understand were merely listening to stories, their hardened hearts not seeing or hearing. But those who were sensitive to the words were convicted. Those who wanted to know more would inquire further.
The Parable of the Sower. Many of us are familiar with this parable.
Matthew 13:3-9
3. “And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold a sower went forth to sow; 4. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: 5. Some fell on stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 6. And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up and choked them: 8. But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixty fold, some thirtyfold. 9. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
It was at this point that the disciples asked why Jesus spoke in parables. He said, 11. “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but them it is not given.”
So why were the mysteries revealed to the disciples but not to the others?
Matthew 11:25 “At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.”
Matthew 13:17 “For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things ye hear, and have not heard them.”
I Cor 2:10,14 “But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God…The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
The truths that Jesus was speaking of, was foolishness to those who did not have the spirit of God and so instead reveals his truths to those who are childlike when they come to Him. Jesus had just preached the Beatitudes on the Sermon on the Mount as to what our “attitudes” as children of God were to be, and yet the people would not believe.
Matthew 13:12-13 “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”
We must take the full counsel of God. Those who interpret scripture to their liking or warp its message by taking it out of context… have no light in them. If you are looking for understanding and knowledge in the bible you will find it, but if you are closed to the truth…the truth you do have….will be taken from you. What a huge implication this is. If you turn your back on the Word of God, any understanding you have….will be removed. What light you have received….will taken from you.
This would like be receiving multiple warnings from your power company. After rejecting them over and over again by ignoring the bills, the plug will eventually be pulled. The power will be turned off. Likewise if you continually reject the complete teachings of the word of God, what little light you may have….God will turn out.
How careful we must be… to read the bible from front to back to ensure the understanding of his Word.
Jesus then says that this fulfills a prophecy in Isaiah 6:9-10. “Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart. and convert, and be healed.”
God told Isaiah to go and preach to a people who wouldn’t respond, so that their guilt would be certain. As Trapp wrote, Isaiah would “Preach them to hell.” What preacher could be satisfied with a ministry that made the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes? Isaiah might not be satisfied with it. The people might not be satisfied with it. But God would be satisfied with it. This shows what the word of God can accomplish when it is received with open eyes, ears, and heart. It brings understanding to our heart, it makes us return, and it brings healing to our lives. If you are under the word of God and these things aren’t happening to you, ask God to work with your eyes, ears, and heart! (David Guzik)
Matthew 13:15 “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
Jesus was telling the disciples that what was true of the Israelites was also true of this crowd. Isn’t this true of people today? We do not want to hear anything that may convict of us our sinful lives, so we close our eyes to the truth. We do not want to admit that our pathways are wrong or that we may have believed a lie so we continue to put our hands over our ears and sing a song to drown out the voice of God in our wicked hearts. What an eternal fatal decision.
Matthew 13:17 “For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things, which ye hear, and have not heard them.”
So why have these prophets and righteous men seen not and heard not? I looked at Strongs Concordance [G1937] desire. Here is the meaning.
1) to turn upon a thing
2) to have a desire for, long for, to desire
3) to lust after, covet
a) of those who seek things forbidden
Desire, covet, lust, things forbidden! Now this is beginning to make some sense.
Jude 19 “These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.”
It is at this point that Jesus explains the parable.
Matthew 13:19 “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.”
We can easily picture a trodden path. The soil is hard here and the Word of God bounces off. A man’s heart is hard in the same manner. He hears the Word but he doesn’t want act on it. The seed does not penetrate. The birds come and eat the seed before it has time to soften man’s heart.
We know this as the parable of the sower of the seed, but upon closer look it is truly about the condition of the soil. The seed is always the same. Let’s look at the next soil.
Matthew 13:20-21 “The one who who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the Word and at once receives it with joy. But since it has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.”
This seed fell on rocky places and maybe found a bit of soil between the rocks. Here it sprouts quickly but when the conditions get dry or hot, the sprout withers. There is no root or foundation to sustain it. This is how it is when we hear God’s Word and start to go to church, but this soon becomes inconvenient or people start to criticize our faith so we fall away when times get tough.
Matthew 13:22 “The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the Word, but the worries of this life and deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.”
Isn’t it just like life to become full of pastime pleasures. Shopping, boating, golfing, tennis, movie theaters, plays, etc. When the truth of Word of God becomes second to lifes whims and riches, it becomes choked among the thorns. We forget about the treasure we had in our heart, and instead long for the treasures made of wood, silver, and gold. Our other gods.
Matthew 13:23 “But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
So the description of the soil is the condition of man’s heart when he hears the gospel. It may be any part of God’s word at anytime of ones life.
What four soils best describes your heart right now?
1. It is hard-trodden, rejecting any truth that may ask you to change your ways?
2. How about rocky? Does God’s Word reach down deep to your very soul or are the roots of God’s Word shallow and ready to wilt in the heat?
3. Is your soil congested with thorns which crowd out God’s Word so that it cannot flourish?
4. Is your ground fertile? Do you welcome the seed of God’s Word into your heart and let it grow to maturity?
This fertile ground is now broken into 3 more categories. A thirty-fold Christian may be who believes but can be lukewarm at times. A sixty-fold Christian may be someone who lives for the Lord but does not surrender entirely. But a hundred-fold Christian would be one who has commited fully to the Lord in all ways.
So it is not the seed or the sower who does not produce. It is the condition of the soil that tells the story of what one can expect when the seed is planted into it. Different soils produce different reactions. Only one of the four soils will produce fruit. What fruit have you produced for God? Is your Christian life thriving because of obedience to the Word? Do you read and study the Bible daily to ensure that you are on the right path?
The worker is not to blame. The sower has done his job by spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Next: The Parable of the Weeds – Counterfeit Christians
MARCIA’S STORY: A STRANGE BUT TRUE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
Spirit guides, meditation, astrology, the “higher Self,” raising the kundalini, developing psychic abilities, praying to gurus, astral travel, numerology, Tarot cards, contacting the dead, hanging out with witches, Sufis, followers of Muktananda, Rajneesh, Sai Baba, Maharaji, — all these and more were part of my journey. How did I get on this path?
The beginnings
I grew up with an agnostic father and a mother who was raised going to church. My sister and I had to attend church, because my mother thought that was the right thing to do, although she did not always go. Due to my father’s job in the Foreign Service, we moved around a lot, so we ended up in different churches located overseas and in the Washington, DC, area. Eventually, I became serious about religion. In high school, I had the idea that being good would please God and get me into heaven. But reading about other religions and meeting those who believed differently made me wonder. Maybe there was more to it than what I had — some knowledge of God and Jesus which was mostly superficial. I wanted something deeper, more experiential. I was also rejecting the idea of hell and was disillusioned with Christians. Christianity seemed defined by sermons, going to Sunday School, and doing good works. How boring! I was missing out on something! Also, I never fit in during my high school years. Being someone who wrote poetry, being in an alcoholic home, having no real roots all combined to make me feel different and unlike other people. I started my journey at the end of high school.
That journey continued through college where I had paranormal experiences, made friends with someone who said she saw auras, and attended spiritualist meetings where the ministers received messages from the dead. One bright sunny Florida afternoon, as I rested on my bed fully awake with eyes partly closed, I felt myself floating. I opened my eyes and was stunned to see my body on the bed below me as I hovered near the ceiling. I thought I had died. The shock slammed me back into my body in an almost painful way. This was my first out-of-body experience and I had no idea what it was or that it even had a name. I told no one about it.
The journey stretched into the 70’s when I visited psychics and an astrologer, and did a lot of reading on the paranormal, and about Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. I remember reading a book on Vedanta (sect of Hinduism) each morning in the cafeteria of the building where I worked. I started to see connections in my life with the colors of the chakras, the seven psychic centers of energy in the body according to Hindu beliefs. This and other experiences pushed me into an active plunge into the alluring worlds of the paranormal and Eastern beliefs.
Into the fire
In an Inner Light Consciousness class, I was introduced to my “spiritual master” during a guided visualization. This guide, a spirit being, looked kind and wise. I felt his presence with me and sometimes saw him in dreams and meditations until 1990. I also had unpleasant, scary and weird experiences and visitations, once seeing a tall hooded figure in dark robes looking at my body in the bed as I hovered out-of-body nearby. Although extremely frightened by this apparition, I rationalized it by telling myself that I was being tested. Another time, as I was out-of-body, I not only saw my body on the bed, but also saw a double of myself floating across from me. I had spontaneous out-of-body experiences that sometimes kept me from sleeping and that were also often very eerie. But to me, the paranormal was spiritual, and spiritual was good.
Another reason I accepted the scary stuff was my attitude. I liked to think I was tough and nothing could frighten me away. So I would think, “Go ahead, scare me. I can take it!” I had a lot of anger and defiance in me which probably came from dealing with an alcoholic parent. This angry defiance proved useful to me in many ways. It helped me get through a lot of painful situations, and it was going to help me deal with the bizarre experiences I would face. But anger and defiance over a long period of time easily turn into cynicism. I did become cynical although it was usually hidden, even from myself, behind a desire to help people. This defiant cynicism was my defense, as in “No one is going to stop me doing what I want; nothing can scare me away; and don’t try to impress me.” Later, after many occult experiences, the cynicism was deeper. I knew a lot of people had not done what I had, and I thought most people were wimps and satisfied with superficial lives, not searching deeply as I was. But this was my defense against getting hurt or feeling helpless.
I also learned to meditate, do psychic healing, analyze dreams, and chant. It was mystical and magical. When I first started to do Eastern meditation, I felt an incredible peace. I felt that I was fading away and merging with something greater. It seemed I was literally one with the universe, and the teaching that we are all connected to one force seemed true. After all, I believed that truth was in experience, and here my experience was confirming that belief. At last, I thought, I was connecting to that spiritual realm. Later, my studies took me on many paths — Tibetan, Hindu and Zen meditation and philosophy, spirit contact, numerology, psychic development, past life regression. Reincarnation seemed to answer questions and I experienced what I thought were memories of past lives. However, it was sad to think that my next life might not be so great so if I did not learn lessons from this or previous lives. But why dwell on that?
Finally, it seemed I was on the edge of a hidden wisdom, a truth higher than the everyday superficial thinking around me. Books by Edgar Cayce, Ruth Montgomery, Chogyam Trungpa (Tibetan Buddhism), Annie Besant (Theosophy), Hanz Holzer (ghosts), and Ram Dass (Hinduism/New Age), and titles like Seth Speaks, The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra, The Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, and Autobiography of a Yogi by Yogananda began to fill my shelves, along with books on astrology, tarot cards, numerology, and other occult teachings. My spiritual progress seemed assured, especially since I was having so many paranormal experiences. The natural result was that I felt I was an “insider” in the spiritual realm.
Unanswered questions
Over the years, my psychic experiences escalated. I studied astrology and took a 7-hour exam on astrology in Atlanta, Georgia, administered by the City but formulated and graded by an astrology board, in order to qualify for the business license. Passing the test, I started practicing astrology, and eventually I taught astrology, gave public talks, wrote for astrological and New Age journals, and sat on the board of astrology examiners that gave and graded the exams, becoming chairman of that board. I became president of the Metropolitan Atlanta Astrological Society in June, 1989. My Halloween birthday and astrological skills made me popular with witches and others.
I noticed that while doing chart readings for clients, I would “tune in” to the chart in a paranormal way, during which I felt an energy connecting my mind to the chart, and felt guided through the chart. It often seemed that I was being fed information or led to specific things to say about the client. After so many years of Eastern meditation techniques, I was slipping without effort into an altered state of consciousness while doing astrology. I gave credit to my “past lives” as an astrologer and spiritual counselor, to the help of spirit guides, and to astrology itself. In those years, the only source of such information could be good since I did not believe in evil.
Yet, with all the knowledge and experience I had acquired, what were the answers? Since I came to believe there was only ignorance, not evil, stories of vicious cruelty and murder made me uncomfortable. Though I believed I would be coming back after my death, where would I go in between and for how long? Some taught that we would go somewhere that was like a school, then choose our next life. Others taught that we go somewhere to be spiritually purified – how, it was not explained – then our next life would be chosen for us. By whom? That was not explained. We were supposed to just trust the process.
There was also the disquieting teaching that whatever thought was in my mind at the moment of death would determine the after-death experience for some time. Better not have a bad thought for too long! Better not fall asleep with fearful images! This was scary to contemplate — but that contemplation was itself a negative thought! I would often soothe myself by meditating or chanting something — maybe the “Hare Krishna” chant I had taught myself, or repeating a Tibetan Buddhist mantra like “Om Mani Padme Om.”
I sought peace in Zen Buddhism. Trying to detach myself from all desire involved a meditation that allows thoughts, fears, or desires to come up and then not to respond to them. This was to be applied to life outside meditation as well. For someone like myself, carrying a lot of emotional pain from my past and my present, this was appealing. But though detachment sounded good in all the books, there was a price to pay. The detachment seemed contrived and unnatural. Seeing “the emptiness” behind my surroundings, another sign of spiritual acumen, struck me as nihilistic and depressing. Maybe if I had pursued these practices more devoutly, I might have gradually replaced my natural reactions and feelings with non-feeling. But is it human to be non-feeling, to accept every thought, action, and emotion without judgment?
Being taught to be natural and “holistic” on one hand, but then learning to let go of my natural reactions on the other, seemed a contradiction. Of course, rational analysis like this was discouraged, even attacked. Therefore, contradictions could and should be accepted. If it didn’t make sense, so much the better. The idea was to transcend the rational mind which was a barrier between me and enlightenment. Although I failed in achieving detachment, I clung to the paradoxical teachings of Zen, reading books with Zen tales, and continuing the meditation. I noticed that the peace I had felt with my initial meditations had decreased, causing me to meditate more in an attempt to re-capture that elusive peace.
I also learned that the nature of occult and New Age thinking is that there is no one answer. There is no one single truth, and there is no one reality. Truth is based on your experience, so it changes and can differ from person to person. If there are multi-levels of reality and there is no absolute truth, then there must be many contradicting truths and realities. In the abstract, this was fascinating food for thought, and led to being comfortable with whatever truth I wanted. But on the practical level, what difference did truth make if one finally discovered it? Or how did we know if there really was such a thing? And if not, what did anything that anyone believed matter anyway? These teachings gave answers that only raised more questions.
Death and love
We are just drops in the ocean, I learned, and the goal is to eventually, after many lifetimes, rejoin the cosmic oneness that some call God. This God-force was what we came from and was our final destiny. So that meant my identity, memories, talents, and personality would be swallowed whole into the cosmic One. Where would I be? The disturbing answer was that I would no longer be. Death became an absorbing but uneasy topic for me.
The best way to help others and stay true to your path, I heard and read over and over, was to work on yourself and love yourself. Although talk of “love” was common and was taught to be the basis for everything, it also seemed that some used the “law of love” as a way to justify whatever they were doing. So, if your husband was not your spiritual match, then “real love” allowed you to leave him or find another with whom you had a true bond. After all, this was a “law” of the universe: the law of love. But this love was not defined. It was just sort of out there – a love force that pervaded the universe. There was no personal being to love me; there was this energy coming from the cosmic One and that was it. Could a force care?
Despite the meditations, trying to live in “the now,” and the talk of love, I continued to have frightening experiences. One of the worst was waking up to see an older woman staring at me from the bottom of the bed. I knew she was not flesh and blood, but a spirit. She did not speak, but I heard her in my mind say to me, “I am here to take over your body.” Too scared to speak, I said in my mind, “No! No!” This seemed to go on for a long time, although I have no idea how long it really was. Finally, she simply faded away. I was left trembling, perspiring, and my heart racing. By the way, I was not doing drugs.
The compulsion
An unexplained compulsion to go to a church gripped me in the spring and summer of 1990. Since I hated Christianity, churches and Christians by now, this made me angry. I first ignored this compulsion, then resisted it, and then, after struggling against it for awhile, I decided to give in, hoping that it would go away. It was probably from one of my former lives as a priest or monk, I reasoned.
In the opening minutes of a service in a large church in downtown Atlanta, I felt a love I had never known wash down over and through me, so powerfully that I started crying. I knew this love was from God, not from the music, the people, or the place. That love was the real thing. Coming from an alcoholic home, I was starving for that love. I returned the following Sunday, not to have another experience, but so that I could be where that love had happened to me.
After several weeks, I began to feel unclean about astrology although no one in this open-minded church said anything about it. All I knew was that it was somehow separating me from this God of love. I then got the impression that God did not like astrology and wanted me to give it up. Give up my life’s work? Give up my identity and purpose? Outside of my son, nothing was more important to me than astrology. But I felt I had no choice; it was so clear to me that God did not like astrology. Not even believing what I was doing, I decided to give up astrology in late 1990. At the time, I was chairperson of the curriculum committee, a member of other committees at the astrological society, and scheduled to teach an upcoming class. I had to find another teacher. I had to tell clients who called I was no longer an astrologer. (I did give a talk in February, 1991, after bad advice from a pastor and not liking what I was doing but not strong enough to get out of it. It took over a year for full comprehension of what I had been involved in to sink in.) Now what happens? Thinking I should read the Bible, I started reading in Matthew, the first book of the New Testament. Reading the Bible put me in touch with something pure, but I didn’t know what it was. Although I had read the Bible before while growing up and had quoted from it for astrological articles, this time it was different. I felt as though I was being cleaned from the inside out as I read it.
As real as it gets
This person Jesus fascinated me. It was as though I was learning about Him for the first time. One evening while reading part of the 8th chapter of Matthew, right before Christmas of 1990, I saw who Jesus really is. On the boat with His disciples, a terrible storm arose. The disciples were afraid and woke Jesus up, telling Him that they were going to perish. Jesus stopped the storm in its tracks! How? He did not visualize calm waters, He did not perform sorcery. He rebuked the winds and the sea, and they obeyed him. That means He has authority over nature. I was separated from God by everything I had done in my past — I had lived my whole life based on my will, a will that had rejected and defied God and His word. I realized that the only way to be forgiven, the only way to be reconciled with God, was through Jesus, the God-man who suffered and died for me out of a great and unconditional love. I realized Jesus is the Savior, He is the Son of God and God the Son. I understood for the first time why Jesus died on the cross. In those several minutes sitting on my bed with the Bible, I knew that the truth and the answer to all my questions were one and the same: Jesus Christ. What a simple but awesome truth! And so I gave myself to Christ and knew I belonged to Him from that moment on. Several months later, I found out that a young Christian man at the part-time job where I worked had been praying for me with a fellowship group at his church during 1990.
Jesus was different from the masters I had studied. He was more real than the spirit guides, the Ascended Masters, the Higher Self — all those airy, elusive things that gave no evidence of their existence — because He came to earth in flesh and He hungered, thirsted, felt pain and sorrow. He did not give a message that denied the dirt and dust of life, but He sat with the outcasts, the prostitutes, and the hated tax collectors yet remained sinless. He was as real as it gets. Though fully man, Jesus was fully God incarnate, equal to God in nature but setting aside that glory (not deity) to be among suffering men and women. Jesus Christ willingly was tortured, laid down His life and died an agonizing death to pay for our sins. He bodily rose on the third day, conquering death, so that we can have eternal life with God. No sorcerer, no spiritual master, no Buddha, no shaman, no witch, no psychic has conquered death, but all still lie cold in their graves. But Jesus has power over death and is living today.
Truth and satisfaction
Spiritually, I had been in a grave with the buddhas and the sorcerers and the seekers of wisdom who had rejected the truth of Christ. The complicated and intricate studies that had enthralled me, the endless layers of truths and realities I had pursued, the constant effort to evolve, the paranormal experiences, the need to believe in one’s own goodness at all costs, were all a maze and a trap. The truth was simple enough for a child because the truth is a Person. Jesus did not teach the way or say He had a way. He said that He is the way — not a way, but THE way.
Many people want to know if I had to wage spiritual warfare after trusting Christ. Well, a few months later, as I was about to go forward in a church to publicly proclaim faith in Christ, I got incredibly ill. When I went home, I got sicker. I felt an angry presence in the room and I thought it was my spirit guide. I basically told him I belonged to Christ and there was nothing he could do about it, that even if I died, it was too late. “You lose,” I said. I was addressing Satan, although I was really talking to my spirit guide. I do not believe in doing this now; I do not address demons nor Satan. They have already been spoken to and defeated by Christ. I prefer to speak to the ruler of the universe, Jesus Christ. I do not want to give demons any attention at all. Yes, I have had a few strange attacks that could be construed as demonic. But I do not like to focus on them. My focus is on the One who is worthy of attention: Jesus Christ, who has power over all rulers and principalities, in both the physical and spiritual realms.
What is the biggest difference between my former life and my life in Christ? That I am happier, that life is easier? Not at all. The difference is that I am spiritually satisfied. There is more to learn and much room to grow, but the learning and growth spring from Christ as the foundation, not from a search outside Him. The search has ended; the thirst has been quenched; the hunger within has been filled.
(You will find Marcia’s story with more detail in Chapter 10 of The Unexpected Journey (Zondervan) by Thom S. Rainer. This book contains the firsthand accounts of 12 people who came to faith in Christ from other spiritual beliefs and told their stories to Dr. Rainer. This book is sold on Amazon’s site and also on the CBD site at www.christianbook.com, and can also be found in or ordered by bookstores).
Jesus speaks
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” – John 14:6.“But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” – John 4:14“I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” – John 6:35“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.'” – Matthew 28:18
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” – Revelation 3:20
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Here is Marcia Montenegro’s site
CANA Christian Answers for the New Age.
http://christiananswersforthenewage.org/AboutCANA_Background.html
The Bible teaches that all Christians should grow in spiritual discernment.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
– Hebrews 5:12-14 NASB
Paul told the Thessalonians:
Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.
– 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 NASB
While he encouraged the Thessalonians not to discount or dismiss the Holy Spirit – by despising that which was being taught as coming from God (prophecy) – Paul instructed them to test everything.
In other words, if someone preaches or teaches something that he or she claims was inspired by God, we are not to despise it – which would result in quenching the Holy Spirit.
However, we are to carefully examine that which is being taught.
Earlier, Luke called the people of Berea – where Paul and Silas had been sent to preach – “more noble-minded that those in Thessalonica,” because
they received the word with great eagerness, examining [anakrino] the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.
– Acts 17:11-12 NASB
Thus the Bereans did not quench the Spirit, but rather tested what was being taught, using Scripture as their guide.
How to grow in spiritual discernment
The only way to grow in spiritual discernment is
a) by relying on the guidance of the Holy Spirit who indwells every true Christian, and
b) by stuyding God’s Word, the Bible.
These two go hand-in-hand:
The Holy Spirit
One can not expect someone who has just accepted Jesus Christ as his savior to have a full, working knowledge of Biblical theology. The Bible indicates that people come to Jesus because the Holy Spirit draws them and they respond to His invitation.
When someone accepts Jesus Christ, he becomes regenerated (born again – a new person, spiritually). Among other things, he receives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which puts him at a great advantage over non-Christians. Paul puts it like this:
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:
16 For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct. – 1 Corinthians 2:11-16
The Bible
The Bible provides the standard against which all teachings must be tested:
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
– 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NASB
Hand-in-hand
This reliance both on the guidance of the Holy Spirit and on God’s Written Word should keep Christians focused on God.
If Christians were to rely only on their ability to listen to the Holy Spirit, they would leave themselves open to all manner of private teachings and interpretations – without any rules by which to rest such revelations.
At the same time, it they were to rely only on their own ability to interpret and apply the Scriptures, they would leave no room for God’s guidance in revealing to them the riches of his Word.
As Christians our focus should always be on the living God, with whom we have an interactive relationship.
Relying on the discernment of others
No Christian is an island. There is much to be learned from one another, as we share the wisdom and insights God has revealed to us from His Word, by His Holy Spirit.
Sadly, though, many Christians leave the responsibility for discernment almost completely up to others. Their guidance comes primarily from televangelists, authors (and, more often than not, their ghost writers), their pastors, or their favorite websites.
That’s like being spoon-fed by someone else – marking one as an infant, rather than as a mature Christian:
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
– Hebrews 5:12-14 NASB
By all means, let’s learn from one another – eagerly receiving the word, while also examining everything carefully.
Discernment as a spiritual gift
Christians who believe that the Spiritual Gifts are still available today, see the gift of “distinguishing between spirits” (discerning whether they are human, from God, or demonic), to be a special form of discernment (revealed, instead of learned):
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
– 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, NASB
This article taken from Apologetics Index
http://www.letusreason.org/Default.htm
Mike Oppenheimer of:
Let Us Reason Ministries
MY TESTIMONY
I was brought up Jewish, went to Shabbat quite faithfully each Friday and celebrated the holydays at the temple and with family. Our family like many others, gathered together on the high holy days in observance. I attended Hebrew school twice a week and learned the language and eventually was Bar Mitzvahed and confirmed. While attending classes I asked a lot of questions about God the Rabbi could not answer. Though I continued each year, mainly to please my parents, I became less interested in the traditional religion of my parents and feeling hindered in my spiritual development, leaped head first into my own brand of freestyle spirituality after graduation.
By my own search in reading and attending lectures and gatherings I got involved in the New Age Movement, became a vegetarian and for 15 years practiced yoga and meditation. I ended up using psychedelic drugs for a time (LSD, mescaline etc.), as part of my regular religious observances and smoking “pakalolo” (pot) became part of my normal lifestyle. During these times I also experimented with various religions and the occult. I felt they each contained some part of the truth of the one “true” religion, just as Rosicrucianism teaches all religions are petals on the same flower.
I studied about the Ancient Masters of the East, learning about Buddhism and Zen I picked up on a number of the practices. I had a number of spiritual experiences which at the time I was sure were from God and leading me to a greater knowledge of myself and Him. I discovered and believed in the Ascended Masters that were guiding our world into a greater evolutionary path. I was involved with UFO’s and channeled messages. I was sure I was on the right spiritual path because of the various signs things just fell into place. At the same time I also read the Bible (even the New Testament), not denying my Jewish roots. I began reading over 50 books a year, having an insatiable spiritual appetite, but God was working on my exit out of this spiritual bondage.
I had also started to surf before beginning my spiritual pilgrimage. I fell in love with the sport and began traveling, surfing and entering contests. Surfing became my livelihood after I learned to shape surfboards for a living. I became the NY champion for a number of years and eventually the eastern surfing champion for two years. Hawaii proved to be an irresistible attraction due to its fantastic surf. I moved permanently to Hawaii with my girlfriend Kathy in the mid 70’s. This gave me more freedom to pursue both my first love of surfing and my freelance spirituality. We thought we were becoming enlightened. Reading books about the Ascended Masters involvement and “learning” about Earth’s past history on Lemuria and Atlantis. We desired to become servants of the New age movement, convinced that if we all united we could usher in an age of spiritual cooperation and enlightenment that so many were talking about. After nine years my searching came to a head when my girlfriend Kathy and I started to pursue our spiritual hunger more seriously and became involved in the “I Am Movement” (the Saint Germaine Society of the Ballard’s). Through calling on angels and powers unknown to us and by “decreeing” and using the Violet Consuming Flame to eradicate past life karma, we were learning to become active in the New Age Movement. At the time, Kathy was practicing affirmations, mantras, studying herbology, polarity therapy, kinesiology and learning about the supposed spiritual energies of the body. She also was a manager of a health store on the Island of Oahu.
At the same time, the Lord started moving ahead with His rescue plan and during one week we had two friends over who had recently became Christians. One was also a surfer that I knew from New York. We talked about end-time events for hours. Since I was familiar with, as I had been reading the Bible for years, and was especially fascinated about the end of the age. (At that time we both thought Christians were very narrow minded about their view of the Bible, God and the world. Kathy and I used to laugh about how the New Age was coming in without Christians even being aware of it, and were still trying to live in the old traditions and were not going to be part of it). Later that week my friends invited us to a seminar that just so happened to be on the New Age Movement with speakers Dave Hunt, Johanna Michaelson and Hal Lindsey. Talk about timing! It was also during that same week that I heard an audible voice say, “I am the Lord your God, you shall not want.” I recognized this was from Psalm 23 from my Jewish upbringing and had never experienced anything like it. Inside I knew this was the God I was searching for but still did not know. It was only later I would understand why this voice was outside and not from inside me.
I attended the Christian conference on Bible prophecy and the New Age Movement that week while Kathy stayed home doing her New Age affirmations. She wasn’t feeling well that day and unknowingly had really been going through a spiritual battle all that week. At the conference, I was shocked to hear the other side of the story. The information I heard seemed incredible. The speakers knew all about the occult techniques Kathy and I were following and practicing, and about the New Age Movement’s master plans. I spoke to Dave Hunt briefly during a break and he answered a number of important questions. One was why Jesus said, “why you have forsaken me?” Though I was reading the Bible all these years I could not understand the gospel contained in it. I was blinded by the viewpoints ingrained from the New Age influences. I was also challenged by Dave on the occult practices in which I was personally involved practicing. He was aware of the “I am societies” practices. One question he asked was, “If you’re God did you create the universe? I had never thought this through. If I’m trying to become god through all these New Age techniques, how could this be possible, when God was always all knowing and all powerful (according to the Scriptures and what I had heard through their speaking that night). It was through this question that a chain of events led to the Lord really ministering the truth to my heart and mind. When the conference resumed Johanna spoke and I was relating to a lot she had experienced, especially in regards to the Ascended Master “Jesus”. Then she spoke about another Jesus – the true Jesus of the Bible, which came as a total shock. I never thought there could be false Jesus’ parading around as the real one. They were only Jesus by name but not the One who is God come in the flesh. It all made sense. When she prayed my heart was pierced, I knew I had heard the truth, but the question was; what would I do about it?
All the way home I wrestled with the realization that I had wasted the past 15 years believing and doing the wrong things. (Prior to this I thought Christians were very narrow minded but now I had to reconsider that I was too open-minded and had bought into a lie.) I asked my friends who took me to the meeting numerous questions that were running through my mind. Being new Christians, they could answer only a few of them. They just kept saying to me, “we know the Bible is God’s Word and Jesus is the truth.”
Kathy was waiting up for me when I got home. It was late and she was actually scared that I would come home a Christian from the meeting! As I came in a peace came in the house and on her, as I sat her down and shared about how the Christians viewed the last days and how it wasn’t anything like what we were being taught in the New Age Movement. It was then that the Holy Spirit revealed to Kathy that not only were we following the wrong Jesus (2 Cor.11:4), but that we were worshiping Satan, and that he is a real being. Then the fear of God fell upon us and for the first time we got down on our knees and prayed to the true living God to forgive us for the occult beliefs we had been deceived into practicing. The Lord got the last laugh, but it was a pleasant one of victory.
The next morning we both went to a Christian church and the pastor got to the pulpit and said that he was told to change the sermon. He spoke on sin, Satan and Jesus Christ, we thought our friends had tipped him off but it was the Lord. We heard the gospel explained and dedicated our lives to the Lord, repenting and asking Christ to forgive us. Thank the Lord He intervened. We were saved together in the year 1986. It was later that week I found out that it was on the 20th anniversary of my confirmation day when God spoke that previous week to me Psalm 23. The last thing I read in front of the congregation in the temple 20 years before had been Proverbs 4:1-2 “Hear my children, the instruction of a Father, and give attention to know understanding. For I have given you good doctrine, forsake not my law.” Unfortunately, I did forsake His Law, for 20 years- but God brought me and my soon-to-be wife back. Five weeks after our spiritual birth Kathy and I were married and today have a 15 year old son who has been learning and become very interested in the debate of creation versus evolution among other interests.
Immediately, I began to study the Bible and learn apologetics in order to give answers to those who ask why we believe in Christ and why Jesus is God in the flesh. Since 1988 I have continued teaching on the cults and aberrant world views including how the cults deny grace and opt for works to be accepted by God. These include the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, and also the occult (New Age world view) which is now very present inside the Church.
By the grace of God I have had the privilege to have taught at Hope Chapels, Calvary Chapels, Church of Christ, Youth With A Mission, United Methodist Church, Grace Brethren, Assembly of God and various other Hawaii congregations. I have also had the opportunity to share in small group studies around the Island and have been involved in a number of debates. The Lord has currently provided us with the opportunity to host a TV program and had live call-in broadcast called “Let Us Reason” on a local Christian station as well as featured on several other live radio broadcasts in Hawaii. I am currently a missionary for Witness Inc., the world’s largest counter cult ministry reaching out to Jehovah’s Witnesses.
In 1994 Let Us Reason Ministries was founded as an up-to-date apologetic resource center to instill both confidence and a desire to lead others to Christ. This is done by helping equip believers with both Biblical, and logical answers for their Christian faith. I have learned many things along the way that need to be passed on to others to encourage as well as equip them in their witnessing. It’s my hope that this ministry will be able to prompt believers to personally meet and evangelize people who are in cults and false religions as well as discern and call attention to false doctrine within the Church.
Mike Oppenheimer
(used with permission from Let us Reason)
Here is another testimony that you might like to read.
kim
https://kimolsen.wordpress.com/2007/12/25/a-testimony-of-a-former-new-ager/
and another
https://kimolsen.wordpress.com/2007/09/13/the-toronto-deception-by-former-tacf-pastor-paul-gowdy/
“Earnestly contend for the faith….pulling them out of the fire.”
Jude was the half-brother of Jesus. It is interesting that he refers to himself as “the servant of Jesus Christ, brother to James” and does not tell of his relationship to Jesus. He may have done this to give God the glory and not to attract attention to himself.
He wanted to write about salvation, but it was apparent that he felt it was necessary to write a different letter to the believers. This is a letter of warning for false teachers and false doctrines that are entering the church.
1. “Jude the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them, that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ , and called:”
Who was Jude writing to? “…them, that are sanctified by God”, “Called.” This letter written by Jude is to Christians or the believers. It is always helpful to know who the books of the Bible are addressed. So this book written by Jude, is a warning to the flock.
Jude is probably best known for this verse.
3. “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
I would like to point out aspects of this verse and how it applied to us today.
“Earnestly contend for the faith.”
Let me rephrase this verse using terms from the dictionary. Seriously assert for the faith. Zealously struggle with those who oppose the faith. Sincerely maintain the faith. Speak forth the truth. Even though I like, speak forth the truth, the words struggle and maintain are just as relevant. “Struggle” because as time goes on there will be more and more opposition and “maintain” because it means to retain or keep the gospel as it is in it’s original form.
All these statements set forth what we are to do, but are we? Are we studying the Word daily with prayer so that we could recognize deception if we saw it? “…which was once delivered unto the saints.”
The truth was delivered once. It is not to be changed, altered or configured to one’s owns desires. “…unto the saints.” Who are the saints? Ephesians 1:1 “…the faithful in Christ Jesus.”
4. “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Crept in unawares?”
Remember this is the church, the believers, Jude is talking to. Men have c r e p t in u n a w a r e s . This is an alarming statement. It should make you look behind you to see who is crouching, getting ready to pounce. But the reality is that we are not always acknowledging the false teaching, because we are UNAWARE. Yes, we are unaware of all who are ungodly, condemned, denying God and Jesus, and turning God’s grace into immorality. How disconcerting… that there are those who have slipped in among us and we have not noticed.
Jude is warning us. You would think by their description we would recognize them. This would indicate another warning. If we cannot recognize these men…are we like them?
Look at this phrase…”denying the only Lord God.” How many are today saying that there are many paths to God? With the explosion of Eastern religion in the West, we will hearing this more and more. Contemplatives using eastern style meditation also are leaning toward this denial of Jesus Christ as the only way and the downplay of sin.What is implied is that these men know of God’s grace, yet….they use this grace as an excuse or pardon for sin. Also note the tense of this verse. It applies to all time. But these men are destined for condemnation and Jude gives examples.
5. “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.”
Jude is saying that we should know why the Israelites were destroyed. Do you remember the story of how God led the Israelites with pillars of smoke and fire, fed them manna from heaven, parted the Red Sea, yet they still “believed not”? They did not endure to the end because of a lack of faith.Then Jude gives two more examples of punishment and judgment. The fallen angels are being held for judgment day and similarly Sodom and Gomorrah experienced the: 7. “vengeance of eternal fire.”
These ungodly men will experience a punishment similar to Sodom and Gomorrah.
6. “Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignitaries.” This is a startling description of these godless men, yet it says that we can be unaware they are among us. How can this be? Let’s look a few possibilities.
I have read some pretty strange words from those in the prophetic movement. Before I continue…my personal view should be made known. I believe the prophetic movement to be mostly false. I have read many of the prophecies and most are the same predictions over and over again. Many I believe are channelers and are not hearing from God. They are not discerning the spirits. Their methods of contact with the spirit world, mirror the occult practices that have been used for centuries. This divination is detestable to the Lord. Deut 18:12. Nevertheless, I do believe there are some believers who have been given dreams and visions. There has also been many downfalls and scandals concerning those who are involved in false ministries. Look at the countless who have sadly fallen due to sexual sin. There is a correlation between sexual sin and those who defile the flesh. Let it be said that much of it is due to ungodliness and those who give themselves over to other forces besides the Holy Spirit.
“Despise dominion and speak evil of dignitaries”.
My bible parallels over to 2 Peter 2:10 “But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government.” Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.
Dominionism which is an end-time deception, involves two main situations. There are those who want to reconstruct the apostolic ministries of disciples and apostles, which is called the 5-fold ministry and then there is the idea that Christians need to dominate the earth and “take it back”. Those are who trying to create a new apostolic order in our churches are usually self-appointed apostles. They want to be in charge. They are rejecting God’s authority and those who are now ministering to the churches they want to take over. This was demonstrated recently by a young man who is involved with a deluded ministry. He wrote a book stating one has to ask permission of the church, to leave the congregation. What? Why should anyone in the church have this kind of control over the congregation? They shouldn’t but that is what is being put forth and implemented today. Any church that has this kind of power is a cult.
The time is here that the ungodly of this world are being called godly. We can see that the Dalai Lama was greeted with honor this year by President Bush. Would this same honor be bestowed to a Christian minister? The time is upon us that godly men will be labeled intolerant and that they are denying peace to our world. The fact that the bible says that Jesus Christ is the only way will become ridiculous to the “spiritualists” of the world. This is already happening. The narrow path to Jesus Christ is now being labeled as narrow-minded. Those who are “narrow-minded” will not accept the unity of religions and will be the fundamental outcasts. Those who will not accept the many roads to God will be the minority of the future. It is unfortunate but the future is already here.
If we jump up to Jude 10 we will find this of the godless men among us: “But these speak evil of those things which they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.”
What does “which they know naturally”, mean? Back to 2 Peter 2:12-13 “But these as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the thinks that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceiving while they feast with you.”
“How ironical that when men should claim to be knowledgeable, they should actually be ignorant; when they think themselves superior to the common man they should actually be on the same level as animals, and be corrupted by the very practices in which they seek liberty and self-expression.” (Green)
Many today profess to have special knowledge and prophesy falsely. One can prophecy from the soul instead of from God. Here, one who may be full of pride, purports to tell another what God’s will is. 2 Peter 1:21 says, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Does God speak to us directly? Yes, I believe He does. We can know his leading, and we should know His voice. His Still Small Voice. The Holy Spirit will guide us. But the rule is the Word of God. Those who go by what men say will be open to deception.
11. “Woe unto them! For they have gone the way of Cain…of Balaam…of Korah.” 12. “These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit witherith, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots:”
The false prophets are doomed because they have not the faith of Abel who offered his first fruits, but have murder in their hearts, the greed of Balaam, and the desire to be in charge like Korah (Cor-e) who wanted to replace Moses, but was swallowed up by the earth. Hatred, greed and rebellion . This was the downfall of these men. Do not follow anyone who resembles them. for they want to take you with them. Korah was destroyed as well as his followers, so look for godly and biblical teachers.Verse 12 does not refer to spots (blemishes) as angels but as sinful men. These spots partake of the agape feast which is meant to edify all. Instead the false leader feeds only himself instead of tending to the flock. These men are also like clouds without water, for they bring nothing to drench the crops and have nothing to drink for those who thirst.
These trees, or men, are “twice dead”. This is probably a reference to physical and spiritual death.
13. “Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.”
Those involved in the prophetic movement constantly give words about disasters, raging seas and tsunamis. But I bet they do not know that false prophets are called “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame:” Isaiah 57:20 says: “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.”
The wandering stars, may be as a shooting star which briefly lights up the sky and then fizzles out for good. What good is a wandering star? One cannot navigate by it, or be assured where it will be at any given time. These stars ultimately will see darkness forever.
Verses 14-15 speak of judgment. Jude is still talking about “them”, as Enoch prophesied, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all..” Four times the word ungodly is used. “..and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches (harsh words) which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
What are the characteristics of these false teachers? Jude 16: “These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration [2296] because of advantage.”
Again we can refer back to the Israelites as they grumbled and complained while wandering in the desert. God was not pleased, and obviously He is not pleased with these ungodly teachers. Teachers walking after their own lusts, are pleased with their position and the recognition they receive. Great swelling words.
Have you read some of the prophetic words out there? God must have left out huge portions of the Bible because I don’t have a clue what these “words” really mean. Many words, come from those who have “special knowledge”. Again I believe in leadings from the Lord but one should stick to the written word.
You want to be deceived? Get on the “prophetic ministry” train, and ride through the tunnel of doom. The Greek word [2296] thaumazo also means to marvel or awe. So these men caused quite a stir in their audience. Don’t we see this today? Look at how many are marveling at the signs and wonders that false teachers are producing today. These teachers are using biblical phrases and teachings among the false manifestations. Many are not questioning where their power lies, instead desiring it for themselves.
Jude 17 “But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles our Lord Jesus Christ.”
These men were foretold by the apostles. This should be nothing new to us and so we should presently be expecting and discerning them.
1 Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” Acts 20:29 “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter among you, not sparing the flock.”
Grievous wolves? Matthew 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
There are the wolves again. One description is ravening and one is grievous.Strong’s defines ravening [727] as ravenous, rapacious, robbing.Grievous [926] is violent, cruel, unsparing.Now the wolves [3074] are cruel greedy destructive men.
False prophet [5578] one who, acting the part of a divinely inspired prophet, utters falsehoods under the name of divine prophecies.So among us, the church, we have ravenous, rapacious, robbing, violent, cruel, unsparing, cruel and greedy men, who are acting the part of a divinely inspired prophets, uttering lies as divine prophecies. And we have difficulty separating these men from the true believers!
Jude 18 “How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.”
You know….. I am really sick of these guys but I must continue.
Jude 19 “These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.”
There are many today who are asking “Where is this God of yours?” One might expect this of the secular world…but leaders in the church? Yes, they are asking this if only to themselves. That is why there are those who are seeking to build a kingdom here on earth. Those who truly have “no spirit”, believe they do have a special mission here on earth to sate their passions of the things that are forbidden to them.The word sensual [5591] relates to the natural, governed by the breath, like the animal world, something in common with the brutes.In this verse “they who separate” [592] are the ones making divisions and disjoining the church. I wonder what spirit these men do have….?
So far, these verses have given us a thorough view of what these men are like and their ungodly ways.So now comes verses 20-25 What are we to do about these men?
Out of the next six verses, four tell us how to keep and present ourselves and the other two, how to deal with the ungodly men.
Jude 20-21 “But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
So first before we do anything we are to take a look at ourselves first. Are we building ourselves up in our faith? Are we seeking holiness? It is at this point that we can compare our lives with the lives of the false teachers. The Holy Spirit bears witness to us that we are children of God and that others who also walk in this spirit are members with us in the spiritual family of God, the church. If we walk this path following Jesus Christ, we know the direction and boundaries. Straying from this path happens to Christians, but there is a difference between stumbling, and getting up and going on.
Following Jesus Christ is the only way to contentment for those who love and desire Him only. We discover that it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we truly glorify God, and desire to grow in holiness to please Him and live a life set apart. How do we know that the Holy Spirit lives within us? We grieve over our sin. The Holy Spirit convicts us. We may still struggle with sin but we want to overcome it.
Pray for strength. Are you in Christ? Do you desire to grow in holiness? Have you set yourself apart from the world and its enticements? Are you actually pursuing this path or just meandering? We are to keep our eye on God.
Titus 2:13 “Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;”
Jude 22-23 “And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”
At first reading, I thought that making a difference, would be a result of my compassion, but this is not necessarily so.
Strong’s concordance says [1252] making a difference is:
“To separate, make a distinction, to try, decide, to learn, to withdraw from.”
So to make a difference is to discern these men and make a determination about them. Jude offers two solutions here.
The first is to make a distinction about them but to also have compassion, but we are to separate from these men. Here is where many fail. They do not know scripture and do not know how separate these men’s lies from biblical truths. Then there are those who know scripture but decide they prefer satan’s lies. Lies that satisfy the flesh.
God has called many out of deceit. God has pulled them out of apostasy, lukewarmness, and indifference. So we must have mercy and compassion on those who are stumbling but we must not follow them.
And others we are to “save with fear”.
[5401] save with fear. Dread or Terror.
We are to pull or snatch others from the fire. We are save or rescue them, hating the spotted garment. And why would we do this? Because those who walk with the Lord and have the Holy Spirit hate sin.
Okay….so who are those that we are to have compassion on yet stay separate and who are those that we are to pull out of the fire?
Are we to separate from the false prophets and snatch those who are listening to them? Hopefully, we are building ourselves up by praying in the Holy Spirit because we will need wisdom and discernment on how to approach others who are in error.
Are you in a situation with God, that you know you will never slip out of His hand? I mean you KNOW! Do you know that a life without Christ is impossible? A mediocre life in Christianity is no longer good enough for the regenerate. Do you know that your life is not in your hands anymore because you have given it back to your creator? Those who truly know Jesus Christ live every moment for the glory of His name.
One thing we do know is this:
Jude 24-25 “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
Thanks be to Jude who tells us we are to contend for the faith, and by its truths, snatch others from the fire.
I just wanted to provide a place for everyone to make prayer requests. We all have someone dear to us that needs the mercy of the Lord, or we may need some prayer for ourselves when we are discouraged from Satan’s attacks. We must expect oppostion from the enemy and prayer gets us through this. All that I ask is that when leave a prayer request make sure you pray for those who have left their own requests.
Be as specific as you like but keep it short. Make sure that anything you say about a friend or family member would not be embarrased by your request.
We have the Word of God to guide and teach us but prayer is how we communicate with the Lord which enhances our relationship with Him.
This article is from CONTENDER MINISTRIES. I was impressed by the Rast’s, who give us a great example of how to respond to the New Age Movement with a biblical response.
New Agers are the real Christians –
It is people like you who are actually the anti-christ….the ‘so-called’ Christians like yourself who condemn and ridicule the new agers (or any other religion) like you do. You, like the Pharisees at the time of Christ cannot see beyond your own limited world-view. Christ was able to see the divinity in man….the wonderous power that man owns (the holy spirit) He was telling the Jewish people of this ….and they called him a blasphermer. He died telling us all that God lives inside of each and everyone of us…not just some of us…as you the Anti-Christ would like us to believe!You like to divide us…..with your judgemental, narrow-minded rhetoric, placing hatred and fear of other religions into the innocent minds of children and adults. You place New Agers and eastern philosophies in the seat of evil and yourself in the seat of God.. You point fingers at anyone you consider to be a sinner….judging their conduct as good or evil….. exactly what Christ said NOT to do. (don’t judge another, lest you be judged yourself)the power of evil (satan) lives and thrives in the division you try sooo hard to create…and you know that. The division between Christian and what you term “new age” is only in the minds of people like yourself, and other radical christians. Satan grabs hold you …in your fear of the new age, in your judgemental accusations, and in your hate and anger toward us. We (new agers) never point fingers at others because we know that all religions are in the pursuit of the same God, and eventually, through the wonderful process of self-realization (yoga, meditation, prayer, kind acts, forgiveness), we will find God because that was Christ’s ‘Way”…. that was Christ’s teaching to us!! We know that God lives in each one of us…even people like you. God doesn’t see religions, colors, sex or any other kind of groups like you do.You say we call ourselves ‘divine’…but the truth is that we are all part of God…who is divine .. thereby we have that holy spirit within each of us. However the power of this spirit is only available when it is combined with others who also have this glorious realization…. because it is in the unity of our spirits that there is power.The new age is here to stay, and unlike you and other ‘so-called’ Christians (not the Christian Jesus was) , we belive that it will be GOODNESS that prevails, not guided by intolerance and conformity to man-made religious dogma, but by tolerance for all people (love, acceptance, support) , intelligence and kindness. Your ‘Way’ toward tomorrow is paved with fear and anger. Christ spoke of Wolves in Sheeps clothing, and after reading your article on the New Age influence …. I see what he meant. You try to appear as though you were on Christ’s side, but I can see clearly that you are part of Satan’s handiwork.
I hope this letter helps you to find peace and re-directs you on your search for God. Open your heart and your mind (as Jesus tried to get the Pharisees and all people to do)…and you will find tha Jesus was right when He said “even greater things than this can you do …if you only had faith as big as a mustard seed”!!! Don’t fight the glory of this new age, when Christ’s truths will be made evident to all.
Sincerely,
Diane
CONTENDER MINISTRIES RESPONSE:
Greetings Diane, and thank you for contacting us at Contender Ministries. There seems to be a lot of anger/frustration in your message to us, but I’d like to reply to your views and interpretations of Christ’s teachings, as opposed to the name-calling.
You say that we are all divine. You contend that the Holy Spirit is a “power that man owns,” and that He dwells in all of us, as we are all part of God. You attempted to back this assertion by saying that Christ taught of the divinity of man, yet you included no scripture reference from the gospels as evidence of your claims. I have read the gospels, and in fact re-read them today before responding to your email. I can tell you conclusively that Jesus never taught that man was divine. The cornerstone of New Age doctrine has no basis in the gospels, or anywhere else in the Bible for that matter. In fact, Jesus taught quite a different theology than that which you espouse.
In Luke 18:19, Jesus said, “No one is good – except God alone.” That certainly seems to belie any claim to the divinity of man. Only God alone is good. To make any claim to divinity is to exalt our own nature, which is inherently sinful (Romans 3:23). Jesus said, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted,” (Luke 18:14). Anyone who exalts him or herself by claiming divinity will eventually learn a lesson in humility.
In John 14:16, and again in chapter 16, Jesus talks of the Holy Spirit that will remain after Jesus is taken back to God the Father. In these verses, Jesus is speaking to His disciples. He tells them that the Holy Spirit will act as Counselor to His followers. He will convict sinners of their actions. He will reside in the hearts of the followers of Christ. In no way do any of these passages indicate that the Holy Spirit will reside in the hearts of all men. The Holy Spirit does not reside in the heart of unrepentant sinners. However, if such a sinner accepts the gift of eternal life offered through Jesus Christ, and is cleansed of his sins, then he truly can receive the Holy Spirit.
You said we judge people. We do not. We recognize that only Jesus will judge men, on behalf of God the Father (John 5:22,27). A question you should ask yourself is this: If all men are divine, and all are a part of God, then what need would there be for a judge? God does not judge himself, so we cannot be parts of God. If all men are divine, there would be no need for judgment. There is a Judge though, and there will be a judgment.
Why is a judgment needed? Because the truth of the gospels is that there is a path to Heaven, and not all men are on that path. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus also taught us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son,” (John 3:16-18). Do all men believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and the only path to salvation? Unfortunately, the answer is “no.” In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus said, “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Jesus is the small gate, and his teachings are the narrow road. You said we were “narrow-minded,” and in light of the previous verses I would have to agree. But truth is not relative, and it does not change to suit the desires of each person. Truth is inherently a narrow path. Since not all men accept that Jesus is the Messiah and the Savior of mankind, there is a need for a judgment, and Jesus will be that judge.
Jesus will be the judge of men, but we at Contender Ministries are following scriptural instructions to judge doctrines, beliefs, and theologies. We must judge them so we are not deceived by the false prophets Jesus said we would encounter (Matthew 7:15, 24:11, 24:24, Mark 13:22). As Christians, we must stand in judgment of teachings that are not in accordance with the gospel of Jesus Christ. At Contender Ministries, we expose these teachings. We do not presume to judge the followers of the false teachings, but we expose those teachings so that others might be warned, and come to salvation through Jesus Christ before they stand before Him to receive their judgment.
You said that we were the antichrist. There are actually two different versions of antichrist mentioned in the Bible. On one hand, you have Antichrist with a capital “A,” spoken of in the book of Revelation as well as Old Testament prophecy. He will be the great deceiver that will defile the temple in Israel and become possessed by Satan himself. There are also antichrists with a lowercase “a.” John defines these as follows: “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist – he denies the Father and the Son,” (1 John 2:22). We believe that Jesus is the Christ, and we believe in the Father and the Son. Therefore, your characterization of us as the antichrist is inaccurate.
You said our “Way toward tomorrow is paved with fear and anger.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Our way, the only way (John 14:6), is Jesus Christ. We are angry at no one, and we go on without fear. In an age where Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world (as Jesus predicted), we endure suffering for Him, because our salvation with Him for all eternity is secured. He paid the price for us, and we accepted His free gift of salvation.
The belief in the divinity of man is a lie. It is, in fact, the original lie that Satan used. He convinced Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit with the lure that if she did so she would “be like God.” Satan has used this lie throughout history to deceive many. The New Age has bought into this lie. You said the New Age is here to stay. I happen to agree with you – to a point. I believe that the New Age will thrive until Jesus Christ returns to defeat the Antichrist and establish His Kingdom on earth. We urge you to resist this lie of Satan. We urge you to recognize that, like the rest of us, you have a sinful (rather than divine) nature. We implore you to turn to the one true and living God, and seek forgiveness for your sins. If you do so, God has promised to cleanse you of your sins. May God reveal Himself to you, and may you turn to Him. Then, may God bless you in your new life.
In Christ,
Ben and Jennifer Rast
Contender Ministries
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) was England’s best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1854, just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 20, became pastor of London’s famed New Park Street Church (formerly pastored by the famous Baptist theologian John Gill). The congregation quickly outgrew their building, moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. In these venues Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000—all in the days before electronic amplification. In 1861 the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed Metropolitan Tabernacle.
Spurgeon’s printed works are voluminous, and those provided here are only a sampling of his best-known works, including his magnum opus, The Treasury of David. Nearly all of Spurgeon’s printed works are still in print and available from Pilgrim Publications, PO Box 66, Pasadena, TX 77501.
Always hungry for the Word, I have been enjoying the many quotes that people have been using from C. H. Spurgeon. I decided to take a look at a Spurgeon site and start reading some of his sermons.
It is like…wow…the truth…unadulterated messages from the Word itself. Oh, how spirit-filled this man was…you can read and hear it in his words. The words come tumbling out of his mouth as they are truly spoken from the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit filled words. How wonderful!…how….rare!
Seeing, example after example of false prophets, spouting new age ideas, ministering false gospels, I needed to read Spurgeon to assure myself that I knew the truth when it was being truly administered. Someone who knew scripture, who wasn’t turning it into pretzels, with circular reasoning, or snipping off part of a verse off with scissors and pounding it into an ill-fitting jigsaw puzzle of apostasy.
Here Spurgeon speaks of what is expected of the true mininsters of God and about repentance. Here is the link to this sermon, but below are a few timely quotes:
From the Sermon: Apostolic Exhortation.
“Accursed let him be that takes away from the gospel of Jesus Christ that he may win popular applause, or who bates his breath and smoothes his tongue that he may please the unholy throng. Such a man may have for a moment the approbation of fools, but, as the Lord his God liveth, he shall be set as a target for the arrows of vengeance in the day when the Lord cometh to judge the nations. Peter, then, boldly and earnestly preached the gospel—preached the Christ of the gospel—preached it personally and directly at the crowd who were gathered around him.”
“Oh! blessed readiness of a soul on fire with the Spirit, Lord, grant it to us evermore.”
“The object of the Christian minister should always be to withdraw attention from himself to his subject, so that it should not be said, “How well he spake!” but, “Upon what weighty matters he treated!” They are priests of Baal, who, with their gaudy dresses, and their pretensions to a mysterious power, would have you look to themselves as the channels of grace, as though by their priestcraft, if not by their holiness, they could work miracles; but they are true messengers of God who continually say, “Look not on us as though we could do anything: the whole power to bless you lies in Jesus Christ, and in the gospel of his salvation.”
“Go on, my dear brethren, preaching the gospel boldly, and be not afraid of the result, for, however little may be your strength, and though your eloquence may be as nought, yet God has promised to make his gospel the power to save, and so it shall be down to the world’s end.”
“We are not come to tell you that you must reform a little, and mend your ways in some degree: except you put your trust in Christ, forsake your old way of life, and become new creatures in Christ Jesus, you must perish. This—nothing short of this—is the gospel requirement. No church-going, no chapel-going, will save you; no bowing of the knee, no outward form of worship, no pretensions and professions to godliness- ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and if ye do not this, neither shall your sins be blotted out. Thus much, then, on the first point: the apostle commanded men to repent and be converted.”
“When our Lord Jesus Christ was nailed to the tree by sinners, sin only did then literally and openly what all sin really does in a spiritual sense. Do you understand me? Those offendings of yours which you have thought so little of, have been really a stabbing at the Deity. Will you not repent, if it be so? While you thought your sins to be mere trifles, light things to be laughed at, you would not repent; but now I have shown you (and I think your conscience will bear me out) that every sin is really an attempt to thrust God out of the world, that every sin is saying, “Let there be no God.” Oh! then there is cause enough to repent of it.”
Oh Lord, I pray that those who are involved in false ministries will have their eyes opened to the truth. I pray that false teachers will see the result of their rotting fruit, and repent of their sin. Amen.
DiscernIt 
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