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Author
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Topic: Wolves in Sheeps clothing
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Brother Paul
Advanced Member
Member # 7959
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posted
Amen! and no, atheist is not too strong but they are worse because run of the mill atheists are honest and even sometimes emotional but these guys pretend to be Christian teachers and leaders and feel safe because they do not believe in a literal judgnment or hell...all we can say is Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing. For if they do they are truly "children of Belial", "sons of perdition" and the end for them is infathomable wrath. The Lord bless you Botham...llet us all keep running the race and pray that the Holy Spirit would open their eyes for they are truly as Jonathan Edwards would say "sinners in the hands of an angry God". Woe unto them if they do not repent.
Love in Christ,
Brother Paul
Paul
Posts: 235 | From: Cambridge, MA | Registered: Dec 2009
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botham
Advanced Member
Member # 7935
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posted
Brother Paul--thanks for the warnings. I hope a lot of people read and ponder, especially those who might presently be involved in cults or cultish sectors of otherwise reasonable denominations. I agree that whenever names, other than the Name above all Names, Jusus, take on extraoridinary prominence, beware for you are being diverted most subtly from the true path.
I get an almost eerie feeling when I listen to Spong and others such as John Crossan(of the Jesus Seminar) when they are looked to by the liberal media for commentary on the historical Jesus or other biblical accounts. This pack of atheists are a prominent influence in theological seminaries and mainline churches and are largely responsible for the acceptance of homosexuals in the pulpit and other heresies. If atheist is too strong a word I am sorry. But I don't have all the designations at the ready as some more learned than myself do, to classify those who have no apparent belief in the supernatural. They deny virturally every miraculous event recorded in the bible and explain away God's building of His Church as a phenomenon of intergenerational manipulation of the masses and so forth.
But thanks to God who gave us the greatest miracle of rebirth with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The charlatans who are holding open the gates of hell for the ignorant and unsuspecting are rebuked of the Lord.
We await the King of Kings no matter what these educated people say. They truly are wolves in sheep's clothing. God bless, Botham
Posts: 103 | From: canada | Registered: Nov 2009
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Brother Paul
Advanced Member
Member # 7959
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posted
II Peter 2:1,2 – “There were false prophets among the people, and even so there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly and subtly sneak in damnable heresies, even denying the very Lord that bought them, and they bring upon themselves their impending judgment. Many will follow after their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth is spoken evil of.”
To begin with, false prophets are and usually were quite apparent to those who follow the Lord (faithfully believing His word). False prophets tend to stick out sooner or later because it becomes apparent that what they have declared “in the name of the Lord” or declare as having been received or told to them from the Lord, does not come to pass! Sad as it is to admit, there are too many of these men and women in the camp called “Christianity” as a professional circle, and even modern history shows us they usually bring shame to his name. Let it first be said, we are not just talking about someone’s honest error, which one may eventually see was incorrect and admit to and repent of! A common mark of the false prophet(ess) is that they usually do not repent of their lies, even when they have failed, but rather they end up making excuses for them, or denying their own declarations, accusing those people who brought their errors to light as misrepresenting them.
One apostate Pastor in the 1800’s, a man named William Miller, suffering from a vain delusion, predicted the return of Messiah on a specific day, as later did one of his followers, Ellen G. White. These two people were both forerunners of modern 7th Day Adventism. Now some Adventists today are quite evangelical, and hold to mostly orthodox doctrines, but some others are rather cult-ish. The more cult-ish Adventists insist that any true interpretation of the Bible, especially prophecy, is only possible when we interpret it in light of Ellen G. White’s writings. Ellen G. White however, was without doubt a false prophetess! In fact, both were incorrect more than once! Since neither repented of their error and made excuses instead, should we simply whitewash this rickety wall to not draw accusation? Now history tells us that William Miller died a very confused and disappointed man. I am not judging these two, the word is, I am merely pointing it out. Thanks be to God there is grace and this is not the unforgivable sin, but were they saved and yet deceived, or not really saved at all? No need to answer, we all know that is the Lord’s choice for His own purpose I dare not question knowing my jaded past.
Ms. White’s dedicated followers were/are totally convinced otherwise, and either can not or will not look at this issue for what it really is. Many believe her to be “the spirit of Prophecy.” That is not to say that many of them are not absolutely sincere in their love of God and Christ as well, but their eyes seem to have a veil placed over them, and it takes a lot of witnessing and time spent in the word, with much prayer, to remove this veil. They really believe you must eat of this particular fruit if your eyes would br opened. How many are really saved? I dare not conjecture. They talk the talk, and many walk the walk, but going to Church faithfully and regurgitating all the correct dogmas we have introjected from our favorite mentors does not make us the children of God. Finally as pointed out in our brother’s post, in some of these local bodies there is a strongly supported “standard based” or “works based” system in place. This system produces quite a few “Christians” who are legalistic, often judgmental, and who seem to have some sense that they alone are “the holy” and all other “Christians” are not quite there.
We could also site the famed Charles Taze Russell and Judge Rutherford, the forerunners of today’s Arian Heresy, called The Jehovah’s Witnesses. These guys made specific predictions for Christ’s return as well. Russell for the year 1914 and Rutherford to avoid repentance opted for 1918. When that did not occur the Judge insisted it was a spiritual return only. Again, history has shown that these two men were also utterly amiss! So like these others before them, when their prophecies did not come to pass, instead of repenting and admitting their error, they simply reinterpreted their own prophecies. Rather than repenting, they made excuses and spiritualized their own predictions that they had allegedly received from God. Secondarily, these two successfully resurrected the age old Arian Heresy long since refuted by the Church. In addition, in order to support their errors, they went through the Scriptures and created their own version of the Bible called, The New World Translation, adding to the Scriptures and taking away from them as was necessary to support their heretical views.
Both groups mentioned above preach a message somewhat similar to that of the Serpent, that is, that if you really want your eyes to be opened, you must partake of their prophet’s writings (extra-Biblical fruit/specially revealed knowledge). In the case of the more cult-ish Adventists (certainly not all), it is the writings of Ellen G. White (called the spirit of Prophecy by some), and in the case of the Witnesses, it is the writings of The Watchtower Publication Society (believed to be God’s Prophet on earth).
In more recent times an ex-Presbyterian evangelist and Radio Talk Show host named Harold Camping predicted the return of Christ in September of 2004. This was to become obvious to all who would read His book. He literally made 100’s of thousands of dollars (if not millions) and when his prophecy failed, he returned nothing. He blamed it on a math error and made another now failed prophecy…he blames the rest of the church instead of himself and calls all of us the work of the devil and convinces 1,000’s to join his church (of course the only true church) and send him there tithes etc.!
Likewise the renowned tel-evangelist and world famous Pastor, Benny Hinn, once predicted that Jesus was going to appear with him, on his platform, in a crusade. It never happened! God was going to consume Homosexuals with fire and even more such nonsense. But they never occurred. Over the years he has made other false prophecies as well, but still has millions convinced that he is God’s man. To be fair I do know of one instance of which he admitted he had made a mistake, but as for the other instances I cannot say. Again clearly thousands if not millions flock to this man’s revivals each year and many even come to Christ, but then God can even speak the truth through a donkey if need be. We see this in the story of the prophet Balaam. Balaam even made an accurate prophecy regarding the coming of Messiah, but he was still a questionable prophet.
The problem is, that none of these modern people have ever repented of their errors. They have never publicly apologized to those who fell for them, and they never gave back any of the abundance of financing that they received from the many victims of their false prophecies. Now don’t misunderstand me…I see many come to Christ (really and truly) during the spreading of their charlatanism…I mean just plain folks like you and me falling on the stone and giving their lives to God.
Another problem seems to be that every one of these people also teach false doctrine mingled in amidst the genuine “faith once delivered for all” of genuine Christianity. Not honest difference of opinion like that between Calvanism vs. Arminianism, but rather blatant heresies.
On the surface, each one of these people appeared to be sincere Christians outwardly. However, each one was, and still are, sincerely wrong! According to the test the Lord gives us in Deuteronomy, they have proven themselves to be false prophets. In their continuance and sometimes greed for money or power, they take the Lord’s name in vain, and have brought much shame and mockery to Christ and the Church. May the Lord have mercy and open the eyes of those who may be actually saved.
Under the Old Covenant, a false prophet was always to be exposed for what they were. The people were commanded not to fear them, or to pay any attention to anything else they may say after they have been exposed, and under the Sinai Covenant, when they were found out, they were taken outside of the city gates and literally stoned to death. You see, God takes this very seriously! He commands us, “You must not take the name of the Lord our God in vain”. You must never come out and say that God told you thus and so, or that something or other is the word of God when it clearly is not. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay…! That is a sure promise to those who prophecy falsely, who in their pride, or cunningly devised plan, refuse to repent. For if only they would have admitted their error and repented of their deed, surely the Lord would have had mercy and restored them, but alas they would not.
In the New Covenant, the followers of Jesus are to be a little less direct. In grace, we are to give them a chance to recognize their error and change. After all, anyone can make mistakes. Even the most sincere could become beguiled. Therefore we are to go to them upon discovery of the errors, lies, or delusions, and confront them with the truth in love personally. Reasoning together from the word, we are to give them an opportunity to see their error and repent of it. If they continue to perpetrate the false message or prophecy after being enlightened to the truth, for whatever reason, we are to bring with us two or three witnesses and again try to restore them gently with the truth in love, but on the third occasion we are to proclaim their heresy or apostasy before the entire Church, and if at that time they still insist to persist in their practice, then we are to cut them off from the Lord’s table, and have nothing further to do with them.
Blessed be His Name, for God has provided grace as well as the law. He is merciful as well as Holy. God wills that none should perish, and that all should come to repentance and be saved. That’s why He provided the Lord Jesus (Y’shua, the Lord’s Salvation) whose shed blood is sufficient to cover our mistakes and pay the price for our sins! So this is the rule we are to follow. Many others indeed have turned around and seen their error when so confronted, and thus it is worth it. Even to save a few is likened unto snatching them out of the fire (the eternal fire).
False teachers on the other hand, which some of these also were/are, are of quite a different ilk. The false teacher actively pretends to be the genuine article. The danger of their hypocrisy lays not so much in having chosen their own eternal destiny, but in that they are dragging away 1,000’s of the Lord’s baby lambs into perdition with them. They act as if they are one of us, but in reality they are wolves hiding behind their sheepskins. Often doing nothing apparently evil, like say an Adolph Hitler, and usually being allegedly well educated and otherwise upstanding citizens, they don an outward disguise of religiosity and use their Ph.D’s or MA’s to give the air of apparent authoritative knowledge in their respective area.
They depend on the principle that the masses are basically ignorant and that they will believe they are receiving the truth based simply on the illusion created by these Pastor or Teacher’s authority, and alleged knowledge of the truth. They rise up within a Church, often engaging work in goodly service, and often present themselves as available and able, but they are not of the Church, because they are not born of the Spirit of God (John 3:3-8/Acts 2:37-39). Like the tares of Jesus parable, over time it becomes apparent that they are not believers at all, but rather that they are make-believers. It is their predestination that because of their unbelief they will be condemned, unless of course they repent from their ways. The problem is that many, because of their pride and or political purposes, will not repent even when shown the way according to God’s word and tradition. You see, simply by attending a Church regularly, participating in some ritual bath, being elected to a board of Elders, or even graduating a Seminary, does not make one a child of God, or determine whether or not what one is declaring or professing is true to Christ.
False teachers are always deceivers. Many like Funk, Borg, and Crossan, secretly and subtly conspire with one another to bring in and teach heresies in place of the truth. They choose their often political or economic goals, and then discuss strategies, carefully wording every campaign move to inch the flock slowly into the apostasy. They introduce their apostasy and their deceitful heresies with definite intention. Politically they are always opposed to the genuine Church, who dwell some here, many there, within the various denominations. Some, like Bishop Spong of New Jersey, even teach others to deny the genuine Lord, just as they themselves do. Unlike Abraham, they do not believe God and do not take Him at His word, and they actively strive to teach others their gospel of doubt. To deny the Lord, or even worse, to know God is real and simply refuse to conform to His word, is sure condemnation, for themselves and for their victims. In the end this causes many to blaspheme the Holy Spirit of God and speak evil of God’s Christ.
It is likewise said that their ways are pernicious, which means that their presumptuousness leads to spiritual death, yet outwardly they are allegedly Christian Teachers and Ministers. Some are even Priests, and Bishops! They appear to be gentle as lambs, but inside they are ravenous wolves and slithering serpents. Many of them like Bishop Spong of Newark New Jersey “walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleaness” (II Peter 2:10). They absolutely despise correction and refuse to be governed by appropriate leaders or doctrine. They utterly reject “the faith once delivered for all”! Being presumptuous and self-willed, they even speak evil of legitimate leaders and the genuine children of faith.
Verse 17 of II Peter 2 tells us that these false teachers are “wells without water”, and “clouds carried about as in a tempest”. This tells us something about the basis of their inner being from which they act.
Almost everywhere we look, wells are commonly understood to be places where people gather to draw the draught that will quench their thirst, but people go to seek God in the house of worship to quench their thirst for spiritual life. The water they seek, i.e., living water, once drank will eternally relieve what one really thirsts for. God (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) is that drink. The Holy Spirit is a fountain of living water gushing forth from within those who believe (pistueo; trust in, rely on, and cleave to), but these false teachers are empty wells. They are not filled with the Spirit of Christ! They do not believe, they only pretend to in the pulpit while revealing their true self slowly in the study hall and in the political forum.
Like unto clouds in the open air they change their outward form as the winds of change blow hither and thither. They change before your very eyes, flitting about, following every wind of doctrine. Their promise is usually liberty (mostly from moral or political restraint), but they are slaves to their own corruption and actively seek to drag others into the grave many of them do not even realize they are digging for themselves. Setting you free from the allegedly oppressive Christ of the Scriptures, they send you into sure bondage feeling fully justified, and entirely rationalize following after the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, feeding our vain pride. They do this to their own and other’s damnation, because they don’t believe in the Lord’s Salvation as described in the Scriptures (which they criticize and discount) or in a real Judgment.
In addition, in some way or another, they always end up denying the genuine Jesus, the deity of Messiah, the sufficiency of the blood of God’s Lamb, and the truths as always taught us from Christ through the Apostles that have forever governed the Church (Matthew 7). Unfortunately for them, Judgment Day is coming, and they will not only surely give an account, but they will bend the knee in submission and confess that Jesus the Messiah is the Lord to the glory of God the Father, only then it will be too late for their salvation. The door of the Ark of their salvation, i.e., Messiah, the Son of the Living God and His finished work, will be tightly closed. Though we are called to excommunicate false teachers and false shepherds, we must pray for them as well, for in truth they really do not have any idea what they doing. The god of this world has blinded their hearts and minds.
We are at war here, a war they declared and actively fight, but ours is a battle not against flesh and blood, but in the spiritual realm. The weapons of our warfare not being carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down if strongholds, so pray, intercede, get equipped, study the word, and present the truth every chance you get and perhaps we will save a few as if snatching them out of the fire as Paul puts it.
The Lord Bless…
Brother Paul
Posts: 235 | From: Cambridge, MA | Registered: Dec 2009
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