February 25, 2013
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The most dangerous enemy of the Church
This is merely a repost of my own thoughts as I presented them at Facebook just now. I thought they would be of interest to some of you out here.
The most dangerous enemy of the church today isn't what you'd expect. It's not Cults. It's not the government. It's not Islamics, Buddhists or any other world religion. It's not even Atheists or agnostics.The most dangerous enemy of the Church are those within it's ranks who call themselves "christians" but despise the Word of God and work to undermine it's authority at every turn, questioning every word that God has given us and constantly questioning "Did God really say?". These FALSE believers would cry foul when you attempt to show them the truth --- but have no shame in maligning the very Truth that God has presented by twisting it's meaning and questioning it's veracity.
This is a seriously dangerous enemy, for these folks often talk like believers.... do charity work, like believers... even wind up on the mission fields or even in the pulpits of our churches (Matthew 7:22-23; Jude 4)!!!! Often the world sees them and believes them to be just as real as honest believers, basing their opinions on True Christianity on these false Christians .... but as these people despise the truth of God --- so everything they touch is befouled and devoid of any spiritual value. (2 Timothy 3:13; Jude 12-13)
Tares ---- Goats ---- Thorny Soil ---- Liberals ---- Mystics ---- Whatever you choose to call them ---- they are a poison to the real church, a disease as virulent as Ebola or the black death. They insist on spreading an ANTI-Christian message..... in the name of Christ, and they are a most dangerous enemy indeed.
Watch your life AND YOUR DOCTRINE carefully, persevere in these things and you will save both your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:16)
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)
(Jesus prayed) ... Sanctify them by Your truth, Your Word, O God, is truth. (John 17:17)
Comments (2)
(Comment from Facebook I thought worth sharing)
It does feel a little odd to like this, in that I sometimes call myself a christian mystic....in that I have sometimes argued that some our best doctrinal systems distort truth by their very rigidity and failure to embrace all of scripture... Even so, I sometimes sense the danger you have described... in myself.
Kirk,
the danger lies when we try to make scripture into something that requires a decoder ring to decipher. When we symbolize or spiritualize the meanings of scripture away and refuse to accept a straight foward presentation as honest truth.
This sort of approach actually assumes two things: (A) it assumes that God cannot speak clearly, distinctly or that He can even accurately preserve His Own Word from human taint --- and thus we must instead look to allegorizing the meanings into something more comfortable to us, or worse, seeking to write off it's meanings based on our own bias towards what we THINK is truth. That leads us to the second point, (B) which assumes that the human mind is in a position to sit in judgment over the Word of God --- questioning the straight forward teachings on any number of topics: Hell, Salvation, homosexuality, sin... you name it. Assuming that God could not have meant this.... and must instead mean this.... we exchange the fount of living waters for broken cisterns filled with pus and slime and scum.
For the heart (RE: The mind and thinking process of man, not his Emotions as is commonly believed today.... review Matthew 15:19 for clarity on this) of man is desperately evil and deceitful above all things.
(Jeremiah 17:9)
My people perish from a lack of knowledge --- Because you have rejected Knowledge, I have rejected you as my priests.... (Hosea 4:6)
He who turns a deaf ear to the Law of God and man --- even his prayers are an abomination (hateful and revolting) before God. (Proverbs 28:9 -- Amplified version)
We do best to pay more careful attention to all that the scriptures say --- working hard to get it right (2 Timothy 2:15) --- instead of trying to mysticize into some Eternal jigsaw puzzle or Hyper-Allegorical morality tale only decipherable if you have the right decoder glasses.