1 Timothy 4:1-2 New Living Translation (NLT)
Warnings against False Teachers
4 Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. 2 These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead.
In looking around at what is happening in the world today I am convinced that now, more than ever before, the evidence is clear we are living in the times God as chosen as the final period before He, the Father, will send Jesus back to claim His Church. The Latter Days, The End Times, label it however you want, the point is the Prophecies outlined in the Bible are coming to pass more quickly than ever before. Of course I do get a bit of mocking along the lines of being Chicken Little running around with a sign saying “Repent! The End Is Nigh!” Let me be clear, the signs seem clear to me, but ONLY the Father knows when Jesus will be sent back [Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32]. Tomorrow, next Thursday at lunchtime or 10,000 years from now, it is all in God’s hands.
Are Sociopolitical Events Today Aligned With Scripture?
Matthew 24:12 New King James Version (NKJV)
12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
Certainly we have seen a dramatic increase in secular lawlessness in recent years from the people on the street to the highest political offices here in the States. The names Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice are now permanently etched into the collective memory of Americans everywhere. The deaths have sparked protests, some peaceful and some full-blown riots. From the Average Joe living in places like Ferguson Missouri to the “Reverend” Al Sharpton to Attorney General Eric Holder and even to President Barrack H. Obama have demonstrated a distrust and contempt for the laws of the United States of America. As reported at NBC.com people are calling for the death of police officers. To me that sounds like revenge and not justice.
President Obama in remarks to the Congressional Black Caucus after the death of Michael Brown had the opportunity to defend the legal/law enforcement processes here in the USA. Instead he took the opportunity to drive the wedge of racial division even deeper.
Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement, guilty of walking while black, or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness. We know that, statistically, in everything from enforcing drug policy to applying the death penalty to pulling people over, there are significant racial disparities.
That really is enough about the ways our leaders are helping to destroy Christianity and the Christian Faith. While secular leadership is intertwined with the overall attack on Christ, I don’t want to descend into a political rant.
Pulling People Away From Christ And God’s Holy Word
2 Peter 2:1-2 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
2 But among the people there were also false prophets, just as there will be false teachers among you. Under false pretenses they will introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and thus bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 Many will follow their debaucheries; and because of them, the true Way will be maligned.
Attacks on Christianity can come in the form of what appears to be logic and reason. The Atheists in America have stepped up their offensive war on God. No longer content to reject the Majesty of Christ in a reactive/passive sense they have gathered their weapons, scaled their barricades and engaging in a full out offensive against God and His Word. The NJ.com website published a story about New Jersey Atheists placing anti-Christmas billboards in Arkansas. A group from the East Coast spending time and money to take their message not to their own neighborhoods but all the way into the Deep South.
CBS 5 in Phoenix has a story on their website about The American Atheist group placing billboard ads attacking Christmas in Memphis TN, Milwaukee WI, St. Louis MO and other cities. Even going so far as to use images and fictional words of children to spread their false doctrine.
That’s what organizers say about the billboards, which show a kid wearing a Santa hat with a pen in hand. The kid is writing a letter that reads, “Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is to skip church. I’m too old for fairy tales.”
Being Attacked From Within
Acts 4:10-12 New King James Version (NKJV)
10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
John 14:6 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
6 Yeshua said, “I AM the Way — and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me.
Since the late 7th century AD and the invention of Islam war has been waged against Jesus and His Word. Make no mistake, the goal of mainstream Islam (not the so called “Radical Islam”) is the annihilation of the Jews and Christians, their sacred text tells them it is their duty.
Qur’an Sura 2:191
And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out. And Al-Fitnah is worse than killing. And fight not with them at Al-Masjid-al-Haram (the sanctuary at Makkah), unless they (first) fight you there. But if they attack you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers.
Qur’an Sura 2:216
Jihad (holy fighting in Allah’s Cause) is ordained for you (Muslims) though you dislike it, and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know.
Islamists want to kill or enslave (dhimmitude is their word for it) Christians, and yet the ersatz Christians of the Roman Catholic Church (the hierarchy who make their rules, NEVER the people filling the pews) contend, at least under Pope Francis I, that we have commonality with Islam. From a document called the EVANGELII GAUDIUM OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS:
From Paragraph 252:
We must never forget that they [followers of Islam] “profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, who will judge humanity on the last day”
From Paragraph 254:
Non-Christians, by God’s gracious initiative, when they are faithful to their own consciences, can live “justified by the grace of God”, and thus be “associated to the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ”. But due to the sacramental dimension of sanctifying grace, God’s working in them tends to produce signs and rites, sacred expressions which in turn bring others to a communitarian experience of journeying towards God. While these lack the meaning and efficacy of the sacraments instituted by Christ, they can be channels which the Holy Spirit raises up in order to liberate non-Christians from atheistic immanentism or from purely individual religious experiences.
Those words by Pope Francis cannot be more diametrically opposed to the words of Acts 4 and John 14 at the start of this section. And if a man’s words, in this case the man who speaks for the Roman Catholic Church, are in conflict with the Bible they are perforce false doctrine.
This is not the only example of this false Christianity that has spread across the United States as of late. In mid-November 2014 at the National Cathedral in Washington DC, a house of Worship dedicated to the Christ Jesus and God the Father-the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, an Islamic prayer service was held. As stated in the Washington Post website story dated 14 November 2014:
…guests gathered Friday afternoon for a first-ever recitation of weekly Muslim prayers at the iconic Christian sanctuary…
Over and above even that, men who hold the attention of Christians across the nation and around the world fail to speak God’s True Word. Joel Osteen, lead pastor of the mega-church Lakewood Church in Houston Texas, author of many books and host of TV shows that reach tens-of-millions of viewers monthly, hedges quite a bit on whether or not non-Christians will make it to Heaven. Among other comments, in a 2005 interview with Larry King on CNN Osteen said:
KING: What if you’re Jewish or Muslim, you don’t accept Christ at all?
OSTEEN: You know, I’m very careful about saying who would and wouldn’t go to heaven. I don’t know . . .
Then there is the Saddleback Church group, headed by Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life”, and a fairly newly coined term that some say this church adheres to.– “Chrislam.” Now Mr. Warren denies he supports the idea of blending Christianity and Islam but from what I have read I believe he is trying to backtrack on his statements or is trying to differentiate between himself and Saddleback Church (which is a ludicrous idea).
The Moral Of The Story?
1 John 4:1 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
4 Dear friends, don’t trust every spirit. On the contrary, test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 New King James Version (NKJV)
21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
There is one, and only one, true source of Truth in this world……The Holy Bible. Read it, learn it, KNOW it. If something feels off about what you read or hear, if God’s still small Voice makes you unsure, test it against the Scriptures. The tricky part is that the Devil will bury his false words deep within many truths a pastor, speaker or author presents. It’s a bit like walking through a mine field, it all looks like smooth even ground but step in the wrong spot and….well….BOOM! But, the Word left to us by God will be an impenetrable shield for you if you let it
Christianity Attacked From Outside-Betrayed From Inside | In His Name.
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