Category: heresy

A Bible That (Effectually) Works #1

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13 KJV).

If God’s Word is to “effectually work” in us, we must first have it.

“Today there are dozens of English Bible versions and many Spanish versions as well. Why so many? One reason is that languages constantly change. New words are always being added and others take on different meanings. Another reason is that Bible scholars are always learning new things about ancient Israel and the world of ancient Greece and Rome to help us better understand those times and people. No matter what Bible translation is used, however, the main purpose is to make the Bible reliable and understandable to those who want to read its message.

The above (misleading) quote was extracted from a “Bible society” book, supposedly written by “Bible experts.” If 200 modern English versions exist because “languages change,” why are they still selling ($ELLING) those published 10 to 50 or more years ago? Even that Bible publisher (whose book was quoted) has not produced a new Bible translation in years. Could the English language be changing so rapidly that we needed 150 to 200 Bible versions during the last century? Surely, us needing a new Bible every half-year or year is utterly ludicrous!

Interestingly, the Bible publishers above never educated the general public as to manuscript divergence (various manuscripts contradicting various others), the fact that people throughout history used these perverted manuscripts to counterfeit, challenge, supplant God’s Holy Bible. In their minds, and those of the gullible readers (who are instructed to think likewise), any Bible manuscript is “just as good as the next.” The historicity of false prophets, false apostles, false brethren, and false teachers, is totally disregarded. Dear friends, the issue is never modern language versus archaic language; it is which manuscripts are being translated. If it is not God’s Word, it will not “effectually work” in us. Hence, we uphold the King James Bible as God’s Word for us English-speaking people….

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Why did Jesus Christ heal on the Sabbath days?”

Arrayed in Hypocrisy

Friday, October 31, 2014

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23:27,28 KJV).

“Looks can be deceiving” is not only true during Halloweentime, but confirmed year-round within Christendom.

Today is Halloween, when children dress up and feign themselves to be creatures they are not. Likewise, many church leaders today wear “Christian” garbs, but their ministries do not bring the Lord Jesus Christ glory and honor. They promote their denomination, and seek to perpetuate it, rather than serve and exalt the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The Bible manifests these who appear to be good, as “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

In today’s Scripture, Jesus Christ exposed Israel’s corrupt religious leaders who misled the nation in His day. In His Parable of the Tares, Matthew 13:24-30,37-43, Christ explained how just as He had sown good seed (wheat, believing Jews) in Israel, Satan had also sown tares/weeds (unbelieving Jews). Tares resemble wheat; unbelieving Jews resemble believing Jews. The unbelieving Pharisees and scribes, for instance, looked like God’s people (believing Israel). Judas Iscariot was another example of Satan’s tares—the apostles never realized who Judas really was until it was too late!

But Satan’s counterfeit believers are not confined to Israel’s program. Today, within local assemblies of the Body of Christ, there are people feigning themselves to be Christians: For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

Beloved, beware of the church leaders who are arrayed in hypocrisy, “and avoid them” (Romans 16:17b). If their teaching does not agree with the rightly divided King James Bible, you have no business as a child of God to be listening to them.

*This is excerpted from a larger Bible study with the same name. The Bible study can be read here or watched here.

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Should Christians celebrate Halloween?”

People of the Book

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

“The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:28 KJV).

If we are to be “People of the Book,” we must first be able to identify “the Book.”

According to The Oxford Dictionary of English, Muslims know Jews and Christians as, “People of the Book.” Muslims understand that the Holy Bible plays an integral role in the lives of Jews (Old Testament only) and Christians (both Testaments). I am not a Jew and thus cannot comment from their standpoint, but I, a Christian, can remark that I depend on the Holy Bible in all matters of faith and practice. No, I do not appeal to scientific consensus, denominational tradition or approval, and humanistic opinions, to form my worldview and conduct my life. My conviction is to compare what I hear and see to the Holy Scriptures, before I believe what I hear and see.

The Holy King James Bible proves itself to be trustworthy and inerrant. Thus, I rely on it. Whenever someone offers me another book and says, “Many scholarly translators used older and better manuscripts to produce this version,” I gladly take it and evaluate it with an open mind. In the last seven years of doing just that with numerous modern versions, I have discovered that Bible scholarship has not waxed better, but worse. Apostasy has not waned, but proliferated exponentially. May the Lord help us if we are so naïve and irrational as to believe that He is using today’s religious leadership to produce better Bibles!

In the context of today’s Scripture, some 600 years before Christ, false prophets had infiltrated Israel. Israel could not distinguish God’s pure Word from counterfeit “bibles,” and vice versa. The Church the Body of Christ finds itself in the same predicament today… confused, weakened, defeated! Even today, people are still “perverting the words of the living God” (Jeremiah 23:36).

As today’s Scripture says, if we have God’s Word, let us speak it faithfully. If we do not know what is God’s Word, may we be silent until we locate it!!

Ye Do Err!

Thursday, October 2, 2014

“Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:29 KJV).

If Jesus spoke audibly today, He would say this not only to much of the world, but also to 99 percent of “Christian” church members and leaders!

Today, Christianity has more books than ever before—millions and millions of books, millions upon millions upon millions of copies of those books. You would assume that, because of all these “Christian” books, today’s churches would abound with the most Biblically-literate people to ever walk the planet. Alas, this is not so—quite the opposite, actually. They know books, but not the Book! Not long ago a dear, elderly friend in the ministry bemoaned, “The average lost person fifty years ago knew more about the Bible than the average preacher does today!”

For example, a friend and I were recently researching a local church that touts its thousand-plus weekly attendance. When I found their statement of faith online, I discovered that it cited 12 basic Bible verses and one familiar 15-verse-long passage. Yea, it was a very doctrinally-shallow document—one verse supporting almost every tenet.

More recently, I skimmed a “Christian” handbook for teens, published less than a decade ago. The “Bible-believing” author, with denominational approval, wrote: “So when the creation story of Genesis describes the earth as flat, is that true in the sense of factual? Of course not. Did creation take six days as we know them? Not likely.”

While much could be said about his faulty theology (and horrific grammar!), I can only wonder what “creation story of Genesis” (?) he was reading when he claimed God’s Word indicated that the earth was “flat!” Like many today in religion, the author just fabricated an idea (denominationalism), he pretended it was “Scripture” (the average reader would never check the Bible for himself anyway!), and then he demeaned the very God and Book he claimed to adore (“I only believe the Bible verses my church supports literally!”)! As Jesus told the religious leaders of His day, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures!”

Beloved, be on guard against these “wolves in sheep’s clothing!”

Canker

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

“And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus” (2 Timothy 2:17 KJV).

Exactly what is a “canker” anyway?

Today’s Scripture confirms that our King James Bible abounds with various and sundry unique terms. We rarely use the word “canker,” but we see in it “cancer” (“canker” is related to the Latin, cancer). As some interesting side-notes, that Greek word is only used once in our King James, and it is gaggraina (from a Greek word meaning “to gnaw”). When pronounced, you can almost hear “gangrene,” and that is exactly what a “canker” is. Medically, “gangrene” is the death of a large amount of living tissue, due to obstructed circulation or a bacterial infection. But the Bible is using “canker” figuratively in today’s Scripture, not literally.

The “canker” of today’s Scripture is, “a malign and corrupting influence that is difficult to eradicate.” As a canker attacks healthy physical tissue, so false doctrine will eat away at a Christian’s soul. The person once alive with Jesus Christ’s life (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21; Colossians 3:4) is now shriveling spiritually; they are still saved and on their way to heaven, but they have been distracted from the grace doctrines that describe the Christian life. They, having lost sight of their identity in Christ, are now operating in the flesh, on their own, on human viewpoint, cut off from the life-giving words of God.

Just prior to today’s Scripture, the Holy Ghost through Paul wrote, “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness” (verse 16). Notice how the canker not only spreads, but it also consumes more and more. Once a little false teaching creeps in, the whole lump will eventually be leavened, corrupted (Galatians 5:9)—damage difficult to undo. Immediately before Paul wrote 2 Timothy 2:16, he wrote, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (verse 15).

Verse 18 says that Hymenaeus and Philetus were not using the Scriptures dispensationally, and they were misleading Christians regarding the timing of the Rapture (sound familiar?). Yea, “rightly dividing the word of truth” is a matter of life or death, for it keeps out a life-threatening canker!

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Were there people ‘in Christ’ before Paul?”

The Serpent’s Subtilty #6

Friday, September 19, 2014

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV).

The Serpent is “subtil,” so the saint must be sagacious!

“Subtil” (“subtle”) means, “very intelligent, sneaky, ingenious;” a synonym is “sagacious.” In order to foresee Satan’s schemes and survive his attacks on our minds, we must recognize and remember the simplicity in Jesus Christ, those precious grace doctrines we learn from God’s Word rightly divided (today’s Scripture and its succeeding verse, verse 4).

Let us re-read verse 4: “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” Paul feared that the Corinthians would accept a false teacher, for a false teacher always quotes some Scripture to appear righteous (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)—Satan quoted just a few words of Scripture to appear good to Eve (Genesis 3:1) and Jesus Christ (Matthew 4:6; Luke 4:10-11).

Beloved, someone quoting Scripture does not automatically mean that Jesus Christ is leading or speaking through that individual. The Apostle Paul wrote, “If any man think himself to be a prophet [speaking on God’s behalf], or spiritual [led by God’s Spirit], let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37). If every professing Christian congregation actually believed that Paul is God’s spokesman to us, over 95 percent of the world’s pulpits would be vacated, the pastors and priests fired for fulfilling 2 Corinthians 11:3-4, exposed as “destitute of the truth” (1 Timothy 6:5)!!

Yea, even today, our Lord Jesus Christ is jealous over us. He wants us doctrinally pure, undefiled by (false) religion, false “gospels,” false “Jesuses,” false “spirits,” false “ministers,” false “bibles,” et cetera. Satan’s tactics have worked so well he has never changed them. As he did with Eve, he still counterfeits the truth. May we never abandon our King James Bible; our Saviour-Head, Jesus Christ; Paul, our Apostle; and 1 Corinthians 15:3,4, our Gospel, the Gospel of the Grace of God. What sagaciousness!

An Ear to Hear

Saturday, July 19, 2014

“But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house” (Ezekiel 3:27 KJV).

May we always keep today’s Scripture in mind when sharing God’s Word with others, lest we grow discouraged and quit.

As King James Bible believers and Pauline dispensational Christians, we receive much criticism from denominational Christians and modern-version Christians. Many times, we learn firsthand that lost and saved alike are not interested in sound Bible doctrine. Lost people (including professing “Christians”) usually refuse to believe (trust) the Gospel of God’s Grace that we preach. Professing Christians usually prefer their long-held denominational doctrines than embrace the clarity of God’s Word rightly divided, and they rather their “easy-to-read” modern versions than have God’s preserved Word in English. Today’s Scripture attests to the fact that such willful Bible ignorance is nothing new.

In today’s Scripture, right at the beginning of the Prophet Ezekiel’s ministry (600 B.C.), Adonai JEHOVAH (“Lord GOD,” God the Father) warned him that some of Israel would listen to him preach His Word, and the rest would not want to hear anything from God. “For they are a rebellious house!”

The Four Gospels record Jesus Christ as saying, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” some eight times (Matthew 11:15; Matthew 13:9,43; Mark 4:9,23; Mark 7:16; Luke 8:8; Luke 14:35). In the book of the Revelation, Jesus Christ says, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,” some seven times (Revelation 2:7,11,17,29; Revelation 3:6,13,22). In Revelation 13:9, it is repeated, “If any man have an ear, let him hear.”

God Almighty, Author of the Holy Bible, knew that many would reject His words. If someone does not want to hear His Word, God grants him or her free will, permitting that person to “enjoy” the spiritual ignorance they so desire (1 Corinthians 14:37,38; cf. Romans 1:18-32). Beloved, when dealing with people who do not have an ear to hear God’s Word, may we have an ear to hear 1 Corinthians 14:38, “If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.”

Heart Service #1

Friday, April 25, 2014

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is the key to being delivered from and guarded against today’s apostate Christendom.

Many have noted that the Christians of the first century A.D. were much better off than we are today. How so? They did not have 38,000 denominations all claiming to be “Christianity,” all teaching different doctrines, all using extra-biblical literature, all perplexing them! Today, the professing Body of Christ is so far removed from the truth once committed to us through the Apostle Paul, no wonder there is widespread confusion even about something as basic as the Gospel that saves us today. No wonder precious few Christians have a firm grasp of the Bible, an understanding of how their Christian life has been designed to function, what they are to believe, and what they are to do (how to pray, how to give, how to love, and so on).

Jesus Christ reprimanded the religious leaders of His day who had mostly discarded God’s Word—the Old Testament Scriptures—and used a book of Jewish religious tradition—the “Talmud”—as their final authority: “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:7-9). Christ was quoting the Prophet Isaiah who wrote, “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men” (29:13).

It is one thing to say, “I love Jesus” or “I am a Christian,” but it is quite another to know Jesus Christ, to trust Him alone as Saviour. Let us be sure that we are not merely Christians “in name only,” but that we are Christians in the heart, that we are not merely professing Christians, but possessing Christians….

Lip Service

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!… Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23:27a,28 KJV).

Jesus Christ rebukes apostate Christendom with these same words even today.

Not too long ago, I twice met the chief priest of a local major “Christian” church. On his table, I saw a “Holy Bible” and some denominational handbooks. As our conversations progressed, I learned that his denomination did not believe man was “fully fallen.” He admitted that while we are sinners, there is still “some good in everyone.” Evidently, he missed Romans 7:17,18: “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”

Although this minister claimed to be a “Bible believer,” I later learned that he did not believe the Bible literally (he freely confessed that to me). He informed me his group only “picked and chose” (his words) what verses to believe and follow (church tradition was equally important, he confessed). The more we conversed, the more he confessed his hypocrisy. Among other things, he asked me to explain Bible inspiration (a trick question). Then, he mentioned several so-called “Bible contradictions” and “errors” so as to attack and undermine the Scriptures. Once I answered all of his questions, he literally laughed at Scripture and hurriedly walked away!

On our next visit a week later, after more discussions about various other doctrines—and just before he hurried away again after repeatedly falling into his own traps—he told me, “You will never convince me.” (I smiled, and replied most politely, “You will never convince me either, but only one of us is right. ‘Let God be true, but every man a liar.’”)

Beloved, imagine, all over the world, such “Christian ministers” are claiming they believe the Bible and professing they serve Jesus Christ, but are literally deceiving and poisoning millions of precious souls! They do not believe the Bible and they discourage us from trusting it, too. May we “mark [identify] them… and avoid them” (Romans 16:17)!

Religion, Riches, and Robbery

Friday, April 4, 2014

“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (2 Peter 2:3 KJV).

Do not let religion “take you for a ride,” for you will end up paying for the trip!

In recent years, news stories involving “filthy rich” bishops, priests, and ministers seem to have become more prevalent. Only after they are caught, they “apologize” for their multimillion-dollar mansions, exotic trips and vehicles, and other lavish expenditures using “church money.” The “peon-parishioners” are forced to contribute to “God’s work” by giving, and, in return, they are reassured that their “merit” will reap “eternal benefits.” Religion is the world’s most profitable business indeed!

Dearly beloved, we must, must, MUST exercise great caution when giving to any ministry or local church. Remember, Jesus sternly rebuked the “thieves” who defiled His Father’s house, the Temple (Matthew 21:12,13; Mark 11:15-18; Luke 19:45-48; John 2:13-17). Our Lord Jesus said these religious leaders “devoured widows’ houses” (Matthew 23:14; Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47). They did not think twice about taking everything they possibly could from the common Jews! Before the Apostle Paul was saved, as one of these religious leaders, he (as Saul of Tarsus) confessed that he “profited in the Jews’ religion above many [his] equals in [his] own nation” (Galatians 1:14). We read about false religious leaders swindling the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 11:13-20).

In the context of today’s Scripture, the Apostle Peter reminds his Jewish audience that just as the Holy Spirit operated through holy prophets, Satan operated through false prophets (2 Peter 1:19–2:3). These teachers of “damnable heresies” fell into the trap of materialism (1 Timothy 6:6-10) and coveted their converts’ possessions—they preached “feigned” (worthless/fake, but nice-sounding) words. The Prophet Micah, writing circa 750 B.C., reported, “The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money” (3:11).

God’s grace is not against giving (2 Corinthians chapters 8-10); God’s grace is against tithing (forceful giving). We give “cheerfully” (happily; 2 Corinthians 9:6,7) to sound grace Bible churches and ministries, but, most importantly, we give carefully!