Category: False Teaching

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!!

Zealous of G(o)od(’s) Works

Monday, October 13, 2014

“Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14 KJV).

Many people are passionate about many things, but we Christians should be zealous about “God’s works!”

On one hand, religion emphasizes religious works needed to please God, and thus pushes aside faith in Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork (the only work that is pleasing in Father God’s sight). On the other hand, these religionists will criticize us grace believers as being anti-good works. No, we are not anti-good works; they are anti-grace (and anti-faith). “And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work” (Romans 11:6). “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace…” (Romans 4:16a). Faith is the only thing grace will accept!

Ephesians 2:8-10 says God does not save us unto eternal life on the basis of our works; after we trust Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, the eternal life Father God gives us by grace through faith is a life to be filled with good works, the works He does in and through us: “[8] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: [9] Not of works, lest any man should boast. [10] For we are HIS workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” It is “his working which worketh in [us] mightily” (Colossians 1:29), and our laboring together with Him (1 Corinthians 3:9).

What are the good works that Jesus Christ will do in us? Read Romans chapter 12, Ephesians chapter 4, and Colossians chapter 3 for starters. These are not good works we do to make Him happy with us; these are His works manifested in our lives! Let us be zealous in allowing God’s Holy Spirit to empower us to daily live the life He already gave us in Christ!

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Could you compare and contrast Peter’s ministry and Paul’s ministry?”

 

Interested, Indifferent, and Insolent

Sunday, October 12, 2014

“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” (Isaiah 53:1 KJV).

No one wants to hear you repeat God’s Word? (Yea, there is “nothing new under the sun!”)

In the last few weeks, I have met some people so interested in God’s Word they could not hear enough of it. One lady saw the truth in the verses; she appreciated some of those verses, but wished others were not in the Bible! Others refused to hear and believe the verses—actually, these Bible-rejecters were not atheists or agnostics but “Christians” who “loved and preached Jesus.” (?)

Dear saint, you will meet the following three:

  • INTERESTED. “And the common people heard [Jesus] gladly” (Mark 12:37b). The LORD told the Prophet Zechariah how some of his forefathers believed and obeyed His words of old: “But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us” (Zechariah 1:6).
  • INDIFFERENT. Acts 24:24,25: “[24] And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. [25] And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” (Nothing in Scripture indicates Felix ever trusted Christ.)
  • INSOLENT. The idolatrous Jews replied to the Prophet Jeremiah’s preaching in Jeremiah 44:16,17: “[16] As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee. [17] But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her….” Sounds like what we hear today, “Leave me alone! I do not care to hear the Bible. You will never take away my church tradition!”

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Why did lying cause the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira?”

Looking Before Not Behind

Saturday, October 11, 2014

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13,14 KJV).

(If you must “look back,” look back at Calvary’s cross, the payment for your mistakes!)

Recently, I received the following reply to one of our Bible studies addressing proper Bible study: “I wish that I would have had this type of instruction back in 1968 when I started my Journey! So much reading that I did was wasted and Unnecessary!”

Friends, at one time or another, we all allow bygone mistakes to hound us; we just love to “beat ourselves up” with regret and sadness! This is especially true about spiritual matters. Whether it applies to someone who was trapped in a false religion for three decades before he learned about God’s free gift of salvation (true story), or someone who went to church for 90 years (!) before she finally learned how to understand and enjoy her Bible (true story), religion has robbed everyone to some extent.

After illustrating his empty religious past (verses 3-6), today’s Scripture is part of Paul’s description of his Christian life (verses 7-16). Once, he spent 30 years hating Jesus Christ—some of that time he spent imprisoning and killing Jesus’ followers! But, Paul had to move on; he was now saved, a new man, in Christ for the last 30 years, and wanted to press forward in spiritual maturity.

Maybe we did not have Paul’s Gospel to give to our loved ones when they needed it years ago (before they passed away), but we know it now. Maybe we did not know dispensational Bible study years ago when our denominational loved ones were still living, but we know about it now. Let us not worry about what could have been, but let us focus on what can be. We have the answers we had not before, so let us use what time remains to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ by preaching His finished crosswork as the answer to man’s sin problem, and dispensational Bible study as the answer to Christendom’s denominational problem! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “In light of Galatians 1:8-9, was the Apostle Peter “accursed?’”

Glorious Freedom #5

Thursday, October 9, 2014

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1 KJV).

The chorus of Haldor Lillenas’ classic 1917 hymn “Glorious Freedom” highlights today’s Scripture.

“Glorious freedom! Wonderful freedom!
No more in chains of sin I repine!
Jesus the glorious Emancipator—
Now and forever He shall be mine.”

Would God save us by grace through faith in Christ without Law-keeping (without our works) to only then demand that we must keep the Law to merit His fellowship and blessings? Preposterous! While a religionist preaches some sense of “grace,” you can be sure that a works-message will immediately follow in the same breath! “God is saving (?) you by His grace, but now you better get water baptized, give a tithe, and confess your sins, or your Christian life will be displeasing to Him and He will withhold His blessings.” Ridiculous!

Romans 6:14,15 confirms: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” If we want sin to rule our lives, Law-keeping is the answer. If we want holiness (Christ’s life) to dominate our lives, grace is the answer (Titus 2:11-15)! Grace is Jesus Christ’s performance on our behalf; He never fails. When Christ lives, and not us, we will not wallow and complain in sin’s chains; we will be free from that bondage, defeat, and misery!

One frequent objection is, “Preaching grace will cause people to live in sin!” Nay, beloved. Actually, people (naturally) “live in sin” already, having never known one trace of God’s grace. Every child of Adam lives in sin, so God does not take us out of Adam and put us into Christ just so we could continue “living in sin;” God put us into Christ to give us a new nature, a holy nature, that sin not dominate us. He gave us His grace, not His law, that sin not dominate us; His grace produces Christ’s life in us.

Jesus Christ freed us from sin, that, “Now and forever we will be His,” and “Now and forever He shall be ours!” 🙂

Glorious Freedom #4

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:24,25 KJV).

The fourth verse of Haldor Lillenas’ classic 1917 hymn “Glorious Freedom” highlights today’s Scripture.

“Freedom from fear with all of its torments;
Freedom from care with all of its pain;
Freedom in Christ, my blessèd Redeemer—
He Who has rent my fetters in twain.”

Our Apostle, Paul, was no “super-human;” just as human as we are, he worried, he struggled with sin, he grew exhausted when he attempted to live the Christian life. As we Christians often do today, he would forget the glorious doctrines of grace living in Romans chapter 6—our death to sin and our resurrection unto life for God’s glory—and he would lapse back into a performance-based acceptance system.

Before Paul was saved, as Saul of Tarsus, he was “a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:5), people whom Jesus repeatedly condemned for emphasizing outward performance and ignoring inward faith in God’s Word. Like we who abandoned legalistic religions or denominations would do today, Paul (now saved) would return to that old thinking, that old lifestyle of legalism (Law-keeping), and he would wind up defeated (today’s Scripture). He would ignore Jesus’ finished crosswork at Calvary as the power to save him from being defeated by daily sins.

We are free from fear with all of its torments, for our future is secure in Christ because of His performance and not ours (2 Timothy 1:12; Romans 8:35-39). We are free from care with all of its pains, for when we pray to Father God in light of His Word to us (Paul’s epistles), He gives us His peace (Philippians 4:6,7)—even in the midst of trouble (2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Philippians 4:11-13). We are free in Christ, for we function in Him as His (and our) Heavenly Father designed us, by faith allowing the indwelling Holy Spirit to work mightily in us to produce in us the Christian life (Romans chapter 8). Yea, Jesus Christ, our wonderful Redeemer, has freed us from Satan and sin! 🙂

Glorious Freedom #3

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (Romans 6:12 KJV).

The third verse of Haldor Lillenas’ classic 1917 hymn “Glorious Freedom” highlights today’s Scripture.

“Freedom from pride and all sinful follies;
Freedom from love and glitter of gold;
Freedom from evil temper and anger;
Glorious freedom, rapture untold!”

Once, when we were lost, under the control of the Adversary, separated from the Creator God, on our merry way to eternal hellfire, we “were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past [we] walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:1-3). What a description!

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us [given us life and power to function in life] together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” (verses 4,5). Now, we are dead with Christ and raised with Christ (Romans 6:3-11). Today’s Scripture says that we do not have to serve sin anymore; sin does not have to reign as a king over us anymore. We can choose to walk by faith in our new identity in Christ.

We are freed from pride (Philippians 2:5-11), for it is not us, but Christ living in us (Galatians 2:20). We are freed from foolishness (Ephesians 5:3,4; Titus 3:3), for we have Christ’s wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16). We are freed from materialism, for “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10; cf. 1 Timothy 6:6). We are freed from unrighteous anger; we are to be “kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven [us]” (Ephesians 4:26,32).

Freedom, not to serve self, but to serve others! Inexpressible delight indeed! 🙂

Glorious Freedom #2

Monday, October 6, 2014

“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22 KJV).

The second verse of Haldor Lillenas’ classic 1917 hymn “Glorious Freedom” highlights today’s Scripture.

“Freedom from all the carnal affections;
Freedom from envy, hatred and strife;
Freedom from vain and worldly ambitions;
Freedom from all that saddened my life!”

Lost people view Christianity as bondage (due to strict denominational oppression) and their own lives as freedom (due to the deceitfulness of their own sinful hearts). Lost people assume they freely think for themselves and freely run their own lives—they succinctly declare that they are “not fettered to ancient texts of superstition and fiction” as we are!

Still, they fail to realize that they are captive, not free; they are slaves to sin, powerless to overcome it. Our Lord plainly declared that in John 8:34-36. Actually, the Pharisees resented Jesus for those words, even going so far as to say they “were never in bondage to any man” (verse 33)—they overlooked the hundreds of passers-by, soldiers who belonged to Israel’s overbearing Roman government! Even today, lost people claim to be free as they walk around wearing chains of sin.

In Christ, we are liberated from fleshly attitudes and likings; envy; hatred; strife (fighting); worthless secular goals; and all the other miserable actions that accompany our Adamic sin nature. After illustrating a horrible (sinful) lifestyle in verses 17-19 of Ephesians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul wrote: “[20] But ye have not so learned Christ; [21] If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: [22] That ye put off concerning the former conversation [behavior and lifestyle] the old man [old, Adamic, sin nature], which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; [23] And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; [24] And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” He then delineates grace living in verses 25-32, the eternal life God has for us in Christ. We are free from sin, and, as God’s Word rightly divided renews our minds, we see that everlasting life become evident in ours!

Glorious Freedom #1

Sunday, October 5, 2014

“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7 KJV).

The first verse of Haldor Lillenas’ classic 1917 hymn “Glorious Freedom” highlights today’s Scripture.

“Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters;
Chained like a slave, I struggled in vain.
But I received a glorious freedom,
When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.”

Prior to becoming a saint by faith alone in Jesus Christ, the sinner was “bound by sin’s galling fetters;” sin’s chains or shackles held the individual to the point of chafing or irritation. Once religiosity (religious works) and secularism (worldly works) were exposed as equally filthy in God’s sight, the sinner understood that they had nothing to pay to free themselves from their sins of the spirit and their sins of the flesh.

Whether struggling in a religious system (faithful giving, water baptism, prayers, church attendance, confessions, et cetera) attempting to gain God’s acceptance; or engaging in drunkenness, fornication, swearing, theft, and lying attempting to gain the world’s acceptance; one must perform to receive favor. The sinner finally realizes they know that the ultimate blessing is to be freed from such bondage, liberated from such a system of failure and misery, for they can neither fully gain God’s acceptance nor the world’s acceptance.

In John 8:34-36, Jesus told the Pharisees: “[34] Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. [35] And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. [36] If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” The Pharisees needed to be freed from their sins, especially their hypocrisy and works-religion!

By the riches of God’s grace (His work on our behalf), through faith alone in Jesus Christ’s shed blood, we can be crucified with Christ and “redeemed” (set free; today’s Scripture), for “he that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6:7). Verse 18 says, “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” We are alive and free in Christ—not to live for ourselves, but to choose to live as the living dead people we are, saints alive with Jesus Christ’s resurrection life!

Pebbles of Paganism

Saturday, October 4, 2014

“Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?” (Isaiah 57:6 KJV).

Imagine Israel doing such foolishness right in front of JEHOVAH!

Today’s Scripture—whose context, verses 3-12, reprimands Israel’s pagan idolatry—says the Jews collected (mindless, inanimate) rocks from a riverbed, and then poured out drink offerings and offered meat offerings to them as if they were Almighty God (the living and true God was deeply offended, as today’s Scripture indicates).

How preposterous! Israel had willfully abandoned JEHOVAH’S words (the Old Testament Scriptures), and preferred to imitate her heathen neighbors in worshipping dead idols (the Gentiles’ spiritual ignorance and moral decay are clearly described in Romans 1:18-32). Throughout the Old Testament, we read about stone idols worshipped by Gentiles (Deuteronomy 29:16,17; Isaiah 37:19) and Jews (Jeremiah 2:27; Habakkuk 2:19)—those stone idols were believed to speak and teach!

Lest we dismiss this as “ignorance due to bygone primitivism,” or in case we look down upon Israel as if our “modern” world is any better, remember that, today, most peoples of the world “pay homage” (worship) to such non-living objects in this “scientifically advanced” 21st century! In their churches and homes, even among many “Christian” people, they set up statues of wood and stone, hang paintings of “holy” figures (artistic interpretations, not actual photographs!), and then bow or kneel before them and utter prayers. The paints, minerals, and plant fibers are dead, and yet they are assumed to be able to help those “genuflecting” before them!

Today’s Scripture is a strict reminder that any forms of idolatry will not comfort (delight) the God of the Scriptures. Beloved, even if that idolatry is called “Christianity,” images of stone and wood (at their root) are heathen. Those same worthless “aids of worship” that helped Israel to ignore JEHOVAH, aided JEHOVAH in proving to Israel that she was worthy of being evicted from His land (and He did just that!). Friends, let us “turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9)! 🙂