Category: peer pressure

Good Riddance! #5

Saturday, April 13, 2013

“Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13 KJV).

God’s people have never been welcome here in “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4) because He has never been welcome here. In short, if lost people could utter two words to us Christians after we have been raptured out, it would be, “Good riddance!”

The context of today’s Scripture uses the historical narrative of Cain and Abel to reinforce the doctrine the Holy Spirit is communicating through the Apostle John: “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:11-13).

John, writing to believing Jews who will live after our Dispensation of Grace—that is, who will live during the seven-year Tribulation—uses material the Bible already taught to further educate them. We can gain two main points from this passage.

Firstly, John reminds them of the kingdom doctrine Jesus Christ uttered to His little flock (believing Israel) during His earthly ministry: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12). These Jewish believers are to love one another, just as Jesus Christ loved them (contrast this with today’s Scripture).

Secondly, John reminds believing Israel that just as unbelieving, disobedient Cain murdered his brother, Abel, the man of faith and God’s prophet, so her unbelieving brethren (that is, apostate Israel) will seek to persecute and kill her. Remember, Jesus Christ warned “a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:32-42). Speaking of the Tribulation, Jesus predicted His Jewish followers would not only be hated by the unbelieving Gentiles, but also by unbelieving Israel (who are all following Satan’s evil world system and the antichrist’s apostate religious system).

John, in today’s Scripture, reminds his audience suffering in the Tribulation, that Satan’s world system and its members have always hated the Lord Jesus Christ’s people. They should not be shocked, nor should they lose heart….

Good Riddance! #3

Thursday, April 11, 2013

“Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13 KJV).

God’s people have never been welcome here in “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4) because He has never been welcome here. In short, if lost people could utter two words to us Christians after we have been raptured out, it would be, “Good riddance!”

Our sinful world despises absolute standards concerning morals and ethics (it does demand them regarding finances). Christians preaching and teaching sound Bible doctrine are a dam that holds back Satan from having complete control over every person. While the devil has fooled much of the world with all sorts of carnal and religious errors, unfortunately for him, those Christians who are King James Pauline dispensational Bible students are not so easily persuaded. Satan can only rule over ignorant people. Thankfully, we are well aware of what is occurring in this world. Man thinks he is on the rise (in actuality, his thinking is upside-down!).

For nearly 20 centuries, both the professing church (Christendom) and (sadly) the genuine, Holy Spirit-indwelt Church the Body of Christ, have allowed the errors of the world to creep into their assemblies, desensitizing them to ungodliness. This is to be expected when sound Bible doctrine is willfully ignored. What is the hallmark of lukewarm Christianity? The member of the average “Christian” church is just as “godly” as the average heathen of the evil world system, resulting in “Christians” siding with and defending the heathen and his social preferences! The heathen and the phony Christian alike hate the true Christian (today’s Scripture)—he, his God the Lord Jesus Christ, and his Holy Bible, are threats to “progress.”

Indeed, we Christians are viewed as “hindrances to progress.” Young earth Bible creationism, monogamous heterosexual marriages, owning weapons for self-defense, having a job, and driving a fossil-fueling-burning vehicle are respective threats to foolish pagan philosophical evolutionary theory, sexually-perverted lifestyles, pacifism, slothfulness, and “mother earth.” In this world, it seems like every belief is to be “tolerated”—except anything from God’s Holy Bible! As the context of today’s Scripture will demonstrate, this was true in the past, and it will be true in the future….

Myriads of Itching Ears #3

Thursday, August 23, 2012

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3,4 KJV).

Beware of the megachurches, for they teach mega error!

Today’s Scripture teaches how, as time would pass, people with “itching ears”—an eagerness to hear an entertaining, soothing message void of God’s truth—would “heap to themselves teachers.” Literally, they accumulate (“heap”) more and more of these false teachers to themselves. Religious (false) teaching is like a drug. Not only is it addictive, it also inhibits common reasoning, it promotes incontinence and hysteria, and worst of all, it prevents Bible understanding.

There were perhaps 250 million people on Earth during the New Testament times. Today, almost 2,000 years later, Earth’s human population has increased nearly 30-fold. False teaching has also exponentially increased, especially due to megachurches.

What are we Bible-believing Christians to do? Throw up our hands in defeat, and just “go along with the crowd” in their doctrinal error? This would be quite easy to do, but it would not honor the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The context of today’s Scripture explains that our surrendering to the devil’s policy of evil is not the answer!

In his final instructions to Timothy, the context of today’s Scripture, the Apostle Paul “charged” (commanded) him “before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (verses 1,2). Paul urged Timothy to continue in sound Pauline Bible doctrine: “Preach the Word, Timothy. Prepare yourself for the false teaching that will grow progressively worse and widespread [as described in today’s Scripture].”

Paul’s directions to Timothy are God’s instructions to us. As more professing Christians abandon sound Bible doctrine, we continue in faith in God’s Word (the King James Bible) rightly divided, and we refuse to join the “myriads of itching ears.” 🙂

If Sinners Entice Thee, Consent Thou Not

Monday, May 14, 2012

“My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not” (Proverbs 1:10 KJV).

This world is filled with temptations. Sinful individuals surround us, and they encourage us to sin with them. Today’s Scripture says, “Consent thou not!” Ignore the negative peer pressure!

Saints, even though we are members of the Church the Body of Christ, we still sin. On a daily basis, our new nature in Christ wars against our old nature we inherited from Adam: “the flesh lusteth against the [indwelling Holy] Spirit, and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh” (Galatians 5:17a). But, we have victory over sin when we walk, by faith, in our identity in Christ!

In today’s Scripture (and the verses following it), King Solomon shares God’s wisdom with us: “If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood [murder], let us lurk privily [secretly] for the innocent without cause: let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: we shall find all precious substance [loot], we shall fill our houses with spoil: cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse” (Proverbs 1:11-14).

What is God’s response? Verses 15-19: “My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: for their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.”

When someone encourages you to be partaker of their “killing and stealing,” or any action that does not agree with God’s Holy Word rightly divided, “walk not thou in the way of them.” In Christ, God has saved us from that lifestyle and its resulting death: we have no need to return to them. “Walk in the Spirit [by faith in our new identity in Christ], and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh [sin]” (Galatians 5:16).