Deception is the poison of the Church!
You try telling them about something they have got wrong, and they either resent you for it or think you are the one very much mistaken! One of the dreams I had last night was this:
It is very ingenious how God portrays, in allegory, the folly of human behaviour. Would you be fool enough to drag a great big load of timber along the road, instead of loading it ON the vehicle? Would you leave dangerous nails sticking out of it where they could inflict serious harm on people nearby? Yet this is what church leaders, ministry leaders and theologians are doing by dragging along all the old theological hand-me-downs that are not biblical. They don’t even see what they are doing. The load of ‘crap’ – nonsense, rubbish, junk – follows them. In Wielding The Divine Axe I present eleven major areas where Church teaching is in error:
1. Teaching about
the Sabbath. And, each matter is covered in detail by specific MM publications, restoring the purer biblical truths. So, there is no excuse now to people to whom we have gone and offered these truths. God now holds them accountable and they will come under God’s judgement for refusal to investigate them.
Christians assume that they are exempt from God’s judgement. They assume that they are Romans 8:1 candidates – that there is no condemnation against them because they have ‘accepted’ Christ. But they overlook the second part of that verse. Most can’t see where they are still in rebellion against God. The subtleties of human psychology blind them to spiritual reality. So they are deceived. In this state of false security, they carry on down their own self-willed route, with Jesus merely an appendage to their minds which are centred on self. Judgement inevitably follows to try to wake them up. In the conflict in Kenya recently I have received some desperate mail from people begging for help. These people all had the truth. I had sent them MM literature, which explains how to put your trust in God, how to build faith, and receive help when you need it. But they didn’t listen. They went their own way. They weren’t living what they were reading – if they even read it properly in the first place! I hadn’t heard from them for years. Then, out of the blue, they write to say that they have lost everything – their homes, wives, children – all! They beg for money. They’re begging the wrong person. God is the One whom they should beg, not me. He supported Elijah in the wilderness (1 Ki 17:5); and some in our day have had angel visitations bringing sustenance. When trouble befalls the wicked, it’s a fulfilment of Proverbs 1:20-32. God mocks them in their calamity because they didn’t care about what God cares about. God is not cold, but He is very just. They rejected what HE asked of them, so He reciprocates.
They don’t work together for good to those who don’t love God; who love themselves!
I explain in Apostasy in God’s Church! that the greatest deception is one which causes the love of God in you to be quenched, or grow cold. Hence the need for introspection (1 Cor 11:28).
You can’t afford to be complacent!
However, the signs of the times are inseparable from selfish pursuit and complacency. Such sins lead to spiritual blindness... Which brings us to another massive deception – SELF-deception. How many times have you read in the Word: Be not deceived...? Why do you think those words are there? Because people ARE easily misled! And the person who so easily misleads them is Mr Self or Miss Self.
People who hear the truth THINK that they are living the truth, very often when they are not. Because it is in your head, you can tend to deceive yourself that you have done what God said. A man stayed with us once while he was on his travels. He mouthed support for our work and made effusive promises of big financial support, so that we could achieve much more. It turned out to be mere hype. He walked away from us and from the truth God has commissioned us to promote. His life was all bound up in self. So, self deceived him. Psychologists have fancy terms for such psychological conditions. Gross Delusional Syndrome may be one. The source is, of course, demons. When you pander to yourself overmuch, you are giving heed to seducing spirits. He had delusions of self-importance, which led to other deceptions in his mind. And, I believe he even thought he HAD given us money simply because he had promised it. He was that deceived! It’s a common strategy of the devil to distract people, so that they forget about, or neglect giving us the money or support that we deserve for ministering to them, and need, to provide them with MM literature. Another man wrote to me, asking for the bank coordinates so he could send money into our account to reimburse us for the literature we had sent him. Months passed, but no money arrived. I guess he deceived himself that he had assuaged his conscience by the offer. He convinced himself that he meant well, and that’s all that mattered to him. He observed his natural face in the mirror, and then went away, immediately forgetting what manner of man he is inside (Jas 1:24). They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. What have you failed to do that you should have done? It’s not just a question of money. That is merely one symptom of where your heart is. There are others. The main root of all is self-will – doing what you want instead of what God wants. Take a look at the article Bless The Lord, O My Soul to see eight areas in which God wants you to train your spirit, and Do You Confront Evil, Or Do You Tolerate It? in Newsletter 33. God requires change. People who are self-willed deceive themselves that they are pleasing to God, that they are OK, when they are not. They are content to stay the way they are, but God isn’t! He wants your improvement.
Several times in Revelation 2 and 3, God adjures His chosen ones to repent, or, if they will not, they will forfeit what they don’t want to lose. The lukewarm church – the prevalent syndrome today – thinks she is OK before God. But she makes Him vomit! (Rev 3:16.)
Why are these people blind? Because they are self-satisfied. They’ve got what they want. They don’t want more of God. When you challenge them on points of further truth, on aspects of teaching or practice in their part of the Church, or on areas of their conduct that need upgrading, they just tune you out. God will tune them out, for their contempt for righteous purity. He wants a holy Church, a Bride without spot or wrinkle (Eph 5:27), not a compromising lukewarm lot. People who are full of themselves are devoid of the things of God. They are not poor in spirit (humble); not meek (teachable); they don’t hunger and thirst for righteousness; they don’t care for more of God, except the nice ‘bits’ that please themselves. We are all called to lay down our lives, so that we can accept His. But for too many believers, their own pride and self-will keep Him distant. They don’t love Him with all their heart, soul and mind. They deceive themselves that they are good enough the way they are, with all their sins and imperfections, and while they adhere to convenient false teachings.
Malcolm B Heap, Feb 2008 |
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