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It hardly seems possible that the apostle Paul’s prophetic warning about dangerous times and men given to his son in the faith, Timothy, I reference in this edited 2013 Commentary could be referring to anyone but sinners of the world (2 Timothy 3:1-9). However, while sinners are referred to by him, these are men of the worst sort; professed Christians that are not led, controlled and empowered by the Holy Spirit, but Satan through their sinful flesh. Can they really be pleasing God serving out of the sinful flesh as they would deceitfully have us believe? According to Scripture, no (Romans 8:6-9; Galatians 5:19-21)!1 I have been dealing with such men (and women) among many churches all of my journey and stand yet again to hold up the biblical warning about them.
Originally Published March 2013
The Bible is a book of truth that chronicles and accurately reports the consistent behavior of human beings as fallen sinners from the beginning (and without divine intervention, a hopeless forever). Such has been my painful realization as a watchman/prophet and teacher in the churches as well as an aspiring strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ. For amazing to me but quite in line with the biblical record, up until now, professed Christians have been my greatest antagonists. Still, to the end of saving some and helping others, the Lord has had me laboring over thirty years and intensely so recently in writing about Christianity the religion of men (Revelation 18:4-8).2
Ancient Judah should have known better especially in light of what they had seen happen to Israel, their sister to the North when God, after many warnings through His prophets, brought the foretold judgment with a harshness and finality that was staggering (2 Kings 17:5-23; Jeremiah 3:6-10). However, Judah too experienced God’s judgment for failing to heed the warnings of His prophets and repent from their spiritual adultery and wickedness. The fortunate found themselves captive in Babylon (2 Kings 24:1-25:21). Many of them were outwardly religious, knew what the Law said and had even experienced brief revivals under godly kings--the last, Josiah.
Yet, when God commissions Ezekiel as His watchman/prophet to the captives in Babylon, He calls this religious people "a rebellious house," (Ezekiel 1:26-3:27, NKJV). The Lord greatly encouraged His prophet since in the course of carrying out their God ordained ministries in the past, most of the prophets had been ridiculed, mocked and mistreated. Some of them had been imprisoned, tortured and murdered in the cause of bringing God's love motivated call to repentance and warning of judgment to His people which the Lord Jesus affirms in Matthew 23:29-36. Indeed, He even warns that as it was for the Old Testament prophets, so it would be for His sent servants in the New.
The Lord Himself would not escape the stark reality that the most religious men in Israel--her religious educated elite and leaders--would insist on His death out of the most common of human sins: envy (Matthew 27:15-20). Therefore, He warned His apostles and all faithful servants to come that those professing to know God in the Jewish religion and later, what sprang up as manmade Christianity the religion would be first among their persecutors (Luke 21:12; John 16:1-4; Revelation 17:1-6). The apostle Paul who experienced the painful persecution of those he once stood among likewise warns about this peril from religious men (2 Corinthians 11:22-26; 2 Timothy 3:1-9).
The New Testament record and history to this hour confirm the prophetic accuracy of the Lord and His apostle. Young and naïve in Christ those years ago, I was so hopeful it would be just a very few bad apples I might face in carrying out the ministry the Lord gifted and called me to (Ezekiel 33:1-9).3 However, I have since repeatedly experienced the mostly covert, but at times, openly hostile opposition to my ministry by legions of faithless, spiritually dead, proud, deceitful, corrupt and carnal practitioners of Christianity the religion from various races in the churches.4 Truly, if it had not been for the Lord at my side strengthening, encouraging and ministering to me, I would have forsaken His calling (John 14:18; Acts 18:4-11, 23:1-11; 2 Timothy 4:14-18).
The Lord foretells the time soon fully at hand when in the wake of global persecution, a total breakdown in civility among professing Christians will occur. He says, "And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another," (Matthew 24:10, NKJV). In this breakdown, religious impostors devoid of the Holy Spirit will abandon their charade; unrepentant willfully sinning weak Christians quenching His fire will become apostates in their offense at the painful persecution. Christianity the religion will be exposed for the counterfeit it is as faithful Christians are betrayed to persecuting authorities and greatly hated by those once professing to be brothers.
Surely, we are now in the initial stages of this breakdown as the world's escalating rebellion and hatred forces all professing Christians to make their loyalties known. Christian religionists have done just like their Jewish counterparts historically and rejected those sent by Christ's love to warn and call them to repentance. They fail to realize they are more accountable than ancient Israel for their obstinacy since professing Christians have received so much more by way of the testimony of Christ, the Gospel and the warning of His apostles to give due regard to the biblical record (Luke 12:42-48; 1 Corinthians 10:1-11). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Because the following behaviors I have consistently witnessed over forty years by numerous professed Christian pastors are not expressly listed by Paul in 2 Timothy
3:1-9 or Galatians 5:19-21 and the guilty obviously believe them to be okay, the Lord would have me include hindering God’s people under false pretenses, oppressing,
manipulating for gain sake and lording it over them to be works of the sinful flesh He condemns (Nehemiah 6:1-14; Jeremiah 22:13-17; Lamentations 3:34-36; Matthew
15:1-9, 20:20-28; 1 Peter 5:1-4).
2 Read the two-part, August 2016 post, Christianity The Religion Of Men, under the category, Instruction and Christianity The Religion American Style posted September
4, 2016 under the category, Call To Repent.
3 See the October 2, 2016 post, Gifted With A Prophet’s Heart under the category, Call To Repent.
4 Read my April 9-May 7 posts reflecting on being a Christian for forty years under the category, Glory To God! Also, get a copy of my book, The Strong Man Of God:
Back To Basics, wherein the last chapter I write to exhort the repentance of compromised pastors as professed Christians that have preeminently been among those
resisting our strong man of God message and cause. The book is available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in
the Strong Man Store.
Enlarged in reach by multiple media platforms today, many from the religious educated elite attain even international acclaim and standing. Rather than humility, more careful, diligent attention and fidelity to God’s Word as it is written and the Holy Spirit instructs because of this, a number are caught in Satan’s snare and begin to think more highly of themselves than they ought; teaching what they ought not in compromise, falsehood and hypocrisy (Ezekiel 28:17; Romans 12:3; 1 Timothy 1:3-7, 3:1-7). One such internationally known Bible teacher recently exemplified this reality by declaring on his radio program that in spite of the legalists, he and his elders could defy the clear teaching of 1 Timothy 2:12 after first affirming its continuing authoritative validity.
I write nothing in part two of this re-titled and edited 2013 blog repost God does not already know and as a result, the judgment prepared for members of the religious educated elite who in all haughtiness corrupt God’s Word and deny His power while teaching others to do the same is not at rest. Many that have died without repentance await their final judgment in Hades with all other sinners; those that yet live and refuse to repent will follow in due time after also suffering God’s judgment of His house. Along with churches, this judgment will destroy all of the related institutions of religious education that facilitated the arrogance of the religious educated elite who are guilty.
Originally Posted June 30, 2013
It was not long before scholasticism (the formal study, development, teaching and dissemination of the philosophical and theological thinking of religious educated men) had come to bring confusion into the post-apostolic churches scattered around the Roman Empire and by the Middle Ages, to dominate Catholicism. Overcome by the spiritual deadness and unbiblical religious practices of Catholicism, by the 16th century religious educated priest Martin Luther re-discovered biblical Christianity in of all places, the Bible’s New Testament!
After leading the attempted reform of Catholicism, Martin Luther was in the vanguard of Protestantism’s theologians in which now--five hundred years later, a great deal of their proud scholasticism has managed to do as much if not more damage by way of false, confusing and conflicting doctrines in the churches as that of any previous scholarly teachers in Christian history. From the corrupt justification for enslaving my forefathers to the rejection of the plainly given prophecy of a 1,000 year reign of Christ with His saints on this present earth (Revelation 20:4-6), legion are their “doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1-3, NKJV).
Truly, just like the Sadducees in 1st century Israel, we have arrogant theologians at this hour that refuse to believe the whole Bible or in God’s power to heal through, much less raise His sons to immortal glory due to their private interpretations. Again, such men have their own agenda not Christ’s which begins outside of God’s Word. They belittle the child-like faith our Lord taught us to place in Him as “mysticism” and scoff at the critical role of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers preferring instead to proudly teach assent to doctrines they have constructed in accord with their own philosophical systems of religious thinking as all that is necessary.
Never mind too, many of them are carnal, spiritually weak and immature if truly saved at all because they have no power (1 Corinthians 3:1-4, 4:19-20)! Claiming to be wise because of their credentials from esteemed institutions, they do not realize their true lack of wisdom in having foolishly corrupted or “rejected the word of the Lord” in any part for the cause of their own thinking. And so, God asks, “what wisdom do they have,” (Jeremiah 8:8-9, NKJV)? If God Almighty asks this sobering question, ought not we to do the same especially since these men are standing to speak as spiritual authorities to us?
Part of the problem from ancient times is that the so-called “people of God” permit themselves to be led and deceived by those whose education, credentials and position they proudly admire. This is what the Lord says about it: ‘“An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end,’” (Jeremiah 5:30-31, NKJV)? The apostle Paul chides the Corinthian church in a similar way (2 Corinthians 11:1-4).
Did not our Lord Jesus and His apostles warn us about false prophets and teachers especially in these latter days (Matthew 24:11; 2 Peter 2:1)? What? Is a seminary education and credentials the only things required for a person to escape being identified as a false teacher, esteemed instead as a theologian with license as an expert to deceive in the name of worldly tolerance among the churches? I don’t think so and whoever does ignores the warning of God through His prophets, the Lord and His apostles to their soul’s peril (Jeremiah 17:5-6, 12-13)!
When He had finished with the Sadducees on that day, the people listening in were “astonished at His teaching” and those proud members of Israel’s religious educated elite departed His company speechless because their mistaken doctrine had been shattered to pieces by the Lord (Matthew 22:33; Luke 20:39-40, NKJV). If the Lord got in the faces of Israel’s religious educated elite, where do we get off thinking we can make the same mistakes, have the same attitudes and do the same things He rebuked them for and get away with it? Right doctrine drawn directly out of Scripture as the Holy Spirit teaches is still only honored by Heaven and will be so forever (Matthew 24:35)!
Therefore, in the name of Jesus Christ who rebukes you and for the sake of the one faith once and for all given to the saints for which we are to contend (Jude 3-4), I call to repentance whoever calls himself a Christian teacher and exalts his own sinful thinking and opinions above God’s Word no matter how credentialed (Proverbs 30:5-6)! God has called us to doctrinal unity effected by the Holy Spirit in each man as we come humbly to the Word to be taught not teach as a first priority (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 1:10, 2:12-16; 1 Peter 3:8). The fact we do not have doctrinal unity in professing Christianity does not mean the concept can be relegated to the “worthy idealistic goal but not realistic” category. It is an indicator of sinful failure and wholly coming up short on our part.
Doctrinal diversity in phony loving, worldly tolerance may be a celebrated academic freedom, but it is condemned by the Lord who calls His followers to share in His singular mind. Unless then, the guilty do repent, the Lord will deal with you as He did the corrupt prophets, priests and teachers of Israel’s religious educated elite and as warned by Peter (Jeremiah 8:10-12; Ezekiel 22:23-31; Matthew 23:1-33; 2 Peter 2:2-3). Also, your religious house with beam and pillar of support is soon to be destroyed by the Lord (1 Peter 4:17; Revelation 18:1-8). Then what will become of all your proud, expertly crafted theologies and you as you with all other professing Christians are forced to stand only on God’s Word as it is written and the power of the Holy Spirit to endure at that time?
I follow up last week’s 2012 blog repost, “Pursuing Credentials And Authority” under the same Call To Repent category, with this and next week’s 2013 re-titled and edited two-part blog repost more fully examining the evil a considerable number of the credentialed religious educated elite has done and are doing in their arrogance to harm the faith, compliant and unaware professing Christians. Truly, the historical lion’s share source for all of the recorded corrupt, private interpretations of God’s Word (2 Peter 1:19-21) in professing Christianity over the centuries since the first has been those that teach from among the religious educated elite out of manmade Christianity the religion.
All of their private interpretations end up corrupt because they construct them rejecting some part of God’s Word (especially prophecy such as The Revelation Of Jesus Christ) and the revealing work of the Holy Spirit! How can an authentically born again man ever sit down to study, accurately interpret and apply any part of God’s Word without the supernatural aid of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6-16)? Moreover, a man is fully arrogantly self-deceived (and anyone who long sits under him deluded) who believes he can keep essential Christian doctrine separate from his rejection of other parts of God’s Word and not ever have his corruptions created from the exclusion of those rejected parts surface in his orthodoxy or teaching.
Such is the madness that has been and continues in Christendom to this hour because biblical Christianity has been kicked to the curb by men practicing powerless, invented forms of it founded upon fallen, mortal thinking and satanically inspired confusion falsely called wisdom. Seeking to satisfy their ego and self-esteem needs among other self-centered reasons, these men in the flesh carelessly proffer their corrupt, private interpretations of God’s Word; ruining folk and churches without shame, whose judgment with dying churches is certain without repentance. Flee if you are in a church where the pastor and/or elders reject any part of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit’s power!
Originally Posted June 23, 2013
Again, I am a seminary graduate having attended as the Lord led to get better prepared for the work of ministry He (not mortal flesh or a church) had already gifted and called me to (1 Corinthians 12:1-18)! Understood and carried out in the spirit of humble service to Christ as Lord on the part of the school, instructors, students, graduates, churches and their affiliations, a seminary education can be a good thing and was for me. I have met a few and read the works of a number of born again, faithful, seminary educated and biblically solid Christian teachers--a blessing to the Body of Christ as they should be!
However, as part of my work of ministry (Ezekiel 33:1-9; 1 Corinthians 12:28-30), the thread of rebuke to Christianity the religion’s educated elite (which includes pastors and elders) in other blogs continued in this one is tied to the Lord’s ancient rebuke of all those who allow themselves to become arrogantly wise in their own eyes because of their education and credentials conferred by sinful men (Isaiah 19:11-15). They harm His people with false, confusing and conflicting doctrines; men empowered by position to vanquish with a word those in legitimate opposition to their corrupt, private interpretations of God’s Word (John 9:13-34).
Such arrogant men and their showdowns with God’s sent prophets, Christ and His apostles are many in the Bible and continue to this day (2 Chronicles 18; Amos 7:10-17; Matthew 21:23-27; Acts 4:1-22). Have you ever wondered why God ends up judging most of them? It is because they do not humble themselves and repent when proven wrong due to the arrogant pride that fills their hearts. They would rather suffer judgment than be humiliated even though in the end, humiliation is exactly what God’s judgment produces (Proverbs 28:13; James 4:4-10). Thus, the Lord Jesus teaches voluntary humility is better than forced humiliation (Luke 14:7-11).
It is impossible that any creature of God could ever be smarter or wiser than He! Yet, this is how proud, credentialed members of the religious educated elite present themselves to God when they choose to reject or set aside any portion of His Word. The Lord Jesus--God in the flesh--did not blink or become intimidated in the least bit whenever Israel’s religious educated elite confronted Him. Indeed, when the Sadducees thought they would use their foolproof levirate marriage brain twister discrediting the possibility of resurrection from the dead to stump and finally publically humiliate the Lord recorded in Matthew 22:23-28, the Lord's reply was direct: "'You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God,'" (Matthew 22:29, NKJV). Alternate translations for “mistaken” (used also in the NASB) are “deceived” (NKJV), “error” (NIV) and “wrong” (AMP).
Imagine that, in words similarly quoted in Mark’s Gospel (Mark 12:24); in an incident also recorded by Luke (Luke 20:27-40), the Lord Jesus emphatically declares to Israel’s Sadducees of the priestly line, who were keepers of the temple, members of the religious educated elite and so smart they refused to believe God raises the dead, they were “mistaken.” These men were mistaken not because Jesus held a different opinion than they did (their religious educated elite rivals, the Pharisees, had already unsuccessfully opposed them as opinions go which is why they were so smugly confident their levirate marriage story would silence Jesus too), but because the Lord in rebuke says they did not know the Word or power of God!
Hear the Word of the Lord all of you modern day members of Christianity the religion’s educated elite: you can be mistaken and always are when you reject God’s Word and power! How could it be that specially educated and trained religious men could not believe something as basic as God’s raising of the dead taught and demonstrated in the Scriptures available to them or His power to do so even if there were no historic records of Him doing so? The Sadducees made the fatal error of limiting themselves to just the first five books of the Bible as authentic. As a result, they rejected the historical books that recorded God’s raising of the dead through the intercessions of the prophets Elijah and Elisha respectively (1 Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:8-37) as well as all of the rest of the Old Testament that speaks of His power and promise to do so more widely in a future day.
God has made His Word an interconnected whole (Luke 24:27; 2 Timothy 3:14-17). It is impossible to develop a thorough, coherent and accurate biblical doctrine of any kind after rejecting any part of God’s Word! Also, clearly these men did not accept the displays of divine power starting with the first chapter of Genesis and running through every book to Deuteronomy as a theme. So, while they were outwardly religious, knew and taught the private interpretations of their group as well as carried on all of the common rituals and traditions of Judaism, these religious educated men had no faith in and were disconnected from God! Such has been the case of many professed Christian men too with the rise of manmade Christianity the religion.
What a joy for me as a Christian: it’s Christmas Eve! Above any other presents on Christmas, I will rejoice afresh over God’s gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, given to me and all mankind over 2,000 years ago I received personally on April 10, 1977 (Isaiah 9:6-7)! God’s gift of His Son must be received on purpose by faith to be unwrapped into salvation. As the Lord leads me to write in this edited 2013 repost, choosing God’s gift of His Son is to do so in the midst and to the exclusion of all other ostensible gods, religions and ways to God. Reflect and rejoice if you have received God’s gift of His Son; be challenged to receive Him if not. Lord willing, my next post will be on January 7, 2018. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Originally Posted December 1, 2013
The times we live in spiritually are not unlike those in the first century A.D. Then as now there were thousands of religions that featured the worship of unseen spirits as well as images and statues representing men, women, animals, celestial bodies, things of earth’s natural order and man’s creative invention. Then as now the religions spanned the spectrum from moral restraint to complete license including all manner of sexual immorality. Then as now, men made choices as to which if any of all the religions they would embrace. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was introduced then and remains as the exclusive message from the living God summoning men to relationship with Himself.
As the apostle Paul waited in the great city of Athens, Greece many students of the New Testament believe sometime between 49 and 52 A.D., “his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols,” (Acts 17:16, NKJV). Rather than immediately attacking the idolatry which God in His longsuffering forbearance has temporarily permitted, he began to share the Gospel with Jews and Gentile converts to Judaism (who had in common with him a belief in the God of the Bible as it existed then as the Old Testament) and in the public marketplace. Some philosophers invited him to share more in a place called “Mars’ Hill” (Acts 17:17-21, NKJV).
On this platform where all new religious ideas and philosophies were given a hearing, Paul commended how ‘“religious’” the Athenians were in that they even had an altar dedicated ‘“TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.’” The Athenians and others were hedging their religious bets and covering their bases in presenting this altar among the thousands of idols, religions and philosophies of that day. Many today are attempting the same kind of approach by affiliating themselves with multiple faiths citing similarity of teaching and tolerance. After this, the great apostle of the Lord declared, ‘“Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you,’” (Acts 17:22-23, NKJV).
Paul goes on to depict God the way He speaks of Himself in Scripture as the Creator and Lord of the heavens, earth and everything in it including man from whom He needs nothing (Genesis 1:1, 1:26, 2:7; Isaiah 42:5, 45:18; Acts 17:24-25). From the one man, Adam, created in the image and likeness of God, God made every race and tribe of men who live before Him as image bearing offspring--though that image has been marred; felled by sin (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:1-11, 17-19, 22-24; Acts 17:26-28). Because men are the created offspring of the living God, Paul asserts they certainly should not "think" to devise art images or craft inanimate objects from earth’s substances to represent His nature (Acts 17:29, NKJV).
The Jewish apostle to non-Jews declares the idols, religions and philosophies of man’s devising; ‘“these times of ignorance God overlooked’” have come to an end spiritually speaking and in days soon to come, all dimensions of existence. For God ‘“now commands all men everywhere to repent’” and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ--that He died on the cross for our sins, was buried and on the third day after rose again--so that He might righteously forgive our sins and cause us to escape the Day of His wrath to be brought by Christ which His resurrection from the dead guarantees (Acts 17:30-31; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11)! This is that same Jesus; God in the flesh born at Bethlehem in Israel who Christians celebrate at Christmas (Luke 2:1-20; John 1:1-18)!
The Lord Jesus Himself declares, ‘“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,’” (John 14:6, NKJV). Consistent with the Ten Commandments, He taught redeemed men are to ‘“love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength,’” (Deuteronomy 5:6-10, 10:12-13; Mark 12:29-30, NKJV). Surely, this is the heart of every aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ!1 For a man to love and honor anyone including his parents, wife, children, siblings, his life or anything more than Jesus Christ is idolatry and disqualifies him from being His disciple (Luke 9:18-26, 14:25-26; John 14:15).
Similarly, the Lord also taught that a servant cannot be fully devoted to two masters. Both would rightly require love and loyalty. But because the servant is not able to give total love and loyalty to both masters, he ends up hating and despising one of them (Luke 16:13). There is also the matter of mental health consequences since James later writes, “a double-minded man” is “unstable in all his ways,” (James 1:8, NKJV). All of the first century Spirit-filled apostles of the Lord fully devoted themselves in love to and faithfully preached the Gospel about Him. They were also willing to suffer and die standing on the truth that the name of Jesus was the only name by which men can be saved from the coming wrath of God (Acts 4:1-22, 5:12-42).
Therefore, while God has given free willed men the privilege to choose if they will obey the Gospel and be saved or not, He does not allow a man to hedge his religious bets to serve Him and other gods too in that demon inspired Athenian spirit. He calls everyone to make a choice: Christ or the gods, religions and philosophies of men? In the likeness of Joshua, every aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ elects to serve Him alone understanding the ‘“gate”’ to eternal life is not wide, but narrow and sparsely populated (Joshua 24:14-15; Matthew 7:13-14, NKJV)! Such men also rejoice in having made the right decision seeing by faith the aftermath of God’s Day of wrath foretold in His Word (Psalm 96-98; Zechariah 14:9). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”
1 Learn more about the heart of the aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, available at all major internet booksellers and in the Strong Man Store.
As the Lord led me to warn in a December 2016 post, the window of opportunity for the unhindered preaching of the Gospel and witnessing of Christ in our nation is steadily closing as it increasingly becomes irreligious and hostile to biblical Christianity.1 Occurring simultaneously as I also spoke of in that post is the general hardening of hearts to the Gospel by especially our under fifty year-old fellow citizens. Apparently, many of these same folk along with disobedient professed Christians refusing to repent from biblically plain sin falsely believe God’s offer of forgiveness does not have an expiration date. The truth is, all any of us has is right now, to do as God wills!
God wills that no one should die before accepting His free offer of forgiveness through repentance from sin and faith in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ! This is the message He has had faithful Christians proclaiming throughout the earth as He has waited in “longsuffering” for nearly 2,000 years (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV). That a time limit was attached to how long the Lord would wait in forbearance before ending it is evident in His whole Word, but also in the Gospel proclamation itself (Isaiah 57:16; Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:14-15; Acts 3:18-21, 17:30-31).2 Sinning, unfruitful professed Christians are also subject to the limits of God’s forbearance (Luke 13:6-9; Romans 1:18-2:11).
God waited many years for men to repent in the days of Noah while he constructed the ark of deliverance from the global flood of His wrath which came after it was finished (Genesis 6:5-7:12; 1 Peter 3:18-22). God also waited until Lot and his family were escorted out of Sodom by angels before destroying it with Gomorrah after many years of forbearance (Genesis 13:7-13, 18:16-33, 19:15-29; 2 Peter 2:6-8). God waited too, in two major judgments of Israel nearly 700 years apart. First, in 609 B.C. after almost 400 years of waiting He sent a remnant of Judah out of the land in three waves before in His wrath, Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (2 Chronicles 36:5-21).
Second, in 70 A.D. the Romans destroyed Jerusalem too, and the people were scattered after a generation of divine waiting as the Lord Jesus Christ foretold before His death, burial, resurrection and ascension (Luke 21:20-24). Faithful Christians who took Christ’s warning to heart no doubt escaped from Jerusalem before its destruction as is traditionally held. All of the foregoing instances of God’s longsuffering forbearance have in common among them that there were hardened hearts to repentance among those who perished in His eventual judgment that fell! We are seeing evidence of hardening hearts toward God and His call to repentance from sin in our nation at this hour.
So many men I share the Gospel with are hostile toward the message as avowed secular atheists, humanists and those who formerly grew up in and attended churches. With hardened hearts they do not want to hear it. The under fifty year-old group (Millennials and Generation Z) that have grown up with and been indoctrinated through public education and the media in the rebellion against God’s moral instruction, want nothing to do with Him if it means reversing what they have been taught and come to believe is the more equitable politically correct and tolerant standards of the world.3 Statistics bear out the decline of interest in God, biblical Christianity and church attendance.4
The danger of the unsaved willfully hardening their hearts against the sovereign God and the Gospel in unbelief is Him in perfect righteousness ending His merciful forbearance toward and permanently giving them over to the foolish choice of their darkened hearts so, if they would choose to believe thereafter, they cannot. This is as He did with Pharaoh when he would not let Israel go; has done with the guilty of Israel and among the Gentiles since the first century who have steadfastly refused in hardness of heart to believe the Gospel (Exodus 4:21, 7:8-13, 9:8-16; Matthew 13:10-17; John 12:37-41; Romans 9:14-29, 10:14-16, 11:8). Sinning professed Christians face peril too.
Contrary to popular theological opinion, God’s Word as it is written is clear that professed Christians with “an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” can “be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” The writer of Hebrews raises this issue as he exhorts Christians in the image of Christ to be faithful and warns of the divine imposed fatal consequence of their unbelief fed disobedience (Hebrews 3:5-19, NKJV). Whoever worships and takes the mark of the Antichrist whose time draws near will be instantly hardened for eternal destruction (Revelation 14:9-13)! Thus, let unhardened hearts hear and receive the Gospel and witness of Christ’s faithful now; let the faithful with resolute urgency proclaim the Gospel and witness Christ (2 Corinthians 6:1-2; Jude 20-25)!5
(I will be taking Sunday, September 4th off as my Labor Day rest with thanksgiving to God. He willing, my next post will appear on September 11th. Enjoy your Labor Day.)
1 Read the December 4, 2016 post, Now Is The Day Of Salvation, under the category, Call To Repent.
2 See the February 6, 2022 post, The Divine Delay, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
3 Despite this formidable obstacle, the Lord has led this Ministry to reach 13-29 year-olds with the Gospel through our most recent Strong Man Of God Online Rally themed, Reconciled To God. Invite someone you care about from this age range to view the thirty minute rally at https://youtu.be/pP3X4gtpaq8 where besides worship and music geared to their appreciation, they will receive a witness of the faith by one of their peers and proclamation of the biblical Gospel!
4 Read the 2019 Pew Research Center article, In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace. Also, see how lack of a biblical worldview is widespread in profes- sing American Christianity and among its leaders in a recent study by the Cultural Research Center directed by Dr. George Barna at Arizona Christian University.
5 As I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, the faithful include all aspiring to be strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ! The book is available with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite inter- net bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
The righteous are only ever trouble to religionists when they refuse to indulge selfish motives with them in sin, go along to get along tolerating or covering up evil or corrupting and compromising the clear teaching and truth of God’s Word applied to every situation! In consequence, as I have experienced, religionists will even lie on God’s faithful stewards and misconstrue their words (Amos 7:10-11).3 Already an outsider “for the truth” (2 Corinthians 13:8, NKJV),4 because of such treachery I am an exiled Pastor too! Historically, religionists have also physically assaulted and murdered faithful stewards while deceitfully claiming to serve the same Master (John 16:1-4; Revelation 17:1-6).
Nevertheless, in accord with my calling, gifts and ministry I am not silent; proclaiming God’s will, way and Word as it is written because this is the example of every faithful Old Testament prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ, His apostles and prophets in the New! They did not shrink back from speaking truth to their religious antagonists because it was their stewardship responsibility from God (Luke 11:37-54). Opposition from religionists is not the fault of the righteous that stand up to and cry out against their wickedness. Religionists are at fault since they willfully choose to oppose God who knows their hearts and His plainly written eternally standing Word as the Lord taught (Luke 16:15-18).
Contrary to the convenient misapplication of Scripture actually intended for corrupt religionists concerning what to do with “those who cause divisions,” (Romans 16:17-18, NKJV), God expects His faithful stewards to speak up and out about sin. Paul did so with Peter who did not resist him (Galatians 2:11-21). Yet, loud and prolonged quarreling is not the Lord’s will. If submission to the Word is not forthcoming as is typical with proud religionists (Luke 16:19-31), then, the righteous without giving ground and continuing to faithfully teach gives them over to God if He might bring them to repentance, knowledge of the truth and deliverance from Satan’s control (2 Timothy 2:24-26).
During my Christian journey to date, I have painfully been aware of many men in the churches that with proud religious leaders have not chosen to make the Lord Jesus their Master to serve Him alone. If it is not the love of money that prevents this, it is wife, children, parents, siblings, friends and self invested in personal vanity, job, recreation, hobbies, cars, yards and social clubs to include the local church which is seen and treated as such; differing from those secular only in that it gives a man the outward appearance of being religious and dispatching some duty to God in his attendance, practice of traditions and involvement. To be sure, many of these men are deceived and not saved!
In defiance of Scripture, such men are impossibly attempting to be saved by keeping religious traditions and doing church works (Romans 3:9-31; Ephesians 2:8-9). Religious leadership--many not saved themselves, wickedly insist the men obey them as wise masters in their deadly deceit as they exploit them for their money and labor (Mark 7:1-23).5 A smaller number of other men are saved, but make very little progress in spiritual maturity for lack of instruction in sound doctrine and biblical manhood. They never sell out completely to the Lord as Master of their lives because they do not know it is required of them as religious leadership demands to be served as master instead.
A still smaller number of men in local churches ruled by religionists are more serious about the Lord, but for lack of a made up mind wholly given over to serve Him are torn between two masters. While the other master can be anyone or thing of those already stated, it is typically the local church and the religious requirement of leadership to be more faithful to them in service and doctrine than to the Lord--His will, way and Word as it is written! My heart has gone out to these men over the years many of whom have been dear brothers and personal friends because as others of old, their torn state is filled with fear of their religious leaders and secrecy (John 7:13, 9:13-22, 12:42-43, 19:38-39). They need repentance and courage to serve Him alone from the Lord if they are willing!6
While I too, have had a few moments over the years when fear of religious consequences have caused me to be careful of what I said and to whom I said it, I have sought the Lord for the courage needed to follow His example and that of His apostles as faithful stewards of God. Absent the Holy Spirit leading, controlling and empowering them, the disciples all ran away in fear at first in the face religious men (Mark 14:43-50). After their new birth, however, they became courageous, sold out to and stood firm as apostles and faithful stewards of Jesus Christ, their Master (Acts 4:1-22, 5:17-42). If a man has been truly born again and loves the Lord, he is never to be torn between two masters. He is loyal to Christ as his Master alone and true to His Word (Acts 4:19-20, 5:27-29)!7
3 And no wonder since they lie on God too saying, ‘“The Lord says,’” but He had not spoken (Ezekiel 13:6-7, NKJV)!
4 Truly, how can one that is a faithful born again believer in Jesus Christ and member of His Church universal ever be an “outsider” to any professed Christian local
church where He is really honored as Lord? Sin in all of its forms, unbiblical, cliquish membership requirements and nepotism through Christianity as manmade reli-
gion forces Christ and His faithful stewards to be outsiders (Colossians 2:16-23; 1 Timothy 4:1-5; Hebrews 13:9-13; Revelation 3:20)!
5 How wise really are these men since they reject and refuse to obey God’s Word as it is written? Consequently, His judgment of them is just (Jeremiah 8:8-12)!
6 The Lord calls you to repent from fear of sinful men, unwillingness to stand on the truth of His Word as it is written not as it is corrupted to accommodate religious a-
gendas or suffer as He and all of the saints before and around us! Too, He would have you repent from divided loyalties and double mindedness (James 1:5-8, 4:
7-10). If the Lord is Lord, then serve Him as Master remembering religious leaders did not die for nor do they have a Heaven or Hell to put you in. If to you Jesus is
not Lord, why torment yourself trying futilely as He taught to serve two masters? Understand though, that rejection of Jesus as Master leads to no good end now or
in the day of accountability (Matthew 7:21-23, 10:16-39, 12:30).
7 This is the heart of every aspiring strong man and great woman of God I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. Get a print copy or digi-
tal download of the book at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only). You can also get a print copy
in the Strong Man Store.
The Lord Jesus Christ is just as plain as He can be in His teaching declaring: “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon,” (Luke 16:13, NKJV). While mammon represents money in applying this passage, the other master besides God can be anyone or anything! In this post as the Lord leads, I write to remind myself and other men that He “ain’t playing” about His requirement that those that would follow Him be exclusively devoted to faithfully serving Him as Master of our lives contrary to what is seen in many churches today.
Contextually, the Lord’s principle of faithfulness to one Master comes near the end of His teaching targeting the issues of the cold hearted Pharisees and scribes that had mingled with the tax collectors and sinners drawn close to hear Him beginning in Luke 15. These religious men could not understand why Jesus representing God would be concerned about sinners and were purposely seeking for an opportunity to discredit Him. So, as He said He would, He taught them in parables about God’s love for sinners (Matthew 13:10-17). Then, directly to His disciples, but with the religious leaders still listening in the Lord begins to teach on stewardship in Luke 16.
In His parable of the unjust steward, the Lord rebukes the Pharisees and scribes in their failure as stewards while warning His disciples at the same time about the requirement of God that His stewards be completely faithful to Him (1 Corinthian 4:2). Every man beginning with his life, in his home and into God’s house has a stewardship responsibility He holds them accountable for (Matthew 12:36-37; Romans 14:12; 2 Corinthians 5:9-11). In their love of money (not to mention position, power and recognition among other selfish motives), Israel’s religious leaders were unjust as stewards before God their Master just as the man in the Lord’s parable was to his (Luke 16:1-2).
As in the parable, Israel’s religious leaders had mismanaged what God had entrusted to them due to having a greater devotion to money than to Him. Blinded by their devotion to money and hearts made hard through the deceit of sin intrinsic to manmade religion, they did not even have enough fear of God in them to try to do something about their failure, day of impending accountability with and certain judgment by God (Luke 16:3-9). The Lord further teaches that if a man will be faithful with a little to manage, he will also be in more; unjust in minor matters, also those great. Proven unfaithful, such a man disqualifies himself from bigger stewardship responsibilities (Luke 16:10-11).
Moreover, if a man is unfaithful in managing another man’s affairs, the Lord would know “who will give you what is your own” to manage (Luke 16:12, NKJV)? This brings us to the famous dilemma of the one who would serve two masters. No one can successfully serve two masters at once because again the Lord concludes, “either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other,” (Luke 16:13, NKJV). While they may not have fully understood all of what the Lord was teaching up to this point, the religious leaders present got the message about the unjust steward and forthwith ridiculed Him (Luke 16:14).
Israel’s religious leaders hated, despised and persecuted the Lord Jesus because in contrast to them as unfaithful stewards, He was completely faithful! He was gathering sinners to Himself, preaching the Gospel to, teaching and serving them through mighty miracles because that was His stewardship assignment from God. And God made it known He was pleased with His stewardship to include His death on the cross (Luke 3:21-22; John 8:28-29, 11:38-44, 19:28-30, 20:11-18)! Now, that unfaithful religious stewards persecute the faithful is from the beginning (Genesis 4:1-8), why the Lord was persecuted and any of us too who will be faithful to our Master (2 Timothy 3:12). Indeed, for this reason I have been persecuted by those of manmade Christianity from my infancy in Christ!
As Joshua’s charge and the Lord’s sober instruction on being His authentic disciple have echoed down through the centuries, I heard them and made my choice to serve Him alone in the day of my wholehearted surrender (Joshua 24:14-15; Luke 9:18-26, 14:25-35).1 Since those days in 1979 until now, I have been repeatedly told in word and deed by leaders in churches divergent in geography, ethnicity and size that God’s will, way and Word does not apply in every situation. Also, religious traditions and activities are necessary to be in effect, an “opiate” to “the people.”2 Finally, I was warned not to challenge disobedient leadership or the wicked status quo or be considered what one dear Southern Baptist sister once playfully called me, but others consider true, “trouble.”
1 Read the February 17, 2019 post, Surrendering All To Jesus, under the category, Glory To God!
2 19th century Communist thinker, Karl Marx, wrote in an article: “Religion is the opiate of the people.” Biblical Christianity is far removed from such a notion being as it
is the salvation, eternal way, life and Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ and every one of His genuine “born again” followers in relationship with Him (John 3:1-8, NKJV)!
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