TITLE: A Symphony of Miracles Chapter 36 Subtle Deceptions 4/8/14 By Richard McCaw 04/10/14 |
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
SEND ARTICLE TO A FRIEND |
Chapter 36
Subtle Deceptions
Let us not be deceived. Another insidious stream now flows. Modern intellectualism and human reasoning, with their increasing avalanche of attacks upon the Bible, seek to discount the miraculous. As a result many Christians,are now falling into the trap of trying to do God’s work in the flesh.
The devil knows how powerful Christians can be if united in covenant, and that God designed a united church to reach a divided world. Therefore, the devil has a counter-plan: to divide and conquer. Congregations and Christian families are splintering everywhere. Lack of intimacy within local congregations means that people are going elsewhere to find loving support. At the same time unbalanced and unscriptural doctrines have crept into the community of Christian believers.
Secular humanism is a deceptive yet extremely harmful cancer which exalts human beings, eliminates the Creator, and establishes the foundation for popular anti-biblical philosophies.
New Age evangelists today proclaim that all people possess inner good within them like a sleeping god, and they extract a Hindu monistic belief that all matter, including human beings, originates from the same source. Their belief is pantheistic, proclaiming that "all is god," and that man, therefore, does not need a Savior, outside of himself. He can save not only himself from destruction, but also the world.
This belief has permeated modern society to such an extent that large corporations are now sending their managers to seminars to enhance their minds. Therapists employ techniques founded on inner reflection and exploration of consciousness. Marketing experts stress human potential for its ability to motivate men. Entertainers seek an inner power that will propel them into popularity.
Scripture exposes this deception. “There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one!”
The Bible also declares that truth is found, not by looking inward, but by looking upward, not to men, but to God. Hence the prophetic word That God gave to Jeremiah, “Thus says the Lord, Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord”
But where did it all start?
During the Age of Reason, before the French Revolution, many social thinkers and philosophers challenged the truth of the Holy Scriptures, and therefore exalted the principle of "reason" in French society. Because of the upheavals of the French Revolution of 1789-1799, the religious and social structure of Western Civilization, and also of America, were radically transformed, as new philosophies were born, that attempted to "humanize God" and "deify man."
When social thinkers and philosophers of the North misguidedly reacted to the Age of Reason, the religion of atheism created what became known as Romanticism.
ROMANTICISM was a philosophy that worshiped faith, human emotion, tradition and nature. Much of the poetry of that period reflected confidence in the unity, beauty and goodness of the universe and mankind. However, the religious faith of the Romantic writers rejected the efficacious atoning work of Jesus Christ, and trusted in man’s ability to solve his own problems and to achieve perfection.
UNITARIANISM, another religious movement and philosophy stressed the power of human reason to determine spiritual beliefs, and rejected divine revelation as the avenue of receiving truth. Jesus Christ was only a teacher and a social reformer, and therefore not God Almighty.
TRANSCENDENTALISM proposed that spiritual reality could be discovered through human intuition, without any absolute authority. Anyone could receive "flashes and insights" of truth as the highest form of knowledge. It emphasized the visionary and idealistic aspect of human nature. As a result, it denied the Headship of Jesus Christ and the supreme authority of the Scriptures.
DEISM asserted the existence of God as Creator of the world, but Who, like a clock maker, has programmed it to now run on its own. Consequently, divine providence, supernatural revelation, and God’s plan of salvation for man, were seriously challenged and rejected.
PANTHEISM declared that God does not exist as a person, but that all natural laws, forces and manifestations of the self-existing universe are God; God is everything and everything is God, allowing for the worship of all gods, spiritual, natural, material, or mystical.
UNIVERSALISM emphasized the perfectibility of man, that all men will be ultimately saved, that divine revelation has a varied character, and that Jesus Christ is merely human.
RATIONALISM rejected divine revelation and the supernatural, and founded its philosophy on human reason.
The Apostle Paul described false teachers as those "who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator"
After the defeat of the Christian South in the American Revolution, the social and political structure of the North gave way to a liberal Christianity, which subtly began eating away at true Constitutional government, Bible-based Christ-centered Christianity, and our Western European ancestral heritage.
Seeing that we know that the return of the Lord Jesus Christ may be at the door, that the false prophets and cults with their pernicious doctrines of demons are zealously on the march, going from house to house, infiltrating positions of authority in the media throughout the land, as Peter, the apostle, appealed to early believers “What manner of persons ought we to be in holy conduct and godliness?”
Let us test all things, arise, and like a mighty army, clothed with the armor of God, battle for lost souls, for backsliders, and faithful believers. Let us wage war upon the kingdom of darkness and destroy the works of the devil. Our God goes before us! Our God will lead us! Let faith arise in our hearts as we seek to be led by His Spirit. Let us take back territory the enemy has stolen and glorify our God and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.