Christian Living

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How many are the false teachers of our day? It is apparent from looking at a number of books, on the subject of cults and false teachers. You can click on the internet, go through a search engine and type in the word cult, and up pops a number of websites detailing various movements, various cults and their leaders.

One such ministry, founded by the late Walter Martin, is located in southern California. This ministry makes it a point in identifying various counterfeit faiths and cultic activities within the church. I suppose this has its purpose. It serves to warn those who are new born babes in the faith to beware of associating with these false teachers and yet we have to say that we should rather spend our time in learning the truth rather than error or false doctrine. We should spend our time profitably studying the Bible.

You see the best way to identify a counterfeit dollar bill is not by studying all the counterfeits that are in the world or that are in circulation but rather to really get to know what a genuine dollar bill looks like. You study what a genuine ten, twenty or hundred dollar bill looks like.

The greater the currency value the more imperative it is to understand what the genuine looks like. Why? Because the stakes are higher. If I get suckered by a dollar it is not so bad but a $100 bill would hurt.

Now the stakes in religion are infinitely greater. If we miss out on the true religion because we've been deceived by the false then nothing less than our souls eternal welfare is at risk. Read James chapter one about what true or pure religion is.

"Pure religion and undefiled before God the father is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." James 1:27

We do not need to study all the heresies in the world to arrive at truth, although some knowledge of some heresies will be beneficial. We can these heresies when we recognize them being taught in the church.

Arianism, which is modern day Jehovah's Witness doctrine, denies the deity of Jesus Christ and therefore leaves people without a Saviour.

There are the Pelagians which deny the doctrine of orginal sin. They say that babies are born innocent and sinless. They become bad or sinful through their environment. This isn't what the Bible teaches and we must be on our guard against such heresy.

John Newton said that his principle method of defeating heresy was by establishing truth. One proposes, he said, to fill a barrel with tares. Now if I can fill it first with wheat I shall defy his attempts, he concluded.

So we would do well to be built up in the most holy faith, established in sound doctrine. We are to contend as Jude said, to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints and to contend earnestly.

Jude is a very important book although a very short epistle. It issues a POWERFUL WARNING to the church and her leaders to fight or stuggle as in a wrestling match for that faith which was embodied in the doctrine of Holy Scripture and taught by our Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles and the Old Testament prophets.

Jude says in verse 4 "That there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness
and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ."

These teachers say where sin abounds grace much more abounds, therefore, let us sin all the more so that we will receive all the more grace.

These corrupt teachers harden themselves against God's clear revelation and reject the only way of salvation, "for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12

These men have rejected the revelation of God and so reject the Christ of revelation. These are the liberals and modernists that J. Greshem Machen fought against in the Presbyterian church USA during the 1920's and 1930's.

These false teachers speak evil of dignities verse 7. In fact it is practically a denial of God's sovereignty because we know that God sets up kings and brings down kings. Indeed Proverbs says, "The heart of the king is in the hands of the Lord; as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. Proverbs 21:1

So we pray for those in authority. We lead godly lives. Pastor John MacArthur once said in a sermon that Christians are angry and greatly disturbed by the fact that abortion is legally taking place in our land. We recognize it as murder. We call it such. But our government hasn't gone to the point of forcing Christian women or any woman for that matter, at least to my knoledge, to have an abortion. These women are having abortions on their own. Some maliciously and some out of ignorance. We can minister to these women encouraging adoption rather than abortion. Then there are some who have abortions with the consent and blessing of the church.. Now this shows the end result of false and corrupt doctrine. False doctrine leads to the worse sort of crimes and ungodly behavior. These raging waves of the sea foam out their own shame.

But what good is it to convince people that abortion is wrong if these people end up going to hell? What good is it to convince people that homosexuality is wrong if the homosexual ends up going to hell because he rejects the gospel of Jesus Christ. Rather, let our FOCUS be upon winning souls for he that winneth souls is wise. Proverbs 11:30







Carlton Pruitt ministers the gospel to the Los Angeles area. Formerly a Hollywood actor (SAG member)and junk removal expert he now spends most of his time studying the scriptures, writing articles, hymns and poems and doing street preaching. See his videos on www.YouTube.com. Type in LAStreetPreacher in the search bar. CONTACT at [email protected]

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