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The Way of Cain - Page 43

New teachings in the Christian Church- Where are They Leading Us?

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Unity vs Truth?

Prophets and leaders in this movement don't appear concerned about determining what the actual truth of the scriptures is, as long as each one is allowed freedom to teach and practice his own pet ideas- they disagree with one another on such basic doctrines as the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and how one is saved, yet they network together, support one another's ministries, build on one another's doctrines, speak together at the same conferences and events, and preach one another's sermons, all working towards the common goal of one global church. We are seeing the concept of truth downgraded in the church just as we have in our modern culture.

The Bible says doctrine and truth are very important- Hold ''fast the faithful word ...exhort in sound doctrine and... refute those who contradict,'' Titus 1:9. ''Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints,'' Jude 1:3.

God's nature is both truth and love, characteristics which cannot be separated- ''All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth'' (Ps 25:10); ''Thy lovingkindness is great above the heavens; and Thy truth reaches to the skies.'' (Ps 108:4).

Do not accept the idea that we must give up truth in order to pursue love. They are meant to coexist in the church as they do in God's character. We are to ''speak the truth in love'' (Eph 4:15).

The outward unity of the church has no influence whatsoever on God, He does as He wills irregardless of anything we do or do not do; ''neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things'' (Acts 17:25). Yet, the Bible tells us a global, unified, false religion -Satan's ultimate counterfeit of the church- will come into existence during the end times (Rev 16:17-18:21). Unity will certainly be important to its power to rule and control.

The desire to bring about one global religious organization is not new or radical anymore; the World Council of Churches, the U.N., etc., have been working towards this for some time, as has the Roman Catholic Church, who desires all her ''erring children'' to ''come home'' and seeks primacy as the religious organization of logical choice. What is new is that up until now the evangelical Christians have not been drawn into it, as they recognized there was no way to take part in an organization which will validate all religious beliefs without compromising the unique truth of the Bible and the gospel message -

Jesus said to him, ''I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.'' Jn 14:6

And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12

- the movement has changed this. It has provided the inducement for evangelicals to come into the global religion with everyone else- - and even to do so in a self-deception that imagines the world is coming into their religion.

Another way to a ''Christian'' World

Remember that Satan is the god of this world and legitimately offered the world's kingdoms to Jesus -

...the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; and he said to Him, ''All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me.'' Then Jesus said to him, ''Begone, Satan! For it is written, 'you shall worship the lord your god, and serve him only.''' Mt 4:8-11

Jesus utterly rejected Satan's idea, standing on the word of God, but I wonder if today's rationalizing, relativistic church would find this as clear and easy a decision?

They might see it as the quickest and most expedient way to make the whole world ''Christian'' - the kingdoms would all become ''His'' after all- it would have saved all these hundreds of years waiting for the fulness of time, and saved Jesus the cross, too. It would only require that one small compromise- but isn't that just a bunch of ''doctrine'' and ''dead theology'' anyway? How could it be bad if it brings the whole world to Jesus? Satan wouldn't want the whole world to belong to Jesus, would he? ...Or would he, if the circumstances were to his own choosing? Apparently so, as we see here he did make Jesus the offer.

Folks, Satan is the most intelligent created being that exists. We are not equal to his skillfulness at intrigue and deception and many in the church are acting upon naïve and foolish misconceptions. We have got to stop basing our beliefs on flimsy rationalizations like, ''Satan wouldn't want me to love Jesus more, therefore this must not be from him.'' That is faulty reasoning, destined to lead us into deception.

We need to come back to the safety and sanity of God's word, remain within the boundaries God has assigned us. We are not wiser than God!

God has His plan in place, the plan He determined before the foundation of the world. He will be exalted when it is the time He has chosen. It is not for us to figure out how to produce His Kingdom. Do not imagine it is for us ''to enforce Christ's victory'' through some new process we need to initiate. This is no different than Abraham and Sarah getting tired of waiting for God's will to be fulfilled and imagining they could bring it about themselves through the flesh. Regardless of whether they ''meant well,'' they unleashed a great deal of misery on the world. To imagine God needs us to achieve victory over the world in order for Him to return is to commit the sin of Uzzah, who thought God needed his help to hold up the Ark, and whom God struck dead for his impudent irreverence (2Sam 6:6-7).

There is an illegitimate way to produce a ''Christian'' world which is against God's will. It is guided by expedience, it bypasses the cross, it is contrary to God's word, and, though it appears to be 'for Jesus,' it places a different god in the place of the one, true, Almighty God. It is doomed to failure and those who promote it, to being ashamed.

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