Fraudulent leaders in our churches seem to be as at ease with their deceptive schemes as magicians are with their trickery. Mesmerizing their audience with smooth talk and charismatic charm, they confidently prey upon their unsuspecting victims' lack of biblical literacy and misplaced loyalty.
Such is a disheartening state of affairs. Of course, false teachers loathe refutation. To convey correction is a personal assault and a great transgression.
Some fume threatening speech: 'Touch not the Lord's anointed' or 'Judge not'. Clearly, thieves love darkness and hate to be counter-targeted by the flaming light of truth.
Bless the forthright watchmen who possess the courage and exegetical fortitude to sound the horn on serpentine ministers who have inconspicuously slithered into the Church.
We must tackle the serious issue of how long those who seek God's Truth will walk in brotherhood with those who have deviated from Truth. Division is often met with reprimand in the name of love and tolerance. Appeasement to political correctness rather than an adherence to biblical correctness is the dominate order of our day. Godly love and truth causes division... separating the narrow path of Truth from the wide road of error and ungodly concession.
Today, it is incumbent that true believers in Christ proceed with caution so that they do not give support and sanction those who have betrayed the Lord. Regrettably, many naïve people wink at doctrinal transgressions as long as it is perpetrated by a captivating, kind, and amorous 'man of God'. Ministers of darkness cloaked as angels of light are conveniently undiscerned. Let true believers judge righteously and take heed to the words of Paul:
"For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears."
(Acts 20:29-31)
"Throughout the whole world error & truth travel the same highways, work in the same fields & factories, attend the same churches, fly in the same planes & shop in the same stores. So skilled is error at imitating truth that the two are constantly being mistaken for each other. It takes a sharp eye these days to know which brother is Cain & which is Abel!"
~ A.W. Tozer
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"Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" (Galatians 4:16)
"These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received with all readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." (Acts 17:11)
PRAYER FOR DISCERNMENT
Grant me, O Lord, to know what is worth knowing,
to love what is worth loving,
to praise what delights you most,
to value what is precious to you,
and to reject whatever is evil in your eyes.
Give me true discernment,
so that I may judge rightly between things that differ.
Above all, may I search out and do
what is pleasing to you;
through Jesus Christ my Lord.
~ Thomas a' Kempis (1380 - 1471)
FALSE TEACHERS IN THE CHURCH: "For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears." (Acts 20:29-31)
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