THEY DELIBERATELY TURN US FROM JESUS
II Peter 2:1-3 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them - bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
Down through the church age there have certainly been those people that Satan and the powers of darkness have planted within the church to bring confusion and division. Jesus spoke of this in the parable of the weeds in Matthew 13:36-43. Jesus said, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear?”
We might wonder why doesn’t God or the church just get rid of people like this? One reason is that these people are very cleaver and many do not even know that Satan and the powers of darkness are even using them. And too, if we start making people leave the church for just every reason we may end up making people leave that will mature in Christ and be of great benefit and blessing to the church and Jesus. This is why Jesus also said not to pull up the weeds or you may pull up wheat with them. Sometimes making the bad leave will discourage some immature Christians and they will leave also.
So what is the answer? To start with I believe it is good teaching on the truth of the gospel of Christ. This is the same thinking as bankers as they are trained to spot forged currency. They are taught to know exactly what the correct or true currency looks like. Then when they see a counterfeit they recognize it right away. The same is true regarding Christian doctrine. Part of the problem is with mature Christians. They already know the correct doctrine so they don’t want to continue to hear it again and again. So the new Christians don’t hear the true doctrine, because of the mature Christians desire to go on to more mature things. The simple answer is just have classes for the new Christians, but in today's busy world they often don’t want to spend extra time learning the fundamentals. It like our children when they get old enough to drive a car. They just want to get in the car and go somewhere. They have ridden in the car many times and are not interested in learning about how a car works, how to maintain it, things needed to make it lawful, learning to drive defensively and probably most often today is learning to focus on driving and not become distracted. Skipping these important steps can lead to their death or someone else's death. Yet, knowing all this doesn’t keep them from neglecting what is important to be a safe drive.
I pastored in the United Methodist Church for about 32 years and in every church the majority of people that attended didn’t have a clue what was correct doctrine from incorrect doctrine. They would come on Sunday morning looking to be entertained, take home a funny story they could share with their friends so they would know they went to church and to give some money to pacify their conscious. I am not being condemning or judgmental, but just stating facts. It was not all the fault of the pastors as it wasn’t all the fault of the laity. The pastor needs to instruct the laity even if they think they need something more entertaining, and the laity need to desire and study to show themselves approved even if the pastor doesn’t teach them as they should.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 24 that many in the last days many will be deceived and turn from the faith. There will be those that deliberately alter the truth in Jesus Christ to benefit themselves. Even though they know better they will still do it. It is up to each Christian to base their eternal security on only the word of God. We can not be carried away by error and fall from our secure position as 3:17 warns us. We must stand in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, please help us not to fall into disbelief through good sounding beliefs that may tickle our ears but bring death to our soul. Please help us to recognize false teaching and quickly turn from it. Please keep us close to your heart. We ask this in your holy name.
