Not only does God lead us into the desert; He
permits false prophets, that prophet or
that dreamer of dreams. As before,
it is a test to reveal our hearts, whether
you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
This is a difficult test in our day. If someone says the Lord says and tells amazing stories we accept them. Take the book and movie (always a sign of truth in our day if the book leads to a
movie) Heaven is for Real. A boy visited heaven; he knew things he could
not have known otherwise; thus his words were truth. I often wonder about the Apostle Peter who
thought he had all he needed for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) but without
all this extra testimony that everyone seems to think we need today. Actually, of course, what is amazing is that
we allow our attention to be taken away from the word of God so easily.
As I write there is another such situation with
The Shack, a book that has now
reached movie status. It clearly
presents a sub-Biblical view of God. And
yet we are told that if people get saved
or are less depressed as a result, it must be good. But it takes us away from Scripture while
claiming to speak for God. In fact the
self-proclaimed purpose of The Shack
is to present a kind and loving God that people can be happy with; it is not a
call to hear and fear (Deut. 8:11).
This is the common theme in our day: present a
nicer god. You could see this, for
example, in Greg Boyd’s Letters from a
Skeptic (1994) who wrote to his atheist father of a god who was still
learning, a god growing like the rest of us.
And again, in Love Wins (2011)
by Rob Bell where he redefined heaven and hell so as to present a nicer
god. These is not the God we are to hear and fear.
We
MUST take this matter seriously. Every
book and letter in the New Testament deals with this. Let me mention one, Pauls last letter (2
Timothy) where he in every chapter he named names, he was so concerned about
this in the Church he knew he was about to leave (his death was imminent).
·
2 Timothy 1:15: Phygellus and Hermogenes turned
away from Paul and the pattern of sound
words he had taught (1:13).
·
2 Timothy 2:17: Hymenaeus and Philetus whose
message that the resurrection was already past would spread like cancer and
overthrow the faith of some.
·
2 Timothy 3:8: Jannes and Jambres who spread
false doctrine in the days of Moses, men
of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith.
·
2 Timothy 4:10,14-15: Demas had been part of
Paul’s ministry team until he turned his love to the world. And Alexander, who resisted Paul’s words.
Did you see the response that was called for in
Israel. False prophets were to be
killed, destroyed and shown no tolerance.
The Church is called to deal strongly: first with gentleness seeking
their repentance (2 Tim. 2:23-26); then shunned, called out, given no pulpit,
rejected (Titus 3:9-11). This is a test
to see what is in our hearts. Do we love
God with all our heart and soul?
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