Through the years, and especially in today's world I have been perplexed at how so many people can be so deceived about God, Jesus and the Word of God. How people can condone, accept or push things that are completely contradictory to what God has said.
However, that said, I now understand.
I have been watching a lot of videos recently by those who are calling out false teachers by comparing what they are teaching to what the Bible actually says.
There are those who have willingly invited new age worldly practices and beliefs and intertwined them into their teaching. They are literally adding demonic practices and teachings to their messages and church practices. I mean it's crazy what people choose to believe and accept when they base their beliefs not on facts or the actual word of God, but on their feelings and emotions.
This of course isn't a new phenomenon, it's been happening for thousands of years, in fact the Apostles warned us about this throughout the New Testament.
"But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who brought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgement has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber" 2Peter 2:1-3
I recently watched a video of a young man who calls himself a Christian and goes around speaking at churches who actually claims it was not the serpent in the garden who lied, but that it was God who lied and the serpent told the truth.
Seriously, that floored me to hear someone so boldly lie and distort the Word of God. His basis for calling God the liar and the serpent the truth-teller? Because God told Adam and Eve if they ate of the tree of knowledge they would die and they didn't die the moment they ate of the forbidden tree and the devil(serpent) told them they would not die.
Here is what the Bible says, "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die."
Just a reminder, "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day". 2Peter:3-8 and Psalm 90:4 Adam lived to be 930 years old and then he DIED.Until they ate of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they could have been immortal, they could have lived forever, but they disobeyed so they did indeed die, just not at that moment. There was more to what he was trying to say, but you get the gist of it.
Why does he teach such lies? Because he doesn't like what God has to say about his life choices, which is typically the case for those who teach false things and pervert the word of God.
They do not like that the Word of God labels things they want to do or are guilty of doing as sin. They don't want to hear what they desire in the flesh is sin in God's eyes.
"Let God be true but every man a liar." Romans 3:4
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires because they have itching ears they will heap for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables." 2Timothy 4:3-4
There are a whole lot of 'name it and claim it' or 'prosperity teachers' out there. They tell people what they want to hear, to make them feel good while leaving out anything that might make them uncomfortable. They trick people into believing if you become a Christian you will have everything (material) you want, you should never be sick or have any trials, etc. That completely contradicts the Word.
They take verses out of context, such as "ask anything in my (Jesus) name and you will receive it". They teach God will heal everyone if they just ask and believe, but they leave out the whole, if it's God's will part.
They rarely if ever point people to Jesus as not only savior, but as Lord. They rarely if ever, point the need for repentance or obedience. Everything they teach revolves around how you feel, emotions and fleshly desires. Very little is taught about personal responsibility and the importance of again, repentance.
What ends up happening is when people believe their lies and they don't get everything these false teachers promise them, they turn away and blame God. If they don't get healed they start to think God doesn't love them or God is punishing them for something or worse-that God doesn't exist. All while these teachers get rich off their books and the money given to then by people who believe if they just give a big enough 'seed' they'll get a large 'blessing' of money back in return.
"Now the Spirit speaks expressly,
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving head
to seducing spirits with and doctrines of demons; speaking lies in
hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron." 1Tim 4:1-2
Honestly I had no idea just how completely whacked out some of the teachings are out there, but even more so blown away that people could actually believe in some of those things they are being told.
There is a prominent church in Redding, CA that actually teaches people that if they lay on top of the actual grave of a dead preacher or evangelist they can pull out the power of the Holy Spirit that may be trapped in the person's body when they die. There isn't a word to accurately express how completely sick and ridiculous this idea is.
First of all when a believer dies their soul leaves their body, the Holy Spirit does not get trapped or remain in the body of someone who has gone on to be with the Lord. Not sure where they get from because it sure is NOT in the Bible!
I mean really, this sounds more like something from a horror movie, and yet there are people who not only believe this, they do it! This is most definitely occult type teaching and behavior straight from demonic doctrines.
There are those who teach Jesus didn't rise from the grave in his physical body, that claim an angel came down and gave them a new gospel, etc. But I'll save those for part two.
Test everything using the Bible as your litmus. I learned a valuable tool years ago, when checking to see if a scripture being quoted is being taken out of context, always read the chapter before and the chapter after the verse. But most importantly pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give you discernment and understanding. Always take the Bible as a whole, not in bits and pieces. Any 'teacher' who pushes something that directly contradicts the Bible is a false teacher!
We can ask the Lord to keep us from being deceived, in fact, this is something I pray for regularly. It's especially important in today's world when things that are good being called evil and things that are evil being called good.
Always be alert and remember our enemy, the devil is like a prowling lion, just looking for those he can devour. Nothing has changed in his tactics, he uses the same deception today as he did in the Garden.
Thousands of years later he is still using the same lines, did God really say that? God didn't really mean that, etc. Check and re-check everything you are told, because ultimately it is your soul that is at stake.
