Here is the untarnished truth, however unpalatable it may be for some.
"..There have always been men (and women!) 'ordained of
old' who have had a mission to infiltrate Christian congregations
and subvert the essential Christian message with teachings which
render the gospel ineffective and meaningless! Effectively, Satan
has sought to lead visible congregations astray by placing false,
unconverted people in congregational leadership!! Sounds
far-fetched? Just read on....."
Around the year 90
AD, the apostle John wrote his second and third epistles. These
epistles carry a strong warning, yet it is a warning which we
often seem to read right over in our day.
The Church of God was being infiltrated by certain outsiders who
obviously had a mission to subvert the Church (whether or not
they were aware of it). The situation was so serious that some of
these subverters had gained leading positions within
congregations and were able to bar God's true apostles from
preaching in those congregations!! Let us note a few
verses:
'I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the
preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I
come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating
against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he
himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish
to, putting them out of the church'
(3 John 9-10)
Are these words not incredible? Here - even before the ending of
the first century - was a 'visible' congregation taken over by
subverters, with true Christians actually being
disfellowshipped!
Even in his first epistle, John had expressed some concern about
these infiltrators, and he clearly describes some of their
beliefs in 1 John 4:1-3. Let us read these verses:
'Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits,
whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone
out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every
spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is
of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of
the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now
already in the world'.
Of course, many Bible scholars have long noted that John's
comments here are a fairly clear reference to the early heresy of
Gnosticism. The Gnostics believed that Jesus was not fully human,
at least during those more pivotal periods of His life, such as
during the tranfiguration and, especially, on the cross. John is
very anxious that nobody should be taken in by this false
teaching realising that Jesus had to be fully human as well as
fully divine in order for His sacrifice to be efficaceous in
paying for the sins of mankind!
Any concept that Jesus was merely an apparition, or spirit,
seriously undermines the veracity and validity of His
sacrifice.
Now some say, 'Hey-ho - we have long recognised that these
were Gnostics, or, proto-Gnostics, so lets move on...'
But we should not be too fast about this; Would these words have
been recorded, plus all the other New Testament warnings about
false teachers, if this was just a reference to a first century
group of heretics? In this study we will learn that, whatever the
particular heresy, there have always been men (and women!)
'ordained of old' who have had a mission to infiltrate Christian
congregations and subvert the essential Christian message with
teachings which render the gospel ineffective and meaningless!
Effectively, Satan has sought to lead visible congregations
astray by placing false, unconverted people in congregational
leadership!!
Moreover, most all the later attempts to subvert true Gospel
preaching would involve the denial that Jesus 'had come in the flesh,'
whether this would involve a romanticised, poetic, non-literal "gospel" (a central plank of most 19th century 'Liberal Protestantism') or even the teaching
that the Passion did not occur within human history since it was "supra-historical" (a central tenet of 20th century Neo-orthodoxy). The 'God is dead' movement also removed Jesus from human history, as has the more recent 'Process theology' which has sought to introduce a new 'Jesus' who is not divine and has no idea what the 'Father' would require of him next! I might add that the late 20th century/early 21st century 'prosperity gospel,' - in its worst form - also effectively replaces the New Testament Jesus with a new 'Jesus' who is primarily concerned that his followers should be healthy and prosperous and offers a 'salvation' of present ease, prosperity and luxury. Again, this involves a denial that that the biblical Jesus of Nazareth has 'come in the flesh' since He becomes effectively replaced by a triumphalist, success-oriented 'Jesus' (we will return to a consideration of some of these groups later in this article).
But even if subverters had not carefully thought through their theology, any unconverted church leader fulfils the pattern quite successfully.
Sounds far-fetched? Just read on.....
Around the time that the apostle John issued his heresy warnings
through his epistles, a certain Jude was also issuing a similar
warning. 'Jude' is a form of the common Jewish name 'Judah' and
while we cannot be absolutely certain who this Jude was, the
strongest candidates are Judas the apostle ('Judas' was the Greek
form of the name) who is mentioned in Luke 6:16 and also Acts
1:13, but probably the strongest candidate is Judas the physical
brother of our Lord (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3).
Jude said this:
'Beloved, while I was very dilligent to write to you concerning
our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you
exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once
for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in
unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation,
ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness
and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ'
(Jude 3-4)
Since this warning was probably written fairly close to John's
warnings, the question which immediately arises is, was this the
same heresy??
We cannot be entirely sure but apparently not, for the people
that Jude is referring to apparently taught a 'cheap grace'
message which seems rather different to the 'secret knowledge for
the purest of the elect' and asceticism of the Gnostics. The
people that Jude is warning about were determined to continue in
their former sins since they held an understanding of grace which
allowed a sinful and licentious existence to continue. Of course,
they were plainly wrong and Jude is concerned about their
activities and influence. But the net effect is the same as the
Gnostics that John warned about;
Christ's sacrifice is rendered of no effect! True Christian
teaching has been seriously diluted by additional, syncretistic,
elements. The result is that naive and gullible people coming
under the influence of such false teachers could be fooled into a
'false salvation'!
So Satan's strategy was (and is) two-pronged:
1. Introduce a subtle, syncretistic 'mix' which has elements of
the gospel, but renders the gospel of no effect.
2. Get this message (in whatever form it might take) into
congregations through the use of false/unconverted leaders.
If one should want a third example of a false, heretical teaching
which included a message about Christ but rendered the
gospel useless, just carefully check through Paul's epistle to
the Galatians. In that particular epistle, Paul strongly attacks
judaizers who talked about Jesus but insisted that Christians
also stood under major parts of the law of Moses. Paul is white
hot with anger at their activities. Check out Paul's anger in
Galatians 1:6-9.
But my case is not yet fully made and established.
Did Jesus Himself warn about false teachers affecting groups of
sincere believers?
Yes, He did. Lets look at Matthew 7.
'Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know
them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or
figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit,
but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad
fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does
not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who
says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but
he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me
in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name,
cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your
name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart
from Me, you who practise lawlessness!'
(Matthew 7:15-23)
Please notice that some of these people will even have cast out
demons (or so they will claim) and 'prophesied' (the Greek for
'prophesied' could mean 'inspired and persuasive preaching'), yet
it will be to no avail, for they (apparently) had not upheld the
biblical gospel, and their works had upheld 'lawlessness' - What
does this mean? This is Greek word number 458 in Strong's
Exhaustive Concordance (anomia) and it means, 'wickedness'
'iniquity' 'transgression' or 'illegality'. In this context, it
plainly refers to those who may have pointed to Christ but did
not lead true Christian lives. Might some of these people have
been too concerned about....money, a following, prestige, the
world, success, their own 'image'?? Might their private lives
have contradicted their professed calling? These are some of the
possible reasons why this particular Greek word was chosen
here.
In Acts 20, Luke quotes some of the words of Paul in warning
about those who would infiltrate Christian congregations with a
different 'gospel':
'For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of
God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock,
among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd
the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 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 20:27-31)
So often we ignore such warnings today. Why? Well perhaps we
simply see such Scriptures as a reference to the cults and sects,
but please note that Paul's warning here goes beyond that; These
are false teachers/teachings which would directly affect
Christian congregations! We should certainly realise that if
Satan already has the cults and sects tied up in errors which
render the gospel meaningless for those people, he will certainly
be keen to go on the attack against the 'stragglers in the pack'
of real Christian congregations!! Indeed, isn't this precisely
what Peter warns about in 1 Peter 5:8-9? The apostle Peter also
said this:
'But there were 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 bought 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 judgment has not been idle, and
their destruction does not slumber'
(2 Peter 2:1-3).
Notice again, that these people will use 'deceptive words' - some
of it will sound good, some of it will sound appealing! But, as
we noted in the earlier examples, the 'net effect' of their
labours is that they are, "denying the Lord" - the gospel is
rendered useless in changing lives, since these people are intent
on affecting the message of the holy gospel! They keep
Jesus, but they make changes in the substance of the
gospel!
The great, but nowadays sadly neglected, Bible commentator Henry
Halley, made these comments about Peter's warnings:
'It is a sorry picture. Even within the Apostolic generation the
World and the Devil had succeeded in making heavy onslaughts on
the Purity of the Church. Then followed the long centuries of
Papal corruption. And, even now, in our own enlightened age, the
Gospel of Christ, in its original beauty and simplicity and
Purity, in many sections of the Church, still is buried and hid
from view by the rubbish of forms and doctrines heaped upon the
Church, through the ages, by the World and the Devil'
(Halley's Bible Handbook, Zondervan, 1965, pages 668-669).
Of course, Halley could have gone further; there have been
numerous attempts, from the time of Christ until now, to attack
Christ, His Church and the Gospel.
We may think of the concentrated attacks of the 19th century
theologians of 'Liberal Protestantism' - these people decided
that the Bible was unreliable and that we could not count on its
words. The message of Jesus was best understood on a romantic and
inspirational level, but there was no real Atonement. This school
of theology permeated most (though not all) of the great
seminaries, and 'ministers' were churned out by the hundreds who
did not believe that the Bible was truly the inspired Word of
God. These ministers went into Anglican/Episcopalian, Baptist,
Presbyterian, Methodist and other denominational congregations.
Of course, it is now known that 'Liberal Protestantism' was a
DESTROYER of church congregations, and many denominations still
have not recovered from the onslaught!
Of course, this was just another tactic of our great adversary,
Satan, in getting false, unbiblical teachings into the churches
which spoke of Jesus, but completely undermined the veracity and
momentum of the gospel!
Of course, Liberal Protestantism is now a dead duck, but has our
adversary been idle?? YOU BET HE HASN'T! The 20th century brought
the so-called 'death of God' theological movement, and - more
recently - 'Process theology' and the 'Theology of Hope' of
people like Moltmann. Much of this is more subtle than the
old-fashioned Liberal Protestantism, but the Bible is still
attacked as is the authority of Jesus. Often a 'Jesus' is upheld
who has not yet made up His mind about the future or - in some
cases - hasn't got a clue about what may happen in the future!
And, yes, you guessed it, ministers are being churned out who
have accepted some of these wholly unbiblical concepts; again,
effectively, the gospel is rendered meaningless and useless -
apparently, its just what Jesus thought and His thinking was much
like any other first century Jew!!
But while Satan has freely attacked through the universities and
seminaries, he has also attacked through various 'lower level'
teachers and teachings. Some of the teachers were not always
wholly incorrect in every area but tended to introduce unbiblical
approaches; typical of such people was Charles Finney and the
resultant 'Finneyism' - Not everything that Finney said and did
was wrong by any means, but Finney seemed to believe that it is
entirely within our own power to have 'Revivals' - we must
use emotional pressure, and get folks to walk the 'sawdust trail'
in making a committment! Yet many such sincere people were never
taught to 'count the cost' of becoming a Christian, although the
New Testament suggests that we do so. Also, thousands who 'made a
decision for Jesus' during a period of great emotional pressure,
perhaps during a 'camp meeting' later walked away from the Faith.
This is not simply my opinion, but the opinion of people such as
Billy Graham who once used a Finneyite approach. Again, I remain convinced of Finney's personal sincerity which I do not seek to undermine, however, he is certainly responsible for certain regrettable trends coming into preaching.
We would not wish to attack all areas of the
Charismatic/Pentecostal movements, but here too many false
teachers and teachings have freely reared their heads, and church
congregations have been freely infiltrated by unbiblical
influences! To just take one or two of many possible examples,
the teaching that so-called 'unknown tongues' is the only proof
that one has the received the Holy Spirit is wholly unbiblical
and very easily debunked from the Bible, yet thousands have
accepted it and countless congregations have been split up
because of it - SATAN HAS SMILED!
The teaching that, upon anointing, one should be healed,
otherwise one is secretly sinning and/or lacks 'faith' is,
biblically, a nonsense, yet, here again, congregations have split
and many have been offended - SATAN HAS SMILED!
But one of Satan's greatest successes of recent years has been
the rapidly spreading influence of the 'Word-faith' movement;
this movement, also somtimes called 'the health, wealth and
prosperity gospel' or the 'positive confession' movement has now
infiltrated huge areas of evangelical Christianity. This is not
the place to debunk the serious and unbiblical flaws in this
movement (we have other articles which do that), but all
Bible-believers should grieve that so many sincere people have
become ensnared by this 'New Age'-rooted perversion of biblical
faith. It has just been brought to my attention, for instance,
that large areas of the once so highly promising 'house church
movement' are now seriously affected by Word-faith. Yes, its the
usual mix; Jesus gets preached (in a manner) but the gospel
becomes fatally compromised by a message all about our use of
words, finances, positive-thinking and success!
A Bible-believing minister known to myself spent several years
preaching in various rural congregations as something of a
travelling preacher. He sought to revitalise the Christian
witness in UK's more remote areas, especially in the south. This
man (who certainly did not claim perfection for himself) came to the firm conclusion that the vast majority of
such congregations were firmly controlled by
unconverted leaders.
Does that sound incredible? Maybe it does, but this is all part
of the mystery of iniquity and Satan's determination to
infiltrate Christian congregations, so I don't think we should be
surprised!!
Since this man preached the biblical gospel clear and unabashed
while warning of error in all of these places (whether liberalism, or the prosperity message), he was not
surprised that he was almost never invited back! In some cases,
congregations were down to just 10 or 15 people, all over 70
years of age. Occasionally he gently suggested to the leaders
that that was a dying congregation if nothing was done, but his
comments were almost always met with indifference. Some of these
congregations had not had their own pastor for many years nor did
they seem interested in having one. My friend sometimes offered
to go out and pray for the sick if needed, but he was never taken
up on this. In one case he was astonished to find that the pastor, a worthy and decent man, had been sick and unable to attend for about five years, but that nobody ever visited him!
So I maintain that the 'mystery of iniquity' refers to Satan's
determination to infiltrate congregations of Christians with
false teachings/false teachers/false leaders who/which actually
deny the message of the gospel (however subtley). We must
remember that John clearly saw the spirit of antichrist beginning
to be at work in his own day and he always associated it with attempts
to subvert the Church (1 John 4:3).
It is a mistake, therefore, to see this as just a
phenomenon which might affect congregations just prior to the return of Our Lord! It began a long while ago as the New Testament
writers make abundantly clear.
Before I move on to dicuss the vital Scripture in 2 Thessalonians
2 with its reference to the 'Man of Sin,' I just need to
underline what I am NOT saying!
What I am NOT saying
I am not saying
that we will ever, during the present dispensation, be able to
have a wholly pure Church - that just is not possible;
several Scriptures seem to show that the righteous and
unconverted alike are likely to make up visible church
congregations. Any attempts to form a purist, pietist Church of
the spiritually pure in the present world could only ever lead to
a witch-hunt. This, in itself, is a heresy; the heresy of
Donatism, which Augustine so rightly opposed in the fourth
century AD.
What I am saying is a little different, though not entirely
unrelated. I speak of unconverted people who are, perhaps,
natural leaders tending to take leading positions within
congregations, then using their position to encourage compromised
theological teaching which seeks closer accord with this society,
and tends to make Jesus a great religious leader, but not
necessarily the Saviour of the world!
While such people have certainly controlled liberal churches for
a very long time, I believe they are now starting to gain more
and more prominence within evangelical churches; we should expect
it - it is the mystery of iniquity at work!
But we must be on our guard to protect biblical truth and the
veracity of the gospel of Jesus Christ in all Bible-believing
congregations!!
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
Verses 1-3:
Even in Paul's day, some were thinking that Christ had either
returned or was on the very brink of returning. But in verse 3
Paul shows that a great 'falling away' must occur first of all.
We do not need to spend much time considering what form this
'falling away' would take since Paul makes it clear (One might
also look at 1 Timothy 4:1). The falling away would lead to the
manifestation of 'the man of sin' (some, though not all, tie this
'man of sin' in with Daniel 7:25). This 'man of sin', then, will
be revealed before the return of Christ.
Verse 4:
And here is the famous and most intriguing verse which so many
have wondered about! Let me quote it in full:
'Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God
or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of
God, showing himself that he is God'
Just who is this?
There are several opinions about this among Bible-believing
Christians.
The Protestant reformers had little doubt that this was a
reference to the Papacy with popes ruling over a counterfeit
'church' organisation.
Others see this as just a reference to an end time false
religious leader who will gain prominence shortly before Christ
returns. This man (ruled by Satan himself), will wage all-out war
on true Christians. While some see this as a revitalised Papacy,
others are increasingly wondering whether this might be either
Islamic in nature, or a new world religion!
Verses 7-12:
For the mystery of lawlessness ('iniquity' KJV) is already at
work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out
of the way.
Vs 8: And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord
will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the
brightness of His coming.
Vs 9: The coming of the lawless one is according to the working
of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
Vs 10: and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish,
because they did not receive the love of the truth, that thet
might be saved.
Vs 11: And for this reason God will send them strong delusion,
that they should believe the lie,
Vs 12: that they all may be condemned who did not believe the
truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness
While we cannot say that the reformers were wholly wrong in their
view that this is descriptive of the Papacy, the evidence here is
very strong that this is primarily a reference to a final,
end-time leader, especially when we note that the
returning Christ will apparently destroy him (verse
8).
But another intriguing thing here is that while this false leader
will sit in the temple of God (verse 4), he appears to be an
irreligious figurehead! - Apparently he will be the
epitome of 'lawlessness' - he will, apparently, have the greatest
appeal to those who reject Christ (verses 10-12), and to those
who 'had pleasure in unrighteousness' (verse 12). This does sound
more like the irreligious, secular world than the followers of
any religion! Don't forget that 'religion' can be defined
extremely broadly; it was said, for instance, that Communism
fulfilled many of the 'world religion' criteria, as does
Darwinism! A religion does not have to believe in a personal God
but can be primarily atheistic (Buddhism).
For this reason, it could even be speculated that anti-God
materialistic secularism itself will - at the last - be granted
miraculous powers by Satan!
Without doubt, this speaks of the same time as the destruction of
the Two Witnesses (the final destruction of the witness of the
Church) in Revelation 11:7-12. The Witness' mission too obviously
finishes as Christ returns. Interestingly, the world will rejoice
when all Christian witness is finally stamped out (Rev
11:9-10).
Putting all possibilities together, however, it does appear that
this final anti-Christ figure will represent some kind of
religion, whether it is a revitalised old religion, or a new
'World Religion'.
What we MUST note!
But while
considering all such possibilities, we MUST hold on to one clear
fact:
While the Anti-Christ only comes 'to the full' when all worship
of Christ is finally wiped out upon this earth, yet - in a very
real sense - 2 Thessalonians 2:4 is even now
fulfilled......
WHEREVER UNCONVERTED LEADERS/FALSE UNBIBLICAL TEACHINGS 'SIT'
IN AUTHORITY IN 'TEMPLES' OF GOD!
Let us never forget that it was ALWAYS Satan's strategy to
infiltrate God's people in order to weaken them whether through
the undoubtedly voluptuous and seductive Midianite women in the
Israel of Moses' day, or through false teachers infiltrating the
spritual Israel of the Church in more recent days:
NOTE THIS TOO:
Such false teachings can be expected to be equally 'seductive'
yet will tend to point back to the world and its values (as
liberal theology, for instance, and 'Word-faith' so clearly do),
rather than pointing toward our spiritual 'Promised Land' of the
New Heavens and New Earth! So the 'seduction' of these false
unbiblical influences will be toward the seduction of this world,
its morals and values. The seductive influences which Satan will
use will tend to seek common cause with this world and will seek
to weaken the impact of the gospel; make no mistake, Satan would
like to destroy the Church! But God will not allow that, so
Satan's next tactic will always be to make the Christian message
just another religion.
I hope that all of us who are Christians understand that
Christianity was never intended to be just another religion,
rather, IT IS THE ANTIDOTE TO ALL RELIGIOUS CONFUSION WHICH
OUR ADVERSARY HAS PLANTED IN THE WORLD!!
Brothers and Sisters in Christ.....LETS KEEP THE FAITH!!
Robin A. Brace, 1995, further clarified
2003.
© This article is Copyright Robin A. Brace
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