Thursday, November 3, 2016

The Importance of Being Properly Informed

According to a 2014 Pew Research Center study, 70.6% of the Americans identified themselves as Christians. That almost seems impressive. After all one of the major thrusts of many churches is "soul winning" Where when you come to church you are told to go out and get more and more people to come to church. Then those people come to church and they bring people to church. Then a lot of those people say that they believe in God, or they believe in Christ.
You  won!!!

Except,
"You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!"-James 2
Getting people into a church is a good thing, but then what? Get them to believe? Demons believe. Could it be that there is more that comes out of belief? Lets look at this passage.

"But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question." - Acts 15

Here we have a division between people in the church, on the subject of belief. One group believed a heretical doctrine of salvation that was predicated on an action in the flesh, the other group walked with the Savior/ Scribed books out of the NT. They felt it best to be PROPERLY informed and took it to James the high priest/ Brother of  the Savior and Peter, the Saviors main guy.

"But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”- Acts 15 still.
I've been to some parties with pharisee type people... they're not as fun as you'd imagine, a lot of man made party fouls.  Long story short the conclusion is a few basic instructions to keep from getting kicked out of church so that
" For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”- Acts... 15. ( you want the exact number read the chapter)

Moses = Idiom for God's instructions/ Torah/ Scriptures

They wanted new believers to hear and learn proper instruction and grow in the truth. NOW, lets bring this back to my ranting that opened this up. You have people out there bringing people in to hear the truth. Then the people they bring in bring others in to come hear the truth. This practice is  great, with a few flaws. The people going to get other people, are generally not studying the word for themselves. They go and grab people and bring them into a building where a guy talks about God for an hour or two. That guy is a believer, but then again, so are demons.  How exactly could Satan possibly tempt Christ in the wilderness? By taking what is true and twisting it. Misapplying  the truth is a pretty big deal. A lot of the time, Satan doesn't even care if you bring people into the church because he knows that the guy behind the pulpit is teaching his doctrine and calling it Holy.
Don't believe me? Lets take a look at Aaron the brother of Moses:

Exodus 32. 
And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord ( Strongs H3068 Yehovah)
And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

The Golden Calf incident was a worship of GOD done in the ways that are detestable to Him.
It wasn't building a false God, it was taking the ways and practices and examples of the things that are not of God and applying them to GOD. Lets be properly informed here on our unchaining and faithful God:

"take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’  You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods." - Deut. 12

Aaron the priest, Moses #2. A really Holy and Righteous dude was responsible for teaching the believers, the church, the congregation, something that was abhorrent to God.

If you can't get people to buy a false doctrine because they've heard the truth in church then obviously, the adversary is going to invade the church.

Are your pastors teaching something that is against the word of God by way of "lets make this a feast to the Lord"?

Are you?
Are you even prepared to check what they're preaching, not to make it difficult for them but to keep them accountable?  

Breakdown of Jude

What is Jude talking about ? For certain people have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, un...