Eph.4:4 - There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling.
Ti.2:13 - Looking for that Blessed Hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
FALSE HOPE
To bring democracy to a middle east country which becomes a west-friendly, thriving, capitalist, democratic country who votes to be exclusively an Islamic nation and not allow missionaries in.
FALSE HOPE
A person is freed from the addiction of drugs through the help of a secular support group. He then lives a productive life and dies at the age of 80 without Christ.
FALSE HOPE
A person spending their entire life helping to comfort the lepers of India but never telling them of eternal redemption in Jesus Christ.
FALSE HOPE
Letting a person pray to "accept Jesus" without making him aware that he is giving everything to Christ.
FALSE HOPE
Creating a church service contoured especially to step by step bring a person painlessly and without discomfort through a series of well orchestrated and manipulative hoops that result in him reciting a prayer followed by a blanket of assurance.
THERE IS ONLY ONE HOPE, JESUS CHRIST
Recently I was communicating with a man who believes that the emergent church ministry has some enlightening teachings that are breaking down outdated doctrinal barriers. He seemed like a sincere Christian who wanted to seek the truth but he had allowed himself to be drawn into new and groundbreaking teaching that was intellectually exciting but, sadly, a departure from sound doctrine.
Now, one teaching that he espoused was what I considered one of the most dangerous of all. He believes that people can go to heaven through other religions if they are sincere and good people because they are really following Jesus, they just don't realize it. If there ever was a convoluted departure from Biblical truth it is that, and the Apostle John calls it the spirit of anti-christ. How can a person who denies that Jesus has come in the flesh die and go to heaven? I asked him what would be the reason for missions then and he replied that we should still go preach Jesus to the world because the gospel is "their best hope". Their BEST hope?? Do you see the verbally slight but doctrinally colossal shift away from the truth?
Jesus and His gospel is not "their BEST hope", it is their ONLY hope. That "best hope" teaching is the spirit of anti-christ that is gently but systematically finding its way into today's church. This is the most serious debate in church history, especially since the Antichrist himself stands at the door. And while this expansive gospel pervades the modern evangelical world, preachers by the tens of thousands either espouse it, don't care about it, or are completely silent about it. Only the Lord knows the ramifications of this strange fire, but God will not dwell in a house of worship where the Antichrist, the enemy of His Son, is allowed to teach. Where are the men of God calling for a solemn assembly to fast and pray? Even the Biblical men of God gather to preach to each other and not put on sackcloth and ashes and repent before a holy God.
Eph.2:12 - "That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, having NO HOPE, and without God in the world.
Do you see what God says? In the Old Testament the Gentiles were without hope in this world because they were strangers from the covenant of promise. What was the covenant of promise? It was the Abrahamic Covenant that God made with Abraham that contained the promise of the coming Messiah. There is no after death salvation for anyone outside the covenants that were fulfilled in Christ. Look at what God said in verse 13.
Eph.2:13 - But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Paul says in Ephesians 4 that "There is ONE body and ONE Spirit, even as you are called in ONE hope of your calling, ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism, ONE God and Father...". Mark it down in your Spirit, anyone who says that there is salvation in any other name than Jesus is a lying spirit.
Acts 14:12 - "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is NONE OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN, given among men, whereby WE MUST BE SAVED."
While we need to speak out about this evil spirit that gains momentum daily in the hearts of people, we ourselves need wisdom from the Holy Spirit.
We need to identify the preachers of this false gospel to warn people without letting it matriculate into personal attacks. That can be subtle.
We need to keep our personal relationship with Jesus as a priority in the midst of this Spiritual battle.
We must realize that our weapons are Spiritual, the Word and prayer.
We must remain broken and humble. Anger can be the Lord's, but let us speak the truth in love.
We must remain solely committed to the teaching of the Word of God, never the reason of man.
And finally, we must never sacrifice the preaching of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as the ONLY HOPE FOR THE WORLD. Lifting Him up, seeking His face, looking unto Him, giving Him the preeminence, and walking in Him should be our battle cry. As soldiers of light let us put on the His armor, the armor of light, and forever glorify Him as the only hope for the world and continually embrace Him as OUR ONLY HOPE.
Amen and Amen. Praise the Lord.
Posts
3 comments:
There is an insistent voice that comes upon sometimes that tells me that I am being judgmental in my opposition to the Emergent Church and the Purpose Driven Church. Their supporters claim we are the hypocrites for attacking what they teach without really knowing what they teach. What they are missing is what you brought out in this post. There is only one way to the Father and that is through the Son. We aren't the ones making the way too narrow, it is Christ Himself who makes the way narrow. They also, don't care for the doctrine of Repentance nor the doctrine of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Yes, thank God that He has saved us and showed us that Jesus is our only Hope!
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
Henry,
You are splitting hairs with what John said on Verum Serum, and in doing so, misrepresenting it.
You said
Now, one teaching that he espoused was what I considered one of the most dangerous of all. He believes that people can go to heaven through other religions if they are sincere and good people because they are really following Jesus, they just don't realize it.
He did not "espouse" the teaching that people can go to heaven through other religions. What he stated was that there are doctrines (age of accountability for children & the mentally ill) and Biblical cases (those that came before Christ, those to whom Paul spoke about the "evidence of creation") where people were deemed saved, despite a lack of acceptance of Jesus. Based on this, he said that he could not judge that children, the mentally ill, and the ever-so-elusive "unreached islander" were doomed to hell - only God can determine that. He also reaffirmed that Jesus is the way, truth and life and that no man can come to the Father except through Him. And, in the same way that Jesus may have gone to the "spirits in prison" (if that is correctly interpreted from Peter's writings), it would not be heresy to believe it possible that God might do the same in these cases. Or, because God is just, they may all be doomed to hell. Regardless, our couse of action is the same - the Great Commission.
What John did NOT say was that those who pray to Allah, Buddah, Krishna or someone/noone else, but have not accepted Christ, are just following another way to heaven.
Please stop twisting his words and stirring further argument.
Rick, Amen and amen to "There is Only one Hope."
So much to pray for. So awesome and faithful and trustworthy and good a God to rest in. Prasie HIM for giving us HIS Word that we can know HIM. Praise HIM for giving us (His regenerate children)HIS Holy Spirit who enables us to rightly understand and treasure HIS Word.
Post a Comment