Seven Marks of False Teachers

Free Grace Broadcaster - Issue 205 - Fall 2008 - Apostasy - Thomas Brooks

The first character: False teachers are menpleasers. They preach more to please the ear than to profit the heart: "Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits" (Isa 30:10).  "A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so; and what will ye do in the end thereof?" (Jer 5:30-31). They handle holy things with wit and dalliance (1) rather than with fear and reverence. False teachers are soul-undoers. They are like evil chirurgeons (2) that skin over the wound, but never heal it...False teachers are hell's greatest enrichers...Such smooth teachers are sweet soul-poisoners (Jer 23:16-17).

The second character: False teachers are notable in casting dirt, scorn, and reproach upon the persons, names, and credits of Christ's most faithful ambassadors. Thus, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram charged Moses and Aaron that they took too much upon them, seeing all the congregation was holy (Num 16:3). "You take too much state, too much power, too much honor, too much holiness upon you; for what are you more than the others that you take so much upon you?" And so Ahab's false prophets fell foul on good Micaiah, paying of him with blows for want of better reasons (1Ki 22:10-26. Yea, Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, had his ministry undermined and his reputation blasted by false teachers: "For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible" (2Co 10:10). They rather contemn him than admire him. They look upon him as a dunce rather than a doctor. And the same hard measure had our Lord Jesus from the Scribes and Pharisees, who labored as for life to build their own credit upon the ruins of His reputation. And never did the devil drive a more full trade this way than he does in these days (Mat 27:63). Oh! The dirt, the filth, the scorn that is thrown upon those of whom the world is not worthy...

The third character: False teachers are venters (3) of the devices and visions of their own heads and hearts. "Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart" (Jer 14:14). "Thus said the LORD  of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD" (Jer 23:16). Are there not multitudes in this nation whose visions are but golden delusions, lying vanities, brain-sick fantasies? These are Satan's great benefactors and such as divine justice will hang up in hell as the greatest malefactors., if the Physician of souls does not prevent it.

The fourth character: False teachers easily pass over the great and weighty things of both Law and Gospel and stand most upon those things that are of the least moment and concernment to the souls of men. "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm" (1Ti 1:5-7). "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (Mat 23:23). False teachers are nice (4) in the lesser things of the law and as negligent in the greater. "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself" (1Ti 6:35)...The earth groans to bear them, and hell is fitted for them (Mat 24:32).

The fifth character: False teachers cover and color their dangerous principles and soul-impostures with very fair speeches and plausible pretences, with high notions and golden expressions. Many in these days are bewitched and deceived by the magnificent words, lofty strains, and stately terms of deceivers, viz., illumination, revelation, deification, firey triplicity (5), etc. As strumpets paint their faces and deck and perfume their beds, the better to allure and deceive simple souls, so false teachers will put a great deal of pain and garnish upon their most dangerous principles and blasphemies that they may the better deceive and delude poor ignorant souls. They know sugared poison goes down sweetly. They wrap up their pernicious, soul-killing pills in gold. Weigh the Scriptures in the margin...

The sixth character: False teachers strive more to win over men to their opinions than to better them in their conversations. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea  and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves" (Mat 24:17). They busy themselves most about men's heads. Their work is not to better men's hearts and mend their lives. In this, they are very much like their father the devil, who will spare no pains to gain proselytes.

The seventh character: False teachers make merchandise of their followers. "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not" (2Pe 2:1-3). They eye your goods more than your good and mind more the serving of themselves than the saving of your souls. So they may have your substance, they care not though Satan has your souls (Rev 18:11-13). That they may the better pick your purse, they will hold forth such principles as are very indulgent to the flesh. False teachers are the great worshippers of the golden calf (Jer 6:13).

Now, by these characters you may know them, and so shun them, and deliver your souls out of their dangerous snares; which that you may, my prayers shall meet yours at the throne of grace.

From "Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices" in The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Vol 1, reprinted by The Banner of Truth Trust.

_____________________
Thomas Brooks (1608-1680): Congregational preacher and author; buried in Bunhill Fields, London, UK.
_____________________

(1) dalliance - light, irreverent action.
(2) chirurgeons - surgeons.
(3) venters - those who utter or give vent to erroneous doctrines.
(4) nice - precise.
(5) triplicity - one of four groups of the zodiac where each group consists of three signs, separated from each other by 120 degrees.

Why Evangelize Roman Catholics?

Courtesy of Reaching Catholics

T.A. McMahon

"Why would you want to do that?" inquired the sweet-spirited lady sitting next to me on a flight to New Orleans. Holding a Reaching Catholics For Christ card which I had given her, she was surprised that anyone would consider Roman Catholics a mission field. "In my younger days," she confided, "I had a few problems with Catholicism," but she felt that the Catholic Church had changed "quite a bit" since then. Admitting that her knowledge of Catholicism was limited, she nevertheless spoke optimistically about her Catholic neighbors, her sister's Catholic husband, and her grandchild's Catholic wife. Based upon her conversations with them, she was confident that they all knew the Lord "well enough to be saved." "Do you think all of the one billion Catholic souls around the world truly know and have accepted the gospel of salvation?" I asked sincerely. "Of course not. I rather doubt that everyone in my Baptist church is saved, either. But it's different with those I just mentioned," was her tentative response. By God's grace, what followed was an engrossing hour or so of questions and answers regarding Roman Catholic salvation in light of the Scriptures. But I was encouraged; before too long this dear lady admitted that her hopefulness for those whom she cared about had overshadowed her ignorance of what they truly believed. Sadly, her dilemma is rather commonplace among evangelical Christians today. Actually, it's worse than that. Too often these days, trying to convince evangelicals that nearly all Catholics are lost seems more difficult than convincing Catholics themselves that they need to put their trust in Christ alone for their salvation. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that most high-profile evangelicals (Billy Graham, Bill Bright, Chuck Colson, Robert Schuller, Hank Hanegraaff, Paul Crouch, Jack Van Impe, Pat Robertson, Bill McCartney, and many more) promote the idea that Roman Catholicism is definitely within the boundaries of biblical salvation. More than once have I been accused by evangelicals of being part of a "thankfully shrinking minority" and "out of step with highly respected Christians." In other words, "If they don't have a problem with it, what's your problem?" The problems in fact are far beyond the scope of this brief article, but please, if you are truly concerned about the salvation of Catholics, give the following your prayerful consideration. The most grievous aspect of the growing acceptance of Romanism is the effect it has on outreaches to Catholics. Missionaries returning from largely Catholic countries are sometimes cautioned by their support-church pastor to "go lightly" on negative experiences with the Catholic Church, as though it were appreciably different here, which is certainly not the theological case. While it's a blessing to note that each springtime hundreds of evangelical churches send thousands of our youth across the border for missions-to-Mexico ministry, few, if any, of these young, one-week-only "missionaries" have been given any instruction about the religion of the people they are hoping to help win to Christ. Even more inexplicably, many of these churches supporting missionaries in Catholic countries are reluctant to help their own congregations understand what Roman Catholicism teaches so that they might become more effective witnesses in their own community. Is sharing the gospel with our Catholic neighbors, friends, relatives and co-workers a less important outreach? Then again, is it really necessary? Aren't the teachings and practices of Roman Catholicism close enough to essential Bible doctrines to render any attempt to evangelize faithful Catholics both unwarranted and offensive to "our brothers and sisters in Christ?" Growing numbers of evangelicals feel that way. Youth Specialities (YS), perhaps the most influential organization among American evangelical youth leaders and pastors, has scheduled a Catholic priest (whose own speciality is "break[ing] down the walls of denominationalism by building unity") as their 2001 Conference general session speaker. Thousands of evangelical and Catholic teens will also be instructed by YS co-owner Mike Yaconelli in how to "use meditations, prayer, and [Ignatius Loyola's spiritual] exercises from the Christian tradition [read `Catholic'] to nurture your soul." Based upon our mail, by the way, we've seen a great increase in the numbers of letters from grieved evangelical parents regarding the marriages of their children to practicing Catholics. But wouldn't that be a good thing, if indeed, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ? On the other hand, the Bible teaches that a person is saved by faith alone in Christ alone. 1 This is so because only Christ could pay the penalty for our sin, which He did in full. There is then nothing we can do for our salvation except put our trust in Him. Any attempt to add anything to our Lord's finished work on the cross 1) is a denial of His complete atonement, 2) is a rejection of His "free gift" of eternal life, and 3) presumes that we can pay something for our salvation, which is impossible. Why impossible? Because the penalty for sin is death, spiritual separation from God forever (Gn 2:17). That infinite penalty cannot be paid in part. Death, physical or spiritual, doesn't function on a partial basis you're either dead or you're not. Only Christ can save us from so great a penalty. Catholicism, however, teaches that there is much a person can and must do to help pay the penalty and gain entrance to heaven. He must be baptized. He must receive the sacraments. He must expiate his own sins by suffering here on earth and/or in purgatory. Prior to his death he must be absolved (by a priest) of every previously unconfessed mortal sin. When a Catholic claims that he too believes in salvation by grace alone, he is saying that through the Roman Catholic Church, through its saints and its sacraments, God provides the grace necessary for him to do the works required to merit eternal life. Yet the Bible teaches that salvation is "through faith...not of works....it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:8-9). If you pay for a gift, it's no longer a gift; man's works can have no part in his redemption. Yet if a Catholic were to believe this biblical truth, his Church would condemn him. The "sacred, infallible, and irrevocable" decrees of the Council of Trent declare (and every Catholic therefore must obey or be condemned to hell) that "If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, let him be anathema [i.e., condemned]." 2 Catholics are taught that the cleansing fires of purgatory exist for the punishment of their sins "so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven." 3 Again, this is a teaching which every Catholic must believe (even though it rejects Christ's sacrifice in full payment for sin): "If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be opened, let him be anathema." 4 The Catholic Church imposes damnations (more than 100 specific anathemas are listed) upon Catholics who decide not to accept some of its teachings and practices. While liberal, lax, and even biblically leaning Catholics attempt to justify their contrary-to-official-belief views, they are mutinying against their Church which (according to Roman Catholic dogma) is their only means to heaven. The laws of the Roman Catholic Church, however, explicitly condemn those who hold "mutinous" beliefs. In other words, if a Catholic hopes to gain eternal life as a Catholic, he must abide strictly by his Church's proclaimed infallible rules. This manmade religious system does not tolerate a pick-and-choose approach to its faith. Most evangelicals (other than former Catholics) are not aware of how Catholic beliefs and practices critically differ from the Bible's teachings. For example, the Holy Eucharist, which Baptist Bill Clinton and Methodist Hillary received at a Catholic Church in Africa not too long ago, is the antithesis of the biblical remembrance of Christ's death and resurrection instituted by our Lord. This Catholic ritual, referred to as "the Sacrament of sacraments," is a total rejection of who Christ is and what He accomplished on Calvary's hill. In the Mass the priest (and only a priest) is said to transform a wafer of bread into "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained."5 "For in the sacrifice of the Mass Our Lord is immolated [killed as in a sacrifice] when `he begins to be present sacramentally as the spiritual food of the faithful under the appearances of bread and wine.'"6 The Catholic Church teaches that Christ is fully present in each of the wafers—millions offered simultaneously around the world each day—for as long as they exist (even though the leftover consecrated bread/body often putrefies—in direct contradiction to the biblical prophecies that His body would never experience corruption).7 If you have ever wondered why some of the great teachers/preachers of biblical faith have referred to the Catholic Mass and Eucharist as an "abomination before God," and why many saints of old chose to be burned at the stake rather than give credence to such a terrible perversion, I hope it's becoming tragically clear. What every Catholic is participating in is an occult ritual in which a man calls down the resurrected and glorified Christ from heaven, changes His body into a pre-crucified, pre-resurrected body, then turns bread into His body and blood, and kills this Christ on an altar. It is beyond ironic that daily Catholic priests do what their Church historically has blamed and persecuted the Jews for having done once. Since this Eucharistic ritual claims to "re-present" all that Christ suffered for our sins, Jesus must undergo the same experience millions of times every day. Worse yet than the unending brutality and mockery He must suffer is the continual experience of the agony of separation from His Father, which caused Jesus to "sweat...as it were great drops of blood..." and to appeal to His Father to "remove this cup from me" if it were possible (Lk 22:44,42). Hebrews is unequivocal in rejecting this ritualistic Catholic travesty: "[Christ] needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice...for this he did once, when he offered up himself"; "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many"; "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb 7:27; 9:28; 10:10). And Peter, regarded by Catholics as their first pope, writes, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (1 Pt 3:18). All Catholic communicants must believe they are eating the "real" flesh and blood of Jesus, otherwise they commit a mortal sin: "If anyone denies that in the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist are contained truly, really and substantially the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ, but says that He is in it only as a sign, or figure or force, let him be anathema." 8 One of the many reasons we cannot take John 6:53 literally ("Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you") is that doing so would constitute cannibalism and the drinking of blood, which both the Old and New Testament specifically forbid. Even Augustine, the father of modern Catholicism, rejected the literal interpretation for this reason.9 Finally, Catholics must worship the "consecrated host" (wafer) as God: "If anyone says that in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is not to be adored with the worship of latria [worship given only to God]...or is not to be set publicly before the people to be adored and that the adorers thereof are idolators, let him be anathema." 10 The Catholic weekly Our Sunday Visitor reported that one of Promise Keepers' top evangelical executives was so overwhelmed by the "Real Presence of Jesus" at a Franciscan University Eucharistic Holy Hour adoration that he was compelled to prostrate himself before the sacred host.11 Considering only the few Catholic teachings which have been presented in this article, if every Bible-believing, born-again Christian reading this doesn't find them troubling enough to care about the eternal destiny of every Roman Catholic, they should sincerely examine their own understanding of the gospel of salvation. I'm hopeful that there are many who do see the serious problems and are willing to encourage their pastors and elders to teach their congregations to actively evangelize Roman Catholics. For those in the Northeast, Word of Life at Schroon Lake, NY, will be hosting a Reaching Catholics For Christ Conference this September (see TBC Notes). RCFC (reachingcatholics.org) has been formed for the specific purpose of helping equip evangelicals to witness to Catholics. Please pray that in these last days before the Lord returns, He will give His church a loving burden for the salvation of one billion Roman Catholics. TBC End Notes John 1:12,15-16,36; 5:24; 6:40; 8:24; 11:25-26; Romans 3:22: 4:5; 5:1; 10:8-13; Eph 2:8-10 (to name a few).  H.J. Schroeder, trans., The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (Tan Books, 1978), 43. Catechism of the Catholic Church (The Wanderer Press, 1994), 268. Trent, op. cit., 46. Catechism, op.cit., 346. Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. Austin Flannery, O.P. (Costello Publishing Company, rev. ed. 1988), 102-103. Psalms 16:10; 49:9; Acts 2:27. Trent, op.cit., 79. William Webster, appendix 8 of The Church of Rome at the Bar of History (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1995), 195, footnote 17; citing Augustine, On Christian Doctrine (n.p., n.d.), 3:16:24. Trent, op. cit., 80. Our Sunday Visitor (July 20, 1997), 10-11.

Billy Graham - Apostasy

Courtesy of Sola Sisters

Billy Graham: "There's so much that we have in common (with the Roman Catholic church)."

Posted by Christine Pack

On Brannon Howse's 1/16/12 Worldview Radio show, host Brannon Howse discussed how he slowly, over  time, came to the shocking realization that the revered and well regarded pastor Billy Graham had strong ties to the Roman Catholic church, as well as some startling views on the exclusivity of Christ in salvation. From his upcoming book Religious Trojan Horse:

"Hosting a national radio program five days a week for many years allows me to hear from lots of people that called in to the program, as well as from those that email me. For many years, I wrongfully ignored the warnings that many people would send concerning the need to look into Billy Graham's history. To be honest, I just did not want to believe that the man that I'd watched on television since the age of 3 had chinks in his armor.....Perhaps even now, you as you read this chapter, you're feeling the same way I once did. If so, I completely understand. However, I finally came to the point where I knew that the importance of the gospel, and the protection of the gospel, must outweigh my personal feelings. In other words, I must be committed to biblical principles above personalities." (Brannon Howse, Religious Trojan Horse) Howse's guest Chris Pinto, a former Roman Catholic, explains that linking with Roman Catholics simply must not be done. Yes, the Roman Catholic Church teaches about God and Jesus and the Cross and Salvation, but they also add to the finished work of Christ on the Cross by requiring works of their adherents. This is no small thing. In the book of Galatians, Paul rebuked as Peter for allowing the Judaizers to add the "works" of circumcision and law-keeping as additional requirements for salvation.

“When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas (Peter) in front of them all, 'You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.'” (Galatians 2:14-16)

Read more --> HERE. 

The Evils within the Church

Courtesy Chapel Library

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

Jude 1-25

Jude, “the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,” speaks to us in the tone of an ancient prophet. His voice is that of Elijah or John the Baptist. It is “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” He speaks to the declining churches of his day. He speaks to the Church of the last days. It is against the evils within the Church that he specially warns. What a picture does he draw of error, licentiousness, worldliness, spiritual decay, and ecclesiastical apostasy! Who could recognize the image of the primitive Church in the description he gives of prevailing iniquity? The world had absorbed the Church, and the Church was content that it should be so…

It is a picture for the Church in our day to study, for we are rapidly becoming part of the world and falling into the snares of “the god of this world” (2Co 4:4). Nay, and we glory in this as “progress,” “culture,” and “enlightenment,” as freedom from the bigotry of other centuries and the narrowness of our half-enlightened ancestors, who did not know how to reconcile contraries and to join what God has put asunder; how to believe everything alike; how to combine earth’s pleasures and gaieties with the joy of God; how both to pray and to dance; how to revel and to weep for sin; how to wear both the “white raiment” and the jeweled ball dress; how to maintain friendship both with God and with His enemies; how both to pamper and to starve the flesh; how to lay up treasure both on earth and heaven; how to drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; how to be partaker of the Lord’s Table and the table of devils.

The names that he applies to these inconsistent brethren will seem to some hard and strange. “Spots in their feasts of charity,” “clouds without water,” “trees whose fruit withereth,” “twice dead, plucked up by the roots,” “raging waves of the sea,” “wandering stars,” yet naming the name of Christ and numbered among His disciples! O darkness of the human heart! O subtlety of the flesh! O deceitfulness of sin! What is there that a man will not profess when it suits his purpose? What contradictions of life, creed, and conscience will he scruple at, (68) when ambitious of position, fame, or wealth? O Church of the living God on earth, how art thou disfigured and defiled by those on whom thy name is written! How many are in thee who are not of thee, nay, who hate thee in their hearts while wearing thy livery; (69)  for whom the reveling and banqueting of earth have charms far beyond thy simple bread and wine; who are at home in the gay lighted hall of midnight mirth, but out of place in the upper chamber of thy Lord and Master; for whom the fair faces of earth have an attraction that thy holiness and beauty inspire not; for whom the luxuries of the social feast have a relish which they cannot find in that which is to thee better than angels’ food, that flesh which is meat indeed, and that blood which is drink indeed!(Joh 6:55).

In this day of half-discipleship, of double service, (70) of religious worldliness and worldly religiousness, how needful it is that the awful words of the Apostle be studied by the Church of God! We need them now! Ere long we shall need them more. Every day do we see, read, or hear of things and scenes in connection with professing churches of Christ that make us ask, “The Church or the world, which is it?” Are we not often constrained to say to ourselves, “Are Christ’s words no longer true? Have the broad and the narrow ways become one? Is there now no Church, or is there now no world?”

Not as if all this were strange and new, either in our days or in the Apostle’ our days or in the Apostle’s.  The germs of this apostasy were  seen before the flood. It was of such men that Enoch prophesied when he proclaimed a coming judgment and a coming Lord (verse 14). “Ungodly deeds,” “hard speeches,” “great swelling words”—these were in Enoch’s day. They were swept off by the avenging flood of water. They are now again coming up in the last days in wider and more awful development, waiting to be consumed by the flood of the devouring fire with which the Lord, when He comes, is to purge this polluted earth, that He may bring out of it the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Greater, indeed, and more hateful must be the wickedness of the last days…It is written of the last times, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure” (Psa 2:4-5). The way of Cain, the error of Balaam, the gainsaying (71) of Korah will be all combined and repeated in the wickedness of the last days. Then the human heart shall, unchecked, be permitted to overflow. Do we not see the beginnings of this overflow in our own times?...

The whole of this epistle is full of solemn thought for us. It is very similar in tone to the apocalyptic epistles to the seven churches, and seems almost like a preface to them. Its warnings against declension from truth and holiness, against worldliness and luxury, against inflated self-sufficiency and boastfulness, against profligacy (72) and carnality, against a fruitless religion and an empty name are very appalling and sound like a prelude to the last trumpet—a voice from heaven so loud and penetrating that it would seem as if even the dead would awake under its terrible thunder. What sins it exposes in the Church of God! What departures from first love! What debasement in evil! It takes up and echoes the apostolic warnings of earlier days. Here we find the summary of the sins and apostasies of Christendom. The “strong delusion,” which believes the lie, is here (2Th 2:2). The fatal friendship between God and the world is here (Jam 4:4). The often denounced fellowship between the clean and the unclean is here (1Co 10:21). Here is represented to us the last great lapse to the Christian Churches and with it the ending of the times of the Gentiles: the commixture (73)  of religion and irreligion, of error and truth, of fleshly lusts and a confident profession, of antinomian laxity (74) and a high profession, the alliance—political, or  philosophical, or scientific, or ecclesiastical—between Egypt and Israel, between Babylon and Jerusalem (2Ti 3:1-7). Here we see the Church absorbed in the world and the world in the Church, each delighted with the other; the sons of Belial sitting at the “feast of charity” and at the Supper of the Lord; error the companion of truth, and truth the ally of error; the fine arts—music, painting, sculpture—all made to minister, not to religion,  but to the production of religious sensations, which make men believe that they are religious when they are mere admirers of the beautiful and solemn in sight and sound. (75)

Thus does Jude warn us, as Paul did, against the perilous times of the last days. perilous times of the last days. The Church of our age may not be chargeable with such declension as in the days of Jude. The fine gold may have become dim, but is not altogether dross. Yet modern Christianity has in it but little of the miracle or magnificence of early times. It is not so holy, so prayerful, so joyful; nor yet so high, so noble, so splendid. The grandeur of apostolic saintship has disappeared. How poor is much of the religion we see around us! How hollow and superficial! Sullen in some, flippant in others, showy in others, bustling and talkative in others, worldly and political in others, sensational and sentimental in others—in all, second-rate, even when sincere and true.

One of the most sorrowful things amongst us is the  going back of many who “did run well,” who were once zealous and sound in the faith, but have been swept into the torrent of “progress.” They boast of keeping abreast of the age and mistake the snares of Satan as “an angel of light” for the “leadings of providence” and teachings of the Holy Ghost; leaving their first faith and love; taking one of earth’s meteors for the heavenly pole star. (76)  Politics, pleasure, gaiety, business, philosophy, science have come between them and the glory, if not between them and the cross. Leanness of soul, lowness of spirituality, lukewarmness in everything but outward religious bustle describe their present condition. They do not thrive nor bear fruit. They have come to be once more in love with this present evil world, from which they had been delivered. They have become stagnant in the routine of external service and conventional talk. They have thrown themselves into the spirit of the age in its full breadth—a breadth too narrow to include the glory of earth’s coming King and the power of the Holy Spirit, but broad enough to contain in it the dark subtleties of anti-Christian error, at least in their germ or idea, which in its full development will not only deify humanity and worship creature intellect and power, but will enthrone force, and numbers, and money, and commerce, and art with all that is called “nature” and “natural laws,” as the true regalities of earth, the true elevators of the race, and accomplishers of the destinies of man!

That any of Christ’’s sheep shall perish, we do not believe. God’s eternal purpose secures them forever. But we see strange things in our time. Men believe one thing today, another tomorrow, and a third the next, and they call it progress! The voice of the age is reckoned the voice of God! Truth has become flexible and principle as pliant (77) as wax. Men who looked as like Christians as any could look, turn back into error or worldliness. They did run well, but they have been “hindered that they should not obey the truth” (Gal 5: 7). They have been “bewitched” (Gal 3:1), so as no longer to obey the truth. They began in the Spirit, and they are trying to perfect themselves by the flesh. Some who once preached the gladness of the glad news have plunged into the gloom of popery or ritualism. Others, who seemed to live in prayer and were absorbed in the study of the one blessed Book, now think prayer needless because of God’s universal Fatherhood, and the Bible, though the best of books, only one of an ascending series, all of them inspired; who look on novels and newspapers, depicting what they call “life and character,” as our true textbooks for daily study; who are persuaded that this world is not so evil as some narrow Christians think it, and that its feasts, luxuries, and gaieties are good things, which a Christian ought not to abjure (78) but to enjoy.

When we see these things, we stand in awe, perplexed as to what next may happen, asking, “Are there few that be saved?” and alarmed at finding how closely an unbeliever may resemble a believer, and how far down  a Christian may be permitted to sink without totally falling away. Let us not be deceived by the vain show in which men are walking. In spite of all fancied progress, that word is still true, “We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” No amount of “culture” can change the natural man. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (Joh 3:6); and the “progress” of the flesh, however goodly it seems, must be ever downward. When that which is perfect is come, and that which is in part has been done away; when the Kingdom that cannot be moved has been set up, then the world’s true progress begins, and the divine “culture” will take the place of the human. Then, as we look back, we shall be astonished at the shallow thing that men call progress now and see in it man’s last proud effort to enter heaven without being born from above; to be a god to himself, and by his own intellect and energy to rectify the world that he has ruined—a world that can only  be restored by the power of the Holy Ghost and the enthronization of its long absent King.

From “Light and Truth: Bible Thoughts and Themes” in The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar CD, Lux Publications, www.horatiusbonar.com.
_______________________
Horatius Bonar (1808--1889): Scottish Presbyterian minister whose poems, hymns, and religious tracts were widely popular during the 19th century; born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

68 scruple at – question.
69 livery – the distinctive uniform style of dress worn by a person’s servants.
70 double service – that is, serving God and mammon.
71 gainsaying – to speak against; contradiction.
72 profligacy – shameless immorality.
73 commixture – mixing together.
74 antinomian laxity – looseness in morality because of a denial of God’s Law.
75 It is said, that in the last days of the old Roman Empire, when its “decline” was passing into its “fall,” everything was paralyzed by luxury save music, which was cultivated to utter intoxication. Old Rome died music mad.—Horatius Bonar
76 pole star – North Star.
77 pliant – supple; easily bent.
78 abjure – give up; abstain from

Hireling

The article which got me thinking about this topic-->HERE.

Hireling...the word is used 9 times in 8 verses (OT and NT).

First OT usage:

Job 7:1 - Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

H7916 - From H7936; a man at wages by the day or year: - hired (man, servant), hireling.

• H7936 - The second form by permutation and used in Ezr_4:5; a primitive root (apparently akin (by prosthesis) to H3739 through the idea of temporary purchase; compare H7937); to hire: - earn wages, hire (out self), reward, X surely.

Same word usage in Job 7:2, 14:6; Isaiah 16:14, 21:16; and Malachi 3:5.

Found 17 times in 17 verses - also translated as hired servant (Exodus 12:45, 22:15; Leviticus 19:13, 22:10, 25:6; 25:40, 50, 53; Deuteronomy 15:18, 24:14) hired men (Jeremiah 46:21)

NT:

John 10:12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.

G3411 - From G3409; a wage worker (good or bad): - hired servant, hireling.

• From G3408; to let out for wages, that is, (middle voice) to hire: - hire.
• G3408 - Apparently a primary word; pay for service (literally or figuratively), good or bad: - hire, reward, wages.

Same word usage in John 10:13 - The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

Also translated as hired servant in Mark 1:20 - And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.

We are not to be distressed at this news, for we were warned that the hearts of many would turn away.

Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

One of the most chilling statements from the 'pastor' who 'came out' was this:

“Hardly anyone reads the Bible,” said Mike Aus of  the non-denominational Theopholis Church on Up with Chris Hayes. “If they did, the whole thing would be in trouble.”

That should be a clarion call to those who are true disciples...Study to show thyself approved, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.

If we do not spend time in the Word of God, how can we expect to be like the Bereans (Acts 17:11)?

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

They Went Out From Us

Courtesy of Chapel Library

Samuel Eyles Pierce (1746-1849)

Baptist preacher; known for his exalted view of Christ and love of sovereign grace; 

born in Up-Ottery, Devon, England. 

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”—1 John 2:19

THE former verse contained a declaration that there were at that period many antichrists, which was an evident sign the last state of the apostolic church was just closing. It was necessary this should be known and taken notice of because whilst the fathers in Christ might be wholly out of danger from these heretics and from heresies and errors, yet such as were not established in Christ might not be so. As the Apostle therefore wrote to these and informed them what the times were, so he also informs them from whence these persons came. They originated in the church: they went out of it. They were therefore the more dangerous, seeing they knew the better how to sow their pernicious (49) errors. They were the more to be avoided in their persons, as well as their doctrines also…Their renouncing the faith and fellowship of the Gospel after they have made plausible professions and appearances of being believers in Christ, their separating themselves from our church communion that they might broach (50) their infamous errors and spread the same with their infamous practices far and wide, fully manifest they were never true believers, but downright hypocrites and falsehearted professors. These persons I would guard you  against. Your being preserved from them and their pernicious ways and errors will be good evidence for you that ye are on the Lord’s side and belong to Him. As this distinguishes you from them, so it makes you very precious unto us. It is therefore that I address you on this subject…I am

1.  TO SHOW THESE ANTICHRISTS MENTIONED IN THE FORMER VERSE WENT OUT FROM THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST: and the reason they went out of it was because they were not of it. “They went out from us, but they were not of us.”

Where could these apostates go out from but the church? If they had not been in it, they could not have gone out from it. The church they went out of was the true church of Christ, founded by the Apostles themselves on Christ, the foundation and chief cornerstone, in which the true and everlasting Gospel was preached; the ordinances of Christ —Baptism and the Lord’s Supper—kept as purely as Christ Himself had delivered them; the whole church plan, form, order, laws, and government properly enforced and attended unto also. And these persons had professed their faith in all the essential truths of the Gospel. They had been baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity. They had been regular members of churches. They had been admitted to the Table of the Lord. It may be [that] they had been admitted to fill up some office in the house of God, such as that of deaconship or of being preachers of the Word.

Yet their ambitious spirits were such, they could not be content but they must bring in another gospel, contrary to what the Apostles preached. And in the virulency (51) of their spirits were set most desper-ately on spreading the same. They therefore broke through all the sacred ties and obligations of church fellowship and went off from the various churches to which they belonged, pretending to have greater light into truth and what they called the Person of Christ and grace than the very Apostles themselves. “They went out from us.”

The word us is a very distinguishing one in the New Testament. It was made use of on the first formation of an instituted church, which took place immediately on the ascension of Christ into heaven. Peter, speaking of Judas Iscariot to the church then present, says, “He was  numbered with us” (Act 1:17). And of the whole church as included in the word us, he says, “Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection” (1:21-22). We have this word us made use of by the Apostles in their writings to express the church of Christ by. As for instance, “Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us” (Eph 5:2). “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Rev 1:5). Our Apostle uses this word  us in the same sense here. These persons, whom he here styles antichrists, had been in the church. They went out of it without leave. They took themselves off abruptly; neither gave they their reasons for so doing. They would not acknowledge themselves under any sort of obligation to the churches to whom they belonged. Thus, they openly and publicly renounced all submission to Christ’s Lordship and Kingly authority over His house, the church. Thus, they went out as traitors and with a treacherous design against Christ and the church that He hath purchased with His own blood: to corrupt His worship, to renounce His truth, to blaspheme the same, to draw away from the true churches of Christ followers after them. They went out from us. It was most awful in them so to do.

It must have been in some of them the sin against the Holy Ghost, which is styled in this Epistle, “the sin unto death” (1Jo 5:16-17). They turned their back on Christ, His Gospel, His ordinances, His Apostles, His churches, and everything belonging unto Him, and framed out of their own errors, heresies, whims, and fancies, a Christ and Gospel for themselves. The Apostle assigns the reason why they went out from the churches in the way and manner they did—it was because they were not of one heart and soul with the churches in the truth. “They went out from us because they were not of us.”

The true church of Christ is holiness to the Lord. Her real members are born of God. They have the Spirit of God. They know Christ. They live Christ. They are baptized into one and the same Spirit. They love the Truth. They abhor all and everything that detracts from it. No marvel that these antichrists should go out, depart from the true churches of Christ, and set up for themselves. They were not one with them, whilst they remained amongst them. Therefore, they only waited for an opportunity, and then they left them entirely.

Thus, it was in the Apostle John’s time, a little before the close of the apostolic age. “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us.” This is the account the Apostle gives of them. As it was then, so it has been ever since. All the heresies which have tormented the churches of Christ ever since and down even to our present times have originated  from persons who have been in the churches, who have departed from the churches, from such as have made schisms and divisions in the churches. And when any old error is newly revived, it in general springs from such persons as are disaffected (52) to the true churches of Jesus Christ.
 
It may be you will expect me to give you to understand what I mean by a church of Christ. Most certainly, I understand a company of saints giving themselves up to the Lord and to each other by the will of God, to walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord agreeable to the rules laid down in the written Word. I do not look on all the congregations of saints to be worthy of the title of the churches of Christ…Many denominations amongst us…are sound in the articles of Truth—so far as they respect salvation—yet I should not look on them as justly claiming the titles of the churches of Christ, and that for this reason: because they are not framed according to the plan and model of the New Testament account of the same. The greatest reformation of churches that ever took place since the reformation from popery was in Oliver Cromwell’s days. Dr. Owen, (53) Dr. Goodwin, (54) Dr. Chauncey, (55) and others give the best account of the formation, plan, order, members and officers, laws, rules, government, and discipline of the churches of Christ, which I can refer you to: except it be in the writings of Dr. Gill, (56) who has made some improvement in the same. The churches styled independent churches, and those styled the baptized churches of Jesus Christ, are properly churches. (57) There is no difference between these but in the ordinance of Baptism. These have a defense in themselves, of themselves, and from themselves to defend their members from error and heresy. [Yet] many in these are weary of Christ’s yoke and often find ways and means to cast it off. At times, error and heresies spring up amongst them; and it must be so, according to the purpose and sovereign will of God. So says the Apostle to the Corinthian church, “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1Co 11:19). There were in that church many who profaned the Lord’s Supper and polluted it, some who denied the resurrection of the dead. Yet the church at Corinth being properly organized according to our Lord’s institution remained a true church, though all the members of it were not one with the Lord Jesus Christ. [Similarly,] the Gospel remains immutable in its truths, doctrines, and grace, notwithstanding Hymeneus and Alexander, [who] put the same away from them and made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience (1Ti 1:19).

It is an honor to belong to a true church of Christ. It is to be lamented any should be admitted into it without having a clear and Scriptural knowledge of it. For when they profess and give themselves up to walk with a church, it is very dangerous to depart from that church, unless any immorality or heresy spring up and is connived at (58) by the majority of members. Or unless a member has good reason to believe he should increase with the increase of God more by removing his communion to another church. In the present day, there is very little conscience made of these things. But whoever observes it will see, it is no honor to remove from one church to another, nor is it a blessing to any church to receive any disaffected member into their communion. It is always best when the church in its members is gathered into its own holy fellowship by the ministration of the same minister of the Gospel. Then they uniting in the same faith, the obligations they subject themselves unto as the yoke and by the divine authority of Christ will have a very blessed effect and lasting effect on them…But I drop this and proceed to my next particular, which is


2. TO SHOW HOW THE APOSTLE CONFIRMS HIS ASSE LE CONFIRMS HIS ASSERTION. He had said, “They went out from us, but they were not of us.” He gives this reason of their going out from them: They did not belong to them. Though they were for a season numbered with them, yet they were never of them or of their number; if they had, they would have most certainly remained with them: this is his argument. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.

How solemn! How awful! These antichrists came out of the apostolical church of Jesus. They had been in it. Their names had been registered in their church book. They had been church members with the best of saints. Yet all this did not preserve them from the foulest apostasy. They had heard and professed to have received and believed the very same doctrine the Apostles preached! Yet this did not keep them steadfast in the faith. They were carried away with lust and lasciviousness. This led them to corrupt the doctrine of God’s free grace: to suit it to encourage their own corrupt affections, and from hence to proceed to set forth such a different christ, such a different gospel, and such a different spirit as eclipsed the whole glory of that Christ and Gospel that was preached and declared by the Apostles themselves. If these wretches had not for a season been under the profession of Christ and in the church amongst His people, they could not have acted as they did. They could not so completely have corrupted the Gospel, if they had not had the notional scheme of the same in their minds. It answered their end for a season to remain in the churches to whom they had given in their names. It suited them to leave these churches at such seasons, when they could, to distil their pernicious influences, as they thought and hoped it would gain converts to them…Christ is yesterday, today, and the same forever (Heb 13:8). So are the truths and doctrines that have respect unto Him, and in and by which He is revealed unto and set before His church, and which His saints have such evidence of in themselves that one for them all says, “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1Pe 1:24-25). These heretics left the churches because they were not of them, only nominally. (59)  They were not the elect of God. They were reprobates. (60...It is evident these could never belong to Christ…All heretics come out of the church. Most of them have been preachers and teachers in it. They are raised up by Satan, first to disturb the peace of the church and next to pollute and defile it with their abominable falsehood. The words of the Apostle are very suitable here: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1Co 3:16-17). But I will go on and proceed to my last particular, which is...

3. TO SHOW THE REASON WHY THESE ANTICHRIST WENT OUT OF THE CHURCH. It was by their departure from the true churches and by their errors, heresies, and sins into which they fell, they were man-ifested to be what they were.

In the day in which we live, we have had many preachers who have shone forth in public view as blazing stars and comets, who have professed superior light, zeal, and usefulness to all others, who have been puffed off (61) [and] had their own cant phrases. (62) Such as saying of some of their great admirers, “They see the Spirit in such and such sentences,” in which they have chosen to express themselves. They have—very many of them—fallen foully, scandalously. Yea, most shamefully, and abominably, and all by lust…What shall we say or think of such? I know I think and cannot but pronounce they are of their father the devil. Yet we have persons professing godliness who will stand up for them, [saying] that they are powerful preachers, that they are preachers of the Gospel, that they are clearer and deeper in the truth than others are, that it is on account of their excellency of knowledge in the mysteries of Christ [that] they are persecuted!

Sirs, such excuses for such notorious sinners are an awful sign of what our times are. Let us by no means have anything to do with licentious preachers and teachers. It is a shame to speak of those things that are done of them in secret. I count it to be a defilement to mention the names of such. I fear there is more licentiousness stalking up and down the professing religious world than any of us are aware of. May the Lord preserve us from it.

It is by these most holy and righteous dispensations of the Lord that He is pleased to separate between the precious and the vile. As it was in John’s time, even so it is now. They never belonged to the true church of Christ. So it need not stumble or distress us, as if such were instances of falling from grace. No. Such were never partakers of the grace of God. They professed something that they called grace, but they never knew any more of it than the sound. Let us therefore rejoice when such are most justly exposed…

There is a greater discrimination made by the preaching of the everlasting Gospel than we can or ever shall be able to conceive and apprehend. It is to some the savor of life. It is to others the savor of death. All [this is] by divine and immutable appointment by which man and man are so discovered—as it concerns the Lord’s purposes towards them—as is most truly solemn and awful. One is called under the preaching of the Gospel, and another left. Not only so, but at times under one and the same Word,  one is won to the obedience of Christ, another is led to blaspheme—so different are the effects that the revelation of God’s will produceth in the minds of such as are hearers of it. Hereby that solemn word of truth is realized in us poor worms of the earth, which is quoted by the Apostle, as delivered by the Lord: “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” (Rom 9:18-24).

These are most important and very solemn questions in which great truths are implied and contained. When they enter into our minds, and their weight, importance, and authority rest upon our hearts, they empty us of all dependence on ourselves. We clearly see that he that glorieth must glory in the Lord. If these things are so, let us know and remember [that] the church of Christ will be preserved and continued to the end of time, and the gates, that is, the powers of hell, shall never finally prevail against it. Let who or whatsoever may arise, and even though it may overthrow the faith of some, yet we may say—and it becomes us to say with the Apostle, when all they who were in Asia were turned away from him—“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2Ti 2:19). It well becomes us so to do—to depart from all doctrinal and practical iniquity. I can never believe men to be sound in the faith and truths of the Gospel who live in any known sin. I therefore suspect the judgment of many, who insist…that men may be sound in the faith who do not adorn it in their lives and conversations. I am for my own self fully persuaded [that] we can live no one single truth of the Gospel over in our minds any farther than we know it by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. And so far as we live any one single truth of Christ’s Gospel, so far we shall live down sin and live above by living Christ and living on Him.

From Sermon XXIV in An Exposition of 1 John, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, www.pbpress.org. 

_______________________

49 pernicious – destructive.

50 broach – introduce.

51 virulency – extreme poisonousness.

52 disaffected – alienated; resentful and rebellious.

53 John Owen (1616-1683) – Congregational pastor and theologian; often called “The Prince of the Puritans”; wrote “The True Nature of a Gospel Church” in The Works of John Owen, Vol. 16.

54 Thomas Goodwin (1600-1679) – Congregational pastor and theologian; wrote “Of the Constitution, Right Order, and Government of the Churches of Christ” in The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Vol. 11.

55 Isaac Chauncey (1632-1712) – Congregational pastor and theologian; wrote The Divine Institution of Congregational Churches, Ministry and Ordinances, [As has bin Professed by those of that Persuasion] Asserted and Proved from the Word of God, for Nathanael Hiller, 1697.

56 John Gill (1697-1771) – Baptist minister, theologian, and biblical scholar; wrote numerous works on the nature, ministry, and ordinances of the church, including A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity.

57 Not all of our readers will agree with the author on this point.

58 connived at – silently approved.

59 nominally – in name only.

60 reprobates – those rejected by God.

61 puffed off – swollen with vanity and pride.

62 cant phrases – peculiar phraseology of a religious sect.

The Evil of Apostasy

Courtesy Chapel Library - Free Grace Broadcaster - Issue 205, Fall 2008

The Evil of Apostasy

Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754)

Is it so that many of Christ’s pretended disciples do, some time or other, fall totally and finally away from Him? Then let me exhort and persuade all hearing me, but especially you who have been lifting up your hands to Him at a communion table and professing to be His disciples by laying your hands on a slain Redeemer, to endeavor firmness and stability in cleaving to Christ and His way…To enforce this exhortation, consider first the evil of apostasy either in part or in whole.

1. It is a provocation of the highest nature. And there are especially two evils in it, which cannot but awaken divine resentment, viz., treachery and ingratitude. 1st, There is treachery in it. What husband would take it well, if his wife should abandon him and follow after other lovers? My friends, you have been taking God for your husband in a solemn manner before angels and men. Will it not be treachery in the highest degree to go and prostitute your souls unto sin, His greatest enemy? Will not this cast a calumny and reproach upon God, as if others were better than He? This will make Him say, “What iniquity have your fathers found in me?” (Jer 2:5). “O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee?” (Mic 6:3). 2dly, There is ingratitude in it also. It was a very cutting word that Christ had to His disciples…“Will ye also leave me?” The same is He saying to every one of you: “Will ye also go away, after such proofs of My kindness, after such repeated vows and obligations?” From all [this], it is evident that apostasy is a provocation of the highest nature.

2. Your backsliding will give a deep l give a deep wound to religion wound to religion and bring up a reproach upon the good ways of God. You have been owning Him as your Lord and Master and declaring before the world that you think His service the best service, His wages the best wages; that one day in His courts is better than a thousand (Psa 84:10). Now, if after all you backslide, will not the world conclude that you have not found that in His service that you expected? Thus, others will be scared from the good ways of the Lord.

a. You will grieve the hearts of the godly, whose hearts God would not grieve. And it is a dangerous thing to offend one of His little ones. It were better for you that “a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones” (Luk 17:2).

b. If ye shall apostatize in whole and slide back with a perpetual backsliding, it will be a prelude of your eternal banishment and separation from the presence of God. God’s soul takes no pleasure in [such] backsliders, and therefore they can never have access into His gracious presence. Consequently, [they] shall be punished with everlasting destruction.

c. If ye be believers and apostatize in part, ye shall put a whip in God’s hand to chastise you. If ye shall after this turn careless in your walk, more remiss in duty, less frequent, less fervent, less lively than before, ye may assure yourselves that ye shall not go unpunished. “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amo 3:2). “If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments…then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes” (Psa 89:30-31). 

Secondly, consider some great advantages of stability in cleaving to Christ and standing firm to His cause and interest.

a. It will furnish you much inward peace and tranquility of mind. “Great peace have they which love thy law” (Psa 119:165). God tells Israel that, if they had cleaved unto Him and His way, their peace should have been as a river and their righteousness as the waves of the sea (Isa 66:12).

b, It will glorify God and reflect a luster upon religion. Make the world conclude ye serve a good Master. Hence is that of Christ, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Mat 5:16).

c. As backsliding strikes a damp upon the spirit at the approaches of death, so stability of heart in the Lord’s way affords courage and confidence through Christ upon the approach of that grim messenger of the Lord of hosts. Hence is that of Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have fin-ished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness…” (2Ti 4:7-8).

d. The reward of grace is insured in Christ to the steadfast soul. “Be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for-asmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1Co 15:58). Remember that your title to the reward comes in by virtue of your union with Christ; and, O, how glorious is that reward the steadfast soul is entitled to through Him! It has a kingdom secured to it: “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations; And I appoint unto you a kingdom” (Luk 22:29). A throne: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne” (Rev 3:21). A crown is secured, a crown of life: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev 2:10). A crown of glory: “When the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away” (1Pe 5:4). A crown of righteousness, which is laid up for all that keep the faith and “that love his appearing” (2Ti 4:8). A crown of joy, yea, a crown of everlasting joy shall be “upon their heads…and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isa 35:10).

I conclude with two or three advices.

1. Take care that the foundation be well laid upon the everlasting Rock Jesus Christ. For this is the foundation that God hath laid in Zion, and another foundation can no man lay. Ye must be cemented to this foundation by the Spirit and faith, otherwise ye can never stand in a day of trial; for your root being rottenness, your “blossom shall go up as the dust” (Isa 5:24). The house built upon the sand fell when the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon it; but the house founded upon this Rock shall stand out against the utmost efforts of the gates of hell (Mat 7:24-27).

2. Maintain an everlasting jealousy over your own hearts. For “he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool” (Pro 28:26), considering that it is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9). Particularly take heed of the workings and sproutings of the bitter root of unbelief, which causes to depart from the living God (Heb 3:12).

3. Keep your eyes upon the promises of persevering grace, particularly that [of] Jeremiah 32:40: “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” If you plead and improve this promise by faith, it is impossible ye can draw back. For it is “impossible for God to lie” (Heb 6:18). God stands on both sides of the covenant to fulfill both His and our part of the same. Therefore, plead that ye may fulfill His in you, that He would keep you by His power through faith unto salvation (1Pe 1:5).

4. Keep a steady eye on Christ, the blessed Mediator of the covenant. Eye Him as the storehouse and fountain of all your supplies of grace and strength. For it is out “of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace” (Joh 1:16). Eye Him as your Captain to fight all your battles against sin and Satan; for He has “spoiled principalities and powers” (Col 2:15); and if ever we overcome, it must be in the blood and strength of the Lamb. Eye Him as your guide to lead you through all the dark and difficult steps of your pilgrimage. For He leads the blind “in paths that they have not known” (Isa 42:16). Eye Him as your pattern. Endeavor to imitate Him in all His imitable perfections. Run your Christian race, “looking unto Jesus” (Heb 12:2). Remember how steady and firm He was in carrying on the great work of redemption. He set His face like a flint against all the storms and obstacles that lay in His way. He did not faint, nor was He discouraged, but travelled on in the greatness of His strength, enduring the cross, and despising the shame. For He said on the cross, “It is finished” (Joh 19:30). So study ye after His example to run your Christian race, your course of obedience, and press on against all temptations and difficulties, until ye have finished your course with joy and arrive at the mark and prize of the high calling of God in Christ.

a. Be aware of the first beginnings of defection and backsliding. For one trip makes way for another. Defections are like the rolling of a stone upon the brow of an high mountain; if once it begins to roll, it is fair never to rest until it be at the bottom. Ye have been upon the mount of God, Sirs! If ye begin once to roll down the hill of your high professions and resolutions, it is an hundred to one if ye do not land in the depths of apostasy and at last in the depths of hell.

b. Lastly, study to be well skilled in the unmasking the mystery of iniquity, in detecting the wiles and stratagems of the tempter, and to provide yourselves with suitable antidotes against every attack of the enemy. For instance, if he tell thee sin is pleasant, ask him if the gripings of the worm of conscience be pleasant too, and if one day in God’s house be not better than a thousand in the tents of sin. If he tell thee that nobody sees, ask him if he can shut the eye of an omniscient God, Whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and Who setteth our most secret sins in the light of His countenance (Psa 90:8). If he tell thee that it is but a little one, ask him if there be a little God or if His displeasure be a little thing. If he tell thee that sin is profitable, ask him, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mat 16:26). By considerations of this nature, the mind comes to be fortified against the attacks and onsets of that grand enemy of salvation, [which proves to be] a notable ballast to keep the soul firm and steady against the most violent storms and tempests that may blow either from earth or hell.

From “The Backslider Characterised” in The Whole Works of the Late Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, Vol. 1, reprinted by Tentmaker Publications.

What is Apostasy?

Courtesy Chapel Library - Free Grace Broadcaster #205 - Fall 2008

Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)

What is Apostasy?

In the past, dear reader, there have been thousands who were just as confident that they had been genuinely saved and were truly trusting in the merits of the finished work of Christ to take them safely through to Heaven, as you may be. Nevertheless, they are now in the torments of Hell. Their confidence was a carnal one…They were too confident that their faith was a saving one to thoroughly, searchingly, frequently test it by the Scriptures, to discover whether or not it was bringing forth those fruits that are inseparable from the faith of God’s elect. If they read an article like this, they proudly concluded that it belonged to someone else. So cocksure were they that they were born again so many years ago, they refused to heed the command of 2 Corinthians 13:5: “Prove your own selves.” Now it is too late. They wasted their day of opportunity, and the “blackness of darkness” is their portion forever.

In view of this solemn and awful fact, the writer earnestly calls upon himself and each reader to get down before God and sincerely cry, “Search me, O God: reveal me to myself. If I am deceived, undeceive me ere (1) it be eternally too late. Enable me to measure myself faithfully by Thy Word, so that I may discover whether or not my heart has been renewed, whether I have abandoned every course of self-will and truly surrendered to Thee; whether I have so repented that I hate all sin and fervently long to be free from its power, loathe myself and seek diligently to deny myself; whether my faith is that which overcomes the world (1Jo 5:4) or whether it be only a mere notional thing which produces no godly living; whether I am a fruitful branch of the vine or only a cumberer (2) of the ground; in short, whether I be a new creature in Christ or only a painted hypocrite.” If I have an honest heart, then I am willing, yea anxious to face and know the real truth about myself.

Perhaps some readers are ready to say, “I already know the truth about myself. I believe what God’s Word tells me: I am a sinner with no good thing dwelling in me. My only hope is in Christ.” Yes, dear friend, but Christ saves His people from their sins. Christ sends His Holy Spirit into their hearts, so that they are radically changed from what they were previously. The Holy Spirit sheds abroad the love of God in the hearts of those He regenerates, and that love is manifested by a deep desire and sincere determination to please Him Who loves me. When Christ saves a soul, He saves not only from Hell, but from the power of sin. He delivers him from the dominion of Satan and from the love of the world. He delivers him from the fear of man, the lusts of the flesh, the love of self. True, He has not yet completed this blessed work. True, the sinful nature is not yet eradicated. But one who is saved has been delivered from the dominion of sin (Rom 6:14). Salvation is a supernatural thing that changes the heart, renews the will, transforms the life, so that it is evident to all around that a miracle of grace has been wrought…A faith that does not issue in godly living, in an obedient walk, in spiritual fruit, is not the faith of God’s elect. O my reader, I beg you to diligently and faithfully examine yourself by the light of God’s unerring Word. Claim not to be a child of Abraham, unless you do the works of Abraham (Joh 8:39).

What is apostasy? It is a making shipwreck of the faith (1Ti 1:19). It is the heart’s departure from the living God (Heb 3:13). It is a returning to and being overcome by the world, after a previous escape from its pollutions through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2Pe 2:20). There are various steps that precede it. First, there is a looking back (Luk 9:62), like Lot’s wife, who though she had outwardly left Sodom, yet her heart was still there. Second, there is a drawing back (Heb 10:38): the requirements of Christ are too exacting to any longer appeal to the heart. Third, there is a turning back (Joh 6:66): the path of godliness is too narrow to suit the lustings of the flesh. Fourth, there is a falling back, which is fatal: “That they might go and fall backward, and be broken” (Isa 28:13).

From Studies in the Scriptures, reprinted by Chapel Library.
_______________________
(1) ere - before
(2) cumberer - that which clutters.

A.W. Pink (1886--1952): --1952): Pastor, itinerate Bible teacher, author of Studies in the Scriptures and many books including his well-known The Sovereignty of God; born in Great Britain, immigrated to the U.S., and later returned to his homeland in 1934; born in Nottingham, England.

LEGALISM--WHAT IT IS & WHAT IT IS NOT

What is legalism? The charge of legalism is so carelessly flung around today that people have no idea what the term means. It’s become a catch phrase to write off any church that isdoctrinal—a word also much of an embarrassment to people today.

There are three ways this term is being misapplied and abused to attack churches that have remained confessionally Protestant.

First, churches that are serious today are characterized as legalistic. In fact, any church that is serious or formal anymore will “stand out like an organ stop” (quoting David Wells) and be labeled as those who are joyless and legalistic. People are equating legalism with formality, as if freedom means casualness before God. I'm reminded of the Lord's complaint against Israel,

For My people are foolish, They have not known Me. They are silly children, And they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, But to do good they have no knowledge." (Jer 4:22)

Just before israel impending judgment for apostasy, the Lord tells us that the worship became full of sheer "siliness". No word could better capture the feel of today's worship than siliness. We have forgotten the Lord's warning, "By those who come near to me, I must be regarded as holy."

Second, legalism is being carelessly used to attack people’s liberty. I have noticed the reverse problem of striking at a brother’s liberty because he wants to, for example, offer his first-fruits in the way that he dresses or looks. "They make all their people dress a certain way at that church.” Broad characterizations and generalizations are made this way and lumped together as a “legalistic” when, in fact, practices of people are often birthed out of genuine gratitude for the grace given. In other words, marketing mega churches keep kicking the traditional churches as legalistic in matters of Christian liberty—they wear ties, they sing out of a song book, etc.

Read more -->HERE.

When Believers Stop Believing: Portrait of an Apostate

Taken from the Grace To You website (audio version available as well):

Hello, I'm Phil Johnson, Executive Director of Grace To You, and I'm in the studio today with Pastor and Bible Teacher John MacArthur. Hi, John.

John MacArthur: Hi, Phil. Good to be with you.

Phil Johnson: John, we've invited you into the studio this hour because we would like to talk with you about apostasy, falling away from the faith. What does it mean when someone who professes to be a believer and even seems to be a believer turns his back on Christ and falls away completely? This is a theme we see in Scripture and sometimes Scripture even refers to people like that as believers when they start out. At the end of John chapter 2, the Apostle John says, “Many believed on Him when they saw His miracles.” But the very next verse says, “But Jesus didn't commit Himself to them because He knew what was really in their hearts,” implying that that faith wasn't real. And then that becomes a theme in the gospel of John because in chapter 6, “Many of His disciples turned away and walked with Him no more.” They abandoned the faith completely.” It's a big topic, why do we choose it for this?

We've been thinking about this for a while. We received a letter last year from one of our supporters, a former Grace partner, in fact, and it was one of the saddest, most troubling, most provocative letters we've seen in 40 years of ministry and we wrote back right away and didn't receive a reply. We've tried two or three more times to contact this man, and still again with no response. But his letter raises some important questions.

So we wanted to get you in the studio and just discuss these for a while. We need to warn our listeners. And this isn't really going to be a highly academic discussion. We're not going to talk about theological fine points. But this is a difficult issue that every Christian has questions about and the questions that come to us from this listener are personal, practical questions that frankly all of wish we could have helped him with before he ultimately turned against Christ. But I think these are going to resonate and hit home in many ways with lots of our listeners and some of them in ways they may not expect.

So, let me ask you to start by reading this letter we got from Steve as kind of a starting point.

JOHN: Yeah, Phil, I want to do that. Before I do that, I want to say this. The people who believe you can lose your salvation, and that's a pretty wide range of people across the world, usually are brought to that belief because of people like Steve. It isn't because they find it in the Scripture, it's because they're trying to explain how this person could be a Christian and now they're not a Christian. So that's what leads to that view that you can lose your salvation. And so it is an important issue because there, as I said, is a massive professing Christians around the world who think you can lose your salvation and they've got people to prove you can. As I said, it's not a biblical issue but we'll look at it biblically, try to help the folks who might be drawn to that conclusion because of people they know who denied the faith.

Read more -->HERE.

Day 348

(H) Book of 2 Timothy ~ cont.
3. Description of apostasy - 2 Timothy 3:1-13
4. Defense of a good soldier - 2 Timothy 3:14-17; 4:1-8
5. Closing instructions - 2 Timothy 4:9-22
(I) Martyrdom of Peter and Paul - A.D. June 29, 67-68

XVIII The Writings of John - A.D. 67 - C 100
A. Temple at Jerusalem destroyed by Titus (7th plundering) - A.D. 70
B. Gospel of John written - A.D. 95 (R) C A.D. 35 (K)
C. Book of 1 John - A.D. 95 (R) C A.D. 41 (K)
1. Love and obedience to the father
a. What to do with sin - 1 John 1:1-10
b. Obedience - 1 John 2:1-14
c. Worldliness and unbelief - 1 John 2:15-28
d. Love - 1 John 2:29; 3:1-24

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;  (2 Timothy 3:1-4)

perilous - G5467 - chalepos - khal-ep-os' - Perhaps from G5465 through the idea of reducing the strength; difficult, that is, dangerous, or (by implication) furious.

1. lovers of their own selves - G5367 -philautos - fil'-ow-tos - From G5384 and G846; fond of self, that is, selfish.
2. covetous - G5366 - philarguros - fil-ar'-goo-ros - From G5384 and G696; fond of silver (money), that is, avaricious.
3. boasters - G213 - alazōn - al-ad-zone' - From ἄλη alē (vagrancy); braggart.
4. proud - G5244 - huperēphanos - hoop-er-ay'-fan-os - From G5228 and G5316; appearing above others (conspicuous), that is, (figuratively) haughty.
5. blasphemers - G989 - blasphēmos - blas'-fay-mos - From a derivative of G984 and G5345; scurrilous, that is, calumnious (against man), or (specifically) impious (against God).
6. disobedient - G545 - apeithēs - ap-i-thace' - From G1 (as a negative particle) and G3982; unpersuadable, that is, contumacious.
7. parents - G1118 - goneus - gon-yooce' - From the base of G1096; a parent.
8. unthankful - G884 - acharistos - ach-ar'-is-tos - From G1 (as a negative particle) and a presumed derivative of G5483; thankless, that is, ungrateful.
9. unholy - G462 - anosios - an-os'-ee-os - From G1 (as a negative particle) and G3741; wicked.
10. w/out natural affection - G794 - astorgos - as'-tor-gos - From G1 (as a negative particle) and a presumed derivative of στέργω stergō (to cherish affectionately); hard hearted towards kindred.
11. trucebreakers - G786 - aspondos - as'-pon-dos - From G1 (as a negative particle) and a derivative of G4689; literally without libation (which usually accompanied a treaty), that is, (by implication) truceless.
12. false accusers - G1228 - diabolos - dee-ab'-ol-os - From G1225; a traducer; specifically Satan (compare [H7854]).
13. incontinent - G193 - akratēs - ak-rat'-ace - From G1 (as a negative particle) and G2904; powerless, that is, without self control.
14. fierce - G434 - anēmeros - an-ay'-mer-os -From G1 (as a negative particle) and ἥμερος hēmeros (lame); savage.
15. despisers of those that are good - G865 - aphilagathos - af-il-ag'-ath-os - From G1 (as a negative particle) and G5358; hostile to virtue.
16. traitors - G4273 - prodotēs - prod-ot'-ace - From G4272 (in the sense of giving forward into another’s [the enemy’s] hands); a surrender.
17. heady - G4312 - propetēs - prop-et-ace' - From a compound of G4253 and G4098; falling forward, that is, headlong (figuratively precipitate).
18. highminded - G5187 - tuphoō - toof-o'-o - From a derivative of G5188; to envelop with smoke, that is, (figuratively) to inflate with self conceit.
19. lovers of pleasures - G5369 - philēdonos - fil-ay'-don-os - From G5384 and G2237; fond of pleasure, that is, voluptuous.

lovers of God - G5377 - philotheos - fil-oth'-eh-os - From G5384 and G2316; fond of God, that is, pious.

I kept perilous and lovers of God out of the list for a reason.  The word perilous is not describing the types of people, but the times in which they live.  With the phrase 'lovers of God' it really was not a description so much as a comparison to the lovers of pleasures MORE than lovers of God.  They love pleasure more than they love God.

Nothing like a few extra words to find a definition for/about.  :-)  The one that initially caught my attention was the traducer, I went back to see if I had copy and pasted correctly.  NOTE:   Definitions which reference the Greek (or Hebrew) are taken from the Strong's concordance within the E-Sword program.  Other definitions are taken from dictionary.com.

avaricious–adjective - characterized by avarice; greedy; covetous.

scurrilous–adjective - grossly or obscenely abusive.

contumacious–adjective - stubbornly perverse or rebellious; willfully and obstinately disobedient.

traducer –verb (used with object)- to speak maliciously and falsely of; slander; defame: to traduce someone's character.


hard hearted towards kindred - this implies a lack of concern.  Maternal care comes to mind when I think of this and how in a siege against Israel the mother's were eating their young. Is this applicable in our day? Mothers hating the fruit of their womb, murdering their young that they might feast upon their lusts, enjoy the sinfulness of pleasure for a season without the responsibility of a baby?  Woe to that nation which allows such a travesty of injustice against the innocent.  Even the King in Israel rent his clothes when he learned of the treachery, how much more does the Bride (priests, peculiar people, saints, children of God) abhor that which is evil?

hostile to virtue - What is virtue?  (Quick, abbreviated definition) moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.  Reflecting that this is a definition of the phrase despisers of those that are good. My understanding, virtue: anything holy, morally upright, wholesome.  I see this in our generation.  I know, each generation observes the same wickedness and laments the depravity.

Ruminating upon that phrase: lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. This year in sharing my journey through the Bible has been a major delight and encouragement. I have grown so much in my faith, my deepening love for my Savior, my Redeemer. What 'pleasures' in my life am I so firmly attached to that they crowd out my love for God? I realize the list above is for the unregenerate, but it behooves us to examine ourselves and see what dross needs to be removed. :-)

The definition of traducer reminds me of this verse:

Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

Amen, even so come Lord Jesus.