28 Apr 2014
Returning Soon
To the four people who actually read this blog, I will be returning soon! I've been away and then busy, but I am currently writing a post on God's view of the Old Testament Laws, so hopefully that should be up soon!
7 Apr 2014
Beware False Teachers
The danger of false teaching and how to defend/fight against it
The Bible warns us very clearly that there will be, and indeed are, false teachers (2 Peter 2:1). Wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15). They are people who try to lead us astray from God and our salvation in Him, and so we are called to be on our guard, Ephesians 6:10-18:
"10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people."
What is the "full armour of God"? It is "truth", "righteousness", "readiness that comes from the gospel of peace", "faith", "salvation" and "the word of God". With these we are fully equipped to take our stand against the Devil's schemes (Romans 8). To be on guard against false teaching, we need to know the truth and we know that from the word of God, so we need to know and understand the Bible as much as possible. We also need to believe the Gospel and have salvation through it.
So when false teacher's come we can use these things, this armour, to help us identify them, not be taken in by them, and even fight what they preach (lovingly, humbly and yet also boldly, of course).
Fighting against false teaching #1: How do we identify false teaching?
The Devil hates the Gospel. By dying on the cross and rising again Jesus "having disarmed the powers and authorities [I think here it refers primarily to Spiritual ones which fight against God, e.g. the Devil], he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Do you see what it said? "Disarmed", "made a public spectacle of", "triumphing over". What Jesus did by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead defeated sin, defeated death and defeated the Devil. Through Good Friday to Easter Sunday Jesus obliterated Satan's greatest weapons against believers. Jesus won. God won. Anyone who believes the Gospel has victory through Christ.
We should find it no surprise, therefore, to find that there are a great many false teachers and fake "gospel"s out there, all of which deny in some way, great or small, the truth about Jesus and what he's done. If people don't believe the Gospel, they don't have freedom and victory in Christ. So to identify whether a teaching is false, the following sorts of markers are perhaps best to look for:
- Does the teaching deny that Jesus is really God?
- Does the teaching deny the 3 person, 1 God, God that is the Trinity, the God of the Bible?
- Does the teaching deny that Jesus really became a human?
- Does the teaching deny that Jesus really died?
- Does the teaching deny that Jesus really physically rose from the dead?
- Does the teaching deny that Jesus really took EVERY one of our sins upon himself when he died so that if we believe in him we really are forgiven for EVERY one of our sins?
- Does the teaching deny that by rising again Jesus WILL raise us to eternal life with him in the New Creation if we believe in him?
- Does the teaching deny that by believing in God we are filled with the Holy Spirit?
- Does the teaching deny that there is NO work whatsoever that we can do that will have any influence on whether or not we are saved, or to what extent we are saved (aside from, arguably, the unforgivable sin)?
- Does the teaching claim that Jesus has physically returned to Earth since he ascended into Heaven after his resurrection and before Pentecost?
I know there are a lot of points here, but they are actually pretty easy to remember, because they all focus around Jesus. The world and the devil just can't stand Jesus, and so they make every effort to take the real Jesus out of the Gospel, which stops it being the Gospel. If a teaching has any of these markers, then you should designate it as false and wrong (that is not to say you shouldn't think about it, it may not be saying what you think, but at the very least it is unhelpfully presented, and at the worst it is false teaching).
Another useful marker is this:
- Does the teaching deny a passage of Scripture (this is not to say that the teaching can't say that the passage doesn't directly apply in the same way today as it did before, but beware as some take this too far and too liberally)?
Fighting against false teaching #2: What to do when we face false teachers and false teachings
Pray. Everything we should to should start with, continue with and end with honest and sincere prayer to God. This is especially relevant here as it is His Holy Spirit that gives us life and can soften a person's heart to the truth, we are powerless without God.
Secondly we should arm ourselves with Scripture. Remember back in Ephesians 6 we saw that the sword of the Spirit was the word of God (v17)? "What part of the Gospel is this teaching denying?" We should ask ourselves, and then we should find the bit(s) of Scripture which refute this, prayerfully understand them, and then take them up against the false teaching/teacher.
Thirdly remember that we are hear to declare the Gospel and make disciples (Matthew 28), not to condemn people. And so we should lovingly approach those who believe false teachings, carefully and patiently helping them come to see the ugliness of their false Gospel, and the sheer beauty and majesty of the true Gospel of the true Christ.
The Bible warns us very clearly that there will be, and indeed are, false teachers (2 Peter 2:1). Wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15). They are people who try to lead us astray from God and our salvation in Him, and so we are called to be on our guard, Ephesians 6:10-18:
"10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people."
What is the "full armour of God"? It is "truth", "righteousness", "readiness that comes from the gospel of peace", "faith", "salvation" and "the word of God". With these we are fully equipped to take our stand against the Devil's schemes (Romans 8). To be on guard against false teaching, we need to know the truth and we know that from the word of God, so we need to know and understand the Bible as much as possible. We also need to believe the Gospel and have salvation through it.
So when false teacher's come we can use these things, this armour, to help us identify them, not be taken in by them, and even fight what they preach (lovingly, humbly and yet also boldly, of course).
Fighting against false teaching #1: How do we identify false teaching?
The Devil hates the Gospel. By dying on the cross and rising again Jesus "having disarmed the powers and authorities [I think here it refers primarily to Spiritual ones which fight against God, e.g. the Devil], he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Do you see what it said? "Disarmed", "made a public spectacle of", "triumphing over". What Jesus did by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead defeated sin, defeated death and defeated the Devil. Through Good Friday to Easter Sunday Jesus obliterated Satan's greatest weapons against believers. Jesus won. God won. Anyone who believes the Gospel has victory through Christ.
We should find it no surprise, therefore, to find that there are a great many false teachers and fake "gospel"s out there, all of which deny in some way, great or small, the truth about Jesus and what he's done. If people don't believe the Gospel, they don't have freedom and victory in Christ. So to identify whether a teaching is false, the following sorts of markers are perhaps best to look for:
- Does the teaching deny that Jesus is really God?
- Does the teaching deny the 3 person, 1 God, God that is the Trinity, the God of the Bible?
- Does the teaching deny that Jesus really became a human?
- Does the teaching deny that Jesus really died?
- Does the teaching deny that Jesus really physically rose from the dead?
- Does the teaching deny that Jesus really took EVERY one of our sins upon himself when he died so that if we believe in him we really are forgiven for EVERY one of our sins?
- Does the teaching deny that by rising again Jesus WILL raise us to eternal life with him in the New Creation if we believe in him?
- Does the teaching deny that by believing in God we are filled with the Holy Spirit?
- Does the teaching deny that there is NO work whatsoever that we can do that will have any influence on whether or not we are saved, or to what extent we are saved (aside from, arguably, the unforgivable sin)?
- Does the teaching claim that Jesus has physically returned to Earth since he ascended into Heaven after his resurrection and before Pentecost?
I know there are a lot of points here, but they are actually pretty easy to remember, because they all focus around Jesus. The world and the devil just can't stand Jesus, and so they make every effort to take the real Jesus out of the Gospel, which stops it being the Gospel. If a teaching has any of these markers, then you should designate it as false and wrong (that is not to say you shouldn't think about it, it may not be saying what you think, but at the very least it is unhelpfully presented, and at the worst it is false teaching).
Another useful marker is this:
- Does the teaching deny a passage of Scripture (this is not to say that the teaching can't say that the passage doesn't directly apply in the same way today as it did before, but beware as some take this too far and too liberally)?
Fighting against false teaching #2: What to do when we face false teachers and false teachings
Pray. Everything we should to should start with, continue with and end with honest and sincere prayer to God. This is especially relevant here as it is His Holy Spirit that gives us life and can soften a person's heart to the truth, we are powerless without God.
Secondly we should arm ourselves with Scripture. Remember back in Ephesians 6 we saw that the sword of the Spirit was the word of God (v17)? "What part of the Gospel is this teaching denying?" We should ask ourselves, and then we should find the bit(s) of Scripture which refute this, prayerfully understand them, and then take them up against the false teaching/teacher.
Thirdly remember that we are hear to declare the Gospel and make disciples (Matthew 28), not to condemn people. And so we should lovingly approach those who believe false teachings, carefully and patiently helping them come to see the ugliness of their false Gospel, and the sheer beauty and majesty of the true Gospel of the true Christ.
1 Apr 2014
Bold We Approach the Eternal Throne
Yesterday evening I was reading the Bible with someone very close to me. We've been working through the book of Ephesians together, and yesterday we read from the second half of chapter 2 through to the end of the first half of chapter 3.
I was struck by a great many things, including the overwhelming idea that seems to run throughout the book, that we are saved by grace and not by what we do. But one thing struck me in particular.
Ephesians 3:12, "In him [Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence."
In many respects it's a simple truth of Christianity, but how often do we, people, forget it or, worse, contradict it, in the way we pray, act and think?
Think about it, through faith in Christ and what Christ has done with us, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Approach God with freedom and confidence.
APPROACH GOD with FREEDOM and CONFIDENCE.
Has this blown your mind?
This is the same God who:
Genesis 1 - Created the entire universe with His voice
Genesis 3 - Is so holy He cannot possibly be with sin
Exodus 15 - Parts a sea and destroys a nation's finest soldiers with no effort
Exodus 19 - Rocks up and covers and entire mountain with fire, smoke and thunder
Job 38 - Rocks up in another storm, and proceeds to give one of the most epic speeches ever, about how He set the foundations of the world and governs all things and more
Isaiah 6 - Is so epicly glorious that angels cover their faces and feet and don't dare touch the ground He stands on
Daniel 7 - Has tens of thousands stand before Him, thousands attending Him, sits on a throne all ablaze with fire, has a river of fire coming out from His Throne, utterly ruins evil
And I could go on, I could seriously go on and on. He is glorious.
And yet, in Christ and through faith in Christ we may approach God with freedom and confidence. Let's go back to Exodus 19 for a second...
Exodus 19:16-22, "16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. 19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
20 The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up 21 and the Lord said to him, “Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. 22 Even the priests, who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.”"
Do you see how awesomely scary God is here? There's this mysterious trumpet blast, and smoke and thunder and lightning and the entire mountain trembles at His presence. It's intense. It's terrifying. The people were scared out of their minds. Why? Because they didn't have faith in Christ.
With faith in Christ, we can approach God with freedom and confidence. That is, no boundaries, no terror. We approach Him confident in His amazing love for us, and the fact that He's saved us and washed our sin completely away.
Ephesians 3:12, "In him [Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence."
I was struck by a great many things, including the overwhelming idea that seems to run throughout the book, that we are saved by grace and not by what we do. But one thing struck me in particular.
Ephesians 3:12, "In him [Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence."
In many respects it's a simple truth of Christianity, but how often do we, people, forget it or, worse, contradict it, in the way we pray, act and think?
Think about it, through faith in Christ and what Christ has done with us, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Approach God with freedom and confidence.
APPROACH GOD with FREEDOM and CONFIDENCE.
Has this blown your mind?
This is the same God who:
Genesis 1 - Created the entire universe with His voice
Genesis 3 - Is so holy He cannot possibly be with sin
Exodus 15 - Parts a sea and destroys a nation's finest soldiers with no effort
Exodus 19 - Rocks up and covers and entire mountain with fire, smoke and thunder
Job 38 - Rocks up in another storm, and proceeds to give one of the most epic speeches ever, about how He set the foundations of the world and governs all things and more
Isaiah 6 - Is so epicly glorious that angels cover their faces and feet and don't dare touch the ground He stands on
Daniel 7 - Has tens of thousands stand before Him, thousands attending Him, sits on a throne all ablaze with fire, has a river of fire coming out from His Throne, utterly ruins evil
And I could go on, I could seriously go on and on. He is glorious.
And yet, in Christ and through faith in Christ we may approach God with freedom and confidence. Let's go back to Exodus 19 for a second...
Exodus 19:16-22, "16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. 19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
20 The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up 21 and the Lord said to him, “Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. 22 Even the priests, who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.”"
Do you see how awesomely scary God is here? There's this mysterious trumpet blast, and smoke and thunder and lightning and the entire mountain trembles at His presence. It's intense. It's terrifying. The people were scared out of their minds. Why? Because they didn't have faith in Christ.
With faith in Christ, we can approach God with freedom and confidence. That is, no boundaries, no terror. We approach Him confident in His amazing love for us, and the fact that He's saved us and washed our sin completely away.
Ephesians 3:12, "In him [Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence."
Don't Forget Your Identity
Don't forget who you are. If you're a Christian, then you've received a new identity. That identity is found in and made complete in Christ. When God sees you, if you're a Christian, then He effectively sees Christ. You've been given Christ's goodness, wholeness, awesomeness, purity, holiness, status. You're no longer defined by your old self, but by Christ.
Isn't that amazing!?
But, if the Father sees us as the co-heirs of His beloved Son, King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Romans 8), why do we keep judging ourselves by other people's standards and opinions of us? Why are we so bothered about how people think we look? Or how skilled they think we are? Or intelligent? Or witty? Or whatever it is?
If the God of all existence has defined us as in Christ, then who are we to say otherwise? Why do we put the opinions of others above the opinion of God?
Let's do two things more:
1) Be humble, and so stop thinking so much about ourselves. There is great freedom in this. If anyone says anything you like, thank them and move on, and if they say anything you don't, turn the other cheek and proceed to number 2.
2) Remember that before God you were hopeless, lost and dead in your sins, but that now, because of God's grace and not by works (Ephesians 2), you're identity is now in Christ. You are a beloved child of God, with whom He is well pleased (Matthew 3). Give thanks to God, and move on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ-WuFAlQlY
(Yes, this is the third time I've linked to that video.)
Isn't that amazing!?
But, if the Father sees us as the co-heirs of His beloved Son, King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Romans 8), why do we keep judging ourselves by other people's standards and opinions of us? Why are we so bothered about how people think we look? Or how skilled they think we are? Or intelligent? Or witty? Or whatever it is?
If the God of all existence has defined us as in Christ, then who are we to say otherwise? Why do we put the opinions of others above the opinion of God?
Let's do two things more:
1) Be humble, and so stop thinking so much about ourselves. There is great freedom in this. If anyone says anything you like, thank them and move on, and if they say anything you don't, turn the other cheek and proceed to number 2.
2) Remember that before God you were hopeless, lost and dead in your sins, but that now, because of God's grace and not by works (Ephesians 2), you're identity is now in Christ. You are a beloved child of God, with whom He is well pleased (Matthew 3). Give thanks to God, and move on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ-WuFAlQlY
(Yes, this is the third time I've linked to that video.)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)