A Caution

A caution to Christians,
The apostle Paul writes,
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  
  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 
                                                                                                         2Timothy 4:3,4
Even Jesus said,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’  
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” 
                                                                                                                    Matthew 7:21-23.
We live in a multi-media world. At the press of a button we can see pastors and evangelist from anywhere in the world. There are so many that it can be hard to tell if these evangelist are truly living life the way God intended them to live.
It can be hard to determine if they are teaching right.
Many are stringing together scriptures that may sound right but are not necessarily so. As a result we need to be on our guard.
We need to study the scriptures the person is using to see if it is in context. If it is not we need to look again at the person. Perhaps he or she made a simple mistake. It happens.
Still when we find something wrong we need to dig deeper into the teachings of the person. Look at other sermons and things they’ve taught. See if wrong teaching is a pattern or not.
Ultimately the bible is the final authority when it comes to Christian teaching. Everything that is preached from the Bible should be taken in context. If a person is not preaching the word of God in context then we shouldn’t be supporting them.
According to the apostle Paul we have the right to judge those of our own faith. Paul stating,
"What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?  
God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” 
                                                                                               1 Corinthians 5:12,13   
I’ve heard pastors use the defense “don’t come against the elect of God”. That may be true but the question I ask is “If the person is not preaching correctly from the word of God, is he or she God’s elect?”
It is God’s job to judge those outside the Church. We however as Christians have the right to determine if someone claiming to be Christian is teaching correctly.
My point today to all Christians reading this is be on your guard. Study the scriptures for yourself never simply take the word of a pastor or evangelist. They are not perfect and from time to time do make mistakes.
The important thing however is when found in error that the person admits the mistake and corrects themselves.
That they turn back to the word of God and preach it correctly.
As Christians it is our duty to also follow the teachings of Jesus and the apostles to the best of our ability. So that others may see Jesus in us and want what we have.
The apostle Paul writes,
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 
                                                                         2 Timothy 2:15
The writer of Hebrews states,
“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” 
    Hebrews 12:14.
Please think about it.

Warning

Warning
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 
                                                                                                   2 Timothy 4:3,4.
One of the reoccurring themes in the apostle Paul’s letters is that of watching out for false teachers. Men and women who are leading people astray.
Men and women who stray from sound doctrine, turn to if you will “yes men” people who will tell them what they want to hear. They will turn away from truth.
This happens in North America it seems regularly.
Here in North America there are men and women who are interpreting the scriptures to suite their own beliefs. Some are even interpreting scripture in such away as to scam money from people. Both these groups search the scriptures and ‘cherry pick’ verses that seem to support their way of thinking.
Sadly Christians fall for it. Most Christians believe what they are told without question. They hear an evangelist or pastor quote scripture and never check to see if it’s in context. The definitely never consult a commentary to check the theology.
The prominent thing in North America right now seems to be the so called ‘name it claim it’ crowd. Those who espouse the ‘seed faith’ theory. Meaning sow ten dollars to God’s work (quite often they mean sow into their ministry) to get a hundred, sow a hundred to get a thousand.
They treat God like some benevolent banker that gives, a hundred or even a thousand percent interest.
There are others over the years who have written books some best sellers that are nothing more than twisting of scripture. One of the best known being the Y2K prediction. Saying the worlds computers were going to go wild causing all kinds of problems in the year 2000. It didn’t happen.
The latest is the so called ‘Blood Moon’ prediction. Supposedly predicting events that are about to happen to Israel. Yet there have been numerous blood moons since the time of Christ. None have predicted major events. The closest was the Blood moons that occurred ten months after the six day war. Not a very good prediction.
God when he gives a prophesy tells what will happen before the event not after.
Sadly there are many Christians out there that fall for these things.
We as Christians I believe need to be spending more time reading the Bible ourselves. We need to be praying earnestly and asking God to show us the truths in the scriptures.
We need to be holding evangelist and pastors to account. If they are teaching falsely we need to be asking them to admit they made a mistake.
If they don’t admit their mistake we need to be shunning them.
The apostle Paul says,
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?  
God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” 
                                                                                        1 Corinthians 5:12,13.
Dear Christian please think about it.