Hello Paul and Victor. . . I have another question for you. With the many false teachers out there that you point out, could it be that The Good Lord allows man to err at times to challenge him. In the Old Testament 400 prophets aligned themselves with Baal and were challenged by Elijah. The outcome as you know was a powerful rebuff of these prophets.
Could it be that God allows such false prophets so that in a time of His choosing He will reveal His true prophets and teachings for all to see, who can see.
If this is so, then when man on his journey to meet His Maker stops at a place that has some truth and some error, this is Our Makers way of challenging His created beings to seek out truth and reject false teachings.
Clearly we need His Spirit to discern the difference. What I am suggesting is that while there will always be false teachings and prophets in this age. . . Should we not look upon these as a way God is drawing man to Him through His Son.
If this is so then should we not also show compassion on those who are indeed searching for the right path, keeping in mind Our Maker uses many ways and means of drawing men to Himself. His ways are far greater then our ways and we understand little of why He does, what He does.
What we do know is that we serve a God of love, who cannot lie. One we can completely trust in.
And so the same compassion Jesus showed to the erring adulterous, should I believe be the same compassion we should show to our fellow man who has been caught short in His journey. The same compassion we would like to be given in similiar circumstances.
False teachers & Prophets
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Paul Cohen
Re: False teachers & Prophets
Victor writes in reply to your post, Russell, beginning with your words:
“Could it be that God allows such false prophets so that in a time of His choosing He will reveal His true prophets and teachings for all to see, who can see.”
I'm reminded of how the Lord once said to me, “As the false are exposed, so shall the true be made manifest.”
“For there must also be heresies among you, that the approved ones may be revealed among you” (1 Corinthians 11:19 MKJV).
“Behold, I give out of those of the synagogue of Satan, those saying themselves to be Jews and are not, but lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you” (Revelation 3:9 MKJV).
I'm also reminded of the vision of the battle the Lord was overseeing, in which He was pitching the forces of darkness and light, of good and evil against one another, working evil to ultimate good.
As to the responsibility as children of light:
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11 MKJV).
“But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the Devil, he argued about the body of Moses, he dared not bring a judgment of blasphemy, but said, Let the Lord rebuke you” (Jude 1:9 MKJV)!
Jude 1:14-15 MKJV
(14) And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied to these, saying, Behold, the Lord came with myriads of His saints,
(15) to do judgment against all, and to rebuke all the ungodly of them concerning all their ungodly works which they ungodly did, and concerning all the hard things ungodly sinners spoke against Him.
To some the Lord and His anointed said, “Go and sin no more,” and to others, He said:
Matthew 23:31-35 MKJV
(31) Therefore you are witnesses to yourselves, that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets;
(32) and you fill up the measure of your fathers.
(33) Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
(34) Therefore, behold, I send prophets and wise men and scribes to you. And you will kill and crucify some of them. And some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city;
(35) so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Berachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar.
I (Paul) have this to add:
Russell, you also wrote:
“Clearly we need His Spirit to discern the difference [between true and false]. What I am suggesting is that while there will always be false teachings and prophets in this age. . . Should we not look upon these as a way God is drawing man to Him through His Son.”
No, we shouldn’t look at false prophets as a way God is drawing men to Him through His Son. God draws men to Himself through the Son and not through the corrupt. Here’s the way we should see the false in light of what God is doing:
Matthew 13:24-30 EMTV
(24) Another parable He set before them, saying: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man sowing good seed in his field.
(25) But while the men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away.
(26) But when the stalk had sprouted and produced fruit, then the tares also appeared.
(27) So the servants of the master of the house approached and said to him, 'Sir, was it not good seed you sowed in your field? From where then does it have tares?'
(28) "He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Do you wish then that we should go and gather them up?'
(29) "But he said, 'No, lest gathering up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
(30) Leave both to grow together until the harvest; and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares, and bind them into bundles to burn them, but gather together the wheat into my barn." ' "
“If this is so then should we not also show compassion on those who are indeed searching for the right path, keeping in mind Our Maker uses many ways and means of drawing men to Himself. His ways are far greater then our ways and we understand little of why He does, what He does.”
To whom are you referring as searching for the right path? False teachers? They, as demonstrated by their works, aren’t searching for the Truth. And if you’re talking about the lost people out there who might be misled by the false, how are we showing them compassion if we don’t expose blasphemy and error the Lord has graciously revealed to us?
“And so the same compassion Jesus showed to the erring adulterous, should I believe be the same compassion we should show to our fellow man who has been caught short in His journey. The same compassion we would like to be given in similiar circumstances.”
The adulteress to whom the Lord showed mercy wasn’t publicly touting adultery, as do the servants of Mystery, Babylon the Whore. Read the rest of Matthew 23 Victor quoted to see how the Lord dealt with such. The confusion you manifest here comes from being a partaker of Mystery. The compassion you're advocating is to shield yourself from God and Truth rather than to protect the innocent from harm.
“Could it be that God allows such false prophets so that in a time of His choosing He will reveal His true prophets and teachings for all to see, who can see.”
I'm reminded of how the Lord once said to me, “As the false are exposed, so shall the true be made manifest.”
“For there must also be heresies among you, that the approved ones may be revealed among you” (1 Corinthians 11:19 MKJV).
“Behold, I give out of those of the synagogue of Satan, those saying themselves to be Jews and are not, but lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you” (Revelation 3:9 MKJV).
I'm also reminded of the vision of the battle the Lord was overseeing, in which He was pitching the forces of darkness and light, of good and evil against one another, working evil to ultimate good.
As to the responsibility as children of light:
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11 MKJV).
“But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the Devil, he argued about the body of Moses, he dared not bring a judgment of blasphemy, but said, Let the Lord rebuke you” (Jude 1:9 MKJV)!
Jude 1:14-15 MKJV
(14) And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied to these, saying, Behold, the Lord came with myriads of His saints,
(15) to do judgment against all, and to rebuke all the ungodly of them concerning all their ungodly works which they ungodly did, and concerning all the hard things ungodly sinners spoke against Him.
To some the Lord and His anointed said, “Go and sin no more,” and to others, He said:
Matthew 23:31-35 MKJV
(31) Therefore you are witnesses to yourselves, that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets;
(32) and you fill up the measure of your fathers.
(33) Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
(34) Therefore, behold, I send prophets and wise men and scribes to you. And you will kill and crucify some of them. And some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city;
(35) so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Berachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar.
I (Paul) have this to add:
Russell, you also wrote:
“Clearly we need His Spirit to discern the difference [between true and false]. What I am suggesting is that while there will always be false teachings and prophets in this age. . . Should we not look upon these as a way God is drawing man to Him through His Son.”
No, we shouldn’t look at false prophets as a way God is drawing men to Him through His Son. God draws men to Himself through the Son and not through the corrupt. Here’s the way we should see the false in light of what God is doing:
Matthew 13:24-30 EMTV
(24) Another parable He set before them, saying: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man sowing good seed in his field.
(25) But while the men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away.
(26) But when the stalk had sprouted and produced fruit, then the tares also appeared.
(27) So the servants of the master of the house approached and said to him, 'Sir, was it not good seed you sowed in your field? From where then does it have tares?'
(28) "He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Do you wish then that we should go and gather them up?'
(29) "But he said, 'No, lest gathering up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
(30) Leave both to grow together until the harvest; and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares, and bind them into bundles to burn them, but gather together the wheat into my barn." ' "
“If this is so then should we not also show compassion on those who are indeed searching for the right path, keeping in mind Our Maker uses many ways and means of drawing men to Himself. His ways are far greater then our ways and we understand little of why He does, what He does.”
To whom are you referring as searching for the right path? False teachers? They, as demonstrated by their works, aren’t searching for the Truth. And if you’re talking about the lost people out there who might be misled by the false, how are we showing them compassion if we don’t expose blasphemy and error the Lord has graciously revealed to us?
“And so the same compassion Jesus showed to the erring adulterous, should I believe be the same compassion we should show to our fellow man who has been caught short in His journey. The same compassion we would like to be given in similiar circumstances.”
The adulteress to whom the Lord showed mercy wasn’t publicly touting adultery, as do the servants of Mystery, Babylon the Whore. Read the rest of Matthew 23 Victor quoted to see how the Lord dealt with such. The confusion you manifest here comes from being a partaker of Mystery. The compassion you're advocating is to shield yourself from God and Truth rather than to protect the innocent from harm.