Do They Promote A Religion of Works?
Do they advocate abstaining from certain foods behaviors or do they advocate practicing Old Testament dietary restrictions for spiritual reasons?
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” ~1 Timothy 4:1-4
"Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision..." Philippians 3:2
"Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ..." Galatians 6:12
We are beginning to again see this in certain Christian circles where people feel that if they adhere more strictly to the Bible including the Old Testament ceremonial laws, Jewish practices and dietary restrictions that somehow they are more righteous or more holy. If not an outright pious religion of works, they possibly believe that these old rites or rituals they perform somehow make them closer to God or align them in solidarity with their spiritual predecessors in other faith in Judaism. Let me be clear...for a Christian, Judaism ceased being a valid salvational religion/relationship with God when Jesus Christ came incarnate, was crucified, buried and was resurrected. Although the Jews were saved by faith based in the Jewish belief system up until Christ, Jesus' advent ushered in the Kingdom of God and a new covenant. A Christian now only needs to repent and accept the Gospel. From a Christian perspective Judaism is now a false religion superseded by the work of Jesus Christ. As for doing things to gain stature in God's eyes...no matter how you cut it, its a religion of works therefore it is false teaching by false teachers. This applies no matter who endorses it. I don't care how influential they are...they are wrong. Go back and read your Bible if you do not believe me. Ephesians 2:8 tells us clearly that it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. Anyone that tells you any different? They are not of God or Christ and therefore...counterfeit christs or counterfeit prophets or teachers.
Do They Deprecate, Belittle or Deny the Need for Marriage?
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” ~1 Timothy 4:1-4
We are beginning to see this everywhere. We see this in the reinstatement into leadership positions of people that have clearly disqualified themselves through willful adultery and other sexual deviations. Dissolving a marriage through divorce because of Biblical reasons is one thing. To willfully commit adultery and then try to re-establish a leadership rule? No. Even in the church with the more liberal of the brethren (therefore perhaps not even truly brethren) are now allowing practicing homosexuals into the leadership of the church. This practice is clearly a no-no and has been noted numerous times elsewhere in this blog.
Do They Promote Immorality?
“And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” ~Jude 6-7
Do They Encourage Legalistic Self-Denial?
"Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh" Colossians 2:16-33
If any of these questions can be answered in the affirmative/yes, the people that you can say yes about are not speaking from God. Anything that is not of God or Christ is of the Devil or in the spirit of antichrist.
Some of the above questions are not necessarily addressing the fake or false speaker so much as they are addressing absolute Scriptural known attributes about what? God! In relation to question #1 it is asking if a false prophecy is given. What would this mean about God? It means if God is omniscient and all knowing he would know all things therefore He would always give the correct answer through His prophet. The second thing question #1 tells us is that it could’ve been deliberate deception. God cannot lie nor deceive as it is not in His nature to do so. These are attributes of the Devil. So what do these two things tell us about the speaker that is in error?
We need to be honest and use acute discernment if we have it in our churches because many of these wolves have already crept into our local congregations either wittingly or unwittingly. Once we remove the Spirit as the discerning factor we will set ourselves up for failure. There are those gifted in the Church to discern these things without being legalistic. We must work together as a body to isolate the contagions and either cure them or eradicate them from the body. What surprises me is that so many false christs and false prophets have infiltrated the church at so many different levels...it is staggering. It is highly visible and obvious to some but apparently not enough to get them removed from the pulpits or rebuked in the congregations. I chalk this up to either Biblical illiteracy or timidity.
Although the Bible tells us we are to listen to the prophets of God, it also tells us false prophets exist. As such we must always remain vigilant to discern when they have entered the body. We are to test the spirits not accept them at face value and let them run riot over churches and defame the faith.
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." 1John 4:1-3
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