The Horsemen of Revelation:( Continues) The Church Corrupted by Deception: Near the end of the first century the apostle John, last of the original 12 apostles,saw a rapid escalation in the heresy and persecution that was plaguing the Church During the reign of Roman Emperor Domitian a virulent strain of antagonism was unleashed on Christians. For a time, the government even exiled the aged apostle to the Aegean island of Patmos. It was there that he received the book of Revelation in vision. The three epistles bearing his name reveal the mounting tension in the churches and John’s desire to warn the members of the devastating impact of false teaching. He wrote of their individual and collective responsibility to examine those teachers who presented themselves as spiritual guides and experts.He knew it was easy to claim divine authority and thereby deceive people into following ideas that were spiritually destructive. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit,but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). We see the apostles warning of the corruption of the true faith brought by Jesus Christ. Jude summed it up perfectly when he wrote of the need to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3)Within decades, the truth of God was gravely corrupted by false teachers. The result was teachings that no longer resembled the gospel brought by Christ. In Galatians 1:6, Paul had to reprimand the Galatians for “turning away . . . to a different gospel.” From the teachings of these corrupters evolved a church bearing Jesus’ name, but vastly different in doctrines and practices from the Church we see in the New Testament. In fact, two vastly different Christian” faiths were now locked in a struggle—the true followers of Jesus’ teachings and the tarnished followers of a spiritually corrupt, counterfeit Christianity Amen
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 02:58:23 +0000
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