False Prophets and Those That Believe Them 3

Brothers and Sisters, I know I am being repetitive. I understand that my message is wearing thin on some of you. But I will say this again and I will say this many more times. I believe we are living in the last days. I believe that I will see evidence of the 'birth pangs' Jesus referenced in Matthew 24:8 in my lifetime. So, there is an increasing sense of urgency welling up inside of me as I reflect on this world and the things that we are seeing in it. The bible says that in the end times in Matthew:
23"Then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or 'There He is,' do not believe him. 24"For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. 25"Behold, I have told you in advance.


I don't see Joel Osteen performing any signs and wonders in the near future.  There is nothing happening right now in the world that aligns with this particular verse of scripture.  However, if you would indulge me here just a bit, I'd like to put forth a workable theory about these false prophets.

If you are at war, and the enemy is strong, before you send in your ground troops, you have to make some kind of attempt to soften the enemy's offensive and defensive capabilities by long range strikes.  In modern times that would come in the form of long range missile attacks, or bombings.  

The false teachings coming out of the churches where these men and women teach could be considered long range attacks on Christians.  They are effectually softening up the body of Christ before the ground troops are sent into the war zone.  Their lies, half-truths and distortions of the gospel are not leading people away from church; they are simply leading people away from Christ.  The people in these congregations go to church; but if they worship the Christ preached by these false teachers then they are worshiping a Christ that does not exist.   These folks are more like the people in 2 Peter:

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;…

So many are deceived.  I hear so many times that these actors and actresses are being used greatly.  And they are....they are being used by the enemy to carry out his long range attacks on God's people.   So many are deceived by the size of their congregations.  But Jesus said wide is the path to destruction.

But, I may be getting off topic here.  Let me introduce you to the first wolf in the pack.  He needs no introduction, he is the coward Joel Osteen.   That's right, I said coward.   And I will tell you why.

A man who is afraid to tell the truth is a coward.  Joel Osteen has an amazing opportunity to tell the truth and he fails to do so.   Osteen does not preach against sin.  He doesn't even mention it.  That is cowardice.  Brothers and Sisters if it wasn't for sin then we wouldn't need Jesus.  So what he is doing is advertising for a auto mechanic and his listeners don't even know what a car is.  But it sounds so good they buy into it anyway.


In Galatians 1:8 Paul writes this:
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

Now Paul preaches sin and Jesus, Jesus preached sin and Jesus, Peter preached sin and Jesus; so if that is the Gospel these men preached, then why is that not the gospel Joel Osteen preached.  Now the language Paul uses here is: accursed.  Accursed, means to be separated, to be put out, ostracized from the body.   It is very clear to me that Joel Osteen is preaching a different gospel.  Do your own research brothers and sisters.  You will find out for yourselves.  Once you are convinced, you know what you must do.  

We must turn our backs on Joel Osteen and we must declare that he not one of us.  He must be sent out from the body and no one in the body should claim him as one of our own.  That is the only way biblical way to deal with this man who is leading so many astray from the word of God.  

I urge anyone who watches his program or reads his books to stop.  Supporting this man is support for a different gospel.  If you are a member of his church...leave.  Find a bible believing church and go there.   Like I said before, we are living in the last days.   There is no more time to play at being Christians.  It is time to raise up an army, and we don't need any Joel Osteen cowards in the army.    

False Prophets and Those That Believe Them 2

Brothers and Sisters, I know there is no text this time. I will try to catch up sometime in the future. Until then, the video will give you the major points to my argument.

False Prophets and Those That Believe Them 1

Brothers and Sisters, thank you for visiting the Blog again.  I hope the words inspire you to cultivate good fruit in your lives.  Today, I was inspired by the word of God to explore a topic that has been on my mind to explore for a number of years.
I have read this particular passage several times and yet only today have I understood it this way.  The passage is 1 Kings 13:11-24.

11 Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen[a] which way the man of God went who came from Judah. 13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, 14 and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

And he said, “I am.”

15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”

16 And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. 17 For I have been told by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’”

18 He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (He was lying to him.)

19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

20 Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; 21 and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, 22 but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”

23 So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse.

What struck me while I was reading was that the man of God who had just been used by God was so willing to believe the lying tongue of the false prophet.   He had heard from God already, yet he was still able to convince himself to go with the false prophet to eat and to drink.  How easy it was for this man of God's belly to become his God!   

Church, we are the body of Christ.  And just as a doctor performs surgery and cuts out the cancer so the cancer does not spread, it is time for us to clean up some things in the body.  It is past time for us to address some issues related to false teaching.  

There are two aspects at play here.  On the one hand we have the false prophet.  He was lying and he knew he was lying.  There are several so-called preachers who lie to their flocks every Sunday.  They distort the word of God to make it fit into their own world-view, instead of conforming their world-view to Christ.  

On the other hand we have the men and women of God who follow these false prophets.  These are they who are saved.  They love God.  They read the scriptures, yet they continually sit under false teaching.  They tithe into ministries that actually lead people to hell and damnation.  

Which one is worse?  I believe they are both shameful.  They are both sinful.  A liar cannot lie unless he has someone who is willing to believe his lie.  It is a symbiotic relationship between the false teacher and the misled. One cannot exist without the other.  Both exist in large numbers in the body of Christ.  

In subsequent posts, I will begin to expose both the false teachings and the critical role played by the congregations that sit and listen to them weekly.   Even forcing children to sit and listen to these falsehoods; indoctrinating them with lies.  

Brothers and Sisters it is easy to identify false teachings and false teachers.  If they preach something that runs contrary to the word of God, guess what?  They are false teachers.   

It is much harder to delve into the psychology of those who sit and receive the lies as their own.  It is here that I will begin with my next post.  I think it is critical to understand the men and women who say they love Christ, but sit and listen to His word get distorted every week.  

A Phone Call Story

In my previous post we talked about the Christian and the idea of being cool.  There are many more things to say about that, but we are going to look at another topic today.  I would contend that if a Christian could deal successfully navigate this particular area, it will allow them access a level of connection with God through the Holy Spirit that would allow for tremendous spiritual growth.  

Last year I was sitting in my office when I received a telephone call.  It was a lady who lived near the school where I work and she was upset about the marquee-saying that we were attracting the wrong students by putting our messages in English and Spanish.  She proceeded to tell me that the sign represented the reason your school had the wrong kinds of students.  Rage and defensiveness welled up in me and I unleashed on her a terrible lashing with my unbridled tongue.  I don't recall what I uttered, but it was by no means loving or God Honoring.  Thank God for the Holy Spirit who convicted me, after the anger subsided, to apologize to the woman.  Not as a function of my job, but as a function of my faith.  

The following day I searched through the numbers in my phone to no avail.  I could not tell which number was hers, so I was not able to give the apology I deeply wanted to give.  But God opened a door and she called back.  She apologized first, and she said she was a Christian and then I commented that I shared a like faith, and an equally like apology.  The proverbial weight was lifted from my shoulders.  I thank God that He is always so graceful.  

That anecdote, has a lot in it.  There was first a misunderstanding, followed by anger, then apology, forgiveness and reconciliation.  Each one of those things is important in the life of a Christian.  We should look at them all, but today we'll only address the root cause of the original misunderstanding---- PRIDE. 

Yes folks, pride.  My simple definition of pride is putting yourself above others.  Pride is the original sin, the sin that allowed Satan to rebel against God.  If our sin nature is a solar system, then Pride is the sun which all other sins revolve around.  

In my case, my pride made it impossible to listen with empathy to the lady on the phone.  It caused me to leap into a defense instead of calmly giving logical reasons for the marquee.  The truth is, I never understood her argument, and that led to a misunderstanding.  Proverbs 4:7 states that we need to get understanding.  

You all are thinking, where is he going with all of this.  Here it is.  Our pride gets in the way of us understanding others.  If we do not understand others we can never truly present the gospel of Christ in a way that they will understand.  We will never understand where to start.  Instead, we act from a defensive stance, attempting to defend our faith which never needs to be defended.  It only needs to be lovingly explained.  Our pride makes us loose site of the mission---to win souls.  

The remedy to our foolish pride is love and humility.  Neither of these things live in the flesh.  The antidote is to live in the spirit.  To crucify our flesh daily and be guided daily by the Holy Spirit.  This is only done through prayer, study, prayer and spending time in the word of God.  

Brothers and Sisters, this is my challenge to us: to root out pride wherever it may hide in our hearts and minds.  To go after it like a doctor goes after cancer cells.  To pray and read and study until we have allowed God to cleanse us that we may be used by Him.