2 posts tagged “jesus”
Matthew 4:17 "From then on, Jesus began to preach, "turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near."
This week I have been feeling the pressure and the need to tell everyone this. I believe that the time is coming when we are going to see even more signs than we already are that Jesus is coming again. Will you be ready? I am hoping that I will be. I don't want to be caught asleep at the time that He comes for us. I know a lot of people don't want to talk about those times, but they are upon us.
The Lord gave me a dream on December 31, 2008, that indicated that more and more churches were going to start allowing more and more false teaching into their churches, and that the churches needed to beware of those books/teachers and to not allow them in. In my dream, they were allowing not just T.D. Jakes books, but books by authors who were self-proclaimed Jehovah's Witnesses (cult and teaches a different Jesus) and Mormans (cult and a different Jesus). It tells us in one of the three books of John that we are to not even allow them into our "house". This means into our churches. It doesn't say to let them in to teach some things -- its says to not even let them in! Church during that time was held in people's houses. That is what that scripture means.
This is a time when deception is going to run rampant, and we must stand strong on the core foundations of Christian doctrine. I know many people bristle at the word doctrine because they think its "religious", but here is the thing, our Christian doctrine foundation was put in place so that we would not be led away from the true faith of who Jesus Christ is. If you do a word search on the word "doctrine" in the bible -- you can see that it was important to Paul -- it should be important to us. Paul wrote most of the New Testament, I think he knew what he was talking about. Paul and Jesus both warn us of false teachers, and those coming preaching a different Jesus -- those teachers are here. We are allowing them into our homes and into our churches, and we need to get more aware.
A great book by a renowned author is called "Conviction Without Compromise: Standing Strong in the Core Beliefs of the Christian Faith" by Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes. There are core beliefs (essentials) that we should absolutely not compromise on, and then there are those things that are non-essentials. There are core beliefs that are foundational, and we should use these core foundations as the base and build upon that.
People associate bible scholars and theologians with "religion", but its not necessarily the case. The name theology simply means the study of God. You can be a theologian and a bible scholar, AND have a beautiful and wonderful relationship with Jesus Christ.
If you already are a Christian, study the core values along with me -- those things we must not compromise in. Let's get a firm foundation together. If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, and don't know who Jesus is -- send me a message and let me share with you. Or keep coming back so that you can read more about this Man who came down from Heaven to die for our sins, so that we can be saved and spend eternity with Him and our Heavenly Father. Jesus was sent to SAVE the world, not condemn it!
This is in response to a comment on our last post, and felt it needed to be put up front. We have stated repeatedly -- we have not said that T. D. Jakes is a false prophet or a false teacher -- we have said that we are concerned with his some of his teachings and his view of the Trinity. We are also not judging his heart. We have quoted his own words from an article that he posted on his own web site. www.thepottershouse.org/PH_about.html -- check it out for yourself. Don't just take our word for it, check it out for yourself.
This is not something that we have thought about lightly, and it is also something we have been very prayerful about for well over a year now, and the Lord keeps bringing it back to our attention. We have consulted with other Christian pastors and leaders in the community, and they agree with us on this issue. This was originally posted as a comment in response, but I am re-posting it here for those who are following this post so that they may understand where we are coming from as well. I also do not believe that it will cause those to leave the faith. I believe it would cause people to dig deeper into the Word, and draw closer to our Lord. Our faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ, not some teacher. Our prayer is and has been that it will cause people to go deeper into God's word, and search the scriptures out for themselves. Dig in.
I have an excerpt from a book titled "The Complete Bible Answer Book" by Hank Hanegraaf on this very issue (not T.D. Jakes, but on judging teachings). "Not only is judging permissible, it is our responsibility. Nobody's teachings are above sound judgment -- especially those of influential leaders! Biblically, authority and accountability go hand in hand (cf. Luke 12:48). The greater the responsibility one holds, the greater the accountability (cf. James 3:1)."
"First, the precedent for making right judgments comes from Scripture itself. In the Old Testament the Israelites were commanded to practice sound judgment by thoroughly testing the teachings of their leaders (Deut. 13). Similarly, in the New Testament, the apostle Paul commands the Thessalonians to test all things and to hold fast to that which is good (1 Thess. 5:21-22). Moreover, Paul lauds the Bereans for testing his teachings (Acts 17:11)."
"Furthermore, while our Lord cautioned followers not to judge self-righteously (Matt. 7:1-5), he also counseled them to make judgments based on right standards (John 7:24). In the context of his oft-misquoted command "Judge not, or you too will be judged," Jesus exhorts us to judge false prophets, whose teachings and behavior lead people astray (Matt. 7:15-20). Thus while we are commanded to not judge hypocritically, we are nevertheless called to judge."
"Finally, common sense should be sufficient to alert us to the importance of making public as well as private judgments regarding false doctrine. During the infamous Tylenol scare in 1982, public warnings were issued by the media and the medical community regarding the physical danger of ingesting Tylenol capsules that someone had laced with cyanide. In similar fashion, when spiritual cyanide is dispensed within the Christian community, we are duty-bound to warn the public. As such, Paul publicly rebuked Hymenaeus and Philetus whose teachings "spread like gangrene" (2 Tim. 2:17-18; cf. Gal. 2:11-14)." (page 324-324 "The Complete Bible Answer Book" by Hank Hanegraaff).
Num 6:24-26 “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." '
