“But the Spirit explicitly
says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention
to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of
liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron…” (1 Timothy 4:1 –
2).
“But realize
this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers
of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant…unloving…without self-control,
brutal…reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…Avoid
such men as these.” (2 Timothy 3:1 – 5).
“Let no man
deceive you, for [the Day of the Lord] will not come unless the falling away
comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction…”
(2 Thess. 2:3).
What does a “falling
away” look like? I suppose it has many expressions, many flavors, some perhaps
obvious, many – the most dangerous – not easily discerned. I write “not easily
discerned,” yet they can be discerned, for it always comes down to the Person
of Jesus Christ. Is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ the
message? Are we called to follow Him as He is, consistent with the
Scriptures, or are we called to follow images of Him created in our own
image?
Perhaps I have
waited too long to write about this. For sure we are over the tipping point, at
least in America we are. We have passed the point of no return, as in Jeremiah’s
day. We have rushed past it, bursting through the barriers of morality,
compassion, sympathy, and the Gospel, trampling on the good in Christ, the beautiful
in Christ, the truth in Christ. While I avoid the terms liberal and
conservative and moderate for many good reasons, I will write that these “movements”
and ideologies whether political, social, or theological are all destructive
and that you and I are called to follow Jesus, and only Jesus. All of these
ideologies strip away the image of God within us, the image of God restored within
us in Christ, and would make us enemies of one another.
Let me share
something with you, if a man or woman or young person truly comes to know
Jesus, encounters Jesus, and follows Jesus; if a person spends his days and
nights with Jesus, that person (let us hope) will only desire Jesus and learn
to see all other movements and ideologies as whores seeking to seduce him or
her away from Jesus (2 Cor. 11:1 – 3; Ezekiel Chapter 23).
Let me tell you
something else, those who enter that glorious City, our home, the true and
heavenly Jerusalem, which is the Mother of ALL the Faithful (for God only has
One People and they are not based on race but found in Christ, the Seed of
Abraham; Gal. 3:16; 4:21 – 31) are going to see Jesus and the Father and God is
going to overwhelm them in His love and care. They are also going to be
overwhelmed in love, with love, for one another – the prayer of Jesus in John
17 will be fully fulfilled in heaven and on earth.
And so I ask
you, why not live in Jesus now? Why not live in His love now? Why allow
ourselves to be seduced and deluded into hatred for others? Why engage in
vitriol? Why partake of demonic anger when “righteousness is sown in peace”
(James 3:13 – 18)?
As Nero and the
Imperial Cult lead us into the abyss of hell and death and destruction, why do
we not flee to the Ark of Jesus Christ? Why do we not implore those we love to
come to Jesus, live in Jesus, live for Jesus?
Pastors, let us
remember that cowards are the first ones mentioned in Revelation 21:8. Cowards
are not those who do not believe the Word of God, they are those who know the
Word of God and are afraid to proclaim it, afraid to call their people to
Jesus, to live as citizens of heaven. Cowards are those who sell themselves and
their people to the Beast, the Whore, and the present evil age. The shepherds
of the Good Shepherd lay down their lives, including their economic lives,
for the Master’s sheep.
Our hope is
Jesus and only Jesus, and we are to go “outside the camp, bearing His reproach”
(Hebrews 13:13). Make no mistake, whatever “movement” we may be in, does not
want Jesus and His Cross, for it is offensive, it is foolishness, and it brings
to an end ego, pride, and boasting. Jesus and the Cross will have no image but
Himself in our hearts and minds and souls.
The early
Christians were not persecuted so much because they worshipped Jesus, they were
persecuted because they would not worship the Emperor alongside Jesus, they
would not buy into the Imperial Cult. The same cannot be said of us today.
To be
continued….
