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PASTOR'S REPORT, June 18, 1979
Page 6
grace of Christ unto another gospel. ...but there be some that trouble you,
and would pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ ''
(Gal. 1:6-7).
To the church at Corinth the same thing was happening. To them Paul
wrote: "But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted" (II Cor. 11:3). Today,
if one should suggest that a brother or minister in the Church has unsus
pectedly been led in any degree by Satan, he will rise up in furious indig
nation and angrily retort that Satan can't influence him! That is to say,
"I am stronger and more firm and righteous than Satan--Satan never could
deceive me!"
But listen, dear brethren of God's Church. Satan is MORE POWERFUL,
MORE CUNNING, MORE SUBTLE, than any human being on earth! Unless you and
I are consantly on guard--close to God, in constant heart-rending prayer-
constantly close to God and His Truth through Bible study--Satan CAN deceive
you, blind your eyes to God's truth, and USE YOU! Satan has used and led,
without their knowing it, even some of our ministers in past years.
Paul continues, in his letter to those at Corinth, "for such are false
apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of
Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of
light. Therefore it is no great thing if HIS MINISTERS"--mark you, it is
speaking of those who unwittingly become SATAN'S MINISTERS!--"also be
transformed as the ministers of righteousness; ... " (II Cor. 11:13-15).
In God's church in our day, self-appointed "scholars" rose up in what
they called a "doctrinal committee," devoting themselves, NOT to discovering
any NEW TRUTH--but trying to DISprove the TRUE DOCTRINES Jesus Christ put
into His Church through His Apostle, and inject false doctrines into the
Church of God.
This very thing happened in the days of the Apostle Paul and the
original Apostles. And SATAN DID BLIND AND DECEIVE THOSE WHO, WITH HONEST
HEARTS HAD ACCEPTED GOD'S TRUTH!
It happened again in the next two centuries. After the Apostle John
wrote the Book of Revelation in the 90's A.D., Satan was using those at
Rome to inject the pagan Easter instead of the Lord's PASSOVER! A disciple
of John--Polycarp--engaged in a heated controversy on this question with
the Bishop of Rome. Later, Polycrates entered into an even more heated
controversy with a later Roman Bishop on the question--referred to as the
"Quarto-Deciman Controversy."
About the same time, Satan was using
ministers in the Church to completely do away with the real work and func
tion of the Holy Spirit, by calling the Holy Spirit a "Ghost."--a third
Person in the Godhead--calling God a TRINITY; Father, Son and Holy "Ghost."
Brethren, do we think we are so superior to those of the first, second
and third centuries that Satan could not have tried to pervert God's TRUTH
today?
But praise be to God--even though so much of GOD'S TRUTH was distorted,
changed and replaced with false doctrines in the very first three centuries,
and remained hidden from God's Church until our twentieth century, God's
original TRUTH was preservAd IN HIS WORD!