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Christ; and shall deceive many"!
(Matthew 24:4, 5.)
Notice carefully!
It
was not the
few who were to be deceived-but
the many.
lt
was the few who were to
become true Christians!
Jesus pictured this same condition
when He said: "Wide is the gate, and
broad is the way, that leadeth to de–
struction, and many there be which
go in thereat: because strait is the
gate, and narrow is the way, which
Ieadeth unto life, and few there be
that find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).
That isn't what the world believes,
is it? Probably · that isn't what you
have always heard and come to as–
sume. But it's what Christ said! How
deceived this world has become!
Satan is pictured in the Bible as
the god of this world. He appears not
as a devil, but as a god- as an angel
of light. And in Revelation 12:9, you
read of " Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world."
Yes, the many would come in Je–
sus' name, proclaiming that Jesus is
the Christ-yes, preaching Christ to
the world. And yet, without realizing
it, deceiving the world.
A Lesson t o Be Learned
The apostles, instructed directly by
Jesus Christ, constantly warned the
Church about the great departure
from the faith that would begin to
occur at the close of their ministry.
Scarcely twenty years after the
crucifixion of Jesus, the apostle Paul,
in one of his first inspired letters,
cautioned Christians not to be de–
ceived by false preaching or by false
letters purporting to be from the
apostles. "Let no man deceive you by
any means: for that day [the time of
God's intervention in human affairs
when Jesus Christ will return to rule
the nations] shall not come, except
there come a falling · away first "
(II Thessalonians 2:3).
Apostles Knew What Would
Happen
·
In Acts 20:29-30, the teacher of the
Gentiles explains how the apostasy
would begin. He gathered the elders
(ministers) of the Church at Ephesus
to deliver them a final message con–
cerning their responsibility over the
local congregations. "For," said
34
Paul, "1 know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter
in among you, not sparing the flock.
And of your own selves shall men
arise, speaking perverse things."
Why? "To draw away disciples after
tbem. " To gain a personal following
for themselves! To start a new de–
nomination!
Do you catch the full significance
of these two verses? The elders or
ministers were especially assembled
because, immediately after Paul
would leave Ephesus, there would
come within the local Church con–
gregations false ministers, wolves in
sheep's clothing, to make a prey of
Christians; and even from those el-
~~
Jesus Christ did not
found many
denominations! Christ
said, "1 will build my
church." He did build it!
One Church,
commissioned to preach
and to publish His
gospel-the very message
He brought from God.
' '
ders already in the Church congrega–
tions sorne would pervert the doctrine
of Jesus to secure a following for
themselves.
Gentile Deception Prophesied
Not only Paul, but also Peter, warned
the churches that many would be mis–
led. There were false teachers among
Christianswhowould bring in heresies,
"and many shall foliow their pernicious
ways; by reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of' (11 Peter
2:2).
When Paul wrote his second letter
to the Gentile-born Thessalonians, he
instructed them against the "mystery
of iniquity" which "doth already
work" (II Thessalonians 2:7).
Notice, the cleverly disguised
teachings of iniquity or lawlessness
were at work in Paul's day. The Ro–
man world was being filled with nu–
merous mystery religions which
stemmed from the old sun-worsbip–
ing mysteries.
False teachers secretly professed
to giving a hidden, yet easy, way to
evade the consequences of breaking
God's law. Jude had to include in his
letter the admonition that every
Christian "should earnestly contend
for the faith which was once deliv–
ered unto the saints. For there are
certain men crept in unawares, who
were before of old ordained to this
condemnation, ungodly men, turning
the grace of our God into lascivious–
ness, and denying the only Lord God,
and our Lord Jesus Christ. ... These
be they who separate themselves,
sensual, having not the Spirit" (Jude
3,4,19).
Jude says these preachers sepa–
rated their followers from the body of
believers. By the time John wrote his
epistle, be had this sad note to in–
elude about those preachers who at
first crept in. unawares: "They went
out from us, but they were not of us;
for if they had been of us, they would
no doubt have continued with us: but
they went out, that they might be
made manifest that they were not ali
of us" (1 John 2: 19).
True Chrlstians Forced Out
Although numerous deceivers, called
Gnostics, left the Church, drawing
away disciples after them, there was
an even more dangerous apostasy
which infiltrated the true Church.
In instructing the evangelist Tim–
othy, the apostle to the Gentiles in–
structed him to "reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all longsuffering and
doctrine. For the time will come
when they will not endure sound
doctrine; but after their own
lusts"-the congregations wanting
to do what they please-"shall they
heap to themselves teachers"-elect
ministers who will preach what they
want to hear- " and they shall turn
away their ears from the truth, and
shall be turned unto fables"
(II Timothy 4:2-4).
This was in the days of the apos–
tles and evangelists. Many who fel-
The
PLAIN TRUTH
S~ptember
1979