ONE SILLY LITTLE PREPOSITION

coming soon: discussion of the new testament scripture " IN CHRIST, there is neither slave nor free, greek nor jew, male nor female."

BEWARE WHAT STAR YOU HITCH YOUR WAGON TO

BEWARE WHAT STAR YOU HITCH YOUR WAGON TO
or
EARLY WARNING FOR THE STRATEGIES OF THE ANTICHRIST

When I had heard about the PBS FRONTLINE program on the Jonestown tragedy and Jim Jones, I knew I must watch it, because I want to know how nominally Christian organizations go wrong and be able to tell others how such an organization can stray from Jesus' teachings and allow such tragedy to occur.

The program was heartrending. The people who followed this fox (Jones) were mainly earnest people who knew that the racist biases of those days were not right. They joined and supported the church because they saw something there that was good. They stayed because of the love and joy they felt in worshipping God (they thought) in a blessed way and partaking of the fellowship experienced during the worship service.

It was not until Jones saw that he had a grip on his flock that he boldly, from the pulpit, proclaimed "articles of faith" that were in direct opposition to the Bible. But proclaim he did. The statements Jones made (shown on the PBS show) that stand out in my mind were 1)that there was no heaven or hell and that they, that church, must make heaven on earth and 2)that Jones could be their friend, father, or even their god. Did you see this program? Or did you see this story another time? Jones dramatically pauses and says (something like) "If I'm wrong, where is the lightning bolt out of the sky to strike me dead?
Let's just see how much power the Bible has," with which he hauled off and threw the Bible across the room where it fell to the floor.

This PBS FRONTLINE program demonstrated by means of interviews of former members, that Jones was a hypocrite whose morals were far from the Bible's standards even early in the history of his cult. Some members expressed that they were shocked when they found out about Jones' sexual practices that were perverted, but the ones interviewed had put him on such a pedestal by the time that they heard of these things, that they gave Jones the benfit of the doubt, thinking (I guess) that if he did it, it was OK.

The purpose of my writing here is not to recount what that program showed or what Jones did or said, but rather to give you and me some markers, some guidelines that God gave in the Bible, to keep us from error.

(I grieve that there many places that we Christians have gone away from God's will on things. I wonder if we can get back to Him before . . .)

John said in 1JOHN 4:1 "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God."

The first verse of this passage has been an anchor for me. I interpret it as saying that God will not speak anything that is against His nature meaning that if a spirit or a teacher who claims to be Christian says something against what is in the Bible, THAT IS NOT FROM GOD. In order for us to have the protection that this verse could give, though, we must familiarize ourselves with what the Bible does say. Also, we must not shrug off our reservations about what someone is teaching.

The second verse, I do have difficulty with. It seems that someone could pretend to embrace Jesus as savior, and sway other into heresy. Is God saying that eventually, one will not be able to lie and say he believes in Jesus if he doesn't? That is a real question to me. (If you stumble upon my writing here and have anything to share, please feel free to say it.)

In MATTHEW 7:15-23, Jesus gives teaching that is the most helpful to me concerning the false teachers that arise in Christianity. "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. (He continues in similar vein.)
So Jesus is telling us to look beyond the words of one coming in His name, to the life and actions that that one displays.

[Just as an aside here, I see where Jesus in many places tries to get the people to put more weight in the unseen things of the world than in the seen. The 'seen' are the surface, what others see of us and what we see of them. The 'unseen' is what God sees. (Look at JOHN 5:44). I can't think of others right now.]

This leads me into another passage where Jesus, in my opinion, prophesies that there will be those who will see the opportunity that the established Christian faith and churches can give to an opportunist, and will 'feed' on the unsuspecting church members. Jesus says in MATTHEW 13:31-32, (in a parable), "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seed, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becames a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."

Peter said in 2PETER 2:1-2 "But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-- bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many wil follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute."

One really powerful principle that Jesus gave is:
"But you are not to be called Rabbi, for you have only one
Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone
on earth 'father' for you have one Father, and he is in
heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher', for you have
one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be
your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
(MATTHEW 23:8-12)

This passage has come to my mind when I think of the young people who have been molested by priests in the Catholic church. I thought "If only the Catholic church had abided by that commandment of Jesus, those young people would perhaps have been spared that trauma. My thinking is that calling the priests 'father' instill a sense of awe in the church-people. But, as you can see, Jesus said 'no' not just to 'father', but also to 'rabbi', and 'teacher', and by extention, pastor, reverend and doctor. I'm having a hard time with this. It is so ingrained in our church culture to use those terms of respect. But seeing where this giving of respect to certain ones has led to some really bad stuff, I'm going to keep trying to change that in myself. (Should I also try to get this truth out?)

Of course, a balancing scripture is the one where Paul says prefer one another. You don't want to be selfish and rude to one another. Only, follow God first.