I wonder sometimes how different the world would be if Christ Jesus had come at a different time. This morning, I was reading Galatians 1, a letter the apostle Paul sent to one of the areas he had visited as a missionary for His Savior. Please grab your Bible and read it, as I won't be quoting exerpts in this post.
The reason for this letter is that Paul had heard the believers at Galatia were being led astray by doctrinal error. He had planted this church on his first missionary journey, most believe, although some believe he planted it on the second. The region of Galatia is in Asia Minor, the area we now call Turkey. This error had probably been going on for some time before Paul heard of it. Then, the letter had to be written and carried there. I wonder if we would be able to benefit today from Paul's instructive letters today, if they had had email.
At any rate, Paul had planted this church at least 18 months prior (if you subscribe to the first missionary journey hypothesis), and now he has gotten word that the believers have gone down the primrose path. Galatians, therefore, is a book of correction; but, the correction flows from Paul's love for them and from his zeal for the gospel.
The Galatian believers were Gentiles. Paul felt called to preach to the Gentiles, based on the revelation he received from Jesus Himself and God the Father (vs. 1). One of the things happening in Galatia was that the believers were being influenced by Jewish Christians, who were either telling the Galatians they had to follow the letter of the law of Moses or that the grace that saved them gave them a license to live however they wanted. These "judaizers" (the Christian Jews) began their attack by attempting to discredit Paul. This is why he began his book stating by whose authority he was called to be an apostle.
It is important that we, as Christians, listen to the right teachers. This was the dilemma in which the Galatians found themselves. They had formerly lived as polytheistic pagans, practicing all sorts of abominations in their lifestyles, surrounded by other pagans. Then, these Judaizers came alongside them, pretending to be their allies. The Galatians, seeing a harbor in a storm, began to accept the error, even though they knew it was against what Paul had taught them.
Paul's authority and path was peculiar. His experience as a young Christian is recounted in verses 13-24 to stand in stark contrast to the path the Galatians were following. Paul tells us that, after he had recovered somewhat from his Damascus road encounter with Jesus, he went to Arabia for over 2 years. Some speculate that, like the prophet Elijah who was similarly zealous for his God, Yahweh, Paul went to Mt. Sinai during this period, where he sought God fervently, to learn and get additional direction.
Paul specifically points out to the Galatians that he did not go, immediately after his conversion, to Jerusalem to learn from the other apostles headquartered there. He makes this point to emphasize that he continually looked to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit for his authority, his learning and his commission as an apostle. The Galatians were pretty much doing the exact opposite.
It's hard to fault the Galatians. They were newborn Christians, so to speak, and probably really wanted to grow in their faith. They simply became led astray, following the wrong teachers.
This can easily happen to us today. What are some principles that should guide us in this regard?
Here are a few:
1. Don't follow a man.
Many Christians revere their pastors and Bible teachers.. There is nothing wrong with that, to a point. But, no matter how much a leader is revered, his or her words must be measured against the word of God, revealed in the Bible. Divergence on major, foundational doctrines of the Christian faith disqualify a leader/teacher, no matter how charismatic, eloquent or seemingly godly.
2. The centrality of Jesus Christ
- We are warned that anyone who preaches a way of holiness, pleasing God, that circumvents Jesus Christ is a "false teacher". This is what was happening to the Galatians. They were being taught by these false teachers that the way to holiness avoided or diminished the grace from Jesus Christ and elevated or exalted the good works of the believer. Paul elsewhere affirms this centrality of the finished work of Jesus in 1 Corinthians 2:2.
- There are false teachers today who say they worship Jesus, but deny some aspects of his life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension into Heaven. Various religions, such as Mormonism, fall into this category.
- There are other false teachers today who present a false path to people for believing in Jesus, although that path seems to include Him. These will not confess that Jesus is the only way to peace with God the Father. Instead, they focus on such mantras as "your best life now", and so forth. When confronted with the question, "Is Jesus the Way, the Truth, the Life, and is He the only way to God?", there is severe backpedaling, side-stepping and squirming around with fancy words.
- There are false prophets who fill our pulpits every Sunday. They aren't false prophets because they actively teach error, but because they shy away from teaching the whole truth. They focus continually on the palatable aspects of Jesus' teaching, and ignore the hard. If you look at the very words of Jesus, friends, many of them were hard! I encountered a women a few years ago who told me she would not attend our church because on the Sunday she visited our pastor preached on the topic of Hell. So, she chose the tamer church down the road. Well, I'll tell you that my pastor does preach on that topic and also on the topic of the blood of Christ, the virgin birth, the infallibility of the Bible, honoring God with our money, living sexually pure lives, engaging our culture by speaking the Truth, serving our fellow man and other "controversial topics" because....Jesus is controversial! The Bible is controversial! Christ's gospel is a gospel of peace; but, it divides people.
3. The authority of the Bible
The first move of those who outright reject Jesus Christ and/or "preach another gospel" is to get people to believe that the Bible is "just another book" or that it is "full of errors" or other such nonsense. Why? Because the Bible is our moral standard. If they can discredit it, they can pretty much do (and teach) whatever they please.
The second move (and one much more subtle) is to pick and choose the parts they like and disregard the rest. The Bible is an extremely complex book, one which can be studied for a lifetime and never fully understood. The key is to examine and study the entirety of what the Bible says on a topic, not to merely focus on one verse or passage, which can be misleading.
Often, what we fall prey to today is the media. The media and "intellectualism" are often our false prophets. I'll give you an example from about 15 minutes ago. I had gotten up from this task to go get a second cuppa and a muffin. Flicking on the TV while the muffin heated, The Blaze station popped up. A panel on there was discussing the thoroughly evil Muslim act of terrorism, perpetrated in Paris a couple days ago...12 journalists killed, for exercising their freedom of speech. The panel, however, was discussing the reaction to this act by a "Christian" leader. This Catholic leader, in some very high office (sorry, I don't remember who it was), was telling "the flock" to basically "sit down and shut up". In other words, he was saying that the Church should not evangelize if it would offend Muslims, that we should not exercise our freedoms of speech and religion. The lead panelist just basically went ballistic on this point. She exposed this man as a false teacher (called him a "snake oil salesman") and affirmed that she was going to be obedient to scripture by testifying about Jesus whenever and however she was led by the Holy Spirit to do so. I mean, she looked directly into the camera and proclaimed that she would.not.be.silent. Wow.
But, you see, the media likes to, generally, exalt false prophets, such as the one who spoke out on behalf of the Catholic Church, in reaction to the act of terrorism.
Watch out for these major areas of false teaching and others. WE need to evaluate every iota of teaching that bombards us or that we actively seek against the unyielding, eternal standard of the Word of God, His written Word. And, we need to guard our own hearts, that we don't fall prey to false teaching.
Dear God, please enlighten our minds and hearts through study of Your Word! Speak to us through its pages, so that can have holy discernment, to be able to tell the true from the false. We never want to be in the position of teaching or living something that is contrary to your Word. Please direct us by Your Holy Spirit, as we seek Your face. We can only walk resplendent, if we walk in Truth.
In Jesus' name, amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment