“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" Numbers 23:19 (NKJ)
I find myself struggling to refrain from speaking out straightforwardly about some subjects, given the emotional heights they invoke in me, but I've started wondering lately though if perhaps my hesitance might prove costly to anyone that might have otherwise been touched or forewarned. They might be caused to move in a truly positive direction if I had been more bold. Not only that, but I also fear how I might be held accountable for my timidity in the final accounting that is certain to come. So, self control being a fruit of The Spirit, I resolve to seek His fruitfulness in myself in earnest as I relate what troubles me here.
At the height of my urgent concern I have an important question, one whose answer may well prove to alter the destination of some spirits passing from this life to the next when honesty then doesn't rely on our own declarations and protests, but on God's observance of everything we've held secret - even from ourselves...
Do we obey more highly the judgments of men - even those appointed by men to high places, or the judgments of God Himself? Secondly, how do we spot the difference if there is one? Understand that I'm not discounting the faithful guidance and service of those teachers faithful to our God and His word, but lets be honest, we're all human and it is possible for mistakes to occur. So how would any of us know if that happened? There are others out there we might not know as well...
I ask these things believing that we have a personal responsibility to seek out and to know what God has truly said in order to know Him and His judgments reliably. Failing that responsibility leaves us in possible jeopardy to follow the false judgments of mankind even against God's own declarations and even while we yearn to follow Christ. It's a pitfall - a trap of our sworn enemy, one highly exploited and designed to help give us a share in his own coming eternal punishment.
Given what God has said in scripture - including what He's declared about Himself in His statement that "I do not change", I find the current Catholic Pope's stand on some certain issues and his forcing those under him to convey them, to be in contrast with or against God - whose eternal stand on any issue is the first and final word on any subject. No mere human can change what God has declared and anyone in their insolence attempting to persuade to the contrary would seemingly put them self on the same footing with Lucifer fallen. Any individual or group thereof belonging to the species of mankind may delude them self and others that God has changed and thereby conclude that what He's said previously is outdated, but only fools in denial of the truth will satisfy themselves with such waste. In the end I have no doubt that God will avenge Himself against such unrepentant violation of His word and character to the horror of those spouting such irreverent foolishness and insolence, while potentially leading astray many whom God loves. I have no doubt that this may easily stir His righteous anger against them.
"But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber." 2 Peter 1-3 (NKJ)
I've been simmering for a long time over this subject and it has the potential to rise to a blistering boil in me very quickly. I cannot rectify this subject's existence when weighing it against what I know of scripture and the spirit of Christ. When I see the movements, declarations and pronouncements of those who call themselves "Christian", especially those in leadership in some places, watering down or even changing Sovereign God's dictations to mankind in order to pacify and counter the offense to current society, I cannot help but bristle almost uncontrollably. No man has the authority to attempt to change God's own standards or what He has said and any effort to do so is futile given that God has already said it and neither He nor what He has said ever changes. Still there are some, who having failed in their responsibility to know the truth from our God's own dictations to mankind, who will fall prey...
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables." 2 Timothy 4:3,4 (NKJ)
The damages done to those who stand uncorrected under such doctrinal and scriptural compromises may fall eternal and not only on those receiving such trash, but certainly on those promoting it - and to them in greater measure. The Catholic Pope himself being one such source has found it fit in his own conscience to declare against what God has already related through scripture in more than one instance under the guise of promoting what God has said to the "less educated".
For those who would stand on their institutional position and education I would remind them that Christ Himself educated His disciples in spite of their various backgrounds and that He has no less capacity for doing so through His Holy Spirit now. Mankind has had a habit since time began of polluting situations and institutions with the carnality of his existence here and it's obvious to some, clear eyed, that the pollution has invaded even some the most highly held positions of leadership in some places.
It's a precarious time to remain willingly unarmed with the truth while walking through this minefield of deception during these last days.
Among the best advice I've ever been given was a warning from a past mentor years ago and its value reminds me to pass it on as often as I remember. It goes like this "Never take for granted what any man tells you that God is saying to you from His Word. Read it for yourself and ask the Holy Spirit to give you the interpretation of it and to show you how to apply it". In the current day when so many are attempting to dilute or deceptively manipulate what God has said, I can think of no better advice than to equip one's self against being seriously deceived about the most serious issues of one's time on earth as they relate to the eternal. That equipping involves getting the scripture inside of ourselves through its study, asking the Comforter (the Holy Spirit) to give us understanding of what we've read, and then guiding us in using it as the sieve of truth to sort all issues of life through - sparing none.
I'm not a biblical intellectual, man-trained to reiterate what I've been taught or an intellectual of this world in any way. I am however intimately acquainted with the heart and character of our awesome Creator God and am led by the Holy Spirit Of The Living God to aid me in discerning the truth as found in scripture and of the spirits of men by their own mouths through the sieve of the Word of God. Anyone who teaches anything in opposition to what God has already said - given that neither God nor His standards have changed, is in opposition to God and should be extremely fearful if not repentant. Their time will come for them quickly because God has not abdicated His throne and sovereignty to any man.
"God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints,And to be held in reverence by all those around Him.
O Lord God of hosts,
Who is mighty like You, O Lord?
Your faithfulness also surrounds You.
You rule the raging of the sea;
When its waves rise, You still them.
You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one who is slain;
You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.
The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours;
The world and all its fullness, You have founded them"
The holy and reverent fear of God has been lost by some and that alone makes it possible for the unholy and irreverent to rise in them. I pray God's Holy Spirit to fall on them, overcome them and restore them to true righteousness in Christ Jesus' name.
(NOTE: I don't hold myself in esteem over anyone else. I too am human and potentially subject to error. So I like others I'm sure, tremble, fearful of that possibility, because I know my judge and He knows me better than I know myself. He's my all-in-all and I loathe to offend Him. I revel in His grace and mercy that is both saving and sanctifying me daily.)
"He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 (NKJ)
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it." Deuteronomy 10:12-14 (NKJ)
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