Have you become deceived?

Chapter Thirteen:

When I first became a believer and a follower/disciple of Christ, I was challenged by a friend to make sure I really studied my Bible in order that I would not be deceived or gradually led away from what I believed.  My initial thought was that my friend was being a little paranoid as I felt sure that I could never be led astray given my strong love for Jesus and my desire to serve Him and be used by Him. 

However, some twenty years later, I have seen how it can and has happened to people I have known, and this makes me very sad.  I feel that it has been put upon my heart to warn you, lest you, too, be led astray...or perhaps, to encourage you to return to the unchanging Word of God by enlightening you on how you have been slowly and unknowingly led astray by false teachings that are going on in the Christian church today.

Some years ago I began to notice a gradual change in my church.  It was becoming more politically correct, and in the pretext of trying to reach more people for Christ, was watering down the gospel message, making the church service what they called "seeker sensitive".  I remember watching with sadness how the church singing was forced to stay within a confined time frame.  The pastor's sermon was whittled down to a short, brief message so as not to offend any possible visitors and to make sure those in attendance could get home in a timely manner.  What I saw happening was man's rules being put on what God wanted to do during the service, and if what God wanted to happen during the service wasn't able to be accomplished during the time frame allotted to Him, then we all missed out.  It was more important that we follow those new guidelines set in place so as not to offend anyone.  I began to feel like going to church was less fulfilling, but couldn't quite figure out why.

Then the message began to change.  We heard less and less about what I believe are very important topics...how we need to become more like Christ... how we need to become stronger spiritual beings and walk less by our carnal, fleshly nature...what it means to sacrifice things in this life for the sake of the Kingdom...how to talk to others about their need for Christ in their lives...how to deal with adversity and problems, with God's help.  I could go on, but you get the idea.  We were no longer being instructed on how to live as believers, but were slowly being taught how to be more open-minded, less judgmental, more accepting of others beliefs, even if they didn't align with the Word of God.  We were admonished to be nice to others so that they could see Christ working in our lives, but to not cross the line and explain to them that they needed to repent and receive salvation in order to enter the Kingdom of God when they died in case we offended them.

I changed churches in the hope that it was just my church that was going down the wrong path.  But, alas I found that it, too, was incorporating a lot of the same methodology.  Gone were the sermons on how one needs to be in right standing with God and how salvation is a gift from God.  Different things were being incorporated into the church service or offered at after-hours small groups, things which actually had their roots in mysticism or in the occult or New Age, but were "Christianized" in order to make them acceptable and to put a new spin on them because people were looking for new and exciting things to happen in their spiritual lives.  We began to be taught that denominational differences were actually hindering the work of God and that we needed to put aside "our petty differences"  in order to accomplish the greater good of helping a hurting world.   In essence, we were being taught that the greater good was more important than sticking to what we knew was right and wrong as is taught by Scripture.  

I began to wonder...what price is this new desire for unity going to cost the Church?  The main reason there are denominational differences (ie, Protestant and Catholicism) is because we DON'T believe the same things.  For instance, Catholics are taught that there are two types of sin, "mortal" and "venial", thus categorizing one's sin... and depending upon which one you commit may require you stay in "purgatory" longer in order to be purified.  The Protestant church says sin is sin, there are no separate levels of sin, and  it also does not believe in a place called purgatory.  But we were being told to put aside our differences for the sake of this greater good.  I'm afraid this is where many of  the Christian churches are today, and it scares me.  Many leaders in the Evangelical church and in the Protestant church, are putting aside their differences of opinion on vital, critical Biblical issues in exchange for unity.  We're even being told that we need to unite with people's of other religions (ie, Muslim or Buddhism) who don't even believe that the Bible is the one and only Word of God!  What my friend had warned me about was not his paranoia, after all.  He was warning me about events to come.

While coming together as one and helping the needy, the downtrodden and the hurting in the world is a noble and worthy endeavor, I pause when I consider the cost.  I believe that cost is turning our backs on what Scripture teaches in order for us all to "just get along".  Yes, it's unity...but at what cost?   First Timothy 4: 3 - 4 says, "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

This Scripture warns us that in the latter days many shall depart from the faith and follow false teachers (the teachings of leaders who I believe appear very knowledgeable and sincere, who say they only want to help the hurting and the needy in the world, and who come across as being very noble, caring people).  We're continually being told to not get caught up in our doctrinal differences to the detriment of those suffering in the world who need our help. We may even have been told that some parts of the Bible are really not relevant for today ("it was meant for the time in which it was written, not for today") or that it's a barrier between us working together across denominational lines.  We're basically being asked (or told, depending upon what church you attend), to walk away from our core Christian beliefs for the greater good of humanity.  And I'm afraid many have done just that.  Some who used to be strong in the church and stood up for Scripture regardless of the cost, have slowly been drawn into this deception.

  

You need to ask yourself if you have allowed yourself to be led astray,  believing it is for the greater good of mankind.  Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to show you what deceptive teachings, wrong practices or erroneous beliefs you have allowed yourself to adopt.  Do you still feel as strongly as ever about the need to evangelize the world in order to bring people to Christ or has that become lukewarm in your heart?  Do you still believe that the Word of God is for today, that ALL of it is relevant to today?  Or have you become caught up in the belief that we all need to put aside our differences for the greater good of mankind, even if it means only believing and following parts of the Bible?  You need to ask yourself, have you unknowingly allowed yourself to become deceived. 

 If so, you may need to leave the church you are attending immediately, and if you cannot find one that follows the entire Word of God and is unwilling to make the compromises to fit into today's unity agenda, then you're better off not going to a church at all.  I certainly hope that it doesn't come down to this for you, but being in right standing before God and standing up for the Scriptures is much more important that going along with the crowd, even if you do find everyone else is doing it.  Remember...you may live in a crowd, but you stand before a Holy God alone!