Scripture Text: 2 Peter 2 : 1-3; 1 Tim. 4 : 1-2
R.C. Chiten Jamir
As Christians and as the believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, are we confronted with the above subject matter? As a layman, I want to discuss this subject not as a theological discourse, but as I perceive the Christian religion from the WORD OF GOD – The Bible. God created the Heaven and the earth. He created man in His image and likeness and gave him life. But Satan cheated man and made him to sin against God. Being a Holy God, He condemned man to death.
God started to search for man – “Where art thou?” he sent His Son – Jesus Christ into the World to seek and to save the lost man. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him (Jesus) should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3 : 16. This is God’s love – His Son Jesus came to the world to redeem sinners from Satan. This is Religion of love, redemption and eternal life. The Christian Religion was founded by the Lord Jesus on the Cross – Christian Religion is Jesus Christ. He founded the Christian Church to make all nations His disciples and to teach them to observe all things He had commanded them to do. The Church of Christ is to carry out the mandate given to it by Jesus Christ – to save the lost souls and to teach the believers the Word of God. All those who believe on the Lord Jesus and accept Him as their Lord and Saviour are born again in the Spirit and are made members of the Church. Christians have faith in Jesus Christ; He is the Head and the Centre of Christian faith – this is Christian Religion.
As Christians we are great respecters of the Christian religion. We love the creeds, the roles, formalisms and ceremonies of the Church. In the midst of all these religious formalisms, traditionalisms, ritualisms, however, the Christians are becoming totally disconnected with the main issue of the Christian religion – “The Way, The Truth, and The Life.” The Lord Jesus is totally crowded out from the Church activities. Once, it is said, in the African jungles, one white man asked a native guide: “Is this the way?” The native replied, “There is no way, I am the Way.”
“I am the Way,” said Jesus Christ. He is the way of true religion – He is the Way to the true God. He said, “Follow me” – not to follow a mere set of principles, formalisms, traditions, doctrines, theological philosophies but to follow Christ – to abide in Him, to be turned out to the Way – The Christ.
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus said: “Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves…. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.” Mat. 7 : 15, 20. In the last days, the wicked one will come with power of the satan and perform miracles and wonders. He will mislead many Christians.
By studying Romans 1 : 20–25, we find that in course of time, many churches have turned to naturalistic religion and are proclaiming God’s plan of salvation as humanistic gospel. Although the churches know about God they do not reflect Him, they do not glorify Him. Instead they entertain vain imaginations, their hearts are filled with foolishness, they change God into a lie, instead of worshipping the Living God they worship he idols, the image made like to corruptible man, to birds, beasts and creeping things. Yes they change the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the creature and not the Creator. This natural religion is false and a counterfeit religion of the Divine One. We see in 2 Cor. 11:14 that Satan disguises as an angel of light to deceive the Christians. Satan’s ingenuity deceives the Christians. Paul warned of – “Evil man and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived”. 2 Tim. 3:13. “Let no man deceive you with vain words” – Eph. 5:6. All these are warnings to the Christians that there will arise false prophets and teachers in the Church to twist and mislead the Christian religion.
In many parts of the Christian world today, some Christian intellectuals are deliberately and shrewdly trying to nullify the Divine Plan of Religion. There is a consistent teaching, the hamer of which is being driven to the minds of the young theologians that the Holy Bible is just one of the treatises and not the Word of God. It is too dogmatic and a second opinion is a must.
According to Evangelist Carl Johnson, “One June 17, 1963, the Supreme Court of the USA ruled The Bible and prayer out of USA public schools – being influenced by a confirmed atheist, Mrs. Madalyn Murray she said: “We find the Bible nauseating, historically inaccurate, replete with the ravings of mad men. We find God to be sadistic, brutal, and a representation of hatred, and vengeance…” Soon after the Supreme Court ruling, a number of ministerial students from 8 theological colleges and seminaries in the USA submitted in writing that
54% did not believe Christ went to Heaven.
56% did not believe in virgin birth of Christ.
71% did not believe in Heaven or Hell.
98% did not believe in immortality of man.
99% did not believe in second coming of Christ.
Is it not true that in our schools, colleges, homes, churches, we are forgetting the God who has created us and is sustaining us? Are we not in many ways, perverting God’s Plan and trampling the Word of God? The Bible which is the Divine Revelation of Man’s creation, the fall, the sin and the death, and man’s justification by faith in the blood of Christ. Any other concept, other than this, that rejects the Divine Plan of Salvation is a counterfeit religion. We hear of many Christians being counterfeits in the churches who are substituting Christ with good social works and welfare activities. As a result, naturalistic religiousity is beginning to come into the churches, a warm and vital relationship with Christ is lacking in the Christian life. The old time Church in which Christ was the Head and the Holy Spirit was the Director is no longer true of the modern Church because today’s churches are becoming secularized which is a dangerous trend. There seems to be a wide growing theological denial that Jesus Christ is the incarnate of God. This idea rejects that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He was born by a virgin woman. In many civilized countries, there is a deliberate attempt to recast the Gospel of Jesus Christ by false prophets and teachers and Satanic Bibles are being published which are used in the Satan Churches. This is what the Lord Jesus said about in Mathew 7:15, 20. Paul said in 2 Cor. 11:14 that Satan would disguise as angel and he would deceive and misguide the Christians. In 1 Tim. 4:11-12 Paul said that some Christians would give up the faith by obeying the lying spirits and would follow the teachings of the demons. It is happening today right in front of our eyes!
God Himself has revealed in the Bible that false teachers will depart from the Christian faith. That they will listen to Satan’s lies and accept the doctrines of the devil. The Holy Bible clearly differentiates between the Christian Faith (religion) and the mere religiousity. Therefore, once the absolute authority of The Bible is rejected, the Christian religion will be polluted by idolatrous beliefs. As and when the Jews turned to naturalistic religion, the sanctified Jewish religion became flooded with the idolatrous religion like Baal, Chemosh and Dagon. In the same way, the false religious teachings are off-setting the true Christian religion. Christ is the Christian religion and Christian religion is Christ. Christianity is Christ-centred. Christ is the God-manifest. The Lord Jesus said, “Once greater than the temple is here” Mtt. 12:6. Christ is bigger than the Church systems. The temple will vanish but Christ will remain forever.
All of us as Christians, love the Church and love to involve in all its activities. We love the Cross and we assert that we are saved by the Cross. The fact is, we are saved by Christ who died on the cross for us. We are saved by Christ and not by the Cross. One greater than the Cross is here – Jesus Christ. We believe in a resurrected Christ, not in the resurrection. Christ is greater tha the resurrection. One greater than the Church is here – Jesus Christ. The Church is a fellowship of believers in Christ, a spiritual leadership which is around Christ, not around the believers. The believers (Christians) are not the centre – Christ is the centre. The temptations for the believers is that they move their activities the centre of Church instead of Christ who is the Head of the Church. Thus the Light turns to darkness. The Church in which Christ is made its centre, is the greatest serving institution in the world. The Church history proves it. As and when, the Christians move the Church to be an end in itself, it ultimately becomes a negation of the Christian faith. All over the world, the Christians take great pride and love to construct large and magnificent church buildings, seminars, colleges, universities, hospitals and many other useful buildings which are like the gourd that was provided by God to Jonah!
However, the Bible says that Jonah loved the Gourd not the people of Nineveh. There are many Christians in the Churches who are like Jonah who love the Church but not the lost souls! Every Christian and every Church has a gourd provided by God and a Nineveh to care for. God said – “My concern is your gourd. Your concern is Nineveh.” Nineveh first, then comes the Gourd. Christians conveniently try to reverse the gear – this is the problem in the Church today. Whatever we have done and are trying to do are indeed necessary, good and worthwhile. But the trouble with most of us is that we rather consider the Lord Jesus Christ only as an unseen guest, we give Him the crumbs only and not together on the table hardly ever. The true reason for which the existence of the Church was brought about by Christ was to evangelize the world. The Lord Jesus Christ said: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” – Mark 16:15. There is no reason whatsoever why we should have Churches if they do not reach out to the unsaved world.
In Christ’s spiritual priorities, number one supreme task of the Church is to evangelize the world and to teach the Word of God. This is the very first responsibility of the Church, the rest follows. Belonging to a Church does not save us from God’s condemnation; belonging to Christ does. To give Christ to every person is the first bounden duty of the Church of Christ. Most of us are very religious but not born again Christians because Christ is not made the centre of our lives, He does not control us.
There are very big Church organizations which feel proud that they are very rich, strong and popular; they lack nothing. Unfortunately however, in those churches Christ is shut-out and He is made to stand outside knocking at the Church door (Rev. 3:16-17). Many of us, Christians put ourselves and our interests first and God’s works are neglected. The dictum is – “My duty is to myself and my family first.” God tells the modern Christians “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Many Christians are concerned for the gourd that is here today and gone tomorrow, and the souls of men that will live forever is totally ignored. Temporal things are important to us, but the eternal things do not matter to us. What is foolishness to us! The Christians are the stewards of the Lord Jesus. Sooner or later, He is going to ask them: “How is it that I hear of thee? Give an account of they stewardship for thou mayest be no longer steward.” (Luke 16:2).
Well over 2000 years, the church has been doing countless good things/works that Jesus Christ had never asked it to do. One thing the church has failed to do till now is to evangelize the world. If the one and the only thing the Church was asked, commanded to do is not done what use is the Church for Christ? “You can no longer be my manager” if that is thrown on the face of the Church – the missionaries, the evangelists, the pastors and the millions of Christians, what shall we answer? Our love and respect for the Church and the Christian religion may disqualify ____ to be Christ’s stewards! Let us obey the Lord’s command and put first things first. Christ is the centre of the Church and He is the Lord.
Jesus said: “For false Christs and prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect” – Mark 13:22. The Lord Jesus Christ referred to Satan as “The prince of this world”, that Satan is a liar, the father of lies (John 8:44). One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them – Job 1:6. This is an indication that Satan comes inside the Church where the children of God are assembled to worship God. When the Word of God is preached Satan is right there to sow the seeds of tares in the hearts of the believers. He is the seed of the tares. Satan sends his agents like birds to pick up the seeds of the Word of God. He diverts the light minded hearts i.e. the rocks on which there is no soil to hold back the Word of God – the seeds. He chokes the seeds with worldly problems so no fruits are gathered. On every single occasion when the believers are gathered in any place the wicked Satan comes there to sow the seeds of tares in their hearts. This is the reason why we have tares in the church. Satan is the enemy of the Church, hearts as in the story of the pig and the dog in the farm where the dog outsmarted the pig by running all over the areas where the poor pig had worked hard. The foot-prints of the dog nullified the hard works of the pig. In today’s church also, the devil’s subtle and secret ingenuities negate the hard works of the Church leaders. Satan is seducing many Christians including the Church leaders to divert the Church’s Missionary Mandate Exposition of the Word of God in a naturalistic way as humanistic gospel cannot meet the spiritual hunger of the believers. The fundamentals of the theological exposition of the Word of God cannot replace the fundamentals of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the modern Church Satan is very active in the shape of roaring lion as also silent angels. Satan – an angel – is more subtle which is more dangerous and harmful. The devil is the arch counterfeiter. The devil slips the counterfeit of morality to reform on some Christians. Counterfeit of self-righteousness is another thing the devil uses to deceive many Christians; hypocrisy is another pride Satan uses as make-belief on the Church people to condemn them to hell. No wonder why we have the forces of the Anti-Christ flooding into the Churches and the lives of the Christians. We are being confronted with the question of True and False Christian religion. A day is coming soon when the Lord Jesus Christ will say this: “And then will I profess unto them (very good and religious Christians), I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” – Matthew 7:23. These people are the false prophets and teachers in the Church. In spite of good works, in spite of being very honest religious persons, Christ will reject them – this statement of Christ is the most horrible words ever to fall upon human ears!
“For of Christ, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to when be glory forever. Amen.” – Rom. 11:36.
Hallelujah!
