Millennia ago they knew how to recognize and deal with false prophets:
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.
Deuteronomy 18:22 KJV
They were stoned to death back then, while these days they get newspaper columns, and appear on news shows. Some of them get elected to office.
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Established: 21 November 2004
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Hah! You HAD to post that didn’t you? God (and I mean that fervently) knows I could post pages about this and associated passages from the bible and other historical documents written about the Nazarene (Jesus of Nazareth)!
You know, of course, that almost every pastor, preacher, reverend, etc, etc, who only preaches within a Church (building) and preaches that the sabbath is Sunday, is not a man of God? 🙂
Not once in the Bible is it proclaimed or even hinted at that to attend church services you will be saved or you will become a Christian. Pastors and priests are teaching that if you attend church you are a Christian. The Bible does not say or imply that this is true at all. It is a lie. It has become so bad that churchgoing is the goal. Even elder church members are led to believe that evangelizing is all about “growing the church membership.” The more church members you can recruit the more God will credit you with treasure in heaven. This is their great commission; a false commission designed to recruit new church members who will eventually tithe which the church earn the financial commission. Imagine being told to invite your friends to church so they can be entertained and led to the Lord. Jesus and the Apostles never used such a tactic. They made the converts first out in the field and in the city streets and only then did these new converts congregated together. Today, almost nobody goes out into the street to save the lost. The lost are “lured” to come to church. Here the pastor has polished programs and procedures to use peer pressure, undue influence and hypnotic suggestion tactics to create new church members. All along these new converts see no conviction of sin and no repentance is required of them. The church is full of do-nothing Christians who could care less for the truly reaching the lost for Christ. They only obey their church plans and instructions, which are not Biblical.
The Bible never gives Christians instructions to build a physical church. The Bible never instructs Christians to hire or employ a pastor to take tithe money from God to build a personal fortune to increase the assets of the pastor’s estate, who legally owns the church, land, buildings and ministry. Paul was a tent maker and he never begged others to pay his bills to support him or family members and yet he performed a great evangelism for the Lord. The Apostles never gave instructions to enrich themselves by taking money from God’s people via collections. Any collection was used for the good of all, not just the pastor and the pastor’s family. Today, the churches are run contrary to the Bible’s examples. They make their own rules and twist things around to violate the essence of the Bible. The early church met in homes, not in controlled environments owned and operated by pastors or denominations. Jesus made a habit of denouncing the apostate church system, and warning his followers not to enter them. Jesus warned us that one day you will see teachers (pastors) who are paid to be teachers (pastors) and that they will not care for their congregations. In fact, they will appear as sheep, but will be wolves to deceive them and lead them astray. Jesus warned his followers not to support these hirelings as they will deceive even the elect, if it were possible.
Apostate pastors have convinced Christians to believe that serving the church is serving God. This is not true. Jesus never said to serve a church, but to serve and obey God and God alone. These apostate pastors have even the ushers, floor sweepers, cooks and repair persons and other unpaid volunteers believing they are performing blessed works in the Lord’s service. These unpaid workers will eagerly “work” and “donate their time and effort” to serve the needs of the church… perhaps for church worship services or some other special event. These same unpaid workers will not and have not ever proclaimed the Gospel to a perfect lost stranger. The Bible warns that the lost is to be saved and this is God’s will. Cleaning, cooking, fixing the church building is not serving God, it is serving the pastor and a group of people, but it is not serving God.
Jesus severely scolded the Pharisees for their false worship and for teaching others to become sons of hell like themselves. Jesus went on to further warn that God is not interested in lip-service worship where hearts are far from God (far from God’s desires). He says we worship him in vain if we worship God without producing good fruit. Today apostate churches advertise, “Come Worship With Us” but you can worship God in truth without attending these apostate churches. True worship is obeying the Lord’s commands. God does not care about church attendance. What He really wants is for you to obey His commands (He said, If you love me you will obey my commands). The number one command is to go save the lost (the Great Commission). The number one rule is not love, it is love with action attached to it! That is why Jesus said you must bear good fruit to glorify the Father. Bearing no fruit (or the wrong fruit) brings dishonor to the Father. Read the Gospel of Jesus and discover that God does not want sacrifice or praise. He want obedience. Pastors teach how to sing, praise and worship with the lips, but they do not teach true worship that glorifies God. And that is why congregations of Christians worship God, but will not go out to save the lost.
Pastors everywhere in thousands of churches nationwide and worldwide are celebrating the Sabbath on Sunday and they teach all in their church to do the same. These apostate pastors are deceived and are deceiving others to break God’s command to keep the Sabbath holy. Jesus kept the Sabbath and He kept it on Friday at sundown to Saturday sundown. He did not tell us to change the Sabbath day to Sunday. The Catholics changed it, but God’s Word and His commandments do not change. The Apostle Peter never said to worship God on Sunday. Paul never said to change the Sabbath. Satan has devised another method to get every Christian to habitually break the Lord’s commandment, yet in the same breath praise the Lord. This is apostate hypocrisy and a slap in the face to God. Just because most all the pastors and churches violate the Sabbath will never make it right. Pastors know they are violating this commandment and they know there is no Biblical authority to change the Sabbath, but they do it anyway. God’s commands really do not mean anything to these pastors.
Jesus said not to be fooled. What we sow is what we will reap. If “you” do not take seriously God’s commands and you continue to disobey the Lord’s command for “you” to go proclaim the Gospel to the lost, you will sow what you reap. If you sow death and destruction by doing nothing – you do not gather, you scatter – and souls only you could have reached will die and be destroyed in hell. Thanks to you! So, God is just and will give you exactly what you have sowed. Jesus warned that Christians (servants of the Lord) can and will be tossed into hell fire. Continue to obey and believe your pastor over and beyond God’s Word and you will live to regret it; weeping and gnashing of teeth. Christians do not believe Jesus will throw them into hell, even when Jesus warns that it is His servants that face the whip for being lazy, unprofitable, fearful, do not gather souls and disobey His commands.
So, I could go on and on… but the truth is, many supposed Christians know the truth and choose to ignore it anyway. And most don’t really believe there is a hell or they will go there. Sadly, it’s so much easier to have some Pastor tell them what to think and do rather than read the Bible themselves and learn for themselves. I walked away from organized religion and Churches long ago because I knew they were wrong. These days, I just try to do what I can when I can.
Talk is cheap. It always has been. Jesus said so. Not just within the Bible, but many of the historical documents written about him and at that time, also tell that is the way He was. For example, the Historian Josephus writes about Jesus in Antiquities, Book 18, chapter 3:
Josephus also mentions John the Baptist and Herod in Antiquities, Book 18, chapter 5:
To understand why anyone should believe what Josephus wrote, it is necessary to understand who he was and his time of course. Josephus was a historian who lived from 37 A.D. to about 100 A.D. He was a member of the priestly aristocracy of the Jews, and was taken hostage by the Roman Empire in the great Jewish revolt of 66-70 A.D. Josephus spent the rest of his life in or around Rome as an adviser and historian to three emperors, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. For centuries, the works of Josephus were more widely read in Europe than any book other than the Bible.
It’s not very hard to verify that the people and events in the Bible existed and happened. 🙂
For me, it’s very simple. Either Jesus existed (and the historical evidence proves he did), and that he was who he said he was. If one believes that Jesus was in fact the Son of God, then one must believe that every word he uttered was Truth. So why do so many supposed Christians choose to only believe (and obey) a few of the things he said? I have spoken with *Christians* who said they don’t believe He said *something or other* in the Bible or meant it (usually for them). They are calling him a liar then. Either He was the Son of God and all he said was true (in which case, many of his supposed followers are breaking his laws and will burn in Hell); or he wasn’t (in which case, Christianity is a complete and utter sham and they are all fools). 🙂
“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.
Good luck! 😉 😀
Oh, BTW… Deuteronomy is one place in the bible where it teaches that God can use churches and pastors to destroy people for not serving Him. 🙂
Read Deuteronomy 28 carefully and you can see it closely resembles the condition of the modern day church and the end result of destruction.
Obviously, I touched a nerve bring up false prophets.
Christianity is not a true descendant of the Jewish tradition, it is a separate branch that barely shares Genesis with Jewish tradition. The general view of something as seemingly straight-forward as Satan is different.
It is my understanding of the Jewish tradition that all of the calamities are the result of G-d testing Jews and Jews failing, not really the result of a separate “evil”, other than what is found in the souls of man.
Let’s be honest, the present Christian church was the result of a marriage of convenience with the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople and has many of the conventions and trappings of earlier Roman and Greek religions, with added extras from Asia.
The Bible is a good book, that more people should read it, on their own, without any “help”, and decide for themselves what is true and what is worthwhile.
The test of false prophets is a handy way for looking at “experts” in any endeavor.
Sure. But if someone professes to be a Christian, they should at the very least, believe and follow the *rules*. 😉
I can’t stand hypocrites. And there are way too many.
For me, I let common sense, my conscience and my sense of honor guide me. I’m not perfect, but I don’t claim to be or claim to be better than anyone else. I do what I can, when I can. I’ll find out eventually, as will everyone, whether God exists or not. 🙂 Then… if he does, he will judge us on what we did, not what we said we were or anything else the many Churches teach. I think I’ll be OK. 😀 If he doesn’t exist, maybe I’m racking up some good Karma points at least. LOL
*shrug* “The World has enough bastards in it. It doesn’t need another one.” My philosophy in a nutshell. LOL
I’m a firm believer in what you do is more important than what you say, unless you are paid by the word 😉
The best people I know have always honored their beliefs by living them. If you feel the need to tell people you’re a Christian, you probably aren’t.