Do Not Be Deceived

Numerous thoughts have been occupying my mind lately. There is a falling away that is coming, and it has already begun. What do I mean by that? Simply speaking, that many Christians are veering away from the truth and embracing false doctrines as never before. I have been saying that a famine has hit the church. This is the famine of God’s Word and during a famine people will eat anything!
Gazing across decades of history there is no doubt that Christianity has made a deep-seated impact on every faculty of human life. We can see these powerful Biblical impressions in language, art, architecture, music, education, hospitals and healthcare, charity, science, political freedom, the treatment of women, respect for human life, and the elimination of pagan practices like sati, child sacrifice, and slavery.
Change is never ever sudden. It always comes gradually. Ideas come first, followed by the outcomes of those ideas. The ‘idea’ men are usually called ‘philosophers.’ Some say…within 100 years, their powerful ideas will impact the most brilliant writers, educators, musicians and artists. Then, it will take another 100 years for those ideas to filter into the mass culture.
Whatever you say, we have been aping the west in many ways. Look at Bollywood, the media, or the music and art scene. It is with confidence that I can say…that people must be able to discern the harmful ideas deep down at the foundations of our current society.
It is no wonder today that the Christian worldview has been attacked so viciously. A century of lies does make modern society believe the lie is the truth! This is largely due to the powerful influence of humanism levied by the great literary giants of the West. These were apostates. Apostasy is a slow process and the Church doesn’t get corrupted within a mere twenty years. The masses of the 16th century would never have bought the blatant atheism we face today. But during the 17th and 18th centuries, the hearts of men began to turn ever so slowly towards man-centred doctrines and ethics.
Once the 19th century arrived, only a few like Blavatsky, brought a mish-mash of paganism and became the mother of the New Age Movement. Then the mid Seventies Raelism taught that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, which they call the Elohim. I cannot forget Edgar Cayce, who brought in spiritism, witchcraft and demonic séances with astral projection, and viewing the Akashic Records or the ‘Book of Life’. Then Adolph Hitler, who killed millions of Jews during the holocaust…which comes from the Greek word ‘holókauston’, referring to an animal sacrifice offered to a god in which the whole (holos) animal is completely burnt (kaustos). There are more…so much more! Let me name a few — Ayn Rand, Earnest Hemmingway, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx. These are the ‘idea’ men. And the world lapped up their philosophies like hungry dogs. No wonder the West is dying, especially in the Church.
The great classic writers were dangerous men. They handled dangerous ideas. You can get badly wounded as you read their books.
But Jesus taught us to recognise them by their fruits! That is why it is important to know that Marx’s daughters committed suicide, and that Rousseau abandoned his five children on the steps of an orphanage, and Ernest Hemingway wished to kill his father and then took his own life. With what goes on in the labyrinth of these men’s twisted minds, it is sometimes just faster to take a look at their ‘fruits’ and draw a quick conclusion as to the nature of the ‘tree’ they claim to be.
Ideas can be dangerous. This can lead to appalling ethics and spawn a new age of rebellion and apostasy. You can destroy yourself by sitting at the feet of the wrong teachers. Choose your teachers wisely, or you and your children will find yourselves participating in the ever-widening famine that is at hand!
Blessings
Pastor Willie