THE SPIRIT OF LAWLESSNESS: (Part 11)

POST #11 THE SPIRIT OF LAWLESSNESS

LAWLESSNESS CAUSES A DEPARTING FROM THE FAITH:

This is a continuation of POST #7-10 of how a lawless heart causes believers to depart from the faith. It is sad but there are those who teach doctrines of men and doctrines of demons within the body of Christ. Sadder still are those within the body of Christ who will listen and follow those doctrines as though they are Biblical. They carry a small element of truth, but something can be true without being truth.

I know that the previous statement sounds crazy, but see if remember this Old Testament story. Abraham went down to Gerar with his wife Sarah. Abraham told her to follow along with the story that she was his sister. King Abimelech was interested in Abraham's wife Sarah and inquired who she was. Abraham quickly replied that she was his sister. Abraham and Sarah had the same father and were half brother and sister, so that was true, but it was not the truth. Abraham feared for his life more than he cared for his wife and failed to mention to King Abimelech that Sarah was his wife.

Genesis 20:2-5 ESV  And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.  (3)  But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.”  (4)  Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people?  (5)  Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”

Genesis 20:10-13 ESV  And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?”  (11)  Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’  (12)  Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.  (13)  And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

Right away within the New Testament church there were those who corrupted the doctrines of God with their own teachings. This has been going on for over 2,000 years now. The doctrines have just enough truth in them to call them true, but enough half-truths to make them false. Some false teachings are blatant enough that it can be clearly seen as a doctrine from demons.  

Acts 13:8-10 ESV  But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.  (9)  But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him  (10)  and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

But some teachings have been done for so long they are assumed to be truth. The way to judge them is to look both at the Word of God and evaluate the fruit and power it produces. If the Word of God is powerless in your life to work then it could be that the doctrines of God you embrace have been mixed with the traditions and doctrines of man, making the outcome no longer the Word of Truth.

Mark 7:13 ESV  thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

2 Timothy 2:16-18 ESV  But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,  (17)  and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,  (18)  who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.