THE DANGER FROM WITHIN

If I was to ask you from where does the greatest danger come for professed Christians, what would you answer? Would you give the same answer as a lot of Christians would give? ie, from the Muslim world or from the government or 'new world order'? If you think that the greatest danger facing professed Christians today is from OUTSIDE the professed church, then you need to read this page. As on this page we will show you that the greatest threat actually comes from WITHIN the professed church.

Acts 20:26-30 ...'Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.'

Do you see what the apostle Paul is saying above? He is warning the people that the danger would arise from WITHIN the Christian church, by way of false teachers who would deceive followers of Christ Jesus into departing from the pure faith. And this is a pattern we see right throughout the New Testament. Look at what Jesus said would happen:

Matthew 24:4-5,11 ...'And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in My Name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many ... And many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many.'

So where did Jesus say the main deception and danger would come from? WITHIN the professed church. And we also see this same warning come from the apostles Peter and John. Take a look at what they said:

2 Peter 2:1-3 ...'But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.'

Do you notice the pattern with regards to the warnings from Jesus and His apostles? The warnings tell us that the greatest danger is to come from WITHIN the professed Christian church, not outside like many believe today. The deceptions arise from among God's people, to draw away many from the truth. And the apostle John also confirms this in his writings.

1 John 2:18-19 ...'Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.'

Now if you ask professing Christians around the world today who the antichrist is, they would tell you it is someone or something OUTSIDE the 'professed church'. But as we can see from what John said above, the 'antichrists' came FROM WITHIN THE CHURCH. Then they went out from the church, departing from the true Biblical faith and drew people away with them.

So where does the greatest danger to God's people come from today? From WITHIN the professed church!

Have a good think about this. What can Muslims do to us? They can kill us right? Yes they can, but that is all they can do. They can destroy the body, but they cannot take our 'soul' which belongs to God. Our bodies are pretty worthless really. As long as we have given our lives over to Christ Jesus, then we have a place in eternity with Him. So Muslims are no REAL danger to us. How about the government? What can they do to us? Just the same as Muslims. They can PHYSICALLY persecute us, and destroy our bodies, but they cannot take our 'soul', because as long as we are grounded firmly on the true Biblical faith, it belongs to God. And they CANNOT take our faith away from us, only our bodies.

BUT, what can deceivers and false teachers WITHIN the professed church do to us? They can deceive us into following a false 'god', which would cause us to lose our place in heaven. THAT is the danger!

Friends, Satan isn't interested in your body. All he wants is for you to give your allegiance to him instead of God. So physical persecution is no danger to God's people, as God's true followers have been martyred for the faith all throughout history. No, the danger for us today is the spiritual deceptions WITHIN the professed church.

This is the reason why seeking the truth of God's Word and living according to it is so vital!

So keeping in mind what we have learned above, we need to find out if there are any dangers WITHIN the professed church today. And my friends, I'm afraid that there are dangers ALL THROUGHOUT the professed churches. And out of love for the TRUTH, I will share with you just a small example of the dangers the professed people of God are faced with today.

THE POPE - The leader of the Roman Catholic Church is proclaimed by the Catholic faith to be the 'Vicar of Jesus Christ' who TAKES THE PLACE OF Jesus Christ on earth. He is revered as the 'spiritual father' of Catholics and is known as 'the holy father'. Now friends, the Bible clearly confirms that the Holy Spirit is the One who takes the place of Christ on earth to be the guide of the church (John 14:25-26; John 16:7-15). And Jesus said in Matthew 23:9 that we are to call NO MAN our 'spiritual' father because we have only One, Jehovah, our Heavenly Father.

False teachers entered the early Christian church and changed the pure faith by merging Paganism with Christianity. And thus was born the Roman Catholic religion. The apostate leaders of this church cause their followers to purchase salvation through works and indulgences, when the Bible says it is purchased by FAITH ALONE (Ephesians 2:8). They also cause their followers to worship idols, and pray to dead people, and lift up a false sabbath day, amongst many other apostasies. Yet BILLIONS are deceived by this because they don't study the Word of God for themselves.

RICK WARREN - This man is one of the main leaders of the new 'emergent church' movement, which seeks to water down the true gospel of Christ Jesus into a weak, laid back, wishy washy faith. And one of the many deceptions of this movement is the 'spiritual formation' teaching, which is a new age teaching of reaching into the 'spirit world'. One of the methods being through 'contemplative prayer' in which a person is to empty their mind and keep repeating one word in a bid to gain a 'spiritual experience'. The problem is, the 'experience' you will get from this will be from the evil one, not from God.

Rick Warren is also a leader in the ecumenical movement, where he is making a push to not only unite Christians and Muslims, calling them 'brothers and sisters'. He is also leading the Protestant (evangelical) churches back to their 'mother', the Roman Catholic Church. Back to Babylon! Whereas the Bible clearly says that God's true people are to remain SEPARATE (2 Corinthians 6:17; Amos 3:3)

JOEL OSTEEN - Joel is one of the many leaders of the prosperity gospel, which is 'another gospel' that draws people away from Christ Jesus and causes them to focus on themselves. These false teachers will deceive you into thinking that following Jesus is all about PERSONAL GAIN. They teach that WEALTH is the main goal of being a Christian, and if you don't have wealth or are not successful in your career, then you have not gained the victory. Whereas John 5:4 says that the victory is OVERCOMING the world through our faith in Christ Jesus.

These prosperity preachers are nothing more than con men. Luring their followers with seductive words that satisfy the flesh. You will never hear them preach about sin and repentence and giving everything over to Christ Jesus. Instead, you will hear them preach about 'how to be a better you', 'how to earn more money', 'how to have a successful career', and so on.

There are many, many more deceptive leaders and teachers throughout the professed Christian churches

Many 'Christian' leaders today are saying that the 'old ways' (found in the Bible) have had their day and we must move with the world to reach the world. But the NEVER CHANGING Word of God disagrees ... "Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein ... THEREFORE ... Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it." (Jeremiah 6:16-19)

Friends, there is only one way to remain safe and that is to seek the TRUTH of God's holy Word found in the King James Bible (my preference for study). Did you notice what the apostle Paul said in Acts 20 above? He said that he was clean from any guilt with regards to the believers, because he 'declared unto the people ALL the counsel of God.' Not just little parts of it, but ALL. And that is why the Bible contains so many teachings on different doctrines and topics, because they are ALL important for our faith. And this is where a lot of preachers today fail. A lot of them just focus on the 'nice' and 'easy' things of the gospel message, and ignore the hard truths that the people desperately need!

God does have a people and a church in this world that has the FULL gospel message. God has a people and a church who continue to stand upon the truth of God's Word, rather than join with the world in this deceptive ecumenical drive. God has a people who are like the Bereans of old, who 'received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.'

Friends, the final deception is coming, and it is not coming from OUTSIDE. It is coming from WITHIN the professed church. Will you heed the call to seek and live according to the truth of God's Holy Word, no matter what? I hope so, as this is the only way to be safe from the snare of Satan.

Make Jesus Christ the center of your life. And make His Word the FOUNDATION of your faith!