Monday, August 25, 2008

False Christians

False Christians are those in the church who enjoy and believe the preaching of false prophets. Refusing to believe the true preaching of the word of God, they cannot stand the idea of sin, repentance, the wrath of God, the kingdom of God, righteousness, or holiness. They don’t even want to hear these words! They want the preachers to say that people can be saved while continuing in sin. They are always looking for happiness, not holiness. Such people are always optimistic, rejecting the "negative" doctrine of sin and the word of the Lord that tells them to repent.
Jeremiah spoke about the nature of false Christians and their response to the word of God: "To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it" (Jeremiah 6:10). The word of God is pure joy to a believer. In Matthew 4:4 Jesus Christ declared, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (KJV). In Psalm 16:11 we read, "In thy presence there is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (KJV). But to a false Christian, it is offensive.
False Christians love a "positive" gospel, an easy cure for their serious disease of sin; thus, they love those prophets who entertain them and preach what they want to hear.
We find false prophets and those who love them throughout the Bible. Wicked King Ahab of Israel kept four hundred of them in his court. Whenever he wanted advice, they would say whatever he wanted to hear, not wanting to disappoint their employer.
Paul spoke much about false prophets and false Christians. For instance, in 2 Timothy 3:1-7 he wrote, not about people in the world, but about those in the church:

But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who work their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
I challenge you to see whether you are a false Christian. If so, I pray you will repent and ask the Lord to come into your heart, that you may be saved.

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