false or not… prophets there be…

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.'”
Jeremiah 6:16

(painting of the prophet Jeremiah by Rembrandt 1630)

A few months back, our long lost and very busy friend Wally offered a piece from
Bogard Press regarding prophets…in particular, that of false prophets…

by Mark Clements
Wednesday, October 2

False Prophets Have Always Been Present
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,” 2 Peter 2:1.

Counterfeit spiritual authorities have been in existence since the time
of Adam and Eve. One of the hallmarks of God’s creation is man’s tendency to reject
the sovereign rule of its Creator. From the Fall of Lucifer to the Fall of Adam
and the consequent depravity found in every human since, it has always been
easy to find examples of people who mislead others into theological error.
In an effort to warn his readers, Peter reminded his readers that false teachers
have been among God’s people from the beginning.
What could they expect from counterfeit spiritual authorities?
Peter wrote that false teachers would begin by introducing heresy that denies the
lordship of Jesus Christ, they would show evidence of fleshly living,
including sensuality, blasphemy and greed.
They would seek also to exploit God’s people for their own gain.

We can be sure such heretics persist among God’s people today.
Satan would love nothing more than to convince would-be believers into thinking
that they are following Jesus when they are really following him.
These false teachers offer a counterfeit to Christianity and fool many people.
Remember, these false teachers are condemned by God and will reap destruction.
We must not only remain vigilant in adherence to God’s truth,
but also we have a duty to protect those who would be exploited by the greed
and sensuality of those caught up in man-made religion.
We will be able to recognize false religion by studying the beautiful truth of
God’s Word and hiding it deep in our hearts.

JUST A THOUGHT
Not everyone who calls himself Christian follows Christ

I too have written a few posts over the years regarding prophets…with some of those
posts being more of a lamentation as to where have those voices gone…or better yet,
where are those voices today?

Where are those who speak loudly and boldly of God’s word?
That voice of the one crying out in the wilderness…
“Repent and seek ye the way of the Lord…”

Where are those voices of Godly and spiritual authority…

Voices speaking in tune with the will of the Great I AM??

I think that they are still here living amongst us…
it might be that the false voices are simply crying out even louder.

For sadly today, we seem to have a din of voices that are crying out but are
crying out far from anything Godly…
as in they, and even their lesser minions, are readily claiming the authority of
some new world order…an order that is far from the Omnipotent Creator of all.

One of the latest voices swirling around in the mire of our crazy culture is that
of a young lady from Sweden named Greta Thunberg.
A 16-year-old young woman and environmental activist.

Greta is just a kid but is a very fast-rising rock star who is a globally vocal
spokesperson for all things climate change.

Now I don’t doubt climate change for a minute nor of man’s impact on the demise
of our environment, etc. but I also don’t buy the planet’s demise is to occur in the next
11 years or so–as claimed by many members of the climate change bandwagon.

The notion of prudence comes to mind when such Henny penny the sky is falling
claims are made…just saying.

I’ve not followed much of the news of Greta.
But I’ve been unable to help but notice that her face is plastered all over
the place.

Every time I turn on the computer or see some headline, this young woman is there.
Even Time Magazine has made her their person of the year— or is that month, or week or day
as they seem to be naming folks faster than I feel years pass…but that’s probably
just me and my age.

She seems like a bit of a radical child and an often angry young woman who
is appearing to be somewhat of an opportunist or perhaps sadly, a pawn…

Yet none the less, she is being highly touted by many as the new climate prophetess.

Does she have parents, a family?
Does she go to school?
I never seem to hear of them or see much about a home life.
But perhaps, like I say, I’ve not followed her enough to know.

The latest picture I caught was of her sitting in a German train station surrounded
by a slew of bags and sleeping bags, looking like a kid backpacking across Europe,
but in actuality, she was extolling and grousing over her ill-treatment by the
train authorities.

However, it appears that her grousing and poor lonely image was misleading
as she and her party had actually traveled first class and were all treated very kindly
by the German train personnel…so say the train folks.

Greta later backtracked about the grousing…

Hummm…

She has addressed world leaders while being highly disrespectful regarding the US President…
but hey, that’s not unusual as everyone seems disrespectful of the US President.

But in a recent interview without her usual angst-ridden and oddly
conjectured scientific script, she could not answer, nor did she appear to understand,
reporters questions put before her.

I’ve even caught an odd story that seems to have gone quite viral—
that being the notion of Greta being a time traveler.

Now I had no idea that there were such things as time travelers,
other than maybe Star Trek and getting beamed up…
but it seems to be a real thing with lots of folks on board.
So when lots of folks are on board, things are real right?
Or so that’s what this culture of ours seems to believe—just
look at places like twitter…they’ll tell you.

So here is a picture of a group of kids in the Yukon in 1898 looking for gold…

How in the heck someone thought to go looking for some old picture because
it appears Greta was in the picture is beyond my soul but look they did
look and they did find it.

And thus folks have decided that Greta is indeed in that 150-year-old picture
and is one who has traveled from there and then to here and now in order to warn us…
to warn of us of what is happening to our climate.

Is a time traveler like a shapeshifter?
And what exactly does the child of a Gold Rush settler in 1898 in the middle of
the Yukon understand about climate change?

Yet it appears that there are folks out there who consider Greta to be such a prophet,
or is that prophetess?
They believe she has been sent to warn us.
Sent by whom, they’re not saying, but she’s been sent none the less…
or is that, she’s traveled here to warn us.

Hummmm…

I often think stories like this come down to one thing…that of truth vs Truth.

The little t vs the big T.

Man vs his Creator.

Awareness is one thing.
Raising awareness is indeed important.
Doing our part for the world around us is crucial…
but…
when we turn activists into prophets, or even superhuman time travelers,
well, we raise the human to a level that is beyond human…
we begin taking human word as being otherworldly, promoting them to demigod status.

We want them to be a voice from on high telling us of our errors or our needs.
We think they have all the facts.
We become mesmerized, hanging on their words and supposed wisdom—
which is most often more observation and conjecture than gospel.

We yearn for that all-knowing, all-seeing “wizard” who, when all is said and done,
is just a mere mortal man, woman, or in this case, child,
hiding behind a curtain shrouded in smoke, pulling on a bunch of knobs and levers.

Yet we seem to yearn for something, for someone who great and grand…
who is in authority, who is without doubt—we yearn for God—-
but in our zealous yearning, we’ve turned small false voices into small little gods.

Little voices and little gods who, like shooting stars, quickly burn out and fade
from memory until the next bright light passes our yearning path.

So perhaps it would behoove this off the rail culture of ours to consider where
to put our yearning…our faith and trust.

Maybe its time for a good testing of these modern-day prophets and prophetesses.
Some much-needed introspection as to why we seem to keep throwing such
individuals up on the altars of our worship.
Why do we feel they deserve our “worship”–our attention, our noteriety…

So it would be best that we simply remain watchful while being wary—
the prophets have spoken and time is of the essence.

Blow the trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
For the day of the LORD is coming,
For it is at hand:
A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
A people come, great and strong,
The like of whom has never been;
Nor will there ever be any such after them,
Even for many successive generations.
Joel 2:1-2

Oh really?

“Jesus is not one of many ways to approach God,
nor is He the best of several ways;
He is the only way.”
A. W. Tozer

(The Stoning of St Stephen by Rembrandt who just happens to make a small cameo appearance in the scene…the awkward face peeking out from just under the raised arm
of the man with the large stone / 1625 / Musée des beaux-arts, Lyon, France

Day before yesterday I wrote a post featuring a story about the first Christian
martyr– Stephen.

I gave a bit of the back story behind what led to Stephen’s martyrdom.
We learned that Stephen would not back down from his conviction of belief even
when faced with his own imminent demise.
He wasn’t about to start back peddling when he knew what the Truth of life
and living actually was all about…despite facing a horrific death.

That truth which was the chief cornerstone to Stephen’s very existence, was a living
and breathing knowledge of God as Father and Christ as Son
and the Spirit as mediator.

Stephen did not waiver or waffle nor did he mince his words to the those in authority
as to what his life’s choice would be…and that was to stand as a man who believed
in Jesus Christ as both his Lord and Savior….there was no thought of cost or hurt feelings or loss…

And yet the cost for him was pretty tremendous as far as the world was concerned..
It cost Stephen his earthly life.

Not his friends, not his job, not his security, not his comfort, but his life.

Conviction….a fixed or firm belief..

Stephen had such conviction.

So yesterday I came across a story in the news about a college in the Oxford
University system there in England that banned a campus Christian organization
from participating in a welcoming fair for the incoming freshman class.

Another rampant example of waffling and wavering.

I can remember when I was a college freshman.
I recall that near ecstatic level of excitement of all that was new.
New faces, new places, new friends, new opportunities…
With some of those opportunities being right up my alley and some of them not…

And isn’t that what something like this is all about…the choices offered to us?
We pick and choose…what looks appealing while discarding that which does not.

Life is like that sort of endless buffet of picking and choosing is it not?
Yet what happens when that buffet is gravely limited due to others deciding options
should not be made available.
It is then that the buffet becomes something very different from
a buffet—it becomes more of a pre fixed plate of flavorless offerings.

The opportunity for intellectual and spiritual growth becomes near stagnant
when the powers that be decide the masses might just become too dangerous if they
are given too much choice.

When only the few decide for the many that the freedom of choice and the ability
of personal decision should be a limited offering, then there is no true human growth.

A college of Oxford University banned a student Christian group from appearing at a freshman fair out of fear it would lead to “alienating” students who practice other religions.

Yet did they opt to ban the Jewish organizations, perhaps b’nai b’rith?
What of the Muslim organizations?
Perhaps any sort of pagan organization?
What of the Buddhists?
What of any political organizations?

Here is the reasoning….if one can call such reasoning rational thought….

The Christian Union of Oxford’s Balliol College was initially banned by an
event organizer who felt students might feel “unwelcome” due to what he calls
the Christian religion being “an excuse for homophobia and neo-colonialism,”
The Times of London reported.

Potts added: “Christianity’s influence on many marginalised communities has
been damaging in its methods of conversion and rules of practice,
and is still used in many places as an excuse for homophobia and certain forms of neo-colonialism.”

At last check, there is a massive difference between something perceived as a
phobia, or irrational fear, verses simply following the tenants of one’s faith.

“Many students, especially students of colour and of other faiths, may already feel alienated and vulnerable in Oxford, a university with a reputation for racism and lack of diversity, and a city with barely any appropriate places of worship for non-Christians,” Potts said, according to The Telegraph.

Ahh, so the issue here is now of overcompensation…
the act of apologizing, once again, on behalf of a past time period…
an act that is neither productive or even necessary as we are not them and they
were not us…as in days gone by….

A time period that is far removed from modern times—

So are those mutton chop young men of all things British Academia,
say the 17th and 18th centuries, during the reign of monarchs who were setting
sail in exporation in the name of the Crown, are those such young men still haunting the halls of places such as Oxford or Cambridge….I think not.

And last I checked, if I wanted to attend school in say Beijing or Riyadh,
I think I would be hard pressed in either city on finding an openly Christian place to
worship…and I would certainly not be surprised at such as neither of these cities
have a deep Christian heritage as say England—- quiet the contrary in fact.

So is this particular school spokesperson suggesting that a predominately historical Christian country, such as England, should now do away with its own heritage in order to bend over backwards…
doing away with Christian houses of worship in order to construct more mosques as a
form of overt appeasement or as some sort of welcome mat?

“A spokesperson with the Church of England told The Times that the ban was not
in line with “freedom of religion and belief,” and “is at odds with the kind of society
we are all seeking to promote.”

Finally is there actually a bit of clarity coming from the Church of England…
really???

“Leaders of the Balliol student body reportedly condemned the ban, and passed a motion calling the ban a “violation of free speech, a violation of religious freedom, and sets dangerous precedents regarding the relationship between specific faiths and religious freedom,” according to The Daily Telegraph.

Maybe there does remain a few brave souls not afraid and who will not backdown or recant
the Word of God when push comes to shove….

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/10/11/christian-group-at-oxford-university-banned-from-fair-out-fear-it-would-alienate-students.html

Be on your guard;
stand firm in the faith;
be courageous;
be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:13