Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
July 14, 1985
Prophets of Error
Matthew 7:15-20
In the Coshocton Tribune this week there was an interesting article on local sheep ranchers. I don't know why people around here would want to raise sheep except maybe to put in the county fair but some of the farms have hundreds of sheep.
The biggest danger these sheep face is not what you would expect. They are not torn to pieces by wolves like in the Bible. Instead, the greatest enemy of local sheep is your standard lovable pet dog. People dump their dogs out here in the boonies and soon they develop a taste for lamb chops. One local farmer near Route 36 had twenty-two sheep destroyed by dogs in one incident. He said they first kill out of hunger and soon are doing it merely for fun. The surest solution is to shoot these strays.
The church today is infested with murderous stray dogs. Jesus calls them wolves in sheep's clothing and false prophets. We usually think of a prophet as someone who predicts the future, sort of like Jeanne Dixon. In the Bible it has a broader meaning. A prophet is someone who represents someone else and speaks for them.
A false prophet is a person who pretends to speak for God but actually speaks for Satan. These false prophets are not out in the world. Some of the worst ones sit in pews or even preach from pulpits every Sunday. They look like us, harmless like a pet, but their character is far different. They destroy the faith of thousands of people while appearing to be one of the sheep. The disguise of false prophets goes beyond appearances. They also claim to teach the truth and do a good job of imitating it.
We often think of the cults when we think of false prophets but I believe the cults are only a minor problem. The most deceptive teaching comes from Liberalism. Liberalism contains at least three perversions:
1. It universalizes salvation
2. It atomizes the Bible
3. And it humanizes Jesus Christ
To universalize salvation means that you think everyone goes to heaven. There's nothing wrong with this if everyone repents of their sins and trusts in Christ. But a liberal doesn't care. Everyone is saved no matter how they live or feel about God. Universalism teaches that the narrow way is as broad and easy as you want. This is a direct contradiction of what Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:13-14.
The pleasing perversion of universalism goes way back. Jeremiah 23:16 says:
"Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy unto you, they make you vain (=fill you with vain hopes), they speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walks after the imagination of his own heart - No evil shall come upon you."
Once you believe in universal salvation, the warnings of the Bible become meaningless. Dr. Royce Gruenler grew up in a Christian home and went on to teach religion at a church-affiliated college. By this time he accepted the teaching of universalism and he ridiculed students who believed in being born-again. Dr. Gruenler later rededicated himself to God and the historic teachings of the Bible but he knows he can never reach those students who lost their faith under him.
The second perversion of Liberalism is the way they atomize the Bible. They begin by eliminating the idea of inspiration. God did not lead the writers - they just wrote down what they wanted to.
Liberals also reject the traditional authorship of many books. For example, conservatives have always believed the book of Genesis was written by Moses around 1450 BC. Liberals reject this. Since different names are used for God in Genesis such as Lord, and God, and Lord God, liberals figure each name was used by a different writer. One preferred God, another Lord and so on. Scholars identify each writer with a different letter, such as J, E, P, D or L. Each wrote at a different time but long after Moses was dead, if you really believe he lived at all, which many liberals don't. After they wrote their piece, someone else cut them all up, rearranged them and pasted them back together to give us the book of Genesis.
Are you following me? You'd better be, because if you take a religion course at Harvard or Yale or Ohio State University - even at local Muskingum College - you will be taught this theory. And they will call it a fact, not a theory.
To see how it works in practice, turn in your Bible to Genesis 25. Remember the writers J, E, P, D, L. To make it easier, "D" does not appear in this passage. To begin, verses 1-6, with all the names, were written by L. 7-10 were written by P. Look closely at verse 11:
"And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac."
Stop right there. That chunk was written by E. "L" finishes - "and Isaac dwelt by the well La-Hai-Roi." Verses 12-17 are P. Verse 18 is J. Verses 19-20 are P again. 21 to the first half of 26 are L, and so on.
This one chapter has ten major breaks according to liberals and dozens of minor ones. It is no wonder that people who take these courses lose their confidence in the Bible.
If it has bothered you, I'll throw in a footnote. A researcher at Hebrew University in Jerusalem decided to test the J, E, P, D, L theory with a computer. He programmed it to pick out the special names for God and points of grammar which were supposed to distinguish the various writers. To his amazement, the theory, which he believed in, fell apart. According to the intricate computer results, only one writer can stand behind the book of Genesis. He cannot prove it is Moses but that is what the Bible claims.
Another false teaching of liberalism is to humanize Jesus. Not everyone who claims to believe in Jesus really believes in Jesus. To Christians, Jesus is the son of God who was born on earth so that he could save us from our sins. Jesus is the only possible Savior and some day he will return in triumph to earth.
To liberals, Jesus is much different. They accept his teachings on love and the example he sets for us. Jesus becomes the greatest person to ever live, the ultimate nice guy. But genuine liberals reject any supernatural element to his life. One of the most popular books about Jesus followed this liberal view. It was written one hundred years ago by a man named Strauss and he called it the "Life of Christ." Strauss stripped away the supernatural stuff and focused exclusively on the high ethics of Jesus.
One of those influenced by the book was a young Russian who was studying to be a priest. When he finished reading that book, he felt his eyes had been opened. Jesus had no more power or authority than anyone else. The young Russian dropped out of the church and joined the Communist Party. His ruthlessness became legendary and he rose to become the leader of the entire Soviet Union. His name was Joseph Stalin and historians claim he killed five to ten million people through purges and concentration camps.
In Galatians 1:7 Paul says:
"Some people are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned."
It is not enough to believe in salvation or the Bible or Jesus. False prophets can twist these to their hearts' content. They go through the same religious rituals and use the same phrases but the reality is much different.
What is the reality in your life?
Do you follow God revealed in the Bible . . . or a god who is a figment of human imagination?
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Typed on March 7, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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