Marks of God-Hating Christians (Part 2)

 Last month, we articulated four areas of demonic infiltration into the church, and the teachings associated with them. These are claims of existence of a purgatory that ostensibly does for Christians what the proponents assume that the  blood of Jesus could not do for them; Sabbath observance as a day of worship popularised by the Seventh Day Adventists;

Mary as a ‘co-redemptor’ with Christ and Predestination associated with followers of John Calvin and other church groups. In this edition, the searchlight is on two other doctrines of demons, namely, ‘once saved always saved’ theology and replacement theology. The last segment billed for next month will feature Cessationism and Extra-Biblical revelations.

Once Saved Always Saved Theology

 Proponents of this theological leaning argue that a person ‘saved by grace’ cannot become ‘unsaved’. It does not matter to them that no Scripture in the entire Bible; both Old and New Testament guarantees anyone automatic salvation just because the person mouthed some prayer at a crusade or the altar of a ‘church’.

When Peter preached under the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, Acts 2:47 records that the “Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” Note that the Holy Spirit is not careless with the use of words. It says here, “such as should be saved”, not “such as were saved.” This implies that their merely confessing faith in Christ was not a guarantee that they were saved.

Even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said in Mathew 24:13, “But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.” In fact, many of the parables of the Lord reinforced His position on the issue. It is baffling that anyone could read the Parable of the Sower; Parable of the Wheat and Tares, Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, among others and still propagate the ‘once saved always saved’ falsehood, apparently cooked up by satan to deceive gullible folks.

         If all who confessed faith in Christ in the early church were saved, what is the fate of Ananias and Sapphira, his wife who were killed by the Holy Spirit for telling lies? Revelation 21:8 declares that all liars have their portion in hell! What about the two believers, Hymenaeus and Alexander, who Paul said he had  handed over to satan for their blasphemy? (1 Timothy 1:18-20).

According to 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, the falling away of many people from their faith in Christ would predate the unveiling of the anti-Christ man. If they were not believers, how could they fall away from the faith? In addition, the proponents of this theology openly call the Lord Jesus Christ a liar.

If it is not possible for a believer to become an apostate (a cast away, a reject by God), why would the Lord threaten to blot out people’s names from the Book of Life except they repent of their sins? (Revelation 3:5).

The most damaging aspect of this demonic doctrine is the growing licentiousness in the church. Here is a comment copied verbatim from Facebook, in response to a Christian post.

“He (God) will always forgive us no matter what as long as we ask for forgiveness. He will forgive every time even if you go back to sin because we are not perfect, he is. His love is forever.” The comment attracted more than 85 ‘Likes.’

       Another comment, this time from YouTube, points to the level of depravity among some people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.

Last time I went to a modern church, the congregation was holding a party on grounds. People were drinking, smoking cigarettes and Marijuana. Couples were running back into the woods behind the church while coming out readjusting their clothing. I’m just standing there dumfounded in the middle of the parking lot.

Then someone comes up to me and says, “Jesus walked with sinners, not saints. We are no closer to God, then at this moment. God will forgive us with our prayers in the morning.” I left shortly after that conversation. Mankind is losing this spiritual battle. Too many are giving into greed and pleasure.

I personally watched a video on YouTube in which an American pastor told his congregation that God does not expect them to be sinless, but to sin less. When I posted my reaction on a ‘Christian’ channel on Discord, another social media platform, many of the subscribers endorsed the pastor’s opinion.

If the Bible is indeed the sole authority on spiritual truths, what Scripture validates a compromise with the devil? In the Old Testament, God charged ancient Israelites in many chapters of Leviticus, “Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Jesus Christ echoed this charge in Mathew 5:48. Is it this same God that expects believers to serve both Him and satan?

1 John 3:8 is emphatic that sin is the nature of satan. The Lord corroborated this in John 14:30. Paul said in Romans 6:14, “Sin shall not have dominion over you; yet a pastor is giving his flocks a license to “sin a little”. I pray that God would forgive him for leading his people astray and open their eyes to the truth before it is too late for them.

           The battle for men’s souls did not start in our generation. Even in the early church, there were similar doctrines that encouraged licentiousness. Jude addressed the matter in his letter to the church. Verse 4 states, “For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”

        The truth is that many of the people peddling the ‘once saved always saved’ devilish doctrine twist the writings of Paul the apostle to give the impression that we don’t need to do anything to earn our salvation. Granted that Jesus Christ paid the supreme price for us with His blood, does that invalidate our free will? Did He not say that only those who obey Him will be loved by His Father and He will reveal Himself to that person? (John 14:15).

If salvation is automatic, why did Paul admonish us “to work out your salvation with fear and trembling?” (Philippians 2:12). Why did Peter charge us to add to our faith certain virtues, namely, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity? (2 Peter 1:5-8).

 Many believers love quoting Romans 8:39, “Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is Christ Jesus or Lord.” The people who compromise with the devil and use this Scripture as a prop forget that Romans 8 starts from verse 1 – “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Verse 9 explains what it means to be in Christ.

“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. In fact, verse 14 is more explicit. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

          Let any of the people pushing the ‘once saved always saved’ narrative present proof that the Holy Spirit is leading believers to commit debauchery or other ungodly acts because they are no longer under the law, but under grace. Actually, Paul explained in verse 4 of Romans 8 that the righteous requirements of God’s law are fulfilled in us as we are led by the Holy Spirit. As believers, we are not called to be lawless; but to pursue holiness (Hebrews 12:14) with the help of God’s Spirit. I rest my case.

Replacement Theology

      This is the most ridiculous of the demonic doctrines propagated by the devil and his agents. Since many Scriptures invalidate this absurdity, it will be difficult to highlight all of them here. Suffice to say that Israel is not an ordinary nation. In fact, the very word “Israel” came from the heart of God.

After Jacob had a wrestling match with the “Angel of the LORD” and won, God Himself said to him, “Thy name is Jacob; thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and He called his name Israel” (Genesis 35:10).

        What prompted God to establish the nation of Israel? The answer is found in Genesis 12:2-3 after God initiated an eternal covenant with Abraham. He said to him, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” Psalm 105:9-11 state that the covenant was confirmed unto Isaac in an oath; and was confirmed to Jacob for a law, “and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance.”

        God conceived the nation of Israel as an instrument to display His holiness and providence. Exodus 19:5-6 reinforce this assertion. “Now therefor, if you obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.”

Under this arrangement, Israel was to be a theocracy; a nation under God. That was why God said to Samuel after the nation asked for a king, “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.”

         Even before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, there were signals that they would embrace the gods of neighbouring nations. What happened at Baal-Peor when they joined the heathens to offer sacrifices to Baal was just a tip of the iceberg.

Moses said in Deuteronomy 3:29 “For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you, and disaster will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”

Earlier in Chapter 30 verses 1 and 2, Moses said if they repent of their sins with sincerity, God would overturn their captivity, gather them from all the nations He had dispersed them in His anger, and bring them back to their land.

 The prophetic books also spoke of similar interventions by God. Anyone doubtful of God’s heart towards Israel should read Jeremiah 31:35-36. It says, “Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for a light by day and ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea so that the waves roar, the LORD of Hosts is His name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the LORD, then the seed of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.”

Another striking prophesy is recorded in Jeremiah 29:14, “And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

Similar prophecies are recorded in Micah 2:12; Zephaniah 3:20; Jeremiah 31:10; Isaiah 56:8; Ezekiel 39:27-28; Isaiah 54:7; Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 32:37; Ezekiel 11:17; Ezekiel 20:34; Ezekiel 28:25; Ezekiel 34:23, among others.

          Although Israel was God’s special treasure, He did not plan for the nation to be the culmination of His relationship with humans. The redemptive plan, which is for the benefit of both Jews and Gentiles, was articulated in Genesis 3:15 when God cursed the serpent and spoke of a coming Messiah – “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”

Isaiah 49:6 is one of my favourite Scriptures on this subject. Here, God said to the Messiah, “It is a light thing that thou shouldest be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth.”

Isaiah 11:10 unveiled a similar promise of God – “In that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.”

          Apart from the fact that God chose it to bring forth the Messiah, Israel was to be the custodian of the moral law of God, until the Messiah arrived to atone for the sin of entire humanity. Unfortunately, Jewish leaders did not accept God’s Messiah, and went about instituting their own righteousness. They also used the Roman civil and military administration in power at the time of Jesus to sentence Him to a cruel death on the cross.

        It is pertinent to note that proponents of the replacement theology twist the word of the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation 2:9 and Revelation 3:9 where He referred to some Jews as the “synagogue of Satan” to justify their position. They forget that the Lord also called some Pharisees and Sadducees children of the devil when they threatened His life (John 8:44). Did this imply that all Jews belonged to satan? Of course not, or the Lord would have to include Himself and His disciples in that classification since they were all Jews.

 If these deluded folks would not accept Old Testament Scriptures that underscore God’s love for Israel despite its unfaithfulness, are they also rejecting Paul’s teachings? He said in Romans 11:17 that the church is grafted into Israel, the family of God!

He also asserted “All Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26). I also find Isaiah 45:25 intriguing in this respect, “In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.” Scripturally, there is nothing to prove that God has rejected Israel and its people. Actually, He has prepared a timetable for their redemption (Daniel 9:24; 12:1-2).

God has made it clear that Israel is still the apple of His eyes. Even the gates of New Jerusalem has the names of the twelve sons of Jacob! (Revelation 21:12). In Revelation 7:1-8, the 144,000 given special seal by Almighty God are all Israelis.

More importantly, the Lord Jesus Christ is not establishing His millennial Kingdom in Washington DC; London, Paris, Moscow or elsewhere except Jerusalem. It is possible that people peddling this false doctrine are under influence of the devil. Let us pray that God would intervene and open their eyes to the truth.