By Mark Jackson
Jesus said “follow me”. Matthew 4:19.
THESE days, it seems the vast majority of believers would like to hear messages that tickle their ears and demand nothing from them in confronting personal sin.
All through the Bible we see God dealings with sinful man. Man’s response to God demands either a positive or negative action.
So many in the church claim to have their own personal revelations from God’s Word or claim to have directly heard from the Lord about what must be done in their own lives and those of the congregation. However, we see their prophecies don’t come true. Yet, people blindly follow them.
Then there are those who want to have their own personal ministry. They want to be pastors with their own flocks but since they do not want to come under any authority they call themselves ‘Apostles.’
Though I live in the UK, I have made several trips to India in the last few years. I have come across some pseudo pastors there. I know of one particular man in India who routinely sends emails to several ministers across the US and the UK stating how poor he is and how big his need is – the need, of course, is to run his orphanage. Although I have not found any real orphans at his ‘orphanage’, I know he owns much land. Jesus warns us that there will be many false prophets emerging in the end times.
Counterfeit Christians come in all shapes and sizes. I once talked to a church whose members shared with me how their pastor was hard on them. Although he preaches much he does not do accordingly (Romans 2:21). These are people that do not show Christian love in their own lives and ministries.
What appals me is the teaching these counterfeit preachers come up with!
Many preachers these days do not hear from the Lord. They do not know the Word of God for lack of study. Instead, they try to ape someone who is rich, famous, successful and on TV! Gullible believers swallow everything that is dished out to them from so-called Christian TV channels.
I have met one such pastor who is a carbon copy of Benny Hinn with all the singing and baloney he comes up with. If you expect such preachers to tell the church about confronting sin, living a holy and righteous life, then I guess you are in the wrong place.
The Word of God is under attack and so many cannot discern. What grieves me is if they cannot discern the false from the truth how are they going to identify and stay away from the anti-Christ when he appears?
We are living in an age of devaluation. Today we have so many people calling evil ‘good’ and vice versa (Isaiah 5:20). We are living in an age of wealth and materialism. There are millions of people who lack and are hurting because of our personal sin and greed.
So, what is the church doing? A good part of the church is interested in your wallet. They will preach nothing but the prosperity gospel. Day in and day out we hear lines like ‘Give me your tithes and you will be blessed’, ‘You are God’s special child’, ‘He loves you’ and ‘Give to my ministry and the Lord will give you a hundredfold’.
Do I think getting people out of this deception is easy? No! Trying to get people out of these churches is one of the hardest things to do as they like to heap to themselves teachers who make nice and easy sermons that make them feel good.
Today we no longer have the confession of faith, but the confession of faiths, such as the following:
a) Christian Unity – Jesus is the (I) in man, the self, reveal yourself to yourself and say, I am the Christ.
b) Christian Science – Jesus is the divine idea of God but Jesus is not God.
c) Jehovah Witness – Jesus is a created being.
d) Modernism – Jesus was a man so good His followers took Him to be a God.
e) Theosophy – Christ is less an external saviour than a living presence in the human spirit, and in time all men would become Christ.
The list goes on and on. Dear reader, are you part of a church that dishes out falsities and denies the sovereignty of Jesus Christ?
During Jesus’ time on the earth, several people went to Him with several needs. From their response to Christ, we see the following things:
a) Rich young ruler – sold his soul for his possessions
b) Herod the king – sold his soul for his popularity
c) Pontius Pilate – sold his sold for political power
d) Felix the governor – sold his soul for pleasure
My dear friend, have you sold your soul for anything? What kind of Christianity do you practise? Is yours the counterfeit Christianity or True Faith?
What is truth? Jesus said I am the Truth. Truth is a person. The person is Jesus Christ and He is Lord.
Another column by Mark Jackson: The ‘great falling away’ that’s happening in the West
The writer is the founder of Hebron Bible College based in UK. You can email your comments about this article to hebronbiblecollege [at] yahoo [dot] com
