False Prophets in Peter’s Day and in Ours

Today we’re going to randomly dive into the middle of a long series of blog posts from 1 Peter. How long? Here’s what the author says:

…I love to spend time digging deep into God’s Word. I have learned more in these last years than I have ever learned before. I spent a year writing about Paul’s letter to Ephesus, and now a year on 1 Peter. I plan on doing 2 Peter, then 1 and 2 Timothy…

Did you catch that? One year on each!

Today we’re introducing you to a new blog, Abundant Joy written by Kimberly Minick. Click the title which follows to read today’s devotional at source. Then you’ll be in a good place to click the home page, which, if you’re reading this when it’s published, immediately shows you the start of the series on 1 Peter.

2 Peter 1:19-21

“We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Peter continues here with the thought he started in verse 16. “For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…” He told them about being an eyewitness (along with James and John) of Jesus’s majesty at the Transfiguration. He has had a glimpse of Jesus as the glorious King he is. It has given him confidence of Jesus’s future return.

He continues here with hope for all his readers. “We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” The prophetic word is the Scriptures, as we read in the next verse. He will go on to explain how the prophetic word is strongly confirmed in the next verse and I will cover that when I get there.

Peter says that his readers would do well to pay attention to it as to “a lamp shining in a dark place.” This could be a reference to Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.”

We live in a world darkened by sin. Douglas Moo writes, “In the darkness of this present world, God’s word casts light on his purposes and plans and so enables believers to live as those who are ‘in the day’ (see Rom. 13:11-12).” Let’s look at those verses in Romans. “Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” 

Both Peter and Paul write about the day being near. Peter writes “until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” The day of the Lord refers to Christ’s second coming. The morning star is a reference to Jesus. We read in Revelation 22:16, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to attest these things to you for the churches. I am the Root and descendant of David, the bright morning star.” Peter is saying that we need to pay attention to the Word of God. Read it! Study it! It is the light that will illuminate our way in this dark world. And we are to do it until Christ returns.

Peter continues. “Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Peter is reassuring his readers that Scripture is inspired by God. Paul puts it this way. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Kenneth Gangel writes, “The Scriptures’ human authors were controlled by the divine Author, the Holy Spirit. Yet they were consciously involved in the process; they were neither taking dictation nor writing in a state of ecstasy. No wonder believers have a word of prophecy which is certain. And no wonder a Christian’s nurture must depend on the Scriptures. They are the very words of God Himself!”

Peter began this section with his experience- the Transfiguration. But he concludes with the Word of God, which he says we would do well to pay attention to. On David Guzik’s Enduring Word website, he writes, “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed: Peter’s experience at the transfiguration was amazing. But the testimony of God’s Word about Jesus was even more sure than Peter’s personal experience. The fulfillment of the prophetic word confirmed is a certain, reliable testimony of the truth of the scriptures.”

There are at least 332 Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah that Jesus fulfills. Peter Stoner was the Chairman of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College. He figured out the mathematical probability of one person in the first century fulfilling just eight of these. This is how he put it. “We take 100,000,000 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly… Blindfold a man and tell him… he must pick up one silver dollar… What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have of writing… eight prophecies and having them come true in one man.”

My purpose here is to show you that the Bible is divinely inspired. There are so many other ways to go about that (archaeological finds, cohesiveness, etc.) but, Peter is writing about prophecy, so I will stick with that.

I am going to end with what we will start with next time–false prophets. Notice that Peter writes “no prophecy ever came by the will of man.” He is referring to the scriptures here, but the prophets wrote the scriptures. There were examples in the Old Testament of false prophets.

Ezekiel warns, “This is what the Lord God says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing…They saw false visions and their divinations were a lie. They claimed, “This is the Lord’s declaration,” when the Lord did not send them, yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message. Didn’t you see a false vision and speak a lying divination when you proclaimed, “This is the Lord’s declaration,” even though I had not spoken?” (Ezekiel 13:3,6-7). and Jeremiah said this. “This is what the Lord of Armies says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are deluding you. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the Lord’s mouth” (23:16).

We have false prophets today just as Peter did in his day. We even have a group that teaches that there is an office of “Prophet” as well as “Apostle.” I have two blog posts on this if you would like to read about it. Prophets – Abundant Joy; Apostles – Abundant Joy. These groups teach that prophecy is something that can be taught, that doesn’t have to be accurate, and should always be positive. Does this sound like what we have been reading about? If prophecy is indeed by God, which I believe it is, it will be 100% accurate. We will get more into this as we move into 2 Peter 2.

My encouragement for you… is to stay in the Word. Read through Psalm 119. Notice how every verse is another way of referring to the Word of God! “How happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk according to the Lord’s instruction!” (vs. 1)

Grace be with you!

 

Doctrinal Diagnostics

^{NLT – II Cor. 13:5} Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. ⁶ As you test yourselves, I hope you will recognize that we have not failed the test of apostolic authority.

^{The Message – II Cor. 13:5-9} Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won’t show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we’d rather the test showed our failure than yours. We’re rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn’t possibly do otherwise.

^{CEB – Jude 1:3} Dear friends, I wanted very much to write to you concerning the salvation we share. Instead, I must write to urge you to fight for the faith delivered once and for all to God’s holy people. ⁴ Godless people have slipped in among you…

^{NASB – Jude 1:3} Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. ⁴ For certain persons have crept in unnoticed…

Every once in awhile, I believe Christ-followers need to perform a system check. We need to run a diagnostic of all our closely-held doctrines. We need to test our faith against the Bible and against what the church has historically held as orthodox theology.

Years ago. the reason I began thinking about this came from a study of one of the ‘marginal’ groups which is sometimes thought of as ‘Christian.’ While this group has a number of tenets that would easily identify them if I listed them here, the one that struck me as most disturbing was the idea of new light. Their head office is constantly releasing new documents which the faithful are required to study and learn. Shockingly, each new document potentially supersedes all that have come before it.

Can you picture Jesus teaching and suddenly interjecting, ‘Actually, I have a clearer picture of this now, just ignore everything I said previously;’ or something like that?

This creates a number of problems, not the least of which is: If you hold to their beliefs and then new light revises that teaching and you do not change as the teaching changes, you can be considered apostate for believing things that were perfectly acceptable just days before.

Not good if you’re the type of person who doesn’t check their email daily!

Another interesting point I heard was this: If a person did not have access to this group’s teachings and simply read their Bible, is there anything they would read in the Bible that would point them toward the same conclusions as this group? Of course the answer is a definite no. The Bible does not lead one toward such doctrinal positions.

Interestingly enough, all this investigative study began a day after another conversation concerning another group which bases much of its teachings on prophetic words from its members. This is far less authoritarian, since anyone who is part of the group can issue forth words which become as binding as core doctrines; and it’s a more Charismatic-flavored version of the other, which is more formal.

But many of the spoken prophecies do not line up with scripture. So the person who told me about this group said he is constantly asking, “Where’s that in the Bible?” “Where’s that in the Bible?” “Where’s that in the Bible?”

The difference is that the first group bases their updates on revisions to their interpretation of the Bible, whereas the second group doesn’t even try to confirm prophetic words with scripture.

That’s why Paul in today’s opening verse, urges the Corinthians to check him out, to engage critical thinking, to verify his words against external standards.

We need to always be doing the same.

^{ESV- Matt. 22:37} And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (emphasis added)

Another verse which comes to mind here is:

“All the promises of God are yes and Amen in Christ Jesus”(2 Corinthians 1:20).

Unlike your computer, God isn’t always issuing updates.

That tech analogy is interesting because, on my computer, updates run at the worst times, and there’s a tendency to think, ‘Why didn’t they just get it right the first time?’

Of course, those updates are often inclusive of security patches that are needed because of increased threats. But the timeless quality of God’s ways — his Word, his truth — is such that any possibilities the world or circumstances can throw at it are already covered.

One last verse:

Above all, brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no… James 5:12a; NRSVue

In God and in Christ there is no backtracking, no need to qualify a statement, no need to give it ‘spin,’ no need to edit, no need to undo. Our language is always changing but the truths of God remain immutable.

If your faith leaders are issuing statements that begin with, ‘Forget everything we said about this last year; here’s the new light…’ then consider the possibility that something is very, very wrong.

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Scripture portions from various translations quoted at Christianity 201 are always in green to remind us that the Scriptures have LIFE!

The Perfect Denominational Perspective

Brothers and sisters, even if a person is caught in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness… – Galatians 6:1a NASB

Throughout October we’ve introduced you to a large number of writers who are new to us. This time it’s Zach who lives in Michigan in the United States and writes at Faith in a Fallen World. Click the link in the title which follows and read this where it first appeared.

Which Denomination is Right?

There are thousands of denominations of Christianity around the world. Some estimates put the number at over 45,000 different denominations. The United States apparently has over 200 different denominations itself. If you’re like me, you’ve likely heard at least one person say something along the lives of “every denomination is wrong except mine.” I’ve actually had a few people tell me I’m not a real Christian because I don’t belong to their particular denomination. So…out of 45,000 denominations, which one is right?

In the Bible, we are warned about false teachers, not only in the world, but also even in the church. False teachers come in all shapes and sizes, and without a thorough understanding of Scripture and discernment from the Holy Spirit, it can be easy to fall into believing false teachings. This is the reason why in 1 John 4 we are warned to “test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” I wrote a post not too long ago discussing how to identify false teachers.

There are many people who are not equipped on how to identify false teachers, and that’s one of the reasons why we see many churches and denominations falling into unbiblical practices. I’m not here to call out any names, but it doesn’t take very much digging to come across church scandals or churches believing things that are way out there. I’ve heard of Christians practicing yoga and believing and telling others that it’s perfectly fine, even as they partake in poses designed for worshipping Hindu gods. There are so many different opinions and nuances that lead to church division that it is easy to see why there are so many denominations.

False teaching and church division occurred even in the first century. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul calls out the church at Corinth for this division. People in that church were arguing because some were saying they follow Paul’s teaching while others were saying they follow Apollos, Cephas, or Christ. Paul calls this division the product of carnality in 1 Cor 3:4. Paul recognized the divisions and warned the church that sectarianism is a sin. He clarifies his response in 3:11 where he says “no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Paul did not design the foundation. All he did was lay it down by preaching Christ.

So which denomination is the right one? That’s not a question I can answer. There is so much division on doctrine and tradition. The question that needs to be asked of every denomination, by everyone, is “does this denomination preach the good news of Jesus Christ?” Our foundation is Christ. If a church does not preach Christ crucified for the sins of the world, then an argument could be made that it is not a Christian church.

We need to learn how to differentiate between foundational beliefs and doctrinal beliefs. Foundational beliefs like Jesus death and resurrection and grace through faith. As opposed to doctrinal beliefs, such as full-submersion or sprinkling baptism. A scriptural argument can be made on both sides of baptism, don’t get me wrong, but whether one is right and the other is wrong does not determine whether an individual is saved or not.

There may not be a denomination that gets everything right, both foundational and doctrinal. We are humans and as such, we are imperfect. The way we interpret scripture is different. If our foundation is set on Christ, that is the most important thing. I believe it is wrong to call other believers fake Christians because of a difference in doctrinal theology. Calling out a brother or sister who is in sin or believes something that goes against foundational Christian principles is a whole different thing. In those cases, we need to lovingly correct them, using Scripture as our talking point.

 

When There Were No “Mega” Churches, But Many “Super” Apostles

The construction of vast, cavernous auditoriums in which congregations could worship would be such a foreign concept to the people in the Apostle Paul’s day, where they met “from house to house” and everything was “small group” based. How ironic now that during the Covid-19 pandemic, so many of these same large buildings sit empty, which parishioners fellowship in their homes, or in Zoom groups.

The macro has become micro.

But while they didn’t have “megachurches” there is this interesting reference in 2nd Corinthians 11 to “super-apostles.” First, the context, and I’m using the CEB today:

⁴ If a person comes and preaches some other Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different Spirit than the one you had received, or a different gospel than the one you embraced, you put up with it so easily!

So like so much of the content in the New Testament epistles, this is going to be about false teachers. This is a theme that runs through these letters to the point that you cannot escape noting the problem this was for the early church. Remember, you didn’t have to look back far to the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, so everything was in its infancy; there weren’t hundred of years of Christian tradition.

Then our key verse emerges:

⁵ I don’t consider myself as second-rate in any way compared to the “super-apostles.”

While knowing the Greek usually helps with literal translation, you could still miss the sarcasm. That the phrase is in quotation marks ought to give us a clue.  Some translations use “chiefest apostles,” or “most eminent…apostles,” or “superlative apostles;” but even there many add the quotation marks to help the reader get the intended snark. Paul is not impressed, not by the number of books they have published or the size of their television audience.

Okay, they didn’t have those metrics, but there’s no great imagination needed to picture there being teachers who were the most-talked-about “flavor of the month” with the people. They gravitated to these people in the same manner in which people today gravitate to the larger churches, the ones led by small-c charismatic personalities.

I must confess personally that in the days when we traveled to the United States, if we were seeking out a church for weekend worship, we always chose the well-known large congregations. Seeking out a medium-sized assembly where God is really doing great things through the congregation probably would have required some research.

Furthermore, such medium-sized congregations will attest to the truth that the megachurches, by their great influence, are setting the agenda for all churches in North America. The pressure to conform to the programs and ministry philosophy which is so obviously working is immense.

Additionally, these are often the churches and church leaders which fail spectacularly. A few weeks ago, on our other blog, I took the time to list all of the churches, pastors, authors and Christian leaders who had suffered damage to their brand in 2020. It’s a very long list.

Some of the translations for verse 5 are more obvious with Paul’s intended remarks: “big-shot ‘apostles,”'” or “grandiose apostles,” the latter which makes me wondering if they’ve spent too much time at the all-you-can-eat buffet; which is a suggestion that could be supported by empirical evidence.

Later in the chapter, Paul makes his use of satire completely obvious; not the phrase in parenthesis at the end:

²⁰ You put up with it if someone enslaves you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone places themselves over you, or if someone hits you in the face. ²¹ I’m ashamed to say that we have been weak in comparison! But in whatever they challenge me, I challenge them (I’m speaking foolishly).

What comes next? Paul defines his own “super apostleship” and it’s not a job description that would have prospective apostles lining up:

²³ Are they ministers of Christ? I’m speaking like a crazy person. What I’ve done goes well beyond what they’ve done. I’ve worked much harder. I’ve been imprisoned much more often. I’ve been beaten more times than I can count. I’ve faced death many times. ²⁴ I received the “forty lashes minus one” from the Jews five times. ²⁵ I was beaten with rods three times. I was stoned once. I was shipwrecked three times. I spent a day and a night on the open sea. ²⁶ I’ve been on many journeys. I faced dangers from rivers, robbers, my people, and Gentiles. I faced dangers in the city, in the desert, on the sea, and from false brothers and sisters. ²⁷ I faced these dangers with hard work and heavy labor, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, and in the cold without enough clothes.

What led me to this passage, and the whole chapter today, is something that John Stackhouse wrote just a week ago in a piece titled Expectations for Christian Leadership:

Here, Paul says, is what genuine apostolic ministry entails. You can expect to be beaten—beaten hard, beaten often.

From Nigeria to China today, pastors are being beaten. Even rank-and-file believers live under the shadow of imminent physical danger of the worst sorts.

I wonder how many pretty-boy pastors would sign up for that job if instead of looking forward to affording excellent sneakers they could look forward to a beating. And then another. And another after that.

Likewise, I wonder how many students would aspire to become public teachers of Christianity—theologians and such—when such a position would require being punched, not just disagreed with or even maybe (horrors!) disrespected.

We live in crazy, mixed-up times, and while the people in Paul’s day didn’t have to deal with the dominance of enormous (and currently empty) megachurch buildings, they certainly faced the related cult of personality.

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Dig Deeper: I encourage you today to take an extra few minutes to read the whole chapter.

How to Start a Christian Cult

There are many [versions of Jesus] proclaimed today. There is Jesus the liberator and Jesus the revolutionary. There is Jesus the teacher and Jesus the example. There is Jesus the healer and Jesus the burden-bearer. Homosexuals and adulterers point to “an unconditionally accepting Jesus,” seeking to show that Jesus is on their side. Even the demons are willing to accept certain aspects of our Lord’s identity, but not His authority.  – Robert L. (Bob) Deffinbaugh, in today’s linked article

When I first began to think about this topic earlier today, I had in mind two specific areas where groups which perhaps started out in mainstream Christian orthodoxy end up drifting away from their moorings.

1. Adding to the gospel message
2. Subtracting from the gospel message

If it were all that simple it might be easier to identify such teaching at a greater distance, but sometimes the approach can be more subtle.

As to adding to the message, this is much of the core of the book of Galatians. It appears in our Bible after Romans and 1&2 Corinthians, but is considered Paul’s earliest work. It is addressed to those who are surrounded with “Judaiizers,” that is people for whom the laws of the first covenant, i.e. circumcision of males, still applies. He writes, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (5:1 NIV)

At the council of Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15, Peter stands up and addresses this issue, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery…” and then James continues, “…It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.” (15: 10,19,20 NIV)

Of course, if you were numbered among the Pharisees who were raising these issues, you would see Peter, Paul, James and Barnabas as subtracting from the requirements.

Thomas Jefferson was notorious for his physically removing passages of the Bible with which he disagreed.

When we think of these concepts, we easily remember the book of Revelation’s final warning, “…and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.” (22:19 NASB) This echoes the Old Testament words in Deuteronomy 4: “Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to you.” (v2 NET)

…The concept of addition and subtraction merely scratches the surface in looking at how false teachers arise. In the article I quoted at the outset of today’s thoughts, the writer marks a number of characteristics which are worth studying in greater detail. I’ve reduced his nine points to five for us today:

1. Claiming to be a prophet. (I know this will grate with those for whose practice emphasizes being a prophet as one of the five-fold ministry gifts — sometimes called APEPT — but generally the prophet does not say this of himself.)
2. They can come from both inside and outside the church.
3. At some point, their teaching attracts rebuke from the world at large (and harms not only the place where they do their teaching, but the capital “C” Church in general.)
4. They start out subtle. (Here the author quotes Matthew 7:15-23 and says you will know them by their fruit. I think it’s interesting that as a non-agriculturally-aware person, I can look at a tree and not be able to identify it until the fruit appears. This then, is a process of time.)
5. Apart from the message, there may be flaws in the false teacher’s personal morality. This will be seen in their motivation (money, power, success, fame) and their methods (deception, secrecy, smooth-talking).

There was also a reference to the book of Jude, which is very instructive on this subject:

^NIV.4 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.

¹⁷ But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸ They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹ These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

²⁰ But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith…

The book of Jude ends with a doxology to “him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy…“

This is Jude’s highest aim for the readers of his letter; that they be kept from falling.

Here is the link to the full article at Bible.org concerning false teachers.

 

 

Shall We Make Alterations to Jesus?

by Clarke Dixon

Does what the Bible say about Jesus fit you or would you like to make alterations? You love Jesus but perhaps you would rather he did not make such exclusive statements like “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)? We might prefer that he had said “I am a way, one truth among many, one road to life, and people can come to the Father in various ways”. In our pluralistic day we might be tempted by a view of Jesus that seems more inclusive of other religions.

In New Testament times, Christians were being tempted by an early form of teaching later known as Gnosticism. This teaching speaks of Jesus, but does concur with what the Bible teaches about him. The apostle John deals with this temptation in a letter known as 2nd John. In John’s letter we discover three reasons to resist the temptation to make alterations to Jesus.

First, if it is not the Biblical view of Jesus, then truth falls off a cliff. John uses the word “truth” four times in the opening verses, then in verse seven he warns against deception:

Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist! 2 John 1:7

The Gnostics were making alterations to Jesus to fit their worldview, rather than making alterations to their worldview to fit Jesus. They were messing with truth.

Why are you a Christian? Is it because you were raised a Christian? This can be a great introduction to Christianity, but is not, in fact, a reason to embrace it. Why was John a Christian? It was not because he was raised a Christian. He gives us some clues in 1st John:

1 We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— 3 we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:1-3 (emphasis mine)

John was a follower of Jesus because he met Jesus, learned from Jesus, saw Jesus crucified and then risen from the dead. John was an eyewitness, he knew these things to be true. John does not write a warning against heresy because he is concerned about religion, but because he is concerned about truth. If we do not follow a Biblical view of Jesus, then truth falls off a cliff.

Second, if it is not the Biblical view of Jesus, then love falls off a cliff. Love is a prominent theme in John’s letter:

4 It has given me great joy to find that children of yours have been living the life of truth as we were commanded by the Father. 5 And now I am asking you — dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but only the one which we have had from the beginning — that we should love one another. 6 To love is to live according to his commandments: this is the commandment which you have heard since the beginning, to live a life of love.

7 There are many deceivers at large in the world, refusing to acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in human nature. They are the Deceiver; they are the Antichrist.  2nd John 1:4-7 (NJB)

You might think it strange that I would include verse seven, about deception, along with verses five and six, which speak about love, but in fact John connects them. Verse seven begins with a rarely translated connecting word ‘for’. We might give a rough summary of the line of thought like this: “It is great to find your children living according to truth. Now you, yourself, must double down on living a life according to truth, a life of love, because false teachers are coming, and they have a very different ethic than the love ethic you learned from the teaching and example of Jesus.”

Love is important to the Christian because Jesus, in his existence, life, teaching, death, and resurrection, is an expression of God’s love. If Jesus is something other than that, then love is no longer the main thing. Under the gnostic teaching facing the Christians in John’s day, the main thing was the separation of the body from the spirit. This led to an ethic of either extreme asceticism, because you must care less about your body, or extreme indulgence, since you could care less about your body. Either way, a life of love was no longer the main thing.

There is a popular notion that all religions lead to a very similar ethic. However, some religions in the history of the world have required human sacrifice. Not all religions lead to the same ethic and not all religions are equal. Christianity offers love as the main ethic, for Christianity was born out of God’s love. We won’t be strongly pursuing a love ethic if we are listening to an alternate views of Jesus. If all religions lead to God, then who are we to condemn human sacrifice as an unloving practice? If it is not the Biblical view of Jesus, then love falls off a cliff.

Third, if it is not the Biblical view of Jesus, then souls will fall off a cliff. John speaks of this in verse 9:

Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 2 John 1:9

If Jesus was not executed then raised, we still have a separation from God problem.

But isn’t Jesus being too exclusive when he says “no one comes to the Father but by me”? A specific problem calls for a specific solution. Suppose my motorcycle stops running and a mechanic tells me that I need new ignition coils. Will I then say, that sounds too exclusive, perhaps we should replace the carburetors, tires, wheel bearings, and piston rings? A specific problem calls for a specific solution and nothing else will help. Our sin problem calls for a God’s grace solution. When Jesus says he is the way the truth and the life and that no one can come to the Father except through him, he is not being arrogant, but accurate. Greater effort can not deal with our separation from God problem. More religion just makes things worse. Only the grace of God will help us, and that grace has been expressed through Jesus. If we are not sharing a Biblical view of Jesus, then souls will fall off a cliff.

Accurate teaching about Jesus is important enough that we should not allow false teachers to set up shop:

10 Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching; 11 for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person. 2 John 1:10-11

In other words, when heresy knocks, don’t send Jesus out to make room for the heretic.

We may be tempted to run after alternative views of Jesus, but truth, love, and souls are in danger of being destroyed if we do. While it might sound tempting, if Biblical teaching about Jesus is not at the heart of our Christian faith, then our Christian faith has lost its heart.

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(The full sermon can be heard here or through iTunes podcast here, while available. Unless stated otherwise, Scriptures are taken from NRSV)