Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

Saturday, March 16, 2013

BACKSLIDING

From the True Jesus

By Prof.
Johan Malan

The world is under strong pressure to turn
their backs on the true Christ of the Bible in order to advance a
multireligious receptiveness to the appearance of the false Christ of all
faiths. The coming Messiah-King of the deceived world will be the Antichrist,
the great adversary of the true Christ. An increasing number of people are
positively inclined towards his coming, and are completely ignorant of the fact
that they were deceived by the devil to engage in paving the way for the
appearance of a false prince of peace for all of humanity.

It is inevitable that there should first be
a large-scale defection from the truth before the lies of a false Christ can be
instilled in people’s hearts. That is exactly what is happening today. A wide
spectrum of believers – including a large number of theologians and pastors –
are involved in the process of apostatising which leads from truth to error.
Many of those who were formerly followers of the exclusive and unique Christian
faith in which Jesus is the only Saviour of the world, have made a transition
to an inclusive, interfaith approach, thus becoming protagonists of another
Jesus, the Antichrist.

How could such a radical mind shift occur
among people who have free access to the Bible and should have known better?
Deception is always the consequence of ignorance, unbelief, or exposure to
false teachings. Such people are ignorant of the full extent of divine truth. They
either do not read the Bible or don’t believe what they have read and therefore
do not have strong spiritual convictions and a clear Christian frame of
reference. The Lord Jesus has warned us with particular reference to the
end-time: “Take heed that no one deceives
you. For many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive
many” (Matt. 24:4-5). When enough doubt on the true Christ has been sown in
a person’s heart, he will start backsliding and easily become a follower of
false prophets and false christs (Matt. 24:24).

According to the Bible, this process of
falling away from the truth will take on unprecedented proportions in the
end-time since this is the prophesied time for the revelation of the false
Christ. The rejection of the true Christ occurs during the following three
stages:

A weakening of love for Christ

Initially, an intimate walk with Christ is
weakened when people start drifting away from Him. That happens when they no
longer love Him above everything else, do not stay in contact with Him through
prayer and Bible study, and wilfully allow sin and negative experiences to draw
them away from Him. There are various causes of this process of alienation:

“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow
cold” (Matt. 24:12). While the world is becoming
more wicked in preparing for the revelation of “the man of sin” (2 Thess.
2:3), many Christians are also lured into a permissive lifestyle which carries
them away from the Lord Jesus. A true walk with Christ demands a commitment
towards self-denial, sanctification, and the filling of the Holy Spirit. When
believers fail to strive after these noble objectives they are drawn away from
the Lord by indulging in sin, pride and other fleshly lusts.

Paul says that, already in the
first century, many of the “brethren in Christ” had openly backslidden from
Christ into a life of sin, and emphasised that carelessness of this nature
exposed them to the possibility of becoming completely apostatised: “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of
you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one
another daily ... lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin”
(Heb. 3:12-13). We should not give place to the devil in our lives (Eph. 4:27)
as that would harm our relationship with Jesus and ultimately destroy it.

Excessive materialism also has
devastating consequences as it causes people to grow cold spiritually by first becoming
lukewarm, which is repulsive to Christ: “So
then, because you are lukewarm ... I will spew you out of My mouth. Because you
say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing – and do not know
that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:16-17).
Such people are led away from the spiritual riches of the Lord by their own
achievements and prosperity: “For the
love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from
the faith in their greediness” (1 Tim. 6:10).

Another important reason for
the spiritual cooling down towards Jesus Christ is deception. False teachers
often misrepresent Jesus by offering a biased and distorted image of Him in
which some of His divine attributes are either ignored or openly denied, thus
proclaiming a false Jesus. Paul said to a deceived and backslidden congregation:
“But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent
deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus ...
you put up with it well” (2 Cor. 11:3-4). Believers are doctrinally
carried away from the true Christ. If this process is not checked, complete
alienation from the truth may soon follow.

Straying from Christ

Believers who continue to grow cold in
their relationship towards Christ are in danger of completely straying from Him
and ending up in a spiritual wilderness where they will wither away. It is a
tragic fact that not all Christians abide in Jesus Christ and persevere on the
way of holiness. The Saviour said, “Abide
in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. ... If anyone does
not abide in Me [which is a distinct possibility], he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and
throw them into the fire” (John 15:4-6). The number of former believers
whose names now appear on the list of defectors is growing by the day.

Someone who no longer truly loves the Lord
Jesus makes room for other kinds of love in his life – love for himself, for
sin, for earthly riches and even (at the cost of Christ) for his church and his
pastor. Jesus Christ reprimanded a church of this nature as follows: “I have this against you, that you have left
you first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the
first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from
its place – unless you repent” (Rev. 2:4-5). This was not the first warning
against apostatising that the church in Ephesus had received. Paul earlier
warned them that after his departure they would be deceived by false teachers
and drawn away from Christ (Acts 20:29-30). None of these warnings were heeded.

With the passage of time, the congregation gradually
discontinued their true fellowship with Christ and subsequently only used His
name as a mere symbol of a vague and far-away Deity. Instead of maintaining an
active relationship with Him they pursued other loves and selfish objectives.
They did not rearrange their priorities by returning to their almost forgotten
first love, but preferred to persist with their unbiblical loves and dead form
of godliness.

The church in Ephesus had an unteachable
spirit and was stubbornly committed to the proclaiming of their typical form of
deception. Even after having received a letter of admonishment from the risen
Christ Himself, through the ministry of the Apostle John (Rev. 2:1-7), they
failed to repent from their error and the Lord ultimately withdrew His Spirit
from them. Subsequently, the empty, humanistic sermons on good works and loving
your neighbour that were preached by their pastors, but without regeneration
and a vital relationship with Christ, became irrelevant and boring to most of
the deceived and self-centred members. They started leaving the church in large
numbers, the congregation dissolved, the church building fell into disuse and
later became dilapidated. Throughout the centuries, only a forsaken ruin was
the quiet testimony of a once vibrant congregation of Christ that existed in
Ephesus during the distant past. Intense spiritual darkness enfolded this
entire country (the present Turkey) and it became a stronghold of a major
non-Christian religion to this very day.

Many people find themselves in the same
situation today. Despite various admonitions and warnings they continue to
stray from the Lord Jesus and ultimately sever their relationship with Him altogether.
Paul even warned Timothy against such a possibility: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of which I am chief. ... Wage the
good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected,
concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of whom are Hymenaeus and
Alexander” (1 Tim. 1:15, 18-20).

In his second pastoral letter to Timothy,
Paul again refers to these defectors from a former life of faith: “[They] have strayed concerning the truth,
saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of
some” (2 Tim. 2:18). Today, the situation is much worse as there are
scores of apostate theologians who claim that there was no resurrection of
Christ – neither will believers in Him rise from the dead at the first
resurrection before the millennium (cf. Luke 14:14; Rev. 20:6).

The faith of many modern believers is overthrown
in the uncharted waters of rational postmodernism because of their rejection of
scientifically inexplicable miracles and other supernatural interventions by
God. They have left their first love and became shipwrecked in their spiritual
lives since, among others, they no longer believe in the resurrection of Christ
and His disciples (1 Cor. 15:17-23). Such people do not heed biblical
counsel on how to remain anchored to biblical truth, and also fail to nurture
their spiritual lives by growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Neither
do they know how to remain spiritually standing against the incessant attacks
and deception of the Evil One (Eph. 6:10-13; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; 2 Pet. 3:17;
1 Tim. 4:1).

It is evident to true disciples of Christ
that apostatised “Christians” are only nominal believers as they no longer
maintain a living relationship with Jesus Christ. Some are doctrinally deceived
and do not believe in the true gospel message. Others are morally entangled in
sin. They are, like the lost son, completely caught up in a worldly lifestyle
of materialism, unbridled humanistic liberties, extravagant parties, double
standards and other sins. They are also called upon to repent from their
waywardness and return to the Father’s house. If they don’t, they will die in
their sins and bear the consequences of their rebellion.

Blaspheming Christ

At the extreme end of apostatising there is
a group of backsliders who are committing spiritual treason against Christ by
deliberately rendering themselves adversaries and even enemies of the biblical
Son of God. They oppose and blaspheme Him as far as possible and use every vain
argument to question, distort and falsely portray the Bible, which is the
written testimony of Jesus Christ (He is the Word that became flesh). Such
people harbour the spirit of the Antichrist – he will “open his mouth in
blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who
dwell in heaven” (Rev. 13:6; cf. 1 John 2:22).

Verbal blaspheming is only one form of the
dishonouring of God’s Name. Many people are engaging in such persistent
blasphemy that they cannot even utter two sentences without taking the name of
God in vain in all its forms. There are many other ways in which God is
insulted, blasphemed and belittled by His adversaries. Spiritual treason
against Him is particularly common. Blasphemers relentlessly attack the Triune
God in an effort to negatively present the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit by
distorting and ridiculing their divine image and attributes, equating them with
idols, and even denying their existence.

Among the group of blasphemers there is
also a large number of theologians who do everything possible to deprive Jesus
of His deity and depicting Him as an ordinary human prophet. They deny His supernatural
conception by the Holy Spirit, His oneness with the Father, the redemptive
significance of His crucifixion, His bodily resurrection from the dead, His
ascension, and the promise of His second coming from heaven. Modern science is
their “god” and they do not accept any deity, person of phenomenon that is believed
to have supernatural qualities.

Humanistic theologians regard the biblical
Jesus who is worshipped by evangelical, Bible-believing Christians as the
“cultic Jesus”. To them, He is a fictional deity who originated from the
idealistic thinking of the apostles and early church fathers. They were
allegedly envious of the gods worshipped by the heathen nations and
subsequently created their own god by subjectively declaring Jesus to be God. To
them He is the human manifestation of the Triune God (Col. 1:15; 2:9).

According to rationalistic theologians, the
biblical Jesus who originated from heaven as the Son of God and God Himself,
never existed. They offer their own, humanly conceptualised Jesus, i.e. the
“historical Jesus”, as a substitute for the “biblical Jesus of faith.” This
Jesus is not the supernatural God-Man, his crucifixion is not related to the
forgiveness of sins, and he merely came to teach us the virtues of love,
humility, tolerance, and compassion towards marginalised people in society,
thereby giving rise to a social gospel. The main emphasis of their ministry is the
rendering of assistance to poor and oppressed people. Furthermore, they apply
Christian tolerance to our relationship with other faiths to justify interfaith
relations and multireligious ecumenical ties.

In the USA, the proponents of theological
rationalism established the Jesus Seminar in 1985, through which an alternative
“historical Jesus” is offered to the world under the inspiration of the devil
himself (cf. 2 Cor. 11:3-4; Gal. 1:6-8). Leaders of this movement were
also invited to South Africa, and here they openly scoffed at the alleged
supernatural attributes of Jesus. According to them, His crucifixion was a mere
political act (the execution of criminals) with no atoning value, He was never
buried, His body was probably eaten by dogs, and He never rose from the dead.
They also branded His Father as a vindictive God for surrendering His Son to
such severe suffering and cruel death on the cross.

The acceptance of this extreme heresy of
the historical Jesus led to a growing movement in South Africa, which deeply
penetrated most of the theological faculties in the country. People who have
adopted a mindset in favour of “another Jesus” are forerunners of the
Antichrist. Already in the first century, the Lord Jesus has warned agnostic
Jewish leaders that if they rejected Him they would, through their own
ignorance and unbelief, throw in their lot with the false Messiah (John 5:43). They
will embrace this impostor with open arms when he comes.

Precautionary measures against apostatising

Every person on earth should investigate
exactly where he stands with Jesus Christ, as the nature of this relationship
determines our future here on earth and in eternity: “Examine yourselves as to
whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves,
that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified”
(2 Cor. 13:5). The question is not whether we are only intellectually
informed about Jesus, but whether He really lives in our hearts through faith
and has fundamentally changed our lives: “He
who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have
life” (1 John 5:12).

If we are sure about our salvation we
should strive after a pure heart and the filling of the Holy Spirit. We should
perfect holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1), as then alone Christ
would be fully seen in us. He must increase in our lives while we keep on
decreasing (John 3:30). We should develop spiritually to ensure that we grow up
“to a perfect man, to the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children, tossed
to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:13-14).
That is our only guarantee against backsliding.

When Christians do not grow up in the Lord,
spiritual stagnation will follow which is highly conducive to backsliding. The
sliding track of apostatising is a serious and dangerous place to be in as it
leads to death if a person does not turn around in time. James says, “... and sin, when it is full-grown, brings
forth death” (Jas. 1:15).

It is therefore very important that the signs
of backsliding be detected at an early stage and that appropriate steps be
taken to check it. Firstly, a person grows cold in his love towards Jesus
Christ. The reasons for this situation will be obvious as it is always caused
by sin or spiritual deception of one or other kind. If a person fails to address
the problem he will wander away further from Christ and eventually lose his
first love. Should he still not come to his senses and repent he will end up among
the mockers (Ps. 1:1). Here he will associate with agnostics and other people
who ridicule the Christian faith.

In an advanced stage of apostatising, the
power of delusion will be working so strongly in the backslider that he will
believe the lies of the great adversary of Jesus (2 Thess. 2:11). Under
the influence of satanic deception he will then be prepared to enter into a
covenant with the Antichrist, oblivious of the fact that it will lead to his
final and everlasting ruin (Rev. 14:9-11).

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: (2 Thess. 2:11)

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; (1 Peter 1:13)

About Me

Check your daily "HERESCOPE." Herescope is an online journal revealing heresies and false teachings affecting the church today. Copyright 2005-2017 held by the author, IRG, Inc., or Discernment Ministries, Inc. unless otherwise noted. Herescope is a term coined by Lynn Leslie literally meaning "scoping out a heresy." Herescope began as a regular magazine column in The Christian Conscience magazine published during 1995-1998 by IRG, Inc. The Discernment Research Group is an ad hoc fellowship of Christian researchers with roots dating back to 1985. For more articles, books, and newsletters go to http://www.discernment-ministries.org.