We live in a day of confusion within the church. Where we once knew we were wretches saved by grace and worthy of nothing in and of ourselves, we are now told of the promises of prosperity and happiness that can be ours if we only believe. We could once gain an understanding of a church’s beliefs by the sign in the front yard, words like; Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, United Brethren, meant something. Today we have to deal with words like; Fundamental, Seeker, Post Modern, Seeker Friendly, Seeker Driven, Charismatic, Emergent, Emerging, Post Post Modern, Legalistic, and so many more. We have more translations then we could ever hope to gain an understanding of, and speakers taking passages out of context in each of them.
The church as we know it is in trouble. Yet that is not a new thing. Nearly 2000 years ago the church struggled with a similar problem to that of today. Peter speaks of these things in the 2nd chapter of his 2nd letter verses 1-3:
1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.” (NKJV)
False teachers fill the church today as they did in Peter’s day, and there leading thousands and thousands astray. Sometimes the problem seems just too big, as its impossible to be on all fronts denouncing all false teachings, at all times. But there is a solution. I once heard a wise man say, the biggest way to keep people from false teachings is to teach them the truth. It’s like a bank teller, they are trained in what a twenty dollar bill should look like, not what all the counterfeits might look like; and because of this there as well prepared as they can be to spot the fakes.
Teaching the truth to avoid the false is not a new idea Jude dealt with just that issue in his letter. For the first 20 verses Jude teaches against the false teachers of the day. Yet as he closes he tells his readers how they can watch out for them. Verses 20 & 21 say:
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (NKJV).
Jude calls his readers to grow in the true faith, to pray in the spirit, to keep in good graces with God, and to remember salvation is found in the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. In short we are to fill ourselves with truth to keep away from the false.
That may be a long introduction, but that is our goal here with Ambrose Brothers Ministries. We desire to help with the truth. We may take a number of formats in our daily blogs, from Bible Studies, to Book reviews, to random thoughts, we want to focus all that we say and do on our Lord Jesus Christ who alone is the truth in which we should all strive to live within.
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Posted by: Barefoot Shoes | June 11, 2011 at 04:21 AM