False Teachings

The book of Judges records how the people fell away from obedience to God. Once they had settled into the good life of Canaan they quickly forgot all that God had done for them. They forgot how God had delivered them from Egypt. They forgot how they had been protected and well provided for in the wilderness. They forgot how, with the help of Joshua, they had conquered Canaan. They started to lead lives of rebellion against the living God.

With the release of the book Da Vinci Code and its phenomenal sales in over 150 countries has kept people absorbed by the holy fiction and suspense of the story line. It reduced the Christian faith to a mystic cult with a secret society and where Christ and Mary Magdalene were married and had a child. It has put the Catholic Church in a bad light. As if the Catholic Church did not have its own skeletons to contend with already, with all the abuse scandals sweeping the nation, here was another to shake the faith of the people. The book even questions whether Jesus was God. Through carefully woven fiction it tries to prove with fictitious dates and incidents that the gospel message was a fabrication of the early church fathers. For one ignorant of Christ and His gospel message this is a message cloaked in sheepskins, but inside is a very vicious wolf that is tearing the truth to shreds.

When we compare these claims and what actually happened, our strong faith can so easily brush it away as bamboozlement. In 2 Peter 1:16 St Peter says “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” This verse clearly indicates that even as early as the beginnings of the church they were under constant attack about their faith. We become disillusioned if we see our faith portrayed in a bad light as seen through the eyes of an author like Dan Brown of Da Vinci Code. Jesus said in Matthew 6:23, “But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” Christ clearly said to beware of looking at faith through the eyes of an evil eye - an evil eye will plunge you into darkness.

Today the church is faced with all kinds of teaching. People are confused about what is the right thing to do. Preachers want to live alternate sexual lifestyles that are in defiance to teachings and the laws laid out clearly in the Bible. Yet they claim to be the ones being persecuted and draw lines of comparison to oppression of slaves and women. We have more than enough quotes in the Bible to infer that oppression of women and slaves is wrong. Do we see anything in the Bible that supports alternate lifestyles? Today some churches seem to be losing this battle. St. Peter in 2 Peter 2 clearly warns us of people who, ensnared by their own evil lusts and desires, wander away and draw those who are weak down along with them. They will try to twist the words of the Bible to mean something else. This will result in disaster for them and all who follow them.

When Christ died on the cross for our sins, his disciples ran away and lived in fear for their lives. But suddenly when they met the risen Lord, they left their homes and went out as witnesses all over the world. They were all martyred except for one, and throughout their lives were persecuted for their faith.

St Peter says 2 Peter 1:12 “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.” It is very important for us as believers to constantly remind ourselves of what Christ did for us and encourage one another to grow in our understanding of the Word of God. We have to remember who we are. We have to remember the saving grace and mercy that was given to us as a gift. We have to remember to serve the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. St. Peter (2Peter 2:5-7) exhorts us to live with a character that emulates faith, righteousness, knowledge of God, self control, patience, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. It is when we work toward living a pure and blameless life that we are at peace with God.