"The Truth Make-over"Prophecy Chat by Sharon L. Clemens

     Recently, we left our church of 26 years. We were active members of this church, but finally were compelled to leave because the Bible is not being taught literally. What do I mean by a literal interpretation of the Bible? It is also called expositional teaching--the presentation of the Word line by line and verse by verse, in its proper context. This method of teaching interprets the Bible primarily at face value, rather than merely expounding on an obscure application with no substance. A basic rule of Bible interpretation is "When the literal sense makes perfect sense, seek no other sense."

     The loss of our home church especially troubled my husband and I because we also were led to leave the denomination we were raised in after we received Christ as Lord and Savior. That was many years ago, but the Holy Spirit made it clear we had no choice; the Word was not being taught honestly. However, the seminary-trained pastors in that denomination seemed oblivious to the fact that they took scripture out of context and ignored prophetic portions because a literal interpretation would expose the error of their denominational position. The pastors had been trained to "spiritualize" scripture, making the literal meaning into a symbol of something else. It has been called Little Red Riding Hood preaching. For Sunday after Sunday, during my childhood, I would sit in a pew and listen to the senior pastor expound on a Bible passage--not teaching it in context, but lifting out a shallow point of morality, launching into a fairytale-like story to illustrate his point--a story with little relationship to the text. He needed to create interesting stories in order to keep the congregation awake. You may have had similar experiences. How sad. If such preachers had actually taught the Bible, they would have found the Word of the living God is not only interesting, it is convicting power.

     The issue boils down to the same question Pontius Pilot asked of Christ. What is truth? Because truth is the foundation of everything, the question is fundamental. Because there is only one truth [John 14:6], and that truth is synonymous with Jesus Christ, Satan has sought to destroy it from the beginning. How effective he is in doing so is an indication of how near the Lord's return may be. God will only allow Satan to abuse His truth for so long before His wrath will tolerate no more.

SATAN'S MAKE-OVER OF TRUTH:

     Satan's tactics to pervert and subvert truth haven't changed much over the centuries; they do not have to because lost mankind falls for them every time. All Satan had to do to lure Eve into sin was to cast subtle doubt on God's intentions: "Has God indeed said..." [Genesis 3:1]. Satan is a master of DECEPTION. Deception is not all lies--that would be too obvious. Deception is a little truth with a little lie. But even a shade of a lie contaminates the purity of truth, making it into deception. All Satan had to do was to plant a seed of doubt in Eve's mind about God's intentions, and she bought it--hook, line, and sinker.

     For years we reasoned it wasn't so much what the ministers were saying as what they were NOT saying. However, that pattern changed. We finally left when scripture was taken out of context, interpreted on the basis of bias rather than literal truth, and then was used to cast dispersions on those with opposing views. Our story is being repeated again and again in churches all over our country and shouldn't surprise us. But neither should we continue to sit in a church that is teaching defective truth. I pray the scales will fall from the eyes of ministers who work very hard about what NOT to say or twist what they DO say so the meaning supports their Madison Avenue mission statement instead of the Bible. The Lord is the one who will defend His truth at His return; that is why I pray for teachers and pastors who are falling into apostacy and deception [Revelation 22:18-19].

NOTHING NEW--AN EXAMPLE OF SATAN'S METHODS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT:

     In the days of the prophet Amos, he was called by God to warn Israel of coming judgment. Israel, except for the remnant of true believers, did not listen to his words. Instead, the apostate leaders accused Amos of conspiracy and treason! They questioned his motives and demanded he return home to Judah and try to sell his message there--as if Amos were in it for the money. Amos countered by pointing out that he had a prosperous business before God commanded him to go to Israel. Amos was obeying God; there was no benefit for him personally. [Amos 7:10-16]

     Because Israel refused to hear the truth, the LORD took away the truth-tellers. "Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread...but of hearing the words of the LORD...They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it." [Amos 8:11-12]

IN OUR DAY, TRUTH-TELLERS ARE BECOMING FEW AND FAR BETWEEN.
TRUE BELIEVERS ARE SEARCHING FOR CHURCHES TEACHING THE WHOLE TRUTH--AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH--OF THE BIBLE.

     Just as the Lord took away the word of the Lord from Israel, so He is allowing Satan to deceive and corrupt God's Word today. As Isaiah warned, immorality is being legalized in our courts so that "evil shall be good and good, evil" [Isaiah 5:18-20]. Hate Crimes legislation threatens to repress the truth by making scriptural truth illegal in the public arena. Daniel 7:25 predicted a time when Antichrist would change times and laws to fit his demonic agenda.

     IF SIN HAS ITS WAY, THE UNITED STATES WILL LEGISLATE FREEDOM FROM RELIGION, RATHER THAN FREEDOM OF RELIGION.

SIN SEEMS TO BE WINNING--BUT THAT'S PART OF GOD'S PLAN:

     Sin will have its day; it is called The Tribulation. But the darkness that the Lord is allowing to fall upon the Day of Man will be eclipsed at the Day of the Lord by the return of Christ Jesus. Our Lord is coming to "repay with tribulation those who trouble [us], and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed." [2 Thess 1:6-10]

     The Lord will come in wrath and vengeance to RESTORE TRUTH and punish those who deceive. The lost are also self-deceived, thinking their manipulation of truth is bringing world peace and global Christianity to a deteriorating world. But they are wrong. "For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape." Paul likens the self-deceived to those in darkness while the believers are walking in the light of God's truth. "But you brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief." What are believers to do in days of deception? "Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober...putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. FOR GOD DID NOT APPOINT US TO WRATH, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ..." [1 Thess. 5:3-9]

     The great irony of this onslaught of LIES and the perversion of truth is that because of the attack on God's truth, the Lord will TRAP THEM with their own lies:

THE DECEIVERS WILL BE DECEIVED!

"The coming of the lawless one [Antichrist] is according to the working of Satan,
with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish,
because THEY DID NOT RECEIVE THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH, that they might be saved.
And for this reason GOD WILL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE THE LIE,
that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
[2 Thess. 2:9-12]

     Let the punishment fit the crime. The Lord's justice and righteousness is perfect in its application. [Obadiah 15]. We have nothing to fear, but must occupy until He comes.

In Him We Wait, Work, and Watch,
Luke 12:35-59
Sharon

[Prophecy Chat is a weekly commentary of current events in light of Bible prophecy. Sharon L. Clemens is an evangelical, premillennial, dispensational teacher of eschatology. She can be reached for comment or questions by e-mail at farmgrove@verizon.net]