We read in Scripture that Jesus was tempted of the devil .  One of the temptations set before Jesus in the wilderness was to bow down to Satan so that he would receive the power and wealth of the kingdoms of the earth.  According to teaching within many churches in the West today we would say that this offer was a blessing and that we should reach out and accept it.  This is because we would be receiving what we had been asking for from God.  Riches, wealth, and power.  Instead Jesus said to Satan, ‘it is written that we must worship God alone’.  The devil made this offer, but there were conditions and strings attached.

Jesus did not accept this offer because it was circumventing what God intended for him.  Jesus was to receive the kingdoms of the earth, but it was to be had through the cross and his subsequent resurrection from the dead.   What this teaches us is that the method matters, the motive matters, and the way scripture is taught matters.  It is the difference between truth and error.

The current methods of the Positive Faith Movement are incorrect.  They are using new age and occultist methods to teach believers how to receive the blessings of God.  The  method of confessing what you want so that it will come into existence is the same method used within non-Christian spiritual movements in the West today.

There is a story told in the Bible about trying to enter the sheep pen by another way.  John 10:1 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. ² The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.”

Jesus is talking to the teachers of the law in the above quote from scripture. He is saying to them that you have to enter into the things of God in the right way or you are a thief and a robber.  I believe that many teachers in our day have taken the scriptures and taught them by ‘climbing’  into them in an incorrect way.   These teachers often claim either outwardly or subtly that there is no need for obedience,  sacrifice, or self-denial in the Christian life.  The scriptures teach otherwise.  We need to pay attention to the “ifs” when we read the New Testament.  “If you overcome you will receive….

1 John 2: 18, Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.  

This passage of scripture in I John is about those who left the teachings of the Apostles after they had gone out from the church at Jerusalem and began to teach and preach a message that was classified later as antichrist by the Apostle John. 

In a recent interview after the mass shootings in Ohio and Texas Oprah Winfrey said she feels the reason behind the latest string of violence is that people are “missing” a “core moral center.”, “Churches used to do that… It was a central place you could come to and there was a core center of values about a way of living and being in the world. Until we can return to that, however that is, in whatever form, we will continue to be lost,” Winfrey told Renee Bargh during the “Extra” interview.

This comment by Oprah Winfrey about what churches used to do for society is very telling.  It tell us that the witness and influence of the church today is either weak or non-existent.  Churches used to set a moral standard until believers were told by their church leaders that they were being legalistic if they pointed out bad behaviour.   “You cannot judge!” is the echo reverberating around in religious dogma today.  Tell that to a society that is floundering and disintegrating before our very eyes in the West.   Tell that to people who know instinctively what the Church should be, but isn’t.

Church leaders in our day think that they are doing society a favour in the West by watering down the requirement for moral standards based on Biblical teachings.  They think they are more relevant, more likeable, more approachable, and more effective with the Gospel if they release people from accountability and responsibility for their actions and inner motives.

I’m thinking about the judgment of church leaders in the Day of Judgment and the responsibility that these leaders will likely bear for their decisions and teaching in our day and time.  Perhaps direct responsibility for souls that were lost or damaged because they wanted a bigger church, a wider following, and a bigger paycheck.

We read in scripture about Abraham and his journey with God.  How he saw a city whose builder and maker was God. This vision guided him and sustained him through many trials and tribulations.  This vision eventually gave him the courage to ‘sacrifice his own son Issac’, because without God’s intervention of a ram caught in the thicket, this is what Abraham would have done.

Vision forms in us today, I believe, when we read the Word and combine it with our own personal experience that we have with God.  This provides a kind of confirmation to our heart and mind.  Our faith is strengthened.  Christianity is a very personal religion.  It’s all about the individual who is then added to the church body by God.  Without vision, the people of God perish the Bible says.

When the Word is not preached or taught correctly the result is a distorted vision or a man made vision that has no power in a believer’s life.  The vision that I see church  leaders giving to believers in the West is, ‘go along to get along, you can have your carnal lusts, being healthy and wealthy is the goal, the most important thing however, is to keep adding numbers to our church’.  This vision is absolutely impotent in creating righteousness and godliness in the believer.  This vision is going to get the believer compromised, cut out of the vine, or perhaps destroyed.

When we read the scriptures it is apparent that the goal of righteousness is not just a destiny of either heaven or hell.  We read in the admonition to the seven churches in the book of Revelation that they do not all receive the same reward.  The reward or recompense for the believer in these seven churches is based on their particular situation and their response to this situation.  If the believers remain faithful they have a reward.

The vision provided by churches today in the preaching of the gospel is so thin and weak that it is largely impotent in motivating the believer to sacrifice all for the kingdom of God.  In scripture the things of God are likened to a great and valuable pearl of great worth.  The preaching of the current gospel by many church leaders presents a ‘come se come sa, if you do or if you don’t is not really important…God is a loving God, you will be OK’.  The vision of what God has for those who follow after him is almost eliminated by these preachers.

I recently read about a 16 year old girl who was kidnapped by Boko Haram in Africa.  This young girl was executed because she would not deny Christ and claim Islam as her religion.  The rest of the 300 or so school girls kidnapped along with her did apparently renounce their faith, as they were released from captivity several months ago.  These school girls had been in captivity for some time.  I would imagine they endured horrendous conditions.

I trust that Christ has a special place prepared for this 16 year old girl.  The Bible says that she overcame and was faithful unto death, and that she will sit with Christ on his throne.  What about the other girls? Christ says if you deny me, I will also deny you before my Father in heaven.

There is a palpable rotten doctrine being preached today from the mouths of our church leaders in the West that is not scriptural, but rather the doctrines of men who have been overcome or have been deceived by their lust for fame, power, and money.