Not long ago, churches of all stripes acknowledged most basic truths and Christian doctrines. Since the beginning of the Church age, there have been false teachings. 1 & 2 Peter and 1 – 3 John deal with them specifically. Jesus even warned us there would be “false prophets” that would do great harm to His church.

Yet, in recent years, there has been a new kind of evil creeping into churches that became beholden to liberal ideologies that are far from Scriptural. These churches teach all kinds of heresies that are destructive in the name of love and tolerance. They warp the Scriptures for their own purposes and in doing so become partners with Satan and his demons.

So, let me share a few recent examples and get into the warning from Jesus and the Apostles about what is happening. Keep in mind that there are untold numbers of stories of the evil entering the church across America… And churches embrace of it.

On January 22, the DailyMail published an article about Bishop Gene Robinson. If you aren’t aware of who he is, Robinson is a Bishop in the Episcopal Church. See, he’s not your ordinary Bishop who is worthy to be called a follower of Christ, let alone a leader in an organization who claims to follow and teach Christ.

Robinson has been divorced twice. Once to a woman and once to a man, and he’s now married to another man. His supposed “ministry” is more about LGBT than it is about Jesus Christ.

Two days later, on January 26, Fox News reported that Catholic professor Esther Brownsmith found circumstantial evidence in Scripture to support transgender rights. She argues that Joseph (in Genesis) “crossed gender boundaries” and stated Deborah led an army, Mordecai (a male) breastfed Esther, and Daniel was likely a “eunuch.” She adds that God is sometimes referred to as a female midwife or nursing mother.

Brownsmith adds, “Yes, the Bible was written in a patriarchal time, but it recognizes that people reimagined and reshaped their gender identities back then – just like they do today.”

What?

How hard do you have to warp Scripture and the ancient world to justify this thinking?

Like so many others, both Robinson and Brownsmith are sheep in wolf clothing. They are devouring and diluting people’s minds and keeping them from a true understanding of God’s holiness and purpose for His creation.

I recently wrote that all of this is an attack on our identity as humans created in the image of God. This is the result of sin and its embrace.

It’s that simple.

It’s even more simple than that… if you’re twisting God’s Word then you can’t be for God. If you’re not with God, who are you with? You are with the wicked spirits in the heavenly places opposed to God.

Now, should we expect anything different than stories of supposed church leaders and educators who say they are of God but teach things contrary to Him?

In Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

1 Peter 2:1 says, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.”

1 Peter 5:8 adds, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

In 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, the Apostle Paul says, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”

Wolves in Scripture are symbolic of Satan preying on innocent believers. We are to guard ourselves from them by staying close to the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who protects His flock. Jesus said those sheep that hear His voice listen to Him. They know Him. They know He is their protector. Those who wander away… You get the picture. They become victims of the great wolf – Satan.

The Tricks of Satan – The Warped Perspective Of Love, Acceptance, And Toleration

Trickery — it’s the game that Satan and his demons specialize in. They have convinced hoards of easily swayed supposed church leaders and their congregations that love, acceptance, and tolerance are far better than God’s provision for our lives.

Satan has tricked many into believing that God accepts us for who we are. Surely he wouldn’t judge those harshly who He made to be LGBT?

It’s the same playbook from the Garden of Eden.

In Genesis 3:1-6, Satan persuasively argues to Eve:

“Surely you won’t die. He says God knows “your eyes will be opened (if you eat from it) and you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil.”

See, here’s the trick… We don’t know good and evil. We have become blinded by evil and forsaken good. In our sinful hearts that are far from good, evil becomes good, and good becomes evil.

Here’s the truth… In God’s image for mankind, He created us for a relationship with Him… Man and woman. The sin in us denies this truth in our society today. Many have exchanged our God-given identity for a lie.

Once a person buys into Satan’s tricks, our sinful humanity will do the rest. He did his part, and now the person far from God does their part in participation with Satan — whose goal is to get humans to worship Him as God.

How bad is this? Does God really embrace the kind of love represented by Churches flying rainbow flags, ordaining gay men and women, and participating in all kinds of sin in the name of love and tolerance?

The greatest love in the world is to tell the truth. The greatest love in the world is that Christ shed his blood on the cross, the lamb of God, for the forgiveness of our sins.

Is it okay for the wolves to come and devour the sheep He sought to save?

In Romans 1:23-32, the Apostle shares something you will likely never hear in these apostate churches:

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

Brothers and sisters, we live in perilous times. How many sheep are being led astray from Christ’s love? The love that restores humanity’s relationship to our Creator?

This is serious business when a church declares Christ but does not acknowledge Him. See, He was the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The Old Testament and the Torah (The Law of Moses in Genesis through Deuteronomy) declare He is holy and righteous and demand we be the same.

In 1 Peter 1:16, the Apostle Paul reminds us that we are called by God to be “Holy, for I am holy.”

What does light have to do with darkness?

What does holiness have to do with sin?

Nothing.

That is the point.

In 2 Timothy 4:3, Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions…”

In Ephesians 4:14, Paul wrote, “…So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

I pray these churches will repent and turn back to Christ.

They should be calling people in the LGBT community to come and explore the true Christ. The One who loves them. The one who desires they know Him and have a relationship with Him.

This life is fleeting. It goes by in the blink of an eye. It appears these supposed church leaders are more eager to fight for the life-fading pleasures of the flesh.

Eternity is forever.

I pray they learn the truth now and come to Him before He rejects them on the day when they do learn the truth. As our Savior said in Matthew 7:21-23; “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

May those of us who love Jesus Christ stand for His truth in love through sincerity, genuineness, and care. At the same time, we should remember that judgment begins first in the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17). Let’s handle God’s Word with care and administer His Church in truth as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).

Blessings to you,

Father Don