The Bible is filled with warnings. While in this life, we can get burned in our dealings with people, God’s desire is that we do not walk in fellowship with the living dead. It is a fact that most new converts believe that everyone who professes Jesus are Christians. I was in this very position myself and solely by the grace of God, I do not hold to this erroneous belief any longer. While the Word of God is replete with warnings, just looking at the last few books before the Book of Revelation, it bears persistent warnings about apostates and deceivers. It is by divine design that these admonitions are placed just before the last book which speaks of God’s judgment on humanity. This is most crucial given the time we are living in.
2 Peter 2:1-3,
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.”
2 Peter 2:18-19,
“For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”
The destructive heresies touch first and foremost on the nature of Jesus Christ. A Christ that condones a lifestyle of sin is not the same Jesus that is revealed in Scripture as evidenced in what Jesus said to the invalid whom He healed in John 5:14, “ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
God is merciful and longsuffering. However, He will not violate His own righteousness (1 John 1:5-6).
2 Peter 3:3,
“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.”
2 Peter 3:17,
“Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.”
1 John 2:3-4,
“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.”
1 John 2:15-16,
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”
1 John 2:22-23,
“Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
The passages above give us a detailed picture of those who profess to be Christians, but deny the authority of Scripture who choose to live according to the flesh. Denying Jesus includes promoting causes that may outwardly appear to be benevolent, but condone lawlessness and compromising sound doctrine.
1 John 3:15,
“Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
Most professing Christians who promote BLM are pressured to promote an organized hatred over people who have no control over the skin they’re in. It becomes perplexing when White people end up slandering their fellow White people for not joining in the racial revolution, repaying evil for evil (Romans 12:17a).
1 John 4:1-3,
“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”
2 John 1:9-11,
“Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.”
3 John 1:9-10,
“I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10 So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.”
This gives us an example of professing Christians who purposely slander other believers (as bigots etc.) with malicious intent. People like Diotrephes purposely keep other people from hearing the truth and be convicted.
Jude 1:4,
“For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”
Jude 1:16,
“These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.”
If you go around Christian circles, you will know exactly what I’m talking about.
Jude 1:19,
“These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.”
While there may be genuine believers still in the Catholic Church, Mormon Church, Prosperity Gospel Pentecostals, a host of professing Christian denominations that affirm the Rainbow Coalition and Marxist movements, God will cause the genuine follower of Christ to leave the false system. We can see this principle active in Revelation 18:4, “Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.”
“But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. 32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.”
1 Corinthians 11:31-32