An Age of Heresy and Deception
An Age of Heresy and
Deception
We live in age of
confusion. If you are confused, you are not part of the “exception”, you are
part of the rule. Most people – including many Christians – are confused
these days.
Do most people who come to this page, come here because they are seeking to find specific ways of avoiding deception ? or do most people come here because they realize - more and more - that there is something wrong with many churches who refuse to preach Truth and Love ? or do most people come here because they are looking for true and honest spiritual answers and a place to start ?
Most people - let's be honest - do not seem to want "answers". After all, answers that have truth in them, or that are truth-full can often seem inconvenient.
Many people want spiritual truth, but they don't want to be inconvenienced either. They want God or spirituality, but only on their terms. Those same people can understand that THEY are the ones who want to make up their own rules about what "spirituality" is or aught to be, but then those same people claim to be amazed or astonished that a real genuine God, the actual God who created all of the Universe, would actually dare to think that HE can make up His own mind, and decide whatever He wants...about the creatures He created [Humans].
But then even a statement like that...seems to demand almost too much faith. To believe in a "Genuine" God as though He really existed and actually still might...to believe that God cares personally about each and every person...that - seems to some people like such a difficult requirement.
The Truth is that when it comes to spiritual issues, most people are being lied to. Most people have been lied to, most of the time through the process of formal education. The issue though is not education itself, but rather the Kind of education that a person receives. As most people realize, many college professors carry their own bias into the classroom. Some professors claim to be "secularists", but it turns out that this is just another word, for their own religion...
To understand that...is not difficult...
What actually seems difficult is the notion that people would believe that professors in the classroom are more interested in them as students, than those professors would be in their own jobs, job security and job tenure. But most professors who refuse to go along with the Schools where they teach...loose their jobs fairly quickly...and most professors know this, and adapt themselves to teaching the idea that no one can know anything for sure....(and that happens to be - a lie).
We are referring here to professors of World Religion or Evolutionary Dogma, who claim to be scientific, who know that they are not scientific, and who are very willing to perpetuate lies and myths "in the name of" being scientific or "Objective". Objective - for most of the professors who teach "World Religions" is simply the process of making sure that no one has any convictions of their own, or comes to the conclusion that some systems of religions are either better or more authentic than others.
What these College Professors really object to - is the notion of Objective Truth, the idea that something might be true as it is ...as it exists outside of that classroom. Most professors of World Religions are happy to teach their own lies that all religions are equal. That is not re-assuring. After all, what that premise really means, is that the professor is admitting that he has no idea which religion would be best, nor what the critieria is...to determine that. That is not called "knowledge". The contention that all religions are equally valid is a confession of ignorance on many levels.
All religions are not equal. Their value depends on the claims that they make and on the ideas that they can substantiate. The worth of the religion will depend on the Gods that those religions serve.
If the God being served - is a true and just and kind and merciful God, then the followers will be like that God, true and kind, just and merciful ...or at least they will be trying to be. On the other hand, if a God is vengeful and hateful and is a God who honors death, then that - is what the Followers will be like.
People become...like the God (gods) they
worship. Most religions don't even claim to be able to affirm an
afterlife. Most religions don't claim to guarantee to get you there,
either.
Many westerners take a very superficial approach to religion. They take a very "light" approach to religious systems, and don't take the time to study the origins of religions, the origins of teachings and doctrines. They do not even ask the God of the Universe, the God who created the World, to help them find Him.
Buddhism does not claim to lead anyone to Heaven. In fact, Buddhism does not even claim that there is a Heaven. However, Buddhism DOES claim that all people are still Sinners, and must personally atone (pay for) all of their sins, both their sins in this life and all of the sins in all of their past lives. It turns out that Christianity is much more merciful, not only suggesting that each of us is Only responsible for our own sins in This lifetime, but then also sending an actual Savior (Jesus Christ) to die Himself and pay the price for our sins.
God is the one who reveals himself to His own followers. Those who pray for understanding as they read the Bible, and those who seek God with all their heart, DO find God. (Its best to begin reading somewhere in the second half of the Bible, which is called the New Testament).
Most people do not spend time studying religions and comparing religious systems. They don't have that much of a desire to know, and most of them don't know where to start in order to do this.
What most people do is spend time treating themselves as if they are the ultimate authority in their own life. On a practical level, most people behave as though they are the god of their own life.
And they spend a great deal of time and effort to demonstrate to themselves that they can handle it. But most of us have enough trouble being wise enough simply to avoid the mistakes of life, the choice or the consequences of choice that we cannot see or anticipate. And that brings us to a dilemma:
We want to believe in ourselves "as god", but then our success rate "as a god" tends to be rather low. And for all the talk about people "becoming" God, there is nothing that they can do that would prove this. In other words, for those who claim that they are God, their own life tends to show the opposite, how much they cannot do, how much they cannot change, how much they cannot meet their own needs...and wishing that it were a different way...does not actually change much.
Those dilemmas...how to get our needs met... brings us back to the question of Deception. Finding out that we may be deceived is one thing. Knowing or learning how to fix that, how to have an understanding of "Truth" and how to have that truth actually be practical, relevant and truthful as well as encouraging, that seems rather difficult.
But the difficulty is not so much in the proposition that truth (real truth) can lead to happiness, as much as in the fact that truth may lead us to happiness, but not to INSTANT happiness.
And depending on the degree of personal misery that one is in, that issue of "Instant" happiness becomes rather critical. Most of those who are at that stage in their life are pretty un-happy, because they are still hoping that the systems of the world," fun, games and the opposite gender" will provide them with happiness.
But the truth is not only that those things fail to satisfy, but they fail to satisfy on a Great scale. Most of the time, trying to drown out misery through pleasure does not result in happiness. On the contrary, it results in loneliness and emptiness.
That brings us back to the idea of deception. Most of us have false beliefs, things that we believe sincerely, but are not actually true or correct. When we have beliefs that are untrue, then we can be hurt by implementing what we believe, because our beliefs did not conform to the way that reality actually works.
To suggest that - seems easy enough. But finding out how to make the distinction between a true belief and a mistaken or untrue belief can be hard. After all, in order to do this, we would have to have a standard - or a measure to evaluate which beliefs are true and which beliefs are false.
The only way to solve this dilemma seems to be to decide to put some quality time into the study of that problem, and not to expect that this can be solved right away. It is something that we must learn to understand one step at a time, both through patience and diligence.
If we apply self-discipline to the area of study, we can learn what we need to know and then move on. If we do not apply self-discipline to this kind of study, we can go our own way, but then sooner or later - we will find ourselves back at the crossroads of having made bad decisions based on beliefs which were false.
You might think that within Christianity, that the general idea is that those within Christianity can guide you and me...to the concepts that are true and accurate.
That is true or it CAN...be true. But the other half of this is that God does have enemies even in the Spiritual Realm and those enemies do not want ANY human either knowing or learning what True Christianity is.
After all, if Christianity is about how people can Free themselves from the lies of the world and from False spirituality, there are many forces - Spiritual Forces that do NOT want those who are seeking answers to ever even come close to finding Truth or to finding God.
Christianity is rooted first in the concept of God's forgiveness for everyone who asks for it, and then learning how to build a PERSONAL relationship with God, through personal interaction and talk with God (called prayer).
But for many Spiritual enemies of God, allowing humans to contact God directly is simply "too much Freedom".
The Bible Does teach that Christianity will provide True Answers. But here is the Key Point:
Christianity and the Bible ALSO teach that there will be many FALSE teachers who will deceive others, in the name of Christianity, and using or mis-using Christianity.
In other
words, within the system of Christianity, there are the True and Spiritually
Honest Christians, but there are also False Teachers, and those who teach FALSE
Doctrines...pretending to be true Christian
Doctrine.
What is the solution to this ?
After all, the point about learning ABOUT Christianity, is to both get our needs met, AND to have an authentic and true Spirituality. IF the result of our effort and attempt to learn more about God, is that the Result is our own personal DECEPTION, then what is the point of Christianity ???
There is a solution to this. The solution is that we must accept that there is - within Christianity - both those who are sincere, and those who would mislead us.
Many people have many misconceptions about God AND about Christianity. Some of those misconceptions come from OUTSIDE Christianity, and come from ignorance. Other misconceptions though, come from WITHIN Christian Circles from those who CLAIM to be Christian, but aren't.
There Must be a standard by which we can evaluate people and the Christianity that they claim to have.
IF we do not have an accurate standard by which we can evaluate others (and ourselves), then there is no way that we can find out who is deceived and who is not.
All beliefs are not equal. All ideas are not equal. All spirituality is not equal. There are consequences to each belief, and it will matter what we decide to learn or what we decide to ignore.
We - as individuals - might not have all of the answers - but we will be A LOT CLOSER to those answers one year from now IF WE STUDY, than if we don't or if we ignore the problem.
Those who would claim to be Christ-Followers (Christians) must actually take the time - personally and for themselves - to STUDY and learn what Jesus actually said and what Jesus actually taught.
There is no other way and there is no shortcut. Or to put it another way, the STUDY of what Jesus said and taught IS the Short-Cut.
Obviously, those who are reading this have SOME level of dissatisfaction with their life. They have to. If they did not, they would not be reading this page.
Either 1) there is the realization that what has been tried before has not worked or
2) there is the realization that another solution, a different KIND of solution Must be found.
Therefore those who come to read this page are - almost always - ALREADY looking for answers, Already wanting to change something about their life or their circumstances, or both.
The Nature of Learning
Some people are blessed to be able to learn faster than others. Some learn slower. But what all of us have in common is that we use the process of WORDS to learn.
There is no other way to say it. It is words that form the basis of what we know or do not know.
Visual Images can leave us with "impressions", but the foundation of actual learning, and remembering what we learn is knowledge, the use of the intellect and memory to recall ideas and concepts that help us understand life and our own relationship to life.
On the other hand, we do not have to use words. We can use Videos, or Images to help us learn. The trouble is that the WAY that we learn with images, is not as precise as the way that we learn with words.
IF we depend on Videos to instruct us, we learn from HEARING the Auditory (Audio) track of the videos. The images we see do instruct us, but we need confimation to understand the lesson or conclusion that we can draw or conclude from the presentation.
As a rule, most people tend to remember the words that they study...much more when they see those words written down or in a written format... much more than people remember what they HEARD.
The point is that Hearing teachings or doctrines can help, but not nearly as much as READING or STUDYING with WORDS.
Words are - nothing more - than the ability to Fix Thought in Time.
Seeing...or reading a thought on Paper (or a computer screen) allows us to Think about those words, without having to worry about those words changing.
With words, it is the fact that they are FIXED on paper, that we can STOP AND THINK about them, which makes them valuable. By thinking, this allows the freedom to stop, to analyze, to draw our own conclusions about those words...and then (once we are done thinking about them at that moment) - to resume reading or learning.
In that sense, Words are a Much More Precise form of learning than Images.
Knowledge, when it is correctly applied with wisdom...results in personal Freedom.
Accurate Knowledge of God is what enables each person, to understand God better, to Experience God personally, and to Grow and develop our own relationship with God.
We do not have to study. But on the other hand, IF we do not study, we cannot learn How to know God Better, we cannot learn how to Free ourselves from the False Beliefs that we may have, and we cannot learn how to Free ourselves from some of the bad choices we have made before.
The Study of the Bible FREES us from personal Condemnation. Christianity is not about a list of rights and wrongs. Christianity is about making the best choices in life through increasing our understanding and relationship with God, because building a relationship with God is the best way that we can both find happiness, and the INNER STRENGTH that we need in this life.
And the more spiritual deception exists out there, and the greater the amount of it, the MORE we need both to Know God Personally, AND to study and read and learn what the Bible teaches.
Problems in Churches
Yes, We agree: it is the JOB of the Churches to help us reach personal Growth, Personal Maturity, and Personal Freedom in Christ (so that our relationship with God will be easy and genuine, rather than weak and difficult). But Most Churches these days are not doing their job.
The truth is that
most churches today – Most – do Not produce Christians that are either
mature or theologically sound. This simply means that Churches are not doing
their job. Too many churches are interested more in gimmicks than in helping
others develop a long-term understanding of what will meet their spiritual needs
and spiritual hunger. It’s interesting how many people will devote 4 years in a
college studying, but then many people spend only about 50 hours –
Per Year in a
Church on a Sunday morning, and then cannot figure out ...just
why their own
life is
Not revolutionized. 50 hours in one year
(one per Sunday)...is not likely to accomplish much. 40 hours is only one work-week.
That kind of
“poverty”, that kind of lack of [weak] spiritual investment in ourselves
is likely
to produce just about nothing.
Gimmicks accomplish Nothing. But personal study of the Bible, THAT - accomplishes a Great Deal.
False Doctrine or a False sense of Comfort will accomplish Nothing, but reading Accurate Books that help us to understand WHO we are IN CHRIST, How Christians in the Past have dealt with difficulty and Challenges, and how we can meet our needs and help others, that kind of study through reading, and thinking. - That kind of study can actually change our life...permanently and for the better.
The solution to not being Spiritually Deceived
We should be clear about
Spiritual Deception. We probably should also be blunt, just to be sure that we
are clear: There is a Growing Wave of Deception that is Sweeping the
world.
That is happening both INSIDE the Church as well as Outside the Church. The Bible does not say "Follow your Church and you will Not be spiritually deceived".
The Bible says that we must Follow Jesus Christ and the contents of the Bible in order Not to be spiritually deceived. Some people today rebel against that statement: they have an Instinctive rebellion, an instinctive recoil...when they are informed that the STUDY of the Contents of the Bible (the New Testament) brings Freedom, great Spiritual Freedom.
What is happening to a person who has such a reaction ?
What is happening is that the person has been programmed, and they are reacting to their programming.
Somewhere, someone in their life...in the past...programmed them to Not read the Bible and to not WANT to read the Bible. That kind of programming is called the "programming of the World System".
It is the main job of the World System to get each and every one of us Back into a state of using personal selfish pleasure to meet our needs for the very short term, and then to keep Lying to us in order to keep us enslaved.
A person who understands that this is taking place must pray to God to deliver them from this kind of programming. But it is not enough Just to pray. That person must then learn to actively study the New Testament and come to an understanding of what False Beliefs they have...that continue to affect them.
Christianity is about identifying False Beliefs and replacing them with true Beliefs. That happens as each persons learns to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through the study of the New Testament.
The result of the study of the New Testament and learning how to establish a relationship with God is:
A deeper relationship with God
Forgiveness of sins,
Learning to replace False beliefs, with True Beliefs
Learning how NOT to be Spiritually Deceived.
Learning how to develop Spiritual Discernment that will help us personally Guard against being deceived.
Learning to to grow Spiritually on our own.
Learning how to tell a good Church from a Bad Church.
The process of the Effort of Study
What you put into it is what you will get out of it. What you learn will be proportional to the amount of time and effort that you invest in yourself by the study of the New Testament.
And for most people, learning to do this is a process. It takes time not only learning to do this, but learning to become comfortable in doing this.
Many people WANT to study the New Testament. They try to read, then they become bored and then they quit. But then, many of those people have not prayed and have not personally asked God to
1. Help them study
2. Help them to WANT to study the Bible
3. Help them to not be spiritually deceived, and
4. Help them to learn the lessons that they need to learn in order to understand God better, and
5. Help them to learn to understand what God's Love means personally for them.
6. Help them have PATIENCE as they try to study.
Those who want to do this should learn to pray for the Spiritual Strength to be able to do this. This is a spiritual Battle. It takes Spiritual Strength. Even the study of the Bible is something that we should pray and ASK GOD for His Inner strength to learn how to do - and how to WANT to do. As long as you don't want to study the Bible, nothing will happen to revolutionize your relationship with God. As long as you don't want to study the Bible, your life will continue to be a life of squalid misery, despair, sadness and depression, and a life that is controlled by spiritual forces that do not have your BEST interest at heart.
The moment you decide to WANT to stand up, to WANT to study the Bible, to WANT to know God personally on a more serious or committed level where you can have your deeper needs met, then those moments are when Spiritual Forces attempt to try to stop you from doing this, or from even Wanting to make the effort. We must learn how to pray for strength to learn how to resist those efforts of spiritual darkness, and learn to persevere, to keep going and learn to have much greater spiritual inner strength.
Investment in Ourselves: Time and Study needed to overcome Spiritual Deception
We
each have to devote a good
amount of time to learning – through time & patience –
how
to have the
kind of Faith which is:
1. Accurate
2. Theologically
Sound
3. Strong
4. Real
5. Personal
6. Knowledgeable
In the second half of the Bible (called the New Testament), there is a small book called the "Gospel of John". THAT book is the story of the life and ministry of Jesus, and it is a great place to start for anyone who seeks truth, spiritual enlightenment or inner peace. In addition to the book of John, there are other books, which - although not part of the Bible - are worth the investment in ourselves to see what they have to say.
It's true ...it does take time to read and think, and that may seem for many of us, like a luxury that we should not afford ourselves. It's almost as if this is asking too much of ourselves. But we should stop and think about the value of what we would learn - through reading.
Many of us don't take the time to read, and yet we rush headstrong into situations or into belief systems (such as eastern mysticism) - where we have expectations that are simply unrealistic. Some of the choice that we make can cost us many years of our life, and it can decades to recover from those choices. From that point of view, taking a few hours to read and expand our minds in that way, is something that can save us decades of heartache and personal pain. Reading books that help make us wiser gives us better choice for our personal life. The right books can also help to feed our soul spiritually.
We propose that
you should become as familiar as you can with the books dealing with truth &
depth that you see listed on the various pages of our website, (we are not
referring to our own books particularly) and that you do what you need to borrow or buy them.
We propose that you take the next 6 months and try and read the various books
you see listed.
Most of us could
actually read a book a month...most of us could actually read one book a week.
After 12 weeks, you would have 12 books read. That would be 12
different
experiences about the Truths of God, and about how to personally meet Him and
develop strong & sound faith.
FREE EBOOK in MS WORD OR PDF FORMAT
OTHER BOOKS
Books that we
already suggested on the Newbie pages, and further:
The Seduction
of Christianity by Dave Hunt
- explains how
Christianity has gotten so off-track. Very good, detailed and documented.
Excellent for those who are in Charismatic and/or Word of Faith circles (and for
the rest of us also).
Beyond
Seduction by Dave Hunt
- explains how we
can build our spiritual lives in a step by step approach to a mature, lasting,
deep and satisfying faith.
Three
Steps Forward, Two Steps Back by Chuck Swindoll
- explains the
processes that God uses to bring us closer to Him.
Hand
me Another Brick by Chuck Swindoll (spanish version here)
- explains how to
handle the obstacles in life and where God is – in the midst of them.
The Sovereignty
of God by A.W. Pink
- a book for those
who want to know how God operates in this universe, and how He demonstrates his
care and his power in our lives.
The
- a book which most
Christians have not read, and then can’t figure out why they Still do not
understand the issue of Bible Versions. If you do not understand the importance
of accurate or right words on the pages of a book that your eternal spirituality
depends on (the Bible), this book should be a priority.
____________________________________
The Real Question is: what are you going to do with the information that was presented above ?
Is the Information True ? Yes
Is the Information Accurate ? Yes.
Do I - before God - have some responsibility to accept and act on the information in this passage from the New Testament ? Should I be making an effort to understand the End Times ?
Do I understand that there are Spiritual Forces that want to prevent me from having GREATER spiritual understanding about God, but that God himself is always in MORE of a hurry than I am, for Me to get to know HIM ?
Do I realize what my personal state of preparation will be, within me, when Islam becomes the Dominant Religion in the United States, as it is already in Europe, and how I will personally be required to defend my Faith, by argument and persuasion, using knowledge of the Bible and of History and of Christianity, and that God will rightly hold me accountable ?
In view of these facts, should I try to set aside more time for the study of the Word of God, and more time for the study of History and the true history of the Christian Church, and to learn about how other Christians in the past, actually learned to have and to gain GREAT and genuine spiritual strength ?
If no one reaches out to help prepare me for the coming challenges, whose job is it STILL for me to be prepared to answer these challenges and questions ?
____________________________________
Your Prayer Requests - What to ask God for
Social
Philosophy (not Christian specifically)
Amusing
Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
- for those who want
to know what society is doing. How we can stop the merry go round long enough to
get off.
Now people may feel
a bit overwhelmed by this. Don’t worry about it. Just try to do your best. If
you read several things at once, then get many of these books. If you read one
at a time, then buy two – so that you will have a)
the one you are reading and b) the next one
also. (By the Way, we do not offer any of these books for sale).
The situation out
there in society- does become more critical by the month. That is simply a sign
of the times we are in. We are in the end times. We need to make this investment
in ourselves, to learn to be grounded in our faith. You are Not alone.
We are here, and
there are a few other ministries like ours also. You have basically two choices:
you can let yourself drift and be at the mercy of whatever winds come along, or
you can take control of your spiritual life, and ask God to guide you and help
you grow. That is a prayer that He
will answer, every time.
In Christ,
Remember us
occasionally in your prayers,
XOFC
Your Prayer Requests - What to ask God for
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- The meaning of the Term BAPTIZEIN (BAPTIZE) -
(with Secular and Early Church sources in Ancient Greek)
- Original Sources of the Koran -
(By Christian Scholar Fluent in Arabic)
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Basis of Canonization of the Books of Old and New Testament - Princeton Scholar
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Coming Soon: Prayer to avoid Deception
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(XOFC Staff)