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March 2, 2020 |
| Satan Attacks The Church | ||
Satan has always been trying to destroy God's church. His weapon of choice is always evil people but the tactics have varied wildly. Some attacks came from the outside, such as persecution against God's people or outsiders trying to stop or change the church. But some attacks came from the inside, by believers within the church.
This study looks at some examples of the kinds of insider attacks and the evidence that some were successful.
Many of Paul's letters to the churches deal with false teachings that were creeping into the church. There are too many false teachings to name them all and Paul isn't always clear about the nature of the false teaching. Some of the same teachings continue on to today, such as
These ideas and others like them began in the thoughts of people, but why have they stood the test of time and been successful? It is because they offer the listeners something they want. It's important to understand there are two sides to a successful idea, the one who sells and the one who buys (or tolerates). Otherwise the idea dies.
Paul was fully aware that these attackers would come and people would like what they were hearing. When Paul is preparing to leave the church at Ephesus, he says:
29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. (Acts 20:29-31)
The other apostles also fought this battle against false teachers.
Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took action, 2 and they rose up before Moses, together with some of the sons of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, chosen in the assembly, men of renown. 3 They assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?"
4 When Moses heard this, he fell on his face; 5 and he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, "Tomorrow morning the Lord will show who is His, and who is holy, and will bring him near to Himself; even the one whom He will choose, He will bring near to Himself. 6 Do this: take censers for yourselves, Korah and all your company, 7 and put fire in them, and lay incense upon them in the presence of the Lord tomorrow; and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the one who is holy. You have gone far enough, you sons of Levi!"
8 Then Moses said to Korah, "Hear now, you sons of Levi, 9 is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to Himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them; 10 and that He has brought you near, Korah, and all your brothers, sons of Levi, with you? And are you seeking for the priesthood also? 11 Therefore you and all your company are gathered together against the Lord; but as for Aaron, who is he that you grumble against him?" (Numbers 16:1-11)
They accuse Moses and Aaron of elevating themselves above all the people. Moses recognizes the real problem right away and says it to them as he warns them about what they are doing.
The duties of the Levites were the non-public tasks of maintaining and moving the holy things of the Tent of Meeting. The priests had the public tasks of offering sacrifices and offerings. Some of the Levites have been inspired by Korah to rise up and take the tasks of the priests that they saw as more glorious.
1. What's really causing the problem here?
Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel. 26 Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. 27 If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah."
28 So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt." 29 He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30 Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. 31 And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi. 32 Jeroboam instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; thus he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
33 Then he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised in his own heart; and he instituted a feast for the sons of Israel and went up to the altar to burn incense. (1 Kings 12:25-33)
2. What's causing the problem here?
3. How does Jeroboam justify this to the people? "I'm doing it for you"
4. What does he think about the people? assumes they will trust him and don't know right from wrong
There was a man called Polycarp who was the last person known to have discipled under an apostle. The Apostle John had made him bishop of the churches in Smyrna and he was highly respected. At an old age it became necessary for him to travel to Rome from Asia Minor (now Turkey) to correct some false teachings there.
Anicetus, the bishop of Rome, had moved Passover to the Sunday following Nisan 14. Polycarp told him that all the apostles he had worked with had observed it on Nisan 14. Anicetus dismissed Polycarp's objections and said it was the tradition there and he wasn't going to change it. The church of Rome and later the Roman Catholic church would never again observe it on the given date.
Another man, Marcion, had decided that there were two God's in the Bible, the mean hurtful one in the Old Testament had been replaced with a nice one for the New Testament. Polycarp taught against this idea in the churches in Rome, but Marcion would not change. Instead, he formed a large church of his own from the people he had convinced. This church would last for 300 years.
5. Romans didn't like Jews, so the church of Rome was distancing itself from Jews and Judaism. But what's causing the real problem here?
The early church of Rome did not have statues and the leaders spoke very strongly against the idea of having them in the church. Romans loved statues, however, and their cities and temples were filled with them.
Eventually a pope came into power who said it was OK to have statues in the church and the churches filled with them. A later pope said the church must not have statues and they were all thrown out of the churches. Later still, another pope said it was OK to have statues in the church as long as the people didn't worship them and only venerated them. Ever since, the Roman Catholic Church has had statues.
6. What's causing the real problem here?
The leadership of the CoG7 wanted to grow the individual churches and the denomination, as the leadership of any denomination would want to do. There was a problem, though. Their doctrine contained statements that required changes from the membership that almost no other denomination required. The leadership felt this hindered growth.
Even within the CoG7, doctrine had been a problem from the start, in the 1850s. Each church leader had a different view on doctrine. Some of these differences caused schisms. In 1936 there was an effort to establish a uniform doctrine and a written version was published. There were a significant number that did not agree with all of the statements and the problem remained unresolved.
Around 1998, an effort began to try to establish a standard set of doctrines. In 2006 the effort completed successfully. The result was very different from the 1936 version, though, especially in those areas that were seen to hinder growth. The Sabbath doctrine, for example, had gained some unusual words.
(1936 version)
9. The Sabbath is to be observed from even to even
(2006 version)
8. The seventh-day Sabbath is God's gift to humanity from creation, was written into the Ten Commandments by God's finger, kept and taught by Jesus, and observed by the apostolic church. A memorial of both creation and redemption, the Sabbath should be faithfully celebrated by believers now as a day of rest, worship, and well-doing.
Nowhere does the Bible refer to the Sabbath as a gift or as a memorial to redemption. The 2006 version says Jesus "kept" the Sabbath but that "now" (something changed) we should "celebrate" it. The Bible never directs the Sabbath be a day of worship.
With the completion of the doctrinal statements, a book was commissioned that would detail each of the statements. That book was published in 2012. It never explained the unusual wording for the Sabbath, however. Instead it spent all of its pages providing evidence that the Sabbath was still for Christians - preaching to the converted. Not one sentence was spent teaching what the Sabbath was and how it should be kept.
In 2019, a new book came out from two people who had been involved with the new doctrine from the start. In it they described a new Sabbath observance that the Bible does not describe and no other Sabbath keeping group had ever known. In this Sabbath, people no longer needed to keep the Sabbath as the Bible instructed. Instead the people were to "celebrate" the Sabbath, where "celebrate" means "go to church". All the unusual words from the doctrinal statement were part of this new Sabbath.
With that, the Sabbath became a day that required nothing more of the membership than to go to church on Saturday instead of Sunday. There are already Sunday churches that also have services on Saturday. In San Antonio, CBC is one of those.
7. What's causing the real problem here?
For each of the examples above, we've asked the question, "What's causing the real problem here?". Now, we ask that question for all of them as a group. What's the common thread in them that is causing the real problem here?
We must be aware that Satan has always used people within the church to attack the church, people who placed their desires above God's desires. Each person has had his own approach, from a direct revolt to lure of a bad teaching, to a slow, sneaky change.
Their success depends on their ability to convince people to follow them or at least to go along with them. They do that because there is something in it for them.
Our foundation must be the word of God, the whole word of God. Words or writings by people may help us to better understand the teachings in the Bible but we must be constantly vigilant and never abandon the foundation to follow others.
This lesson can be found at http://ourhope.site/2020-03-02%20SatanAttacksTheChurch2/SATC.html . If you are setup to scan QR codes, this code will take you there.