vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, the Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken? Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold I am against you, saith the Lord God. And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity and divine lies: They shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord God." I have included Old Testament references to document the fact that Satan was active during those times in attempting to influence the writings of the times. Is it any wonder that there is and was confusion over what to declare as truly from God? As we saw in Psalms the only hope was in answer to prayers for guidance. During the early church age, the attacks were also subtle and very active. Consider Acts 15:5-10 and 23-29. "But there rose up certain of the sect of Pharisees which believed saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear." Before starting verses 23-29, we should note that unity was being asked for. Satan was attempting to divide the family of God, through the use of the Pharisees, who thought they were doing a good thing, while Peter and the apostles were teaching that all were equal under God's grace, and just as Christ had through His episode with the woman at the well. "And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders 145 ______________________________________________________________________________ and brethren send greetings unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia: Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment: It seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabus and Paul, Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well." The Pharisees who had stirred up this controversy, I am sure were trying to do their duty, as best they could, as they understood it. They really thought that they were in God's will. There was only one problem. They were in their own will and didn't consult the Holy Spirit, or at least didn't listen if they did pray about it. It is amazing to me that there weren't a lot of denominations in the first years of the church ( circa AD 51 ). The ground was certainly ripe for those types of schisms. As a side note, I see the same conditions and dangers in the former Soviet Union today. If those evangelizing there aren't extremely vigilant, Satan will demonstrate what a raging lion can do with half truths and blatant lies, through false prophets. The subject of false prophets or false teachers is covered almost universally throughout the New Testament. In order to not become cumbersome with overkill, I will quote only II Timothy 2:24 through 4:6. About AD 66 Paul is seen giving caretaker instructions to Timothy prior to his, Paul's, death. "And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him 146 _______________________________________________________________________________ |
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