IN, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15-
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. (Even though Jesus gave us the perfect example of truth, love, and caring for each other, we still look for a Physical God to worship; be it statue, man, woman, boy or girl, men seek for a god that they can see. We cannot continue to put our trust in man, we must submit and commit our ways to the Lord. He is the only Savior. No false prophets, no eye pleasers can take the place of the suffering that Jesus endured for our redemption. As Paul warned the Corinthians, let me warn us, that we must seek after God. The only way we get to God is through the Holy Spirit. God gave us that through the sacrifice of his only SON. No man should equate himself with Jesus. We are not qualified to stand in Jesus’ stead.)

NOW, as scripture reminds us, and you state clearly Allen, “False teachers and preachers are nothing new. They are following the first and foremost false teacher, that ancient serpent in the Garden. And that liar was, and still is, more subtle, more crafty than any other beast of the field,” {Gen.3:1} He is like the beautiful snake that charms you in your face and attacks as soon as you look away. (We must have as Paul states, “the full armor of God so that we can stand the tests of Satan. We must be equipped to try these spirits and see if they are the spirit of anti-christ, of if it is the Holy Spirit guiding us. The only way to God is through Jesus, when we accept him as our Savior, He teaches us how to lean and depend on Him. We suffer because we get a touch of God and often go out before we are equipped to navigate the trials of life. Ephesians 6:11-13 says, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles (schemes) of the devil.

When we do not solely lean on Jesus, we become prey for Satan.

We are struggling because of the wealthy, the greedy, and the deceitfulness of those in high places. The trust that we give to the men, instead of Jesus, makes us susceptible to sin and those false prophets, whether they are teachers, preachers, politicians. we give them power over us because we have defects in our armor.

Paul states, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, (the authorities) who should be ethical, should be Spirit filled. They have been captured by the Prince of the air, who was thrown out of Heaven, because he wanted to tell God how to run Heaven. Many of us become co-dependent on those who seek to take advantage of our spiritual weaknesses for their own sinful purposes. The rulers of the darkness is a detriment to God’s people.)

YES, “the Scriptures are filled with warnings for us to be on guard and to test what is said. Jesus, speaking to His disciples about the end of the age, warned:

“And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.'” (Matthew 24:4-5) We must study God’s Word. We must seek after righteousness so that we cannot be deceived by these [false] gods. Stand firm in the idea that there is one Lord, one faith and one baptism as the scriptures encourage us to. We must not be afraid to speak truth to power. When we have on our armor, we can stand alone in the truth that God is, God was, and God always will be.

We should not conform to the world, we are the light to the world because God made us His disciples and then by studying His Word, We become true Apostles that should spread the good news of Salvation. We cannot sell out for the material things of this world because we are born naked soaked in blood. As a newborn, we must be cleaned of the blood and amniotic fluids that drench us. We come out of the womb, often the doctor has to smack us in the back to clear the clutter so that infants can scream, I am here through tears. Just as we are born naked and dirty, we will die naked and dirty. At the end of life, we must be cleaned up, drained of blood and go back to the earth from where we came. So we must not get caught up in the materials things that we do not come with and will not leave with. All of the worshipping of false gods in any form is useless in the end. Be ye as Paul say, paraphrased, be transformed from thinking worldly and put your affection on the spiritual hopes that you have of eternity with Christ Jesus and His father, God in Heaven.)

So much earlier the Lord had spoken through the prophet Isaiah and said, “to the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this WORD, it is because they have no dawn.” (Isaiah 8:20) (The laws of this earth changes back and forth, but the laws given to us by God through inspiration stands forever. There are many translations of the Word of God, but one thing that is consistent is the laws God gave to Moses in the old testament and Jesus clarified in the new testament never changes.

We must seek after righteousness, we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and we should not make any graven images to worship. Although man changes as the World or lawmakers change, man add to the law, man take away from the law but the Word of God stands forever. It does matter what your political affiliation is, what culture you attach yourself to, we must honor the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.)

YES, as my Allen brother, states, “We have to test by the Word! We cannot test by how much they believe the lie themselves! We cannot test by how polished they are or how eloquently they speak; think of Moses and even Paul who stated that he was not an eloquent speaker. We are not to test by the size of their audience, how many follow them; Remember ‘the few and the many’ Jesus spoke of. But also bear in mind that you and I cannot test anything by the Word of God if we do not know the Word of God! Jesus made it clear when He said that if—IF—we abide in the Word, not just visit it once in a while, we will know the truth and that the truth will set us free.

{Jn.8:31-32} We should heed and follow the example of Bereans!
Yes Brother Allen, “The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:10-11)

Yes we should “TEST EVERYTHING BY THE WORD OF GOD,” I agree, Allen that “we must test everything by the Word of God, we must also recognize the schemes of Satan and call them out so that others may have hope of over coming the seductive snares set by politicians, false prophets, deceitful apostles and even deceitful ones who claim to love us.

Pastor, Dr. Kat J. Crowell-Grate,
In God’s Service.