PASTORAL PONDERINGS

by Pastor James Berger

May 2005

Galatians 1:6 "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- ⁷ which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ^{. 8} But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! ⁹ As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!"

We are living in the last days!

I don't say this to encourage you to go and buy signs with this phrase upon it and walk the Cape May Mall ringing a bell and accosting each person you meet. We are not to go and sell everything and gather on a hilltop on a date determined by some Bible teacher. It is not time to build bomb shelters. I'm not going to predict if "soon" means next week or next century.

Instead it is time to be wise to God's warnings of what is going to come in the last days, particularly upon the church, the time of the false prophets. They come bearing a message that they think will please their listeners. They come with their own agendas and twist scripture to say what it never has meant.

The Apostle Paul warned the church in II Timothy 4:3, "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine, instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." If there has ever been a time of ears that itched more, I am unaware of it.

Longer then any recent novel, Dan Brown's, The Da Vinci Code, has been a bestseller and will soon be a major movie. Although fiction, he claims that the book is based on gospels and teachings that the church has hidden from its members. It is frightening how many have accepted this. Those writings do exist but were rejected by the church, not any council, because it was clear that they were lies and fabrications and a great deal of nonsense.

Error and cults increase because we  don't teach the true Gospel to others so that they can see the difference between the Truth and a lie. People are looking for something that will make them feel safe and accepted without having to change. Teachers, church and church leadership speak about truths instead of Truth. We are encouraged to compromise with the world, rather then hold to the faith we received. If we can find out what Jesus "truly meant" we can safely avoid what he said.

But as Hebrews 13:8-9 states and warns, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings."

Paul wrote in II Timothy 3:1-7, "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying it's power. Have nothing to do with them...always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth." This certainly sounds like today.

Under Christ we don't live as we are, for then the Law will destroy us. In Christ we can be made new creatures, redeemed by a true and unchanging Gospel, saved from all the sins that will destroy us.

Yet, this calls for a changed heart and life. We cannot remain in our sins. We are not to conform to the world, but to Christ. Will this always make us popular? No, but it will make us faithful children of God most high. Will we compromise and perish or stand faithful with the faith received? Before us is set life and death, now choose life and live.