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Chapter Six
Christians Must Not Fellowship With Those
Who Depart From the Doctrine of Jesus Christ
The New Testament clearly shows that false apostles were working within the
churches of God while the true apostles of Jesus Christ were still alive!
There were “many deceivers” bringing in false teachings concocted through
deceitfully handling the Word of God. These blessedly-true-sounding
teachings were cloaked in the terminology of “new understanding” or “new
light,” but they were actually teachings that originated in the ancient
spiritual darkness of Satan the devil.
The same deception is taking place in the churches of God today! The
purveyors of deceit are drinking straight out of the “golden cup” of
spiritual fornication from the hand of that old harlot, “Babylon the Great,
the Mother of Harlots and the Abominations of the Earth.” While these
deceivers drink the wine of false doctrines, and proclaim Satan’s ancient
fables as “new light,” they are leading the brethren of Jesus Christ into
spiritual darkness.
God has called us out of that darkness! We are not to go back into it! The
apostle Paul said that he was called to preach the true Gospel of God,
“...to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and
from the power of Satan to the power of God...” (Acts 26:18,
AT).
Jesus Christ warned us not to partake of Satan’s darkness by allowing our
minds to be corrupted with false teachings. He knows that believing Satan’s
lies will rob us of our spiritual understanding. He warned, “The light of
the body is the eye; therefore, if your eye be single in purpose,
your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye be evil, your whole
body will be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in you is
darkness, HOW GREAT IS THAT DARKNESS” (Mat.6:22-23, AT).
Many Christians in New Testament times failed to heed the warnings of Jesus
Christ and His apostles against deceivers who would bring in false
doctrines. In his epistle to the early Christians, the apostle Jude warned
of false brethren who had “crept in unawares.” These false teachers were the
ones who turned the true Gospel of Jesus Christ into another gospel
altogether by their perverse doctrines. These deceivers worked their way
into positions of power and influence in the churches and then subtly began
to subvert the brethren. After the death of the apostles, the subversion of
the apostolic church of God was so swift, so complete and so thorough that
Jesse Lyman Hurlbut wrote in his book The Story of the Christian Church
of the vast changes in the church, “We name the last
generation of the first century, from 68 to 100 A.D., ‘The Age of
Shadows’....For fifty years after St. Paul’s life a curtain hangs over the
church, through which we strive vainly to look; and when at last it rises
about 120 A. D. with the writings of the earliest church-fathers, we find a
church in many aspects very different from that in the days of St. Peter and
St. Paul” (p. 42).
The churches of God were overcome by the spiritual darkness of false
doctrines. So many Christians were deceived into accepting the “new”
doctrines that those who refused were looked upon as heretics! Those
Christians who were faithful to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ were driven
out of the local churches (III John). They left the organizations of men in
order to love and serve God in the light of Jesus Christ.
Only the church at Ephesus was able to withstand the deceptive teachings of
false apostles. Jesus said to the Ephesian Christians, “I know your works
and your labor and your endurance, and that you cannot bear them that are
evil, and you have tried them who declared themselves to be apostles
and are not, but you did find them to be liars” (Rev. 2:2, AT).
Like the brethren in Ephesus, we are to test and prove the teachings of
ministers and apostles who claim to bring us the doctrine of God! If we fail
to recognize the false apostles and their teachings, we will succumb to
their evil influence and be overtaken by spiritual darkness. The apostle
John warned that we cannot have fellowship with God if we are walking in
spiritual darkness. “And this is the message which we have heard from
Him and we are declaring to you, the fact that God is Light and there is not
any darkness in Him at all. If we proclaim that we are having fellowship
with Him, and we are walking in the darkness, we are lying to ourselves, and
we are not practicing the Truth” (I John 1:5-6, AT).
Only by walking in the light of the Truth can we have fellowship with God
the Father and Jesus Christ. Those who claim to know God but do not practice
the Truth are only deceiving themselves.
Why Does God Allow Deception and Apostasy?
Numerous passages in the New Testament describe the insidious deception
that led the early churches of God to apostatize from the truth. Apostasy is
the end result of rejecting the light of the true doctrines of Jesus Christ
and embracing the false doctrines of spiritual darkness. This degenerate
spiritual condition is allowed to develop when a church becomes spiritually
lax and lethargic. Christians who have lost their love of the Truth and who
fail to “prove all things” by the Word of God can easily be deceived by the
counterfeit doctrines of Babylon. When these false doctrines are presented
as “new understanding” by so-called apostles and top ranking ministers, most
church members obediently accept them as the doctrines of Jesus Christ. This
loyal obedience to church authority is demanded in churches where the
ministry exercises lordship over the brethren. Without realizing it, the
brethren have exchanged their love of God and their faith and
loyalty to His Word for a false faith in corruptible men who promise
salvation to all who abide by their teachings and are loyal to their
organizations.
Such misplaced loyalty and obedience actually is idolatry. The subservient
obeisance demanded by arrogant ministers in corporate church organizations
has replaced the true love and worship of God the Father and Jesus Christ in
Spirit and in Truth. These exalted church leaders have placed themselves
between the brethren and God and have deceived lower-rank ministers and the
brethren into trusting in the words and actions of men, rather than trusting
in God’s Word and His power. True to the Scripture, “They have a form of
godliness, but they deny the power thereof, from such turn away!” (II Tim.
3:5.)
The apostle Paul personally warned the elders from Ephesus that deceivers
would enter the church after he was gone. In a special meeting with the
elders at Miletus Paul also declared that even some of them, who had
been ordained as ministers of Jesus Christ, would begin to subvert
their brethren in the church (Acts 20:28-30).
Later, when Paul was in prison, he wrote a letter to warn the entire church
in Ephesus about deceitful men who would attempt to lead them astray. He
exhorted, “Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these
things the wrath of God is coming upon the children of disobedience.
THEREFORE BE NOT PARTAKERS WITH THEM!” (Eph. 5:6-7.)
Paul’s words show that these men were working within the church. They may
even have been highly trusted by the congregation. But Paul was inspired by
God to warn the brethren not to partake of the errors of these deceivers.
Those who did not heed Paul’s warning were led away from Jesus Christ and
God the Father into the darkness of apostasy.
Why did God allow the New Testament churches to be led into apostasy? Why
didn’t God intervene to keep false teachers and false apostles from
subverting the brethren?
The apostle Paul gives the answer in his first epistle to the Corinthians:
“For there must be [necessity] also heresies among you, that they
which are approved may be made manifest among you” (I Cor. 11:19, AT).
Paul tells us very clearly that God allows false doctrines to arise within
His churches in order to prove who is truly serving Him. Christians
who are grounded and built up in the Word of God will be able to discern
false teachers and will reject them. No deceiver will be able to seduce them
into forsaking the Truth of God.
In his epistle to the Ephesians, Paul urged the brethren to grow in the
knowledge of Christ Jesus and not to yield to the doctrines of false
teachers. “That we may no longer be infants, being tossed and carried about
by the wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men in their craftiness
[their cunning words and deceptive doctrines], with a view to the
systematizing of the error” (Eph. 4:14, AT).
This translation of Paul’s words conveys the literal meaning of the Greek
text. These deceivers were being inspired by Satan to organize their false
teachings into “authoritative” doctrines even before the death of Paul. This
body of beliefs later became the official creed of the Catholic Church.
The way for true Christians to avoid being deceived by these counterfeit
doctrines is to be “...holding the Truth in love, so that we may grow
up into Him in all things, into the Christ, Who is the Head [of the
Church]” (Eph. 4:15, AT).
We Must Refute Heresy With Sound Doctrine
Paul commanded Titus, a fellow minister, to resist false doctrines and
to refute them with sound doctrine! In his epistle to Titus, Paul wrote
that a true minister of God must be “holding fast the faithful Word [the
Truth of God] as he has been taught [the original teachings of Jesus Christ
as taught by the apostle Paul], so that he may be able by sound doctrine
both to exhort and to convict the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and
vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision; whose
mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teachings things which
they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake....This is a true witness. Wherefore
rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.
“Not giving heed to Jewish fables [Jewish/Egyptian philosophy, such as
Philo and other philosophers taught, which included a triune godhead], and
commandments of men, that turn from the Truth. Unto the pure all things are
pure; but unto these who are defiled [with false doctrines] and unbelieving
is nothing pure: but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess
that they know God; but in works they deny Him, being abominable and
disobedient, and unto every good work [of spiritual growth (Eph. 2:8-10)]
they are reprobate” (Titus 1:9-16, AT).
True ministers and faithful brethren in the churches of God must be
prepared to refute false doctrines with sound doctrine from the Word of God.
False teachers will not be able to subvert those churches of God where the
ministers and brethren resist them. These deceivers will seek a following in
other congregations where the brethren are not so well grounded in the Word
of God.
In the first century there were false teachers of antichrist doctrines who
left the faithful congregations of God because they were not able to subvert
the brethren. The apostle John wrote, “Little children, it is the last time,
and exactly as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, yet even
now many antichrists have risen up, from which fact we are knowing
that it is the last time. They went out from among us, but they were not of
us; because if they were of us, they would have remained with us;
nevertheless they left us, that they should be exposed, to show
that they all were not of us” (I John 2:18-19, AT).
These deceivers continued to preach their false doctrines in congregations
where the brethren did not resist and refute them. When the antichrist
teachers had gained positions of power and authority in these churches, they
forced out the true believers. This diabolical apostasy was well underway in
the lifetime of the apostle John, who was inspired by God to write, “I wrote
to the church, but Diotrophes (he is the one who is loving to be chief among
them) is not receiving us. On account of this very thing, if I come, I will
bring to his remembrance the actions which he is practicing with evil words,
bringing unjustified charges against us; and he is not being satisfied with
these things, for he himself neither receives the brethren, and those who
wish to receive the brethren, he is forbidding and is casting them
out of the church” (III John 9-10, AT).
What a paradox! The false ministers of Satan, claiming to be ministers of
righteousness, were now exercising control over the churches of God! The
true brethren of Jesus Christ were being excommunicated by these false
apostles! Brethren who were faithful to the original teachings of Jesus
Christ and His apostles could no longer fellowship in their local church
congregations!
God allowed this apostasy to take place in His first-century churches in
order to separate those who would hold fast His Truth from those who would
follow Satan’s lies. Those faithful brethren who opposed the deceivers and
their false doctrines were forcibly expelled. This action served to fully
separate the true believers and keep their faith from being eroded by the
subtle influence of false doctrines.
When false doctrines begin to enter the churches of God, it is the
responsibility of every Christian who loves God and His Truth to reject
those false teachings and refute them with the sound doctrine of Jesus
Christ. But when false teachers and false ministers gain control over a
church of God and they cannot be expelled, removed or replaced with
righteous teachers and ministers, then we are commanded by the Word of God
to withdraw ourselves from them.
In his first epistle to Timothy, Paul shows that true Christians should
separate themselves from those who do not teach and practice the true
doctrine of Jesus Christ. Paul declared, “If any man teach otherwise, and
consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
to the doctrine which is according to godliness [according to the Truth
of God]; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and
strifes of words, whereof comes envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings
[false suppositions], perverse disputings [devious arguments] of men of
corrupt minds [corrupted by philosophy and false theology], and destitute of
the Truth [because they believe and accept lies, and handle the Word of God
deceitfully], supposing that gain [large membership, buildings, cathedrals,
colleges, political power] is godliness: FROM SUCH WITHDRAW YOURSELF”
(I Tim. 6:3-5).
Does this description fit the congregation you attend? Does the church you
attend have vain, proud, pretentious ministers, who use lofty theological
terms but who really do not understand the Bible? Is your church filled with
doctrinal questions and strife that are leading to intimidation and
threats? Is your church being misled by false suppositions
and devious arguments of men of corrupt minds? Does your church have
teachers who are destitute of the Truth? Does your church measure spiritual
standing with God by numbers of members, buildings and colleges? Are false
doctrines being preached and accepted by your church as “official doctrines
of faith”? Are the Truth and the love of God, the wholesome words and
doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ, being replaced with the half-truths and
half-lies of Satan?
When any church of God sinks into this degenerate spiritual state, true
Christians are commanded by God to withdraw themselves! We are commanded by
God to reject all false teachers! We are forbidden by the Word of God to
receive them! We are not to listen to their false doctrines or fellowship
with them!
Yes, these false ministers and false teachers have an appearance of
godliness, and their teachings sound blessedly true. But, just as Paul
wrote, they have “a form of godliness, but they are denying the power
thereof: FROM SUCH TURN AWAY!” (II Tim. 3:5.)
The true ministers of God will not preach false half‑truths for doctrine.
Paul wrote, “For we have not preached ourselves [our own ideas, based on
philosophy or false theology], but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your
servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, has shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. 4:5-6, AT).
Paul taught only the Truth of God and the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. He
never compromised with half-truths and half-lies. He was never corrupted by
false apostles and false teachers of his day. On the contrary, he opposed
them with all his might! Paul describes his confrontation with these
false teachers: “...false brethren, who stealthily came in to spy out
our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into
bondage; to whom we did not yield in subjection [to their so-called
authority], no not even for an hour, in order that the truth of the Gospel
might continue with you” (Gal. 2:4-5, AT).
Every true Christian should follow the example of Paul. We should not be
intimidated by false teachers who attempt to exercise authority over us. We
must not yield to these false teachers, but oppose them with all our might!
If we are true Christians, we will imitate our Lord and Master, Jesus
Christ, who refused to compromise with Satan and yield to his evil ways.
Jesus Christ allowed Himself to be crucified because He loved God the Father
and His righteousness.
Stephen, the first true Christian martyr, refused to compromise during his
trial by the Jewish Sanhedrin. After hearing his courageous testimony, the
angry religious leaders stopped their ears and gnashed their teeth at him
and screamed at him in a frenzy of satanic hatred. Then they mobbed him and
dragged him out of the city, where they had him stoned to death. What was
his crime in their eyes? He refused to compromise the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Truth of God by
submitting to their authority and following their teachings! He
preferred to die in Christ Jesus rather than to compromise and accept their
religious lies and political approval.
All the true apostles of Jesus Christ stood for the Truth. Many of the
original apostles died through martyrdom. They endured torturous deaths
because they truly loved God with all their hearts, all their minds, all
their beings and all their strength. They never compromised the Truth of God
to escape persecution and be able to spend the rest of their days in quiet
comfort.
Will You Stand for God and His Truth?
During a time of abject apostasy and political disintegration in the
kingdom of Israel, King Asa began his reign over the kingdom of Judah. He
demolished the idols in his land and commanded the people of Judah to seek
God and to keep His commandments. For ten years, God blessed Asa and his
people with rest on all sides. When the people of Judah foolishly went back
to idolatry, God sent a huge Ethiopian army against them. King Asa besought
God for His help, and Judah was victorious over the enemy. Then God told
King Asa through the prophet Azariah, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and
Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while you be with Him; and if you seek Him,
He will be found of you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you....Be
you strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work
shall be rewarded” (II Chron. 15:2-7).
Then Asa and the princes and people of Judah, joined by many from the
kingdom of Israel, “...entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their
fathers with all their heart and with all their soul....for they had sworn
with all their heart, and sought Him with their whole desire; and He was
found of them...” (verses 12-15).
They put away their abominable idols and pagan gods. They returned to God
and sought Him with their whole hearts. God answered and blessed them,
giving them rest from their enemies.
But thirty-six years later, when the king of Israel came up to besiege
Judah, Asa turned his back on God and made an alliance with the king of
Syria. In his trouble, Asa failed to look to God, thinking he could work out
the problem his own way. By hiring the king of Syria to fight his battles,
he compromised his standing with God. In this case, he went too far in
rejecting God and did not repent. Then Hanani the seer was sent by God to
warn Asa and pronounce God’s judgment against him. Hanani told Asa, “Because
you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the Lord your
God, therefore the king of Syria has escaped out of your hand.
“Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host [nearly one million
men], with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you did rely on the
Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to
and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong
in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.
Herein you have done foolishly: therefore from henceforth you shall have
wars” (II Chron. 16:7-9).
Too many Christians are like Asa. They start out with great zeal for the
Truth of God and look to Him for strength to do His will. But after a while
they grow lax and begin to compromise. When the going gets rough, they
forget God and turn to their own devices instead. They put their trust in
men, instead of in God. They accept false teachings and pagan beliefs,
rather than holding fast the Truth. This willingness to compromise is the
reason for the doctrinal changes in the churches of God today. The ministers
and members are not relying on God the Father and Jesus Christ. As a result,
too many are afraid to take a stand for the Truth and for God!
But God sees our actions and knows our hearts. God expects us to stand for
the Truth. If we do, God will be with us. He will never leave us or forsake
us, as long as we are seeking Him. The psalmist asked, “Who will rise up for
me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the
workers of iniquity?” (Ps. 94:16.)
God is asking you the same question today. Will you make a stand for God?
Will you stand against the workers of evil who are operating within the
churches of God? Will you have the courage to stand alone, if necessary? Or
will you, like Asa, turn your back on God and rely on men, putting your
trust in their false doctrines and smooth words? What will you do? Will you
stand for God, or fall with sinners?
From the time of the early New Testament church, Christians have had to
face this question. Down through the centuries, countless thousands of true
Christians were martyred because they refused to compromise the Truth of
God. They refused to deny God the Father and Jesus Christ. They were
tortured and killed because they refused to believe the doctrine of the
Trinity and all the abominable doctrines of the Catholic Church. They were
burned, maimed and killed for refusing to submit to the tyranny of the popes
and overlordship of the bishops and priests.
In view of their faithfulness, do you think that God is going to give you
eternal life if you compromise your calling, His Truth and the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ? Don’t deceive yourself! Don’t think for one moment that by
hiding your eyes from the conflict you can avoid making a decision. If you
passively submit to doctrines that are contrary to the teachings of Jesus
Christ, you have already made your decision. You are compromising the Truth
of God!
Christians who compromise the Truth will sooner or later be overcome by
false doctrines. If you do not rouse yourself from spiritual apathy, you may
have to face Jesus Christ and hear Him say, “I know you not” (Mat. 25:1-12).
The Word of God clearly commands true Christians to withdraw from
fellowship with those who would corrupt their beliefs and erode their faith.
Faithful brethren who continue to fellowship in the hope of preserving
the Truth will eventually either fall prey to the deception or be expelled
from the church. Those who walk in the light of God’s Word can have no
fellowship with the workers of darkness and deceit.
We are commanded to separate ourselves from them! We are not to fellowship
with them, or we will be partakers of their sins. We are commanded by God to
withdraw from fellowship with any church that teaches contrary to the true
doctrine of Jesus Christ.
After having withdrawn from a corrupted church of God, a true Christian
said, “It is better to live the Truth alone, than to live a lie in a group!”
That is a true and profound statement. What will you do? Will you choose to
be faithful to the Truth of God and to love God the Father and Jesus Christ
more than anyone or anything else, even if you must stand alone?
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