Defend Your Faith

I don’t know how many f you have been paying attention to recent events, but things are going from bad to worst in a hurry. As we all know last week was what is considered as holy week. In other it was the season that marked the last days of our Lord here on earth in a physical body. Since the latest census of this nation has proven that 90% of this nation claims to be Christian, the more popular medium of entertainment, that is to say television, always produces movies about the Christian faith, and/or broadcasts old movies all related to this season. The problem isn’t that they produce or broadcast these types of movies; the problem is that in the majority of the cases, these movies are not biblically correct, and only serve to confuse those that may not know very much about the Word of God or those with a debilitated faith. For example, I don’t remember exactly what day it was, but I saw that there was a remake of the Ten Commandments being broadcasted. It was a movie that I think was broadcasted over the course of a couple of days; in all reality I only watched about 20 minutes or so of the movie. I only watched for approximately 20 minutes because in that short period of time I was able to discern that the movie did not glorify God, instead God appeared to have been taken out of the equation. The last part that I saw was when the actor that was playing the part of Moses was sitting in the darkness, and was speaking to himself out loud saying something like, God I don’t know when you are speaking to me, I don’t know if it is my imagination or what. I also saw another scene where Joshua, perhaps the most faithful and brave servant that Moses had, was portrayed as rebellious and a coward. According to this movie it wasn’t until Joshua had a physical confrontation with Moses, where Joshua tried to kill him that Joshua became a brave and obedient servant. I don’t know about the rest of you, but in all of my years as a Christian and in the ministry, I have not been able to find any biblical reference that will support that God is a god of confusion, and that Moses was unsure of when God spoke to him. Additionally, I have also not found any biblical reference to support the fact that Joshua was a coward and had a fight with Moses and tried to kill him. Why have I said these things? I have said these things because these lies are exactly what are being spread through the world in our time. With every minute that passes Satan’s army advances taking more and more territory. With every minute that passes Satan maneuvers his troops and advances in the battleground, and God’s army retreats in defeat. Why is this happening? This is the topic that we will be examining today. Let’s now turn to the Word of God.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 - For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

I think this small portion of the scriptures clearly allows us to see what is happening in God’s people today. What is happening in God’s people today can be easily described with just one word, and this word is “apostasy.” But, what does apostasy mean? When we look up the definition of this word in the dictionary we discover that it is defines as: “1: renunciation of a religious faith. 2: abandonment of a previous royalty;” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary). As we can see, by definition of the word, in order for an apostasy to take place first there has to have been a following of a true doctrine. Therefore, we can say without a doubt that these verses that we are examining today are not directed to those that live in the world, or at still trapped in the different religions and sects that exist. These verses are completely directed at the body of Christ; these verses are directed at the church. These verses here are a warning about what would occur in the church of antiquity, and what is happening in the church today. I say that it is something that is happening in the church today because it is not uncommon to see how congregations that once followed the sound doctrine, now have departed from it to follow the doctrines of men. It is not uncommon to see how numerous congregations have traded grace for law, and repentance for prosperity. I think it is for this exact reason that Christ declares in Luke 18:8 “…Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”