Falsies affecting the Church today
1. The idea that every church is a good church.
Things we hear people say;
1. As long as I am going to a church that is all that matters.
-Not true! not every church preaches the correct Gospel. There is even the church of Satan.
-There are so called Churches that deny the deity of Jesus Christ, the Jehovah Witnesses being one.
-To the Mormons Jesus is the brother of Lucifer (This is not the Jesus of the Bible)
*1 John 2:22, “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—even eternal life
#2. Another false thing is that every religion leads to God.
Jesus said; “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one goes to the father except thru me”.
-Jesus is the only mediator between God and man.
- Religion only makes us conscious that God really exist. But only through Jesus Christ can we have a relationship with Him.
#3. Some say that Jesus is not God.
* John 1:1-5, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understooda it.
John affirms three vital truths about the Word (Christ):
1. He existed in the beginning; Greek-(arche)=ORIGIN OR THE DATELESS PAST BEFORE ANYTHING WAS CREATED
2. He was with God (lit. “Face-to-face with God”);
3. In His divine nature He was indeed God. Verse 3 says; “All of creation came into being through Him. Compare with *Gen.1:1 that says; “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”
A central truth of the Christian faith.
God became a man and dwelt temporarily among us.
The God who dwelt in the OT tabernacle now came as a human being. The apostles and other witnesses beheld His divine glory in His miracles (2:11), crucifixion and His resurrection.
*Hebrews 1:1, In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have become your Fathera”b? Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”c? 6 And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”d 7 In speaking of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire.”e 8 But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
#4. Another falsie is that you can be saved and keep on sinning as everyone else.
*Galatians 5:19-21; “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
#5. That good works are not necessary in our Christian walk. (LOOK AT WHAT JESUS SAID IN *MATT.5:16
- The Bible says that believers are going to be judged according to their works. Not according to how spiritual they sound or if they are Baptist or Pentecostal or how many Bible verses they can site but according to their works. Some are going to just make it into the kingdom (as if by fire, others are not even going to be dressed for the wedding feast because of their works..
#6. That there is no trinity. *1 John 5:7,
It’s true the word Trinity is not found in Scripture, but used to express the doctrine of the unity of God as subsisting in three distinct Persons. Although the word “trinity” does not appear in the Bible, the “Trinitarian formula” is mentioned in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19) and in the benediction of the apostle Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 13:14).
The word Trinity is derived from the Gr. trias, first used by Theophilus (A.D. 168-183), or from the Lat. trinitas, first used by Tertullian (A.D. 220), to express this doctrine. The propositions involved in the doctrine are these:
1. That God is one, and that there is but one God (Deut. 6:4; 1 Kings 8:60; Isa. 44:6; Mark 12:29, 32; John 10:30).
2. That the Father is a distinct divine Person, distinct from the Son and the Holy Spirit.
3. That Jesus Christ was truly God, and yet was a Person distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit. 4. That the Holy Spirit is also a distinct divine Person.
In the New Testament, God revealed that He is not only one but a family of persons—an eternal, inexhaustible, and dynamic triune family of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are one in will and purpose, love and righteousness.
The relationship of Father and Son is prominent in the gospels because Jesus, the eternal Son who takes on human flesh, is most visible to us as He strikes a responsive chord through the Father-Son relationship. All the while the Holy Spirit is in the background, serving as our eyes of faith. The unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is portrayed by Jesus’ trinitarian teaching (John 14–16). This truth is expressed in the total ministry of Jesus as recorded in all four gospels as well as in the rest of the New Testament. The triune family cooperates as one in bringing the lost person home again into a redeemed family of believers.
The most distinctive characteristic of the persons of the triune family is their selfless love for one another. Each esteems and defers to the other in a way that makes the original family of the trinity a model for the Christian family of believers in the church.
The Father gives all authority to the Son and bears witness to Him, as does Jesus to Himself (John 8:18). Yet the Son claims nothing for Himself; He gives all glory to the Father who has sent Him (John 12:49–50). The key to unlocking the mystery of the trinity is to observe how the persons of the triune family give themselves to one another in selfless love. They are always at one another’s disposal.
The Father serves the Son; the Son serves the Father; Father and Son defer to the Holy Spirit, who in turn, serves and defers to the Father and Son in a oneness that is eternally dynamic and inexhaustible. The mutual love of the triune persons spills over into the creation and is seen in their generous cooperation in saving the lost (John 14:15–17, 25–26).
The Trinity was at work in the incarnation of Jesus, the Son of the Most High, as He was conceived in the womb of Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:30–35). At His baptism Jesus the Son received approval from the Father in the presence of the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:21–22), fulfilling two Old Testament prophetic passages (Ps. 2:7; Is. 42:1). The Trinity was also present in the temptation, as Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit for 40 days in the wilderness. The devil recognized Jesus as the Son of God (Luke 4:3), but he tried to destroy the faithful relationship of the divine family.
Following His resurrection, Jesus sent the disciples to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). The fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy as spokesman for the Father and the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4–8) occurred at Pentecost. This continued throughout the Book of Acts when the Holy Spirit inspired Peter and the apostles to preach a trinitarian gospel of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Acts 2:32–33; 5:29–32; 10:38).
Paul wrote from a sense of the triune family in Galatians, speaking often of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:13–14; 4:6; 5:5–6, 22–24). In Romans he used a threefold, trinitarian pattern to describe the plan of salvation (Rom. 1:18–3:20; 3:21–8:1; 8:2–30). All the remaining New Testament books contain Trinity teaching except James and 3 John.
The triune family is God’s revelation of Himself as the ultimate truth about reality. This family is the original pattern from which God creates all the families of earth with their unity and diversity. The family of mankind, after losing its intimate relationship with the divine family at the Fall, is restored to fellowship by God’s action. This happens when its members acknowledge the generosity originating in the Father, expressed by the Son, and energized by the Holy Spirit.
. Many scholars believe the doctrine of the Trinity is the most crucial element in the Christian understanding of God. The early Christians confessed that they knew God in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and these three fully share one divine nature.
Many scriptures show that these apostolic Christians understood Jesus Christ in trinitarian terms. For example, Paul said, “Through him [Christ] we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18)—describing our relation to the three Persons of the Trinity. The New Testament contains many statements like this.*1 John 5:7 “For
there are three that testify: 8 thea Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.”. *1 Cor.12:4-6,*2 Cor.13:14, *Matt.28
