Even Some with Discernment Will Stumble - Part II

Continuing with the previous post, I'd like to address some of the specific deceptions and errors I see popping up in the remnant Christian community. With one exception, I'm not going to name names because I don't want to create ill will or more more divisions in the body. 

Deception #1: If someone disagrees with me, telling him that he might not be a Christian or might lose his salvation if he doesn't agree will really get my point across.

No, what you are doing is akin to condemning someone. Jesus said:

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned." - Luke 6:37

Yes, we should stand up for truth and righteousness and correct others (and ourselves) when necessary. It is true to say that Jesus is the only way to the Father and those who do not believe in Jesus stand condemned already, but it is something else to consign people to hell because they disagree with a particular theological issue.

Our ministry on earth is to follow in the footsteps of Christ. This is the ministry of reconciliation and salvation, not condemnation:

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." - John 3:17

God will certainly judge all of us. But that's his job, not ours.

Deception #2: I have the gift of prophecy, so my prophetic words, dreams or visions are direct revelation from God and not subject to the Scriptures.

No. Any prophetic word that contradicts the Scriptures is not from God. Period. It might originate from your own imagination, or it might be "second heaven chatter" that was slipped into your mind by demons and fallen angels. We are all mortals living in fleshly bodies who can make mistakes. The devil is tricky, tricky, tricky.

God is not the author of confusion. His words do not contradict themselves and do not change. They stand forever.

All prophetic revelations and interpretations should be weighed against the totality of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. If it doesn't fit, throw it out.

Deception #3: Donald Trump is God's chosen man to restore America and we are getting a reprieve.

If America is getting a reprieve, then perhaps the Lord owes Nineveh an apology, because they actually had to repent from wickedness to get a reprieve, but America has not! 

"Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, 'Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.' Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them...

When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it." - Jonah 3:4-5,10

The only way to delay or lessen God's judgment is REPENTANCE. That does not mean going to church or saying a prayer or voting for Trump. That means we have a change of heart and stop doing the evil things that offend God. America has not done this!

What bothers me so much about the Christian leaders who are promoting Trump and the idea of America getting a reprieve is that their position contradicts the Scriptures. 

When the (in)famous fireman's prophecy from Mark Taylor was announced earlier this year about Trump being God's chosen man to make America great again, I had recently read Jeremiah 28 and the story of the false prophet Hananiah. The Lord impressed on my heart that I was witnessing the same kind of false prophecy today.

God had declared to Judah that King Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon would destroy the nation and carry away the people into exile for 70 years. This was his will and the punishment for Israel's long period of rebellion against him. In fact, it would have gone easier for the Israelites if they had just submitted to captivity, but instead they rebelled against that too and were crushed by Babylon's army.

The false prophet Hananiah announced that God had changed his mind and would break the yoke of Babylon and make Judah great again. But God's real prophet Jeremiah rebuked him, and the Lord took Hananiah's life a couple months later.

I tell you what - you couldn't pay me a million dollars to stand in the shoes of these people making false prophecies about Trump. 

It's true that God has used Trump to expose some of America's sins, but that doesn't mean he was chosen to restore it. The Lord keeps leading my wife and me to 1 Samuel 8, where the people of Israel told the prophet Samuel that they wanted a king instead of prophets to judge them. The Lord said, "They have rejected Me from being king over them." Trump is like a King Saul. He is a test for Christians in America: Will they prefer to follow a man, or will they listen and yield to the voice of the Lord?

And don't get me started about the heaps of evidence that say Trump is NOT what he says he is. 

Deception #4: Since the word for God in Genesis 1 (Elohim) is different from the word for God in Genesis 2 (Jehovah Elohim), it means that Satan and the fallen angels created mankind in their image.

This is not true. There are many words for God in the Old Testament and Elohim is definitely one of them. Just because the word elohim can also refer to magistrates or angels, as in Psalm 82, doesn't mean that Satan and his angels created us in his image.

In fact, the Apostle Paul referred to Satan as a "god":

 "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving..." - 2 Corinthians 4:3-4

This is a reference to Satan's worldly influence and authority during this age, at least until Jesus Christ shows up on a white horse with a sword to deal with him. It doesn't mean Satan created anything. Satan can manipulate creation for his twisted purposes, and even contributed to the corruption of mankind, but he didn't create anything.

Paul also clarified that we are created in God's image:

"For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God..." -2 Corinthians 11:7

Therefore, men and women are created in the image of God, the Lord God, the Creator God.