In Chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians Paul rebukes the church at Corinth for its willingness to be fooled and manipulated by false apostles preaching a faux gospel. Despite the many spiritual gifts with which God had blessed the congregation, spiritual discernment apparently wasn’t one of them; or if it was, the people disregarded what the Holy Spirit might have been saying. Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 11:4:
For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
They simply didn’t differentiate between the good and the bad. That kind of blindness can result in being led astray from God’s truth and result in many doctrinal errors.
As far as those who came to this church and declared themselves ministers of righteousness, Paul minced no words about them, as we see in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15:
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
We also see that one of the half-brothers of Jesus saw the same issue in the churches to which he wrote in his letter in Jude 4:
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jude goes on to describe such men in quite harsh terms.
The reason this is of such great concern to the writers of the epistles is the end result of those who listen and don’t heed the dangers. Paul succinctly states in 2 Corinthians 11:20:
For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face.
Regardless of these indignities to their person, the Corinthians accepted them foolishly. They were seemingly quite content to be abused and made slaves through falsehoods that came their way. Again, the lack of discernment on their part was striking.
I’ve written previously of the repetition of history. The saying: What goes around comes around” has been true forever. There’s a karmic aspect to this that I don’t accept, of course, and there is also an implication that someone perpetrating an injustice will himself be subject to that same wrongdoing, but for my purposes, it’s useful to see that, as Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us:
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun. And so, in our day we’re witnessing a similar phenomenon within the church.
With the onset of the COVID hysteria, the so-called medical authorities declared that masks and lockdowns were vital to “flatten the curve” so as to defeat the virus. Most churches went all in with masks, and many capitulated with lockdown demands and didn’t meet as the Body of Christ.
Although these measures didn’t work, far too many churches continued to implement, or at least strongly recommend, masking requirements. As I understand it, some churches have never reopened to this day.
Next in this never-ending battle for supremacy against a man-made bioweapon, the panacea of all panaceas was released in the form of the COVID vaccine. Once more, according to the medical authorities, the shots were the only solution that would save humanity. Strikingly, not only has the secular world gone along with this fiction, but a serious number of churches with their pastors and congregations have drunk this Kool-Aid. Apparently driven by supposed concern for others and, no doubt, by fear, vast numbers of church-goers have received vaccinations.
If my eyes have not deceived me, it surely seems as though these jabs have not only not worked to inhibit COVID, but they have become the reason for a further spread of it, along with serious complications that come from transmission of dangerous elements from vaxxed to unvaxxed people that lead to numerous adverse impacts on the human body.
The shots haven’t reduced COVID; they’ve encouraged its spread through various mutations and have introduced extreme health complications among the general population, whether someone has received the vaccine or not.
Yet, despite the evidence right in front of people, they twist the narrative and declare that it is the unvaccinated who are causing the spread of disease. Those who have taken up this banner include much of the secular world. Incredibly, advocates of this convoluted idea are also rife within the church.
There has been a purposeful effort over the last year and a half to condition people to accept what they are told by the medical establishment. Rather than think for themselves, far too many have closed their eyes and ears to truth and simply done what they’re told. They don’t search out alternative voices, and when they do somehow hear them, they appear incapable in large measure of actually heeding what they say. In other words, they have become slaves.
The tragic aspect of this is that believers in Christ have willingly allowed themselves to fall into this condition. They have listened to the world and believed its lies rather than go to the Word of God for counsel. For all the wisdom they should have through Christ Jesus, they have willingly submitted to false narratives and fear, and in the course of this become fools.
I know that’s a harsh assessment, but when those in the Body of Christ place their faith in man’s wisdom and his solutions, what else can be said?
Is there a remedy? Absolutely. It is the Word of God. It is getting back to believing what our Lord says rather than what the world dictates. It is the refocus of our eyes on Jesus rather than on the things of earth.
My prayer is that those in the church who have been fooled will awaken. I pray they will realize the folly into which they’ve been led. Only Jesus can save us. Our faith and trust should be only in Him.
I agree with you in prayer Gary!