“and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”(2Th 2:10-12 ESV)
It is my contention that much of evangelical Christianity’s
doctrine and dogma is this strong delusion. I have shown in previous posts (here)
that 2Thessalonians was written to the first century saints and not some later,
still future generation. When Paul wrote "that they did not believe the truth
but had pleasure in unrighteousness" he is speaking of those who did not believe
in and who crucified Jesus; In other words, the first century unbelieving Jews.
Who was the man of sin you may ask? I would say in
all likelihood, it was John of Gischala. He was the leader of the rebels that
took over the temple just prior to the Roman siege. According to Josephus, he
killed the high priest and put his own puppet in place of him. He, not God
would decide who and who not should be the high priest. He set his regime up in
the temple. He killed all of the dissidents.
So then, what is the strong delusion you may ask?
I believe it is the leaven of the Pharisees which is their doctrine (Matthew
16:12.) The strong delusion is the inclusion of the doctrine of the Pharisees
in church dogma and doctrine. Paul warned that grievous wolves would come in
not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29.) He also said that false brethren came in
among them to spy out their liberty (Gal 2:4.)
Today we have many evangelicals that act like
modern day Pharisees. Our seminaries have adopted the hermeneutical position of
the Pharisees which is grammatical historical hermeneutic; Jesus and his first
century followers used redemptive historical hermeneutic. We insist on calling the entire scripture the
word of God like the Pharisees when Jesus and his apostles defined the word of
God as the gospel, and Jesus, the living gospel. The leaven of the Pharisees
suggests that we are acceptable to God based upon our ability to develop law
based righteousness. While the evangelicals pay lip service to faith
righteousness, they in reality, demand law righteousness. I find it fascinating
that much of Jesus’ rebuke in Matthew chapter 23 could just as easily be
leveled against the bulk of evangelical Christianity. Evangelical Christianity
says that faith allows one to enter the covenant but obedience to the law is
what proves one was really converted.
After a two years of this blog it should become
very apparent that we have lost the way. We are off the mark in so many ways.
We have in fact been given over to a strong delusion and we believe what is
false. I find it encouraging that so many are waking up from this stupor today.
Many are rising up and beginning to become critical of the status quo. Many are
questioning the principals that here-to-fore they were obliged to accept. For this I praise God and I hope that more
and more Christians of conscience will rise up and stand up for the gospel of
GRACE!
jmac, I found this post to be a breathe of fresh air for me. I've already stated on another post of yours that I was an Adventist for 5 years ot no avail. I've come to realize that just like Ephesus... when I first became a Christian, my drive for doctrinal purity pushed me to forget my first love. My drive to assail false teachers clouded my view and it urged me into the other extreme of phariseeism. Now, I'm remebering from where I fell, and all I can say is God is Good! Jesus+nothing=everything
ReplyDeletePraise God!
Amen Brother!
DeleteThank God that our acceptance is not based on our ability to develop law based righteousness. Just as we try to show others the errors of their ways, Jesus tried to show the Pharisees the errors of their ways many times. They just did not want to get it, just as some as we will face will not want to hear it.
ReplyDelete