The Willful Sin - Part III
July 2014 (This article was originally printed in December, 2009) |
Hebrews 10:26 – “For if we sin willfully (the ‘willful sin’ is the transference of faith from Christ and Him crucified to other things) after that we have received the knowledge of the truth (speaks of the Bible way of salvation and victory, which is ‘Jesus Christ and Him crucified’ [I Cor. 2:2]), there remains no more sacrifice for sins (if the Cross of Christ is rejected, there is no other sacrifice or way God will accept).”
WE NEED TO EXPAND upon our mentioning, in last month’s article, of Rick Warren’s misuse of Scripture. In Chapter 36 of “The Purpose Driven Life,” Rick Warren says this: “God’s timetable for history’s conclusion is connected to the completion of our commission. Today there is a growing interest in the second coming of Christ and the end of the world. When will it happen? Just before Jesus ascended to Heaven the disciples asked him this same question, and His response was quite revealing. He said, ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’” Here, Rick Warren quotes from Acts 1:7-8 out of the New International Version (NIV). However, instead of including the context of this Scripture verse, he gives it as a reference number making it so that people will have to actually look it up! Of course, most people will not do this. Rather, most will simply take Warren’s word for it and continue on to buy his agenda which, as you will see, attempts to ignore biblical prophecy.
THE WORD OF GOD
A few of us, though, did look it up! We find that Christ made this statement just prior to His ascent into Heaven when He was instructing His disciples on the importance of receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:4-6 King James Version (KJV) states: “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, said He, you have heard of Me. For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel?” So, in Verse 7, Christ answers them according to their question regarding the restoration of the nation of Israel to a ruling position: “And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.” Warren, however, misrepresents Verse 7 making it appear to be a reason not to study any biblical prophecy at all! This was not Christ’s intent, for later He does give us information regarding His return through the Apostle Paul in II Thessalonians, Chapter 2 and through other prophecies. The book of Revelation, for instance, is full of essential biblical prophecy.
PROPHECY
In Warren’s book he goes on to say: “When the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus quickly switched the conversation to evangelism. He wanted them to concentrate on their mission in the world. He said in essence, ‘The details of my return are none of your business. What is your business is the mission I’ve given you. Focus on that!’” Now, if we are not to be concerned about the times of the Lord’s return, if it is truly “none of your business,” then what is the reason for all the verses of Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments pertaining to prophecy? That would mean that there is an awful lot of Scripture in the Bible about which we are not to be concerned! Were the Jews not to pay attention to the many prophecies concerning the coming of their Messiah the first coming of Christ? You see the truth of the matter regarding prophecy is nearly the opposite of Rick Warren’s thinking and teaching. The truth is that the only thing not revealed to us regarding the return of the Lord is the exact day and hour. There is a big difference between not knowing the exact date and not knowing any information at all. Warren has tried to lump everything together. Actually, the verse that regards not knowing the exact date, Warren also takes out of context to try to prove his case against prophecy. He says, “Speculating on the exact timing of Christ’s return is futile, because Jesus said, ‘No one knows about the day and hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father’” (refers to Mat. 24:36 from the NIV). Warren says, “Since Jesus said he didn’t know the day or hour, why should you try to figure it out?” But what he conveniently does not mention is the entirety of the rest of Matthew, Chapter 24, which speaks of what we should know regarding the return of the Lord. Quite an omission! Wouldn’t you agree?
THE ENDTIME – NOW!
For example, Jesus gave us the parable of the fig tree in Matthew 24:32-33, which speaks of Israel’s regathering as an independent nation: “When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, you know that summer is near: So likewise you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” This prophecy was fulfilled in 1948 when Israel became a nation again. We should be able to recognize according to this fulfillment that we are now indeed living in the last days! Following Warren’s lead, believers will overlook this amazing and miraculous prophecy! Also, in Verse 15 Jesus says, “When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, stand in the Holy Place, (whoso reads, let him understand).” This speaks of the Antichrist at the time he will defile the rebuilt Jewish temple and demand that the people worship him. Those who have studied this prophecy will recognize what is happening! Warren attempts to further his case with Verse 14: “What we do know for sure is this: Jesus will not return until everyone God wants to hear the Good News has heard it. Jesus said, ‘The Good News about God’s Kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come’” (NCV). This is true; however, it in no way suggests that we aren’t to study prophecy. It is certainly a stretch for Warren to use it to suggest such. Those truly mature in the faith know that correct biblical discernment always reveals times and seasons! “He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowring. O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times?” (Mat. 16:2-3). And besides that, one should be very cautious speaking against true biblical prophecy; you may well be speaking against Jesus Himself: “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See you do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren who have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy” (Rev. 19:10).
GLOBALIST!
The Bible is actually about one-third prophecy, and upon any study of God’s Word one can understand and interpret prophecy accurately. The Lord did not make this an impossible task as many, like Warren, would have you believe. Rick Warren, you see, must have another motive. Something else must be behind his totally unbiblical teaching that it is okay to ignore prophecy, and indeed, there is! Rick Warren is what is known as a change agent! Remember our mention in last month’s article of Dulles and his globalist agenda? Well, like we mentioned, Rick Warren is yet another man placed specifically for the purpose of roping the evangelical church into this agenda. It is his job to change the church so that it will fit the U.N. social agenda for the whole world! If truth be told, the “Purpose Driven Life” book is itself, a tool of change. Its purpose is to change (transform) the biblical mindset of the reader into a social/globalist mindset. When one reads through from beginning to end, it imposes a subtle brainwashing that changes the focus of the believer. Remember also, this is a modern example of the willful sin we have been discussing. It leaves the Cross of Christ (which addresses the problem of sin), for a new “PEACE Plan” which attempts to address the lack of “peace on earth” in other ways. In effect, it changes a person’s faith from the Cross and Christ has there done to “What I can do for God.” The social agenda is also the reason why globalists want to ignore prophecy because they know if we study prophecy, we will see all the reasons why the globalist and/or dominionist agenda does not line up with the Scripture. We will see that the global giants are by no means soled before the events of the Endtimes - including the Rapture of the church, the Great Tribulation, and the second coming of Jesus Christ! So, when Rick Warren says we are not to concern ourselves with prophecy, we are listening to a false prophet!
FALSE TEACHERS
One of the main reasons God gave us prophecy and wanted us to study it is so that we would know when false teachers would try to deceive us and lead us away from the correct faith! And indeed, false teachers are rampant in the church today turning the hearts of God’s children away from Jesus Christ. The early church had to deal with the same kind of false prophets: “But there were false prophets also among the people (refers to the false prophets who plagued Israel of old), even as there shall be false teachers among you (the false teacher is one who presents a way of salvation, or a way of sanctification, other than the Cross), who privily shall bring in damnable heresies (the idea is that these false teachers would teach some true doctrine, and then cleverly include false teaching with it; it is the introduction of false teaching alongside the true that makes it very subtle, and which abrogates the true), even denying the Lord who brought them (refers to denying the Cross), and bring upon themselves swift destruction (upon themselves and upon those who follow them, which refers to the ultimate loss of the soul)” (II Pet. 2:1).
Now, part of Rick Warren’s job is to build a “unified theology” which can push civility. See, you must have a one world religion if there is to be a one world government.
A UNIFIED THEOLOGY?
Here are a few of the notes taken by Dr. Lawrence Dunegan from a speech given in 1969 by an insider of the “new world order,” Dr. Richard Day. This is just a sampling of what this speech revealed, but as you will see, the plan for the order is very deliberate, detailed, and organized. And so far it has followed its plans exceptionally well, including the shift made in the evangelical church.
“Another area of discussion was religion. This is an avowed atheist speaking. And he said, ‘Religion is not necessarily bad. A lot of people seem to need religion, with its mysteries and rituals - so they will have religion. But the major religions of today have to be changed because they are not compatible with the changes to come. The old religions will have to go. Especially Christianity. Once the Roman Catholic church is brought down, the rest of Christianity will follow easily. Then a new religion can be accepted for use all over the world. It will incorporate something from all the old ones to make it more easy for people to accept it, and feel at home in it. Most people won’t be too concerned with religion. They will realize that they don’t need it. In order to do this, the Bible will be changed. It will be rewritten to fit the new religion. Gradually, key words will be replaced with new words having various shades of meaning. Then the meaning attached to the new word can be close to the old word - and as time goes on, other shades of meaning of that word can be emphasized, and then gradually that word replaced with another word.’ I don’t know if I’m making that clear. But the idea is that everything in Scripture need not be rewritten, just key words replaced by other words. And the variability in meaning attached to any word can be used as a tool to change the entire meaning of Scripture, and therefore make it acceptable to this new religion. Most people won’t know the difference; and this was another one of the times where he said, ‘the few who do notice the difference won’t be enough to matter.’ Then followed one of the most surprising statements of the whole presentation: He said, ‘Some of you probably think the churches won’t stand for this,’ and he went on to say, ‘the churches will help us!’ There was no elaboration on this, it was unclear just what he had in mind when he said, ‘the churches will help us!’ In retrospect I think some of us now can understand what he might have meant at that time. I recall then only of thinking, ‘no they won’t!’ and remembering our Lord’s words where he said to Peter, ‘Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.’ So … yes, some people in the churches might help. And in the subsequent 20 years we’ve seen how some people in churches have helped. But we also know that our Lord’s words will stand, and the gates of Hell will not prevail.” 1
There is certainly a large part of the modern church helping the globalist agenda today just as this man predicted. However, the Lord is still calling his true church to “come out from among them and be you separate.” He promises: “Touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (II Cor. 6:17-18).
1. Dr. Lawrence Dunegan. “New Order of Barbarians,” Tape 1 transcript. 1988
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