We are living in a terrible time and age. The Dark Ages did not end a thousand years ago. They began with the death of the last of our Lord’s apostles and they have continued since that day. The apostle Paul warned that evil men and seducers would grow worse and worse (See 2 Timothy 3:13). Note well, he didn’t say things would get better and better but worse and worse. That has been happening for two thousand years! How much error and spiritual confusion do you think now exists in the various “Christian” assemblies around the world, because Paul was referring to error spreading throughout Christianity and growing worse with each passing decade. Every Christian minister feels certain God has called him to preach his denomination’s particular brand of Bible doctrine. The Presbyterian minister preaches doctrines far different than those doctrines preached by the pastor of an Assembly of God church. Likewise, the Baptist minister will disagree with much of what an Amish elder preaches.
Each passing generation has seen preachers build upon and perpetuate the errors of the previous generation and then say, “All these Bible scholars can’t be wrong! We would have discovered our error by now if we were indeed preaching and teaching error!” Friend, the Mormon elder thinks in that same fashion as well as the Roman Catholic priest and the protestant preachers of each and every denomination. The average preacher has not even begun to grasp the blinding power of Satan and how good he is at what he does.
I am certain none of Christ’s apostles would be permitted to speak in the average Christian church today. As soon as they opened their mouths and it was discerned what they were saying, they would be shouted down, called heretics and escorted out the door of the church and told not to return. Their congregations would be told, “Close your ears when that man speaks. Read nothing he might write!”
In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he wrote: “This you know that ALL they which are in Asia (Minor) have turned away from me” (See 2 Timothy 1:15). Do you know what early churches were in Asia Minor? Ephesus was one of them. We read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and think those believers continued on with the Lord and in the truth. They did not! Or do you think Paul made false charges against such believers? Paul told the Colossian congregation how he had a great conflict for them as well as the congregation at Laodicea, another congregation in Asia Minor. (See Colossians 2:1). He felt them slipping away even then.
Paul also told Timothy, “If we (we apostles, we ministers, we believers) deny Him, HE WILL ALSO DENY US!” (See 2 Timothy 2:12). How well do you think that statement would go over in the average Christian church today? “If we believe not (saying that could never happen), yet He abides faithful (to His previous warnings). He cannot deny Himself.” (Jesus cannot deny that he said, “But WHOSOEVER (apostle, minister, believer) shall deny me before men, him also will I deny before my Father which is in heaven..” (See 2 Timothy 2:13 with Matthew 10:33). How many preachers today would dare proclaim those words from the pulpit? They will say just the opposite. Charles Stanley said a Christian can deny Christ, even abandoning Christianity for Islam and would still be saved and have eternal life!!! He had no comprehension whatsoever of what Paul meant when he wrote that believers are “sealed” by the Holy Spirit. (See Ephesians 1:13-14 and Ephesians 4:30).
Satan is good at what he does, brethren, very, very good. He took out one apostle, Judas, and came perilously close to taking out the one to whom Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom. Remember how Jesus warned Peter, “Satan has desired to have you that he might sift you like wheat!” (See Luke 22:31-32). Three times with ranting and cursing Peter denied Jesus Christ on the night of His betrayal, saying, “I don’t know the man.” He truly repented. Judas never did. Had he not repented, Jesus would have said of him what He said of Judas, “It would be better had Peter never even been born!”
You do no violence to the scriptures if you place YOUR OWN NAME in Luke 22:31-32. Satan has desired to have YOU that he might sift you like wheat. And he is doing his sifting even now. How much truth has he sifted out of your mind, leaving only error – clever error, error that on the surface appears to be pristine truth? “Be sober, be vigilant, because YOUR adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8). That is no idle, nonsensical warning. Believers, like Demas and Judas can be devoured by Satan. They can be deceived, seduced, led astray, and drawn into all manner of sin and error. And, yes, Satan long ago desired to have me. And, boy, did he come close to accomplishing his desire in Donald Wiley’s life for he did, indeed, have me for his own for several decades, but, thanks be to God, our Lord broke through the fog of error and fleshly passion and led me into the way of life eternal. I shall be forever grateful for His having done so. I can’t live long enough or serve Him well enough to show my appreciation. But I can try.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley