Are counterfeits easier to recognize? You might say a lousy counterfeiting job would be amazingly easy to recognize and you'd be right. If you take a famous painting and have an amateur attempt to counterfeit it, you are going to get something that looks far from the original. However if you get an amazing professional artist and they attempt to counterfeit a painting they are going to come much closer to making that counterfeit appear like the original. In fact some counterfeit artists are so good they end up fooling even the most skilled counterfeit detectors, it happens. Counterfeit money only works because the counterfeiters work is so incredibly good. You would never be fooled by Monopoly money, cartoon money, play money, but you could be fooled by a real counterfeit bill it happens daily.
Let me ask you a question, a very serious question- would a skilled professional counterfeiter with many years of experience be likely to fool just about anyone with their work?
Now another serious question that might sound silly but I'm not being silly. Could a being with the ability to appear as a spirit being without any flesh- a being that could appear as a beautiful spirit being, a being clearly with skills the nature of such a being possesses, could this being be an amazing counterfeiter after thousands of years of practice?
So what does this mean? It means that counterfeit Christianity that exists fills our churches worldwide, it's that good! It literally FILLS the churches with FALSE religion. The counterfeit is so close to the real that ALL but a very few in the grand picture of all humanity will be deceived by the counterfeit. These are NOT my words. I do NOT want you to believe me, I want you to believe GOD.
Mat_24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Imagine it! Seriously, imagine it!
You, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, through faith in God are able to cast out a devil. You, immersed in your religion, are able to do miracles- healing, helping all by what you are truly perceiving to be the power of God. You are doing all this and then the Savior arrives, that last trump sounds, and you call out to the Lord as He is raising the dead in Him to life, and then raising the living in Him to meet Him in the air, "LORD, LORD, I prophesized in your name!" Or maybe you call out, "LORD, LORD, I cast out devils from those suffering under satan's influence!" Or you yell, "LORD, LORD, I helped the poor! I prayed for the sick! I went to church all the time and supported it faithfully! I prayed daily! I believed when no one else around me believed!" You call out to the Savior from the depths of your heart and watch as others, very, very few in number are rising upwards being transformed from their mortality and putting on immortality. And the Lord responds…
"I never knew you, depart from me, you work iniquity."
Can you imagine that? You BELIEVE you are doing God's work, you REALLY, and TRULY believe you are following Christ and yet you are not.
Is this some cruel joke manifested by God making it impossible to be His? NO, NEVER!
Every single thing we need to know to belong to Christ, to be known by Him is revealed to us and it will be us who choose to ignore that revelation allowed to all of us. If we sincerely desire to be known by Him, we will be known by Him. But if we sincerely desire to serve ourselves and not God, we will NOT be known by Him no matter what trappings of Christianity we cover ourselves in.
Please, KNOW US, KNOW ME, please, SAVIOR, please!
******* Continuing our prophecy study-- Please GO back and read the study from the beginning to gain full understanding of where we are if you haven't been following this study daily. Thank you :) God bless you! ******
Dan 11:30 '...therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant
so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. '
Without a doubt Constantine introduced a new paganism-- one that had some of the trappings of Christianity. Pagan religion mingled with Christianity, Christianity mingled with paganism- idolatry, the worshipping of gods other than God, the worshipping of God in a perverted manner- in ways HE NEVER INTENDED man to worship Him! Man took the pure undefiled religion of our Savior and twisted it so much it scarcely resembled the true Gospel of Christ, the Gospel Jesus would have us preach. Man was NEVER to exalt himself, man was to never say HE was Christ on earth, man was never to take money and spend it on anything other than helping other people, man was never to bow down to any idol not even one shaped like the Savior, not even the Savior's cross. Man was NOT to change God's laws. Man was not to do so much but all that was lost sight of as man's selfish nature took over and the 'spirit of the antichrist' reared up more and more among those who claimed Christ yet weren't really His.
1Jn 4:3 and every spirit which confesseth not Jesus - is not of God: and this is the spirit of the antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world already.
Confessing Jesus is believing in all our Savior would have us believe in- in HIS truth and ONLY HIS TRUTH, not man's truth! We aren't to confess man, we are to confess JESUS and no other!
As the Roman Empire moved forward to its inevitable breaking up into smaller kingdoms, this mingling of Christianity with Paganism was widespread, and the pure unadulterated truth of our Savior was lost among man's inventions, among Satan's deception.
Dan 11:30 '...therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant
so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. '
The holy covenant, God's truths, God's pure truth in His commandments were forsaken. The holy covenant in its amazing truth, the measure of which we know we sin by transgressing against those commandments, was perverted and clearly under Constantine this was very, very true.
Act 20:28 Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in the which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops, to feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29 I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock;
Act 20:30 and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
Paul knew this would come to pass! The truth of Jesus Christ would be overrun by the false truths, the counterfeit, the perverse, and they would take away MANY! You have to realize that no one spouting falsehood shouts out that's what they are doing. And those who follow the ones who speak falsely don't do so believing they are going against God, they do so believing they are following God but they have allowed themselves to entertain deception and when we let ourselves slip into the realm of deception it steals the truth from us and we are lost. We have to hold to the TRUTH found in Christ and NOTHING ELSE!
Yesterday we reviewed so much of how Christianity began its deepening descent into things Paganism and if one thing was clear- God holds with NO perversion of truth, not the slightest mingling. When you mingle untruth with truth, that truth is perverted. You cannot hold up the truth in all its glory once it's perverted. When truth is corrupted it is no longer truth. You can't say it has enough truth to pass as truth- it has to have ALL truth! There is no fudging the truth and passing it off, not with God. As paganism with its false worship, with its corrupt ways slithered into the truth, people were taken away and lured into this false religion all the while believing it to be the true church, the true people of God. Satan works a perfect deception and it's only by the GRACE and LOVE, the MERCY and RIGHTEOUSNESS, the SACRIFICE of our SAVIOR that we are not deceived!
Please Lord as we continue studying Your word, as You continue to reveal Your amazing love to us through our Savior, please keep us from being deceived! Keep us from all evil! PLEASE LORD! PLEASE!
In Your love always!
AMEN.
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