Do not be misled - Test everything and be set apart from the world
Psalm 95:7 ….. Today, if you would hear His voice: 8 “Do not harden your hearts……..,
Charles Spurgeon - If your creed and Scripture do not agree, cut your creed to pieces, but make it agree with this book. If there be anything in the church to which you belong which is contrary to the inspired Word, leave that church. That very church which the world likes best is sure to be that which Yahuah abhors.
From the beginning, S-a-t-a-n has blinded most of mankind to God’s truth and has led many astray through counterfeit spiritual experiences.
2 Corinthians 4:4 in whom the mighty one of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that the enlightening of the Good News of the esteem of Messiah, who is the likeness of Aluah, does not shine on them.
Scripture is authoritative but used incorrectly it can do incredible damage. If used and interpreted incorrectly it can at best mislead people, but at worst it has been used to justify violence, racism, and even killing. S-a-t-a-n has used Scripture to deceive the entire world leading believers and non-believers astray by providing counterfeits, alternatives, incorrect translations and interpretations.
Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and S-a-t-a-n, who leads all the world astray. He was thrown to the earth, and his messengers were thrown out with him.
We are told to “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of Aluah. This is how we can ensure that we are following the truth in the Scriptures. The Scriptures are the standard by which we should judge all things.
1 John 4:1 Beloved ones, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of Aluah, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Some people seek conspiracy theories, hidden meaning, or for deeper spiritual experiences but they may actually be deceived. The meaning of the Scriptures is simple, the Messiah stated the meaning when responding to a query from a pharisee on what is the “great command in the Torah”. Yahusha’s response quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, and is recorded in Matthew 22:37.
Matthew 22:37 And Yahusha said to him, “You shall love Yahuah your Aluah with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is the first and great command. 39 “And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40 “On these two commands hang all the Torah and the Prophets.”
As an example of how easily wrong I can be. I had an unfortunate experience when my wife and I stopped on a trip and decided to go panning for gold. I panned and picked up pieces of rock that was shiny, and certainly to my untrained eye looked like gold. I genuinely felt special to have found something of such value and would have treasured this for the rest of my time on earth and believed in it. I was so convinced that I had the genuine article (my wife had found some flakes of the genuine article). But I was deceived, the lesson I had was – test everything and without knowledge, we do not know when we are deceived.
A prospector that was teaching us how to pan for gold, excitement increased rapidly as I studied the shiny rocks in my pan. I had struck it rich....... However, the hardened prospector looked at my special shiny “gold” rocks with some bemusement, and broke the news with some glee that this was not real gold, it was a substance called iron sulphite which looks very much like gold. It is known as fools gold. I still have those rocks to remind me how easy it is to be deceived, to think that you are on the right path, but in reality, are following something that just looks real. Incidentally, although I found only fools good, my wife found some real gold flakes.
Iron sulphite in the doctrine has deceived many into thinking they have found the real thing and that they are really following the Messiah and the Set-Apart Spirit. But in some cases people may be following and believing in the wrong message.
Although iron Sulphite looked like gold to me, and was distributed among the rocks along with real gold, it did not pass the tests of true gold. A simple test would have identified that it is indeed counterfeit and of no value. We need to apply the same test to all teaching the we receive, and to the Scriptural translations that we read.
Now are you sure that you are not following a counterfeit. Do you study the Scriptures and find the Scriptures a live experience? Do you understand what you read in the Scriptures? Do you pray meaningfully and often? If you go to a church, do you follow pagan celebrations (e-a-s-t-e-r or c-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s, these are derived from idol worship)? Do you practice what the Scriptures teach? Do you spend more time playing computer games or watching TV (a tool of s-a-t-a-n) than you spend seeking Yahuah?
Counterfeits are hard to spot unless you are trained in discerning the truth, and the same goes for interpretations of the Scriptures. Failure to identify counterfeits is one of the reasons that we have so much difference in church doctrine now. Take for example the Messiahs discussion with the Samaritan woman at the well recorded in John 4:22
John 4:22 “You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because the deliverance is of the Yehuḏim.
To recognise counterfeits, we need to gain knowledge of the Scriptures and absorb the teaching of the Set-Apart Spirit. This requires genuine repentance and shunning sin, standing apart from the world and its counterfeit values, study of the Scriptures, spending time in prayer seeking Yahuah. It means releasing those things from our lives that cause us to sin regardless of their value.
If we do not do this, and blindly believe what we are told by others that are misled, we put our own salvation at risk. We do not learn the instruction contained in the Scriptures. We may be worshiping someone other than the Father, or we may try to come before the Father in a manner that he has not specified (remember the story of Nadab and Abihu).
The Messiah mentioned the danger of being misled starting at Matthew 15:11, the key text is verse 14.
Matthew 15: 11 “Not that which goes into the mouth defiles the man, but that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles the man.” 12 Then His taught ones came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees stumbled when they heard this word?” 13 But He answering, said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted shall be uprooted. 14 “Leave them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both shall fall into a ditch.”
We need to make sure that the belief and worship of our teachers and ourselves aligns with the Scriptures. This discernment comes with study of the Scriptures and the leading of the Set-Aaprt Spirit.
If we rarely read the Scriptures or rarely associate with other true believers, or rarely attend true teaching sessions, but we choose listen to hundreds of hours of “programming” every month through television etc, then we should not be surprised that we are led astray?
We are what we fill our minds with example. For example, how many people listen for hours every day to television, films, radio, music, video games, the words of a false prophet, or even what is being taught in our schools. Now not all of these are bad, but compromise starts where what we let into our minds does not quite agree with the Scriptures. We need to control carefully what we allow into our minds, and into the minds of our families.
Our enemy is very clever, this process of compromise is disguised as entertainment, and it is a brainwashing tool. It is a very subtle method where we start to accept sin as normal behaviour. Once we have learned information that compromises us, we filter everything that we think, see and hear through it. We need to unlearn information that compromises us it to prevent it affecting or destroying our walk with Yahuah and our own salvation.
The Messiah warned us that there will be compromise to believers, we should not be naïve, gullible or deceived.
Matthew 24:24 “For false messiahs and false prophets shall arise, and they shall show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones. 25 “See, I have forewarned you.
To avoid compromise we need to be set apart from the world. Paul discussed this in his second letter to the members of the church at Corinth. Refer also to Exodus 29:45, Leviticus 26:12, Jeremiah 31:1, Ezekiel 37:27 and Isaiah 52:11
2 Corinthians’ 6:14 Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness and lawlessness? And what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 And what agreement has Messiah with demons? Or what part does a believer have with an unbeliever? 16 And what union has the Dwelling Place of Aluah with idols? For you are a Dwelling Place of the living Aluah, as Aluah has said, “I shall dwell in them and walk among them, and I shall be their Aluah, and they shall be My people.” 17 Therefore, “Come out from among them and be separate, says Yahuah, and do not touch what is unclean, and I shall receive you.
Remember that the words starting at 2 Peter 2:1 are very true for all time since the Messiahs sacrifice. If you want the truth, seek repentance and atonement, study the Scriptures and pray meaningfully. Filter all that happens through knowledge of the Scriptures and prayer.
He foretells them of false teachers, shewing the impiety and punishment both of them and their followers
2 Peter 2:1 But there also came to be false prophets among the people, as also among you there shall be false teachers, who shall secretly bring in destructive heresies, and deny the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. And many shall follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, 3 and in greed, with fabricated words, they shall use you for gain. From of old their judgment does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber. 4 For if Aluah did not spare the messengers who sinned, but sent them to Tartaros, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be kept for judgment, 5 and did not spare the world of old, but preserved Noaḥ, a proclaimer of righteousness, and seven others, bringing in the flood on the world of the wicked, 6 and having reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorah condemned them to destruction – having made them an example to those who afterward would live wickedly, 7 and rescued righteous Lot, who was oppressed with the indecent behaviour of the lawless, 8 (for day after day that righteous man, dwelling among them, tortured his righteous being by seeing and hearing their lawless works), 9 then Yahuah knows how to rescue the reverent ones from trial and to keep the unrighteous unto the day of judgment, to be punished 10 and most of all those walking after the flesh in filthy lust and despising authority – bold, headstrong, speaking evil of esteemed ones, 11 whereas messengers who are greater in strength and power do not bring a slanderous accusation against them before the Master.
