The New Testament clearly shows that false apostles were working within the churches of God while the true apostles of Jesus Christ were still alive! There were “many deceivers” bringing in false teachings concocted through deceitfully handling the Word of God. These blessedly-true-sounding teachings were cloaked in the terminology of “new understanding” or “new light,” but they were actually teachings that originated in the ancient spiritual darkness of Satan the devil.
The same deception is taking place in the churches of God today! The purveyors of deceit are drinking straight out of the “golden cup” of spiritual fornication from the hand of that old harlot, “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and the Abominations of the Earth.” While these deceivers drink the wine of false doctrines, and proclaim Satan’s ancient fables as “new light,” they are leading the brethren of Jesus Christ into spiritual darkness.
God has called us out of that darkness! We are not to go back into it! The apostle Paul said that he was called to preach the true Gospel of God, “...to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to the power of God...” (Acts 26:18, AT).
Jesus Christ warned us not to partake of Satan’s darkness by allowing our minds to be corrupted with false teachings. He knows that believing Satan’s lies will rob us of our spiritual understanding. He warned, “The light of the body is the eye; therefore, if your eye be single in purpose, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye be evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in you is darkness, HOW GREAT IS THAT DARKNESS” (Mat.6:22-23, AT).
Many Christians in New Testament times failed to heed the warnings of Jesus Christ and His apostles against deceivers who would bring in false doctrines. In his epistle to the early Christians, the apostle Jude warned of false brethren who had “crept in unawares.” These false teachers were the ones who turned the true Gospel of Jesus Christ into another gospel altogether by their perverse doctrines. These deceivers worked their way into positions of power and influence in the churches and then subtly began to subvert the brethren. After the death of the apostles, the subversion of the apostolic church of God was so swift, so complete and so thorough that Jesse Lyman Hurlbut wrote in his book The Story of the Christian Church of the vast changes in the church, “We name the last generation of the first century, from 68 to 100 A.D., ‘The Age of Shadows’....For fifty years after St. Paul’s life a curtain hangs over the church, through which we strive vainly to look; and when at last it rises about 120 A. D. with the writings of the earliest church-fathers, we find a church in many aspects very different from that in the days of St. Peter and St. Paul” (p. 42).
The churches of God were overcome by the spiritual darkness of false doctrines. So many Christians were deceived into accepting the “new” doctrines that those who refused were looked upon as heretics! Those Christians who were faithful to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ were driven out of the local churches (III John). They left the organizations of men in order to love and serve God in the light of Jesus Christ.
Only the church at Ephesus was able to withstand the deceptive teachings of false apostles. Jesus said to the Ephesian Christians, “I know your works and your labor and your endurance, and that you cannot bear them that are evil, and you have tried them who declared themselves to be apostles and are not, but you did find them to be liars” (Rev. 2:2, AT).
Like the brethren in Ephesus, we are to test and prove the teachings of ministers and apostles who claim to bring us the doctrine of God! If we fail to recognize the false apostles and their teachings, we will succumb to their evil influence and be overtaken by spiritual darkness. The apostle John warned that we cannot have fellowship with God if we are walking in spiritual darkness. “And this is the message which we have heard from Him and we are declaring to you, the fact that God is Light and there is not any darkness in Him at all. If we proclaim that we are having fellowship with Him, and we are walking in the darkness, we are lying to ourselves, and we are not practicing the Truth” (I John 1:5-6, AT).
Only by walking in the light of the Truth can we have fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. Those who claim to know God but do not practice the Truth are only deceiving themselves.
Numerous passages in the New Testament describe the insidious deception that led the early churches of God to apostatize from the truth. Apostasy is the end result of rejecting the light of the true doctrines of Jesus Christ and embracing the false doctrines of spiritual darkness. This degenerate spiritual condition is allowed to develop when a church becomes spiritually lax and lethargic. Christians who have lost their love of the Truth and who fail to “prove all things” by the Word of God can easily be deceived by the counterfeit doctrines of Babylon. When these false doctrines are presented as “new understanding” by so-called apostles and top ranking ministers, most church members obediently accept them as the doctrines of Jesus Christ. This loyal obedience to church authority is demanded in churches where the ministry exercises lordship over the brethren. Without realizing it, the brethren have exchanged their love of God and their faith and loyalty to His Word for a false faith in corruptible men who promise salvation to all who abide by their teachings and are loyal to their organizations.
Such misplaced loyalty and obedience actually is idolatry. The subservient obeisance demanded by arrogant ministers in corporate church organizations has replaced the true love and worship of God the Father and Jesus Christ in Spirit and in Truth. These exalted church leaders have placed themselves between the brethren and God and have deceived lower-rank ministers and the brethren into trusting in the words and actions of men, rather than trusting in God’s Word and His power. True to the Scripture, “They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof, from such turn away!” (II Tim. 3:5.)
The apostle Paul personally warned the elders from Ephesus that deceivers would enter the church after he was gone. In a special meeting with the elders at Miletus Paul also declared that even some of them, who had been ordained as ministers of Jesus Christ, would begin to subvert their brethren in the church (Acts 20:28-30).
Later, when Paul was in prison, he wrote a letter to warn the entire church in Ephesus about deceitful men who would attempt to lead them astray. He exhorted, “Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the children of disobedience. THEREFORE BE NOT PARTAKERS WITH THEM!” (Eph. 5:6-7.)
Paul’s words show that these men were working within the church. They may even have been highly trusted by the congregation. But Paul was inspired by God to warn the brethren not to partake of the errors of these deceivers. Those who did not heed Paul’s warning were led away from Jesus Christ and God the Father into the darkness of apostasy.
Why did God allow the New Testament churches to be led into apostasy? Why didn’t God intervene to keep false teachers and false apostles from subverting the brethren?
The apostle Paul gives the answer in his first epistle to the Corinthians: “For there must be [necessity] also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (I Cor. 11:19, AT).
Paul tells us very clearly that God allows false doctrines to arise within His churches in order to prove who is truly serving Him. Christians who are grounded and built up in the Word of God will be able to discern false teachers and will reject them. No deceiver will be able to seduce them into forsaking the Truth of God.
In his epistle to the Ephesians, Paul urged the brethren to grow in the knowledge of Christ Jesus and not to yield to the doctrines of false teachers. “That we may no longer be infants, being tossed and carried about by the wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men in their craftiness [their cunning words and deceptive doctrines], with a view to the systematizing of the error” (Eph. 4:14, AT).
This translation of Paul’s words conveys the literal meaning of the Greek text. These deceivers were being inspired by Satan to organize their false teachings into “authoritative” doctrines even before the death of Paul. This body of beliefs later became the official creed of the Catholic Church.
The way for true Christians to avoid being deceived by these counterfeit doctrines is to be “...holding the Truth in love, so that we may grow up into Him in all things, into the Christ, Who is the Head [of the Church]” (Eph. 4:15, AT).
Paul commanded Titus, a fellow minister, to resist false doctrines and to refute them with sound doctrine! In his epistle to Titus, Paul wrote that a true minister of God must be “holding fast the faithful Word [the Truth of God] as he has been taught [the original teachings of Jesus Christ as taught by the apostle Paul], so that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convict the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision; whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teachings things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake....This is a true witness. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.
“Not giving heed to Jewish fables [Jewish/Egyptian philosophy, such as Philo and other philosophers taught, which included a triune godhead], and commandments of men, that turn from the Truth. Unto the pure all things are pure; but unto these who are defiled [with false doctrines] and unbelieving is nothing pure: but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work [of spiritual growth (Eph. 2:8-10)] they are reprobate” (Titus 1:9-16, AT).
True ministers and faithful brethren in the churches of God must be prepared to refute false doctrines with sound doctrine from the Word of God. False teachers will not be able to subvert those churches of God where the ministers and brethren resist them. These deceivers will seek a following in other congregations where the brethren are not so well grounded in the Word of God.
In the first century there were false teachers of antichrist doctrines who left the faithful congregations of God because they were not able to subvert the brethren. The apostle John wrote, “Little children, it is the last time, and exactly as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, yet even now many antichrists have risen up, from which fact we are knowing that it is the last time. They went out from among us, but they were not of us; because if they were of us, they would have remained with us; nevertheless they left us, that they should be exposed, to show that they all were not of us” (I John 2:18-19, AT).
These deceivers continued to preach their false doctrines in congregations where the brethren did not resist and refute them. When the antichrist teachers had gained positions of power and authority in these churches, they forced out the true believers. This diabolical apostasy was well underway in the lifetime of the apostle John, who was inspired by God to write, “I wrote to the church, but Diotrophes (he is the one who is loving to be chief among them) is not receiving us. On account of this very thing, if I come, I will bring to his remembrance the actions which he is practicing with evil words, bringing unjustified charges against us; and he is not being satisfied with these things, for he himself neither receives the brethren, and those who wish to receive the brethren, he is forbidding and is casting them out of the church” (III John 9-10, AT).
What a paradox! The false ministers of Satan, claiming to be ministers of righteousness, were now exercising control over the churches of God! The true brethren of Jesus Christ were being excommunicated by these false apostles! Brethren who were faithful to the original teachings of Jesus Christ and His apostles could no longer fellowship in their local church congregations!
God allowed this apostasy to take place in His first-century churches in order to separate those who would hold fast His Truth from those who would follow Satan’s lies. Those faithful brethren who opposed the deceivers and their false doctrines were forcibly expelled. This action served to fully separate the true believers and keep their faith from being eroded by the subtle influence of false doctrines.
When false doctrines begin to enter the churches of God, it is the responsibility of every Christian who loves God and His Truth to reject those false teachings and refute them with the sound doctrine of Jesus Christ. But when false teachers and false ministers gain control over a church of God and they cannot be expelled, removed or replaced with righteous teachers and ministers, then we are commanded by the Word of God to withdraw ourselves from them.
In his first epistle to Timothy, Paul shows that true Christians should separate themselves from those who do not teach and practice the true doctrine of Jesus Christ. Paul declared, “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness [according to the Truth of God]; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof comes envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings [false suppositions], perverse disputings [devious arguments] of men of corrupt minds [corrupted by philosophy and false theology], and destitute of the Truth [because they believe and accept lies, and handle the Word of God deceitfully], supposing that gain [large membership, buildings, cathedrals, colleges, political power] is godliness: FROM SUCH WITHDRAW YOURSELF” (I Tim. 6:3-5).
Does this description fit the congregation you attend? Does the church you attend have vain, proud, pretentious ministers, who use lofty theological terms but who really do not understand the Bible? Is your church filled with doctrinal questions and strife that are leading to intimidation and threats? Is your church being misled by false suppositions and devious arguments of men of corrupt minds? Does your church have teachers who are destitute of the Truth? Does your church measure spiritual standing with God by numbers of members, buildings and colleges? Are false doctrines being preached and accepted by your church as “official doctrines of faith”? Are the Truth and the love of God, the wholesome words and doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ, being replaced with the half-truths and half-lies of Satan?
When any church of God sinks into this degenerate spiritual state, true Christians are commanded by God to withdraw themselves! We are commanded by God to reject all false teachers! We are forbidden by the Word of God to receive them! We are not to listen to their false doctrines or fellowship with them!
Yes, these false ministers and false teachers have an appearance of godliness, and their teachings sound blessedly true. But, just as Paul wrote, they have “a form of godliness, but they are denying the power thereof: FROM SUCH TURN AWAY!” (II Tim. 3:5.)
The true ministers of God will not preach false half‑truths for doctrine. Paul wrote, “For we have not preached ourselves [our own ideas, based on philosophy or false theology], but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. 4:5-6, AT).
Paul taught only the Truth of God and the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. He never compromised with half-truths and half-lies. He was never corrupted by false apostles and false teachers of his day. On the contrary, he opposed them with all his might! Paul describes his confrontation with these false teachers: “...false brethren, who stealthily came in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into bondage; to whom we did not yield in subjection [to their so-called authority], no not even for an hour, in order that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you” (Gal. 2:4-5, AT).
Every true Christian should follow the example of Paul. We should not be intimidated by false teachers who attempt to exercise authority over us. We must not yield to these false teachers, but oppose them with all our might!
If we are true Christians, we will imitate our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, who refused to compromise with Satan and yield to his evil ways. Jesus Christ allowed Himself to be crucified because He loved God the Father and His righteousness.
Stephen, the first true Christian martyr, refused to compromise during his trial by the Jewish Sanhedrin. After hearing his courageous testimony, the angry religious leaders stopped their ears and gnashed their teeth at him and screamed at him in a frenzy of satanic hatred. Then they mobbed him and dragged him out of the city, where they had him stoned to death. What was his crime in their eyes? He refused to compromise the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Truth of God by submitting to their authority and following their teachings! He preferred to die in Christ Jesus rather than to compromise and accept their religious lies and political approval.
All the true apostles of Jesus Christ stood for the Truth. Many of the original apostles died through martyrdom. They endured torturous deaths because they truly loved God with all their hearts, all their minds, all their beings and all their strength. They never compromised the Truth of God to escape persecution and be able to spend the rest of their days in quiet comfort.
During a time of abject apostasy and political disintegration in the kingdom of Israel, King Asa began his reign over the kingdom of Judah. He demolished the idols in his land and commanded the people of Judah to seek God and to keep His commandments. For ten years, God blessed Asa and his people with rest on all sides. When the people of Judah foolishly went back to idolatry, God sent a huge Ethiopian army against them. King Asa besought God for His help, and Judah was victorious over the enemy. Then God told King Asa through the prophet Azariah, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while you be with Him; and if you seek Him, He will be found of you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you....Be you strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded” (II Chron. 15:2-7).
Then Asa and the princes and people of Judah, joined by many from the kingdom of Israel, “...entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul....for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought Him with their whole desire; and He was found of them...” (verses 12-15).
They put away their abominable idols and pagan gods. They returned to God and sought Him with their whole hearts. God answered and blessed them, giving them rest from their enemies.
But thirty-six years later, when the king of Israel came up to besiege Judah, Asa turned his back on God and made an alliance with the king of Syria. In his trouble, Asa failed to look to God, thinking he could work out the problem his own way. By hiring the king of Syria to fight his battles, he compromised his standing with God. In this case, he went too far in rejecting God and did not repent. Then Hanani the seer was sent by God to warn Asa and pronounce God’s judgment against him. Hanani told Asa, “Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the king of Syria has escaped out of your hand.
“Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host [nearly one million men], with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you did rely on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. Herein you have done foolishly: therefore from henceforth you shall have wars” (II Chron. 16:7-9).
Too many Christians are like Asa. They start out with great zeal for the Truth of God and look to Him for strength to do His will. But after a while they grow lax and begin to compromise. When the going gets rough, they forget God and turn to their own devices instead. They put their trust in men, instead of in God. They accept false teachings and pagan beliefs, rather than holding fast the Truth. This willingness to compromise is the reason for the doctrinal changes in the churches of God today. The ministers and members are not relying on God the Father and Jesus Christ. As a result, too many are afraid to take a stand for the Truth and for God!
But God sees our actions and knows our hearts. God expects us to stand for the Truth. If we do, God will be with us. He will never leave us or forsake us, as long as we are seeking Him. The psalmist asked, “Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?” (Ps. 94:16.)
God is asking you the same question today. Will you make a stand for God? Will you stand against the workers of evil who are operating within the churches of God? Will you have the courage to stand alone, if necessary? Or will you, like Asa, turn your back on God and rely on men, putting your trust in their false doctrines and smooth words? What will you do? Will you stand for God, or fall with sinners?
From the time of the early New Testament church, Christians have had to face this question. Down through the centuries, countless thousands of true Christians were martyred because they refused to compromise the Truth of God. They refused to deny God the Father and Jesus Christ. They were tortured and killed because they refused to believe the doctrine of the Trinity and all the abominable doctrines of the Catholic Church. They were burned, maimed and killed for refusing to submit to the tyranny of the popes and overlordship of the bishops and priests.
In view of their faithfulness, do you think that God is going to give you eternal life if you compromise your calling, His Truth and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Don’t deceive yourself! Don’t think for one moment that by hiding your eyes from the conflict you can avoid making a decision. If you passively submit to doctrines that are contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ, you have already made your decision. You are compromising the Truth of God!
Christians who compromise the Truth will sooner or later be overcome by false doctrines. If you do not rouse yourself from spiritual apathy, you may have to face Jesus Christ and hear Him say, “I know you not” (Mat. 25:1-12).
The Word of God clearly commands true Christians to withdraw from fellowship with those who would corrupt their beliefs and erode their faith. Faithful brethren who continue to fellowship in the hope of preserving the Truth will eventually either fall prey to the deception or be expelled from the church. Those who walk in the light of God’s Word can have no fellowship with the workers of darkness and deceit.
We are commanded to separate ourselves from them! We are not to fellowship with them, or we will be partakers of their sins. We are commanded by God to withdraw from fellowship with any church that teaches contrary to the true doctrine of Jesus Christ.
After having withdrawn from a corrupted church of God, a true Christian said, “It is better to live the Truth alone, than to live a lie in a group!” That is a true and profound statement. What will you do? Will you choose to be faithful to the Truth of God and to love God the Father and Jesus Christ more than anyone or anything else, even if you must stand alone?
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