Edited 26 Jan 2011 (edited section in bold)
I write this article in response to a number of criticisms I have received saying that I do not show the love of Jesus in this blog and that my focus is on the smaller doctrines of the Bible and not the most important teachings. In response to these criticisms first read these following articles of mine:
Why Jesus Is The ONLY Way To Heaven and How To Be Saved
How To Be Truly Saved and Be Certain Of Going To Heaven
What Is Repentance?
Qualities Of True Biblical Leadership Compared To the False Teachers
We Are No Longer Under Law But Under Grace! What Does That Really Mean?
How To Handle False Teaching And Strange, Different Teachings
My Rapture and End Times Stance
(Read just the introduction to this article as it explains my stance that other teachings like loving one another are more important than our end times stance)
The Importance Of Combining Discernment With Love
Are Our Experiences More Important In Our Christian Faith Than knowing Him through His Word?
My articles listed above should prove that I am very conscious NOT to miss the BIG stuff. From these articles you will see I try to keep a good balance and to NOT get sidetracked away from the Truth. The main reason I have this blog and write the things I write, is because I have compassion for my brothers and sisters. I want us all
to be aware of the deceptions that surround us so that we can escape them. I desire that all of us will know the Truth that sets us free and that the unsaved will come to a knowledge of salvation.
By the way, Jesus did not say that loving one another is proof that we are saved. Neither did He say that loving each other is the reason that others come to faith (although our love may attract others to ask why we are so loving). He simply stated that TRUE believers would be noticed because of their love for one another. This love is unique. This love, is not of human endeavour because the flesh (sinful nature) can never love in the way Jesus is referring to. This love is from the Holy Spirit as a segment of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
We are not disciples because of the love we generate (in our own strength) but vice-versa, ie, we love because WE ARE disciples (because we have already been changed by the Holy Spirit). We first need to be born-again of the Holy Spirit before we can start loving in this supernatural way. As Jesus stated, even the unsaved do works of love in helping the less fortunate. Our love should FAR exceed the love of the unsaved caring people. It HAS to be supernatural (of the Holy Spirit) because we cannot generate that ourselves.
Jesus said that some will come to Him saying "we did this in your name and that in your name". Jesus told them He never knew them. They may have produced the "acts" of being a disciple but they were never born-again. It was all of SELF effort. Regarding Matthew 25 and the goats and the sheep. This is referring to those who are left behind AFTER the rapture. The dispensation and rules of salvation change somewhat after the rapture. The sheep are those who treated the Jewish people kindly during the Tribulation. Jesus was primarily talking about Israel and maybe those who are saved after the rapture(at this point) and NOT the church (because the Church has been raptured).
Regarding love. Sometimes love can be tough! "faithful are the wounds of a friend". Jesus had great compassion on the scribes and pharisees. He said "how often I would have gathered you together under my wings but you would not". Jesus then (out of a heart full of compassion and love)said "woe to you scribes and pharisees" in Matthew 23.
Jesus often spoke seemingly harshly to the hypocrites and superficial followers. If Christians spoke in similar ways, we are criticised as being "unloving". Love is not a warm, fuzzy feeling, saying the right things diplomatically. Love can be tough at times.
Truth can be painful! 1 Corinthians 13 is an excellent passage on DIVINE (agape) love and how it works through us, but that chapter is not the only passage on love. John writes about love in his gospel and in his letters. John shows what tough love is like.
I write this article in response to a number of criticisms I have received saying that I do not show the love of Jesus in this blog and that my focus is on the smaller doctrines of the Bible and not the most important teachings. In response to these criticisms first read these following articles of mine:
Why Jesus Is The ONLY Way To Heaven and How To Be Saved
How To Be Truly Saved and Be Certain Of Going To Heaven
What Is Repentance?
Qualities Of True Biblical Leadership Compared To the False Teachers
We Are No Longer Under Law But Under Grace! What Does That Really Mean?
How To Handle False Teaching And Strange, Different Teachings
My Rapture and End Times Stance
(Read just the introduction to this article as it explains my stance that other teachings like loving one another are more important than our end times stance)
The Importance Of Combining Discernment With Love
Are Our Experiences More Important In Our Christian Faith Than knowing Him through His Word?
My articles listed above should prove that I am very conscious NOT to miss the BIG stuff. From these articles you will see I try to keep a good balance and to NOT get sidetracked away from the Truth. The main reason I have this blog and write the things I write, is because I have compassion for my brothers and sisters. I want us all
to be aware of the deceptions that surround us so that we can escape them. I desire that all of us will know the Truth that sets us free and that the unsaved will come to a knowledge of salvation.
By the way, Jesus did not say that loving one another is proof that we are saved. Neither did He say that loving each other is the reason that others come to faith (although our love may attract others to ask why we are so loving). He simply stated that TRUE believers would be noticed because of their love for one another. This love is unique. This love, is not of human endeavour because the flesh (sinful nature) can never love in the way Jesus is referring to. This love is from the Holy Spirit as a segment of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
We are not disciples because of the love we generate (in our own strength) but vice-versa, ie, we love because WE ARE disciples (because we have already been changed by the Holy Spirit). We first need to be born-again of the Holy Spirit before we can start loving in this supernatural way. As Jesus stated, even the unsaved do works of love in helping the less fortunate. Our love should FAR exceed the love of the unsaved caring people. It HAS to be supernatural (of the Holy Spirit) because we cannot generate that ourselves.
Jesus said that some will come to Him saying "we did this in your name and that in your name". Jesus told them He never knew them. They may have produced the "acts" of being a disciple but they were never born-again. It was all of SELF effort. Regarding Matthew 25 and the goats and the sheep. This is referring to those who are left behind AFTER the rapture. The dispensation and rules of salvation change somewhat after the rapture. The sheep are those who treated the Jewish people kindly during the Tribulation. Jesus was primarily talking about Israel and maybe those who are saved after the rapture(at this point) and NOT the church (because the Church has been raptured).
Regarding love. Sometimes love can be tough! "faithful are the wounds of a friend". Jesus had great compassion on the scribes and pharisees. He said "how often I would have gathered you together under my wings but you would not". Jesus then (out of a heart full of compassion and love)said "woe to you scribes and pharisees" in Matthew 23.
Jesus often spoke seemingly harshly to the hypocrites and superficial followers. If Christians spoke in similar ways, we are criticised as being "unloving". Love is not a warm, fuzzy feeling, saying the right things diplomatically. Love can be tough at times.
Truth can be painful! 1 Corinthians 13 is an excellent passage on DIVINE (agape) love and how it works through us, but that chapter is not the only passage on love. John writes about love in his gospel and in his letters. John shows what tough love is like.
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14 comments:
To add! We are living in the last of the last days. The scriptures state that in those days "the love of most will grow cold".
When Jesus stated that they would know us by our love for one another, it was referring to the beginning of the church up until the LAST DAYS. But it was prophecied (in various places) that the last days would mark an apostasy within the church and a falling away from the true faith, with love barely visible.
We can see for ourselves that there is very little REAL Agape Divine love being shown within our churches of today. Although there may be some islolated cases of real self denying, self sacrificial Christian love,it is rare to see anything other than superficial "weak" love.
This superficial variety is all about feelings or a half hearted non committal attempt to show love in action. What we see is "Sunday" love with hugs etc, but what about during the week or when love COSTS!
We are clearly in days when even the church's love has grown cold. We have left our first love and living like the Laodicean church. If our love is not cold it is lukewarm. We are neither hot nor cold.
Hello John
A Happy and Blessed New Year!
I am a little preoccupied with 'last day' events at present. There appears to be a surge of prophetic news occurring right around the globe presently that I would like to get my teeth into, but my dear old Mum is my main priority, she is 89yrs in July and becoming more frail.
Seeing you up and running again after the break, is good news, well done.
BUT! I am staggered. Of all the things; to accuse YOU, of a 'lack of love'. That is a personal opinion based on ---? I certainly do not read ANYTHING here in this most difficult of ALL ministries, that remotely suggests a lack of love.
That! My dear brother; is the sorry lot of a faithful watchman! Being verbally stoned by those who do not like being challenged, or having their 'comfort zone' rucked up by an 'INCONVENIENT TRUTH'.
I believe we can safely say that you are now officially ‘dubbed’ a Watchman for The Truth, because the accusing cry of ‘no love’ always swells to try and impede ALL faithful watchmen. Applying a firm hand to the seat of learning regarding God’s Word is rarely appreciated.
Well the day is now upon us all when we have no fuzzy, idealistic, security blanket to snuggle up into while wishing away the harsh reality of deception in the Church. The Perilous Times of apostasy are well and truly underway, clothed in a garment of pap; for this is what false love is, pap with no substance or reality.
Agape Love, the genuine, disciplining Love of a Heavenly Father for His erring child, so easily turned away by the thrills and excitement of ‘lovey dovey’ experiential Christianity; is scorned as too harsh.
ALL those the Father loves He disciplines, and if we don’t face up to the error, and repent, then His discipline is increased steadily until we DO take notice.
Yes God is Love, He is also The God of TRUTH ---- and ohh my goodness, doesn’t THAT hurt when confronted with it!
Keep it up my brother, well done, your ministry for obediently defending The Faith is bearing fruit, and that can taste very sour to those who are reluctant to recognise the bitter fact of error.
May God continue to wonderfully bless you.
Praise The Lord and MARANATHA!
With love in Christ Jesus, your old sister Sue 8~}
John,
Thanks again for all your contributions. I have seen your last few comments and just wanted to throw my two cents in.
I have followed your blog regularly shortly after it's inception - and have always found your work to informative and has helped me help others on several occsssions.
I felt the need to write and ask others to really get into some of your pieces in detail before they form an innaccurate opinion. I have witnessed many times how you have responded - and I must say that you have always conducted yourself with class and dignity and, even when you disagree with others - you have in my opinion responded with genuine care and love.
Also want to say again - thank you for all your hard work. it is greatly appreciated by many.
It is very sad how many Christian twists the view on the love of Christ. In many instances Jesus Christ directly rebukes His disciples , condemns the pharisees yet He forgives. Jesus did not in any way compromise His integrity nor His message just to please or appease someone or anyone just to follow Him.
The TRUE "Love of Christ" is this He died for your sins and mine, and through Him we can receive the forgiveness of God.
Hi Tony
Always a blessing to hear from you. Thanks for your two cents.
Thanks also Anonymous. A big Amen from me.
Thanks EI for your words and happy new year to you too and a blessed new year to all my readers.
God bless
People today have no idea what love really is. Just like with children, just let them do anything they want to, rather than teaching them and disciplining them. That is the love of this day.
No creator God whom we are accountable to is allowed.
Not sure if my comment posted or not. Love is not what the world thinks. Anyone doing anything they want, not what God teaches in his word.
Keep up the good work, John, most people do not want to hear the truth.
They want the watered down church of this day.
I can fully relate to what it feels like to be labeled "unloving" for pointing out false teaching...
This is hands down the favorite response from anyone who is upset when their falsehood is weighed against the standard of God's Word... "Love" is the rampart behind which false teachers will inevitablly hide behind, because the last thing they want people to do is test their message...
I was recently accused of being "unloving to a brother" because I was pointing out how a supposedly "Christian" book that I read recently is chock full of references to spirit-mediums & mystics, and actually teaches Christians to engage in various practices to achieve "altered states of consciousness"...
How unlike the example of Paul, who praised the Bereans for not accepting his message based on his reputation, but instead carefully measured what he was saying against the scriptures!
The World's concept of "love" is to only hear things that make you feel good, which of course is not how God defines love at all! Often times the hardest thing for a person to hear is that very thing that IS spoken in love...
Love always tells the Truth, even if we don't want to hear it....
D
Thanks Roma and "D" for your comments. You are both absolutely right. We klnow the scripture verse (in John's letter) which says "God is love". Jesus said "when you see me you see the Father" "I and the Father are one" and in Colossians where it says that the Godhead dwelt bodily in Jesus and He is the exact likeness of God.
These verses and passages show us that Jesus IS God and the Father is IN Him, ie JESUS IS LOVE.
For God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son. Jesus lived, died for our sins and rose again out of a heart of love and compassion. It says Jesus looked on the multitude and saw that they were like sheep without a shepherd and HAD COMPASSION for them.
Jesus IS love, so everything Jesus did was out of a heart of love and compassion. So everything He said was said in love, even when he overturned the tables of the money lenders in the Temple.
Paul said that we should speak the truth in love. Love requires truth and truth requires love. If someone is deceiving or being deceived WE MUST speak out. This is an act of love. But when we speak out it must ONLY be done out of a heart of love and compassion. There are some who delight in telling people off for no other reason than it makes themselves feel better. This is a wrong motive.
Those who speak the truth in love, don't actually enjoy doing it and often feel worse after doing so, because they know it could be taken the wrong way or could cause pain. We do not like to cause pain, but pain is often the starting point for healing. Like Jeremiah, the truth is like fire in our bones. The more we try to say nothing, the more the fire burns within us. Sometimes the conviction (from the Holy Spirit) to speak the truth is so strong that we cannot remain silent.
But always remember that whenever we speak the truth it must be out of a heart of love and compassion, spoken with grace, seasoned with salt and in gentleness and self control.
Hello John and all
Was Jesus being unloving when he called the Scribes and the Pharisees a ‘brood of snakes in Matt.3:7; 12:34; Matt23:33; Luke 3:7. After all, these were His fellow Jews and worshippers of YHWH.
When these fellow Jews taunted Him and said he was ‘born of fornication’ i.e. illegitimate in John 8:41; this remark was directed against His mother as much as Him. Was Jesus being un-loving when He reciprocated in vs 44 saying that they were ‘sons of Satan’. They were just like him, murderers and liars. Ouch! But Jesus spoke the truth and some of those religious leaders did finally believe in Him as Messiah. Were they ‘startled into Salvation’?
Telling these men the truth cost Jesus His life; and He did it because He loved them and wanted them to repent and believe in Him as the Messiah.
There are many verses where the Apostles ‘named names’, speaking the truth in the hope they too would repent from their faulty ideas about who Messiah was, and believe in Him to save them. As a result they were beaten, stoned, killed … because religious people do not like to be told the truth when they are in error.
How many have seen a lady leaving the public toilets with her thigh and bottom on public display? She had made the error of not checking and adjusting her clothing before going out into the world, and the hem of her skirt was caught up in her knickers! I have seen that happen and people have left her alone, said nothing, in case they embarrassed her with the truth. All the while others were sniggering at her. Was that loving and caring?
I have sidled up to such ladies, who have glared at me for hindering them. That is until they realised I had alerted them to an error, and they were thankful I had spared them their blushes. However I was guilty of interfering in the situation and causing embarrassment. Have I been guilty of being unloving?
Ha! I am getting old and it happened to me a few months ago. A foreign lady was trying to warn me and I felt annoyed because I couldn’t understand her. She wasn’t put off; she reached around me and put my skirt straight before I had chance to ‘go public’. I was red faced, irritated and hot with embarrassment, but I couldn’t thank her enough for alerting me to my error. Was that lady being unloving?
It is no different to warn against the errors of false teaching. The church is going around oblivious that they too are ‘caught up’ and are exposing themselves to more and more unbiblical error. The day WILL come when they will say ‘why didn’t somebody tell me’.
Every blessing.
Sue
Hi there Brother John;
I have just gotten home from work after doing the night shift and as there is a great deal to do on my day off tomorrow I do not have the time to watch the whole of the video that was published on the Shofar Ministries website right through at the moment. But as you say there is something not quite right about these guys if they set dates as you say they have done in the video. There are no dates at all that are set in the word so there is nothing that any man really knows as far as the timing of events relating to the fulfilment of the prophecies is concerned. The idea of a single global currency is something that definitely relates to the end times. That being the case, there can be no other explanation relative to date setting other than to assume that what they are doing is simply just guessing. I have had an interest in the Bible prophecies for about 10 of years now, and if I have learnt nothing else in all that time, I have learnt there is no one who is ever correct all of the time when it comes to predicting future events. Particularly date setting! Therefore, I do not believe that it is the wisest thing in the world to rely on what anyone says relative to what has been forecast to come to pass in the word of God. The wisest thing to do in all circumstances is to firstly go back to the word to check the veracity of what anyone says. Then if whatever statement is made concurs with the Bible, then there is no greater proof required than that, nor is it needed. However, you still need to give those who have produced the video a bit of a go as there maybe something good that comes out of their message. That is what we Aussies believe in, a fair go, and that should also apply to you even if you believe the backgrounds and circumstances of those who originally produced and put up that video is somewhat questionable. I would assume that Bob has only put the video up because he thought there was a load of good information contained there that related to the end times? That seems to be applicable even if there still remained the distinct possibly he did not necessarily agree with everything contained in it, just as you quite clearly do not. God has obviously given you a gift of discernment relative to other groups and ministries. If you feel that you need to use that gift to warn other Christians relative those groups you think may be dangerous to genuine believers, then my only advice to you is to use your gifts wisely. Personally though, that is not an area that I have any wisdom in, nor is it an area I wish to pursue. God Bless and thanks for listening.
Hi Robert
Thanks for your comments and the encouragement. Just to clarify, one of the men on the video (not a prophet)stated that he had heard the timing and planning behind the demise of the dollar. Dates were given as to the stages in this finality of March 2011 and June 2011 which would lead to a global currency.
In my experience of world affairs and forecasts, nothing ever seems to happen exactly as predicted. I do believe that those who pull things together (behind the scenes) do have a strategic plan for a global currency leading to a "non" currency ie the mark of the beast, but God often intervenes and interferes with their plans and timings.
My point was that the style of the presentation was so weird and lacked real credibility that I found it hard to take it seriously. There may be some truth in it, but I wonder what the ulterior motive of the presentation was.
Please see my other latter replies there too.
However, I do believe that we should all be vigilant NOT to get ourselves into debt and to seek to get out of it asap. Regarding storing up for the future. Quite honestly, the crisis (according to the Bible)will be so severe, it would be impossible (in our day and age) to store up enough to last 7 years without God's supernatural provision, so why even try (as any provision we make would only last us a matter of months)?
We need God to speak to us clearly (I am sure He will)and specifically (like He did to Joseph in OT and to Agabus in NT) as to how we can do it and WHEN it should be done.
There is much fear mongering going on. We should keep focussed on Jesus and (as He said) "fear not, I have overcome the world".
Hi Anonymous
Thank you so very much for those comments. However, it seems that you said those things for the sole purpose of trying to get me off guard, hoping I would automatically publish your whole comment including links to your blog.
By the way, your comment went into my spam folder. I looked at your blog which is nothing to do with watchman or Christian issues but is only for selling a product.
I have deleted the reference to your blog because this is not a base for marketing/advertising products.
In the same way, I have chosen not to use blogger's advertising facility to earn cash because I do not want anything to detract from or water down the effectiveness of this blog.
For all possible future advertising readers: Please do not try to advertise anything on here except that which complements this blog. Thanks
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