Liars in the Church

(1 Timothy 4:1-3 – Liars in the Church)

The modern church is in turmoil. It is filled with lies and liars in the Church.

This should not come as a surprise as the devil, who is the deceiver of the whole world, has been infiltrating the Church since the beginning. He is the father of lies and liars and he is the one who has brought these liars in the Church.

The truth can still be found, but it is harder today than it was in the early days of the Church. This situation was prophesied in this scripture under review today.

Power and processes of liars in the church

Before going into this subject, let us consider the words of the scripture today.

1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. (1 Timothy 4:1-3)

This section opens by telling us that in “later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.”

We are the ones who are living in those “later times.” And those “later times” began not long after Paul wrote those words to Timothy.

In the first 300-400 years after Christ died, the Church flourished. But after the early Apostles and disciples died, it was clear that certain people saw the size and power of the Church as an opportunity for power and personal gain.

The structure of the Church changed, especially with the rise of the Church in Rome and the work of Constantine.

In those times we saw the machinations of certain people to consolidate a power base in the hands of a few. The church became regimented with layers of clergy and a separation of the clergy and the laity. The whole structure changed from a brotherhood of equals to an hierarchical structure where power was vested in one man or a few.

This structure was nothing like the original Church as defined and designed by Jesus and those He chose to establish the Church. This new church was about the power and purpose of man rather than the power and will of God. This new church structure sought control, wealth, and power over people. It bound people in many ways and forced them through coercion and fear to bow to the church rather than to follow Christ.

The liars in the church took away the power of God in Jesus Christ for their own purposes and benefits.

The true Church of God was about freedom and transformation. It was about equality of the brethren and a sharing of all things. It promoted compassion, mercy, love, and freedom so that those who came to Christ could be transformed in the Spirit. Those in positions of authority, like Jesus, were there to teach and to serve rather than seeking to be served.

But this emerging church, run and promoted by liars in the church sought power and gain from the people. They developed false doctrines and even today they are creating new false doctrines to gain power and privilege over the congregations they are meant to serve.

Doctrines of liars in the Church

From early times there were false doctrines beginning to emerge in the Church.

Paul wrote to several of the churches concerning these matters. He wrote specifically to the Galatians regarding those false apostles who came to teach law and to put them under the law. He explained that Jesus had set them free from the law, but these false apostles wanted to bring them under the law for their own personal gain.

And this is not the only example in the early Church.

As time went on there were more false teachings introduced by liars in the church, including the teachings of the many pagan religions of that time. And these teachings have become so ingrained in the Church that even today if someone preaches against them, they are considered to be preaching heresy.

The early councils of the Church in Nicaea and in Constantinople codified certain false teachings that have become so pervasive in the Church that they are accepted without question today.

They developed the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed and these are accepted by much of the broad Church still today. Many Churches include these creeds into their own statements of faith, or include major parts of those creeds.

It was in those creeds that the doctrine of Trinity was first codified, and yet the truth of Trinity is that it does not exist in the Bible. It was a false doctrine carried over from pagan teachings into the Church in the time of Constantine.

And even when it was voted on in the various councils, it was not universally accepted. The scholars at the time did not all agree with its inclusion and there were a number of dissenters who opposed this false doctrine.

Moving on, the Church then translated the Bible from its original Greek and Hebrew into Latin, which was the language of the scholars and not the common people. This was a process by which the liars in the Church could control the masses. If the people could not read the Bible, they had to rely on what the Church told them.

This is how some of the doctrines of indulgences and purgatory and the like came about. They are not written in the Bible, but it gave the church power to oppress and drain the people of resources through these lying doctrines.

It is also interesting that they translated the word “Stauron” from the Greek into “crux” in Latin. “Stauron” in Greek means a stake or a stick. But “crux” in Latin is a cross, and it was from the later translations of the Latin into German by Martin Luther and then English by William Tyndale that the cross appeared in the translated Bibles.

As such it is highly likely that Jesus may not have been put to death on the cross, but rather hung on a stake with His arms nailed above His head, not out to the sides. That is what the Greek word suggests, and this may be one of the greatest false doctrines of the liars in the Church.

The symbol of the cross actually predates Christianity by many years. It was associated in a number of the earlier pagan religions that came out of Babylon who used the letter “Tau” which is a cross in their forms of worship. The worshipers of Bacchus in particular used that symbol, and so it is questionable that God would choose a pagan symbol to represent His church.

In fact, given that God hates idolatry in all its forms, why would He use any kind of a symbol that man might choose to worship? If you consider the words of the second of the Ten Commandments, it is clear that God does not want man to create any kind of an idol and worship them, including a cross. Consider these words:

You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)

So here we see two of what are considered the defining doctrines of Christianity, Trinity and the Cross, and both of them are questionable at best and false doctrines based in pagan religions at worst.

Today these are sacrosanct teachings that almost all Christians accept and recognise as truth. And the liars in the Church keep adding insult to injury as more and more false doctrines are brought into the Church to overpower the people and to bring them under control and subjugation.

Doctrines like the prosperity gospel, divine health, once saved always saved, and more are all designed to promote lies and controlling over the people of the church.

And it is becoming harder to find the truth today with other changes that are being made, especially in the new translations of the Bible.

Seeking the Truth Today

The truth can be found, but it is hard to find it. It is perhaps harder today then ever, especially if someone is not prepared to look for themselves and instead just blindly follow the teachings of someone else.

There are challenges with the way the Bible is being translated and many of the new translations do not lend themselves to an accurate rendering of the original Greek and Hebrew scriptures.

Basically there are three categories of Bibles being produced today, and if you are seeking the fullness of the truth you need to be careful which one you use.

The three categories are:

• Word for word translations
• Thought for thought interpretations
• Idea for idea interpretations

The first of these seeks to translate the Bible from the original languages as nearly and as accurately as possible. There is always a challenge in doing this as sometimes there is no direct equivalent English word for each Greek word, and so the translators have to choose the one they think is best. It also means that these Bibles are often more difficult to read, but not too much.

So if we want to seek the truth and reject the words of the liars in the church, a direct word for word translation is the best.

The other two categories are far easier to read, but they are less accurate. The aim of the translators is to make the Bibles easier to read, but often they sacrifice accuracy to do so, and scriptures can have a very different interpretation from what the original writers were saying.

The Bible itself also gives us some clues that would suggest this path of interpretation is not the best way to find the truth of what the scriptures are really saying. Consider the following two verses.

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

And;

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9)

In the first of these two scriptures we see that ALL scripture is written under the direct inspiration of God. It was God writing His thoughts and ideas by the Holy Spirit through the various men He appointed to this work.

And in the second scripture we see that God’s thoughts and ways are not the same as man and indeed are greater than the thoughts and ways of man.

So I find it presumptuous of men to think that they can interpret the scriptures written by the direct inspiration of God, and believe that they can accurately capture the thoughts or ideas of God, and make it easier to read. How can we produce a thought for thought or an idea for idea interpretation of God’s own writing when He says that His thoughts and ways far supersede those of mankind?

Thus, in our desire to seek the truth of the Gospel and the New Covenant, it is important that we choose a Bible that is as close to a word for word translation as possible. It may seem harder to understand, but better we have to think about the words of God than seek an easy way out and miss the fullness of the truth.

The truth is still there to be found if we reject the liars in the Church and their doctrines of demons that lead people astray. Although these new versions of the Bible may be easier to read, they sacrifice the accuracy of the scripture that can give a fuller insight into the truth.

And that is what the devil, the deceiver of the whole world wants. He wants his liars in the church to wreak as much havoc as possible.

But the Lord has also promised that we can and will find the truth when we look. He will open it up to us and show us the fullness of the truth as He promised in this scripture:

7 “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)

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