How can the enemies of Messiah destroy His church?
B1 First truth—they cannot. Matthew 16:18 WEL I also say to you that you are Peter [a stone]. I will build my church on this massive rock, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. See also 2 Peter 1:11, Hebrews 7:25, and Revelation 1:6.
B2 Second truth—they can corrupt most believers.
How does the church become corrupted? All these are some forms of a lie.
B1 Ignorance
C1 Of the Bible, God, God’s worldview, and lifestyle. See Matthew 22:29 and Hoshea 4:6.
C2 Of doctrine, what a Christian believes. Compare Hebrews 6:1-2 and Sardis in Revelation 3:1-6.
C3 Ignorant, deceived, deceptive leaders and pastors.
D1 People corrupted from the corrupted pastors and leaders who were corrupted in seminary, college, further education, theology, feelings, etc. Compare Acts 20:29
D2 Those who sneak in as satan’s agents. See Galatians 2:4 and Luke 20:20-22.
B2 Low standards
C1 Doctrine becomes not important. Compare 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 and 2 John 1:7-10.
C2 Christian life becomes not important. See 2 Peter 2:17-22, Proverbs 1:10
C3 Prayer, Bible study, and worship become unimportant. Compare Hebrews 10:25.
C4 Meeting a person’s feelings, difficulties, and other needs become the focus of religion. Compare 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
B3 Questions
C1 About philosophical questions as creation, evil, suffering, God’s existence, etc.
C2 Pastors, parents, etc. do not have answers, have wrong answers, or don’t care to provide answers for those questions. Compare 1 Peter 3:15-16 and Acts 18:28.
C3 Marriage, family, work, etc. Not being taught and assisted in God’s view of marriage, sex, raising children, etc. Avoid Emerson Eggerichs, Mark Gungor, Doug Wilson (Idaho), etc., who are satan’s agents destroying marriage by making the man’s sex pleasure too important (obligation sex).
B4 Feelings
C1 Feeling good and emotional pleasures become the goal. This would be the entertainment gospel, the good life gospel, etc. See here, here, and more often than not, Osteen sounds like an inspirational life-coach, instead of a herald of the gospel (Source).
C2 Selfish physical pleasures become more important than love, spouse, family, neighbors, etc.
B5 Lies
C1 Destructive philosophies. See 1 Timothy 6:20-21 NLT, Colossians 2:8,
C2 Pastoral, marital, and other abuse as satan’s agents (pastors, spouses, parents fake their religion). See 2 Peter 2:3, Ephesians 4:29-32, Psalm 55:20-21 NLT, and Psalm 11:5. Contrast is in Romans 15:1-3.
C3 Destructive lies slowly and deliberating brought and taught in the church. See 2 Peter 2:1-2, 2 Peter 2:12, and 1 John 2:26.
B6 Scandals
C1 From big name ministries, ministers, and other social influencers.
C2 When evil happens in a church or denomination, it is suppressed instead of being deal with honestly. It always backfires. The truth will come out and the Lord Jesus and His truth become sullied. See Romans 1:18, 1 John 1:10, Jeremiah 7:28, Titus 1:14, Matthew 10:26, and Mark 4:22.
B7 Manipulation
C1 Brainwashing and psychological warfare. See here (PDF) on page 21 (page 11 on the pdf version).
D1 Demoralization Compare Revelation 2:20-23, Jude 1:4, 2 Peter 2:13-14, and 1 Corinthians 5:1.
D2 Destabilization Compare Acts 15:24, Galatians 5:9-12, and Ephesians 4:14.
D3 Crisis (chaos) See the results of chaos from falling away to idol worship as Israel did in Wisdom 14. There is a loss of truth leading to a loss of knowledge and wisdom leading to everyone does what is right by their own standards. See Judges 21:25. See the progression of sin in Romans 1:18-32.
D4 Normalization (the new belief system, policy, and leadership are in place). See 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
C2 Most manipulation starts with love bombing.
The cure
B1 Knowledge
C1 Read and study the Bible. See 2 Timothy 2:15, 1 Timothy 4:13, Joshua 1:8, and Psalm 1:1-3.
C2 Know proper Bible interpretation. See how these people study but miss the obvious in John 5:39 NIV.
D1 Know what it SAYS, then study what it MEANS.
D2 Study the people the message was given to. Study their idiom, culture, and language. Keep the passage in the immediate context. Read the text in its plain, normal sense. Don’t give strange definitions that reinforce your beliefs. Beware of those who interpret by finding a similar word in different context. Some articles of assistance here and here.
C3 Realize that God and His ways do not change. This is despite many modern-day teachers. See Malachi 3:6, Psalm 102:27, and James 1:17.
B2 Prayer
C1 For protection See Psalm 17:9, Psalm 40:11, Psalm 59:1, and John 17:11 (Jesus prays for the protection of His believers).
C2 For discernment See Philippians 1:9-10, 1 Kings 3:9, and Psalm 119:66.
B3 Alertness
C1 satan can be an angel of light. See 2 Corinthians 11:14-15.
C2 satan seeks to devour, which is to destroy our faith. See 1 Peter 5:8 and 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
C3 Anything that clouds our judgment, diminishes our judgment, or confuses our judgment must be avoided. Compare Hebrews 5:11-14, Proverbs 31:4-5, Isaiah 28:7-8, and Hoshea 4:11-12.
B4 Watchfulness
C1 Showing a little skepticism. See Acts 17:11.
C2 Test all things. See 1 Thessalonians 5:21.
C3 Be aware of attempts to corrupt the faith. Compare Galatians 1:6-8.
C4 Confront public error. See Galatians 2, which is for publicly known error (Peter); private error is Matthew 18.
B5 Love
C1 Love for God. See John 14:15, John 14:23, and 2 John 1:6.
C2 Love is a choice, not necessarily an emotion. Mark 12:29-31,
C3 Love for God is seen in obedience, loyalty, commitment to God’s worldview and lifestyle. We can only serve one being. It is either serving Yahweh or the devil. It is God’s way or not God’s way. It is only serving God’s character, beliefs, worldview, and lifestyle or rejecting all that and serving the devil. When a person seeks their own, they are seeking the devil’s way of life. By birth, our human nature is as a child of wrath (See 1 John 3:10, Matthew 13:38, Luke 16:8, Acts 13:10, Ephesians 2:2, Ephesians 5:6, 1 Thessalonians 5:5, and 2 Peter 2:14. Compare Hoshea 14:9.
C4 Love is shown by the fruit of the Spirit. See Galatians 5:22-23.
C5 The actions, life, deeds, etc. of love are seen in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a.
C6 How do I measure up to this standard?
B6 God’s armor. See Ephesians 6:11-18.
2 Corinthians 3:17 NLT For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Destroying the church, false teachers, false Christians, Christianity corrupted, How to be faithful