The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)

So Who Do You Love?

In this generation, inundated as it is with new breed neo-Gnostic new evangelicals and slowly being swallowed up by the psuedo-Christianity of the emerging church, the American Christian Church needs it…and desperately! This is a bit of a follow up to the post “The Early Church Would Have Thrown Them Out” by my friend Todd Upchurch of the fine site Dead Theologians. Todd is also one of the contributors at Christian Research Net (CRN) and in this piece he wonders:

Why is it that we do our best to just get along with everyone? Now don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that we need to create enemies at every turn. I am not saying that we should try to find the wrong in others in hopes that we can create divisions. What I am saying is that we, as believers, need to really be careful who we support and give our attention to. (Online source)

Upchurch is absolutely right. Leaving aside eschatological issues in our text look closely at it and you will see people perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Why many today are so quick to point out their love for “free will,” so this should actually make them quite happy; it’s their own choice that they are not saved because Scripture says they refused to love the truth. Truth is no light matter, and Upchurch is telling the truth when he says of heretics like Word Faith mogul and Oneness Pentecostal T.D. Jakes—the early church would have thrown them out.

But today we are witnessing a fulfillment of 2 Timothy 3:2—For men will be lovers of self. Frankly, were an Arius to arise today, I fear there would be no Athanasius to meet him. If the early church hadn’t fiercely battled this denial of the Deity of Christ we’d have the Jehovah’s Witnesses as part of the American Christian Church. O well, just give it a little more time. After all, the non-Christian cult of the Mormon Church has almost made it into the fickle fold.

But how do you suppose the early church would dealt with John Hagee who has just said in his latest book In Defense of Israel:

When Jesus and his disciples came to the final cup during their last celebration of the Passover, Jesus refused to drink the Messiah’s cup. He told his disciples, “Take this [Messiah’s cup] and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Luke 22:17-18).

In refusing to drink the cup, Jesus rejected to the last detail the role of Messiah in word or deed. The Jews did not reject Jesus as Messiah; it was Jesus who rejected the Jewish desire for him to be their Messiah. (144, 145, emphasis his)

I cover this a bit further here at Apprising Ministries in two different pieces—John Hagee: “Jesus Rejected to the Last Detail the Role of Messiah in Word or Deed” and John Hagee Says: “Jesus Did Not Come to be the Messiah”. The latter even includes a video clip of Hagee himself hawking his book and saying exactly that! And the response around the blogosphere? Zip. Let’s just love…right…

Love what; heresy? Apparently so. Perhaps we need to remove Jude 3 once and for all from the Bible because that would make it so much easier for us to spread our new “Rodney King” philosophy in the dying American Christian Church—I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. You see, if we just got rid of that nasty contend earnestly things would be so much smoother for you in your evangelical “Love Shack.”

Because as long as that verse, and ones like it, remain in the Bible, whenever people come into our Lord’s Church and begin denying the true nature of God like T.D. Jakes, and to deny our Lord His rightful place as the Christ of the world like John Hagee, then they will have to contend earnestly with the likes of us at CRN. And they can count on it because Christ Jesus has already told His real soldiers:

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ ”

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39)