Wolves In Sheep's Clothing

"Enter by the narrow gate.  For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few"  (Matt. 7:13-14, ESV).  

Jesus initiated His ministry the right way, by being baptized by John in order to identify Himself with the common Jews and to fulfill all righteousness, though John demurred--He did things the right way and didn't go against the order of the day.  If Jesus could humble Himself, how much ought we?  There likewise comes a day of reckoning and decision for believers, where they express solidarity with the body publicly in order to be accepted publicly.  

We are to beware of pseudo-believers or false brethren (for even the devils may seek to become accepted, if possible!) and those that sneak into the fellowship disapproved, who may "creep in unnoticed," as Jude writes, and are "marked out for condemnation" as "wolves in sheep's clothing," masquerading as angles of light (cf. 2'Cor. 11:4), as it were, and fooling even the elect, if possible (they come to "steal, to kill, and to destroy").  Who is he but one who doesn't enter by the door of the shepherd, but seeks his own way, door, or rules, for he seeks to "climb up some other way" (cf. John 10:1), and "he is a thief [proselytizer or even an apostate] and a robber."

If there's some initiation ceremony (e.g., baptism, testimony, classroom training, et al.) that the church has established, and a seeker or false brother rejects it, then he is going rogue and following his own whims or "inner voice", and not that of Christ. For in God's economy, the way up is down, and we must all humble ourselves in the sight of God first if we expect to be exalted in His eyes--you don't carry rank and privilege with you as you transfer from church to church, but must start at the bottom and work your way up all over again, respecting all in authority and seniority.

In order to get the "right hand of fellowship," and to be accepted as a member of the family of God one must show some fruit!  First we believe and works result and this comes by hearing of the Word of God, then we belong to the family in fellowship, and finally, we become what God intends by participation with the family and recognition of our charisma or gift and sharing it with others. Rick Warren describes our spiritual journey:  "believing (through worship), belonging (through fellowship), and becoming (through discipleship)."  We are always to be congenial and extend our good faith and love to all, regardless of where they are in the Lord, but there comes a day of reckoning when one must decide for or against the fellowship one is associated with and whether or not to endorse it and become a full-fledged member.  They are to "choose this day whom they will serve" per Joshua 24:15.

Our mission is to be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" per Ephesians 4:3, ESV.  Remember the slogan:  "No perfect people need to apply!"  God wants real people, not ideal people and unity, not uniformity.  We don't find shortcuts to the top of the spiritual chain of command, or pecking order, as it were, but must admit our spiritual frailty!  We never "assume" someone is a believer or earnest in his motives, by mere virtue of regular attendance--some people are just "playing church" or are guilty of "Churchianity," not Christianity.

Pseudo-Christian cults and churches do not seek out souls to save, but to steal, they go where Christ is already named and say they have something to add to the truth or have a new and improved Christianity to offer.  These wolves spare not the flock and have no qualms to lead to false doctrine and are thirsty for power (David Koresh, and Jim Jones, et al.).  They are really not members of the church, but mock it and set out to go by their own tradition or belief, that is antithetical to the churches.  They are pushing something secret and claim to be in the know and privileged to be privy to this so-called false knowledge.

In contradistinction to a true shepherd, one ordained and called by God, one who enters by the door--not some secret way (i.e., by way of secret pledge, friendship, reference, handshake, vow, ordination service, et al.), the false teacher, who isn't always a teacher, but just seeks a following and to make a name for himself!

The sheep do not listen to the "voice of a stranger" and know their shepherd, according to John 10:5, and they follow the Lord through His shepherds and they listen to the truth because they are of the truth.  The danger is that factions in the church and party spirit can cause church splits, and nothing ruins a church more than sectarian spirit or a conflict over leadership and loyalty issues--"I am of Apollos!"  The reason we have heresy is so that the teachers approved by God can be made manifest, the church and body of Christ can be cleansed of evil, and it can be renewed in the image of Christ as its head and cornerstone.  Soli Deo Gloria!

A Time For Polemics...

The church is "the pillar and ground of the truth"  (1 Timothy 3:15, NKJV).

"... Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice"  (John 18:37, NKJV).

"When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth..." (John 16:13, HCSB).

"Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God"  (1 Cor. 4:1, NKJV).

"... Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching [doctrine], has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation.  Let all things be done for edification:"  (1 Cor. 14:26, NKJV).
EMPHASIS MINE! 

Polemics is defined as denouncing heresy, or of refuting it and standing up for sound doctrine.  "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine [teaching]"  (2 Timothy 4:3, NKJV). There is a growing postmodern camp in the church that denies that we have gotten orthodoxy right yet and that we can be dogmatic about anything in the Bible, that truth per se is up for grabs, including the gospel message. Postmodernism teaches that truth is a "short-term contract" and that what's true for you, may not be for someone else (aka relativism).  The church got the idea that truth is negotiable and up for grabs and the notion that it's only relative to the postmodern worldview that is prevalent in academia.

In the name of ecumenicity, the truth is compromised and watered down and even deemed unknowable. Are we just trying to be "inclusive" as politicians strive to be?  Another explanation for this contempt and cavalier attitude for the truth is the "seeker sensitive" atmosphere permeating evangelical churches.  Should we domesticate or tone down the truth to make it more appealing to the unchurched?  This is known as "contextualizing" Christianity. Is there a paradigmatic shift against dogma?  Are they reinventing or revamping the church?  This issue is whether sound doctrine is too arcane and abstruse for the typical churchgoer, or necessary for maturity.  It all reverts to what Satan said to Eve: "Hath God indeed said...?" (cf. Gen. 3:1).  The question has plagued mankind since Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?"  (Cf. John 18:38).

Jude exhorts us to "contend for the faith" in an age when it is unpopular to teach doctrine and to stick to the application of the Bible, like the social gospel, which is a misnomer, and an excuse to turn stones into bread.  Paul boasted in his swan song of 2 Tim. 4:7 the following:  "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."   Satan opposes sound doctrine and we confront his Anfectung (German for "attack," as Luther termed it), when we stand up for the truth. The problem with most believers today is that they don't think the truth is worth studying, and they certainly wouldn't die for it.  We must never compromise what we believe to maintain a conscience:  "So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man"  (Acts 24:16, ESV).

Why do you think Paul said they are "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth"(2 Tim. 3:7, ESV).    A Christian is one who loves the truth and seeks the truth, as incarnate in Christ, the Truth itself.  Truth is knowable and we are to ascertain it to best of our ability because "truth matters" and as Augustine said, "All truth is God's truth," and Thomas Aquinas said, "All truth meets at the top."  If a heretic is found in the church we are to take action:  "This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith."  An example of heresy to be denounced is easy-believism, also known as cheap grace.  Pastors are exhorted above all:  "But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine"  (Titus 2:1, NKJV).

Remember:  Doctrine is teaching and usually refers to the church's stand on issues or their dogma. We have received sound doctrine from centuries of scholarship and no one today, no matter how gifted, can defy and refute all the learning available to us via commentaries and other sources.  We don't have to start from scratch every generation!    Why do we need doctrine?  "... [T]hat he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict [error]"  (Titus 1:9, NKJV).

Now we are not to be nitpicky or to split hairs, because there are gray areas, and room for disagreement indisputable or questionable doctrines--church fellowships and families should strive for unity in the Spirit in the bond of peace (cf. Eph. 4:3 which says, "["bearing with one another in love] endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace"), i.e., unity, not necessarily uniformity, and not be judgmental towards those who beg to differ:  After all, a Protestant is defined as one who dares to remonstrate, "I dissent, I disagree, I protest"  (just like the famous words of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms).

Doctrine does come up all the time in our preaching because Paul says in 2 Tim. 3:16 that "all Scripture is profitable for doctrine."   We are to avoid foolish disputes and arguments and "disputes over words" (cf. 1 Tim. 6:4, NKJV) which cause division, but to take stands on issues that matter: "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity," as Augustine's dictum said.  We are to avoid foolish arguments, but not godly ones--there is a time and place to stand up for what you believe in.  Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4:6 (NKJV):  "If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed."  This is emphasized in 1 Tim. 1:10 to teach sinners whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.

It is infant believers who are "carried about by every wind of doctrine" (cf. Eph. 4:14).  When sound doctrine is taught there will be those who oppose it:  "Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them"  (Romans 16:17, NKJV).    The early disciples were known by four signs in Acts 2:42 and one of them was that they continued in the apostles' doctrine.

Paul urges Timothy to "charge some that they teach no other doctrine" (1 Tim. 1:3, NKJV).  He also exhorts him:  "Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine...." (1 Tim. 4:16, NKJV).  Note that he teaches in 1 Tim. 5:17 (NKJV):  "Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine."  We do not want God's doctrine to be blasphemed (cf. 1 Tim. 6:1) and to teach "the doctrine which accords with godliness"  (1 Tim. 6:3, NKJV).  Elders are to hold "the mystery of the faith [deeper doctrine] with a pure conscience (cf. 1 Tim. 3:9, NKJV).  We are to be so sound and pure that we "adorn the doctrine of God" (cf. Titus 2:10, NKJV).

Originally, when believers assembled for worship, they had a doctrine to share (cf. 1 Cor. 14:26).  It is important to "go on to maturity" by leaving the "elementary doctrines" (cf. Heb. 6:1) and the goal is given in Ephesians 4:13 (NKJV):  "[T]ill we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, in the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." The faith is referred to as the sum total of the teachings or doctrines of Christianity.

The danger of the last days is the doctrines of demons (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1), and the only way to inoculate the church body from this is to have a firm foundation in the truth and basic sound doctrine.  Paul urges Timothy:  "Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine" (1 Tim. 4:13, NKJV).  Hebrews 13:9 (NKJV) admonishes us:  "Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines...."  The only way to recognize a counterfeit is not to study counterfeits, but originals! Isaiah 28:24 says:  "... And those who complained will learn doctrine." This is the panacea for the church falling for the heresy that truth doesn't matter and sincerity is what validates faith.

The unrighteous perish "because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thess. 2:10, NKJV).   But God will teach the sheep:  "Whom will he teach knowledge?  And whom will he make to understand the message [doctrine in KJV]"  (Isaiah 28:24, NKJV).  Who would believe that sound doctrine would be an issue in today's church?  But there is a movement known as the 'Emerging Church" that challenges truth per se and denies we have systematic truth or "orthodoxy nailed down, shrink-wrapped and freeze-dried forever."  This is an anti-dogmatic attitude that has permeated some churches, proclaiming that we "haven't arrived yet."

Truth is under attack and we are not to "tolerate false teachers" like Jesus rebuking the churches in Revelation.  Remember Demetrius in 3 John 12 who  "has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself." False teachers had crept into the church that Jude was writing to--this is our wake-up call.     Soli Deo Gloria!