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Jesus Christ is the Creator God |
SECRET SOCIETIES CONTROL THE RISE AND FALL OF RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS(The Religious “Beast From The Earth,” Rev. 13:11-18.) |
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PART 3: ROMAN CATHOLIC ASSAULT FROM WITHIN THE MIDST OF JESUS’ ASSEMBLIES Renette Vermeulen
Secret Societies infiltrated the early assemblies of Jesus’ disciple/followers. What was the real purpose of Paul’s letters? The ‘infallible, godlike apostles’ and the so-called ‘perfect church’ are Roman Catholic Church myths. The apostles also had to grow in obedience to, and knowledge of the Scriptures. Despite the apostles’ teaching, destructive secret societies gathered strength. Our best defense against false teaching.
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Continued from PART 2, Martyrs at the gates of Hades; Baptism with fire PART 1, The Kingdom Now Beast that Crucified Jesus PART 4, Christian Giants, Fairy Godmother Mary and the Church Ring PART 5: The Way or Ecclesia Converted to Roman Catholic Christianity
HOW SATAN TRIPPED THE UNCONQUERABLE FOLLOWERS OF THE WAY The Followers of The Way, as seen in Part 2 of this book, knew exactly what was happening to them and why they had to endure “the [persecuting] baptism with fire,” (Mt. 3:11-12; Acts 9:2; 19:23; 22:4; 24:14.) God allowed all that suffering, hardship, and death to wean them emotionally from the world. They had to die emotionally to the incredibly strong desires of the “flesh” to learn obedient service to the truth of Jesus’ Word in the leading of the Holy Spirit, (Heb. 5:7-8; Rom. 12:1-2 & chapter 8; Gal. 3:19-21.) The Followers of The Way knew their enemy and thus, they knew complete commitment to Jesus is the only way to defeat the devil's onslaughts against them, (Rev. 12:11.) Satan could not snatch [grab or take] Jesus’ first believers out of His hand by physically persecuting them, (Jn. 10:28.; Heb. 11.) Even the devil’s most torturous means of intimidation did not stop or sway them. Instead, persecution served the purpose of pressing them to more fully obey the commission of Jesus. And obedience to His Word in Holy-Spirit leading always sustains the health and growth of His body, (Mt. 28:18-20.) Being the evil genius that he is, Satan must have stepped back to take stock of the devastating losses he suffered during those early years. The devil soon realized that the war for the complete salvation, redemption and blessing of all believing humanity was eternally won by the unchangeable truth that Jesus “made a spectacle” of him at the cross, and more so when the Holy Spirit indwelt all true believers as His living temple at Pentecost, (Col. 2:14-15; Rom. 8:9; Acts chapter 2.) It was impossible to stop the mission of the Followers of They Way to rescue souls from his kingdom of darkness, because he remained unable to tear them away from God by means of physical war. The spiritual war for their salvation, redemption and blessing was already eternally won by Jesus at the cross. As long as they remained cemented in this truth of God’s Word, and while they knew they were “complete in Christ” and lacked nothing of eternal value because this world is not their home, they advanced unstoppably in Holy-Spirit power towards eternal heaven; calling every willing soul they met to join them, (Col. 2:9-10; Mt. 7:21-27.) Once Satan realized that The Way to heaven, (Jesus Himself; God’s Word and Holy Spirit power,) cannot be spiritually destroyed or altered by war or anything else, he then realized the only strategy left is to withstand The Way’s advancement “against the gates of Hades” or spiritual death. To achieve this, he had to get believers away from The Truth of God’s Word, and thus, away from Jesus Himself. The only way to do this, was to begin a secret, underhanded battle for the “minds,” thoughts, or beliefs of the Followers of The Way, (2 Cor. 6:6-18; 10:3-6; Eph. 10-18.) The one who controls the mind of a person controls his actions, life, and eternal destiny. Rom. 6:16, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to eternal life? But thank God that though you were slaves of sin, [past tense,] yet you obeyed from the heart [the truth] to which you were delivered, [past tense.]”
If Satan could not drive the believers forcibly away from Jesus The Truth, he would deceive and entice them to willingly leave the Spiritual King and His spiritual Kingdom for a ‘divine kingdom here on earth;’ a false, physical kingdom that replicates and replaces the Kingdom of God inside the born again ‘hearts’ or human spirits all true believers in Christ, (Lu. 17:21 KJV; 1 Cor. 6:15-20; 1 Ths. 5:23.) He knows that God will not curb the deliberate, bad choices of free-willed humanity. To get hold of them, he must prey on their personal decision to accept his lies. Because Satan and his demons are spirits, to sell Jesus’ believers a believable falling-away-from–The-Truth lie, he had to set up secret human agents to convince the Followers of The Way to follow him. So, he turned to his original deception, which caused humanity to fall away from God in Eden. This time, he used spiritual snakes who masquerade as “angels of light;” sneaky preachers, who sowed doubt in the minds of believers, preaching, “Did God really say you must suffer like this and crucify yourselves here on earth? (Gal. 2:20-21.) Look at the pagans, how gloriously they serve their gods in the magnificent temples they built to them. Will an almighty, all-good God really ‘baptize you with the fire of persecution,’ instead of making you rich, comfortable, ruling ‘little gods and christs’ here on earth? You were created in His image — live as christs and gods!” Once the Followers of The Way began to accept this lie as truth, Satan could execute his plan to replace Jesus’ difficult Narrow Way with an easy Broad Way that satisfies all the senses. To their complete spiritual destruction, the gullible Followers of the Way did not realize that the entire concept of a political-religious utopia or ‘spiritual home’ under ‘Kingdom-Now rule’ here on earth was a death trap. “For all [overboard and thus bad things] that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but it is of the world,” (1 Jn. 2:16.) Everything “the flesh” or body requires is not sin. However, the “lust” of anything is always a sinful, insatiable distortion of natural desire. Once they were deceived, the devil then proceeded to set up his spiritual ambush by replacing the Followers of The Way and their “ecclesia” (or the gathering together of the body of Christ) with a grand, outward, religious church system, (gleaned from pagan temple worship,) calling them “Christians,” “little christs,” or “manifest sons of god” [God in the flesh] here on earth,” (Acts 11:26-28.) In this way, he robbed our High Priest Melchizedek’s spiritual priests and kings of their spiritual birthright in Him, (1 Pt. 2:9-10,) and placed them under the false authority of his satanic church clergy, who are the proverbial “ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing” from all church denominations. This deadly spiritual assault on The Followers of The Way was born during the latter part of 1 A.D. already, but reached maturity under the Roman Catholic Church’s Christian State, ruled by the so-called ‘divine’ Roman pope and ‘divine’ Roman emperor Constantine in 4 A.D. While the persecuted Followers of The Way remained faithful to Jesus even though they had to function underground, (Hebrews Chapter 11,) Roman Catholic Christianity spread her tentacles over large portions of the world; planting her numerous divisions or church denominations through religious deception and military oppression. The establishment of the official Roman Catholic Christian Church System was a straightforward fusion of religion and politics - and the official Christianization of the pagan, political-religious Kingdom-Now theology.
THE TAMPERING WITH THE CONTEXTUAL TRUTH OF GOD’S WORD TO JUSTIFY THE ONSLAUGHT OF DECEPTION If one ministers to Muslims, for example, it is necessary to know that these unbelievers and other religionists attack the authority and authenticity of God’s Word, the Bible. Interpreting the Bible verse-by-verse, they find many so-called ‘contradictions,’ which supposedly ‘discredit’ New Testament Scriptures as the Word of God. Many Christians also view Scripture uncontextually and on a verse-by-verse basis, while conveniently avoiding Scriptural ‘discrepancies.’ For instance, Mark wrote that “one” possessed man came to Jesus in the country of the Gadarenes, while Matthew states there were “two.” The Gospels differ slightly on events during the crucifixion, the resurrection, and so forth. · But these are not deliberate, destructive heresies, and can therefore be interpreted in the light of this explanation of Paul, “We have this treasure [the knowledge of God’s truth in the full context of Scripture and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit] in [feeble] earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us,” (2 Cor. 4:7.) Fact remains, contrary to Satan’s iron-fisted methods of control, the God of the Bible, especially during the New Testament Covenant of grace, does not override the free will of His children, (1 Cor. 14:32.) The Word, which God breathed into the writers of the Bible, was indeed perfect, even though it flowed from weak, imperfect, ‘earthen vessels’ onto paper. · The deliberate dissemination of false doctrines, however, is another matter. Nevertheless, the many attempts to erase the contextual truth of God’s Word were of no, or very little avail, because Jesus declared that “heaven and earth will pass away, but [the contextual truth of My] Words will by no means pass away.” Sadly, the atrocious crime of tampering with the truth of Scripture still escalates tremendously in our day. The Lord directed a serious warning to both the Old Testament Hebrew Sanhedrin and all other teachers and preachers who would follow in their footsteps. He said in Mt. 15:6;9, “[Adding your traditions to My Word, you falsified My Word… and you pay Me lip-service while your hearts are far from Me. But] in vain [without success, to no purpose, completely uselessly] you worship Me, following the commandments of men… [All your religious church devotions mean absolutely nothing because you reject My True Word to cling to false church doctrines, norms, and forms.] You have made the commandment of God of no effect, [powerless, nullifying the Word in your own lives] by your tradition, which you have handed down… (Mark 7:9-13,) And many such [terrible] things you do.” According to Jesus’ own Words, people caught in the traps of the false church system, (which was ran by secret masonic and other satanic agents since late 1 A.D.; teaching their false masonic dogmas and clinging to their false church ceremonies and secret agendas,) are still after all these centuries trying to allegorically bottle the sunlight. God’s eternal, spiritual Light, Life, Truth, and Way, (Jesus Himself,) is simply nowhere to be found in any of their manmade, demonically manufactured doctrines and church norms and forms. Dangerous dogmas masked with Scriptural truth seem to appear everywhere we look. The deliberate twisting, misinterpretation, omission, false translation, and abuse of Holy Spirit-inspired Scripture are grim but growing realities in our day. The many twisted translations of the Bible, and the proliferating numbers of uncontextual interpretations and false doctrines testify to the fact that we are living in the end of the end-days. Someone summarized our responsibility to “test and prove [everything] to see whether it is of God,” when he said, “Searching Scripture is not a matter of [mere head-knowledge,] but of life!” Hence, Paul and Silas found “more fair-minded [people in Berea than among the disciples in Thessalonica,] in that they received the Word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out [for themselves] whether these things were so.” (1 Ths. 5:21; Jn. 30:5; 1 Jn. 4:1-2; 2 Cor. 13:5; 1 Cor. 14:29.) Searching the truth of Scripture prayerfully with the motive to find only God’s real truth, is the greatest service we can do to God and to ourselves.
THE “PERFECT CHURCH” God’s inspired Word and will for the body of Christ are indeed indelibly ‘carved in stone,’ as it is written on every born again heart, (Rom. 10:8-10.) Yet, from the beginning, a dreadful danger lurked deep within the innermost mind of Jesus’ ‘called out,’ blood-redeemed, Spirit filled body of believers. Among the disciples of The Way, contrary to what churches teach, the Epistles of the apostles show a tremendous lack of knowledge concerning the Person of the Holy Spirit with His indwelling power and supernatural gifts, (Mark 16:15-18; 1 Cor. 12 & 14,) as well the failure of many believers to live an obedient, Moral-Law lifestyle. Confusion, disobedience, and a lack of Scriptural knowledge are fertile breeding grounds for deception, which leads to falling away from the Truth of God, (Hos. 4:6; Mt. 22:29; Eph. 4:18; 2 Tim. 2:25; Jn. 8:31-32.) Today, still sculpted from the Christianized paganism of the Roman Catholic Church, the clergies of Protestantism reject the contextual sequence of events in the Book of Acts; confuse important guidelines and admonitions in the Gospels and epistles, and interpret the Bible verse-by-verse, and not in the context of “all Scripture.” For instance, without testing the events in the Book of Acts accordingly, the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement in particular, sees the incredible signs that followed the early believers of The Way, as God’s affirmation of the ‘sinless perfection’ of the early ‘church.’ Not spiritual ‘sinless perfection’ through the full atoning blood-covenant of Christ, but through their many own additions to Scripture, known as Roman Catholic and Protestant church doctrine, (Col. 2:10; 1 Ths. 5:21; 2 Cor. 13:5.) Since that Day at Pentecost, as during the entire New Testament era, Jesus’ spiritually born again disciple-followers were and still are being made perfect on a soulical or emotional level, (Col. 2:10; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 12:1-3.) After their spiritual rebirth through faith in, and acceptance of Jesus, the battle for their pagan-polluted minds or souls had only just began, (1 Ths. 5:23; 2 Cor. 10:3-5.) After Pentecost, it became a fierce, ongoing fight to grow in true knowledge of God’s will to remain in the truth of Jesus. This fight will only end when “the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout…” – (2 Pt. 3:18-22; 1 Ths. 4:16.) Until That Glorious Day, (That One and Only Day,) the words of Peter, written 35 years after Pentecost, will continually ring true, “Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking… [about things that are] hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures… Beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. But grow [continually] in the grace and knowledge of our Lord…’ – (2 Pt. 3:15-18.) Peter’s serious sermon supports the Words of Jesus in Jn. 8:31-32, “If you abide in My [full, contextual] Word, you are My disciples indeed. And [then] you will [increasingly] know the truth, and the truth will set you free!”
THE “INFALLIBLE APOSTLES” Every person on earth under the New Testament Covenant, except the sinless Man Jesus Christ, must be personally born again. Christianity revere Jesus’ first disciples, especially Peter and Paul, whom He called into His ministry of Truth, as ‘infallible,’ ‘godlike apostles.’ Nearly two millennia of Roman Catholic and Calvinist/Lutheran, etcetera, Protestant elevation transformed them into ‘perfect,’ ‘all-knowing,’ sinless, deified Roman Catholic saints.’ The truth might seem blasphemous to some, but since the fall in Eden, God Who became the Man Jesus Christ was the only perfect, sinless human being who ever walked the earth, (Heb. 1:1-14.) Just as Mary, the real human mother of the Man Jesus, the so-called ‘infallible apostles’ also had to experience the spiritual rebirth; followed by a continual process of the “renewing of their minds” through personal growth in Scriptural knowledge and obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit, (Rom. 12:1-2; Jam. 1:21-22.) Even then, they still remained ordinary, imperfect human beings, dedicated to the Most High God of the Bible by His grace. They still had to wrestle with their human weaknesses; they all still made mistakes. Peter and Barnabas began to “fear those of the circumcision, playing the hypocrite with them,” (Gal. 2:11-16.) Paul confessed in Rom. 7:15, “What I am doing, I don’t understand. For what I want to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do.” Paul was speaking about the battle for his mind, of course — his human weaknesses: his fleshy thoughts and beliefs, desires and emotions that were warring against the truth of Scripture and the holiness of the indwelling Holy Spirit, (Rom. Chapter 8; Col. 2:9-15.) And can anyone who knows the contextual Truth of Jesus’ Gospel, and understand the complete atonement of Christ in the place of all believing humanity, (Hebrew and non-Hebrew; slave and free; rich and poor; man and woman, Gal. 3:26-29,) believe that Paul could also ‘play the hypocrite’ by exposing himself as a hater and oppressor of women? Unless misogynist church clergy ‘forced’ Paul to speak in the Scriptures, he must have been suffering severely from double-mindedness to declare in 1 Tim. 2:15, “She will be saved by bearing children — [only] if they [the children?] continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.” Could Paul, after stating the exact opposite in Gal. 3:28, suddenly turn around and teach that the atonement of Jesus does not save women, and that spiritually, race, status and gender suddenly existed again? Gal. 3:28.] Therefore, [he claimed,] I do not allow a woman to teach…” It was because the apostles remained ordinary men, that Paul also commanded, “Test and prove everything; [the apostles’ teaching as well,] abstain from evil and hold fast to what is good,” (1 Ths. 5:21-22.) Scripture must always be understood according to the full context of the Bible — viewed from the perspective of the eternal New Testament Covenant in Christ, (1 Jn. 4:1-4.) The apostles did not receive ‘superior revelation’ The contextual Gospel of Christ as we ought to know it and practically live in it, came mainly through the Epistles of Paul – some 23 years after Pentecost, (Gal. 2:15-3:1; 3:2-21.) However, none of the Bible writers received ‘superior or extra-Scriptural revelation.’ To root out confusion, God, after first schooling the apostles in His Scriptural [Old and New Covenant] truth, simply used them to explain Jesus’ Words in greater detail and thus more clearly - according to the real order of events, and in context, (Acts 18:25-26.) Thus, the ministry of the apostles centered on apologetics – the defense of the Gospel. In fact, God called and still calls and equip all the servant-‘elderly’ of the body of Christ to guide and guard His blood-redeemed body of believers; to defend the truth of the Gospel, to discern error, and to expose false teachers, idolatrous doctrines, and sinful pagan practices among the members of the body of Christ, (Phil. 1:17; Eph. 5:10-11.) Happy go-lucky, man-pleasing clergy only came into being during the establishment of the church system. The S.F. Bible explains, “The Gospel came to the [disciples] not only in word, but also in power, suggesting a balanced mix of intellectual argument, the Spirit’s power, (gifts or signs,) and deep personal response,” (Mark. 16:16-18, 1 Cor. 14:22.) The apostles addressed the lack of mind-renewal through ignorance of Scriptural truth and disobedience to the Holy Spirit, (Rom. 12:1-2.) Paul was merely one of the ecclesia’s spiritually mature, serving ‘elderly,’ [deliberately mistranslated by Roman Catholic priests as ruling ‘elders.'] He wrote in 1 Cor. 3:3, “I could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as carnal, as to [newborn] babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, [the first things that form the foundation of the Gospel,] for until now you were not able to receive solid food, for you are still carnal… [You have until now, not renewed your minds, or thoughts and beliefs, through Scriptural truth to understand and obey God’s perfect will, Rom. 12:1-2.]” What Paul meant was that we all, (all elderly or so-called ‘elders’ included,) must continually “grow in knowledge and in grace… to become doers of the Word.” For instance, in Rom. 7:7-25, Paul, writing in the first person, shares his personal struggle with the desires of “the flesh” (or sinful thoughts and other human weaknesses) to encourage and teach the body of Christ by example. Paul knew that a lack of soulical or emotional growth (1 Ths. 5:23) spells certain death for believers. So, the writer of Heb. 6:1-6 commanded, “Leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us all [continually] go on to perfect [understanding of God’s Word and will, Rom. 12:1-3,) not [needing to] lay again [and again] the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection… and of eternal judgment… For it is impossible… if they fall away, [through their willful lack of growth in knowledge and the resultant disobedience to God’s Moral Law of Love,] to renew them again to repentance…’ This is a harsh teaching, but it is a stern warning that we must not play church with God, (Mark 7:6-13,) and put off our emotional growth in Christ today, thinking we can do it tomorrow, (Rom. 12:1-3.) It will always be difficult to “teach an old dog new tricks.” That is why God warned in Heb. 3:15-27, “Today, if you hear My voice, do not harden your hearts [and provoke God to anger like old Israel did.]” Of course, by His mercy, God deals sovereignly with every person on earth. Thus, Jesus promised in Jn. 6:37, “I will not turn away anyone who comes to Me [in sincerity.]”
GOD’S EXPANDING REVELATION Paul wrote most of his epistles during AD 50 to AD 60. When he wrote the epistle to the Romans… “Paul had not yet been to Rome, but he had been preaching since AD 36… This epistle [to the Romans] is therefore a mature statement of his understanding of the Gospel,” as all the apostles also had to grow emotionally through the renewal of their minds, g obedience to the Word, and the leading of the Holy Spirit. [S.F. Bible, 1991 — beware of modern translations.] As in the sky-rocketing, contemporary church madness we now face, Paul’s so-called ‘new’ teachings did into fit into the chaotic criteria of some of the early assemblies. Thus, he wrote a second epistle to the Corinthians stating that he was “defending his conduct and ministry, addressing the neglect of poor followers in Judea, and he urged them to give [not tithe!] liberally and cheerfully’ to the poor,” (2 Cor. chapters 8-9.) In 2 Cor. chapters 10 to 13, Paul focused their attention on the spiritual battle for the mind [or thoughts] of men, comparing this battle to the false teachings of the Kingdom-Now cults that were ministering from their midst. While he was confined and awaiting trial in Rome, Paul wrote the Epistles of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. “It appears that after these writings, and especially in his epistle to the Colossians, Paul was deeply stirred up by an expanding revelation of [the form and function of the body of Christ.] Now seeing the assembly of believers as Christ’s body and as God’s instrument to confound and overthrow evil spiritual powers,” Paul began to grasp and unveil the full mystery of the body of Christ. He finally began to understand God’s “intention to form a spiritual temple; His body of believers, to express Christ’s fullness on earth, (Col. 1:15-23.) To do this, God united all sincere believers into one, spiritual nation, [Hebrews and gentiles, men and women, slaves and free,] in whom the Holy Spirit Himself dwells to equip, empower, and mature [the sincere members of His] body to the end, so that they can extend Christ’s spiritual victory over evil.” (Col. 1:11-14; 2:8-15; 3:1-11.) – S.F. Bible. No one knows who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews, but written before the destruction of the temple in AD 70, “this book compares the outdated covenant of the Old Testament (Heb. 8:13) with the Covenant of the New Testament [like no other Book does it.] It presents the High Priest ministry of Jesus, not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek. Thus, Christ and His New Covenant priesthood, [the entire sincerely born again body of Christ,] did not receive ministry by [physical] inheritance (5:5-6,) but by the direct call of God, (Jn. 3:16-17.) In striving to keep his readers from apostasy, the writer emphasizes the superiority of Christ to all that has gone before in Old Testament times.” The Hebrew historian Josephus indicated that James was stoned to death in AD 62. “As if he too, addresses the contemporary church directly, James, [in chapter 2,] rebuked the shameful neglect of the ecclesia’s [Moral] duties.” These are the expression of the Royal Law of Love that governs all those who call on the Name of Jesus; the only New Testament Law, the law of giving and self-sacrifice, which will judge us when we must give account before the throne of Christ,” (Mt. 25:31-46.) Peter wrote his first epistle towards the end of his life in AD 64, when he, too, was maturing spiritually through the renewal of his mind. Here he “encourages suffering believers because of their obedience to Christ, and focuses their attention on the [Spiritual] Kingdom of God. However, Peter’s second epistle is a passionate apologetic writing, which exposes false teachers within the fellowships who would lead them into apostasy. These teachers denied the Lord, exhibited a sensuous lifestyle, and ridiculed the idea of the Lord’s return. [Not unlike modern Kingdom-Now preachers, who will supposedly even conquer that ‘last enemy,’ death, ‘restoring’ God’s Kingdom Now on earth ‘before Jesus’ return!’] “These [idolatrous] characteristics [of false church doctrine] fit the Gnostic doctrine, [salvation through pure doctrinal or head-knowledge,] which developed more fully in the second century, but whose roots were fixed during the first century. “John, in his first, second and third epistles, written about AD 90 when he was also near the end of his life, brings the Gospel of Christ entirely into perspective. As if John, too, is addressing the growing need of modern believers, he focuses on [reaching eternal life in heaven] through faith in, acceptance of, and [Moral] obedience to Jesus, (1 Jn. 5:13; Jn. 13:34.) So, he addresses the uncertainty of early [and modern, sincerely born again] believers about their spiritual status in this world and in heaven, caused by unsettling conflicts with false teachers. These teachers traveled from house to house, abusing hospitality, and confusing the disciples. John wrote that genuine [followers of The Way,] who could be recognized by [their fruit; the contextual truth which they preached and by which they lived,] are worthy of aid, but heretical teachers are to be rejected.” “The epistle of Jude or Judas, a brother of the Lord, (A.D. 65-80,) stresses affirmation of God’s action on behalf of believers.” He also accents strongly that believers themselves are to contend earnestly for the faith, exhorting them to exercise their responsibilities and Godly duties, (Jude v. 3.) Jude was saying that every believer will personally give account before God, (2 Cor. 5:10.) We will not be able to bring the toxic influence of false leaders as an excuse for apostasy. Our salvation, by the grace of Christ and through our continual relationship with Him, will always remain our own, personal responsibility, (Jude v. 20-21.) [Partly from, ‘Great people of the Bible and How they Lived,’ Readers Digest.]
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