Thought for Today

The Church. When God judges a nation, the church, spurred on by its false leaders, ends up abandoning the truth, embracing lies. Instead of turning to God, repenting of sin, with the promise of spending eternal life with God, the choice is typically made to double down in sin, to justify and excuse one’s actions.

2 Timothy 4:3 (ESV): For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

The false leaders succeed by telling the people—in this context those who reside within the church—what they want to hear. Whatever you want to do, it is ok. God loves you anyway. Regardless of what you do, even if you reject Christ, you will eventually be saved anyway. There is no eternal hell. Even if hell does exist, everyone sent there will eventually repent; hell will be emptied. And the lies continue to multiply, continue to gain traction. Don’t our sinful selves want to hear that it is ok to have whatever it is we might lust after? Don’t our sinful natures want to believe the lie that sin is ok? Don’t people want to hear that they can reject Christ without eternal consequence?

The scary thing is that we can become so enmeshed with our sin, so hardened against the Gospel, that at some point God may give us over to whatever sin it is that we crave. We see it in the book of Jeremiah. Even after Jerusalem has been captured and the Temple destroyed, the survivors still prefer to worship the idol, the Queen of Heaven, rather than turn back to the Living God.

God warns us about those false teachers, those whom the church unwisely listens to. 2 Corinthians 11:13–15 (ESV): “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”

Having to deal with false teachers and false prophets is nothing new. For as long as the Gospel has been preached, false teachers have also been present, presenting as truth what are in reality, satanic lies. Biblically, we are told to have nothing to do with them.

By listening to them, by letting them successfully infiltrate the church (see the book of Jude), destruction follows. As Scripture warns us, bad company corrupts good morals (1 Corinthians 15:33). Things can get so bad that God’s judgment against a nation becomes set. For example, God repeatedly tells Jeremiah not to pray, not to intercede, for Israel. Jeremiah 8:20 (ESV) describes the overall situation: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

Does Jeremiah delight in God’s judgment? No! Rather he weeps for the lost state of the nation. That should also serve as a warning to us. As believers in Christ, if we delight in the coming destruction, if we delight in seeing people end up in eternal hell, something is badly amiss. Rather, let us weep for the lostness of people, for those who refuse Christ. After all, even God states that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (see Ezekiel). If God takes no pleasure in it, how dare we do so.

The tragedy, is that through the false teachers and prophets, instead of turning to God through Jesus Christ, and being healed and restored, people end up eternally lost. But, as we will see in the next post, even when facing God’s judgment, there is hope.