“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” (Mt.16:18).
I assure you, Satan did not miss the memo cancelling his power over sin and death!
However, realising that Jesus could not be prevented from building His church, Satan did what he does best—he produced counterfeit copies instead.
So, here we are 2000 years later, we have hundreds of denominations, and all are claiming to have the corner on truth. It is little wonder that some people become disgusted and ask, “What’s the use?”
The student of the Bible knows that this is nothing new. King Jeroboam set up Golden Calves at Bethel and Dan to move the worshippers away from the true Temple Worship in Jerusalem (1Kg.12). Despite the obvious idolatry, and that they knew that what they were doing was anathema, it worked! They chose to abandon the truth for a convenient lie.
This calls for the vigilance of maturity. When Jesus promised, “Seek and you will find” (Mt.7:7), he did not guarantee that the brethren who taught you the truth would remain true to it. There have always been those in the Lord’s church who have sold the truth for a place amongst the denominations. Like Israel of old, they too want to be like those around them.
We must remember: “Testing the spirits” is not a one-off event (1 John 4:1). It is an ongoing process that will only end on the Last Day.
Also, no congregation is perfect; we all have a long way to go. But what we can expect, and must in fact demand, is that all preaching and teaching be from the Bible. Of course, the only way you are going to be able to test that…is by knowing it!
Standing in the Assembly of the Righteous means finding out who they are.
John Staiger
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