A Divisive
Jesus By Don McGee
There
is a global religious effort going on today that is of great importance because
it is presenting an unscriptural view of Jesus. It can be found in most all
mainline denominations, and it is very dangerous especially to those people who
base their belief system solely upon what their religious leaders tell them.
Many
of those religious leaders are saying that Jesus is the great unifier to the
exclusion of all else that Scripture says about Him. In this teaching just
about any person, religious or otherwise, can find a place of acceptance under
His great umbrella of unity. The proponents of this unity effort willfully
misapply John 17. This is Jesus’ prayer for unity among believers, not among
religions.
What
makes this interesting to prophecy teachers and others interested in end times
events is that this teaching is forming the foundation for the harlot church of
Revelation 17.
By
that I mean that the world is religiously in the run-up to what is going to
happen once Jesus removes His Church from the earth.
Some
people might have wondered if this would ever happen literally, but they should
wonder no more. What we are seeing in the modern apostate church is
unmistakably the foundation of that future harlot church.
The
world admits to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth lived on this earth 2000 years
ago. The problem is that the world does not believe what He said about Himself,
and they do not believe what the scripture's writers say about Him. And that is
why people must be careful about what their religious leaders are saying. They
could be dead-on correct historically, but downright heretical scripturally.
This
should not surprise any of us, for Jesus Himself said He would be divisive, and
that is the first thing we need to think about. In Matthew 10:34ff He said to
his apostles that He did not come to bring peace on the earth, but to bring a
sword. In fact, Jesus emphasized this truth by quoting the words of the prophet
Micah saying that He and His message would ultimately divide families to the
point that some family members would become enemies.
This
flies in the face of what so many superstar pastors and evangelists are saying
to their congregations. They plead for unity and for cooperation and for
tolerance and for love among the denominations. Not only that, but they want
the church to accept as fellow believers those whose beliefs and lifestyles
demonstrate a total disregard for what God has said about faith in Christ
Jesus, righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come (Acts 24:24,25).
Matthew
10:34 is also entirely at odds with what many of those same pastors and
evangelists are saying about extending unity to those among the pagan
religions. Many high-profile religious leaders, including but not limited to
the pope, are saying we are all children of God and that we must come together
in sincerity and unity to make the world a better place. The Vatican has been
saying for years that “separated brethren” should come “home” to the Catholic
Church.
Folks,
Jesus did not come to unite religions and make the world a better place. This
world is a putrefying mass of rebellion, and this plea for religious unity is
part of that problem. At His 1st Coming Jesus died for the sins of the world.
At His Second Coming He will make the world a better place. Until then,
apostate Christianity will continue to grow.
So,
is Jesus divisive? Yes, He is. It is not the on-going global unity effort that
is divisive, for that effort is inclusive of everything from New Age to eastern
mysticism to even monotheistic religions like Judaism, Islam and what is
essentially apostate Christianity.
Religious
unity will largely be achieved during the tribulation, but it will not be
centered on Jesus Christ. It will be centered on Antichrist (Revelation 13). In
fact, those who refuse to worship Antichrist and to take his mark during those
dark days will die for their refusal (Revelation 7).
The
world is very much ready for this harlot church. You see, people want a
feel-good unity that has nothing to do with the biblical Jesus. They want one
based upon human inspiration, collaboration and some kind of a warped concept
of justice. If somebody were given TV access to all the world, and he tried to
unify the religious world around the biblical truth of Jesus Christ; he would
be driven from the world stage and labeled a dangerous extremist and divider of
people.
Take
a close look at those who are pushing for global religious unity. The world’s
tributes to them do not seem to cease. Pope Francis is called a man of peace
and unity because he wants to unite the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern
Orthodox Church, the Church of England, protestant Christianity and even Islam
and atheists; all under the Roman Catholic Church, of course.
Particularly
interesting was his answer about the possibility of atheists being saved. Under
the headline, “Pope Francis Offers Hope to Faithless, Says Atheists Can Go to
Heaven,” The Oregonian of December 26, 2015 quoted him as saying, “You ask me
if the God of the Christians forgives those who don't believe and who don't
seek the faith...the issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their
conscience.”
Obey
their conscience?
The
Bible does not say that. It says that trust in and obedience to Jesus Christ is
the sole means of salvation (Acts 4:12). The hope offered by the pope, along
with the unity he so desires, is not based upon Jesus Christ and His claims,
but it is a false hope based upon the gods of toleration, acceptance and unity.
You see how the truth about Jesus divides people...
Some
protestant leaders, even some who are labeled as evangelicals, have also
embraced the modern call for the acceptance into the Christian community of
those who reject the Bible as truth. Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren are just
two examples of those who have made a decision to redefine biblical teaching in
order to make the Bible, Jesus and God the Father more palatable to those
steeped in rebellion. This shows clearly that the claims and demands of Jesus
divide people into those who accept Him and His teaching, and those who do not.
It is as simple as that.
It
is true that Christians must never be motivated by hate in their dealing with
unbelievers. But that does not mean that the truth must be compromised by
accommodating their pagan belief system, or their immoral lifestyles. Yet some
religious leaders demand their followers do just that in order to show love
toward unbelievers. That is not only absurd, but it removes any opportunity to
evangelize unbelievers.
To
think that biblical teaching about sin, salvation, and the Person and work of
Jesus Christ should be muted in public or private dealings with atheists,
Muslims, homosexuals, murderers, etc. is in direct conflict with 2 Timothy
4:1,2 along with other Scriptures having to do with evangelization.
But,
more to the point is the fact that it is quite often not Christians who treat
unbelievers in a caustic way, but unbelievers and so-called “progressive”
Christian leaders who treat fundamental Christians in this way. In fact, many of
biblical Christianity’s loudest opponents are those so-called “progressive”
Christian leaders.
Consider
Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist of Dallas. He is a highly
respected spokesman among evangelical Christians, and he does not practice political
correctness. Dr. Robert Hunt, a Southern Methodist University religion
professor who is also the school’s Director of Global Theological Education,
charges Jeffress with hate speech because he takes a biblical stand on issues
dealing with Islam, immorality, etc.
However,
at the same time Hunt gives praise to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings for defending
Islam, one of the most hateful religions the world has ever known.
Jeffress
read the Bible, concluded it is definitively the Truth, and even the satirist/atheist
Bill Mayer would say he loves those who disagree with him. I can only assume
Hunt has also read the Bible, yet he not only does not believe it is the Truth,
but he has despicable things to say about those who do. So, who is the one
mouthing the hate speech?
So
why do these two men, both of whom have advanced degrees in somewhat similar
fields, not only differ on their acceptance of biblical authority, but who also
have such different views toward those with whom they differ. Actually it is a
simple matter: Jeffress believes what Jesus said about everything; Hunt does
not.
This
is an example of how Jesus divides people. They will either accept Him for who
He is and what He says, or they will not. Adding to or taking away from His
Person or His Word are not options. But that is exactly what the religious
world is doing. Those people would rather walk ten miles to reject or distort
the truth than to stand still and accept it.
Not
long before the Roman Empire beheaded the apostle Paul he wrote a final letter
to the young evangelist, Timothy. In that letter he warned Timothy about such
people. He said:
“For
the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to
have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in
accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth
and will turn aside to myths.... “ ( 2 Timothy 4:3, 4).
What
the apostate religious world is saying superficially is that global unity,
tolerance of all belief systems, and the acceptance of all moral standards are
more important than truth. But there is more to it than that. They are not
really saying that unity inherently has more value than truth, but they are
actually saying that such unity provides them license to live as they please
and that adherence to truth does not
They
do not care about the intrinsic value of a ideology, whether it is godly or
ungodly. The only thing they care about is whether a particular view of Jesus
and the Bible provides a socially acceptable arena for the practice of their
human inspired, self-made false religion.
The
exclusivity of Jesus and His Word is the message not being heard from many
modern pulpits. What is being heard is ecclesiastical nonsense. Christians are
being told God is happy with friendly ecumenical meetings that give spiritual
equivalence to all speakers and their religions. That is like trying to force
light and darkness to occupy the same space at the same time. It is impossible.
James 4:4 said:
“You
adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility
toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself
an enemy of God.”
Revelation
17:1,15 says that the false church of the tribulation will be supported by the
entire global population. That makes it easy to see that the apostate
Christianity of today will be part of whatever the harlot church will be then.
Biblical
terms and templates may be a part of that church in that Antichrist may be
called the messiah, and the False Prophet may be called his bishop, or
something similar. The precise details of this future harlot church escape us;
her modern foundation does not.
The
apostate church likes to patronize Jesus Christ by saying He was a good man,
that He was a great teacher, that He touched the lives of a lot of people, and
that He did good things for people. However, believing those thing about Jesus
Christ will not get a person out of their bed in the morning, much less to
heaven.
The
truth is He is the Son of God who died for the sins of the world and rose from
the dead three days later, and what He says is the final authority on our
relationship with Him and with each other. Those other things might be said
about any number of people through the ages, but when offered as accolades to
Jesus Christ they merely melt into condescending, undiluted hogwash. A person
will accept Him as the One the Bible says He is, or not accept Him at all.
A
church leader once angrily said to a preacher, after hearing his sermon to a
self-satisfied church on the uncompromising word of truth, that he needed to
preach about love instead of doctrine because love unites and doctrine divides.
Though this man thought he had spoken a great theological truth, the fact is he
did not know what he was talking about.
He
had grown to become very comfortable with what he thought the Bible should say
about Jesus Christ instead of what it actually says. Sort of like a sheep that
has gone comfortably astray in dangerous wolf territory, he opened himself up
to the dangerous lie that God accepts most everybody’s anything.
No
one knows the moment when Jesus will take His Church out of this world. What a
person will be doing cannot be known. Some will be at work, or at school, or
sleeping, but those things do not matter. What will matter is what a person
believed about Jesus Christ and how that person acted upon that belief.
Some
of those left behind will know exactly what happened, and they will forsake
their apostasy (Revelation 7:9ff), though they will most likely die horrible
deaths. Others will continue headlong with their apostasy thus becoming part of
the harlot church.
A
lot is at stake based upon what a person does with Jesus Christ and His Word.
People should not give up the God-given opportunity they have to know the truth
for themselves, and should not trust some formal ecclesiastic with an
unbiblical religious agenda to always, if ever, tell them the truth.
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