- Matthew 21:13
"It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'
John 2:13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" 17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up." 18 So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?" 19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
Your walking at the mall just doing some shopping for Mothers Day. As you stroll past the shoe store you over hear three ladies from your church mentioning your deceased mother's name. You casually get a little closer so that your ease dropping does not appear obvious. You act as inconspicuous as possible without giving yourself away. Finally you get within the general vicinity to hear the validity of their claims and the gist of their conversation. They are talking about your mother like a dog. They are telling stories about how she was not the virtuous woman of God that you knew her to be. You've known your mother on an intimate & personal level. You try to be calm and collective but the fact that they are talking about your mother to people who did not know your mother, made you furious. I would call it Righteous Indignation.
So what do you do? You hold your tongue and say Father forgive them for they know not what they do or for the integrity of a godly woman, do you set the record straight? I would take the latter of the two. I hope that the majority of the you would speak up. How much more should you speak up for the integrity of the God of the universe. We live in a sinful world where people try to on a regular basis to destroy the infallibility of the Holy Bible.
In our western culture or in American Christianity we see Jesus as this hippy chipper white dude who was loving and passive. We have become desensitized to sin and have become like the immature Corinthian church. The so called Christian pastors of our time have made the house of God a marketplace. Jesus has become marketable as if He were competing with The Power Rangers or Poke'mon. Jesus sells. When Jesus can pack out a arena of 30,000 people, you have to question is the Gospel being preached? Christ did say that if you lift me up I will draw all men unto me. This statement of course is true but the question is... In our day what Christ is being preached? Is it the Christ of the Bible or Another Christ? Most likely the people are getting their ears tickled.
2 Cornithians 11:1 I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that. 2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
What is Gnosticism?
A group of ancient heresies, stressing escape from this world through the acquisition of esoteric knowledge. Also defined as the doctrines of certain pre-Christian pagan, Jewish, and early Christian sects that valued the revealed knowledge of God and of the origin and end of the human race as a means to attain redemption for the spiritual element in humans and that distinguished the Demiurge (A deity in Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and other religions who creates the material world and is often viewed as the originator of evil. ) from the unknowable Divine Being. Sounds like Word of Faith Churches right. They will tell you that you have the ability to speak death and life based on a contortion of Proverbs 18:21.
Gnosticism was very prevalent in the early Christian church and especially with the Greeks. Paul dealt with this on the regular basis, one example would be Acts 17. History does repeat itself. You see many people claiming they have more revelation aside from the closed canon-The Bible. What is canon you ask? The Canon are the books of the Bible recognized by any Christian church as genuine and inspired. Aside from the Bible their is no other revelation we can find, when we do find other revelation like the Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Word of Faith Knowledge, Oneness Pentecostals, Bahai Faith, Scientology and a myriad of others. They are all derived from new revelation and we call this Heresy. Heresy is something aside from sound doctrine and contradicts the foundation that the Apostles already laid. (Eph 2:20)
Paul knew false teachers would come and earnestly prayed that they would not embrace them. If you study the book of Galations you will thoroughly understand what Paul was speaking about in detail. Judaizers came in preaching another gospel; that is one of works and not of faith in Christ substitutionary work on the cross alone.
If we understand Hypostatic Union(The essential person of Jesus in which his human and divine natures are united.) We see this is the God of the Bible, He was not the first created as the Jehovah's Witnesses say; He and the Father have always been one and this is what we understand as the Triunity nature of God. He has not and will not change his view of the wicked and of sin. This is what we understand as the immutability of God. (the quality of being incapable of mutation or change)
Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Jesus was fierce with the wicked.
Matt 12:34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
Matt 23:33 "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
Psalm 5:5
The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.
Exodus 20:7
"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
Do you get angry when Jehovah's Witnesses say Christ was not God? Does it anger you when the Mormon comes to your door and says Joseph Smith and Brigham Young received new revelation aside from the Bible. How about when Jesse Duplantis says he has been to Heaven and back and wants to sell a video and write a book about it. Or when Joel Osteen and TD Jakes get on national TV and say that Christ is not the only way. (John 14:6) How about when Paul and Jan Crouch ask you to sow into their ministry for healing? (Acts 8:13)
Some people tell me that.... hey buddy-"everybody is not going to be as passionate about this thing as you." Not the case at all. Christ the Savior died for you and you sit in your seat and say nothing for His names sake? What's the deal? Are we not God's children? Would you or would not be agitated if someone defamed your name or your close family members name? How much more zealous should you be for the Lord?
The only reason in the Old Testament that the Lord did not destroy the Israelites was because of His Names sake and the covenant that He made with them. God is serious about His name and about sin. Just think we are in the state we are in now because of one man's sin.
1 Corinthians 15 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
Are you viewing sin through the eyes of our present culture or through the eyes of our Redeemer? Which Jesus are you following? The Ecumenical Jesus of our day of the Jesus or the Bible?
