The Reckoning

Sheep being victimized by wolves is not new. It has been happening since before the days of the Pharisees, way back to the time of the priests when those such as the sons of Eli would be corrupt of heart and do unspeakable things in the name of the Lord.

Although the existence of wolves among the sheep of God’s pasture is no new thing, their explosive growth is worthy of noting, as well as the particularities with which they attempt to deceive those of the household of faith. The particularity of their deception is relevant in this case, because the things they teach have eternal consequences for the sheep, and not just temporary heartache or the loss of a few hard earned shekels.

The one common trait all wolves possess is the utter absence of love for the sheep. To a wolf a sheep is just a meal and nothing more.

Because the sheep themselves have grown indifferent, apathetic, and are given to wander aimlessly, the wolves have been successful in disseminating fractured half-truths and outright lies and passing them off as absolute truth.

As such, nowadays it is popular to trod out such lunacy as insisting one can love Christ without loving the Word, or that the only reckoning we are sure to experience is when we aren’t faithful in our tithing, everything else, including repentance, righteousness, holiness and obedience being tertiary issues which God really is indifferent toward.

Because most often the Word contradicts us, and we don’t like that one bit, we’ve taken refuge in the intellectually dishonest idea that it is the Word which contradicts itself. Because we allow ourselves to believe this, the seed of doubt as to whether or not the Word is absolute begins to take hold, and we begin to cherry pick what we like, dismissing the rest offhand as having been contextually insignificant or a matter of tradition.

For every strange doctrine we choose to believe, for every teaching we assimilate and subsequently pass on, for every compromise we make, there is consequence. There is, as there has always been, the reckoning which is beginning to make itself visible.

We will see the true measure of damage strange doctrines and foolish teachings have done to professing Christians when it is already too late. That is the tragedy of it all.

One sees the absence of a foundation when the storm begins to pound and the house begins to sway, and once the storm is unleashed there is nothing the individual can do but hope against hope that in spite of his ill-preparedness his home will somehow endure.

We’ve been looking forward to rapture for so long that we’ve wholly dismissed the reality of the battle the Word tells us is a certainty before the saints are caught up. Once again, the ingenuity of man knowing few limits if any, we’ve skirted and meandered our way around the Word and came up with new teaching that does away with the notion of battle altogether, taking us straight to the victory celebration afterwards.

Because so few speak on the battle, fewer still are doing anything to prepare for it, trusting in the words of men rather than the Word of God because it is more convenient, and less taxing on their constitution. Just because we ignore the reality of a thing it does not make the thing we are ignoring any less real! Just because we’re checking our watch every five minutes and rolling our eyes in frustration thinking Jesus is late in returning, it will not make Him return any sooner than at the time the Father has appointed.

The bill for our choosing the easy road rather than the right road, the light hearted rather than the sober, the deception rather than the truth is coming due, and as is the case with any running tab it will be much higher than we assumed.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.