Certain Men Have Crept In Unnoticed

Jude 1-4 KJV,

1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:

2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

‘Certain Men Have Crept In Unnoticed’

This writing is meant to echo the warning of Jude —I believe the warning of Jude is as urgent now as the day Jude first wrote the words centuries ago.

Godless worldviews have been eroding the American and European Judeo-Christian heritage for years. But in this day and hour, the problem has taken a dire turn for the worse. While false teachers have been around since biblical times, their infiltration of the church has increased alarmingly, just as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24.

Well known evangelical leaders have joined in events, alliances, and common causes with a shocking array of unbiblical partners. As a result, many contemporary “Christian” leaders embrace and encourage the false gods and false gospels of Mormonism, the New Age Movement, Roman Catholicism, Word of Faith teachers, the New Apostolic Reformation, Eastern Mysticism, and the spiritual left of our World. Sad to say many of these that are classed as Christian leaders are even embracing Christislam. These false teachers, preachers and leaders say, can’t we all just get along? As long as we are believers, believing in something we are all going to the same place, so why don’t we make room for all of our brothers and sisters who believe in a different higher power, we know Jesus is only one of the many ways?

Our bitterest philosophical enemies have made it past the gatekeepers of mainstream evangelical Christianity and even past many Pentecostal Apostolic preachers and teachers, and now anti-Christian worldviews have assembled within the walls of our churches. As a result, hostile forces wreak havoc in the minds and hearts of true saints of God who are now caught unaware and have no idea as to what is happening to our thinking.

We have allowed the religious Trojan horse into our churches. Because of this we as preachers and teachers are experiencing a breach of integrity and the body of believers are literally confused by all this change that is taking place so rapidly. Our preaching has become compromised by popular and dangerous teachings that are anything but scriptural.

We have seen such a shift in our religious thinking as we have allowed the modern worldview to slither its way into our own personal lives as teachers, preachers and ministers of the gospel. Even we who claim to be Apostolic Pentecostals have let this spirit of change infiltrate our pulpits.

Yes, this philosophy and eschatology of false religions have infiltrated evangelical and Pentecostal ranks as well. For many years now we have had saboteurs of the gospel who have convinced 21st century evangelicals and Pentecostals to embrace and promote heresies of the social gospel, dominion theology, ecumenicalism, mysticism, social justice, and communitarianism and so many have fallen for these lies and embrace them as truth today.

So many of these teachers, preachers and Christian leaders have assisted not only in building this false religious system, but getting us as Evangelical, Apostolic, Pentecostal, Christians to let them slip this into the churches we pastor.

We who are taking a stand against these horrid false teachings and ministries are now in danger of open persecution from within the Christian ranks. This persecution will be felt by anyone who preaches truth as it is written in the Word of God and anyone who will not compromise so they will be accepted. This persecution that we are now feeling from the Christian community is only light persecutions, because the persecutions that will follow will be devastating to say the least, because the worst is yet to come.

So many preachers and churches have weakened their stances and allowing the Worldview to creep into their teachings and they are actually becoming apostate as a church. I feel it will be the apostate church that will be in step with the coming One World Order and be aligned with the Mother Harlot of Revelation 17 who will do the bidding to bring the church world in to follow the One-world leader.

The threat is so prevalent today if we have any spiritual discernment left in us we can see that mainstream Christianity is blending “signs and wonders” with mystical “Christianity” this is already conditioning unaware Christians to accept and to follow a one-world leader. This One-world leader will come on the scene with such sensation and with dynamic demonstrations of power that many will not discern this as a false flow of the real and they will follow after him.

The world’s religions are now converging and emerging through a combination of different ideas, philosophies and beliefs. For years the evangelical Christians along with the Apostolic Pentecostals have stood in open opposition to such things as the “Emergent Church.” The sad thing is that suddenly many of those who are classed as evangelical Christians are now supporting this converging and emerging ideas and teachings in the local church. Can I even say that even many of those who have been with us who are Apostolic Pentecostals are now supporting the teaching of the “Emergent Church?”

I know this writing has shocked many of you. It will cause many of you to despair and to have anxiety attacks. Make no mistake, the situation is grim and does look terrible today. But we who are saints of God still have hope and that is in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. We must open our spiritual eyes and understand what is really taking place what is happening in our world and what we as saints of God can still do to help ourselves as well as others during this end-time crises. If ever we become strong in biblical teaching, preaching, church attendance and the raising of our children now is the time.  Because “Certain men” are indeed creeping in unnoticed, but God is still in charge—and working decisively through those who will not exchange any of the truth for a lie.

Christianity as a whole is under attack, but we evangelical Apostolic Pentecostals are being scrutinized even from within. Formidable forces are currently arrayed and actively working to undermine what remains of the biblical worldview once prevalent in the United States and to distort the Gospel around the globe. These forces are powerful, well connected, well-funded, dominate key media outlets, and constitute the single greatest threat to the church today. What is most frightening, however, is that they profess to be and are widely believed to be Christian.

We who are true born again evangelical, Apostolic Pentecostals must courageously take a stand to exposes these false teachers along with the false doctrines that they are peddling as truth today. Ironically, many of the false teachers and preachers are now being embraced by today's evangelical, Apostolic Pentecostal leaders. It was not so many years ago these false teachers and preachers were widely recognized as heretical and even banished by so many evangelical, Apostolic Pentecostal denominations.

The teachings that were once recognized as heresy are now being endorsed as biblical and Christian by many in our ranks. This is so indicative of the stunning biblical illiteracy and lack of discernment among most professing evangelical, Apostolic Pentecostals who fall for such today.

We are living in a day and age in which most people desire to have their ears tickled,

2 Timothy 4:3-5 KJV,

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

Jude 3, tell us to, “earnestly contending for the faith.” As the saints of God are being tossed here and there by waves of deception and carried about by every wind of doctrine, we need faithful teachers and preachers of God's Word to take a stand and contend for the Gospel. With a passion for the lost we must proclaim this truth as it was given to us. We must be seeking the approval of God over the approval of men. God will continually expose the evil deeds of darkness by naming those who are diverting people away from the purity of this great truth.

Since the very beginning of mankind, error has been more popular than truth, but those who expose the fatal errors of Satan with the light of God's truth are not always popular even in the church. Because it is not popular to stand with Truth, very few teachers and preachers of the Word are warning the church of the growing apostasy which is leading many into a counterfeit Christianity. I urge saints of God, preachers, teachers and Christians everywhere to examine themselves and take a stand with Truth. Let we who are part of the church take the position of exposing the emergent church and its leaders who are ushering in the ecumenical movement of the Last Days.

I challenge evangelical, Apostolic Pentecostal preachers, teachers and believers to stand and proclaim truth as never before. We need a revival in our midst, a fresh anointing in our pulpits and an outpouring of the Holy Ghost in our services. We need to shake the forces of evil and bind everything evil around us and stand for Truth in this hour.

I DO NOT LIKE RELIGIOUS LABELS

I try my best to avoid using religious labels to describe my friends and peers who are involved in ministry. I do not like to label ministries, churches of even people who are involved in church work of any nature or type. I am not talking about labeling people by the church affiliation or organization they are involved in, but I am talking about labels that judge each other.

I was in a session recently and we as preachers and pastors were filling out questionnaire forms to be turned in and used for many different venues within our organization, the UPCI.

The questionnaire wanted us to class ourselves by putting a check in the box that best described the church we were pastoring, (Very Conservative, Conservative, Liberal, Very Liberal)…The questionnaire also wanted us to describe our personal ministry by putting a check in the proper box that best described us (Apostolic, Pentecostal, Charismatic, or other). I thought how sad this is we are all member of the UPCI, what is wrong with us all being called and classed as United Pentecostal Preachers and United Pentecostal Churches. I did not check any of the boxes, because I refuse to label myself anything other than United Pentecostal.

The problem in our Pentecostal ranks today is we want to label every church and every preacher or pastor as less than we are. No one is as holy, pure, near and close to the Lord as we are and for sure no one is as balanced as we are so therefore we begin to use labels to describe others.

We who class ourselves as being so perfect want to label all of our Brothers and Sisters and the other churches around us as liberal or Charismatic. How tragic this is. Instead of us just accepting one another as Brothers and Sisters we place others under a label that says to others we are classing them as less than we class ourselves.

I have noticed that we class a church that is having rapid church growth as being Charismatic or liberal. We do this because the new converts do not understand all of our Pentecostal traditions and surely do not understand and in most cases do not line up completely with these things we class and call standards. Why don’t we allow these pastors who are having this wonderful experience of growth the right to lead these new converts into a deeper relationship with our Savior instead of cutting them down with our label’s.

I realize that the churches that have no growth are classed as very conservative or ultra conservative. If we are going to use labels let us call them what they really are, stagnate or dead. But we want to make it look like they are the only ones who are holding to the old paths and preaching the old time message of the faith. No friend the old paths lead to reaching people with this gospel truth and teaching people to reach others with this gospel message of salvation. The old time message is about evangelism and salvation or seeing many receive the Holy Ghost.

 If I must say so I dislike the religious labels we put on our Brothers and Sisters. These labels are tainted and identify our personal insecurities and our lack of giving our brothers and sisters the liberty of reaching the world around them with this message of truth. These labels place us all in a box so to speak and cause us to judge. Labels tend to divide us into competing groups or camps of certain teachings and beliefs. Labels give us no liberty to change our methods or to have greater vision.

Going back to the statement above where I filled out the questionnaire but refused to check the labels that would best describe me or my church, I received a call on my cell phone that evening and the lady told me that I failed to check these boxes. I told her I was United Pentecostal in my doctrinal beliefs and in my preaching. I said and my church is United Pentecostal in name, doctrine and standards. She said but we need to know a little more about you so we can put you in the proper camp. To make a long story short, she ended up classing me as Charismatic and my church as very liberal. How sad this is that she did not even know me and has never been to the church I pastor, but is labeling us.

This is what I told her about my ministry and the church I pastor. I told her we are a practical, middle of the road, Bible believing church. We believe there is only One God and His name is Jesus. We do not practice of believe there is such a thing as the trinity. We believe in the Apostles message of salvation through repentance, baptism in Jesus name for the remission of our sin and the infilling of the Holy Ghost, evidenced by speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives us the utterance. We believe in signs, wonders and miracles and feel these things should happen in every service. We believe in reaching the lost at any cost and that evangelism and church growth should be taking place in our life and our church at all times. She told me that I would be labeled as liberal in my thinking and my church would be labeled as Charismatic because we actually believed in the operation of the gifts of the Spirit in our church and we were into numbers.

With all this being written let me clear up one fact for you. You do not have to use labels if you do not want to, as I do not want to. But this will not stop others from labeling you and your church. There is not much we can do about the box, category or camp they label us in, but we do not have to accept their label, we must just be who we are and let the church we are involved in be the church and together we are to fulfill the will of God and God will label us as His and this is the only label that counts.

AMERICA, AMERICA GOD SHED HIS GRACE ON THEE

In this era of time our American leaders are making history, but it is not something that is good for America. Leadership is literally rejecting biblical values that have been a part of this nation from its foundation. We as a nation are being taken on a treacherous path that our earlier leaders warned against. In fact old rules, laws and regulations are literally being ignored or spoken out against as outdated and prude.

Two months ago on May 9, 2012, President Obama became the first sitting U. S. President to publicly announce in a television interview that he supported marriage between homosexual couples. The tragedy in all of this is the fact that this public announcement did not even move the average person in America. The track record of our sitting president was evident because as a sitting legislator in Illinois he had openly supported gay marriage and even stated he favored homosexual marriages and would personally fight any effort set forth to prohibit them.

When he was campaigning for the higher office in the Senate in 2004, Barack Obama changed his position, stating, “My religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.” Again in 2008 while running for the White House, Barack Obama made a similar statement, “I believe marriage is the union between a man and a woman.” “For me as a Christian, marriage is a sacred union.”

President Barack Obama’s words were soon so worthless as he declare in 2011 that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman and a bill that had passed both houses of Congress with large overwhelming majorities, was unconstitutional and as president he ordered the U.S. Justice Department to stop defending it in court. In the same year President Barack Obama pressed the U.S. Armed Forces to stop enforcing restrictions on homosexuals serving openly in the military. Later in 2011 President Barack Obama directed the U.S. State Department to use American Foreign Aid Programs and Agencies in other countries around the world to support homosexual programs and organizations in all of these countries to coerce foreign governments into accepting and promoting gay rights, and to encourage homosexuals in other nations to seek asylum in the U.S.A.

To so many of us who are Christians in the U.S.A., President Obama’s recent changes are evidence that he is courting the vote and financial support of the liberal constituents of this wonderful nation. By his actions and through his spoken words he is letting all of us who are Bible believing Christians know that our positions are considered repugnant even though he entered our White House under the guise of his embracing Christian beliefs.

President Barack Obama has definitely let us know that his true beliefs do not line up with the Bible or with any Christian teachings as he is actually leading assaults against our Christian Bible beliefs in the U.S.A.  We sit here in 1012 and watch so many American’s along with our leaders in Washington increasingly defy God and openly oppose God’s law of morality as our nation falls into total moral decay. I cry out with so many Christian leaders and saints of God, “America, America God shed His grace on thee.”

Proverbs 14:34 New Living Translation ®,

34 Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

As a Holy Ghost filled saint of God and a preacher of His Word, I feel it is my duty along with the duty of all Christian believers today to warn the people of this great nation along with our Leaders in Washington, there are dire consequences coming to those who indulge in sin and reject God.

Galatians 6:7 King James Version,

7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

As a nation so many of our people along with our great leaders have forgotten God and His wonderful hand of mercy, which has been with us from our humble beginning. We have forgotten the fact that it is God that multiplied, enriched, guided and protected this nation throughout the past generations. We have allowed our minds to become filled with vain imaginations of our own might and strengths. Our hearts have become full of deceitfulness and we have become a desperately wicked people. We now feel we are so bright, smart and intelligent within ourselves that we have no need of GOD. Because of this deceit we have become intoxicated on self and no longer feel our need of the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We now call evil good and good evil and we revel in our sin.

Isaiah 5:20-24 King James Version,

20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Whether we the people in the U.S.A realize it or not, America is treading down a very treacherous path of defiant, deviant and growing danger a path of utter defeat. Unless we the people of this great nation wake-up, shake ourselves from this spiritual slumber that we are in and heed the warnings from God’s Word we will see history begin to rapidly repeat itself.

America, America God shed His grace on thee…A people and a nation can despise and ignore the Word of God only for so long before they begin to reap the tragic consequences.

AMERICA, AMERICA GOD SHED HIS GRACE ON THEE…