The Painful Truth-Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God
Understanding the psychology of religious seduction and spiritual abuse.
My dear children, and believe Me, that is all of you, I consider Myself a pretty patient guy. I mean, look at the Grand Canyon. It took millions of years to get it right. And about evolution? Boy, nothing is slower than designing that whole Darwinian thing to take place cell by cell and gene by gene.
“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:11-12).
Wolves, in their own environment, bring balance to nature, but when there’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and he’s behind the pulpit, it’s bad news because he’s only interested in fleecing the flock and then devouring the sheep.
The Apostle Peter saw it in his day, writing that “false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Pet 2:1).
In the current times, many of us can relate to the prophet Jeremiah’s words: “My heart within me is broken because of the [false] prophets; all my bones shake … because of the Lord, and because of His holy words” (23:9). God declared, “‘For both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in My house I have found their wickedness,’ says the Lord” (23:11).
If your church is not focused primarily on the Person and the work of Jesus Christ, it is not Christocentric. That means, it is not Christ focused, and remember, Jesus said the Holy Spirit will testify of Him (John 15:26), and so God’s teachers should testify of Christ too.