She shared that her cousin was following the "Church of God".. one of the main arguments of this church was that Jesus has already returned and we're living after the second coming right now. It also boasts of an entity known as "God the Mother". My friend shared their website with me to check it out: english.watv.org
As I talked to her, she was looking for ways to defend authentic Christian faith against false versions of Christianity. Given that one of their main arguments was regarding the time of the return of Christ, it was great that I was currently in the middle of reading 2 Thes because of chapter 2:1-12
The most specific section that defends our faith are verses 1-4:
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him: we ask you, brothers, not to be easily upset in mind or troubled, either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter as if from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way. For [that day] will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God's sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God.We can see here that Paul is assuring the Thessalonians not to get uptight about missing the second coming of Christ. There will be sure signs of it. We see that here, you can also find much about it in the end of Mark, as well as in parts of the book of Daniel. Specifically here, we can refute the Second Coming of Christ because we know that "the apostasy" comes first, and the man of lawlessness (the Anti-Christ) is revealed. This is described as a man who calls himself God though by scripture we will be able to disprove this. Unfortunately the Bible also says that many will be deceived, and because of this we should continue to know Christ better and to hide Scripture in our hearts so that we ourselves will not be deceived. There's much to be said about this, and how frightening it really is, but the purpose of this passage for this entry is to show a practical use of scripture to refute false religions here on earth that describe themselves good and even classify themselves as Christian.
Do you use scripture to analyze claims by religious groups and people?
Today I was reading an essay that was being written by a communications friend of mine and they were doing a study on Organizations and how far down the hierarchy their values and mission travels. All the way down to the farthest down end-users. As I read this paper my mind immediately moved to put it in the context of churches and religions (and like-wise, cults) -- how often do we as "believers" simpl tyake for fact those things which the higher organizational end of our systems teach us. I am not going to bash any specific religious sect or denomination here, but the matter of fact is that each of them carry traditions that are taught and accepted without proper testing of scripture. This "Church of God" mentioned above is exploiting this to the max. They use provocative media and compelling statements to lead people to false personal religion. This happens in the Bible on several occasions, but there is one group of people in the Bible that are exhorted for the fact that they took everything they heard and tested it to scripture. They are a group called the Bereans -- when Paul, Silas, and Timothy were proclaiming the Gospel in Acts 17:10-15 the Bereans "welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." This is a great model for us as we grow in our walk with Christ and continue to learn. Every religion, church, organization, while valuable, has the ability to lead us astray. An organization is only as strong and perfect as it's head. As Christians, the only organization leader which we should follow because HE IS PERFECT is Christ.
.... Read your Bible. End of Story.
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