What is the greatest problem that the church is facing today everywhere? Pandemic? Economic downturn? Persecutions? Though all of these are undoubtedly painful and disconcerting, nothing is as acutely damaging as the opposition posed by the haters of God and of His truths among church members.
How ironic it is that some of the most defiant and dangerous enemies of God are found in the church! They claim to be believers and outwardly express a superficial devotion to Christ. But they speak and live contrary to the truths and counsels of God’s Word. Such people are found even in the leadership of the church. They are apostates who embrace false doctrines, worldliness, materialism, etc. They distort the truths of God, and propound and propagate perverted forms of Christianity.
Just as in the past, such God-haters are found even now. The Bible warns, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1). Apostate Judaism and false Christianity, along with all their teachers and adherents, are deceivers and haters of divine truth and of God.
God had the harshest criticism for such people in ancient Israel. The Bible records in many places God’s strong condemnation of them. Isaiah 1:11-16 is one such severe denunciation – “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil”.
God has no pleasure in worship from those who live in an unbiblical manner. Isaiah 29:13-14 reiterates this matter – “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men…for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.” Through the prophet Amos, God also declared His utter disgust for the haters of His truth who were disguised as genuine worshippers – “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols” (Amos 5:21-23).
Those haters of God’s truth would even “swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness” (Isaiah 48:1). The LORD directed the prophet Jeremiah to deliver a hard-hitting reprimand to the counterfeit religionists of his day – “Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these… Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 7:4, 8-11).
During Jesus’ public ministry, He did not spare the Pharisees who rejected His teachings from His unvarnished condemnation. He plainly told them that they were motivated by greed, avarice and covetousness: “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:13-15). While the Pharisees were listening to Jesus’ teachings, they were mocking Him. What triggered their hostile reaction and scorn towards Jesus? Their obsession with material gain was the root of their rejection and ridicule of Jesus’ doctrines. Moreover, they were self-justifying. They wanted to avoid being seen by people as mistaken in their thinking, teaching and conduct. To them, accepting Jesus’ teachings would mean that they had to confess they had been foolish in their ways and then repent. But as Jesus noted about them, they would rather “justify [them]selves before men”.
In 2021, what do we see in the church? Increasingly, Christians are denying the plain teachings of the Scriptures, branding them as impractical, inconvenient and unworkable in this post-modern world! Many churchgoers have upheld material success as more important than spiritual excellence. Greater possessions, a glamorous lifestyle, a place among the world’s elite, etc. are more commonly cherished passions of contemporary Christians than a lowly, biblically ordered life. Are we not now living in the perilous times that the Bible warns about in 2 Timothy 4:3–4? “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; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” Let us examine ourselves and see whether we are turning against God and His truths to justify our love for worldly living.