Tag: churches

His Sheep Hear His Voice

~ Jeff Crippen ~ Leave a comment

An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes? (Jeremiah 5:30-31)

One of the characteristics of a true Christian and a true church is a love for truth. God’s Word is received like honeycomb even if it announces judgment on the wicked or coming suffering for the righteous. It is truth and it is life-giving and a real child of God hungers and thirsts for it.

Not so with the counterfeit.

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An Appearance of Godliness: Case Studies in Evil (Part 14)

~ Jeff Crippen ~ 4 Comments

Galatians 4:8 ESV  Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

The devil enslaves. Sin enslaves. To be in the kingdom of darkness is to be a slave to it. Owned by it. Possessed by it (I suppose in this sense every person outside of Christ is “possessed”). The devil considers his slaves to be his property, his servants. He owns them. And ownership is what I want to talk about in this article.

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An Appearance of Godliness: Case Studies in Evil (Part 12)

~ Jeff Crippen ~ 4 Comments

John 15:18 ESV  “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

Sometimes evil comes at us in the form of some organization. A group of people organized together to form a – monster. The world is a beast like that. The world consists of individual people and yet those individuals are formed into a “cosmos” that is of one spirit – the “god of this world.” When evil is organized like this, it becomes exponentially more evil.

Genesis 11:5-6 ESV  And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.  (6)  And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

One of the forms of organized evil that I have met with is organizations of churches, generally called denominations. For quite a few years myself and our church here really wanted fellowship with other local churches. We sought it in the typical way – find a denomination that we agree doctrinally with and become a formal member.

Continue reading “An Appearance of Godliness: Case Studies in Evil (Part 12)” →