Tag: False Counselors

Christian – Do Not Permit Anyone to Put a Yoke on You!

~ Jeff Crippen ~ 2 Comments

Gal 4:3-7 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. (4) But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, (5) to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (6) And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (7) So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Gal 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

People who were enslaved to some cult at one time generally have a pretty hard time getting free. Even if they get free physically by being rescued or fleeing, it still can be quite a task to get mentally free.

I have seen this dynamic in people who were in legalistic churches. They are still afraid. They want to serve the Lord. They want to do what is right. But they keep struggling because they have been taught for so long that their old law-preaching pastor and elders are in authority over them, that they must do what they are told, and that if they do not they will incur the Lord’s wrath.

Let me give you an example.

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So Just How do we “Test the Spirits?”

~ Jeff Crippen

Gal 1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

2Co 11:3-4 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (4) For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough….2Co 11:14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

1John 4:1-2 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. (2) By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

We are seeing claims of late that Jesus Christ has appeared as a so-called “light man.” The claim made is that since the Bible says God is light and Christ is the Light of the world and so on, then if someone reports that “the light man” appeared to them and said he was Jesus bringing them salvation, we must at minimum believe that such a claim is possibly valid. Even if it is made by a woman who claims to have been molested as a child by Billy Graham, Richard Nixon, and other notables who were all part of a secret conglomeration conspiracy organization consisting of the CIA, the Masons, the Roman Catholic Church, and others. The woman insists that at the age of six she was held in a cage with other children in subterranean levels of an army base and these children told her that they used to get visited by “the light man”.  When asked during an interview what does that mean, the woman said,  “they (the other children) described him and I said to them, “oh yeah, I know him.  That’s Jesus Christ.’”

And now we are being told that if we don’t believe these reports then we are denying the ways that Christ works today, that we are refusing to help abuse victims, and worse.  But this is not Christ. Nope. It is not, and I will tell you why.

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What or Who is a Christian? Churches Don’t Seem to Know

~ Jeff Crippen

1Jn 2:3-4 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. (4) Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

1Jn 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

1Jn 2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

1Jn 3:6-9 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. (7) Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. (8) Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (9) No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

I grew up in Bible and Baptist churches. As a kid, I didn’t really know much of what went on in the churches we attended, but one thing happened with a fair degree of regularity- suddenly one Sunday we went to a different church.

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