Note: Highlighted parts added by Rev. Hendriks.
- Jesus on Immorality
As apostle Paul served our Lord Jesus Christ so we too are expected and encouraged to follow Jesus in obedience to His words. As we may find ourselves in the shoes of the apostle Paul, we do well to turn to the end of the Bible book of Revelation, Chapter 22. In that chapter we read the following words of Jesus,
1.1 The Church in Pergamum:
“Nevertheless, I have this against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality…Repent therefore!” (Rev. 2:14-16a; NIV).
1.2 The Church in Thyatira”
“Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering…” (Rev. 2:20-22a; NIV).
1.3 We may then also turn to the book of Revelation, Chapter 22. In that chapter we read the following words of Jesus:
“Behold I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” (Rev. 22:12-15; NIV). One may read Rev. 22:19 as well.
Please read also Galatians 5:16-19a,
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality…”
2. Paul on Satanic Influence
“I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naïve people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” (Rom. 16:17-20; NIV).
3. Book: “The Christian Left: How Liberal Thought Has Hijacked the Church.” By Pastor Lucas Miles…who is ‘blowing the whistle…on the Left’s nefarious attempt to commandeer the church and to rewrite the foundation of the Christian faith.’
Miles writes: ‘Oliver Thomas, an American Baptist minister regarding the LGBTQ agenda:
“It’s difficult to watch good people…buy into the sincere but misguided
notion that being a faithful Christian means accepting everything the Bible teaches.” p.37. [Note: That Christian faithfulness is actually the official position of the CRC!]
“Thomas takes his extra-biblical, Christian Left ideologies to the hilt by questioning Jesus’ capability for knowledge at the time of his presence on earth, suggesting that the most authoritative biblical figure of all time, Christ himself, was somehow insufficiently “woke” to the issues of modern society. According to Thomas, Christ was “limited to what first century humans knew” and, therefore, couldn’t possibly be aware of the “million other things the centuries have taught us.” pp.37-38.
4. Bottom Line: Christians who ignore Jesus’s serious warning not to listen to and getting involved in or approving of immoral lifestyles are compromising the Lord’s headship as expressed on previous page. Therefore, Christians with opposing opinions about the Lord’s headship and teaching live in broken fellowship with the Lord and fellow brothers and sisters, this is exactly what Satan strives for and succeeds in. This reality has developed in the thousands of church doors that have closed in Western Europe during the 1980s and 1990s. Satan is now succeeding in North America as well!