Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4) (Read verses 3-4 on the site)
Proclaiming The Truth Of Scripture Is the Antidote To Antichrist Doctrine
Leaving aside his penchant for reading mystics, some 60 years ago A.W. Tozer was dead-on-target when he wrote the following. In fact, I offer that there may be even more truth today in what he says below. While commenting upon Exodus 3:9-10 Tozer told us:
Yes, if evangelical Christianity is to stay alive, it must have men again—the right kind of men. It must repudiate the weaklings who dare not speak out, and it must seek in prayer and much humility the coming again of men of the stuff of which prophets and martyrs are made.
God will hear the cries of His people as He heard the cries of Israel in Egypt and He will send deliverance by sending deliverers. It is His way. And when the deliverers come…they will be men of God and men of courage. They will have God on their side because they are careful to stay on God’s side.1
We live in a time of a skewed cycle of phony tolerance. This makes the professing Christian community ripe for rebellion against the final authority of God’s Word. However, compromise in Christ’s Name—though it is not actual Christian activity—has always existed within the visible church of our Lord. Consider this passage of Scripture, which instructs us that—rather than embracing false teachers and their mythology—we are instead to confront them:
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endlessgenealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. (1 Timothy 1:3-7)
So, the following comment from Charles Spurgeon on these much-neglected verses, concerning the original liberals of his day, is a much needed reminder today:
How remarkable the times repeat themselves. When the same evils come, we must apply to them the same remedies. When a disease appears that has done deadly mischief in past times, physicians inquire for medicines that on a former occasion curbed that enemy.
We are bound to do the same in spiritual matters. We must see what Paul did in his day when the malaria of false doctrine is in the air… Let us not talk of inventing wise measures for the for the present distress in the spiritual world, but let us use the great remedy that was so effectual in Paul’s day.