Outline For Building-up And Equipping The Body Of Christ

This Biblical Christianity website encourages people to know and to live, God’s Word; thus enabling us to live now as God intended for us to live, and preparing us for eternal life in God’s kingdom.

Site Navigation:This left-column outline contains links to website pages and sources pertaining to helping the Body of Christ gain the potential for which God designed it. The menu below pages down to the individual sections of this outline from which you can navigate to other web pages. There is a fourth level to some of the third level or decimal elements of this outline that is hidden, to view this level click on the (c) symbol in the outline; to hide the fourth level, double-click upon it (I found out, the last time I checked, that Mozilla's Firefox browser doesn't support this fourth level expansion feature, sorry).

Deceived By The False Prophets

How is it possible for an individual or nation to be deceived after having started out miraculously in a right relationship with God? Before considering how this could happen, let’s first read about the fact that it did occur with the nation of Israel.

PSALM 78:1-8.... GIVE EAR, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable (in instruction by numerous examples); I will utter dark sayings of old [that hide important truth]-- [Matt. 13:34,35.] Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but we will tell to the generation to come the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonderful works that He has performed. For He established a testimony (an express precept) in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, commanding our fathers that they should make [the great facts of God's dealings with Israel] known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, that the children still to be born might arise and recount them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but might keep His commandments and might not be as their fathers--a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their hearts aright nor prepared their hearts to know God, and whose spirits were not steadfast and faithful to God.

The Church has also been commanded to proclaim God’s Word and teachings to not only our families, but to the whole world. "Jesus approached and, breaking the silence, said to them, All authority (all power of rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days ( perpetually, uniformly, and on every occasion), to the [very] close and consummation of the age. Amen (so let it be)" (Matt. 28:18-20).

PSALM 78:32-44.... In spite of all this, they sinned still more, for they believed not in (relied not on and adhered not to Him for) His wondrous works. Therefore their days He consumed like a breath [in emptiness, falsity, and futility] and their years in terror and sudden haste. When He slew [some of] them, [the remainder] inquired after Him diligently, and they repented and sincerely sought God [for a time]. And they [earnestly] remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer. Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouths and lied to Him with their tongues. For their hearts were not right or sincere with Him, neither were they faithful and steadfast to His covenant. [Acts 8:21.] But He, full of [merciful] compassion, forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not; yes, many a time He turned His anger away and did not stir up all His wrath and indignation. For He [earnestly] remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that goes and does not return. How often they defied and rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! And time and again they turned back and tempted God, provoking and incensing the Holy one of Israel. They remembered not [seriously the miracles of the working of] His hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy, how He wrought His miracles in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided] and turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink from them.

PSALM 78:56-64.... "Yet they tempted and provoked and rebelled against the Most High God and kept not His testimonies. But they turned back and dealt unfaithfully and treacherously like their fathers; they were twisted like a warped and deceitful bow [that will not respond to the archer's aim]. For they provoked Him to [righteous] anger with their high places [for idol worship] and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, He was full of [holy] wrath; and He utterly rejected Israel, greatly abhorring and loathing [her ways], so that He forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent in which He had dwelt among men [and never returned to it again], and delivered His strength and power (the ark of the covenant) into captivity, and His glory into the hands of the foe (the Philistines). [1 Sam. 4:21.] He gave His people over also to the sword and was wroth with His heritage [Israel]. [1 Sam. 4:10.] The fire [of war] devoured their young men, and their bereaved virgins were not praised in a wedding song. Their priests [Hophni and Phinehas] fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation [for the bodies came not back from the scene of battle, and the widow of Phinehas also died that day]. [1 Sam. 4:11,19,20.]

Unfortunately, churches and individual Christians have on many occasions failed to heed the warnings illustrated by Israel’s unfaithful examples, and have fallen victim to their own selfish desires instead of seeking to please the Lord. It remains to be seen if people will be able to recognize the danger we are in and get back into God’s Word and clean up our lives before the soon coming of the Lord. For as the following verses proclaim, God is about to rise up and put down all the rebellious ways of man and take control of what rightly belongs to Him.

PSALM 78:65-72.... Then the Lord awakened as from sleep, as a strong man whose consciousness of power is heightened by wine. And He smote His adversaries in the back [as they fled]; He put them to lasting shame and reproach. Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle had been accustomed to stand]. But He chose the tribe of Judah [as Israel's leader], Mount Zion, which He loved [to replace Shiloh as His capital]. And He built His sanctuary [exalted] like the heights [of the heavens] and like the earth which He established forever. He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds; [1 Sam. 16:11,12.] from tending the ewes that had their young He brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob His people, of Israel His inheritance. [2 Sam. 7:7,8.] So [David] was their shepherd with an upright heart; he guided them by the discernment and skillfulness [which controlled] his hands.

Young king David was the one that God chose to temporarily establish the nation of Israel, but He has chosen His own Son, Jesus our Lord and Savior to lead and guide us into life everlasting.

The above is what God has declared in His Word that happened to the nation of Israel, and Who He has given unto us to prevent it from happening to us. Now let’s see how and why, in spite of all God’s provision, Israel ended up in captivity.

JEREMIAH 23:9-32.... Concerning the prophets: My heart [says Jeremiah] is broken within me, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, a man whom wine has overcome, because of the Lord and because of His holy words [which He has pronounced against unfaithful leaders]. For the land is full of adulterers (forsakers of God, Israel's true Husband). Because of the curse [of God upon it] the land mourns, the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. They [both false prophets and people] rush into wickedness; and their course is evil, their might is not right. For both [false] prophet and priest are ungodly and profane; even in My house have I found their wickedness, says the Lord.

¹²Therefore their way will be to them like slippery paths in the dark; they will be driven on and fall into them. For I will bring evil upon them in the year of their punishment, says the Lord. And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to err and go astray. I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they encourage and strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his wickedness. They have all of them become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with [the bitterness of] wormwood and make them drink the [poisonous] water of gall, for from the [false] prophets of Jerusalem profaneness and ungodliness have gone forth into all the land.

¹⁶Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the [false] prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility) and fill you with vain hopes; they speak a vision of their own minds and not from the mouth of the Lord. They are continually saying to those who despise Me and the word of the Lord, The Lord has said: You shall have peace; and they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own mind and heart, No evil shall come upon you. For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should perceive and hear His word? Who has marked His word [noticing and observing and giving attention to it] and has [actually] heard it?

¹⁹Behold, the tempest of the Lord has gone forth in wrath, a whirling tempest; it shall whirl and burst upon the heads of the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not turn back until He has executed and accomplished the thoughts and intents of His mind and heart. In the latter days you shall consider and understand it perfectly. I did not send these [false] prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My council, then they would have caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them [My people] from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.

The most important point to notice and keep in mind, in this 23rd chapter of Jeremiah, is God’s consistent reminder that these false prophets had not stood in His council hearing from Him, marked or had any regard for God’s Word, or had actually heard or paid any attention to it. Another words, they had departed from what God had declared and where conjuring up dreams and visions of their own minds. In contrast to these false prophets we have the true prophet of the Lord who remains true to God and His Word and does not depart from it (v. 28).

The most obvious way to know the true from the false is to know what God has declared in His Word. Jesus said: "But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The watchman opens the door for this man, and the sheep listen to his voice and heed it; and he calls his own sheep by name and brings (leads) them out. When he has brought his own sheep outside, he walks on before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will never [on any account] follow a stranger, but will run away from him because they do not know the voice of strangers or recognize their call" (John 10:2-5). The way that we learn to recognize His voice is to know His Word, and then we begin to enjoy and profit from this intimate relationship!

But determining the voice of Jesus is becoming increasingly difficult to discern because there has been, especially over the last 80 years, concerted efforts by individuals and groups who are determined to discredit the Word of God, to mimic Biblical terminology or the voice of Jesus and thus confuse God’s people and lead them astray. So the need to accurately interpret, understand and apply the Scriptures is probably greater than ever before, and this website is dedicated to helping people accomplish this goal. Also, on the home page we have given links to several experts, in their field of ministry, who share the same desire and goal.

²³Am I a God at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? says the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord. I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed [visions on my bed at night]. [How long shall this state of things continue?] How long yet shall it be in the minds of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even the prophets of the deceit of their own hearts, who think that they can cause My people to forget My name by their dreams which every man tells to his neighbor, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?

²⁸The prophet who has a dream, let him tell his dream; but he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat [for nourishment]? says the Lord. Is not My word like fire [that consumes all that cannot endure the test]? says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks in pieces the rock [of most stubborn resistance]?

³⁰Therefore behold, I am against the [false] prophets, says the Lord, [I am even now descending upon them with punishment, these prophets] who steal My words from one another [imitating the phrases of the true prophets]. Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their [own deceitful] tongues and say, Thus says the Lord. Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and tell them and cause My people to err and go astray by their lies and by their vain boasting and recklessness--when I did not send them or command them; nor do they profit these people at all, says the Lord.

JEREMIAH 5:1-19; 30-31.... Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and take notice! Seek in her broad squares to see if you can find a man [as Abraham sought in Sodom], one who does justice, who seeks truth, sincerity, and faithfulness; and I will pardon [Jerusalem--for one uncompromisingly righteous person]. [Gen. 18:22-32.] And though they say, As the Lord lives, surely they swear falsely.

³O Lord, do not your eyes look on the truth? [They have meant to please You outwardly, but You look on their hearts.] You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to take correction or instruction. They have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to repent and return to You. Then I said, Surely these are only the poor; they are [sinfully] foolish and have no understanding, for they know not the way of the Lord, the judgment (the just and righteous law) of their God. I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they must know the way of the Lord, the judgment (the just and righteous law) of their God. But [I found the very reverse to be true] these had all alike broken the yoke [of God's law] and had burst the bonds [of obedience to Him].

⁶Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the desert shall destroy them, a leopard or panther shall lie in wait against their cities. Everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, their backslidings and total desertion of faith are increased and have become great and mighty. Why should I and how can I pass over this and forgive you for it? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by those that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full and bound them to Me by oath, they committed [spiritual] adultery, assembling themselves in troops at the houses of [idol] harlots. They were like fed stallions roaming at large; each one neighed after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord; and shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

¹⁰Go up within [Jerusalem's] walls and destroy [her vines], but do not make a full and complete end. Trim away the tendrils [of her vines], for they are not the Lord's. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very faithlessly and treacherously against Me, says the Lord. They have lied about and denied the Lord by saying, It is not He [Who speaks through His prophets]! Evil shall not come upon us; nor shall we see war or famine. And [say they] the prophets will become wind [what they prophesy will not come to pass], and the word [of God] is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them [as they threatened would be done to us].

The people of Israel refused to believe the true prophets (above), and chose instead to believe the false prophets because they told them what they wanted to hear and believe. The result was the destruction and captivity of the nation; the same thing is happening to the nations and our churches today!

¹⁴Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: Because you [the people] have spoken this word, behold, I will make My words fire in your mouth [Jeremiah] and this people wood, and it will devour them. Behold, I am bringing a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, says the Lord. It is a mighty and enduring nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. Their quiver is [filled with deadly missiles] like an open sepulcher [filled with dead bodies; the foes] are all mighty men (heroes). They shall consume your harvest and your food; they shall consume your sons and your daughters; they shall consume your flocks and your herds; they shall consume your vines and your fig trees. They shall break down and impoverish your fortified cities in which you trust, with the sword [they shall destroy them].

¹⁸But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full and complete end of you. And when your people say, Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us? then you shall answer them, As you have forsaken Me, says the Lord, and have served strange gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers (gods) in a land that is not yours. . . .

³⁰An appalling and horrible thing [bringing desolation and destruction] has come to pass in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests exercise rule at their own hands and by means of the prophets. And My people love to have it so! But what will you do when the end comes?

Jeremiah had difficulty believing that the educated and informed people of Israel could be so deceived as to think that they could live contrary to God’s Word and not be punished for it. But as someone has already said, it is very difficult for a person to rise above the level of the society he lives in. And it has been the evil influence of this world’s societies, conditioned over the past 80 years by the degenerate leaders, media and educational systems, that have deceived and corrupted our churches and people to the point that most do not recognize how far we have drifted from the true ways of God.

It appears that the beginning of the end has come, and many in these days, as verse 18 above states of most in those days, are unaware of the numerous false beliefs and practices being promoted by this world system. As a result there are many being deceived into believing the lies of the devil, because they do not know or want to believe God’s Word!

2 TIMOTHY 2:19-26.... But the firm foundation of (laid by) God stands, sure and unshaken, bearing this seal (inscription): The Lord knows those who are His, and, Let everyone who names [himself by] the name of the Lord give up all iniquity and stand aloof from it. [Num. 16:5; Isa. 26:13.] But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also [utensils] of wood and earthenware, and some for honorable and noble [use] and some for menial and ignoble [use]. So whoever cleanses himself [from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences] will [then himself] be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work. Shun youthful lusts and flee from them, and aim at and pursue righteousness (all that is virtuous and good, right living, conformity to the will of God in thought, word, and deed); [and aim at and pursue] faith, love, [and] peace (harmony and concord with others) in fellowship with all [Christians], who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.

²³But refuse (shut your mind against, have nothing to do with) trifling (ill-informed, unedifying, stupid) controversies over ignorant questionings, for you know that they foster strife and breed quarrels. And the servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome (fighting and contending). Instead, he must be kindly to everyone and mild-tempered [preserving the bond of peace]; he must be a skilled and suitable teacher, patient and forbearing and willing to suffer wrong. He must correct his opponents with courtesy and gentleness, in the hope that God may grant that they will repent and come to know the Truth [that they will perceive and recognize and become accurately acquainted with and acknowledge it], and that they may come to their senses [and] escape out of the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him, [Henceforth] to do His [God's] will.

To see a typical example of the deception, of which there are many, that we are referring to in this article, see the article at The Berean Call entitled, The Shameful Social Gospel.