I may have said it before, and I will probably say it again, but it is something we need to remind ourselves of regularly.
People can be very charismatic. They can know a lot and appear to behave righteously, but we must remember that our faith is in Jesus, not the disciples, not the preachers we see and hear on TV, not our brothers and sisters, but in Jesus only.
People are just people - Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings.
It is so easy to fall into the trap of following those whom we admire and feel connected to them spiritually, in fact these days they say, ‘you can follow ‘so and so’ on twitter or facebook, and it is so common to communicate this way now that we can totally miss the traps set for us by the devil.
It can be easy to admire a particular preacher, or even a neighbour or friend - someone with seemingly deep faith and a good understanding of the bible - but we must be careful not to begin to follow them in place of Jesus. Paul said this to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12-13;
‘'"One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” 13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?’"
He was reminding them that we are all followers of Christ, and Him alone!
To trust in the preacher to the extent that we give up reading for ourselves is dangerous.
We must stay alert! As the end of this age nears, there are likely to be more and more deceivers sprouting up.
The gospels tell us to be cautious.
Matthew 24:5 'For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.'
Matthew 24:11 'and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.'
Mark 13:6 'Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.'
Luke 21:8 'He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.'
Matthew 24:24-27 'At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ,’ or ‘there he is!’ do not believe it For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible – see I have told you ahead of time. So, if anyone tells you, ‘There he is out in the desert,’ or, ‘Here he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it! For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man.’ - meaning, when He returns, everyone will know it without doubt! And the technology is now available for that to happen.'
It may not be a deliberate deception on their part. They can deceive themselves and those whom they love, in error.
There are those though, who do not believe but who will use our faith for their own gain if possible, and satan will try to use them to turn our eyes away from Jesus.
Jesus warns us of this! He says things like they are with no messing.
He is the way, the the truth and the life. – Not a way, a truth or a life, but the one and only way, truth and life. (John 14:6)
You believe it or you don’t.
This is how I understand my God.
Read for yourself, see what you think.