Fight for Truth in the world without Truth
#1 Prevent from accepting false doctrines
6:14a "having your loins girt about with truth," (NRSV, ‘fasten the belt of truth around your waist’)
Our first spiritual weapon is truth. When you fasten the belt of truth around your waist, it is just like fastening your seatbelt in your car and you will be safe from danger. If you are the driver and you do not fasten the seatbelt, what happens in the event of a car accident? You may either bump to the windshield headlong or be driven out of car window and die instantly on the scene. So, remember to wear the seatbelt of truth when you go to battle. If you don’t, you will risk being driven out of God’s kingdom!
When we talk about “fighting for truth”, what is the definition of ‘truth’? Let me tell you an incident that happened in a classroom and you will know what I mean.
One sunny day, four high school boys skipped classes together. The next morning they explained to their teacher that they had missed her class because their car had a flat tire. (In the U.S., students like having one be driver to drive them all to school, namely carpooling.) Since the tire was flattened on the road, they missed the whole class. Do you know how that smart teacher responded. She smiled at them and said, “Well, you missed a quiz yesterday.” The students were relieved because they thought the teacher believed in their excuse. But the teacher further added, “Take your seats and get out a pencil and paper; redo the quiz.” That’s probably what those four high school boys thought: they have to redo the quiz right away. But you know what the first question of the quiz is? The first question they need to answer is: Which tire was flat? The teacher was asking each of them to write down individually which of the four tires of their car was flat to make them unable to go to school. If any of the four answers is different, the teacher would know immediately they were all telling a lie. Do you agree the teacher is pretty smart? I believe so. But my point is: we are living in a world of lies.
We have all been liars. We have been telling lies from time to time. There is such a saying: If you always tell the truth, you will never be trapped in a lie. That’s why Jesus said to us in Matt 5:37, “Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No'; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” (NRSV)—because the devil is the Father of the liars (John 8:44). So, we have the definition for the word ‘truth’ now: the opposite of “lie” or “deception” is truth. That’s a simple answer. Yet sometimes we can hardly tell whether it is a lie or a truth. We can easily be deceived by so-called truths but in fact they are lies. Otherwise we wouldn’t call a lie ‘deception.’ There was once a movie called “The True Lies”, which is a perfect example that discloses a lie disguising itself so much like a truth that the wife is totally deceived by her faked “husband,” who is actually a replicate of her real husband.
In our daily newspapers, you can always find cases of lies or deception. Here are just a few examples:
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Some cages for collecting used garment that are being placed in public areas are found to be ‘faked,’ meaning that they are not put there by non-profit organizations for welfare purpose but by people secretly for profit taking.
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A person shopping for a digital camera on the internet received in mail a set of screwdrivers after making payment!
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The general manager of a travel agency sold out 89 cheap flight tickets at half price. The clients could claim the air tickets in 18 months but they ended up never able to get the tickets after making full payment.
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A mother deceived the government when applying for sponsorship to pay school fees for her daughter’s study in educational institute.
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You can even find soccer team players suspicious of playing a fake game in national or international soccer competitions such as the World Cup Soccer.
So, we can become the victims of lies or deception at any time.
How do we fasten the seatbelt of truth? In Ephe 5:6, Paul says, “Let no man deceive you with vain words.” Jesus has early predicted that in the final days, many false prophets and anti-Christs will appear to deceive even the faithful believers. We’ve seen nowadays many cult practices in so-called “Christian” churches. That’s why it is important for us to fully understand the basic doctrines of Christian belief so as to distinguish between God’s spirit and the evil spirit.
Back in early church times, cults already existed. Paul in the Book of Galatians denounced the church of receiving “another gospel”. Gospel means good news, but what they received is not good news but bad news. In Paul’s days, some so-called Christian Jews insisted that the Gentiles must be circumcised according to the law of Moses besides believing in Jesus. If they are not circumcised, they still have no share of the promise of salvation given to the Jews. This kind of legalism or Judaism is a serious distortion of the truths. They put conditions on believers in addition to God’s grace.
Nowadays, a cult called “Eastern Lightning”, which has been very active in China, is becoming more active now in Hong Kong. This cult used to have another name called “Seven Spirits.” Now the official name for this cult is “the Church of Almighty God”. The founder is a woman in Hunan Province in the year 1990. This woman claimed herself as the female Christ coming now on second coming of Christ, by the name of ‘lightning’. The reason why she used the name ‘lightning’ is that she quoted Matt 24:27 that “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Then she said, "Christ is to return on the east side of the earth, implying China. I am Christ descending and returning in the east." You see how this woman distorted Jesus’ saying about his return! As a matter of fact, the cult leaders like to specifically quote a particular verse to support their interpretation, which is a common way of Scriptural interpretation used by the cults. Of course, it is a very dangerous way of interpreting the Bible.
Why would Christ become a woman? To me it sounds funny and ridiculous. If any Christian still would believe in such nonsense, I can hardly believe it. But I honestly tell you, many Christians in China have quit their own churches and follow this cult practice even now. So, how did Christ become a female? Here’s how she explained: “When Christ came to earth the first time, he appeared in the form of a male. In order to make the incarnation complete, Christ would appear as a female on his second coming. And here I am—the female Christ.” What do you think of her interpretation? It’s not only ridiculous but a blasphemy of our Lord Jesus. She is certainly Satan’s representative and what Jesus predicted as one of the anti-Christs at the end of this age. Only that you never imagine an anti-Christ would be a female!
Let me tell you how dangerous this cult is toward the Christian churches. It is said to be the fastest developing Christian cult in China. (Fa-lun gung is not counted here because it is a different cult.) It published numerous books proclaiming its own doctrines. The cult members keep on changing their names and join the churches they are planning to attack. They will drag away some influential church people and persuade them to listen to their teachings. They persuade them not to study the Bible but to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because they insist that today is the era for the Holy Spirit to do His work. They emphasize that the way of knowing God nowadays is not from the Bible, but from the new vision or revelation given by the female Christ!
At first time of personal contact, they will offer you various kinds of help to show you their loving concern. Later on, they will invite you to listen to their sermons. Then they will tell you some teachings of the Bible are already outdated. Those true teachings are then replaced by what they call the new vision. For those who do not have good foundation in Bible knowledge, they can easily be deceived by their false teachings. The reason is: the more you hear all these false preachings, the more your mind would be confused because they have contradiction with what you have been hearing in your own churches. In a spiritual battle like this, the only way to escape such confusion in your mind is to totally quit the cult and all of its connections, and to discard all the free books they offer you. As soon as you quit the cult practice, you no longer feel the battle in your mind caused by their false doctrines. You will then have the peace of mind in the Lord and manage to escape from the captivity of Satan’s Army.
Here is the feedback given by a Christian in China who has once been deceived by this cult for one whole month. He said that he was once charmed by their deceptive teachings. They are very active serving for Satan. They have destroyed all the churches in several towns. The false teachers work in secret, well organized and have definite targets. (It sounds like the FBI.) They keep changing their assembling locations. They will first approach friends like you and tell all kinds of lies to earn your trust. They will behave like some very devout Christians in front of you so that you can be attracted by their godly acts, just like the Pharisees of Jesus’ days. Once they earn your trust, they will lead you to a secret place and teach you doctrines in a small group. They like to gather together in the evening like thieves. (See, they are precisely the children of darkness!) If you have any question to challenge them, they will insist that you let them finish all the teachings first as a sort of polite manner. If there is a Christian who points out their faulty sayings, they will try all their best to persuade the other Christians to ignore him, to hate him and even to drive him out of church. These cult members usually target at the family churches and try the best they can to break them apart. They are well trained by Satan. After they break up the church, they will put some core members of the church as head of a new church. Eventually, they succeed in setting up a new site to spread the cult teachings. Their target prey are the young leaders of the churches so that their cult practices can spread fast effectively. You see how organized these cults are in tearing apart the Christian churches! They are Satan’s well trained soldiers to attack the Christians in the spiritual battles and capture them to be their people.
Here are some points to notice about these cults:
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The cult members initially approach you with extreme kindness and you can easily be drawn to them by their loving concern.
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Some may even sneak themselves into your church and get familiar with some church leaders so as to insert different views on Bible interpretations to these leaders. Later on, arguments and disputes arise and that’s the good chance for them to steal the sheep. Like Jesus said in Matt 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
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They treat the cult founder or leader as the image of their idol. They only hear all the teachings that their leader gives and all his(her) interpretations of the Bible. As a result, God is replaced by their leader in their corrupted hearts. Cult leaders tend to create for themselves godly image in the hearts of their followers, just like what the Book of Revelation says. The problem is that these people interpret the Scripture by picking one or two verses and exaggerating them with their own meaning as a supportive statement for their own false doctrines—what we call in Chinese “斷章取義”. If we know a little bit of the Scripture, we can be deceived by them very easily. The same thing occurs in China since most of the believers do lack the knowledge of the basic truth of the Bible. That’s why cults can develop especially fast in China.
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They will attempt to isolate you from listening to the advice of the church ministers. Then you may easily become the target of their prey or captivity.
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They like to emphasize new visions or revelations directly from God to their cult leader in this last generation. However, God’s revelation regarding man’s salvation is already fully granted to the apostles. The Book of Revelation is the final book of God’s revelation given to the apostle John for mankind. Any claimed revelations directly from God to man are absolutely lies!
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They keep emphasizing that only they can provide you the means to receive salvation. All other means (including the one you believe in) are worthless as regards salvation. For example, the Mormons claim that they have 12 apostles and only the 12 apostles can ordain God’s servants to baptize you. Your baptism through the hands of any other church ministers is invalid.
In conclusion, it is Satan’s conspiracy to deceive the non-believers and even the believers and attempt to shake their faith away. Hence, you must have a solid foundation in the Bible’s teachings. So I encourage you to attend Sunday school and Bible study lessons to lay a good foundation on the basic doctrines of Christian belief. Also, you have to examine the Bible yourself and ask the Holy Spirit, our Bible teacher, to build up your knowledge of the truth.