As I was looking through your posts on New Age infiltrating Christianity and your numerous links to New Agey sites, I was just thinking how helpful is it to do so? I do understand that your intention is to bring to awareness that we may have let in teachings that seem dubious and no doubt, the onus is on us to see if these are false teaching.
However, I think it can be jumping the gun for most of us COOS staff as what I am hear from the ground is a cry to be taught how we can better equip ourselves in studying the Truths of God in light of the reality that most of the pastoral and ministry staff are already so tied up in their time with going for meetings after meetings.
I'm thinking what you could help us now is highlight what is and could possibly be wrong or false teaching SO THAT we see the importance for us as ministry workers to see that we need to take more ownership in making the study of Truth part of our ministry. And not to make pointing out false teaching an end in itself.
Taking the principle of the International Anti-counterfeiting Coalition (IACC), "Counterfeiting is big business. You guessed it: every item pictured in the counterfeit gallery is fake to illustrate how pervasive the problem is and how convincingly real counterfeits can look. So, how can you protect yourself? First, don’t be part of the problem. JUST DON’T. Counterfeiting has increased over 10,000 percent in the past two decades due in part to consumer demand."
This is a good lesson for us is that it is not acceptable among God's children to have a lazy mindset of simply "consuming" the his word through other people's "manufacturing" which has led us to unknowingly play a part in propagating false teaching due to our lack of awareness and simple ignorance.
So what is the solution? Another principle we can learn from the IACC
Knowing whether or not an item is fake sometimes takes a forensic expert, but as a rule of thumb for any product you purchase, use the Three P’s: Price, Product and Place.
Price: If the price is too good to be true, it probably is. Know the usual price range for your intended purchases.
The spiritual principle would be, God puts a high price on His truth, are we willing to pay the price of time, effort and devotion to seek the truths that we need to bear the good fruit in our lives that gives God the glory due to Him? Prov 25:2 it is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter (NKJ). The price that God has put on our lives is the precious blood of Christ Jesus. Anything less than our lives in devotion to His Lordship is to devalue the work of the cross.
Product: Inspect the quality of the product – look at labels, detailing and packaging. Are there any misspellings? Does the country of origin match the country that normally produces the product? Does the packaging look banged-up, old or sloppy? If you see any of these warning signs, the product very well could be fake.
The spiritual principle would be, don't be lazy which leads to being easily deceived! Use the word of God (all 66 books of the Bible) to inspect the teachings that are being presented to you. Consider every aspect and facet of the teaching against the real thing - God's word. The best way to unveil a counterfeit is to contrast it with the real thing. James 1:7 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. (NASV) After having scrutinized almost every book of the Bible, I realized that though God progressively reveals himself from OT to NT, this progressive revelation is always building up or adding another layer to the foundation of who He has already revealed Himself to be. Likewise, even as certain teachings can come packaged in new ways, yet the core markings of God will be there when we know where and what to look out for.
Place: Legitimate product is not sold on street corners, in flea markets, mall kiosks, dark alleys or on suspect online auction sites. Know who is an authorized dealer for the product you are planning to purchase and make your purchases from the most legitimate source possible.
The spiritual principle here is, Jesus is our cornerstone. Eph 2:20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself (NLT). The Church is God's dedicated body to live out His truths and uphold His standards and commandments as taught by Jesus. There is need for Bible students to be well-equipped to teach God's word by the power of His Holy Spirit. It is the witness of the Holy Spirit to the words of the Father that makes it legitimate and we the Church have also been commissioned to be this witness that Jesus Christ is real and Jesus himself is the witness of the truth of His and our Heavenly Father.
May this forum provides us all a place to spur each other on to know the Real Thing through our collective efforts to equip the Body of Christ with the Truths of God.
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Be blessed!