I read years ago where one of the many gruesome methods in which persecuted Christians were forced to endure... was being made to watch their children ‘dressed up’ with lamb skins and then be paraded out into a coliseum where they were soon devoured by wild beasts....much to the delight of those cheering on in attendance.

How factual this was...I can neither confirm or deny. But friends...is it possible that many ‘churches’ have done this very thing with their young converts and members who have joined their group and then sat under the many false or distorted teachings that exists today?

Jesus accused the Pharisees of making new converts a ‘two-fold child of hell’ by similar practices. (Matt. 23:15). The way we do this today is teach a watered down gospel that offers up a false security without fully educating those who have ‘made a decision for Christ’ as to what that decision fully entails...by not declaring the ‘whole counsel of God’, as Paul did (Acts 20:27). Those who promote that ‘peace and safety’ message will face judgement for sure. (1 Thess. 5:3)

You may want to go back and read what some of the prophets had to say about those messengers who spoke from their own hearts and minds, not having heard from God, passages like Jer. 23:16-22, Ezek. 13 and especially Lamentations 2:14. In fact, you might read chapter 1 first there, as that short book tells about the fall of Jerusalem and the reasons as to why God brought judgement on His people and destroyed the temple. Why is this relevant to us today? Well, whom did Peter say judgement would fall on first? (1 Pet. 4:17) He was not the only one who warned what would happen to those who do not ‘obey the gospel’. (2 Thess. 1:6-10) And the key word there is ‘obey’; Hearing and ‘believing it’...is not enough! (Heb. 5:9; Acts 6:7)

Paul warned in 2 Cor. 11:3-4 that we might be susceptible to hearing false gospels, receiving ‘another spirit’ and even following ‘another Jesus’, deceived as Eve was by the serpent who suggested she could 'eat off that tree and surely not die'. (Gen. 3:1-5)

I realize much of what we ‘do for God’ can be done in sincerity, but we also have to admit that we can be sincerely wrong. (Rom. 10:2-3; Matt. 7:22). And when we are complicit in not sharing the whole counsel of God to new ‘baby Christians’...assuring them that because they simply ‘prayed a prayer and all is well with their soul now’, we are in a sense doing the same thing in ‘dressing them up as baby lambs, while throwing a ‘false gospel of hope’ over them like a lamb skin...and then we send them out in to the world that is full of wolves. (Matt. 10:16; 1 John 5:18).  And if all you hear in this is a message of 'salvation earned by works'...then you are missing it all together.

How often do we hear messages today that carry the same somber warnings issued in Acts 3:22-23 and Luke 13:3,5? Is it any wonder that God’s people continue...to be ‘destroyed for a lack of knowledge’? (Hosea 4:6). And you realize who is the one doing the ‘devouring and destroying’, yes? (John 10:10)

Tomorrow, Lord willing...I will wrap up this series of messages pertaining to these spiritual entities of darkness and wickedness that we are admonished to ‘stand and resist’, lest we be overtaken by them. (Eph. 6:10-18; 1 Pet. 5:8-10). We are either going to ‘overcome them’ by the power and name of Jesus...or we will for sure...be ‘overcome by them’. (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 8:13; Rev. 3:5,21; 12:11)