You would think it would be pretty obvious that to be a Christian means to be like Jesus. Jesus said Luke 6:39 “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” Jesus also said to the Pharisees, Matthew 23:5 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” Jesus was accused of being Beelzebul because they thought His power was demonic. Mark 3:22 “And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” His family even thought He was out of His mind. Mark 3:21 “When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” Paul was also accused of being out of His mind, but he said 2 Corinthians 5:13 “If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” Jesus said, Matthew 10:24 “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!” 

    We have to ask who is it we are following? Who is our master? Is it God’s way we are following or man’s? There are two paths: one to life and the other death. We are told Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. 11 For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life. 12 If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you; if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.” Then there are those who go their own way. Proverbs 12:15 “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.” Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Matthew 25:46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” If we pay attention to God’s word, Proverbs 2:16 “wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, 17 who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. 18 Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. 19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.” Proverbs 9:16 “To those who have no sense she says, 17 Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!” 18 But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.”

    As Christian we must keep our eyes on Jesus and not on the men and women who talk about Jesus. So many men and women down through the ages have been elevated to god-like status. Hebrews 12:1 “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” Jesus said, John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He continued and said 12 “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth.” If we are to be like Him, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit which will be evidenced with power from on High. That power will be the same power Jesus had and the same power Jesus gave to His disciples and the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. To be filled with that power, we must obey His word. This is what the letters to the churches and individuals in the New Testament teach us, as everything points to Jesus so what we see in the Gospels and Acts was to continue in the church. 

    A serious question for today is why would we not follow God’s word when God offers His church so much? Why are people so desperate to follow the ways of man? Even though God wants to bless the church, the church decided to go their own way instead and it started happening in the time of Paul. This decision led to desolation. This is why Paul said to the Galatians, Galatians 1:6 “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” This is still going on in the church today. Paul would go on to say Galatians 3:1 “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” The church continued to be foolish and operated in the flesh and because of that does not have the authority and power the church was intended to have. 

    Jesus and Paul did not give warning to the church for no reason at all; there was impending danger coming. Jesus said, Matthew 7:15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Acts 20:29 “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” Sadly, the church did not listen to Paul or Jesus and turned to follow those savage / ferocious wolves. The church started to follow after men and their teaching and have worshipped them instead of being true to the gospel.

    When Paul wrote the Epistles to the churches, you will notice that in our bibles the headings end with the suffix “ian.” Romans; 1 and 2 Corinthians; Galatians; Ephesians; Philippians; Colossians; 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Each Epistle was addressed to the churches in a particular city. Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonica. We also see churches addressed in Revelation. One of those churches was Laodicea. Paul had said Colossians 2:1 “I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. 16 After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.” Obviously, they did not pay attention. Revelation 3:15 “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Five of the seven churches were off-track and needed to repent. That would be most churches today. The message is still the same. Acts 20:21 “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.”

    These letters in Revelation, as are the others, are written to all the churches that developed after Paul right up till today. The bible doesn’t need added to, the church just needs to obey what is already written. As difficult as it was, persecution grew the church but that meant new locations not new beliefs. We know that much of the scattering of Christians was because of Paul in the first place as we saw with Stephen. Acts 8:1 “And Saul approved of their killing him (Stephen). On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. 4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.” It was the same gospel and power of from on High at work. Acts 11:19 “Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews.” 

    As the church was scattered, the word of God was preached but as Paul said many would begin to turn away to other gospels because of savage wolves. The power of God began to diminish in the church as other gospels and isms began to take over. As the church rebelled against God’s word to go their own way, the church began to change, becoming more and more powerless against the evil one. Jesus warned us this would happen beginning in Daniel. People would rebel and truth would be thrown to the ground. Daniel 8:12 “Because of rebellion, the Lord’s people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.” Daniel 9:27 “And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4 “He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”

    Deception and delusion set in, and God turned His face from the church and allowed satan to decimate the church. Jesus said Mark 13:14 “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again. 20 “If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. 21 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.” The church has been in desolation since shortly after Paul. 

    Jesus was not only talking about the second temple being destroyed, He was also talking about the church. Mark 13:1 “As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” 2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” Rebellion caused all this destruction we have seen in the church, which has been much worse by far than any attack from man down through history. As the church began to turn away from God’s word, they began to follow the words and teaching of men who have gone their own way. Isaiah 30:1 ““Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; 2 who go down to Egypt without consulting me.” 

    As time went by, isms began to take hold instead of ians, as false teachers taught other gospels. Isms were attached to belief systems and how the bible is interpreted, reason and even the theologians who taught. An example of this is Dispensationalism, Humanism and Calvinism. We saw earlier that being a Christian means being a follower of the anointed one Jesus, meaning that a Christian is to be like Jesus and is also anointed by the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38 “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” But instead of following the words of Jesus, men started to follow the words of man and then argue about it. Theology from theologians is mostly man responding to man. One group believes one thing, and another responds with something different. In most cases it just continues to get further from the truth, as we saw in the Reformation. The Reformation started in response to the Catholic church and then others responded to those responses and an explosion of differing theology took place and continues to this day. The problem is with all this talk about theology, the bible has been set aside for reason, tradition and experience, thus God has turned His face from the church.

    When you look at the lists of theologians during the days after the early church, it is mind-boggling. Scholars place a lot of emphasis on the church Fathers like Augustine and others but look what developed - the Catholic church. Then as the church grew, the gospel of Jesus Christ grew distant as did the power. It is no wonder that the Reformation ended up producing so many differing groups. That division continues to this day. The word of God would be set aside for the intellect of man. The lack of power in the church then and now shows this to be true. This is what is missing. John 16:12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” 

    We also saw that the early church were people who gathered in places but that would change when Catholicism became the main church. As Paul warned the church quickly turned away to other gospels and became something totally different than the church Jesus started. One writer said in describing the start of the Catholic Church, “In addition to Gnostic (Gnosticism), Jewish (Judaism), and Pauline Christianity, many other versions of Christianity were starting to be taught. After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Jewish Christian movement was scattered. Pauline and Gnostic Christianity were left as the dominant groups. The Roman Empire legally recognized Pauline Christianity as a valid religion in 313 AD. Later in that century, in 380 AD, Roman Catholicism became the official religion of the Roman Empire. During the following 1000 years, Catholics were the only people recognized as Christians. In 1054 AD, a formal split occurred between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. This division remains in effect today. The next major division occurred in the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation. Those who remained faithful to Roman Catholicism believed that the central regulation of doctrine by church leaders was necessary to prevent confusion and division within the church and corruption of its beliefs.” After the Great Schism of 1054 AD which marked the formal separation of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox branches of the Catholic church, you had the Reformation where there was an explosion of isms. The church rapidly continued to change from a location to types of belief. They were not supposed to start believing something new they were supposed to believe that  Ephesians 4:4 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

    The rejection of God’s word to follow man produced all kinds of distinct groups who all believe very different teachings. Because the church followed other gospels and rebelled against God’s word, the enemy was allowed to prevail against the church. There is a war taking place, but it is not against people, even though people are used by satan for his purposes. Paul said Ephesians 6:11 “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” As Jesus said if He did not put a stop to the abomination that causes desolation, no one would survive. Daniel 7:21 “As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them, 22 until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom. 26 ‘But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. 27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.” 

    Most in the church today believe that all is well, they are safe and secure and will be going to heaven but as Jesus said, Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Many have been blinded by the evil one and deluded by God and they think the church is how it is supposed to be. 2 Corinthians 4:1 “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Jesus said Matthew 13:13 “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” The good news for the church is that in the midst of all the intellect of man, God put together His word. Isaiah 55:6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

    The good news is that God’s promise to Abraham and David stands for all to see in the heavens no matter how bad the church has gotten. Jeremiah 33:10 “This is what the Lord says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more 11 the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying, “Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love endures forever.” For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,’ says the Lord. 20 “This is what the Lord says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time, 21 then my covenant with David my servant—and my covenant with the Levites who are priests ministering before me—can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne. 22 I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars in the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.’” We will continue to talk about isms such as denominationalism, cessationism dispensationalism in the following days.