Fighting the Four Evils

When speaking of dangerous doctrines, the average Christian today will point to the obviously erroneous doctrines of cults, such as that Jesus was a spirit brother of satan, that there are two 'gods' in the Bible, a cruel God in the Old Testament, and a kind God in the New Testament, or that Jesus had only a divine, but no human nature, and therefore did not die for the sins of the world.  However, little do these Christians think about why these heresies are able to arise in the first place. They simply dismiss them as the doctrines of crazy, psycho heretics - all without realising that they themselves are just as susceptible to heresy as those who are blatant heretics. One should never assume that because one attends a 'normal' church that one cannot fall into the trap of heresy. All most Christians to do is target such heretics for criticism, and lift no finger in helping them understanding why it is heresy, and why have they turned to such heresy as Jude 1:22-23 i...

  For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil (Luke 6:32-35). The world expects to receive what it lends to people in return. It thinks it is legitimate to so expect, not because it truly upholds the righteous principle of honouring one's debts as per Psalm 37:21: The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.   The world has such an expectation out of its own self-centredness, thinking that it is entitled to what it has, and that what it h...

Luther's theology was one of legalism, placing an emphasis on faith and doing good works, rather than love. Legalism is of the carnal flesh which cannot please God in any way. Therefore, because it is of the flesh, it can only serve the flesh and is hostile towards God. Jesus made it clear that no one can serve both God and mammon. A person will serve one and hate the other. Since to serve the flesh is to serve mammon, legalism is that which serves mammon through serving the flesh. Legalism is that which sets up a set of values or standards that one should live by according to what one sees fit for oneself. The root of legalism is self-righteousness and pride, believing in one's own "goodness". Setting up one's own standards need not be "religious" to amount to legalism. Indeed, legalism can manifest in the "secular" context. It do so through the spirit of individualism that is rampant in secular societies.  Before general acceptance of...

There is much confusion within modern Christendom as to what is legalism and what does it means to not be legalistic. Whenever one sheds light on the sin of another, such rebuke is immediately treated to be "abuse" or "hatred". Anyone who dares rebuke another, or use the Law of God in evangelism is labelled a "legalist" or a "pharisee". I have experienced this myself whether I wrote articles to expose mammon, abortion or the homosexual agenda, I have been deemed to be a "legalistic" pharisee.  So, what is legalism? Legalism is the doctrine that one is good or justified by one's works in obeying a set of rules . How well one observes a set of rules is what determines one's moral worth. The Bible makes it very clear that no one is justified in any way by works of the Law of God: " Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law , but by the faith of Jesus Christ , even we have believed in Jesus Christ , that we ...

The leader of the Protestant Reform is none other than Martin Luther, who is most famous for his 95 Theses. As true as some of his criticisms may be, he has been criticised for his emphasis on faith rather than love.  His 44th theses is that ''b ecause love grows by works of love', man thereby 'becomes better'. This is to claim that it is love that is the fruit of good works, rather than good works being the fruit of love. Such a statement assumes that a person is capable of loving other in their own human strength, and therefore capable of truly loving others and God in their own flesh. This is far from the truth.  1 John 4:8 says that:  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love . This means that because God is love, a person can only truly love others when the love of God is in him. It does not mean that those who have no love do not know God in spite of God being love.A person who does not know God cannot love others because it is impossible for ...