Over a billion people consider themselves Christian. Most often they are born into it. The family may be church goers… they may live in a society where bible and church are cultural norms... perhaps Christianity is the state religion. Current data tells us Christianity is still the largest religious group on earth. Somewhere between 1-2 billion are loosely categorized, Christian.

This vast group of people have a wide variety of divergent teachings but have some core teachings in common. But what this vast majority believe and teach is very different from what the Church of God and groups like the United Church of God teach.

The Differences Go Way Beyond The Sabbath
Keeping the 4th commandment instruction to observe a Sabbath rest each 7th day certainly makes us stick out in a very visible way. But the differences between the Church of God and the vast majority are more than what you see on the surface. Consider these 3 weighty questions:

What is humanity? [immortal soul going to heaven or hell vs. finite being who must be raised to eternal life or remain permanently dead]
Who and what is God? [an expanding family vs. an unfathomable 3 sided box]
What does God expect of humanity? [must we do as God commands or may we make our own decisions about what commands are valid]
On each of these points, you will get a very different answer here than you will from the vast majority of Christian churches that dominate the world scene.

People and churches that believe and teach like UCG are so small, so few. To the human mind’s way of reasoning, you would expect that teachings with greater numbers of believers are more likely to be true. Might makes right.

Matthew 7:13, 21-23 [explain anomia] not everyone who accepts, proclaims, or teaches about Jesus is a true follower. Jesus Christ does not recognize those who practice, or teach a “no-law” message… no matter what else they say or do in His name [either good or bad].

The teachings and the prophecies of Jesus indicate that something would appear that looks deceptively like a church representing Him. This church would dominate human affairs up to the very end, yet this it would be a misrepresentation of what He actually taught. They would come with a message of lawlessness. Jesus has warned you about it in advance.

Matthew 24:4-5 people will come forth in the name of Jesus and proclaim Him to be the Christ or Messiah… yet lead large numbers of people astray [verses 11-12 tell you how]

Where Do Most Christian Churches Get Their Teachings & Practices?
You would assume they get their teachings from God’s own word. What they say sounds very biblesque. But if you go back to the 3 core teachings mentioned earlier, immortality of the soul, a triad of co-equal God beings, the place of God’s law in your life… what you are really hearing is human imagination and reasoning, human desires and goals, and doctrines of demons.

Scripture is then distorted and read out of context to comply with these human ideas and philosophies. It sounds very biblesque… yet teaches an approach to life, an understanding of God, and false hope that are simply not found in scripture.

I believe this is a very serious way in which humanity violates the commandment that warns “do not use my name in ways that are false, empty, and worthless”? Don’t attach my name to your worthless ideas!

What Are Churches Supposed To Teach?
Matthew 28:20 we are to teach what Jesus taught

Matthew 19:16-17 obedience to God’s commandments leads to eternal life

This is the same message taught by the apostles and the Church of God!

Romans 1:15 teach the obedience that comes from faith [Romans 3:31]

Colossians 2:6-8 stick with this and don’t be fooled by deceptive philosophy [human reason, human imagination, and ideas].

Error, Confusion, and Deception Are Always At The Church’s Door
Peter, Paul, John, and others went forth filled with zeal, faith, and truth. The church of God grew rapidly and spread out all over the Roman empire. Those were the days!

A golden age… you knew where you stood… church leaders could all be trusted… the teachings were undisputed… everyone marching shoulder to shoulder under a shining sun… Really?

Alas, that has never been the case. Read the epistles to the churches again. At all times error, confusion, and deception waited crouching at the door, creeping through the windows, desiring to overtake the church, demanding that we confront it and prevail.

Romans 16:17-19

Acts 20:29-31 Paul’s farewell the local leaders of the Ephesus congregation

Titus 1:10-11 [that’s why we need good teachers and leaders to pass along the true teachings verses 7-9]

The circumcision group Paul is referring to represents the first major battle against doctrinal error. The teaching that the Jewish religion was still the right way and had merely been purified and added to by Jesus Christ.

The Apostles [especially Paul] had to spend a great deal of time explaining that much had indeed changed. Jesus Christ’s death had put and end to the era of the old covenant. The living Christ had now assumed the title, the role, and the functions of the high priest. With this change in the priesthood came a necessary change in the ordinances of sacrifice, temple service, and the civil authority of the Levitical priests.

Paul’s explanations of how all this worked were grossly distorted and wrongly applied to the commandments themselves! The idea took root that obedience didn’t matter… what mattered was vague notions of spirituality.

2 Peter 2:18-21 Peter is talking about the church here [3:14-16 Paul’s words distorted]

1 John 3:4 towards the end John tries to set the record straight

1 John 5:3 teachers of lawlessness represent God’s holy commands as a burden. John seeks to set the record straight.

Satan: Master of Deception
The no-law concept enters the human imagination easily. Lawlessness appeals to human vanity, feelings of self-importance, assumptions we have all the information needed to decide what is best for us. No-law also appeals to our pleasure centers. How can something that feels so good possibly be wrong?

Romans 8:7 then 1 Corinthians 2:14

Most people accept some of God’s laws… restrictions on murder, theft, adultery, respect for parents. These seem sensible ways to preserve our lives, our property, our families. But other laws like covetousness, no sex outside marriage, worshipping God when and how He instructs don’t seem so sensible to our human reason.

James 2:8-11 God wants us to keep ALL His commands. Not just the ones we consider worthy.

Lawlessness is also a teaching [or doctrine] of demons…
”Eat from the tree, decide for yourself what laws you will keep or not keep… you know you want to”.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 13-15 the great deceiver uses people to mislead people and redirect them away from the truth. This happens within the church as much as it does in the world at large. Notice that once again the scriptures are talking about people who represent themselves as working for Christ, ministers of righteousness… yet leading people astray.

Note: Paul is here addressing the original false teachings about circumcision here… but the same principle applies to the subsequent false teachings of no-law [lawlessness], non-biblical teachings about the immortal soul [which also go back to the serpent], and strange human philosophies and speculations about the nature of God[a different Jesus, a different hope, a different spirit].

1 Timothy 1:3-7 here is an exhortation closer to the end of Paul’s ministry where he clearly targets this wider variety of false teachings.

The motive of human pride and vanity is addressed… “I want to be a teacher”, “I want to be considered your intellectual or spiritual superior”, “I know stuff you don’t know”.

The vast pool of churches presenting themselves as Christ-centered and biblically based, may sincerely believe what they teach… but on many, if not most, of the core teachings of God’s truth, they are sincerely mistaken.

Lawlessness in Prophecy
2 Thessalonians 2:7 the no-law deceptions were at play in the church from the very beginning but also have a place in end-time prophecy.

Lawlessness is to be kept on a short leash until the end time [the restraining force here is God Himself acting through angels assigned to nations and to the church(es)]. If lawlessness among humanity were not restrained we would probably destroy ourselves long before the time appointed by God for Christ’s return.

2 Thessalonians 2:8-11 toward the time of the end all restraint on lawlessness will be removed.

Matthew 24:11-12 Lawlessness in the end time increases

Disobedience appeals to human nature, vanity, self-importance. Satan exploits this and uses it to accomplish his own goals of deception and sabotage.

We have looked into the rise of false teachings within the church and focused mainly on lawlessness with brief mentions of other major threads of error: the immortality of the soul, and the nature of God.

Next time we will learn how false teaching came to dominate and overtake the visible church. To the point where the falsehoods and deceptions are what most people think of when Christianity, the church of Christ, or the bible are mentioned.

Our commission is to carry forth the truth of God and make disciples of all nations. Wrong ideas about what God has to say about the weightier matters make our job more difficult. To effectively explain the true hope to others it helps to be aware of some of the wrong ideas people bring to the discussion and why.

It is also good for us all to remember that controversy and deception have always been part of the reality of life within and without the Church. The Church has never been a walled garden which you enter into as a refuge from all the troubles of the human condition… God has not willed it to be so.

Bad stuff is crouching at the door and lurking by the windows seeking opportunity to get in.

Members of the body of Christ must be prepared, they must have the mental toughness to endure, to persevere, to prevail overpressures both within and without.