What Does it Mean to be Sealed and Why Do We Need to Know? - Part 2 - Vain Repetitions
When people repeat things over and over and over again we know for certain one thing is happening and one thing only - brainwashing.
I know this to be true, because Herbert W Armstrong used to use this method to indoctrinate and brainwash us silly lemmings whilst members of his money making cult.
Here is what the Lord Jesus Christ says about vain repetitions: Matt 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Moreover, as an example of "much speaking" let's take the phrase: "When you receive the Seal you will..
..
" Now this phrase in itself looks benign and completely harmless doesn't it, and it is, if you read it once or twice, but if we are presented with this slogan and we are invited to read it over and over and over again it takes on a different ambience or tone and begins to affect our minds in a very significant and subliminal way - you start to believe it, but more importantly you start to believe what is written after it.
Now some of the things written after it may be OK, but some of the things from a Biblical perspective will need to be thoroughly checked out for their validity and for their truth.
We must never accept things at face value and this leads us to another challenge - how do we check these things out and then differentiate? Well that all depends upon 1) how Spiritually mature you are, 2) whether or not you have the ability to discern spirits and most importantly of all 3) how well you know your brother the Lord Jesus Christ and what He teaches.
Did He, for example, teach us to hug trees and/or worship the creation? No.
Did He instruct us to look after the environment and join Friends of the Earth or Greenpeace? No.
Did He use strange New Age words that those around Him had never heard of before, words that appear to come from another language? No.
How do we know that? Easy, for there is: "a simplicity that is in Christ" - 2 Corinthians 11:3 and this means that anyone coming with a message cloaked in non-understandable words and phrases needs to be viewed great skepticism.
Furthermore, when we see or hear men doing that, what should our reaction be? Again, it's easy, be very suspicious and ask yourself this very simple question.
If The Word of God is written in plain English, albeit in the King James Bible Olde English, but nevertheless still plain English, why then try to teach The Lord Jesus Christ's message in a foreign language or with dozens of weird words that no one understands and more importantly are not found in the Holy Scriptures? What kinds of people do these things? Well we now know, don't we? As I stated in part one, we need to be aware of false teachers coming dressed up as sheep, but inwardly are ravening wolves, and in order to be like this they have to come preaching what seems to be a very smooth, enticing and seductive message - often an ear tickling message.
This is a message that lulls the listener into a new comfortable comfort zone through the use of numerous feel good factors, carnal, humanist topics of the flesh i.
e.
love of self through personal health, love of the natural world or the creation, loving the environment, vehemently anti-pollution etc.
etc.
etc.
Now these topics at a carnal human level can appear to be very persuasive, informative and helpful but what have they to do with God's message of Salvation, Grace, the forgiveness of sins and the coming of the Kingdom of God - nothing, absolutely nothing at all, and I will not repeat that statement again? Why is that, because it's not necessary to repeat it, to do so would be insulting to you? Now are you saying we should not take care of the environment, I hear you ask? No I'm not, but what I am also saying is that as Christians we are here to witness, to witness the world and all its activities - good and bad alike not to obsess about the creation.
The lost people of this world (this age or its systems) love the world and the lost also pollute the world, but the lost do not love God.
As a Born Again son of God I don't have to worry about the creation yet I was put on this earth like all of mankind to have dominion over the creation.
The creation is huge and the powers and forces that are at work here on the face of this earth are also huge and powerful, but what is man in relation to these awesome powers that God has set in motion? He tells us and it will serve you well to take these verses on board before you go setting trees and seeds upon your altar of worship: Isaiah 40:21-23 Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; (It is He) that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: 23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
(Brackets mine) There it is, a little passage of The Lord's Holy Word to help us see ourselves in our true light or as we should i.
e.
in a less puffed up, vain, pompous and proud way.
We're grasshoppers to God, like insects on the face of the earth and yet to listen to some of these people you would think we are like God Himself in terms of our own self-importance.
We're egotistic silly people, that's what we are and stuffed full of vanity, and it's upon this vanity we base all our nonsensical creation worshiping, Green, eco, tree hugging credentials - a Godless theory based wholly upon the self-important nonsense that, as grasshoppers, we, physically, have a major effect on God's Creation - total hogwash and humbug.
It's as if these grasshoppers think God didn't know they would end up polluting His Creation, and of course that's just how they do think, because God either doesn't exist or He's a powerless wimp in their eyes.
(Please see my series of articles: "Was The Lord Jesus Christ a Long Haired Effeminate Looking Wimp?") Now, amongst other things, all I am saying here is this; to neither worship the environment, nor to incorporate these ideas as being a part of our Salvation or to spiritualise the non-spiritual, as these false messengers would have you believe.
These deceivers make all these physical things part of their message of Salvation when they have nothing to do with Salvation at all.
Furthermore, if we do believe what they say, here is an example of the trouble they can cause: suppose we have a tanker driver who delivers petrol (gasoline) every day of his working life and he then, one day, receives the heavenly call of The Father to His Son and this man is Baptised and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit.
He is now Born Again or sealed.
The thing is, should he give up his job as a tanker driver because of all the pollution he is partly responsible for? Let's face it, he is delivering hundreds of thousands of gallons of petrol (gasoline) every year and, as some would have you believe, helping to cause global warming, (Please see my article: "Is Sin Causing 'Global Warming'") Now because he is Born Again, should he feel bowed down with guilt about his job and, in turn, hand in his notice? Well if he listens to New Age Gnostics he will definitely feel guilty, and yes probably hand in his notice, but if he listens to the Lord Jesus Christ and reads His Holy Word alone then he won't.
Now therein lays the difference between The Truth and Gnostic perversions of The Truth.
This is the fallacy of listening to people who are only too pleased to tell you what you will be doing, or is it should be doing, or even what you should not be doing, once you are 'sealed'.
Is it a sin to deliver petrol to petrol stations? No, but if we listen to false preachers we can end up thinking it is a sin to deliver petrol and all based upon carnal Eco-nut emotional blackmail.
This is a subtle or not so subtle form of manipulative legalism or mind controlling manipulation.
We need to understand too that once we are sealed we are free, which means free from listening to men telling us what we should be doing or not be doing.
The Lord Himself is the one who will be guiding us not men.
Anything men add to the Word of God must be taken with a pinch of salt or with great suspicion and then once wisely analysed - rejected forthwith.
You have been warned again in the Lord Jesus Christ's name and in His love.
I know this to be true, because Herbert W Armstrong used to use this method to indoctrinate and brainwash us silly lemmings whilst members of his money making cult.
Here is what the Lord Jesus Christ says about vain repetitions: Matt 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Moreover, as an example of "much speaking" let's take the phrase: "When you receive the Seal you will..
..
" Now this phrase in itself looks benign and completely harmless doesn't it, and it is, if you read it once or twice, but if we are presented with this slogan and we are invited to read it over and over and over again it takes on a different ambience or tone and begins to affect our minds in a very significant and subliminal way - you start to believe it, but more importantly you start to believe what is written after it.
Now some of the things written after it may be OK, but some of the things from a Biblical perspective will need to be thoroughly checked out for their validity and for their truth.
We must never accept things at face value and this leads us to another challenge - how do we check these things out and then differentiate? Well that all depends upon 1) how Spiritually mature you are, 2) whether or not you have the ability to discern spirits and most importantly of all 3) how well you know your brother the Lord Jesus Christ and what He teaches.
Did He, for example, teach us to hug trees and/or worship the creation? No.
Did He instruct us to look after the environment and join Friends of the Earth or Greenpeace? No.
Did He use strange New Age words that those around Him had never heard of before, words that appear to come from another language? No.
How do we know that? Easy, for there is: "a simplicity that is in Christ" - 2 Corinthians 11:3 and this means that anyone coming with a message cloaked in non-understandable words and phrases needs to be viewed great skepticism.
Furthermore, when we see or hear men doing that, what should our reaction be? Again, it's easy, be very suspicious and ask yourself this very simple question.
If The Word of God is written in plain English, albeit in the King James Bible Olde English, but nevertheless still plain English, why then try to teach The Lord Jesus Christ's message in a foreign language or with dozens of weird words that no one understands and more importantly are not found in the Holy Scriptures? What kinds of people do these things? Well we now know, don't we? As I stated in part one, we need to be aware of false teachers coming dressed up as sheep, but inwardly are ravening wolves, and in order to be like this they have to come preaching what seems to be a very smooth, enticing and seductive message - often an ear tickling message.
This is a message that lulls the listener into a new comfortable comfort zone through the use of numerous feel good factors, carnal, humanist topics of the flesh i.
e.
love of self through personal health, love of the natural world or the creation, loving the environment, vehemently anti-pollution etc.
etc.
etc.
Now these topics at a carnal human level can appear to be very persuasive, informative and helpful but what have they to do with God's message of Salvation, Grace, the forgiveness of sins and the coming of the Kingdom of God - nothing, absolutely nothing at all, and I will not repeat that statement again? Why is that, because it's not necessary to repeat it, to do so would be insulting to you? Now are you saying we should not take care of the environment, I hear you ask? No I'm not, but what I am also saying is that as Christians we are here to witness, to witness the world and all its activities - good and bad alike not to obsess about the creation.
The lost people of this world (this age or its systems) love the world and the lost also pollute the world, but the lost do not love God.
As a Born Again son of God I don't have to worry about the creation yet I was put on this earth like all of mankind to have dominion over the creation.
The creation is huge and the powers and forces that are at work here on the face of this earth are also huge and powerful, but what is man in relation to these awesome powers that God has set in motion? He tells us and it will serve you well to take these verses on board before you go setting trees and seeds upon your altar of worship: Isaiah 40:21-23 Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; (It is He) that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: 23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
(Brackets mine) There it is, a little passage of The Lord's Holy Word to help us see ourselves in our true light or as we should i.
e.
in a less puffed up, vain, pompous and proud way.
We're grasshoppers to God, like insects on the face of the earth and yet to listen to some of these people you would think we are like God Himself in terms of our own self-importance.
We're egotistic silly people, that's what we are and stuffed full of vanity, and it's upon this vanity we base all our nonsensical creation worshiping, Green, eco, tree hugging credentials - a Godless theory based wholly upon the self-important nonsense that, as grasshoppers, we, physically, have a major effect on God's Creation - total hogwash and humbug.
It's as if these grasshoppers think God didn't know they would end up polluting His Creation, and of course that's just how they do think, because God either doesn't exist or He's a powerless wimp in their eyes.
(Please see my series of articles: "Was The Lord Jesus Christ a Long Haired Effeminate Looking Wimp?") Now, amongst other things, all I am saying here is this; to neither worship the environment, nor to incorporate these ideas as being a part of our Salvation or to spiritualise the non-spiritual, as these false messengers would have you believe.
These deceivers make all these physical things part of their message of Salvation when they have nothing to do with Salvation at all.
Furthermore, if we do believe what they say, here is an example of the trouble they can cause: suppose we have a tanker driver who delivers petrol (gasoline) every day of his working life and he then, one day, receives the heavenly call of The Father to His Son and this man is Baptised and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit.
He is now Born Again or sealed.
The thing is, should he give up his job as a tanker driver because of all the pollution he is partly responsible for? Let's face it, he is delivering hundreds of thousands of gallons of petrol (gasoline) every year and, as some would have you believe, helping to cause global warming, (Please see my article: "Is Sin Causing 'Global Warming'") Now because he is Born Again, should he feel bowed down with guilt about his job and, in turn, hand in his notice? Well if he listens to New Age Gnostics he will definitely feel guilty, and yes probably hand in his notice, but if he listens to the Lord Jesus Christ and reads His Holy Word alone then he won't.
Now therein lays the difference between The Truth and Gnostic perversions of The Truth.
This is the fallacy of listening to people who are only too pleased to tell you what you will be doing, or is it should be doing, or even what you should not be doing, once you are 'sealed'.
Is it a sin to deliver petrol to petrol stations? No, but if we listen to false preachers we can end up thinking it is a sin to deliver petrol and all based upon carnal Eco-nut emotional blackmail.
This is a subtle or not so subtle form of manipulative legalism or mind controlling manipulation.
We need to understand too that once we are sealed we are free, which means free from listening to men telling us what we should be doing or not be doing.
The Lord Himself is the one who will be guiding us not men.
Anything men add to the Word of God must be taken with a pinch of salt or with great suspicion and then once wisely analysed - rejected forthwith.
You have been warned again in the Lord Jesus Christ's name and in His love.
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