Multitudes In The Valley Of Decision (Part 2)

Posted on April 8, 2020

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Multitudes In The Valley Of Decision (Part 2)

by Pastor Afolabi Oladele

In Genesis 3:1, this first message to mankind, Satan sows seeds of doubt as to whether God can be trusted. Satan’s very first words were, “Has God indeed said. . . ?” Spoken or not, this sentiment that God is untrustworthy, and that His Word is suspect, has been a regular feature in mankind’s relationship with God ever since. It is the basis of seeking knowledge for self and by self to express independence from the knowledge that God freely gave and still gives.

Author R.V. Young, in his book Harold Bloom: the Critic as Gnostic, summarizes Gnostic teachings this way:

The Gnostics' teaching places the origin of evil, of pain and suffering, in the conditions of the material creation; salvation involves overcoming ignorance and escaping these external conditions by finding divinity within. . . . The Gnostic finds the beginning of the path to salvation in the realization that the world is a great imposture, a prison of pain and frustration. (Please think about this! Repeatedly God in the book of Genesis said everything He created was good! Can you now see the satanic, Luciferian angle being brought out clearly in the above definition?) 
The escape of the gnostic lies in recovering the intrinsic good within himself, the principle of illumination that he shares with other enlightened spirits. . . . What makes it possible for the self and God to commune so freely is that the self already is of God. (Emphasis ours throughout)

In its most basic sense, Gnosticism is knowing, a philosophy, but its knowledge, can be fused into any religion, and while sometimes  including the Word of God, does not have it as its foundation. Instead, more than what was contained in Scripture, Gnostics valued what:

  • they experienced;
  • elders told them; or
  • they learned from “angels,” astrology, or chemistry (alchemy).

Thus, we see elements of Gnosticism in Galatians: a mixture of “lucky days,” to which they ascribed spiritual significance (part of their worship prior to conversion) and a belief, brought in by Judaizers or perhaps even an “angel” (Galatians 1:8), that justification could come by works of the law.

Judaism, though it has its  roots in the Old Testament, sees God’s Word through the lens of Hellenism (Greek thought) and the traditions of Jewish scholars and teachers through the centuries. The Galatian Christians gave God’s Word lip service, but did not depend on it as the  source  of their beliefs and practices. If they had, they would not have returned to pagan “days, months, seasons, and years,” nor believed that justification could ever result from good works—a concept that is read into the Old Testament, but not actually found there.

Similarly, the Colossian Christians were affected by an ascetic form of Gnosticism that included “ordinances” (KJV) or “regulations” (NKJV) that are not found in God’s Word but were the commandments and doctrines of men (Colossians 2:20-23), as well as demons, the “basic principles of the world” (Colossians 2:8).

This same distrust of God’s Word is readily seen advancing in today’s fallen church where the Bible, while generally utilized as the source of doctrine, can be easily overridden by the words of a Pope or pastor or scientist or rich ‘do gooder’ who professes a solution to the problem of the poor.

They may sincerely believe that God speaks to them, yet they simultaneously mistrust what He has already said in inspired Scripture. They tend to shy away from Bible eschatology study, concluding that they do not need it since God speaks directly to them, and if there is anything important, God will let them know.

Now beware of such, because the events of the times will expose their ignorance whereby they will lead many souls to perdition. As the Lord Jesus warned us in Mark 4:24 (NLT/GWT) and Luke 8:18 (NLT/GWT) so I warn you! Are you listening to the teaching of the doctrine of Christ or some fallen angel appearing as a pastor? So beloved, seek the Lord while He may yet be found, call upon Him while He is near. Shalom.

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