If It Feels Good, Do It

If It Feels Good, Do It 
Commentary on the News 
Thursday, March 19, 2015 
J.L. Robb 



“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition…”~ 2 Thessalonians 2:3  KJV


When Paul wrote the comment above, the depth of the two-line quote is notable:


1.  There are many men (and women) in today’s church and synagogue environment who aredeceiving their flocks. This is not new and has been going on probably since the beginning, in some form or another. The flock does not have the time and maybe the interest to do their own research to see if what the teacher is telling is the truth. It happens in school; it happens in churches and other religious institutions.


The deceivers in the church seem to often be particularly misguided. Take the case of Creflo Dollar in Atlanta, Georgia.


Creflo has contacted his flock recently, asking for a small $300 donation to help him buy a new $65,000,000 jet. (Creflo’s flock consists of about 600,000 flocklings).


The jet, Gulfstream’s finest, is necessary to reach Creflo’s far reaching flocks. One needs to be able to fly at 51,000 feet and 92% the speed of sound to do God’s work I guess. Reminds me of Oral Roberts’ scam a few years back saying God was going to kill him or something like that if he didn’t raise a million dollars.


 Unfortunately for God, the flock is often stupid and buys these jets or raises millions for their wolf in sheep’s clothing. This is not new, and prosperity preachers today, like Osteen, preach the good news of “God is happy, He loves everyone and wants us all to be rich” that tickle so many ears, “Oh, and send money.” Takes a lot of money to buy a ten million dollar house.


2.  When Paul speaks of “that day,” he is speaking of the final day on Earth as we now experience them, the day Jesus returns and takes care of business. The Bible is full of references to the last days, starting in Genesis, the first book of the Torah and ending with the final book of Revelation, John’s visions of the coming wrath during what Daniel the Prophet said would be a 7-year period, according to the scholars who study Daniel’s timeline. Christianity refers to this 7-year period as the Last Days or the Tribulation.


3.  The falling away that Paul mentions refers to the predicted apostasy that is to   overtake the Church in the last days.  
                                                                               
Apostasy (noun): a total desertion of or departure from one's religion, principles, party, cause, etc.


Is this happening now?


Actually, it has been happening in some form or another since Jesus’ death on the cross; but the rapidity in the “falling away” of the Church is greatly increasing. Apparently, a lot of things increase in the period running up to the last days, ie. speed of travel, speed of communication, frequency of natural disasters and the falling away from the teachings of God for the teachings of man.


Enter Presbyterian USA, not to be confused with the more conservative (less apostasytic) PCA, Presbyterian Church of America. There has been much gnashing of teeth within the Presbyterian USA group apparently as they pondered how to rewrite God’s laws about homosexuality so they could be more inclusive, more with the times. I suppose God is a little old fashioned.


Yesterday Presbyterian USA did rewrite the Bible concerning the bit about homosexuality as it relates to God (not man) and the great mistake God made in His definition of marriage for the first time in the history of civilization. Now that’s something to hang your hat on.


4.  Who was Paul speaking of when he referred to the son of perdition? This should be a simple question with a simple answer but is not. Some biblical scholars believe that Paul’s son of perdition was Antiochus IV Epiphanes who raided the second Jewish Temple, sat up a statue of Zeus and proclaimed himself to be God.


 That in itself would be quite a miracle since Antiochus IV was dead and had been for about 200 years at the time of the writing. The son of perdition of whom Paul spoke was the Beast mentioned in Revelation. The Beast is the anti-Christ and Perdition is his father, the exact opposite of God and His Son.


Imagine sitting in church on a bright, sunny Sunday morning.  The invocation was nice, the singing was particularly uplifting, and you managed to stick an extra couple of dollars into the collection plate.  Your pastor steps to the pulpit, arranges his notes carefully, and takes a sip of water.  He smiles warmly at the congregation, holds up his Bible, and announces, “Before we begin, I should let you know that I’ve found the Bible to be far too depressing and outdated.  We shall no longer be using it in our services!”  Your lower jaw is still in mid-drop when your pastor banks his former Bible off the wall and into the wastebasket.  Frightening thought, no?  Yet this event is happening in more and more churches around the world today; perhaps not with as much suddenness or casual flair, but the effect is the same. ~ Contender Ministries

Presbyterian USA, like most churches, has done marvelous and wonderful things over time for those in need, and sometimes for those not in need. Over the years with the advent of TV and social media, keeping the flock intact has proven difficult for many churches that are struggling over the decrease in membership and how to promote with better marketing. One way is to just make it easy.
When Peter and Paul discussed the growth of the first church 1,900 years ago after taking the message out of Israel and to the known world, recruitment for new members was not easy then either. The pagans (everyone else besides Jews and the new Jews who followed Jesus’ teachings), considered the Christians to be pagans. Anyone worshipping a god that was invisible made no sense.


So how would the early Christians get new members in the new church, derived totally from Jewish roots, if the men had to be circumcised? Say what? I don’t think so.


That would have probably been my reaction. So they simplified the rules.


Over the centuries the church picked and chose which of the Laws now needed to be followed and which were unimportant, contrary to Matthew 5:17-20 which indicated they were all important. Now, in our progressive world, even the easier rules are being vastly modified.


I suppose that soon we really will be able to live like Hell and still make it to Heaven, no problem with the new and improved Jesus. Why has mankind so often felt they could improve upon God?


Sinning is easy and often, fun and especially sexual sinning. Before becoming a believer, I really enjoyed it, especially the fun ones. The ‘60s was the “if it feels good do it” and “make love, not war” generation and that was good for the sex industry as a whole. As toga parties, sex orgies and nudity became more acceptable, suddenly it was OK to have sex with whoever was willing, or not; and birth control pills made embryonic destruction almost unaccountable.


Birth control pills and other mechanisms made pregnancy rare if unwanted. Then, since so many were doing it anyway, abortion was legalized and quickly became a major means of birth control via death, for any reason- a woman’s choice. The baby got and still gets no choice, but it didn’t stop there. Escapes through hallucinatory substances, dependence on prescription drugs and morphine addiction became prevalent.


The new freedoms brought new diseases via the sexual revolution and intravenous drug use. HIV AIDS has killed more than 25,000,000 people.


Yesterday, Presbyterian USA changed God’s description of marriage, making it easier I guess to get new members and new tithes to buy more real estate and hopefully help others. Of course, if the Bible is the inerrant word of God like it says it is in so many words, and like churches say it is, then why is that part referring to men sleeping with other men like they do women now errant? It is either inerrant or errant, so what should the flock think? Professors??


The professors are the preachers, pastors, reverends, rabbis and clerics. Twenty years after I graduated from college I learned just how wrong some of my professors turned out to be.


The churches that are seeking new membership need to ascertain what is errant and what is inerrant. Is adultery errant or inerrant? How about pedophilia? In parts of Europe there are bestiality brothels, so I guess the animal thing must now be OK too?


Apostasy: a total desertion of or departure from one's religion.


Chrislam is just around the corner, but that’s another article.


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