Counterfeit Christians

Counterfeit Christians

Jesus said,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’  
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” 
                                                                              Matthew 7:21-23.
I write this as a warning not just to Christians but to none-Christians also. There are many people in the world who claim to be Christians, but are Christians in name only.
They claim to be doing the work of God yet quite frankly in some cases they are simply lining their pockets.
Others are simply misguided or have been led away from the faith for various reasons. Some may not even realize they are not Christians.
The ones I worry about are the ones who have the potential for leading people astray. The ones making at times outrageous claims. Claims of the miraculous without allowing confirmation of the miraculous event by someone independent of the ministry.
I as a Christian believe in the miraculous such things happened in both the New Old and New Testaments. God worked through his prophets, through Jesus and the disciples of Christ to perform miracles and we Christians claim God is the same God yesterday today and forever. Therefore there has to be miracles happening today.
The thing is I don’t believe they are happening as often as some evangelist claim.
Those who claim the miraculous aside there are also those who would misguide people. They subtly by presenting the scriptures out of context, to support what they believe rather than teaching the truth.
They even when confronted refuse to correct their teaching and continue perverting the truth of God’s word.
Sadly because Christianity, especially the evangelical movement dose not have any real governing authority frauds and counterfeit Christians are everywhere.
In biblical times there was the council of Jerusalem that held the early believers to account no such body exists today.
The apostle Paul wrote,
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?  
God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” 
                                                                                       1 Corinthians 5:12,13.
If you read the writings of the Apostle Paul you’ll see that he is very adamant about teaching solid biblical principles. He also comes against people of his day who were not following good Christian teaching.
In his letter to Timothy he writes,
“As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer  nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith.” 
1 Timothy 1:3,4.
As Christians we need to be on guard against false teaching. We need to be studying the scriptures and seeing what they say for ourselves. We need to be praying and asking for God’s guidance as to what is the truth when it comes to the scriptures.
We need to find a body of believer that study the bible. People who study the bible using a wide range of commentaries not just ones that tell them what they want to hear.
We need to make those we support be they at the local level of the church or pastors and evangelist in the media accountable.
We need to ask them to explain their beliefs and even hold them accountable for every penny they receive.
We need to hold them legally and morally accountable for everything that they do.
Think about it