Monday, February 22, 2010

Fierce Wolves

I know that after my departure fierce wolves
will come in among you, not sparing the flock;
and from among your own selves
will arise men speaking twisted things,
to draw away the disciples after them.
Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years
I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.
Acts 20:29-31

Surely some of the most heartfelt and poignant verses ever recorded in scripture. What made Paul cry? Was it the beatings? The shipwrecks? The snakebites? The imprisonment? No--what made the Apostle Paul weep was knowing that the wolves would come and the flock would be threatened.

Perhaps bitter still was the knowledge that some would arise from within the Ephesian church. They would speak twisted things (KJV says "perverse") and their misinterpretation of the precious Word of God would result in disciples being drawn away.

Paul's warning: "Be Alert"!

In The Price of Neglect Tozer writes:
Within the circles of evangelical Christianity itself there has arisen in the last few years dangerous and dismaying trends away from true Bible Christianity.

A spirit has been introduced which is surely not the Spirit of Christ, methods employed which are wholly carnal, objectives adopted which have not one line of Scripture to support them, a level of conduct accepted which is practically identical with that of the world -- and yet scarcely one voice has been raised in opposition.

And this in spite of the fact that the Bible-honoring followers of Christ lament among themselves the dangerous, wobbly course things are taking.

The times call for a Spirit-baptized and articulate orthodoxy. They whose souls have been illuminated by the Holy Ghost must arise and under God assume leadership. There are those among us whose hearts can discern between the true and the false, whose spiritual sense of smell enables them to detect the spurious afar off, who have the blessed gift of knowing. Let such as these arise and be heard.

1 comment:

Melissa Gail said...

Thanks for posting this!