Colossians 2:18 Let no man beguile you of your
reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those
things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind….
This is a hard
verse. The main points of accusation
seem to be false humility through self-denial or self-mortification and worship
of angels based on deceiving visions. It
would seem that there were false teachers in Colosse that were promoting the
worship of angels. Scripture is clear
that we are to worship no one but God.
Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other
god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
Matthew 4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee
hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him
only shalt thou serve.
To give your worship to
anyone or anything else is to reject God as Lord. To allow yourself to be deceived into
thinking otherwise is to be deceived and lost. Satan is a wonderful
counterfeiter. People can be very
convincing who have allowed themselves to be deceived by visions of Satanic
origin. We are much more prone to give
credence to what we experience over what we must choose to accept by
faith. As the old saying goes, “Seeing
is believing.” The problem is that
“Seeing can be deceiving.” Example: There are many in this world today being
deceived by visions of “Mary” calling herself the “Queen of Heaven.” The message is one of concern and
encouragement and is deceiving many people.
It is another evil spirit that is drawing attention to itself and away
from the Savior. The “queen of heaven”
is identified in scripture by the prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 7:16-18 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor
prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the
women knead their dough, to make cakes to the
queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
She was one of the
pantheon of gods and goddesses worshipped in the ancient world. Wikipedia offers the following information:
The Roman writer
Apuleius' "Transformations of Lucius" gives us an understanding of
Isis in the first century. The following paragraph is particularly significant.
"You see me here, Lucius, in answer to your
prayer. I am nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements,
primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead,
queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses
that are, my nod governs the shining heights of Heavens, the wholesome sea
breezes. Though I am worshipped in many
aspects, known by countless names. . . some know me as Juno, some as Bellona .
. . the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning and worship call me by my true
name..Queen Isis."
[end
quote]
There are some good free
online resources on this subject at:
Self-denial and
self-mortification is another form of pride and setting oneself apart as more
worthy than others. It is a mentality of
works salvation as opposed to faith. This
verse seems to tie directly to the truth Paul wrote in his letter to Timothy.
1Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of
devils….
Colossians 2:19 And not holding the Head, from
which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit
together, increaseth with the increase of God.
These false
teachers were not connected to the Head—Christ, the head of the body of believers. They were promoting angels and even
themselves—not Christ. It is “in Christ”
that the body of believers are knit together as a unified whole. I believe that this is accomplished
supernaturally through the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is only “in Christ” through the ministry
of the Spirit that we as believers can be nourished to grow in spiritual
development. God provides for that
growth through the Holy Spirit’s gifting in the body whereby we benefit from
ministry to each other as we “speak the truth in love.” This truth will always point us to Christ—not
self or angels.
Ephesians 4:11-15 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till
we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of
the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more
children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by
the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to
deceive; But speaking the truth in love,
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ….
(to be
continued…)
3 comments:
There is a false ministry called 'House of Light Ministry To The Nations' that posts videos on YouTube claiming that ONLY the Jews are the set apart people of God, not the Christians. It seems more like a cult and his female followers seemed to be confused into thinking they need to wear head coverings.
In First Corinthians when Paul mentions a woman's head being covered he was referring them having long hair instead of short hair. He even mentions that men should keep their hair short, not long. HOL's leader acts as if Holy Spirit taught Christians are idiots who know nothing.
His entire premise seems to be 'Christians have been taught wrong(even the ones who DO know how to rightfully divide the word of God)and I must explain the word of God to them.' He seems to despise Christians and believes God favors the Jewish people over us. He definitely DOES NOT exercise PERFECT UNDERSTANDING of the scriptures.
Anyone who disagrees with his false doctrine is labeled as being prideful and having the spirit of Jezebel. He actually got offended because he was told that the Holy Spirit was a better teacher than he was and knows more.
This is the truth so what's to be offended over? He clearly is a false teacher and out to get men and women to glorify HIM and his false teaching, not Jesus Christ. He even stated that certain parts of the new testament is speaking strictly to the Jews, not the Christians.
He reminds me of the Jewish people in the book of Acts who became jealous when Paul preached the gospel to the Gentiles and they began contradicting him to discourage the Gentiles from being saved.
I thought he was true at first. But the more I listened to him the more The Holy Spirit made me realize that this man is an ethnocentric Jew who despises Christians and takes pleasure in deceiving the people of God.
If you watch some of his videos you can hear the animosity in his voice against Christians as he talks about how NONE of us KNOW the true gospel and we all need HIS instruction when he is walking in error about MANY things.
The Holy Spirit revealed to me that he is not simply a well meaning believer but an intentional ravening wolf in sheep's clothing who holds a special hatred in his heart for Christians.Pray for him. I will to.
I have to admit I have not heard of this group and will have to do some research. Sadly, I am sure there are many that spread a false gospel about whom we know nothing. That makes it that much more important for us to get out the truth of the gospel by every means available and to live out the truth we share in our lives.
They mostly operate on Facebook from what I understand. I think they've only been around for about a year so far. But their doctrine is very unsound. You have to look on YouTube for their vids. There's not very much out about them that I know of other than that. I have tried researching but the resources are limited.
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