On July 29, 2023

NOTES ON THE PUNISHMENT OF FALSE TEACHERS AND PROPHETS: CONFRONTING THE SPIRIT OF ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA IN THE AMERICAN CHURCH

SCRIPTURE. “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.

‘But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God,’ who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.” – DEUTERONOMY 13:1-5, NKJV

KEY TERMS. Prophet; Testing; Turn you away; Entice; Put away evil

QUOTATION. “The greatest danger to the Church today is not humanism, paganism, atheism or agnosticism. The greatest danger is not increasing hostility against our faith from the culture. ‘Our greatest danger is Apostasy on the inside, arising from false teachers- theological liberals who deny and distort Biblical doctrine and lead others down the same path.’” – MARK HITCHCOCK, The Coming Apostasy: Exposing the Sabotage of Christianity from Within, 2017; edited

Liberal Theology. “The idea of Liberal Theology is nearly three centuries old. In essence, it is the idea that Christian theology can be genuinely Christian without being based upon external authority. Since the eighteenth century, liberal Christian thinkers have argued that religion should be modern and progressive and that the meaning of Christianity should be interpreted from the standpoint of modern knowledge and experience. In other words, ‘the starting point of Theological Liberalism is that it trades the external, objective, God-given Standard of the Bible in matters of Faith for an individual’s personal, subjective opinion and experience.’ This is an exact inversion of the Christian Faith.” – WILLIAM WOLFE,“The Dangers of Theological Liberalism,” Standing for Freedom, Jan. 13, 2023; edited

I. FIRST THOUGHTS

I’m going to begin this Commentary in a rather unusual way this time. My reasoning is quite simple: When I found both statements by Messrs. Hitchcock and Wolfe, I had no idea they would serve as superb, Microcosmic Counterpoints for the Battle that lies ahead for the American Order.

Consider their respective Bio’s as illustration.

BIO NOTE 1. Mr. Hitchcock is Senior Pastor of Faith Bible in Edmond, OK, Associate Professor of Bible Exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary, and Author of over thirty end-times related books. He holds the JD Degree from Oklahoma City University Law School and the Ph.D. in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and has recently written extensively warning about a Second American Revolution. Although he is a classic, ‘Old School’ theological conservative, he remains an increasingly ‘Minority Voice’among American Evangelicals today.

BIO NOTE 2. Mr. Wolfe is a ten-year veteran of the conservative political movement, has served as a Senior Official in the Trump Administration, both as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon and a Director of Legislative Affairs at the Department of State. Prior to his service in the Administration, William worked for Heritage Action for America, and as a Congressional Staffer for three different Members of Congress, including the former Rep. Dave Brat. He has a B.A. in History from Covenant College, and a Master’s of Divinity at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is currently preparing to work on a Ph.D. with a focus on Christian ethics and public theology, enter pastoral ministry, and engage at the intersection of faith and politics. He would be fairly characterized as a loyal advocate of Trump’s Christian Nationalism as a ‘Voice for the Majority’ of the American Church.

DK. ¿Estás recibiendo esto, amado? Sorry, but sometimes Spanish just seems to express it more passionately. Take very special, historic and theological note of the STARK DIVIDE between what we can rather easily label: (1) Traditional Conservatives and (2) Trump Conservatives.

Research shows the Latter outnumbering the Former by about eight to one.

And yes, I purposely gave Trump’s Name to that Second Echelon since they shall carry that name to the very Judgment Seat of Christ at the End of all things. King Solomon would write it this way thousands of years ago: “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold” (PROVERBS 22:1, NKJV).

This dramatically illustrates the deep structure Chasm that now exists in the American Church that promises to lead us toward the very brink of Civil War, and by some accounts, its inevitability. These are therefore the most sobering times in American history since that bloody First War.

And yet our nearly unforgivably timid Church is preaching what the brilliant HANNAH ARENDT chillingly called, ‘The Banality of Evil’ in her assessment of the underlying Rationale for The Holocaust.

‘EVIL comes from a failure to think.’ It defies thought for as soon as thought tries to engage itself with Evil and examine the premises and principles from which it originates, it is frustrated because it finds nothing there. That is the Banality of Evil.” ― Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, 1963; edited

This is where we are, beloved: At the Mortal Crossroad of Historic Indifference to Evil. The German Reich went there, with abominable consequence. Should America continue down this same brutally Dark Road, her homework assignment may well become a required big screen viewing of the Hughes’ brothers apocalyptic, The Book of Eli (2010) starring Denzel Washington.

II. THE LEGACY OF ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA

“But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest.

Then Peter said, ‘Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!’

As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.

About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, ‘Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?’

‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘that was the price.’

And Peter said, ‘How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.’

Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.” – ACTS 5:1-11, NLT

THE COMMENTARY. “The Judgment was not because of the amount of money they gave. They were free to do with their property as they chose (verse 4). The Judgment was from ‘the Misrepresentation.’ They are contrasted with Barnabas (chapter 4), who was so named by the Apostles for his service to the Church. He also gave the proceeds from the sale of a property he owned to aid the poor. Ananias and his wife wanted the reputation but not the character of Barnabas.

The sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira is shocking. ‘There is no doubt we are to see it as a Judgment of God, and it is given to provoke fear in us’ (verses 5 and 11). So to understand it, we need to understand the grievous nature of the sin.

The sins that stand out are greed, hypocrisy, and lying. Riches are not evil, but they are dangerous to our souls. Paul warns (Ephesians 5) that no greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of God. You can give to the Church or to charity (in itself commendable) for ostentatious reasons. The Lord Jesus condemned the Pharisees for being greedy even though they were dutiful in giving.

The greed of the couple in this story is exposed by their hypocrisy. They wanted to make the appearance of being more generous than they were. It must have been painful for them to give, and it was plainly impossible for them to give without receiving credit for it. The duplicity of their hearts is the warning here. God will not be mocked.

They conspired to lie to men because they loved the praise of men. But they were ignorant of God. The Scripture says God hates lying lips, and that the devil is the father of lies. Peter remarks that it was Satan that filled the heart of Ananias (verse 3). The devil is deceitful; so will those be under his influence. But Ananias and his wife were not hidden from the Holy Spirit when the conceived the plan to lie to the apostles …

Ananias and Sapphira belonged to the best church. They had the Apostles as their ministers. They saw and heard miraculous things. Nevertheless, they were entirely unprepared for the judgment of God. And it came suddenly. It always does. So, as the Lord directs, let us be watchful over our souls.” – REV. CHRIS SHELTON, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Union, “Getting the Message,” Kemper Country Messenger, Mar. 17, 2021; edited

DK. Circling all the way back to our open, let us be reminded most soberly that GOD HATES: Lying; Hypocrisy; and Pride. And I tell you straight up that the American Church is rife to her very gunnels with all three! Further, I believe that God’s Anvil is about to fall on a number of these houses, should they continue in their shameful desecration of God’s Ways.

III. THE TEACHING

KEY TERMS. Prophet; Testing; Entice; Put away

PROPHET. ‘Nabi’ [נָבִיא]: “Spokesman, speaker, (teacher), prophet (i.e., divinely inspired man); called, raised up or ordained to speak God’s Words; a person illuminated, inspired or instructed by God to announce future events; Moses, Elijah, David, Isaiah; an interpreter; one that explains or communicates sentiments or, one who pretends to foretell; an imposter or false prophet.”

TESTING. ‘Nasah’ [נָסָה]: “From the Hebrew root meaning to attempt, assay, adventure, prove, tempt or try; ‘refers to God testing the faith and faithfulness of human beings;’ trying for proof; proving by a standard or by experiment; in metallurgy, the operation of refining large quantities of gold or silver by means of lead, in the vessel called a test; in this process, the extraneous matter is vitrified, scarified or destroyed, and the metal left pure.”

ENTICE. ‘Nadach’ [נָדַח]: “To impel, thrust, banish; to drive away toward idolatry; to force to [outer] darkness; to cast down, draw away [from truth]; incite or instigate, by exciting hope or desire; usually in a bad sense; as, to entice one to evil; hence, to seduce; to lead astray; to induce to sin, by promises or persuasions; to allure.”

PUT AWAY. ‘Ba’ar’ [בָּעַר]: “From a root word for brutish, stupid, ignorant of God; to kindle, burn, consume (by fire or eating); to completely waste; to put or take away; banish; to purge; to cleanse or purify by separating and carrying off whatever is impure, heterogeneous, foreign or superfluous; as, to purge the body by evacuation; to clear from guilt or moral defilement.”

COMMENTARY. “Moses had cautioned against the peril that might arise from the Canaanites. Here he cautions against the rise of Idolatry among themselves. It is needful for us to be well acquainted with the truths and precepts of the Bible; for ‘we may expect to be proved by temptations of evil’ under the appearance of good, of error in the guise of truth; nor can anything rightly oppose such, but the plain, express testimony of God’s Word to the contrary. ‘And it would be a proof of sincere affection for God,’ that, notwithstanding specious pretences, they should not be wrought upon the forsake God, and follow other gods to serve them [and be put to death]. – MATTHEW HENRY, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

TO THE QUESTION. How severe a Punishment does the New Testament Canon permit or require against unrepentant, rebellious false teachers, prophets, and pastors? We shall take up this vital question in the final section.

IV. LAST THOUGHTS

My sustained fury against nearly the entirety of the American Church is that it has dared to take upon itself to redefine the Scriptures and Christ Himself, via the heretical system known as OSAS – ‘Once Saved Always Saved’ (no matter what!). The specious reasoning runs something like this:

Once rescued by Jesus Christ who has fulfilled all the Law, we need not worry about any further violations of that Law, since it is nullified by His Sacrifice at the Cross.

Therefore, this passage no longer applies to false prophets, teachers and apostates since one can no longer apostatize while ‘in Christ.’ All is covered by the Blood, no matter how vile, how sustained, or incalcitrant the sin or blasphemy. This is the very Core of this theological sedition concocted in the hearts and minds of Augustine of Hippo, and John Calvin of Geneva in the ambiguous Doctrine of “Perseverance of the Saints.”

This is a teaching that asserts that once a person is truly “born of God” or “regenerated” by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, they will continue doing good works and believing in God until the end of their life. This is regardless of their own personal, free-will compunction to do good or do evil.

This is The Compromise perpetrated by the American Church under the headings of Hyper-Grace, Seeker Sensitive, Love-Only, Prosperity Gospel, or indeed, Once Saved Always Saved. THESIS:I am increasingly persuaded that Almighty God is about to obliterate these heresies and their proponents from His Church, who choose to fail His Tests.

THE EVIDENCE. “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.” – 2 PETER 2:1-3, NKJV

SWIFT DESTRUCTION. “Derived from a root term meaning ‘complete ruin or loss;’ perishing (spiritual or eternal); the second death; perdition; exclusion from Messiah’s Kingdom; the utter destruction that comes with corruption [of the Canon]; death, or ‘a complete pulling down;’ the utter loss of the soul or of final happiness in a future state.”

A representative interpretation of this unmistakable Doctrine is offered once again by JOHN GILL: “‘And their damnation slumbereth not.’ -An avenging God, who has appointed them to damnation for their sins, slumbers not; ‘The Justice of God is not asleep,’ nor careless and negligent, but is awake, and watches over them, to bring the evil upon them they have deserved, and is in reserve for them, and will hasten to perform it; ‘The determined destruction does not lie dormant,’ but in a little time will be stirred up, and fall with dreadful weight on such sinners, as may be concluded from the following awful instances.” – 1746-1763; edited

DK’S CODICIL. After decades-long dilution and ruination of the Word of God in America over the past 50 years and more, I was reminded as I wrote this piece of a passage that now takes on a most unnerving but necessarily loving remembrance: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Therefore, He does not change, nor shall the sons of obedience be consumed (Malachi 3:6).

May God be praised!

But to all the false teachers out there, the charlatans, the ones joined to the dark spirits of the Antichrist and Rebellion and Brutality and Mammon and to Power, indeed to all who have fallen catastrophically short yet who refuse to Repent, the Word of God promises the consequences of Ananias and Sapphira, and nothing less.

And no, no one knows if they made Heaven or descended into Hell; theologians are evenly split down the middle.

THE GAMBLE. And should you for some inexplicable reason dare to disbelieve the very Words of Christ and dare further to take a more liberal interpretation of the passages cited here, I remind you of BLAISE PASCAL’S WAGER (1670).

“Pascal thought that evidence cannot settle the question of whether God exists, so he proposes that you should bet, or ‘Wager, on God’because of what’s at stake: You have lots to gain and not much to lose.” – LIZ JACKSON, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy at Ryerson University, 1000 Word Philosophy, Jan. 4, 2021; edited

So do I counsel us all to indeed, ‘Bet on God’s Truth!’ This, rather than on the vicissitudes and philosophies of men, the lure of the ‘American Gospel,’ nor especially on the serpentine hisses of the abominable, Lawless One.

Cliff Kelly, Ph.D.

Digital Circuit Rider

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/-MEv8rKy7YU