The Words of the Lord and those of His apostles were not enough to prevent Satan’s followers from perverting the gospel of God. They continued to insist that a message about Jesus Christ Himself was more important than the message He commanded to be put forth. In short order Satan had deceived many in God’s church just as he had Adam and Eve in the Church of Eden. Since that time the majority within professing Christendom have bowed to common (human) sense when it comes to spiritual right and wrong. In the minds of Scripture perverters it makes sense that to receive salvation one need only take Jesus as one’s personal savior. Fruit, if any, consists of whatever religious customs the leaders of one’s chosen sect determine must be performed in order to remain in good standing with the religious community. These acts of religiosity God calls “filthy rags” in Isaiah 64:6. A woman named Martha exhibited in this religious mindset when Jesus came to visit her and her sister Mary. After Jesus entered their home Martha, the more religious of the two, busied herself with many religious activities (plural) while Mary did the (single) right thing. The Apostle Luke explains the difference in chapter 10 of his letter. Beginning with verse 38 we find Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to Him while Martha was busy being “… cumbered about with much serving.” See The Social Gospel which emphasizes service to mankind rather than service to God. After a while Martha complained to Jesus that Mary was not pulling her weight in the kitchen where the important things were being done. Why was she just sitting and listening to Him when there was so much to do? Why did He not tell Mary to come and help her? “And Jesus answered and said to her: ‘Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things. But ONLY ONE THING IS NEEDFUL, and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (38-42). The “fruit” Mary was producing was the right fruit. Martha was producing much more fruit, but it was of much lesser quality. Today, those who concentrate on the person of Jesus are following Martha’s example. Though they produce fruit, it is not the fruit He commands. Those who obey His instructions and follow His example produce “good fruit” (Mat. 7:17). Remember that John the Baptist told those being baptized that they must afterward produce “… fruit meet for (as proof of true) repentance.” Mary was producing such fruit.

As ever larger segments of the church fell away from God’s Truth (apostasy), most of what Jesus taught concerning the Kingdom of God and how to enter it was lost. Only true saints held onto the Words of the Lord and His apostles–“ALL the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Following the founding of Catholicism and the Roman Empire’s embracing of it God’s people would become hated, hunted outcasts. The seeds of church rebellion had been germinating for many years before Satan gained full control of the Institutional Church.

Only a few years after the founding of the Church of God, we find the Apostle Paul warning her that Satan was working to lure them away from the Lord. An example of his concern is found in 1 Corinthians 2:3-5 where he told the church that he was in “fear and much trembling” concerning their spiritual condition. There was not much Paul feared, but one thing made him fear and tremble–that their faith would come to be based on “the wisdom of men” and not on “the power of God.” Paul feared neither the whip nor the sword, neither suffering nor death. BUT HE FEARED FOR THE CHURCH as his next letter to the Corinthians bears out: “But I fear, lest by any means, (just) as the serpent beguiled Eve through subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh (a false prophet) preaching another Jesus whom we (the apostles) have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, or another gospel … ye might well bear with (believe) him” (vss 3,4). Following this Paul described the false preachers that were working to change the ministerial direction of the church, calling them “false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ … ministers of righteousness whose end will be according to their works” (vs 13,15). As he pointed out in verse 14, these false prophets were following the example set by their master–Satan. In writing to the Galatian church, Paul was addressing a congregation in which the apostasy had already begun: “I marvel that you have so soon removed yourself from Him Who called you in the grace of Christ and (have embraced) … another gospel, which is not (actually) another (gospel) … but there be some there that … PERVERT THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST” (1:6,7). Paul was astonished that 1) the apostasy was in full swing, and 2) that the saints had not either thrown the rebellious ones out, or if in the minority, departed from them.

Bear in mind that when the apostles wrote to a particular church, the letter made would eventually find its way to all of the other churches. In this way the teachings of the apostles were made available to all within professing Christendom. Because God arranged for their writings to be codified into what we call the Holy Bible, the Words of the Lord and His apostles are available to the modern church. The problem is that their Truths are not being taught, having been replaced by man’s various versions of truth. In that the New Covenant Church is founded on the teachings of the APOSTLES AND PROPHETS (Eph. 2:20), and in that they were recorded for OUR (the New Covenant church’s) instruction (1 Cor. 10:11), it would behoove us to read and head what God had to say through them. To be continued. L.J.