DECEIVED!
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
AUGUST 24, 2008
Back in June of this year Vermonter’s were shocked
to learn about the disappearance of a twelve year old girl who had lived in the
town of
Deceiving one another is as common as a cold
and it’s been going on since the beginning of time. 1 Now
the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God
had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat
of any tree in the garden'?" 2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the
fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree
that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'
" 4 But
the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that
when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil.6 So
when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight
to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of
its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and
he ate.” Genesis 3:1-6 (ESV)
The devil successfully deceived Adam and Eve
into trading living in Paradise and enjoying a life of indescribable happiness in
fellowship with their Creator, in exchange for a piece of fruit; a sin which, unless
forgiven, would cause them to suffer misery by being separated from God
eternally. And, I might add, by allowing themselves to be deceived, Adam and
Eve had in effect also bequeathed that awful sentence as part of a horrible
legacy to each of their descendants, including you and me. We enter this world
as condemned sinners traveling on the road to Hell and the only way we can get
off is by freely accepting Christ’s love as exemplified on His cross. If we
choose otherwise we doom ourselves into remaining a spiritually dead still-life
throughout eternity. Jesus put it this way when He lovingly explained mankind’s
terrible plight to a Pharisee named Nicodemus when He told the man “you must be
born again,” (John 3: 3 & 7).
Among the many kinds of sins we each commit
are those of deceiving each other and we also deceive ourselves. Mary Howitt
reminds us “the fine art of deception”
isn’t confined to the human race. “’Will you walk into my parlor?’ said a
spider to a fly; ‘Tis the prettiest little parlor that you ever did spy.”’
There’s no need to elaborate on the truthfulness of that statement, is there? I’m
sure I’m not the only person here this morning who is aware of the unpleasant effects
of being deceived. Who of us older folks don’t know of at least one marriage
that was devastated when a surprise revelation of unfaithfulness on the part of
one spouse finally surfaced? Am I the only one who is aware of a recently
widowed or divorced vulnerable woman living alone or an elderly person being
fleeced by an unscrupulous auto mechanic or roofing, furnace or driveway
contractor? Can you think of anyone who was snookered into believing the well
known phrase “I love you,” or “I’ve accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and
invited Him into my heart.” which in the course of time proved to have been the
exact opposite all along? I could go on an on but it isn’t necessary, is it?
We’re all defective human beings. At one time
or another each of us has been deceived, and each of us, including little kids,
has deceived someone else; lots of times. For instance, does this scenario
sound familiar? Two little kids are playing. The smaller one suddenly screams.
The mother rushes out of the kitchen and into the playroom to find her daughter
lying on the floor with a cut lip. The crying girl screams: “he knocked me
down,” because he really did. “No I didn’t,” says her brother. “Can I help it
if she tripped over my foot?” As I mentioned earlier, deceiving and being
deceived is very common. So much so, that the Holy Spirit inspired the New
Testament authors to pen the following concerning spiritual deception.33 “Do not be deceived" 1 Corinthians 15:33 (ESV) 6 Let no one deceive you with empty
words. Ephesians 5:6 (ESV) 3 Let no one
deceive you in any way. 2
Thessalonians 2:3 (ESV) 7 Little children, let
no one deceive you.” 1 John 3:7 (ESV)
Just as the devil at the dawn of human history deceived Adam
and Eve into not believing what God had said; there are many men and women “pastors”
in phony Christian Churches today who have been deceived, and in turn are
deceiving the folks in the pews into not believing many of the things our
Creator God is communicating to His human creatures through the Sacred
Scriptures. There’s a very good reason why the devil obviously doesn’t want
anyone to believe the absolute truth contained in the Bible. For instance,
consider the following warnings.
19 “Now the doings (practices) of
the flesh are clear (obvious): they are immorality, impurity, indecency, 20 Idolatry,
sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions
(dissensions), party spirit (factions, sects with peculiar opinions, heresies),
21 Envy,
drunkenness, carousing, and the
like. I warn you beforehand,
just as I did previously, that those
who do such things shall not inherit the
Apparently
there were some folks in the
9
“Do you not know that the unrighteous and the wrongdoers will not inherit or have any share in the
The bottom line is; we must not allow ourselves to be
deceived or to deceive ourselves. God is telling us that this is our
responsibility and He has given each of us the freedom to choose. That’s why
I’m constantly reminding you folks to search the Scriptures for yourselves to
see if what I’m teaching is of God. In the preface to a little booklet the
author echo’s my advice by cautioning his readers to “read this material
prayerfully, asking Yahweh to guide you into His truth. And read it with an
open Bible, an open heart and an open mind. Be skeptical of my conclusions,
and of preachers, teachers and religious authors, all.” (A) End of quote.
In other words, don’t allow yourself to be deceived by any of those guys, including
me!
For instance, I recently read a review of a
book entitled “Pastor Driven Stewardship” written by a man who, according to
the reviewer, “has served up a ten-step system designed to help pastors wring
more money out of the people in the pews. In fact, the chapter that introduces
the ten-step system is appropriately called, “There’s Gold in Them Thar’ Pews!”
The book even comes with a money-back guarantee” and promises the pastor using
the ten-step system, “Your churches giving will increase by at least 10 percent
within five weeks of beginning your stewardship series, or we will give you
your money back.” “To be blunt, the reviewer continues, “Pastor Driven Stewardship”
is a masterpiece of deception, and a classic of how to manipulate God’s
people out of their money. Its blatant purpose is to show pastors just how to
do it! “Sitting in your pews each week,” [the author] Mr. Rogers unashamedly observes,
“is a gold mine of resources waiting to be lovingly extracted and put to work
for Christ.” Unfortunately for the author’s ultimate victims-the gullible
sheep-his unbiblical methods of wringing money out of them is anything but
“loving.” A more honest title for this book would be “Pastor Driven Fleecing.” (B)
Perhaps the most widely misused biblical
references employes to con the sheep out of at least ten percent of their money
is in Malachi 3: 7-12. Are any of you folks familiar with these verses?
Although I have cited them in the past, I did so in their proper historical
context. Let’s look at them.7 “Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned
away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to
you," says the LORD Almighty. "But you ask, 'How are we to return?' 8 "Will a man
rob God? Yet you rob me.
"But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a
curse--the whole nation of you--because you
are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole
tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD
Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and
pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.11 I will prevent
pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their
fruit," says the LORD Almighty. 12 "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for
yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty. Malachi 3:7-12 (NIV)
Some self-serving preachers have really perfected
“the fine art of fleecing the sheep” just
as Mafia goons shake-down storeowners by promising them protection from their
handlers. After reading the Malachi passages, the preacher bursting with rapid
fire loud, passionate enthusiasm, makes his pitch which might sound something
like this. “Do you want to know why so many things are going wrong in your
life? Have you ever wondered why some of you are having such a hard time making
ends-meet? I’ll tell you why. You’re robbing God! That’s why! You’re not
tithing ten percent of your gross income. How do you expect God to pay my salary
and the rest of the staff and finance all of our great programs and all our
other operational expenses unless you tithe? Tithe, tithe says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the
floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room
enough for it. Test God on this and see it come back to you tenfold.
You won’t know what to do with it all. Guaranteed! My son Mike used to attend a
huge independent Baptist church in Anchorage which at this point in the service
the ushers went up and down the aisles armed with offering plates which held
one of those credit card things. All the sheep in the pews had to do was swipe
their card and get ready for the floodgates of Heaven to open and shower down
mega blessings upon them. Yeah right!
“God’s commands to
tithe are located only in the Old
Testament, except Matt. 23:23, which pertains to Pharisees still living under
the Mosaic Law. Those tithing laws were intended solely for physical Israelites living under the Old Covenant and
were limited to a tenth of the increase of their produce and livestock-not their monetary gain.[i]
Furthermore, there isn’t a single instance in the New Testament commanding a
Christian living in the New Covenant Age to tithe. Not one!
Do not be
deceived. Don’t let anyone deceive you and don’t, don’t deceive yourself. On
the authority of God’s infallible Word I can assure you that every man in a
pulpit has not been called and placed there by God. Congregations should require
a thorough background check before the church hires a pastor or
other church leader. Unless they have something to hide, no candidate will
object. All too many people sitting in the pews are naïve and gullible. They
owe this precautionary measure to themselves and their children. Especially the
children! A horrific case in point is the massive indisputable copiously
documented accounts of the sheer evil perpetrated by Roman Catholic homosexual
pedophile priests. The horrors those poor altar-boys were subjected to, among
other things, included beatings and forced participation in orgies, bestiality
and some even had to make visits to the
“The numbers of abused children are impossible to determine,
but reasonable estimates can be made. If about five percent of the priests in
the
Please don’t
misunderstand me. Some of the nicest, kindest and most caring people I have
ever met are homosexuals. As I have said on many an occasion from this pulpit
and at Harvest Time, I would rather have them for a neighbor than some
professed Christians I know. However, in the Corinthian and Galatians passages
I cited earlier concerning the continuance of certain sinful practices which
will exclude people from inheriting the Kingdom of God we must remember God
doesn’t allow anyone to perish eternally because they were born as a swindler,
drunkard, loose-cannon or the like. On the contrary, in the course of time they
freely chose to engage in these kinds of sinful practices. The Bible teaches
that homosexually is an abomination and a perversion of the kind of human
sexuality our Creator intended men and women to enjoy (Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom.
1: 26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim. 1: 9-10; Cf. Deut. 22:5; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-5;
Jude 1:7). These self deceived homosexuals have conned themselves into believing
that their behavior is normal, while nothing could be further from the truth.
And God only knows how many of these demonically deceived perverts are still infesting
today’s Catholic Church. I can’t help wondering if most Catholics haven’t
already figured this out. The only possible clue I have is that “While Mass
attendance in
Perhaps most Catholic
priests aren’t homosexuals but rather are sincere hard-working servants of the
Risen Savior. I sure hope so. I really feel bad for them. I know some wonderful
Catholic priests whom I respect and admire, but I honestly can’t help wondering
whether or not they are homosexuals. Every Catholic priest! I can’t help
feeling this way. It’s just that I can’t be absolutely certain. Can you? Because
of the infamous culture of deceit and the massive world-wide cover
up throughout the years of this shocking tragedy; a cover up involving Popes,
cardinals, bishops, right on down to the local parish priest who were often bound
by “The Seal of Confession” or intimidated by blackmail. I’m not sure I can
really trust any Catholic priest today. I don’t want to be deceived. And I
don’t want to offend the Catholics the Lord has caused to cross paths with me,
especially the one who joins me for a couple of sliced of pizza each week, a
man whom I value as one of my best friends. But, more importantly, I don’t want
to offend my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ if my appearance at a Catholic Mass regardless
of the occasion, may somehow be construed as my being apathetic in any way towards
some of the teachings and activities taking place within this colossal “Church
of Darkness.”
I want be able to
face Him on the Day of Judgment with a clear conscience knowing I have given a
lot of prayerful thought to this issue and I urge each of you to do the same. Search
the Scriptures for yourselves and see if what I have been saying can be backed
up biblically. And please become informed and read the book I have been quoting
from as well as others. It’s entitled: Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic
Church. (G) Incidentally, the author of the book is still a practicing Roman
Catholic. For the life of me I can’t think of a single good reason why anyone
who loves the Lord would want to have anything to do with this organization unless
the devil had conned him or her into deceiving themselves big time. I hope I
haven’t come across as being a sanctimonious hypocrite. I assure you both I and
my fellow bible believing Christians each know without a doubt, that we were
all a bunch slime-ball sinner’s who have been saved by nothing but Gods amazing
grace (Eph. 2:8-9). There’s nothing, absolutely nothing from preventing any of those
despicable people I have been speaking about earlier from asking Jesus to forgive
them, too. And if any of you folks haven’t already done so, there’s nothing to
prevent you from doing the same.
Lord willing, next week….
(A) The Tabernacle of David, © May, 2008 by Adison Martin;
(B) Searching Together Magazine,
(C) Ibid.
(D) Mart, “Victims of Abuse by Priests,” p. 469, cited in SACRILEGE: SEXUAL
ABUSE IN THE
(E) Louise Haggert, The Bingo Report:
Mandatory Celibacy and Clergy Sex Abuse (
(F) Article entitled: BISHOP: Increasing Sunday Mass attendance top diocesan
priority; The Vermont Catholic Tribune, August 1, 2008.
(G) Another excellent resource is Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes:
The Catholic Church’s 2,000-Year Paper
Trail of
Sexual Abuse, © 2006 by Thomas P. Doyle, Richard A. W. Sipe, and Patrick J.
Wall, 111, Volt Press, a division of Bonus Books, Inc. (255 Sunset Blvd. ,
#711, Los Angeles, Ca. 90069.
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