In the past 15 years I have been looking for Jesus- I have found Him in many places, but have found a lot more of people who claim to have found Him and reject anything else. For example, you see it in the LDS church with the "We have the only truth and the whole truth and you must become mormon to enter into Heaven" and then you have others that say, "Mormonism is false, everything about it is untrue and full of deception. If you are or were a part of it, you do not know Jesus" and then you have christians against christians with, " well, they didn't have the proper respect when they prayed to God- they can't truly know God," or, " Yes, he is healing many people, but he does it in the open. stuff like that is too sacred to be shared, works of God are only done in private!" and then they will back up what they feel is right with some scripture, usually out of context and then a personal testimony of how God showed them they were right.
Is everyone so deceived that we can't see the works of God in others when it doesn't meet our own criteria that we have put in place? Or is the deception so great that so many people are doing things that would seem to be works of God but are actually doing them by some other power?
I usually just like to listen/read on forums. I like to gather information, mull it over for awhile and see what is real and what is not- I rarely post opinions on anything, unless I can't hold back!
- except I feel more comfortable on this forum and post the most here.
I guess what I am getting at is there are people out there that will blindly follow a false prophet while calling out others for doing the same thing, just because the others are following someone the first group doesn't like. They don't even see how it's wrong! excuses are given for when prophecies never come to pass from the one they are following- but then they reject all the genuine believers of God also because they don't act as they think they should.
I am trying to put my thoughts together as I type this, so forgive me for being a little dis-jointed in my thoughts.
I followed my church blindly for over 20 years. We have a song that we teach to the little kids in primary- it goes like this. " Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, don't go astray, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, he knows the way."
and I see this so much more than just in the LDS circles! There is the prosperity and easy grace teachings, there is the reaping and sowing that is taught incorrectly( the give me money and you will get health crowd) there are the ones that claim to do mighty miracles overseas but somehow the faith is just not here in this country, so they promise all sorts of stuff if you give them some money, and more than ever there are the prepper and doomsayers, in and outside of the LDS church- that somehow, God is only speaking to them and only they know the truth( each group above believes this)
And to back up all that they say and believe in, they use scripture and personal testimony-just as you would when you are truly following God
but there are some common threads that I have found that help me figure out who is who
- Fear: if the teaching promotes fear, it is not of God.
- Easy wealth: God promised life in abundance not an abundant life
- un-natural sowing and reaping- yes, sowing and reaping is biblical- but each fruit after it's own kind. If you want more money, give more money- it's just how it works
- pride cloaked in humility: this one drives me nuts because it is so obvious to me, but so many people fall for it and use it!!!! it's the, "Well, I have spiritual experiences all the time, I just am too humble to talk about them here on this board, but I will mention it every chance I get" kind of statements(yeah, it really bothers me!)
- and God working in a way that doesn't fit what they think should happen. comments of " he can't really know Jesus because Jesus would never talk to someone like him!" or "God told me that He would never do something like that and I have a really strong pray-life and scripture to back me up"
Is this the great deception? I know it says in scripture that God will let us believe what we want to believe- He gives us what we want, even when it isn't good for us- look at the Israelites- they wanted a human king to lead them. God gave them Saul, after warning them what a king was capable of doing to their nation.
Do you guys come across this type of stuff often and how do you recognize it and deal with it? It still takes me a while sometimes to recognize when people are being false, mainly because I like to believe people, and all these people have very really experiences- are they just being deceived or are they getting the message wrong?
Thanks!
~Carrie
