GOD IS ANGRY WITH CHARLATANS

By Akin Ojumu

Eloquence is a requisite tradecraft of charlatans. To be profitable as a con artist in the House of God, you can’t but be fluent in speech. Religious impostors lacking in exquisite oratory are few and far in between. In nearly all cases, spiritual frauds are articulate, loquacious, and compelling. With their silver tongue, they can sell anyone a nonexistent bridge in Brooklyn.

Insatiable greed and inordinate gain are two sides of the coin of the realm of charlatanry. False prophets employ their oratory to feed their insatiable greed and false teachers deploy their eloquence to appease their craving for inordinate gain. Regardless of what they want you to believe, charlatans are up to no good. They are ravenous wolves looking to devour their prey.

As charlatans go about spreading their destructive heresies, they leave a trail of ruined faith and a wreckage of broken lives. The path of the religious impostors is strewn with disillusioned souls and misguided believers. Beguiled, bewitched, and brainwashed, many trustingly follow them into sensuality. Because of their carnage, the Way of Truth is maligned.

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.” (2 Peter 2:1-3).

So, how angry do you suppose God is with charlatans? Have you considered the intensity of the fury the Almighty God has reserved for religious impostors? On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is no repercussion and 10 is burning hot vengeance – where do you think the phony baloneys of the Church fall?

Now, it may be that you are one of those who assume there’s no price to pay for ascribing to God words He has not spoken. Perhaps you presume there aren’t any consequences for propagating destructive heresies. And it’s even possible that your mind, like the vast majority of those who call themselves Christians today, is swollen with the notion that God’s retribution isn’t coming to mockers and deceivers.

If any of the above describes where you stand, you are of all people most to be pitied. Those who think there’s really no big deal in making a false claim of “Thus saith the Lord,” when the Lord hasn’t actually said anything, need to think again. You need to have your mind re-examined if you are of the view that false prophecies and false teachings are simply another one of those things that happen simply as a result of our inadequacies as mere mortals.

If you study God’s Word long enough, you’ll quickly realize the folly in such an assumption. Anyone who pays careful attention to these things understand what’s coming the way of the peddlers of heresies. Even a cursory study of Scripture reveals a certain day of reckoning awaiting the purveyors of doctrines of demons.

There is no ambiguity in Scripture to the fact that giving false prophecy is as grievous as committing sexual degeneracy. The Bible is unequivocal regarding the fact that to teach and promote heresy is as sacrilegious as the sensual conduct of sexual perverts. God takes these things seriously.

When, in his Epistle, Apostle Peter addressed the plague of false prophets and false teachers about to come upon the Church and the attendant judgement that will befall all those who engage in false prophecies and false teachings, he reminded those to whom he wrote of three cataclysmic events that happened in human history.

1. Angels who took the daughters of men for wives (Genesis 6:1-4; Jude 1:6)

“If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment…” (2 Peter 2:4).

Those who secretly introduce heresy into the church will suffer a fate similar to that of the angels who sinned by engaging in unholy sexual intercourse with humans. Chain and gloomy darkness await anyone who leads the people of God astray.

2. Destruction of the world with flood (Genesis 6:9-9:17)

“If He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly…” (2 Peter 2:5).

Noah was a herald of righteousness. Like everyone who upholds the fidelity of God’s truth today, Noah was entrusted by God with making His purpose known to the ancient world and to warn them of an impending doom. If God did not spare those who rejected Noah’s warnings, how much less can He be expected to spare anyone who misleads His people today?

3. The debauchery and destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19)

“If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly…” (2 Peter 2:6).

In the Book of Ezekiel, we read: 

“Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.” (Ezekiel 16:49-50).

Just like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, false prophets and false teachers strut about with pride, gluttony, and lasciviousness. They are blasphemers who take advantage of the poor and make merchandise of the needy. 

The very fact that God did not spare the angels or the ancient world or Sodom and Gomorrah, should be a scary thought for all charlatans. There’s divine retribution coming. It’ll be swift, sudden, and totally unexpected.