THE THIEF COMES TO STEAL, KILL & DESTROY (PART XXIV)

“Thieves and Robbers Running the Church”

By Akin Ojumu

A man who farts in confidence is a man who has lost his sense of smell. Judging by the unrestrained bombast with which modern-day preachers routinely release atomic bombs of erroneous teachings and destructive doctrines on their gullible audience, it’s pretty obvious they’ve lost their sense of spiritual discernment. The fact that they and their easily malleable customers don’t even perceive the odious stench of their poisonous teachings mean these people definitely believe in the high-sounding nonsense they preach and hear.

Defective gospel is a lethal spiritual contagion. This devastating pestilence is laying waste to the Body of Christ by compromising its immune system. Because of its imperiled and weakened immune system, the Church is unable to fight off the plague of false teachings.

Thieves and robbers, vendors of the broad road that leads to destruction, are running loose in the Church, uninhibited and unchallenged, ravaging the souls of men. As a result of the pandemic of virulent theologies and fatal doctrines blown into its airways and infused into its bloodstream by the mouthpieces for Satan, the Household of God on the African continent has turned into a vast feeding ground of cultic and heretical movements.

Matthew 7:15

“Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”

Today, the vendors of the broad road that leads to hell are the false prophets and false teachers of false religion running the various religious establishments out there. These stewards of Satan present themselves, and are seen by their followers, as shepherds of God’s flock. They deceive not by disguising themselves as sheep, but by impersonating the true shepherds. These are the thieves and robbers who kill, steal, and destroy, of whom the Lord Jesus spoke of in John 10:10.

John 10:7-10

“So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

The thieves and robbers of the modern-day Church are the ravenous wolves who conceal their true identity by cloaking themselves in the clothing of true shepherds. By so doing, they are able to lead the undiscerning unregenerate away from Christ who is the door of the sheep. They are false prophets and the false teachers who, by promoting and marketing the broad gate and the broad road, cause people to follow the path that leads to Hell. Pretending to have the best interest of the sheep at heart, they surreptitiously ruin their chances of ever spending eternity with God.

2 Peter 2:1

“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.”

By nature, the thieves and robbers lie as they breathe. They thrive on their obfuscation. Because of the cunning craftiness of their deceptive schemes, they masquerade as, and are indistinguishable from, the true shepherds of God’s flock. Even though what they teach blatantly contradicts the teachings of Christ, they are, nonetheless, successful in their duplicity because they garnish their erroneous theology with a sprinkle of truth.

2 Timothy 4:3-4

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

Having a good understanding of the fallen human nature and knowing exactly what the itching ears of the people want to hear, they meticulously package their spiritually toxic ponderous platitudes in such a way that appeals to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life of their eager consumers.

2 Corinthians 10:4-6

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”

The thieves and robbers of the modern-day Church have erected strongholds, i.e. fortresses, of error in the Church. These are ideological fortresses of heresy and blasphemy inside of which they hold their followers captive. Deadened to the truth and impervious to sound doctrine, the ideological fortresses of the thieves and robbers become their tombs. In turn, they entomb their followers in these fortresses of false religion carefully designed to resemble Biblical Christianity.

John 10:27-30

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

But thanks be to God, the sheep of God will never fall for prey to wolves. True followers of Christ will never be victims of thieves and robbers. The people of God are never captives of charlatans because they are able to discern the voice of frauds and impostors dressed up in shepherd’s attire. Because the Spirit of God living on the inside of the children of God teaches them all things, they are able to discern truth from error.

The sheep of Christ recognize His voice, and they will never follow a stranger. Bonafide citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel will always flee from thieves and robbers irrespective of how eloquent they may sound or what powerful display of anointing they put on.

Colossians 2:8

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

In Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colossae, he admonished them not to allow the false teachers who had infiltrated their midst to take them captive by the high-sounding nonsense they were propagating. By that he meant that they should not let themselves be victims of thieves and robbers poised and ready to cheat, rob, defraud, and devour them.

False teachers who are successful in getting people to believe lies, rob them of truth, salvation, and blessing. philosophy and empty deceit. The word “philosophy” (literally. “love of wisdom”) described any theory about God, the world, or the meaning of life. Those embracing the Colossian heresy used it to describe the supposed higher knowledge they claimed to have attained. Paul, however, equates the false teachers’ philosophy with “empty deceit,” that is, with worthless deception (Source: The MacArthur Bible Commentary).

To all those who are currently entombed in the fortress of doctrinal and theological error, be like the Colossian Christians. Do not let anyone rob you of your eternal destiny by empty deceits and worthless deception. Be diligent to compare what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God.

For all those who remain entombed in the fortress of theological and doctrinal error, I pray that the Almighty God will break the chain and set you free. May God, in His infinite mercies, open your eyes to the truth. I pray that He will give you the courage to make a detour and walk away from all the thieves and robbers who are leading you on the broad road that leads to destruction.

SELAH!