'If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing...deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.' 2 Timothy 6

'Someone needs to say this plainly: The faith healers and health-and-wealth preachers who dominate religious television are shameless frauds. Their message is not the true gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing spiritual or miraculous about their on-stage chicanery. It is all a devious ruse designed to take advantage of desperate people. They are not godly ministers but greedy impostors who corrupt the Word of God for money's sake. They are not real pastors who shepherd the flock of God but hirelings whose only design is to fleece the sheep. Their love of money is glaringly obvious in what they say as well as how they live. They claim to possess great spiritual power, but in reality they are rank materialists and enemies of everything holy.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies...and in their greed they will exploit you with false words.'  2 Peter 2

There is no reason anyone should be deceived by this age-old con, and there is certainly no justification for treating the hucksters as if they were authentic ministers of the gospel. Religious charlatans who make merchandise of false promises have been around since the apostolic era. They pretend to be messengers of Christ, but they are interlopers and impostors. The apostles condemned them with the harshest possible language. Paul called them "men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain"  Peter called them false prophets with "heart[s] trained in greed" He warned that "in their greed they will exploit you with false words" - He exposed them as scoundrels and dismissed them as "stains and blemishes" on the church...'

and we should do the same.

edited from John MacArthur sermon -- A Colossal Fraud

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand wrote in Tortured For Christ (1967)

“...there are no nominal, halfhearted, lukewarm Christians in Russia or China. The price Christians pay is far too great.... Communist persecution has backfired and produced serious, dedicated Christians such as are rarely seen in free lands.” [free lands such as America]

"By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac... By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible....

"...the time would fail me to tell of ... David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions... out of weakness were made strong....

"Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy...." Hebrews 11:17-38

Berit Kjos writes; 'Don't expect the battles ahead to be easy. God trains His children through challenges that we can't possibly meet apart from His Word and His strength. Evil will continue to flourish, but God can use it for ultimate good. And as we trust and follow Him, He may even use us as witnesses who demonstrate His grace and strength among broken people who long for His peace.'

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross..." Hebrews 12:1-2

Prayerfully consider the words of this great man of faith:

"It is impossible to preach Christ, except thou preach against antichrist; that is to say, them which with their false doctrine and violence of sword enforce to quench the true doctrine of Christ."

"Christ is with us until the world’s end. Let His little flock be bold therefore. For if God be on our side, what matter maketh it who be against us, be they bishops, cardinals, popes, or whatsoever names they will?"

"Christ forbiddeth his disciples and that oft... to exalt themselves one above another in the kingdom of God."

William Tyndale  1494 - 1536

''The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers... But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, a and will pursue his enemies into darkness..." Nahum 1

For the past thirty years God has been raising up prophetic voices in America  calling this country to repentance. We have reacted in the same manner as the ancient Israelites. We have mocked the prophets by arrogantly reminding them that we are a "Christian nation." 

Jim Nelson Black author of When Nations Die  traces the history of civilizations, and catalogued the symptoms present in a culture in crisis.

Black writes: ''in the past 2,000 years, every empire -- even those that seemed invincible at the height of their glory -- collapsed into ruin. Every one of these empires had three factors in common before they fell: civil society devalued human life, forsook religious belief, and celebrated sexual immorality. These three factors took root in the United States in the early 1960s. And the seeds sown over 40 years ago have ripened into bitter fruit."

Our behavior as a nation makes a mockery of Christianity. We lead the world in abortion, alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling, divorce, child abuse, violent crime, pornography and child pornography. We have stiffened our necks in our rebellion against God refused to repent while continuing to proclaim we are "One Nation Under God."

"And the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God." Ezekiel 14

The current state of our nation is the fault of the Church, not the State. It is the believer, not the unbeliever, who has pushed America to the brink of destruction.

Indeed, "the natural man does not receive the things of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
But God..." Ephesians 2

We cannot expect dead men to do what is right.

"If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land."2 Chronicles 7:14

"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him." Nahum 1:11

"God has given us all an inner witness (Romans 1) and even the lost world knows something is coming – yet the truth has been so tainted in the eyes of unbelievers, how can they see God through the haze of churchianity?

Unbelievers are NOT our enemy – they are just the blind following the blind. They can’t hear God through all the noise of the world. They grapple for the truth and the truth escapes them. They call out to God in their distress and look for Him in all the wrong places. Yoga, New Age, the occult are more attractive to them than the Bible. The devil has succeeded in characterizing the Bible as repressive to their lives and the God of the Bible as the big Cosmic Killjoy. Humanism is all they have..." Jackie Alnor, apostasyalert.org

 - in the One Almighty God, who has revealed Himself through His Word as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, said,


"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6-7

If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me... out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." John 7:37-38

Jesus is the great teacher of 'humility of heart'. We need daily to learn of Him. See the Master taking a towel and washing His disciples feet! Follower of Christ--will you not humble yourself? See Him as the Servant of servants--and surely you cannot be proud! Is not this sentence the compendium of His biography, "He humbled Himself"? Was He not on earth, always stripping off first one robe of honor and then another--until, naked, He was fastened to the cross; and there did He not empty out His inmost self, pouring out His life-blood, giving up for all of us, until they laid Him penniless in a borrowed grave?

How low was our dear Redeemer brought! How then can we be proud?

Stand at the foot of the cross, and count the purple drops by which you have been cleansed. See His thorn-crown; mark His scourged shoulders, still gushing with crimsoned rills; see His hands and feet given up to the rough iron spikes, and His whole self to mockery and scorn; see the bitterness, and the pangs, and the throes of inward grief, showing themselves in His outward frame; hear the horrid cry,

"My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me!"

If you do not lie prostrate on the ground before that cross--you have never seen it! If you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus--you do not know Him. You were so lost that nothing could save you--but the sacrifice of God's only begotten Son. Think of that, and as Jesus stooped for you--bow yourself in humility at His feet.

A sense of Christ's amazing love to us--has a greater tendency to humble us, than even a consciousness of our own guilt. May the Lord bring us in contemplation, to Calvary. Then our position will no longer be that of pompous pride--but we shall take the humble place of one who loves much--because much has been forgiven him. Pride cannot live beneath the cross! Let us sit there and learn our lesson--and then rise and carry it into practice!

Charles H. Spurgeon

Carnal Christianity - sounded like an oxymoron to me - and knowing that The Word is, as it should be, our only authority I began my search.

The church of Corinth is commonly cited as proof that even Carnal Christians are saved and on their way to heaven. The primary passages in question are..

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 1 Corinthians 3:1-4

Is Paul talking carnal Christians here?  Ernest C Reisinger of PeaceMakers thinks not:

“A passage of Scripture must never be used as a foundation for a doctrine unless that passage is specifically dealing with that doctrine. Most certainly a non-doctrinal passage cannot be used to contradict a passage where that specific doctrine is the subject of discussion. 1 Corinthians 3 is not a doctrinal passage and by no stretch of the imagination can it be thought of as providing the foundation of the doctrine of sanctification. Yet this is exactly what the Carnal Christian advocates do with these verses. An examination of Romans 8, where security and sanctification are the subjects being dealt with, will show what happens to every person who is dominated by carnality…"

If you have one Scripture only on which to base an important doctrine or teaching you are most likely to find, on close examination, that you have none'. In short, all Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 is that, in some areas of their lives, Christians can and do sometimes act like the unconverted.

"But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that he will not hear". Isaiah 59:2

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord". Romans 6:23

Hmmm -- Carnal Christians believe that holiness which, although it might be both admirable and commendable, is not essential to salvation, and depends not on the commands of the Lord, but on the spiritual inclinations of the individual. They believe that they can have their cake and eat it too... living as they want in this world, then scrape through by the skin of their teeth. Although they will possibly lose some blessing in their present lives and certainly rewards in the kingdom to come, they will at least be there for all eternity.

Carnal Christianity implies a habitual state of carnality,  "however, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him….for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Romans 5:9, 13-14

As long as we are in our present bodies, sin will continue to be something we  battle daily. As Galatians 5:17 describes it.. "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit". Every Christian is carnal in some area of his life and his growth in Holiness is far from a smooth and easy ride. There are hills and plateaus, obstacles to be overcome and mountains to be scaled. However, through it all, the one thing that Christians do not do is deliberately and habitually sin. The Spirit has become the governing force in the born again Christian.

"Those who belong to Christ have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires." Galatians. 5:24

Lest anyone should think that being carnal is a place of safety- remember: 

The history of heresy shows that virtually all ‘other gospels’ have been based on Bible verses... twisted, manipulated and so wrenched from their context, that they can be made to prove almost anything the reader’s heart desires. And why worry about little details like the fact that all too often they flatly contradict other Biblical verses. salvation involves more than simply affirming in one’s mind that Jesus is LORD and Saviour. The modern day perversion of every aspect of the Gospel would lead us to believe a person is saved based solely on the fact that he has made a ‘decision’, walked an aisle, made a profession of faith, or asked Jesus to come into his heart.

Biblical salvation takes genuine repentance, which the Bible presents as being connected to salvation. Over and over again, the Bible divides men into two groups... the saved and the lost, the believer and the unbeliever, the sheep and the goats, the children of darkness and the children of light, etc. It is black and white, without even a suggestion of people having all the characteristics of people in the first group, yet all the benefits and blessings of those in the second.

Of which group are you?

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6

thanks to inplainsite for the treasure trove of information

"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth." 2 Timothy 3

“Be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel.” Colossians 1:23.

Satan summons all his hosts to push men back from the Cross that they may not come to Christ and live. The battle does not end when a man has come to Christ. It assumes a new form —  Do not think that in the moment when you believe in Christ the conflict is over, or you will be bitterly disappointed! It is then that the battle renews itself and every inch of the road swarms with enemies.

Between here and Heaven you will always have to fight, frequently the severest struggle will be at a time when you are least prepared for it.
There is but a short space between one battle and another in this world.

He that would win Heaven must fight for it! He that would take the new Jerusalem must scale it and if he has the wits to take Jacob’s ladder and set it against the wall and climb up that way, he will win the City.

“The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.”

edited from article by Pastor Charles H. Spurgeon

"...in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons...." 1 Timothy 4:1

"As the time of the manifestation of the Man of Sin draws near, God may be pleased to bestow a fuller and better understanding of those parts of His Word which make known "the things which must shortly come to pass."

Across the varied scenes depicted by prophecy there falls the shadow of a figure at once commanding and ominous. Under many different names like the aliases of a criminal, his character and movements are set before us --this Prince of Darkness, this coming Man of Sin, this Son of Perdition.

For six thousand years Satan has had full opportunity afforded him to study fallen human nature to discover its weakest points and learn how best to make men do his bidding. The Devil knows full well how to dazzle men by the attraction of power, and how to make them quail before its terrors. He knows how to gratify the craving for knowledge and how to satisfy the taste for refinement and culture, he can delight the ear with melodious music and the eye with entrancing beauty.

What God has been pleased to make known concerning the Antichrist and what will be revealed in the future is not in order to gratify carnal curiosity, but is of great importance for our daily lives. A proper apprehension of these things should cause us to seriously search our hearts, and examine carefully the foundation upon which our hopes are built, to discover whether or not they rest on the solid Rock Christ Jesus, or whether they stand upon nothing more stable than the shifting sands of human feelings, human resolutions, human efforts after self-improvement.

Incalculably serious is the issue at stake, and we cannot afford to be uncertain about it. A mere "hope I am saved" is not sufficient." A.W. Pink

"The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." 2 Thessalonians 2: 9-12