Deceiving & being deceived?

Does that describe any of us, here on FiveDoves?

 

I may believe something different from another Christian, here.

I may even write a letter, here, where I present what I believe.

I may also respond to a letter that another Christian has written here, where I disagree with that person.

 

Take for instance the different beliefs about the blessed hope.

Some of us here believe that it will be pre-trib, some mid-trib, some pre-wrath, and some post-trib.

We cannot all be right.

Either one is correct and the others incorrect, or else all are wrong, is that so?

Everyone of is convinced that what we personally believe is correct.

What if we are the ones that are not correct?

 

If I teach pre-trib & study about the same from others, and then if that is not correct, then do I not have two problems?

“deceiving, and being deceived”

 

II Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

 

Well someone could say, “But, Gino, we simply don’t agree about the timing of the blessed hope, that’s all”.

The teaching of the blessed hope is doctrine, and the timing of the blessed hope is also doctrine.

Does doctrine matter?

I would agree that this is not a matter of salvation.

A born again Christian can believe any of the four previously mentioned teachings, it does not disqualify him from salvation.

 

However, it is still doctrine.

If my doctrine is not correct, and I’m teaching it to others, then am I teaching false doctrine?

The word doctrine is used 16 times in the Pastoral epistles of I & II Timothy & Titus (once used plural).

Doctrine does matter, even though so many churches today are saying differently.

They say, “As long as we all love Jesus, what we believe doesn’t matter, we can all get along and worship together.”

However:

 

Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

 

Am I 100% convinced that my particular blessed hope doctrine is correct, and the others are clearly wrong?

Or, do I have too much pride to ever even consider that I may not be correct on some doctrine, like that?

If I’m not correct, and therefore teaching false doctrine, will Jesus say to me, “Well done”?

 

In my case, I’m convinced that I do believe the correct doctrine about this.

I’ve seen clearly in the scriptures what I believe.

I do not wrest the scriptures, or lie about them.

I strive to remain in context, and I do not apply the penknife to cut away what I do not like.

Yet, there are those who believe differently, and have been equally taught of the scriptures, and they also do not wrest the scriptures.

How can that be?

We want  it so badly to be a clear yes/no, this/that, with one & only one clearly seen as true from the scriptures, and the others shown as false.

However, that is not the case.

 

For centuries, different men have realized that the scriptures clearly show unconditional election, and simultaneously also show the freewill of man.

The same is true about the blessed hope.

The scriptures do not only show one, and clearly disprove the others.

If we take the time to study it out, all four of those blessed hope doctrines are easily shown from the scriptures.

Does that mean that they are all correct?

No, it means that it is hidden in plain sight!

 

A similar thing happened when Jesus was on earth.

The Jews had the scriptures & saw all the signs, yet look how many missed it.

The princes of this world would not have crucified him, had they known that it was the Lord of glory.

 

I Corinthians 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

 

A similar thing happens at the very end of the tribulation:

 

Revelation 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

 

Lines 14 & 16 show that it is at the very, very end, at the battle of Armageddon, itself.

Yet, even then, after all that has happened during the tribulation,

             and even with all those armies of the kings of the earth gathered at Armageddon,

             Jesus still says in line 15, “Behold, I come as a thief”.

It looks like everyone, including the devil is caught off guard by this, even though it had been there in plain sight for 2,000 years!

It’s not like, “Program, here! Program, here! Can’t see the tribulation without a program!”

It’s not like everyone has a clearly marked up Larkin chart, marking off the days & the signs in the tribulation, as they are happening.

It’s like even at the very end, they don’t even realize that they are in the tribulation.

They don’t realize that Jesus is about to suddenly show up, and to wipe out their armies.

Even those blessed ones that are watching, according to line 15, are also caught surprised, yet hopefully keeping their garments.

 

The same happens with the blessed hope.

It is all there in plain sight, yet because so many of us see so many different things, it is because it is still hid.

It is hid from us in plain sight, and will remain so until it happens.

This is because Jesus said,

 

Matthew 24:36 ¶ But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

 

Matthew 25:13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

 

The LORD has hid this from us, on purpose, for good reason that he himself knows.

Some have said, “Since Jesus didn’t use the words month or year, that we can know them”.

No, I do not think this is a matter of semantics, but of something that Jesus is hiding from us in plain sight.

 

Going back to what I said above: what I said there cannot be so.

If Jesus is keeping this from us, then none of us know.

Therefore we are not having one teach sound doctrine, and the others false doctrine.

No, none of us know this for sure.

All of it is there, each possibility looks to be sound teaching, and yet none of it is there, because we cannot really see it.

It is hid to us.

It is hid in plain sight.

 

Although we love to read it, to study it, to teach it, and even to debate it, none of us are correct, and none of us are incorrect.

We all simply do not know, and we cannot know, because he said so!

 

                                       Thank you,

                                                    Gino