Fixing Christianity one dose at a time. Que the intro.
Welcome to Christian Capsules number three. I'm your host, Jermaine Ferrell. You can always contact us at Christian capsules@gmail.com. You can always subscribe to Premier Content over at our Patreon Christian capsules, and then you can always go to our website too. Christian capsules.buzz sprout.com. And all scripture is read from the NASB, the 1995 edition unless otherwise noted.
Today we're talking about false prophets and why they are extremely harmful to the church. I'm going to start it off by reading a verse out of Matthew. This comes from Matthew chapter 7, verse 15. It says, Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly. Our Ravening Wolves.
Okay, I'm gonna start this capsule off with a soundbite from a pastor Rebecca Peters from the Presbyterian Church, USA. Let's hear what she has to say. I love the story of Eve in the Garden. My second child is named E. When we look at it with fresh eyes, it's quite a remarkable story. Have you ever noticed that God lied to Adam and e.
While the serpent plays the role of the foil here He's meant to set Eve up For her role as the bringer of wisdom and moral agency to the human community The setup for this action that she takes is that God lied to her God told the first couple you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden nor shall You touch it or you will die and the serpent reveals the truth.
You won't die Yeah, this pastor is extremely dangerous. One of the most dangerous ones today. There are so many problems with this, I don't even know where to begin. She clearly begins like a sheep. Just baiting us with how much she loves the story of Eve, and she names her child Eve, and, you know, we're tempted at that point to drop our guard.
To kind of lean in and say, okay, what's coming next? This is pretty good. We like Eve. Everybody likes Eve Let's get into it. So she baits us with this You know kind of lulling us to sleep with the love of Eve and here begins problem number one Excuse me, so she says that fresh eyes make this story remarkable.
Well, let's cut that in half for a minute I'm confused. When did the interpretation of the Eve story need a new set of fresh eyes? All right, like when did we need a new interpretation of scripture? I mean what was wrong with the past? 2, 000 years of interpretations thus far. I mean she's in essence saying that God Just let 2, 000 years go by Without us even understanding the proper interpretation of scripture.
That already should send some sort of red flag. Next, she's talking about a remarkable story. I mean she's suggesting that only with a new look on the story does it yield something remarkable. Only with fresh eyes can we glean something remarkable from the story. The Bible, in which includes Adam and Eve's both story, is already remarkable, and it doesn't even need to be re-envisioned.
And I mean, God has already set the story in place. I mean, this is a major trick, and our ears should start to perk up at this point when we hear something like this. The next part comes from where she says, God lied. I mean, what are we talking about? You know, that's just straight-up blasphemy. I don't even know what more to say than just that.
This is blasphemy, folks. That's red flags all over the place. Flag on the play, stop the clock, that's a problem. I mean, at that point, everyone who's in the church audience, they just got up and walked out. But they didn't. Moreover, she's also saying that Satan is playing a part in setting up Eve to be her own moral compass.
I mean, what? Eve becoming a moral compass with wisdom from God? But the last part of this clip is, it's, the last part of this clip is where she says as Satan reveals the truth, that Eve will not die. If she eats of the tree again it suggests that God lied about that Now it's important to state that Adam and Eve up to this point were eternity-based creations.
They were going to live forever. There was no death. No sin had entered the world You know, but according to Peter's Satan has had the truth all along apparently and that Eve when I die, she disobeys God You know, so Satan In this instance, he's suggesting equals truth. You know, and I don't know if you guys see this or not, but this is extremely backward.
I mean, how twisted the scriptures have become in just a 39-second clip. I mean, it's bad enough that the church audience heard this. But it's worsened by the fact that it's now on YouTube, so the whole world can hear. I mean, the last time I checked, Ab and Eve were not alive today. So, I mean I bet Abel wishes that Adam and Eve were still alive and that death wasn't a reality.
But the fact is, Satan is wrong. They did die when they ate of the fruit. They didn't die that second, but eventually, they did die. Our next verse comes from, um, Matthew 24, 11. It says, Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Now I'm going to play you guys the next clip of what she's talking about.
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil. And here we get to the real heart of the story. The verse in which Eve acts on behalf of all humanity. In fact, the moment at which Eve not only exercises her own moral agency, but she chooses that very trait that defines our humanity.
That knowledge makes us moral creatures. Our ability to know good and evil. You can see already how much that the truth is sprinkled in. So that the twisting of the truth is more, um, digestible. Eve did make a choice. Unfortunately, it was based on selfishness, and lack of trust, and lack of faith in God's word.
I mean, Eve felt God was withholding something back from her, and that she had to have it. Eve was only looking out for herself. While God, on the other hand, was looking out for both Adam and Eve. Peter goes on to say in a clip that Eve is now humanity's moral compass and that she knows good and evil. And this is supposed to be based off the wisdom that she gained from eating the fruit.
But I thought that the Lord was supposed to be our guide and that the Word was our moral compass. But according to Peter, God lied. But that ain't even the best part. You gotta listen to this, to this clip.
When we say that we need to trust women to make the critically important decision about whether to continue a pregnancy, it is rooted in a reinterpreted understanding of the story of the Garden of Eden. Okay, it is here that Peters outlines her true intention for reinterpreting scripture. I mean, she unveils it right here.
Peters wants us to know that, uh, we can trust her. All women to know more than God, because hey, God's a liar, right? And women can make their own choice on whether or not to abort babies in the womb. I mean, this was all an effort to promote the killing of babies. Do you see why this is so very dangerous?
At the very least, this is heretical, unscriptural, it's poison. I mean, it's designed to push a satanic agenda. And it's the very definition of wolves and sheep clothing I'm going to read to you guys a verse from Second Peter Chapter 2 verse 1 Again, this is from the NASB 95 edition um, it says But false prophets also arose among the people Just as there will also be false teachers among you Who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who brought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
First verse two. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of the truth will be magnified. And we all know that magnified means to speak evil of. So what do we do? What do we do? In order to prevent us from being deceived. I mean, the Bible warns that this is a thing that we need to be on the lookout for.
Jesus devotes a lot of time to talking about false prophets. First John chapter 4 verse 1 says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So John says to test the spirits, right? How do we do that? How do we test spirits?
Well, Acts 17, 11 give us a clear picture of how to do that. I'm going to read the verse real quick. It says, Now these were more noble-minded than those of Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. And the picture, the context behind this was this.
Paul and Silas were preaching in Berea. And the Bereans, uh, once they heard Paul's and Silas' teachings, they went home and examined the scriptures to see what Paul and Silas told them was true. I mean, this is huge. This doesn't take place anywhere near enough in our society today, especially with American Christians.
Our mission after hearing the sermon. Should be a prayer to the Lord and a follow-up with studying on our own, reflecting upon something you just heard. The Bible has warned us in numerous passages about false prophets and false teachers. We would do well to hear the warning. This concludes another capsule and until next time.
I'm out.