Beware Of The Big Bad Wolf

Many people have read Jesus words at Matthew 7:15 which say “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” But how many people have truly experienced Jesus words quoted here? I can honestly say having been one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I experienced them.

Jesus warns us that these wolves are disguised as his sheep. They claim to represent him and may use his words to give you a false sense of security. They do not fully reveal themselves until they have you very deeply in their snares and then it is almost impossible to break free without some damage being done. For many people that have been ensnared by these wolves, the damage has been devastating, literally destroying their faith in God.

Jesus warns us about them because they falsely claim to represent him but are really part of the many cults of Christianity that came before them and since them. And, they preach a false God and a false truth. Their aim is to alienate you from Christ and his love and enslave you to their organization. Once you are deeply enslaved, broken down spiritually and believing in their lies that there is nowhere else to turn, and then you lose faith in them, well, then you may lose your faith in God completely. Because you may have believed the lie that their God was THE God and that you just couldn’t measure up to his standards. Spiritually at this point, this ravenous wolf has eaten you alive.

Has this happened to you? Like I said it happened to me. In my case though, the wolf was not able to devour me completely, though a lot of damage had been done. But by God’s Grace, his divine Son Jesus had already stepped in to take my hand and lead me to him. But this is not always the case and sadly, I am confronted daily by those who have lost complete faith in God and blame him for allowing the wolf to attack them.

But truth be told, it was not really God that was the blame in my case, and probably not in your case either. Sometimes, we cannot help but be attacked by these wolves, but most of the time, if we heed Jesus warning in Matthew 7; we can avoid any attack in the first place. Knowing that they will be in disguise, and are not really sent by Christ, we need to be on our guard against them.

Now, in my situation, all my life I claimed to be a Christian but yet, I did not fully understand Christian doctrine. Because of this, my defenses were down and I was an easy target. The Watchtowers’ wolves thus were easily able to convince me to believe in a False God, and a False Christ.  I did not read the bible enough to heed its warnings to “make sure of all things”, and “test everything”, If I had done this while studying with the Witnesses, I would have seen the lies and errors right off.  Perhaps some of you have a similar experience?

Besides testing all things and being sure our foundation is secure on the Rock, which is the Christ, God’s word clearly tells us how to identify the wolves in sheep’s clothing in Matthew 7:16, the Lord says “by their fruits you will recognize them. “Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles”?  Of course, this fruit is in reference to the fruit of the spirit mentioned in Galatians chapter 5. You simply cannot bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, long suffering, faith, patience, kindness and all these other “fruits” without God’s Holy Spirit.  To receive this Holy Spirit and bear the fruits of it, we MUST first be attached to the proper vine the fruits “grow” on which is none other than Christ himself.  

Sadly, we know Jehovah’s witnesses are not attached to the true vine nor bearing good fruit since they do not know nor accept the real Jesus. The real Jesus is God in the flesh, our reigning king, Lord of all things in heaven and earth. The head of the Church, all authority has been given to him. But the Jehovah’s Witness Jesus is Michael the Archangel, a lesser god, someone they give “lip service” to only but neither really lives in their minds nor their hearts.

The “fruit” of the Jehovah’s Witnesses are false teachings, being puffed up with pride by claiming that only THEY represent God, as well as strife (child molesters in their kingdom halls), no love for their members because they spiritually abuse, use and then toss people out of their organization if they dare question any of the Watchtower’s teachings. Due to the insidious nature of the Watchtower Organization, we need to heed Jesus warning and so we can beware of the Big Bad Wolf!

Scriptures for review; John1:1, 1Thessalonians 5:21, Matthew 16:18, 28:18, Galatians5:19-26,1John4:1

  

A Lesson Learned About the identity of the "True Church"

The reason I got involved with the Jehovah’s Witnesses is that I had been on a quest most of my life to find God’s True Church. The one that Jesus and his Apostles started back in the first century. I had longed to be part of this church since I was a young child. This quest took me into many different churches. But, I never felt they were the right one, or right for me. I would be either confused or disturbed by the things they were teaching, and that would eventually send me out the door and into another church.

For instance, most of my family is Roman Catholic. And I remember my Italian grandmother praying to several saints. Each saint had a specific function. There was a saint to ward off Satan, a Saint to heal your sick pet, another one to pray to sell your home. The list went on and on. I couldn’t wrap my head around all this praying to different saints even as a child. Instinctively, all I really wanted was to go directly to my heavenly father in prayer. I mean, why does God need all the middle men?

Since I was confused by my Roman Catholic Heritage; I decided to try other churches that my school friends attended.  One of the first other churches I went to was a Pentecostal church. This church is not for the faint of heart that is for sure. You know, they speak in tongues there? And let me tell you that can be really scary for a young child. Next, I tried the Baptist church, but that was even scarier with its “damnation to a fiery hell” sermons about every Sunday. After making my way through most of the Christian denominations, I am not ashamed to admit, I even read a pamphlet on the Hare Kristina’s. But, this religion's depiction of a blue, fairy like God reminded me too much of Aladdin. One of my favorite movies, but not a God I could really worship.

As I was saying, deep down I always knew there had to be one true church. The trouble was finding out where it was. The initial draw for me on getting involved with the Jehovah witnesses is they claimed they were the True church of the first century. And that they could teach me the pure simple Christianity of Jesus Day. Well, I just about thought I hit pay dirt!

Of course, I eventually and very painfully I might add, found that there was nothing “simple” about their brand of “simple” Christianity. That is because they imposed on their followers almost as many rules and regulations as the Mosaic Law did on the Jewish Nation. They had rules about holidays, blood transfusions, friendly associations, types of entertainment, saluting the flag, how you should dress at meetings, no beards for men, 5 meetings a week, 10 hours of field service per month (that was the national average) , and well if you’ve been there like me, then you know the rest. Again, there was nothing “simple” about it and their version of Christianity was certainly NOT like what Jesus started back in his day.

After leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses I decided to give up on my exhausting search for the true church and after much reflection on it, I decided to take an entirely different route instead. What was that? Well, I will tell you. It occurred to me that I had been going about the search all wrong. Instead of relying on myself to find it, I put it in Jesus hands to lead me to it. After all, it is HIS church I was looking for.

This is when I had one of the greatest spiritual awakenings of my life. After nearly 25 years of searching for the “true” church, which I thought was a correct building or denomination, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that it was literally right under my own nose all along! That is because I AM the church. And not only me, but all believers baptized by Holy Spirit make up the Church, which Christ likens to “his body”. He is the head of his body of believers and WE are all his body members.  (Ephesians 1:22-23)

We are part of a living, breathing entity, the temple of the living God, were the Spirit of God dwells in us. This is the TRUE Church of Christ.  And no particular creed or denominational view is necessary. When believers are gathered together, in Jesus name, he is among us. In actually, Jesus has NEVER left his church. This church was started at the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out onto believers, and continues on through the centuries, still alive and growing. (Acts 2:1-3, 16:5) Thanks be to God, that by his Grace, HE has finally made ME part of His True Church. 

Peace to all.

Scriptures for thought; 1Corinthians12:13, Matthew 18:20