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Title: Should Christians Be Hospitable to Cult Members?
Source:
Grace to You
URL Source: http://www.gty.org/resources/bible- ... ble-to-cult-members?Term=cults
Published: Mar 11, 2015
Author: John MacArthur
Post Date: 2015-03-11 16:41:49 by redleghunter
Keywords: None
Views: 40415
Comments: 144
In verse 10 John sets out one practical application of how to defend the truth: If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house. Hospitality for traveling teachers was common in the culture (cf. Luke 9:1-6; 10:1-12). The prohibition here is not to turn away the ignorant; it does not mean that believers may not invite unbelievers—even those who belong to a cult or false religion—into their midst. That would make giving the truth to them difficult, if not impossible. The point is that believers are not to welcome and provide care for traveling false teachers, who seek to stay in their homes, thereby giving the appearance of affirming what they teach and lending them credibility John’s use of the conjunction ei (if) with an indicative verb indicates a condition that is likely true. Apparently, the lady to whom he wrote had for whatever reason, in the name of Christian fellowship, already welcomed false teachers into her home. It was just such compassionate, well-meaning people that the false teachers sought out (cf. 2 Tim. 3:6); since churches were supposed to be protected by elders who were skilled teachers of the Word (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:9), they should have been less susceptible to the lies propagated by the deceivers. Having established themselves in homes, the false teachers hoped eventually to worm their way into the churches. It is much the same today, as false teaching insidiously invades Christian homes through television, radio, the Internet, and literature. So threatening are these emissaries of Satan that Jo[h]n went on to forbid even giving them a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Irenaeus relates that the church father Polycarp, when asked by the notorious heretic Marcion, “Do you know me?” replied, “I do know you—the firstborn of Satan” (Against Heresies, 3.3.4). John himself once encountered Cerinthus (another notorious heretic) in a public bathhouse in Ephesus. Instead of greeting him, however, John turned and fled, exclaiming to those with him, “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.3.4).
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 84.
#2. To: redleghunter (#0)
The Amish and Mennonites never knock on my door.
What about Quakers or Hare Krishna? Who is a cult?
What is your religion? That would be a cult. Any religion that denies christ is a cult.
I'm Roman Catholic. So what is your religion?
Catholics pray to Mary. That is forbidden. They call the pope holy father. The Bible says not to do that. The Catholics took one of the commandments and threw it in trash. Then split another into two parts. There are Catholics that are saved. But it has a cult element to it.
It is also forbidden to pray out loud while making a spectacle of yourself in public. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. -- Mathew 6:6 PRAISE THE LORD PRAISE THE LORD, HALLELUJAH -- sinful...
Does that include prayer in church? Or just private prayer?
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. -- Mathhew 6:5 It's pretty clear to me...
Question: "If Jesus condemned the Pharisees for praying out loud, should we pray aloud?" Answer: There are several references in the New Testament to public prayers that are unacceptable, and it is true that Jesus condemned the Pharisees’ manner of praying. But Jesus Himself prayed out loud on occasion (see John 17), as did the apostles (Acts 8:15; 16:25; 20:36). Acts 1:14 says, "They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers." Then in verse 24, the apostles prayed together to choose someone to fill Judas' spot among the twelve. They were clearly praying together and out loud. So, the sin was not in the public nature of the prayer or the fact that people could hear it. In Luke 18:10-14, Jesus gives this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people— robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Notice that the tax collector also prayed aloud, but his prayer was from a humble heart, and God accepted it. The sin of the Pharisees was not public prayer but a haughty spirit. Later, Jesus says, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation" (Luke 20:46-47). Here the sin is not the audible nature of the prayer but its pretentiousness. Jesus condemns the hypocrisy of pretending to have a relationship with God while oppressing the very people He loves. Then in Matthew 6:5, Jesus says, "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." Again, Jesus is not condemning the fact that people prayed aloud, but that they were putting on a public display for their own benefit. Their motive—to be seen of men—was the problem. Such prayer is not real prayer, but empty words meant for the ears of other people (Hebrews 10:22). Proverbs 15:29 says, "The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous." In Ephesians 5:20, Paul instructs the church to "give thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Communal prayer is one way a local church worships God and encourages one another. What Jesus condemns is arrogance and hypocrisy. For someone who is clearly disobedient to God to lead a public prayer as though he or she had much to brag about is the kind of hypocrisy that Jesus denounced. To use public prayer as a means of showing off or impressing others is wrong. But sincere prayer from a humble heart is always welcomed by God and can be an encouragement to those who hear it (Psalm 51:17). Read more: www.gotquestions.org/pray...t- loud.html#ixzz3U7fPa3lI
As Jesus clearly stated in Mathhew 6, people who pray in public are mostly showing off to impress others. Sincere prayer comes from deep private and personal reflection that leads to repentance. Screaming PRAISE THE LORD in a room full people at a mega-church with a slicked back preacher and a rock band is a modern version of the hypocrits that Jesus condemned.
Sincere prayer comes from deep private and personal reflection that leads to repentance. Here is an example of Jesus praying out loud. So you are wrong. These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. 6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. 26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Here is an example of Jesus praying out loud. So you are wrong.... 26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Good example.... And recall how Jesus taught the people how to pray to the Father....at His Sermon on the Mount? IN PUBLIC!! That Jesus -- wadda show-off!!
Jesus got off on a technicality, having specifically warned them against rote recitations (like Our Fathers and Hail Marys to give an example that conveniently comes to mind). Very lawyerly instructions on how to pray. And despite His warnings against rote prayer, hundreds of millions of Christians use that specific prayer as a rote recital prayer, unaware of the irony.
Very lawyerly instructions on how to pray. Chyeah -- like HE wuz soooo special?? Well, it's not as though Jesus instructed repetition in the 'Our Father.' (Unless of course as part of penance in the Confessional thru Father Flanagan.) As to a 'Hail Mary,' "Go looong! I'll hit you with a bomb, Homes!" Yes, "lawyerly," but The Mount was as public as can be (Jesus: "Is this mike on??") I'll provide other accounts: Mealtime Grace; Leading two or more in prayer. We discern between that and a peanut vendor at Yankee Stadium.
Let's look at the source in Matthew 6 (KJV): 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. Jesus instructs to pray in secret (not in groups reciting prayers) and to avoid rote prayers altogether. Modern Christians of almost every flavor disregard these clear commands from their Savior at least once a year and flaunt their defiance of Jesus in unity. Some of them wear Christian jewelry or T-shirts while doing it, also contrary to Christ's command on such public displays of self-righteous holiness in apparel.
#89. To: TooConservative (#84)
What chapter and verse are you referencing in your statement about the Bible and apparel. I have no problem with wearing such T-Shirts as you mentioned. It is time that more people talk more about Christ.
Actually, Jesus instructed the specific people listening to him in a specific time and place, and culture, and circumstance - and he knew each of those people. We read it, and can learn from it, but if we read Jesus saying "DO THIS" to a certain set of specific people whom he knew directly, in that time and place, as being explicit directions for what we are to exactly do, in this time and place, we err. Jesus is at his most general at the end of Revelation, on the last two pages, when he says who will be thrown into the fire at judgment. THAT we can take as direct warnings that will affect us directly. But specifics about the Jewish law, delivered to Jews in a Jewish Israel with Judaism organized in a way that was very much like the Catholic Church of the middle ages, and very much not like any religious organization or any other institution with which we're familiar today...well...if we read Jesus saying "YOU" to Shecki ben Youssuf as being an explicit directive to Brian O'Shaughnessy...then we're not reading it right. If there is a lawbook in the New Testament, it's Revelation. And what Jesus says in there is really quite offensive to all of the major Christian sects, which is why they don't read it or base anything on it...except for the ones who trip out on the wild imagery but ignore the most important message of Revelation, taken as dictation from Jesus in the Throne Room of God AFTER Peter and Paul and the other Apostles are dead: He's going to judge men by their deeds. DEEDS. Not thoughts. Not beliefs. Not "faith". DEEDS. Men are judged, by God, by what they DO. Jesus Christ said that from the Throne room of heaven after Paul was long dead. He said it as DICTATION, not as some vaguely remembered speech. And he made the point of having the LAST WORD, so it's a CORRECTIVE to all of the other "maybes" that come before it. Maybe...,..., BUT ACTUALLY you are judged by your DEEDS, not by your faith. Who said? Jesus, from the Throne Room of Heaven. This is why nobody likes Revelation. Because it puts the kebosh on two millennia of traditional AND evangelical nonsense. There's a new law, for the world, a New Deal, a New Covenant. It's not AS HARD as the traditionalists make it, it's a lot HARDER than the spiritualists make it. There's a list of things that will get you damned - and notably, murder and sexual immorality are on the list. So's lying. And there's a standard of judgment: what you did in your life. Jesus gave the world a plate of spinach. Most Christians are babies who hurl it across the room and go back to their pacifier, of what they WANT to believe. For some, that's what he said to Shecki. For others, it's what Paul said to some Greeks. For people who can read and reason, it's what GOD said from the Throne Room of Heaven at the end of the Bible, after everybody else had their say. I've not very much fun in Bible bashes, because I always skip to the end of the book and answer the question - Yeah, St. Porfirio said that, but JESUS, at the END, DICTATED this from the Throne Room of heaven, so THIS is the FINAL ANSWER. Which it is. Which is why cranko's idea of a Bible study that starts with Revelation is excellent.
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So who are you calling a cult?
Mormons?
Scientologists?
Branch Davidians?
Jehovah Witnesses?
Amish or Mennonites?
#3. To: Willie Green (#2)
Amish or Mennonites?
#4. To: redleghunter (#3)
(Edited)
The Amish and Mennonites never knock on my door.
Christian Scientists, Salvation Army, Rosicrucians, Unitarians or Wiccans?
#11. To: Willie Green (#4)
(Edited)
Who is a cult?
#14. To: A K A Stone (#11)
(Edited)
What is your religion? That would be a cult. Any religion that denies christ is a cult.
We usually capitalize the "c" in Christ, to indicate that we recognize that He is the Lord our God & Savior.
If I'm not mistaken, that is common practice in protestant denominations also.
Is it a cult?
#16. To: Willie Green (#14)
#21. To: A K A Stone (#16)
Catholics pray to Mary. That is forbidden.
#22. To: cranko (#21)
But thou, when thou prayest
#23. To: A K A Stone (#22)
Does that include prayer in church? Or just private prayer?
#24. To: cranko (#23)
#27. To: A K A Stone (#24)
(Edited)
To use public prayer as a means of showing off or impressing others is wrong.
#30. To: cranko (#27)
As Jesus clearly stated in Mathhew 6, people who pray in public are mostly showing off to impress others.
#69. To: A K A Stone, cranko (#30)
#73. To: Liberator (#69)
And recall how Jesus taught the people how to pray to the Father....at His Sermon on the Mount? IN PUBLIC!!
#78. To: TooConservative, releghunter, CZ82 (#73)
Jesus got off on a technicality, having specifically warned them against rote recitations (like Our Fathers and Hail Marys to give an example that conveniently comes to mind).
#84. To: Liberator, Vicomte13 (#78)
Yes, "lawyerly," but The Mount was as public as can be (Jesus: "Is this mike on??")
Replies to Comment # 84.
#124. To: TooConservative (#84)
(Edited)
Jesus instructs to...
End Trace Mode for Comment # 84.
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