{"id":1288,"date":"2011-09-09T10:33:28","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T10:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=1288"},"modified":"2011-09-09T10:33:28","modified_gmt":"2011-09-09T10:33:28","slug":"secretly-quietly-insidiously-plausibly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=1288","title":{"rendered":"Secretly, quietly, insidiously, plausibly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Secretly, quietly, insidiously, plausibly<\/strong><\/p>\n

(J. C. Ryle, \u201cPharisees and Sadducees\u201d)
\n\u201cWatch out for false prophets! They come to you in sheep\u2019s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves!\u201d\u00a0Matthew 7:15<\/p>\n

\u201cFor such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen,\u00a0masquerading<\/em> as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself\u00a0masquerades <\/em>as an angel of light!\u201d <\/em>2 Corinthians 11:13-14<\/p>\n

False doctrine does not meet us face to face, and proclaim that it is false. It does not blow a trumpet before it, and endeavor\u00a0openly <\/em>to turn us away from the truth as it is in Jesus. It does not come before us in broad day, and summon us to surrender. It approaches us\u00a0secretly, quietly, insidiously, plausibly<\/strong>, and in such a way as to disarm our suspicion, and throw us off our guard. It is the\u00a0wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing<\/em>, and\u00a0Satan in the garb of an angel of light<\/em>\u2014who have always proved the most dangerous foes of the church of Christ.<\/p>\n

Let us be on our guard against the \u201cinsidiousness\u201d of false doctrine. Like the fruit of which Eve and Adam ate\u2014at first sight it looks pleasant and good, and a thing to be desired. \u201cPoison\u201d is not written upon it, and so people are not afraid. Like counterfeit coin, it is not stamped \u201cbad.\u201d It passes for the real thing, because of the very likeness it bears to the truth.<\/p>\n

Let us be on our guard against the \u201cvery small beginnings\u201d of false doctrine. Every heresy began at one time, with some\u00a0little departure<\/em> from the truth. There is only \u201ca little seed of error\u201d needed to create \u201ca great tree of heresy!\u201d It is the\u00a0little stones,<\/em> which make up the mighty building. It was the\u00a0little pieces of lumber,<\/em> which made the great ark that carried Noah and his family over a deluged world. It is the\u00a0little leaven<\/em>, which infiltrated the whole lump. It is the\u00a0little flaw in one link of the chain cable,<\/em> which wrecks the gallant ship, and drowns the crew. It is the omission or addition of one little item in the doctor\u2019s prescription, which spoils the whole medicine, and turns it into poison!<\/p>\n

Let us never allow a little false doctrine to ruin us, by thinking it is \u201cbut a little one,\u201d and can do us no harm.<\/p>\n

There are three things which we never ought to trifle with:
\na little poison,
\na little sin, and
\na little false doctrine.<\/p>\n

Let us read the Bible regularly, daily, and with fervent prayer. Let us receive nothing, believe nothing, follow nothing\u2014which is not in the Bible. Let our rule of faith, our touchstone of all teaching\u2014be the written Word of God. \u201cTo the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.\u201d\u00a0Isaiah 8:20<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secretly, quietly, insidiously, plausibly (J. C. Ryle, \u201cPharisees and Sadducees\u201d) \u201cWatch out for false prophets! They come to you in sheep\u2019s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves!\u201d\u00a0Matthew 7:15 \u201cFor such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen,\u00a0masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself\u00a0masquerades as an angel of light!\u201d 2 Corinthians 11:13-14 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,38,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-j-c-ryle","category-the-law","category-false-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1289,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288\/revisions\/1289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}