The Lord Jesus Christ said that many would be lost and few would be saved (Matthew 7:13-14). Immediately after this in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave a reason for why many would be lost in His warning about false teachers. “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). False teachers have an exterior that seems harmless, but on the inside they have cruel and selfish intentions. Often the response to religious error being taught today in effect is, “Well, I’m sure he’s sincere in what he believes, so while I don’t see it the same way as him, I’m not going to get too riled about what he is teaching.” Now, there are people who sincerely teach error believing it to be true. Their sincerity alone will not save them, but they are sincere. However, what seems to be missing many times today is the acknowledgement that there are many false teachers who have sinister motives. As much as we have been told that these people who teach something different than the truth of the Gospel do it in sincerity, when we open God’s word we find warnings about wolves in sheep’s clothing. Is it really the case that there are hardly any wolves today, just misguided sheep? Or have we been duped by their sheepish exterior?

Paul exhorted the elders of the Ephesian church to be on guard against grievous wolves who would enter in among them, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29). He wrote to the church at Corinth about those teachers who seemed so attractive according to fleshly standards, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). To the church at Rome, he instructed to mark and avoid such teachers who cause divisions and offenses contrary to true doctrine (Romans 16:17). Why? Was it because they were sincerely deceived. No. “For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:18). Peter warned the Christians dispersed throughout Asia Minor, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1). These would not be sincere teachers, but sinful men who would act holy so they could entice followers to give them all the money that their greedy hearts desired (2 Peter 2:3, 12-16). There has always been a market for teachers to be paid well to tell people what they want to hear instead of the uncomfortable truth (Numbers 22-24; 1 Kings 18:19: Isaiah 30:10; Jeremiah 5:31; 2 Timothy 4:3). Jude encouraged Christians to earnestly contend for the once-and-for-all delivered faith (Jude 3). Why? “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 4). John warned us that “many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
Remember the majority of people will be lost. False teachers are out there who will uphold false teaching because it is popular. If they taught the truth they would not have the numbers that would give the them worldly affections for which their hearts lust. Jesus taught truth even when it caused droves of people to leave (John 6:66-68). Listen to the warnings of the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). The Lord Jesus Christ says there are wolves out there in sheep’s clothing. Are we on guard?

-Mark Day

On the fourth day of the creation week God made the sun, moon and stars.  “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also” Genesis 1:14-16.  Rather than being gods themselves, which the nations surrounding Israel often worshiped, the sun and moon are creations of the true God.  He placed them as “lights” to mark seasons, days, and years.

Today we are still marking and adjusting our time to earth’s position in respect to these lights God placed in the heavens.  A full rotation of the earth with respect to the sun marks one day, and a full orbit of the earth around the sun one year.  Monday there will be a total solar eclipse, where the moon will pass between the sun and the earth. This solar eclipse will be visible along a path of totality that stretches in a 70-mile-wide swath across the central part of the continental United States.  Astronomers are able to determine when such spectacular events like this take place in the heavens because there is consistency in the motion of the earth and our moon as they revolve around the sun.  While the placement of the stars in heaven does not determine our destiny, it does remind us of Him who created us.  This uniform behavior of the heavenly hosts is an earmark of the great design of our universe. Imagine if we lived in a world where we did not know if we would see the sun the next day, or we could not predict the tides.  Imagine if we had no idea whether or not our planet would suddenly veer off course and collide with another planet.  There is order in the universe.  Order requires an orderer.  God created the world and fashioned it. It went from being without form, void, and dark (Genesis 1:2), to having a set formation, teeming with life, and lit by the lights of heaven (Genesis 1:3-31).  How true are the words of David in Psalm 19:1-4:

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.  Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.  There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.  Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.  His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

Some are critical of the Bible, pointing out how it speaks of God making the sun to rise (Matthew 5:45), when in reality the earth rotates and revolves around the sun.  However, even though we have understood this truth for centuries, we still use the terms sunrise and sunset.  While the Bible does not speak in contemporary scientific terms it does give an accurate account for the order we find in the heavens above.  The weather app on my phone gives me the exact minute sunrise and sunset will be each day for my location.  You see how precise the movements of the heavens are.  Without this precision the space missions that have been conducted throughout the last half of a century would have been impossible.

So the next time you look up into the heavens above, or notice the precise times we are able to predict when the sun and moon and stars will be in a particular location in regard to our location on earth, remember the Creator who placed order in this universe He intended for mankind to inhabit (Acts 17:24-27.

-Mark Day