Because You Have Rejected Knowledge

While there is so much that the Bible tells us about the end times, especially during the last 7-year period prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the New Testament, the Scriptures also tell us much about the condition of the church in the times we are living in now.

These prophecies and warnings are found throughout the 13 letters of the New Testament which were written for the believers. Along with these warnings, we also have the last words of Yeshua to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. These warnings are found in the Olivet discourse in Matthew, Mark and Luke.

It was there on the mount, where the disciples came to Him privately and asked a direct question, one we still ask today. This question comes from Matthew 24:3, What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world?  But before Jesus proceeded to tell them about the end of the world, and how it will happen, the first thing He tells them, His first words concerning the end are, “See to it that no one misleads you”. Matthew 24: 4. Even though we are in the midst of an important end time prophetic chapter, Yeshua’s first concern is about our spiritual growth, and this is just wonderful. Yes, it is good to know about all the wars and natural disturbances that are filling the headlines these days, but first and foremost we must never forget our relationship with God which needs to be fed and refreshed on a daily basis, especially in these more turbulent days. This then is our first order of the day and at the end, this is what will save those tribulation saints who will go through the midst of the fire.

And as we consider what the true believers of the end times will struggle with, we see a similar pattern of response from both the present church and Israel. The nominal church follows Israel’s history: the main problem with Israel seems to be the same as with the Church. Except for a remnant, both moved away from the Word of God. This is the reason Isaiah and Hosea give for the dispersion of Israel in unbelief. From Isaiah 5:13 we read, “Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; And their honorable men are famished, And their multitude is parched with thirst”. From Hosea 4:6 we read, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge.” Knowledge of what? Knowledge of the Word of God!

And this is one reason for today’s Diaspora. Isaiah speaks of the exile, galah, a word that is also used in 2Kings. This word is used for both the expulsion of the 10 northern tribes from northern Israel (2Kings 17:6ff) and for the Diaspora itself which occurred in 586 BC., this same Diaspora that is still going on today, and continuing until the Second Coming (24:15ff). Hosea uses a very strong word damah, which means, perish, destroyed, ruined and cut off. This resulted from not staying close to God through His Word. This surely adds to the reasons why the Jewish population has remained so small even after 4000 years of existence.

In light of this strong warning concerning the state of the church, we ask how, will false teachers succeed in taking over the nominal church? This is when we come to the heart of our studies.  They do it through teaching a system of denials. Back in the late 1950’s Dwight Pentecost, in his powerful book Things to Come, identified numerous signs and categorized them under what he called a System of Denials. “Originally, he listed nine denials; however, we have condensed them into six major categories—one of which we added due to recent historical developments that were unforeseen in the 1950’s.” Today we will examine the first four denials with particular emphasis on the first. This system of denials focuses on confounding and confusing believers with its final aim to diminish God and His Word and so separate the believer from His Creator.

We should not underestimate the destructive power behind these denials. Rather than arguing our cause, isn’t it easier just to deny them thereby shifting the burden of the proof to the others.

They call this the obstructive power of denial. Take this example of those who deny the Holocaust. It doesn’t seem to matter that there are a multitude of historical facts, films and even living witnesses to testify to its dreadful reality. Nevertheless, there are many who just disclaim all the facts.

But this strategy of denial and minimizing what is godly is nothing new. The serpent’s first words in the Garden of Eden were, “Has God indeed said…”?  There he began to instill doubt into Eve’s mind and at the end, the serpent boldly denied what God clearly said. In Gen.3:4, he told Eve, “You will not surely die”. But back in Gen. 2:17, God told Adam, “You will surely die”. The same strategy of denial is used today because the serpent has not changed his ways.

So, let’s look at what is being denied. The first rejection is in the form of the person and nature of Jesus, the Messiah. It is a denial of His uniqueness and divinity. This is the common denominator we find in Christian cults. This highlights what John the apostle wrote in 1John 4:3, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus the Messiah has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

These deniers will invent all kinds of theories to diminish His divine nature. Some say He is an angel; others say He is a man like us. Some try to belittle Him by placing others at the same level where He sits. Others do not want to offend, and speak of Jesus as just a good man, a good teacher; but He is the creator Himself. Yet we find that certain rabbinical commentators, especially the Medieval ones, understood the exclusive divinity of the Messiah.

That Jesus came in the flesh means that He is not a man like us; it means that He is from above like the prophecy of Micah tells us, that He will be born in Bethlehem but have His origins from eternity, from everlasting. We know that God is the only One who is from eternity and from everlasting, that Jesus is the Living Water, He is life, He is the I Am, He is our Savior and Friend. And so, John tells us that whoever denies this is an antichrist; anti usually means instead of, for they want to replace Him.  Anti also means against, for they also wanted to have Him removed altogether.

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