As you have opportunity to read a few books when they hit the market, and Christian magazines, you need to be awake. Not everything is always what it appears on the surface.

Consider this statement from one of the books I read a while back:

[speaking of the man it was written about]…“that he would be enabled to present a balance between the truth of the Word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit”.

Can you see anything in this statement worth commenting on? I imagine many see nothing wrong. This statement above embodies a lie, an outright deception, even though written by someone who would claim to be a Christian.

The “Word” referred to here is clearly meant as the Bible. Who wrote the “Word”? The Holy Spirit inspired the writing (2 Peter 1:21 and 2 Tim 3:16).

What is the ministry of the Holy Spirit? “..he will guide you into all truth” (Jn 16:13). But in the next chapter of John we read, “Thy word is truth.” (John 17:17)

How is it, then, that the Holy Spirit could ever be at odds with the Word [written]? …unless the writer’s perceived “ministry of the Holy Spirit” was not really of God; but was a fake, a counterfeit, a deception. The writer, possibly without realising it, is perpetuating what is blasphemy.

This nonsense is typical of the kind of thing many Christians are accepting because it is written by people who claim to be believers. We must always remember what Paul wrote to the Galatians when he said, …if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Gal 1:9)  People need to see that the gospel Paul preached is the same and only gospel of grace by which anyone may be saved today. Writers like the above have accepted a gospel of grace plus something else. If it’s a gospel plus anything, even what they call “Holy Spirit”, they’re inviting the trouble Paul speaks of in Galatians 1:9. Remember that this is included in what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:4 where he speaks of “…another Jesus, …another spirit, …another gospel”.

Observe for yourself how many people who claim to be “Christians” are constantly living under some kind of curse. Is it because they also have accepted a gospel of grace plus something else? We hear from some folk that they no longer see any need to meet to “remember the Lord” as is clearly outlined in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, or they don’t now believe in a “rapture” – no wonder, if they accept any part of another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel.

“But we mustn’t judge anyone” we get told. Well, God’s Scriptures do! [Actually 1 Corinthians 2:15 and its context is clear when it says: But he that is spiritual judgeth all things.] So we just quote God’s Bible where appropriate. Let God be true but every man a liar. (Rom 3:4) It’s what God says that counts. It’s God’s Word as revealed in the Scriptures that we will all be judged against in a coming day. It is the standard.

It’s just everywhere; issues relating to what people refer to as God’s Word. The closer we get to the end, the more intense the battle for the truth, and, unfortunately, the greater the deception. We stand or fall on the Word of God. Instead of handing out trendy “Footrot Flats” look-a-likes we need to realise we have available in the ‘world language’ of English the no compromise, inerrant, pure Word of God, in the Scriptures, for which people in England, even, of all places, were prepared to give their lives [and be burnt at the stake].

Maybe the real problem lies with the belief of so many, who dare to claim the name of Christ, that their Bibles contain mistakes. [Sadly, very often they’re right. It’s often true – their ‘bibles’ do.] It is a joy to fellowship with believers who believe what their Bibles say and unashamedly, assuredly profess that “every word of God is pure”. How could we ever call God a liar?

Other ‘Christian’ books I’ve read in recent years were interesting but I can’t help wondering what God thinks of some of them. There were biographies and autobiographies that hardly give God a look in. Maybe He didn’t really figure in their experiences. Some were about well known missionaries, no less. An assembly magazine which is meant to inspire believers by its articles came across like a travel brochure.

But the thing that really stands out these days is the quotes. It’s trendy to quote all sorts of people or secular literature. We can read an editorial in a “Christian” magazine with its quotes of what godless people have said but nothing of what God says. Did I see that coming when I stopped our subscription to that magazine nearly two decades ago?