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| By Henry Anderson |
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There is an effort by Satan to discredit the writings in the New Testament, and it is meeting with some success. This is occurring more in the independent groups than in the organized groups. A former member of the Worldwide Church of God named Darrell Conder has written a book entitled “Mystery Babylon and the Lost Ten Tribes in the End Times”, and he and his associates have a web site where they continuously put out Satan’s propaganda. It seems that many who read this book have fallen prey to Satan and lost their belief in the only name under heaven by which we may be saved. He claims that Gentiles inspired by Satan wrote the New Testament, that Yahshua is not the Messiah, but the Messiah is yet to come. Conder and his associates teach that the Torah is the only word of Yahweh, and that He is One, in the sense that there is only one being of Yahweh, and not a Father and a Son. They teach that the concept of Elohim being more than one person, and that one became flesh to die in our place is Babylonian Mythology, and that present day believers in Yahshua are worshiping at the feet of Satan himself. This is a paragraph from Conder’s book..... “The most important question is: “Just who were the founders of the early Christian Church?” We have answered this in chapter eight of MB: The founders of the church were the Samaritan Simon Magus and his disciples.” He claims that the miracles Yahshua performed were “cheap magician’s tricks.” He also says that the gospels as a whole are “thoroughly paganized.” There are other books written by other men who discredit the authenticity of the New Testament. Many “scholars” do the same thing. These men point to what appears to them as discrepancies in the different gospels. They claim that much of what we read in them is spurious. They do this without a shred of truth. Conder uses the IDEAS of “Higher Critics” and Jews, so his ideas are not new. Most of them have been around for many many years. They cast doubt in a believer's mind about one or two passages, and then this doubt begins to grow and expand to other scriptures. This person reads other propaganda put out by the ministers of Satan, and before long he doesn’t know what to believe. He reads where one of these heretics claim that the first two chapters of Matthew are spurious, he claims this without giving a shred of real proof, but the confused believer starts doubting that Mary was a virgin and was impregnated by the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. Because of doubt he doesn’t know whether the Messiah pre-existed as a member of the family of Yahweh, and was the creator of all things or not, despite the plain statement of scripture in the first chapter of John and in Ephesians 3:9 and Col. 1:15. Satan has accomplished his purpose because in time the believer will be an ex believer and join the ranks of Conder and others who have forsaken the only way to salvation. This is Satan’s purpose; he is desperately trying to thwart Yahweh’s plan to create beings like Himself. Satan is the opposite of Yahweh. He hates Yahweh and His goodness. He doesn’t want any more beings like Yahweh to exist. If it were possible he would destroy Yahweh, but that is not possible, neither is it possible to thwart His purpose to create Sons. Satan may destroy some potential Sons, but Yahweh allows this, for it is necessary in developing the characteristics needed to become one of His Sons. We all have to be tried and tested in order to develop those characteristics. He doesn’t will that any should fail, He would prefer that all would pass the tests; that is why He exhorts us in His word to do certain things, to be steadfast. It is sad to see one falling for this deception. He unknowingly becomes a tool of Satan by expressing his doubts of the validity of many of the scriptures in the New Testament to other believers, especially to some who are babes in the faith. The arguments that Darrell Conder uses to discount the validity of the New Testament can be, and are used to discredit the Old Testament. Conder goes to some of the critics who wrote in the 19th century to try to substantiate his claim that the New Testament is false, and these same critics contend that the Old Testament is false. They especially try to discredit the book of Daniel, claiming it was written much later than it was, that it was written after the prophecies in chapter 11 had come to pass. They do this because Daniel named a specific time when the Messiah would come and in chapter 11 there are specific prophecies that a novice can compare with secular history and see that the events prophesied did come to pass. The next step for those who have turned away from believing in the New Testament and Yahshua the Messiah, is to turn away from the Old Testament as well, and become agnostics or atheists. Many believers do not fully realize that their carnal natures are still with them and are desperately trying to get in control. They do not fully understand the scripture that says: "Because the carnal mind is enmity against Yah: for it is not subject to the law of Yah, neither indeed can be”. That carnal nature will latch on to these unproven allegations in an effort to overthrow the faith of a believer and get back in control. It does not want to be in a state of being dead, of not being able to exercise its desires, to decide for itself what is right and wrong. Our struggle is not only against Satan and his demons, but our own carnal nature as well. Satan panders to our carnal nature in order to induce us to cast aside the way to salvation.. Why would a believer start reading and studying books and literature put out by men such as Darrell Conder? Because of their carnal natures seeking to get back in control. Instead of reading and seeking confirmation of the scriptures in order to strengthen their faith, they turn to those who are tools of Satan, the “Higher Critics." For those who may be in a state of doubt because of the efforts and propaganda of Satan and his ministers, and whose carnal natures will allow them, there is counter material to combat doubt, caused by the efforts of Satan and his ministers, or for anyone who wants to bolster and strengthen his belief and faith. Here is a list of some of that material: "Darrell Conder - A Modern Day Anti-Christ " two tapes by Carl Franklin. Christian Biblical Church of God, PO Box 1442, Hollister, CA. 95024, USA "The Reliability of the New Testament," two tapes by Vance Stinson, Church of God, International, PO Box 2530, Tyler, TX. 75710, USA "How Do We Know Whether Christianity is True?" and "A Quick Look at Messianic Prophecies of the Old Testament," by Eric Snow. Copies of papers are on the Internet Website at: http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/main.html or are available by writing Barnabas Ministries, PO Box 310208, Detroit, MI 48231, USA There is much more material than just these few that a person can get to strengthen belief. He can do so by spending no more effort than he would in gathering up material that casts doubt on the validity of scripture. Anyone who reads and studies this propaganda of Satan’s, except those whose faith is strong and do so to be able to combat the gainsayers, has already become a victim of Satan. In time the doubt will grow, and finally he will completely turn away from the path to salvation. |