0097. Apostates From the Faith–Their Denials

Apostates From the Faith–Their Denials

"Denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain" (Jdg_1:4, Jdg_1:11).

The above verses set forth the two great denials of these certain men, these apostates from the faith. Let us observe them one at a time.

1. They deny the Sovereign Lord, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

These certain men have fallen under Satan’s Edenic stroke, the dethronement of the sovereign Lord with the consequent enthronement of dependent man. With the sovereignty of God and the Deity of Christ Jesus denied, every step of the apostasy, as set forth in Jude’s Epistle, is made easy. If Christ is God and Sovereign Lord, we are dependent servants–servants who seek Truth, not shun it; servants who preach Truth, not prevent it; servants who live the Truth, not libel it.

These certain men would bring Christ down to man’s level, and exalt man to Christ’s level. If the one is Divine, so is the other. If one is the Son of God, so is the other. Distinction lies in attainment, not in attributes. The Divine in Christ merely reached a higher state of development than the Divine in the average man. Christ was not Deity.

These certain men make Christ no more than a perfect human. They say that Christ, in a moment of rapturous emotion, saw within Himself the Divine nature and declared Himself to be the Son of God. In like manner, all men are sons of God, and should recognize in themselves the Divine spark, fanning it until it glows with God-like splendor.

With the Lordship of Christ renounced and the Sonship of man recognized, the ascendancy of the apostasy is assured, and the day of the apostate teachers has dawned.

Men who renounce the Lordship of Christ find it easy to repudiate the Book of Jonah although in doing so they make Christ, who accepted it, a liar.

Men who renounce the Lordship of Christ find no difficulty in refusing to believe Moses and the Prophets, although the Lord Jesus, beginning with Moses and the Prophets, expounded in them the things concerning Himself.

Men who renounce the Lordship of Christ can readily reject Moses and the Prophets, and still accept the Pauline writings; although the Apostle Paul believed "all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets".

2. They deny the Blood for they have gone in the way of Cain (vs. 11). Abel offered unto God an acceptable sacrifice because, in faith, he slew the firstling of his flock, and so foretold the coming of the Christ of Calvary. Cain in unbelief, offered up the bloodless fruit of the ground, and was condemned, although a blood offering was couching at his very feet. These "certain men" speak of salvation by the Blood, as a "slaughterhouse religion." They defame the Cross and exalt an ethical and bloodless salvation.

3. They will meet God on common ground, parading their "wondrous works," their "scientific achievements," their vain "reasonings;" but they will not seek approach to God through the Christ of Calvary. The "way of Cain" is a better way to them than that of Abel.

The "new thought" is an improvement upon the "old theology." The way of the Cross is no longer absolute, it is obsolete. The atonement is a bloody relic of past ages. The bleeding sacrifice is a story of the shambles. The "new way" has forgotten that Jesus Christ is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life". It is builded upon advanced scientific knowledge; it bristles with ethical conceptions. It breathes forth the spirit of the twentieth century.

The "new religion" denies the old foundations. The Cross is a fabric of the faith doomed to fade. Philosophy needs no Cross. Modern science and the modern social spirit would make Christ of no effect.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR