THE BIBLICAL WARNING OF A LAST DAYS HERESY
"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Genesis 3:1).
Did God really mean what He said? Is He trying to cheat you out of something good by the restrictions that He placed on you? Can you really trust His Word about anything?
Eve knew full well what God has said, but she learned from the serpent how to rationalize her way to disobedience by casting doubt on God's authority. In that instant she gave birth to heresy, and from that moment all human beings have been susceptible to it.
A heresy in Christianity is a belief or set of beliefs that contradicts the plain truth of scripture to the spiritual peril of those who embrace it. Jude, the brother of Jesus, opened his letter of rebuke of early-church heretics by exhorting the faithful to...
"...Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for their condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:3-4).
Jude, in his "desire to remind you" of what is in contest, invokes "Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they all in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh" and warns "Yet in the same way these [last days heretics]...defile the flesh, and reject authority...following after their own ungodly lusts. These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly minded, devoid of the Spirit" (v.8-19).
Now, before we plainly state what is clearly being identified by Jude as the last days heresy, and trigger the avalanche of outrage and denial that always attends this topic, let us remember one other critical prerequisite in our analysis, which is the subtlety of the Father of Lies in the last days. To be the "heresy of the last days" it must be so completely beguiling to those confronted with it that "if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived."
We're therefore not looking for gross and blatant fallacies such as the claims of false religions, but sophistry, meaning intricately woven false reasoning. We're looking for very subtle falsehoods, casually being passed off as if they were authentic Christian doctrines, such as:
- Substituting naive humanistic idealism for Biblical reasoning, thus putting emotionalism above truth.
- Redefining Christian love to exclude any moral discernment or judgment, thus equating compassion with condoning sin.
- Misrepresenting Jesus Christ to cast Him as a moral reformer at odds with the Father, thus contradicting His own assertion that "I and the Father are one."
- Emasculating Jesus to insist He is a passivist incapable of incinerating Sodom or killing His enemies at Armageddon, thus suppressing the truth about His impending role as the Lord of Hosts and Judge of the Earth.
To be the Satanic heresy of the last days, it must be a form of sophistry so crafty that it makes those who embrace it claim moral superiority over those who actually follow Christ and believe His Word as it is written. And it must be related to sexuality.
There is really only one ideology in Christendom today that fits these criteria: "gay theology."
Dr. Scott Lively
Dr. Scott Lively is a one of the world's foremost experts on the so-called culture war as it relates to the global homosexual movement and agenda and has served as an advocate for the Biblical world-view on these issues for over a quarter century, with service in more than 50 countries. A Christian attorney with litigation experience in US Constitutional Law, he holds the degree of Juris Doctor (magna cum laude) from Trinity Law School. He earned a Doctorate of Theology from the Pentecostal Assemblies of God. His doctoral thesis has been published in book form under the title Redeeming the Rainbow: A Christian Response to the 'Gay' Agenda. He also holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management and Communication from Western Baptist College, and a Certificate in International Human Rights from the Institute for Human Rights at the University of Strasbourg (France). Dr. Lively and his wife Anne have been married for 35 years, have four sons and seven grandchildren. Their home base is Springfield, Massachusetts where they founded an inner city mission in 2008 to serve the disadvantaged, but most of their time is spent in travel as Missionaries to the Global Pro-Family Movement.
