Deception Today's Church: God’S Church or Satan’S Army?

By Simon Peters

Do you know for sure where you will spend eternity? Is your church leading you to heaven or hell? Why are twenty million Americans without work, and who is at fault?

Author Simon Peters is an ordinary man, a teacher and leader in his professional life. Even so, he has been moved by God to become a Jonah for the twenty-first century through Deception Todays Church: Gods Church or Satans Army? God does not want us to be deceived, and so Peters has been asked by God to address the deception we all deal with in our daily lives, from both the government and, most importantly, from the church.

Deception Todays Church: Gods Church or Satans Army? Explores the detrimental relationship between the church and the secular world. Peters uses his extensive personal experience in his churches to illustrate many of his points; he also backs his statements up with examples of Scripture. He has been disillusioned by church leaders who respond to issues within the churches they lead with selfish deceptionfollowing their personal needs over Gods needs.

He also talks about the miracles, loss, heartache, and the changing power of God that are part of his life in Gods care. God has a mission for each of us, should

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inspiring Voices
• Release date: May 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781462401239

Book preview

Deception Today’s Church

God’s Church or Satan’s Army?

Simon Peters

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Copyright © 2012 Simon Peters.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-4624-0124-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4624-0123-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012936996

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Printed in the United States of America

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 5/07/2012

Contents

God Is God

Why Me?

A Note to My Family

Send Someone Else

Send Me

My Experiences in the Church

Alliance

Deceit in America

Conclusion

Corruption

We Must Choose

Scripture References

Dedication

I am dedicating this book to the teachings of Francis Raleigh and all the Francis Raleighs throughout the family of God, whom I love in Christ. Also in response to God’s calling in His three postcards to us, as taught by Francis Raleigh (2 John, 3 John, and Jude).

2 John (NAS)

God calls for us to watch ourselves and not lose what we have accomplished. God directs us to not allow anyone to go too far in their teaching of Christ. God, through John, directs us to maintain exact scripture teaching; allowing someone to blur the teaching makes us a participant in that evil.

3 John

Francis Raleigh very correctly teaches that evil has entered the church. Francis says it is our obligation to confront evil in the church and get it out.

Jude (NAS)

God calls us to defend and protect the Gospel. Through Jude, the brother of Jesus, God directs us to earnestly contend for the faith. We are informed certain persons have crept in unnoticed who practice licentiousness—that is, they have a disregard for strict rules of correctness. Francis Raleigh teaches we should not compromise the Word. We should not allow blurring of the Word. We should fight the good fight. Because of their own lust, being worldly-minded and caring for themselves, we should save some by snatching them out of the fire.

When we contend for the faith that God has entrusted to us, we take a stand for Jesus. We will no longer compromise His Word or allow the truth of the Gospel to be misused or twisted. We will stand for Christ, and that will be enough for us.

God Is God

God deserves our worship and praise.

God deserves our undivided devotion—which is first place.

Illustrate the actions of today’s church leaders.

Compare God’s Church with today’s church.

Address deception, in church, in life.

Give direction back to God, the Bible.

Awaken the lost.

People are the same, today and three thousand years ago.

God speaks to us.

NOTE: All scripture references are from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise stipulated.

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Chart courtesy of Back to the Bible broadcast

Why Me?

This book is the result of my starting to say yes to God’s desires. It is our human nature, or it seems to be our nature, to typically say no to God. We justify saying no to God with excuses, such as, It is not God; my conscience is playing tricks on me, This is something I want or think should happen, or, It is not really God moving me. We negate God’s speaking to us with our excuses and lack of desire to respond to Him in a positive manner. We, as Christians, are spoken to by God continually, day in and day out. We often just ignore Him or are so involved with ourselves that we refuse to accept the fact that God is prompting us. God says in His Word that He does not come to us in the earthquake, violent storm, heavy rain, or any other catastrophe that appears. He speaks to us in a whisper. Therefore, the problem is not that we do not hear Him; it is that we are not listening for Him.

Since the beginning of time, God has wanted to establish a relationship with us. He created Adam and Eve, as well, to be in an intimate relationship with Him, and they were. He gave us all the freedom to choose. We have the right to choose to obey or to disobey, to be obedient to His will or to seek after our own. Unfortunately, seeking after our own will has continually been a problem for mankind, and God calls it wickedness. God’s Word says we must die daily. This battle of choosing our will or God’s is something we have to deal with 24/7. We must work on it consciously and constantly. I, just like you, had that same problem, habitually. I have, over the years, said, No, it is not God; it is me. I have used every excuse, as many of you have, to say no to God. We do not want to do the things God calls us to do, as simple as some are. We are so selfish and so into our wants that we ignore His.

Exodus 4:13

But Moses said, Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.

I have ignored God’s desires for many, many years. In fact, over six years ago, God called me to write a book. Why should I write a book? Who am I to write a book? I questioned myself, I questioned God, I made excuses, and I put it off and I put it off and I put it off. And, in fact, how many of us can say that we know God has wanted something from us, but we have put it off for such and such amount of time. I have put off writing this book for God for over six years, until God finally got my attention and brought me to the realization that saying no is not an option any longer—at least not a usable or workable option.

So, I am writing this book about the things I think God wants us to grasp. God wants a personal relationship with each of us. He has wanted that for thousands of years, and He is unchanging. God is perfect. He is God. There are those who say God changes His mind. God’s word actually says, He relents. If you are in tune to His Word, you know what He wants to do in His anger is to punish us, which is what we need and deserve. But He relents from His anger when we humble ourselves and pray. We will see that reflected throughout this book. The fact is that He says in His book, the Bible (Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth), He has compassion and will relent and forgive if we will humble ourselves and pray and seek Him and turn from our wickedness. As well, if we do these four things in our lives, He will heal.

Hebrews 10:25 (KJV)

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

We seem to ignore the fact that God wants a loving relationship with each of us. Our leadership in the church over the last seventeen or eighteen centuries has not made this truth a prerequisite in the teaching. We, as pastors and teachers, are going to be held to a higher accountability. That is, we will be judged more strictly. Why would we ignore or attempt to ignore the precept God has established throughout His Word? The precept is that He, God, wants to be in communion with each of us and He wants us to desire that same loving relationship with Him. The first five books of the Bible, written by Moses and called the Pentateuch, illustrate most vividly this presence of God. The laws and directions given by God are to give us understanding and direction to Him. Even the sacrifices were to be given at a place designated by God where His people would gather to revere Him. God had Paul write in Hebrews 10:25 not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together as the manner of some is. However, many of us do not feel the need to gather together. We want to take the Word of God and make it say what we want. We want it to be our way. The Bible tells us that is exactly what is going to happen. Paul said that as soon as he walks out of the congregation, there are those in that congregation who will twist things around to make the message the way they want it. God had Paul also write that these same changers of the gospel message will gather around themselves a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. There are many reasons we could apply to why we change the message, but the fact is we do. This liberalism has taken control of the church and it has been this way for centuries.

Luke 13:3

I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

As you and I continue through this book, we will see the liberalization of the church. We will learn to recognize the deception we as preachers and teachers are involved in. The truth of the matter is, we lie. We believe we have good reasons for why we lie, but the fact remains—we lie. All lies come from the father of lies, Satan. We lie about anything we want. Again, we want the message our way. We lie about tithing. We lie about drinking and gambling. We lie about sin. We lie about so many different things that we really do not know what is true and what is a lie. We will talk more about this subject later. Always remember, the truth is found within the parameters of God’s Word, and it is our responsibility to know the truth.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

We will be looking at many of the doctrinal failures of today’s church. There will be issues that go 180 degrees away from society and our social teaching. I was taught when the ruling government under Constantine embraced Christianity as the religion of Rome, this was a grand and great thing. The church was no longer persecuted. The fact is, when we look at the last seventeen to eighteen hundred years from the perspective of God’s Word, just the opposite is true. When the church embraced Rome, we became friends with Rome. That is, there was an alliance between Rome and the church. We look at this union from a world view and it looks great because people are no longer being thrown to the lions. However, throughout the Old and the New Testaments, God’s Word condemns any kind of an alliance between God’s people and the world. Soon after Rome embraced Christianity, the world went into one thousand years of the Dark Ages. The church has been struggling ever since the marriage of the world (or Rome) and the church. Does God confirm His message since the alliance of the world and the church? Did God confirm His message prior to the alliance? God had James, Jesus’ brother, write that friendship with the world is hatred toward God. Therefore, the church has struggled for the last seventeen to eighteen hundred years to get away from the influence of the world because of this alliance. As we go through this book, there are going to be many things just as controversial, which will show the deception of man and the devil. We will be looking at my nearly thirty years