Johan Oscar Smith
There are people who have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. 2 Pet. 2:15.
The false prophets must have begun on the right way, but then they began to love the wages of unrighteousness more than Christ. They used the way of God as a means for gain and honor. Such people cause God’s name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles.
It is evident that people can stand and preach the Word of God long after they have fallen away from God. They continue because it is in their financial interest. “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.” Verse 21. They knew the way of righteousness, but they turned from “the holy commandment.” Herein lies the apostasy. How can a person stand before God without keeping His commandments diligently? When people regard the commandment as being bondage to the law, they inevitably slide into lawlessness. The gospel that such apostates preach then becomes a gospel without commandments.
Paul exhorted Timothy with great seriousness to keep the commandment without spot and blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing. 1 Tim. 6:13-14.
When God wants to draw near to us, He does it through “the holy commandments.” Our attitude toward these commandments reveals the mindset we have, whether we delight in godly fear and love the commandments more than our lusts according to the flesh.
Regardless of how far we have come on the way of sanctification, God still has many holy commandments He wants to commit to us. Our faithfulness to these commandments will determine the degree to which our Lord Jesus Christ will continue to reveal Himself to us. For it is those who have His commandments and keep them to whom Jesus will reveal Himself. John 14:21.
A person can be faithful to God and His commandments for a long time. When that is the case, everything goes well and God’s blessing is over him. However when this servant of the Lord gains influence and people begin to look up to him, the temptation to lord it over them arises, and the love of money makes its appearance. A large assembly usually brings with it powerful temptations, and great faithfulness must be exercised so a person keeps God’s commandments and continues to live frugally. Never use the confidence the church has in you to your own advantage. Many, many people have fallen away because of this. They forsake the holy commandment and begin to do their own will. This can go to such extremes that they begin to beg for money for charities, but behind the whole scheme, they themselves are the main recipient. All of this takes place in the name of God and is called “God’s cause.” Personally, I believe that everyone would do well to seriously question all this begging for God’s cause. We can in all simplicity pray for the sick in their homes rather than begging for money to build large halls in which to pray for them, and disciples can be instructed without having to resort to building huge facilities for thousands of kroner. The Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth without demanding money and without payment. True Christianity is very affordable. But the moment Christianity is manipulated at the hands of people, it becomes both expensive and unreliable. Here again we can learn from the Master who needed so very little. He was one who served and gave instruction freely; so it leaves a bad taste when people beg for money in the name of God. Judas appeared to have a wide heart for the poor, but when it came down to it, he was only concerned about himself, for while being in charge of the purse, he was at the same time a thief. When eloquent leaders portray to their congregation how needful it is to collect money for this and that, and that God loves a cheerful giver, then gullible and naive people will dig deep into their pockets. But the question is: Have they really given something to God’s cause? In such circumstances it could be a Judas or a false prophet who is making off with the money. You can be completely certain. On account of all this God’s name is blasphemed. Do you think that God, who owns all the silver and gold, and who can make a poor man rich in an instant, would have to beg for His own cause? No, people do not bring honor to God’s name when they do such things. The one who seeks God’s honor is truthful; he is not deceitful. God has no need for money; the whole world and all that is in it is His. He gives life and breath to all, and He gives us all we need to live a godly life. But the false prophets from the days of Balaam and Judas up to our present day have wanted lots of money because they have a heart that is exercised in covetousness. 1 Pet. 2:11.
Certainly money is needed to run missionary work and to travel, but if this cannot be achieved without a lot of human pressure, then it would be better if it didn’t happen. God will see to it that what He begins is viable. People transgress the commandment of God because of their human regulations, and they make it of no effect through their traditions. Matt. 15:3 and 6. Thus they call their traditions “God’s work,” and the holy commandment they call “bondage.” Times have not changed. The flesh has had the same tendencies throughout the ages.
If you want to give something to the poor, to the sick, or to a servant of the Lord, then do it yourself. Do not use some begging middle-man; you never know who will get the money. Then we have the so-called “collection speech.” This is usually very deceptive, and you must not allow your conscience to be shaped by it. Stand instead before God in all life’s situations, and keep your conscience between God and yourself; do not let it waver under the influence of others.
The false prophets say, “The Lord says” even though He has not spoken. That is why the Lord of Israel said: “Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you, says the Lord God. My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people. . . .”
“Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace—and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar—say to those who plaster it with untempered mortar, that it will fall.” Ezek. 13:7-11.
There is nothing new under the sun, and the false prophets are using the same catch phrases today: peace, peace, even though there is no peace. And that is because righteousness is far off. They reason that it would not pay for them to rebuke sin because then the people and their money might disappear. But by daubing shiny white plaster over everything and saying it is good, their business continues. It is a comfort to know that such people shall not remain in the assembly of God. We have seen this. They are far away from the councils of God. Instead they surround themselves with unstable, gullible people, and everything revolves around money, money, and more money. All for “God’s cause,” naturally.
“Hear now, O heads of Jacob, and you rulers of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know justice? You who hate good and love evil; who strip the skin from My people, and the flesh from their bones; who also eat the flesh of My people, flay their skin from them, break their bones, and chop them in pieces like meat for the pot, like flesh in the cauldron. . . .
“Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who make my people stray; who chant ‘Peace’ while they chew with their teeth, but who prepare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.
“Therefore you shall have night without vision, and you shall have darkness without divination; the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them. So the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners abashed; indeed they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God.”
But the prophet Micah, who spoke against the false prophets, says about himself: “But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.” Mic. 3.
We need prophets like these in our days because we live in a time that is permeated with false prophets. People imagine the false prophets to be genuine and the true prophets false. However, the love of money clings to the false prophets today just as it did in the days of old. “Her heads judge for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.’
“Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the temple like the bare hills of the forest.”
The sins of the great harlot reach to heaven, and she has corrupted the whole earth with her fornication. Rev. 18:5 and 19:2. And who is the harlot other than people—ungodly people—who have turned away from the holy commandment. “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4.