The Apostate Leaders of Jeremiah’s Day
and
the Similarities Of the “Change-Agent” Apostasies of
Today
The
Book of Jeremiah was written to turn God’s people BACK to His Word, His Truth,
and His Leadership, as opposed to the apostate leadership of God’s people that
was speedily bringing the wrath of a jealous and angry God down upon them in
full force. God help us to learn our lesson well (Romans 15:4; 1st
Corinthians 10:11).
Chapter
1:
Vss. 2, 4, 7, 9, 11-13, and 17: It’s ALL about The
Word!
There could be No Compromise of
That Word (vs. 17);
Compromise = Condemnation
Vs. 16: Their wickedness lay in the fact that they’d forsaken God by
worshipping
their own accomplishments.
Chapter
2:
We see purity in the beginning (vs. 1-3), the same as the church (Acts
2:42).
Then they began to stray and became worthless to
God (vs. 5).
They no longer sought Him (or obviously, His council-vs. 6).
Neither did the leadership; instead, they rebelled against Him (vs. 8).
Vs. 13: see 2nd Peter 2:1-3, 15-19.
Vss. 17-19: We see whose fault it is. They
were the ones who’d forsaken Him!
(See 2nd Chronicles 15)
Vss. 26-29: Who changed??? Certainly
not God! (Malachi 3:5-6; Hebrews 6:17-19)
Vs
30: “Sword”: Symbolic of the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17). When they are
confronted
with it, they simply cannot win. This is why they seek to remove it
from our
hands.
Vs. 33: Compromise, allurement, and deception.
Vss. 35-37: Note: “CHANGING”
Chapter
3:
Vss. 4-13: It’s about obedience. True faith in
God requires true obedience to
God.
Vss. 19-20: Calling Him “Father” involves not turning away from
following Him.
Chapter
4:
Vss. 1-2: God still loves them, and will still accept them back. But,
they who’ve moved
away
must be the ones to
turn around and come back home to God (Luke 15:11-24).
Vss. 8-9: Look out!!! Disaster!!! Whose fault? See vs. 18.
Chapter
5:
Vss. 1-3: They need to seek The
Truth (John 17:17).
Vss. 4-5: Leadership is supposed to know the
requirements of
their God.
Vs. 6: They did, but they’d rebelled.
Vs.
7: WOW! Spiritual Adultery! Following other ways; sort of like the
“change-agents”
borrowing practices
from Protestant Denominations. Replace the word “gods” with
“doctrines” or
“gospels”, and understand that in Revelation 17, “the Mother of
Prostitutes”
quite likely is symbolic of the Constantine-spawned Catholic Church, which, in
turn, spawned almost every other major denomination as they protested Catholic,
man-made doctrines, and you can certainly see the tie-in.
Vss.
10-13: Why don’t they belong to the Lord any longer? They’ve been
unfaithful;
their leaders have
lied, and their prophets have not preached His Word,
(Galatians 1:6-10),
but their own.
Vss. 21-23: How dare they?
But they did.
And they do.
Vss. 26-27: Their houses (congregations today?) are full of deceit. They
are rich and
powerful,
fat and sleek; reminiscent, perhaps, of some of today’s million-selling,
once-faithful, so-called “Church of Christ” authors of religious materials
who’ve sold out and refuse to preach such essential salvation verses as Acts
2:38, 1st Peter 3:21, Ephesians 1:22-23 with Ephesians 4:4-6 as
dictated and bound by God.
Vss. 30-31: WOW!
Chapter
6:
Vss. 8-10: RED ALERT!
Impending destruction! Why? Verse 10: “The Word of the
Lord is
offensive to them”
Vss.
13-14: Deceit for the sake of greed (2nd Peter 2:1-3). They’re
entertainers, not
enlighteners.
They use soft, feel-good stories and entertainment-type hype, instead
of a
steadfast “Thus saith The Lord”.
Vss.
16-19: The “ancient paths” are the only
way. Otherwise,
disaster, because they will
not
teach, preach, accept, and obey His
all-authoritative Word.
Chapter
7:
Vss. 1-8: Trusting deceptive words, rather than His
Words.
Vss. 22-23: Must not walk just in some of God’s ways and by some of His
commands,
but
by the “sum” of them (Read and study Psalm 119!); not just by, for instance,
the 4 gospels, but by Matthew through Revelation, including God’s
Instructions for His
church throughout.
Vs. 24: To follow only parts of the Word, is to go backwards.
Vss. 25-27: They were sent prophets, as we were sent Apostles.
Vs. 28: Truth had perished. (See 2nd Timothy 2:11-19, and
3:16-17)
Chapter
8:
Vss. 4-5: They’d turned away by clinging to deceit.
Vs. 6: Instead of speaking the truth, they were following their own
course.
Vs. 7: They need to know the “…requirements of the Lord…”
Vs. 8-9: The lying pen of the scribes (leading writers/authors today?)
had handled
the
“law of the Lord falsely”.
Vs. 10: The reason for the deceit? Again, greed.
Vs. 11: “Everything’s fine” they say. “Everyone’s in the
fellowship.” “There’s no
problem with God for what we’re doing.” “It’s going to be
okay.”
Vs.12: God says such “loathsome conduct” will
be punished by Him.
Chapter
9:
Vss. 1-2: Jeremiah laments, as we must, the disaster which those who fall
for this
apostasy/unfaithfulness will bring upon themselves.
Vs. 3: A footnote says: “they are not valiant for truth”. Notice
also: they will enjoy
some measure of victory with their lies.
Vs. 4-6: This is why we must boldly check into every youth rally
invitation,
congregational
invitation, retreat speaker, potential college for our sons and daughters, and
new members received into our congregations, and
test them thoroughly (1st John 4:1-6).
Vss.
7-9: God Himself is left with no other choice. He will, Himself, deal with those
who
follow
falsehood (see Revelation 22:15).
Vs.
12-13: They have forsaken God’s way,
which He
set before them. They’ve not
obeyed,
nor followed His
law.
Vs. 14: This is what they’ve chosen instead.
Vs. 16: Eventually, today’s “change-agents” will be scattered
amongst the denominations
they
so love to embrace. Max Lucado himself, has finally, completely, come out of the
closet, and after declaring that he’s truly more in line with Baptist theology
(than God’s-obviously) in the past, has just this week (September 10th,
2003) issued statements that the Oak Hills Church of Christ, will be dropping
the name “Church of Christ”, for “Community Church”. This is actually a
truer representation of his ideology, as evidenced by countless references and
past statements; that is, to let the community and cultures’ wishes dictate to
the church, instead of allowing Jesus to be the head of it (Ephesians 1:22-23)
and dictate to the culture. It is also good that they are now admitting what so
many have known for so long. And so, let those who are ashamed of the Name
(Matthew 10:32-33; Acts 4:12) be scattered into the obscurity and eternity of
those who refuse to love the truth and so be saved (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).
That’s their choice, seeing as how THEY
JUDGE THEMSELVES
unworthy of eternal life (Acts 13:46).
And
as they’re scattered, they will eventually, simply fade into obscurity like
all of the disobedient apostates of old have always done. Please note that this
will occur because they are to be “pursued with the sword”. I see in that
statement, a clear declaration that we, as God’s people, must pursue and
engage any and every false teaching with the “…sword of the Spirit, which is
the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17), reminiscent of what happened “in the
camp” with real swords in Exodus 32:25-29.
The above are simply some conclusions/comparisons which I see between the
apostate leaders of Jeremiah’s day, and the apostate “leaders” of our day,
which continue to advocate ways for God’s people that are not God’s
ways for His
people.
In
the Love of God, His Holy Son, and the Holy-Spirit-Inspired Scriptures (2nd
Peter 1:20-21); Douglas E. Dingley, Blessed by God to be the evangelist for the