For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude 1:4

These aren’t ancient words given to one man, named Timothy; these are words given to EVERY true Christ follower, EVERY disciple of the LORD Jesus Christ. You don’t need to be a certified pastor from some seminary to preach the word! You just need to READ the word! KNOW the word! Ask for SPIRITUAL WISDOM & UNDERSTANDING of the word, faithfully believing you will receive it. Doing your bit for Holy Bible literacy and fluency, to be able to discern wisely, to defend the faith, to give a good answer when asked, to spread the gospel;

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

2 Timothy 4:1-5

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord GOD, “That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD.

Amos 8:11

Read ALL OF THE FOLLOWING, and NOT just the first seven verses. CONTEXT. The WHOLE inerrant word of God, discerning from the very first words what the LORD is saying, finding spiritual wisdom and discernment, which only comes from God when we are faithful, believing, and humbled in heart, true in heart towards the LORD;

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Matthew 7

Let the words of Jesus sink in. Truly sink deeply in and be retained.

Those mentioned in exposing their unsound teachings are not merely men in error. Whoops! No, this is clear, easy to understand heresy, wolves in sheep’s clothing to mislead and destroy the flock, thinking they are being shepherded, in good stead. Those in attendance believe that they are following sound Christian doctrine when they are being told utterly lost philosophies, unsound doctrines, false teachings, the lies of men and women from the pulpits.

Remember…Satan is subtle. Beguiling. A seducer. He and all his minions and ministers know how to speak, to sound, the words to use. Remember…Satan appears as an angel of light. His ministers as those of righteousness when they are the total opposite. Beware. Be aware. Compare everything heard or read to what is contained in Scripture, the whole inerrant word of God.

Those mentioned above?

Brought on due to ignorance of what is within the word of God and what the whole word of God is.

Going to a church today, singing some feel-good all about me songs without critically thinking about the lyrics, listening to a sermon from a man, or a woman in direct error according to the word, and leaving thinking you heard the word of God from a true man of God.

Without being a Berean. Without getting your hands on a Holy Bible, opening it, praying before reading, and faithfully asking for discernment and wisdom from God in what is read. Study it. Reference it in other parts of Scripture. Take time to let it sink in. Meditate on what is read and studied. THINK DEEPLY on what God has spoken to you, YES, that is God speaking to everyone who reads His word.

Know the will of God from and through the reading and understanding of His word.

Rather than relying on the feel-good words of a man on a stage, in the all show no meat to sustain, we must entertain you and have you leaving feeling good and as if you received the word of God…when nothing could be further from the truth.

Many, many, MANY wolves in sheep’s clothing these days, the last of the last days.

Beware. Be aware. Discern well and wisely. THINK CRITICALLY. Use the brain God blessed you with to reason, be rational, to compare anything and everything said by anyone against the word of God.

Do this with EVERY pastor [the good ones will tell you this], EVERY on-air professed Christian speaking, every professed Christian writing something.

Listen, hear, read, but then GO TO SCRIPTURE to see if what was heard or read is according to God and His inerrant word, or are you following the words, the lies of man, and this current age?

In judgment, no one is going to have an excuse or blame another, as Adam blamed Eve, not taking responsibility for himself to listen and obey God.

No one is going to be able to say, “I thought what I was being told from the pulpit, from my computer, from my Smartphone was sound doctrine, sorry, God.”

Too late. No excuses. Every person ought to know better.

It is up to each person to know. To spend time with God in His word. To compare and contrast EVERYTHING heard or read to see if what is heard or read aligns with Scripture or not.

Only follow that which aligns with God’s word.

Point out those and that which does not align with God’s word.

Only follow that which aligns with God’s word [redundant, yes, but redundancy is required in these perilous times].

Not the lies, seductions, misleading, beguiling words of men and women. The times demand such discipline from those professing to be disciples.

Oh, there are some very helpful, beneficial related things at the very end of this. I do hope you’ll at least open and check one or two of them out.

Read on…

Ken Pullen, Sunday, August 17th, 2025

Blind Shepherds: When Pastors Proudly Refuse To Submit To The Words Of Scripture

August 17, 2025

By Jonathan Brentner

Reprinted from Harbinger’s Daily

During the time I pastored a small church in eastern Iowa, now just over forty years ago, the pastor of the Methodist church called and asked me to come to his office. When I arrived, I saw he had been studying More Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. I remember that he asked me a few questions about the book before telling me that he was a pastor for twenty years before he became a born-again believer.

Last week, the Lord reminded me of his startling confession, and I began wondering what made the difference between knowing God’s Word and the arrival of saving faith. Surely he had often read the Bible and preached from it many times. The answer came as I remembered the book he was reading at the time, one that defended the veracity of Scripture. He now trusted its life-giving message, which led him to believe in Jesus.

Why is it that so many professing Christians refuse to believe the words of Scripture? Jesus said this in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Despite the unmistakable clarity of His message, many insist that He isn’t the only path to eternal life. A well-known “evangelical” pastor teaches that God saves Muslims apart from their belief in the Savior. Why would he make such a statement that not only contradicts Jesus’ words but the entire New Testament?

Many Bible scholars, who are far more intelligent than I, read the same promises that the Lord made to Israel and teach that somehow they no longer apply to the descendants of Jacob. Despite their wealth of knowledge regarding Scripture and its original languages, they don’t believe what the Lord clearly says about the future restoration of Israel. Why is that?

Even fellow believers, who read the same New Testament that I do, ridicule the whole idea of a Rapture. I have heard several pastors, even those who had a solid grasp of the basics of the Gospel, deny that there is such a thing as the Rapture and preach that all believers will die before the Lord returns. They don’t believe what Paul wrote early in his ministry when he expressed his hope that he might be among the saints who would be alive at the time of Jesus’ appearing (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Why do even pastors who claim that the Bible is inerrant go off on tangents that contradict the words of Scripture? I believe there are two key reasons for their unbelief.

A Refusal to Submit to the Words of Scripture

It remains a mystery to me why so many teachers of God’s Word submit to what it reveals about the saving message of the cross, yet refuse to do so when it comes to future things.

Instead of relying solely on what the Bible says about prophecy, many pastors and Christians adopt variant beliefs after reading books that contradict what the Bible says about the future of Israel. One pastor told me he adhered to the belief in a pre-Tribulation Rapture until he read two such books. Now he believes there’s no such thing. For him, human wisdom trumps all that the New Testament says about our future as believers.

During the past several years, I have crossed paths with many pastors and Christians who retrofit the words of Scripture to fit their own wisdom-based beliefs about future things. They say that the book of Revelation is either allegory, past history, or previously fulfilled prophecy up to the point of the White Throne judgment in 20:11. Reliance on their own insight blinds them to the most thrilling truths in all of God’s Word pertaining to our future as the redeemed. They refuse to accept the plain sense of Scripture.

Is it not this same form of unbelief that keeps many pastors from talking about what lies ahead for the saints and the world? They don’t believe that the Lord will honor a willingness to preach all of Scripture, especially such things as the Rapture or Millennium. Gifted preachers attract large numbers of people to their churches, resulting in multiple services and church plants. Their exclusive emphasis on this life, however, leaves their congregations in the dark regarding what lies ahead for the world.

Pride

Another primary reason that keeps many from submitting to the words of Scripture is something we all deal with on a daily basis: pride. It’s something that keeps many people from believing what theologian Jonathan Edwards said long ago, “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” Pride keeps them bound in their unbelief.

I have often witnessed the bond between pride and a refusal to believe what the Bible says about the Lord’s restoration of Israel and the Rapture. One pastor roared with laughter as I showed him the biblical basis for Israel’s future restoration as a nation. Is it not this same proud spirit that lies behind much of the mocking we endure because of our belief in Jesus’ imminent appearing?

Please know that I struggle with pride on almost a daily basis. I often need to remind myself that it’s only because of the Lord’s grace and great mercy toward me that I have a ministry of writing about our exciting and glorious future as New Testament saints.

In the months following my visit with the Methodist pastor, opposition surfaced in his church because he believed and preached the Gospel. Those opposing forces later succeeded in having him removed as their pastor. Many in his congregation proudly refused to submit to the words of Scripture and persisted in their unbelief regarding the saving message of the cross.

I know most of you experience rejection and ridicule because of your adherence to what Scripture teaches about the Rapture and the fast-approaching Tribulation period. But take heart; Jesus sees and will surely reward your perseverance and longing for His appearing (1 Peter 1:6-9; 2 Timothy 4:8). Perhaps soon, we will all be with the Savior in Heaven with glorified bodies.

Jonathan Brentner is an author, a writer, a Bible Teacher with a passion for encouraging believers with a sound biblical worldview and the nearness of Jesus’ appearing, and a Contributor to Harbinger’s Daily.

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