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What causes a person to depart from the word of God? Why would one apostatize from the truth of New
Testament Christianity? Yet many do this each day when they:
Finally, in 721 B.C. they were conquered by the Assyrian Empire and many were sent into captivity. "Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God." (2 Ki. 17:14). "For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them." (2 Ki.17:22). Christianity today is suffering under the influence of many Jeroboams or false teachers. We can learn a lot from this ancient false teacher about the tactics Satan and his minions use to deceive folks. Because of the sins of Solomon and the insolence of his son, Rehoboam, God divided the kingdom of ancient Israel (cf. 1 Ki. 11:31-33). Years before, Jeroboam had escaped from Solomon to exile in Egypt but returned after Solomon died and heard the speech by Rehoboam. Soon after that, the northern 10 tribes of Israel made him their king. Jeroboam realized the attraction religion had for the Israelites. The temple in Jerusalem, built by Solomon, was the center of worship and national allegiance. The faithful went there three times a year for feast days and sacrifices. Tithes were paid to the priests in Jerusalem. He saw and coveted the power of religion and feared the people would desert him for Jerusalem. He needed religion to control his peoples' hearts. His own heart was corrupted (1 Ki. 12:26). God had promised him that he would retain the northern kingdom if he remained faithful to Him (1 Ki. 11:38). His actions betrayed his unbelief in those promises and his corrupt heart. When his own hide was at stake he forsook the God of his fathers. Likewise false teachers of today covet the supposed influence and power of religion. The apostle Paul revealed their corrupt hearts when he warned, "For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly..." (Rom. 16:18-emph. mine RLR). The phrase their own belly means that they follow their own lusts and self interest. They see the church of Christ as a vehicle for power and that gain is godliness (1 Tim. 6:5). With carnal cleverness Jeroboam decided to establish a new state religion in his kingdom. Instead of worshipping Jehovah they would worship golden calves (1 Ki. 12:28); like their ancestors at Mount Sinai (Ex. 32:4). Instead of one center of worship they would now have two: Dan and Bethel. Jeroboam had created a religion of convenience. He was saying, "Come worship the calf of your choice." This struck at the very heart of the Old Covenant (Deut. 6:4-5). Our modern world is filled with shrines and images which distract many from worshipping the invisible God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Whether it be a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary or the Islamic Kabbah in Mecca, it amounts to idolatry (Ex. 20:4). God has made it clear in His word that it is a sin to worship the wrong thing (Jn. 4:24). Modern day millions worship the wrong thing every Sunday in their places of worship. This includes such false deities as:
Jeroboam tried to divert the people's devotion away from worshipping Jehovah in Jerusalem. "And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi." (1 Ki. 12:31). The houses or shrines were idolatrous places of worship which tried to imitate the temple in Jerusalem. In our own age men and women create many denominations, falsely thinking they are a part of the church you read about in the New Testament. But they fail to realize that God has only one temple today in which His Spirit dwells (1 Cor.3:16), not many denominations (Eph. 4:5). Jeroboam chose to ordain his own priests for his new religion from the dregs of society rather than using the Levites, God's chosen tribe of priests (1 Ki. 13:33). God has always been specific about who should serve in His temple. Today every Christian is a priest of God (1 Pet. 2:9). Yet false teachers today impose the clergy-laity system which is a sin (Matt. 20:25-28). He also tried to imitate the feast days celebrated at Jerusalem (1 Ki. 12:32-33). The Feast of Tabernacles was in the seventh month, the 15th day of the Hebrew calendar. On that day the first fruits of the harvest were offered to God at the temple and the people slept outdoors in tents. But Jeroboam devised a feast in his own mind and held it on the fifteenth day of the eighth month in Dan and Bethel, rather than at the temple in Jerusalem. Likewise the false teacher of today tries to change the pattern of worship found in the New Testament of Jesus Christ The observance of the Lord's Supper becomes a mass with all its pomp and ceremony or just a common meal held when they choose rather than every Sunday (cf. 1 Cor. 11:29). Mechanical instruments of music, choirs and solos are added to the only authorized use of music in worship — singing (Col. 3:16). The contribution on the first day of week (1 Cor. 16:2) gives way to either obligatory tithing (an Old Testament practice) or garage sales and carnivals, which is just another form of begging. And finally, teaching and preaching becomes a mere pep talk or some emotional extravaganza rather an exhortation from the word of God. In his quest for newness Jeroboam produced a pseudo-Judaism and a new pattern for God's ordained one: new gods, new priesthood, new temples, new worship. God had told Israel centuries before, "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." (Deut. 4:2). False teachers also seek newness at the expense of the word of God. When they introduce things contrary to the pattern of the New Testament they cause themselves and others to sin (Rev. 22:18). As someone once said, "In Christianity if it's new it isn't true." This master of deception went on to make himself high priest of this new religion; dedicating altars and installing priests (1 Ki. 12:32). His goal of power and control was reached. All false teachers are masters of deception like their mentor, Satan (2 Cor. 11:3). We should beware of those who depart from God's word and do not follow His pattern, lest we suffer their same fate. "And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth." (1 Ki. 13:34). |