[Photograph above by C. R. Tindle.]
Part 1
CHRISTLESS
CHRISTIANITY
By J. F. ROWLANDS
One of the many unmistakable signs that we are living in the
closing days of this dispensation of Grace and that the second coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ is now imminent, is the rapid spread of many false religions
and doctrines throughout the world. This
state of affairs was clearly foretold by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 24: 11, when He said: “Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive
many.” It is very sad to say, but the time has come which
was spoken of by the Apostle Paul in 2 Tim. 4: 3, 4:-
“When they will
not endure sound doctrine; but after
their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
and they shall turn away their ears from
the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” We are now
living in the days of fabulous beliefs! Many
hearts have been bewitched by evil and have been warped into error (Gal. 3: 1). It is very important for the individual
Christian to be on the alert against a satanic invasion into fundamental
beliefs. It is wise for us to remind
ourselves that not all who mention Christ’s name are true. In Matt. 7: 21-23,
Jesus says Himself: “Not everyone that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of
Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in Heaven. Many will
say unto Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Thy Name, and in Thy Name have cast our devils, and in Thy Name
done many wonderful works? And then will
I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” We are living in a
sign-seeking generation and Satan has his own agents preaching in Christ’s Name,
casting out devils in Christ’s Name and doing many wonderful works in Christ’s
Name: fifth-columnists practising Iscariotism within the
Once again we must remember that not all who prophesy about
Christ are true. An instance of this is
clearly given in Acts 16: 16 certain damsel
prophesied about Paul and Silas being servants of God. Paul knew that, despite the correctness of her
predictions, she was possessed with an evil spirit and immediately rebuked the devil
from her in these words: “I command thee in the Name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”*
[* NOTE. Regenerate believers who imagine
that the Holy Spirit cannot or will not leave them for wilful
sin and disobedience after their initial conversion, are living in what
might be rightly described as, - ‘Satan’s dream world
in which there is no reality!’
We need only read in the Scriptures how the Holy Spirit left Saul, after His anointing him through
Samuel the prophet as God’s chosen king, to discover what is happening all
around us today within Christendom. See,
1 Sam. 10: 1. cf. 1 Sam. 16: 14, LXX. Also Judges 16:
20b and Psa. 51: 11; also G. H. Lang’s: “The Personal
Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.”]
There are many people
who are specialists in twisting the Scriptures and tearing
verses away from their contexts; conveniently leaving out a little here and
adding a little there. In this connection we must remember
that not all who quote Scriptures are true.
In Matt. 4: 1-11 we see the
devil himself quoting Scripture after Scripture to the Lord Jesus, and many
instruments of that same devil are busying themselves today quoting and
misquoting miscellaneous odd Scriptures artfully wrenched away from their
original setting, in an endeavour to bolster up some erroneous belief in God. Don’t believe everybody who comes to your
front door selling books and talking about God. The Scripture clearly bids
us avoid such people “and to have no company with them, that they may be ashamed” (2 Thess. 3: 14). Any [regenerate] believer who hobnobs with the likes of these people
is acting contrary to the instructions of the Word of God and is a stumbling
block to the progress of true Christianity.
Isms and splits usually started by disciplined undesirables
and/or expelled cranks. The most extraordinary and fantastic religions spring up overnight.
Fanatics break away from Apostolic Truth
having mistaken wildfire for the true Holy Ghost Fire.
No time must be lost, we must earnestly contend for the
Apostolic Faith that was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3). This
precious faith should be the possession of every believer. Everything should be sacrificed to obtain it. There is no message in all
the world so beautiful as the true Christian message! The Christian Faith alone leads to God, and
Jesus Christ alone is able to forgive sin (John 14:
6 and Acts 4: 12).
In these days of turmoil and strife there is a great stir amongst the peoples to return to God, and in
unprecedented numbers men and women are seeking Christ. Thousands of these seekers will never find Him
because of the Christless Christianity being preached from many a pulpit. Christianity without a Living Christ is an
empty shell. A Christian without a
born-again experience is a white-washed sinner. A religion that denies the Divinity of Christ,
the Virgin Birth, Salvation through the Blood and the glorious Resurrection, is
a false religion.
* *
*
Part 2
FALSE
MESSIAHS
By WM.
BEIRNES*
[* NOTE.
This tract was first published in Mr. Panton’s
Evangelical Magazine, (‘Dawn’ May,
1951).]
There are three distinctly different peoples, different in
race and religion, scattered over the whole earth, who
are looking for the coming of some Great Personage. They are the Arab or Moslem people, the Jews,
and the Christians. They are not looking
for him in the distant future. Each
group is looking for their Great One in their lifetime. They are expecting him to come soon, very
soon, any time, thus making the conditions perfect for the appearance of false
messiahs and the prince of all false messiahs, “the antichrist.”
The
Christians Have the Blessed Hope of
Christ’s
Return in Their Generation
Of the three groups of expectant watchers, only one, the true
Christian is not subject to these deceptions. Christ is to return, first with the sound of
the trumpet for the rapture,* and at His revelation He will come
riding out of the heavens on His white horse with power and great glory,
followed by His glorified saints. The
rapture and the revelation cannot be counterfeited. Before the rapture the “many” who come in His name
saying “I am
Christ” will deceive only
those professors who are religious minded but do not understand the Scriptures
regarding the manner of His coming, or those backslidden in heart and willing
to be deceived. Even the tribulation, weary
believers who refuse the mark of the beast and flee from one hiding place to another
waiting for Jesus to come, when they are told, “behold He is in the desert, behold He is in
the secret place,” will
not be misled, knowing that “as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto
the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” This, His revelation, is scheduled “immediately after
the tribulation of those days.” No
true believer when he knows the Scriptural teaching of the rapture and
revelation will be deceived. Christ is the
Christians’ coming King, their deliverer from “those things that shall come to pass.” We know Him by Christian experience, and know
that He is coming again at the end of this age during this time of tribulation –
“distress of nations with perplexity.” There turn of the Jews to
[*NOTE. Those who believe the
responsibility truths and conditional promises of God see
more than one rapture if living saints.
Luke 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10. cf.
1 Thess. 4: 15.]
The
Jews are Looking for Their Messiah
To
Come
They are looking for Him to come in their lifetime. But they have always looked for Him*
so, even as the Christians of bygone centuries have looked for the coming of
Christ in their time. I heard a Rabbi
say that he expected the Messiah to come in his lifetime. Some are known to be praying earnestly for the
Messiah to come, and expressing willingness to accept Him “even if He should prove to be the Christ of the Gentiles.”
The prophecies disclose that during the
great tribulation many will be convinced, and when the nations of the world
gather against Jerusalem to battle, they will pray in greater earnestness and
in distress of soul for Messiah, the Christ of Calvary, to come and save them
and He will “appear
to be their glory” but to
the shame and destruction of the nations gathered against them to battle. Did not Jesus tell them “ye shall not see me
henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord”?
[* The following,
entitled “For
Your Jewish Information.” was published by Jews For
Jesus, Sh’vat 5773/Feburary 2013:-
“Shabbetai Zvi was born in
His
fame extended to
Through
the ages there have been many false Messiahs.
Shabbetai did not fulfil any of the Messianic prophecies laid out in the
Tenach.
However, Y’shua (our Lord Jesus) fulfilled
many of them in His first coming and will fulfil the remainder on His
return. It is sad that so many of our
Jewish people do not yet recognise His Messiahship. Please continue to pray that the veil will be torn from
the eyes of our Jewish brethren.” +
+ And we might also add, - ‘That the veil might be torn from the eyes of our’
Anti-millennial
Christian
brethren!]
Moslems
Are Looking for Their Messiah
(Mahdi) in
Their Lifetime
There are many political and religious factions in the Arab
world, any or all of which may produce would-be Super-men, but eventually one must
take the spotlight and be accepted by all. In northern
Now comes
news of a new Mahdi in
According to the religious belief of this Moslem Cult all the
great personages from Adam, through Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and the
latter’s successors were representatives or manifestations of God (Allah). The Bahais, of which we have many groups in this country, teach
similarly, doubtless because Bahaism had its source
in the Mohammedan religion. They too,
declare the coming of a great one, another “manifestation of God”. He is to have a name all his own. The declaration of Scripture that Jesus will
return in the clouds of Heaven as He so asserted, is, they declare, not to be
taken literally. “This same Jesus” is not coming again “in like manner as He went into Heaven,” but will come only in spirit in another body as all the
former “manifestations of God have come. To make Bahaism
acceptable to all people they have attempted to produce a universal religion by
adopting and combining portions of the creeds of all religions and inviting
people of all creeds to a universal compromise thus making, what might be
termed, a religious
The Cult of which Saleh Ali Shah is
the head requires that each successive leader must produce written evidence
which has been handed down to him from the twelfth Imam who is believed to have
been Mohammed’s last legitimate successor. He lived centuries ago and finally entered a
cave from which he never returned. It is
believed that some day when mankind is in terrible trouble he will emerge from
the cave and deliver them.
The adherents of the Sufi Cult believe that Saleh Ali Shah and his father and grandfather before him
are the true representatives of the “hidden Mahdi.” They
are inclined to reject the doctrine of succession and to accept that of spiritual
revelation. Therefore, Saleh Ali Shah is greatly venerated, always surrounded by
many devout worshipers. His doctrine, he
declares, differs from that of the rest of the Moslem world for they follow the
law, while his followers seek for light and truth and the way to Heaven. People make pilgrimages for long distances to
sit at his feet.
With a manner calm, serene and sincere, this new Mahdi believes himself to be the highest spiritual
authority now present on this earth, but there is no indication of pride or
arrogance in his bearing. Above average
height, he wears a black beard, and soft brown eyes look out from a mild but
commanding countenance. One devotee
declared those eyes fascinated him. A
wealthy young Stifi business man from Teheran
expressing himself regarding this great cult leader,
said that Saleh Ali Shah was greater in his eyes than
the Pope of Rome was to the Catholics.
The
Man of Sin - The Super-Deceiver
It is a man of this type who will first interest himself in
the welfare of both Jews and Arabs in their contentions over
- The Midnight Cry.
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