Hidden Enemy

The Hidden Enemy

Some of you may know that my wife and I joined Rebecca and Junior Miller this past Sunday at a Baptist church. We went there also with Bruce, Rebecca's brother, to see Bruce's 16 year old son get baptized. (Unfortunately, his son --- who is staying with his mom --- was sick and could not attend.) Well, we stayed there anyway, and listened to the lesson presented. Let me tell you, from the start, this preacher had my ire up. He started off telling the all-white (with the exception of 3 people of African descent) audience that some of us probably are thinking that we could lose our salvation. He went on to use Scripture to 'prove' to us that we could not. Well, as you can guess, he failed to prove it to me. He started off by quoting Matthew 1-6, where within you can read verse 6 in the NIV bible as: Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me. Unfortunately, he read from the NASB version which translates that verse as: And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me. Quite a difference. I looked up that verse in the King James Version and I found it to read: And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. And taking this a little further, I found the Youngs Literal Translation to read: and happy is he who may not be stumbled in me. Using the Blue Letter Bible to research the original Greek wording, I discovered that the word skandalizo is the one in question here. It was translated as thus in the NIV: 'fall away'; in the NASB as ‘take offense’, in the KJV as ‘be offended’ and Youngs as ‘be stumbled’. No WONDER the preacher thought this verse helped to prove is point about once saved, always saved. Skandalon, a Greek word with almost identical translations, variant as they may be, also appears throughout the book of Matthew, as well as in several other NT books. In fact, these two words appear in the New Testament a total of 44 times. The Gospel of Matthew leads by far with 19 occurrences, Mark a distant second at 8. Of the 44 New Testament occurrences, 26 are placed in the mouth of Jesus by the gospel writers. 32 of the 44 are in the four gospels; 9 are from the letters of Paul; and one each for 1st Peter, 1st John, and Revelation.

The most unfortunate thing about his preaching was, however, that he didn’t use all references to this subject and come to a logical conclusion. He didn’t include 2^nd Corinthians 6:1, 2^nd Peter 2:20-22, James 5:19, Galatians 5:1-4 (NSAB is very explicit here as well), Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 4:17 – 5:5, and Matthew 7:21-23, just to name a few. If he had, he should have logically concluded that salvation, even though a gift from God, can be ‘lost’. That is not to say one cannot ‘find’ it again, as God will forgive all of men’s sins, but the point is, it can be lost.

The title of this lesson is The Hidden Enemies. I chose that one because of my ire during that service. I was reading a translation one way, and he another. Also, his teaching was contradictory to what I have been taught and have repeatedly studied about. However, all those folks listening to that young preacher probably did not know any better, simply because they were all following blindly and most probably had NEVER studied this subject in any great detail themselves. They took their preacher’s word for it. Hidden Enemies? Absolutely. Translators of the books of the bible are also hidden enemies. Even though they, as well as most preachers, are well meaning (perhaps), they are our enemies. They state things that are not always true…it is our mission to determine what is, and what is not, of the truth. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:6: Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. How do you do that? Study subjects yourself, using as many references as you can. Fight this enemy. Do you think our preachers have always been right? No, I didn’t think you did. But what have you done to prove them wrong? If nothing, shame on you. You are letting the hidden enemies win. Paul also warns us about deceiving enemies in 2nd Thessalonians 2:11: "For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie".

I believe that a person CAN lose his salvation. Not just because our preachers tell us so, but because I have studied this subject many times, and in some depth. There DO appear to be some conflicting Scriptures, but when I read them all using different Bible translations, and reading other peoples’ studies on the same subject, and make a logical conclusion about the matter, I can come up with only one; that salvation CAN be lost.

Our hidden enemy is not Satan. He simply uses hidden techniques. Our hidden enemies are the interpretations of Scripture by man….both when Bibles are translated, as well as when they are preached. What I am warning you all about is to fight this invisible enemy. Fight him with logical thought. Fight him with deep studies of God’s Word. The truth IS there….it is up to each of us to discover that truth. So, put on the armor of God and fight.

Warrior Mac….