Insights do come to the faithful as to how his scriptural passages work with each other and to realize their true application. This is where true understanding of the gospel occurs.
It has been no surprise to me that insights or inspiration is a crucial part of learning the word of God. It is always by this method that we can learn how to understand the word of God and learn how God works. It is no different with how God protects his Church and his faithful.
It was with these insights that I learned about the “Gate of Authority”. A term that I use to describe how God protects his Church against Satan.
It was said by Dallin Oaks,
What makes us different from most other Christians in the way we read and use the Bible and other scriptures is our belief in continuing revelation. For us, the scriptures are not the ultimate source of knowledge, but what precedes the ultimate source. The ultimate knowledge comes by revelation. With Moroni we affirm that he who denieth revelation knoweth not the gospel of Christ (Morm. 9:8).
Dallin H. Oaks, Scripture Reading and Revelation, Ensign, Jan. 1995, 7
Yesterday, I was on Gospel Link (www.gospelink.com) reading a page from the book entitled, “Angels” by Oscar W. McConkie. The specific chapter was, “Fallen Angels” and I read the following,
Satan has had such success among men in the flesh that he is considered the god of this world. Paul said, “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:14–15).
The part that caught my eye was the statement that it was no great thing that Satan’s ministers also transformed into ministers of righteousness. This said to me that Satan’s ministers had the ability and power to appear as ministers of righteousness, which is to take the Bible and preach, but because they are not of the light, the words they speak are not truth and how they use the scriptures would be evil and wicked.
The thought that immediately came to mind was seeing these ministers of Satan posing as Christian ministers. The pastors, evangelists, etc. How easy it would be for them to preach false doctrines and mislead, even by using the Bible, but how can they do this? Is there not some protection God instituted to help protect us from these false ministers? The answer was right there and it revealed much.
I remembered that there are many Christian denominations, all have differing doctrines about the same thing, different beliefs and claims. Such that they are actually contrary or contradictory to each other. This tells me that there are false doctrines with them, since all of them cannot be right. It does not matter if they claim “unity” among their different denominations, the fact that they hold differing doctrines confirms falsehood. With the existence of false doctrines, wouldn’t that open the door to false preachers and ministers? – Yes it would.
I remembered the passage in the Bible warning of false teachers and prophets, even false witnesses in these latter days. All would proclaim to speak the truth, but in truth they would be speaking heresies and false doctrines. A question came to mind which asked, “would God leave his sheep helpless and unprotected? Would God allow his sheep to the wiles of wolves without a means to ensure protection”?
For God’s sheep to live and worship rightly in a world full of wolves, there must be walls and doors for the sheep to enter in, keeping the wolves out. This showed me that there is a definite need for a physical Church made by and administered by God, but how can God ensure that the ministers of Satan do not enter the doors of his (God’s) church and ensure they do not twist doctrine and mislead?
The answer was right there before my eyes.
We know that evil cannot do good which confirms that evil cannot partake of God’s light. Therefore evil has no power or ability to enter into and carry the true light of God. A minister of Satan carrying the light of God is an impossible event. Satan or his angels appearing as an Angel of Light is not God’s light, it speaks of a false light, one that mimics and is not real or true. Satan cannot give the light of peace and truth, but God can.
When the light of God is not present to stop the ministers of Satan, then there is an open door for them to enter and they will. Satan’s plan is to cause many to fall short of their salvation. By this, Satan revels in disorder or discord, confusion and misdirection, to appease personal desires and lusts while leading the unwary down a flowery path of falsehood to damnation. A church or ministry that has no real organization from God, that was built by man, has no protection against these evil ministers. They are an open door. Do we not see this today? How many Christian churches allow same gender marriages or assign homosexuals to the position of bishops or pastors? How can someone who partakes of these sins preach the word of God and claim they follow the Bible? The Bible speaks against it, but as the evil ministers preach their false words to appease, these crooked doctrines take hold. All occur within a church that proclaims the Bible! How twisted it has become. What is stopping this wickedness from happening in those churches? – NOTHING!
That spoke volumes to me. It showed me that in order for God’s true Church to maintain his order, his doctrine, his truth must, again, must have the power and authority from God to push out these degradations. Key words are “power and authority”.
It was the power and authority given to the Apostles of old that cast out demons but when some vagabonds tried to self-assign themselves with authority and power, proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ, the demon said “I know Jesus and Paul, but you I do not know”. These false preachers and believers of God were called “exorcists”.
It is so true, that any person can take the Bible and preach with no concern as to proper authority from God. These are the men and women who mislead, even in their ignorance of the scriptures.
I would not want just any person, with the whim of his/her own personal ideas, preaching the word of God. I would want someone who is authorized by God, prepared by God, led by God and taught by his teachers. I would then know that this person is right before God and I can trust his word. To me this is important because I have listened to “pastors” and “ministers” in my life and none gave me the true light of God until I entered this Church.
This is important to realize. God does not want Satan to minister to his faithful and lead them astray. What value is the shepherd keeping to the flock if the wolf can easily enter and destroy? What vanguard exists that stops these false ministers at the door? Do you want just any person to enter the Lord’s Church, knowing nothing of him except his personal claim that he is a minister of God? Unfortunately, many churches and people think this is grand, accepting just anyone based on their personal proclamation that they have a ministry. Have they forgot about the warning of a wolf in sheep clothing? Clearly saying that “appearances and claims” are not acceptable!
It is certainly more fun to proclaim your own personal ministry than place oneself into an organization that administers godly authority. Yes, a personal ministry means freedom, but it also means “no protection”. Once a person denies the authority of God, he shall live without that authority. Have we not seen this already in the Bible, where when people ignore God, God ignores them?
What then, is God’s first line of defence? When I realized this, I saw that the answer is actually very simple and it is right in the Bible! I found that it is something that these evil persons, false ministers, cannot partake.
The answer is…baptism by water and by the Spirit. (John 3:5)
Jesus gave the commandment to us that the only way to enter into the Plan of Salvation and eventually enter into the Kingdom of God is by baptism by water and by the Spirit. Jesus did not give any person this authority. Reading the Bible, it was clear that authority to baptise is imperative. Read Acts 19. The first few passages show the effect of false or unauthorized baptism. Paul had asked a few believers of Christ if they received the Holy Ghost, they said they know nothing of it. Paul then asked unto what they were baptized, and they said “Unto John’s baptism”.
This meant that someone took it upon himself to mimic baptism as given by John the Baptist. Just like the “exorcists” mimicked the apostles. They believed they could do the same thing without answering to God and his authority. As with them and those who copied John’s baptism, they had no authority from God to baptize and thus the baptism was invalid and with no power. Those believers of Christ were not baptized properly. They had belief, but had nothing more and it was clear that without proper baptism, there is no salvation into the kingdom for them. Paul then led them to an authorized baptism and once done, they received the Holy Ghost. This is straight from the Bible. Now they were saved.
The Bible made it clear that Jesus gave “power” or “authority” to only a select few. Any person who was to partake of this power was to enter into the only Church that Christ organized in the manner designed by the Father. Enter not into that proper baptism, means there is no baptism. It would be as if baptism never occurred.
It God’s authority that gives this baptism process power to the faithful. I found that the baptism commandment was not only for our salvation, it also gave us a means to gauge who is of God and who is not. It said to me that any person who enters into baptism is NOT a minister of Satan. That person may fall or sin later, but that is still not a minister of Satan.
Take a good look at this. Without this gate or doorway called baptism, any minister of Satan can enter any church and be ravenous like a wolf. This gateway called baptism is what stops Satan from sending his ministers of evil. No evil minister can partake of baptism by water. Why is this? Again it is simple, the ministers of Satan are eternally damned. There is no reprieve, no grace, no way out for them and it is already final. This means they are prohibited from partaking of baptism. They cannot enter the Lord’s Church because the gate of baptism stops them. This very fact existed during the Early Christian Church and exists today in this same Church of Christ.
That is the light of truth and power that pushes back the ministers of Satan.
Consider, this gate must have power from God for it to work, else Jesus Christ would not say that we must enter baptism by water and be baptized of the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of God. Yet, this power is not automatic just because you or I believe. The example of believers confronted by Paul the apostle mentioned above, says that the power from God is not automatic. In other words, God does not authorize just any person who wants to baptize and does not empower just any baptism.
In the Bible, this gate belonged only to the Church of Christ, through which God administers his plan of salvation. This gate did NOT belong to “many different churches”, else Jesus Christ would have given the power of baptism to any church and Jesus would have preached it that way, but he did not preach it that way. As the scriptures stand, only those authorized can baptize and only in the Church made by the Lord. The ordinance of Baptism by water unto repentance and baptism by the Spirit (or baptism by fire) can only occur in the Lord’s Church. That is the “protection”, that is the gate of authority. No one can enter least they abide in it.
It is the ease by which these ministers of Satan can enter other Christian churches as pastors, evangelists, etc, that was so disturbing. The ease to enter any other Christian church because the authority to baptise does not exist with them, God did not ordain it to them. The “gate of authority” is not with them. The evil minister then has no fear of these other churches as there is nothing stopping him and beliefs alone have no power to stop Satan’s ministers from appearing to entice.
Baptism by water and the Holy Spirit is what keeps out these ministers of Satan. It is the gateway that protects the faithful from being misled. It is the way of Christ. It is why Jesus said to us, be baptized or be damned.
Amen
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