Be Wise : Let No Man Deceive | Entangle | Defraud

Be Wise and Let No Man Deceive | Entangle | Defraud | Spoil you... things not after truthful Bible teachings... things that are inappropriate Biblical teachings for today

Let No Man Deceive you with VAIN WORDS

Ephesians 5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

Let No Man Spoil you into PHILOSOPHY, VAIN DECEIT

Colossians 2:8: Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Let No Man Entangle you into JUDGMENTS OF RELIGIOUS LEGALISM

Colossians 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Colossians 2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

Let No Man Beguile you into RELIGIOUS LEGALISM, ORDINANCES, DOCTRINES OF MEN

Colossians 2:18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
Colossians 2:19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
Colossians 2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
Colossians 2:21 Touch not; taste not; handle not;
Colossians 2:22 Which all are to perish with the using; after the commandments and doctrines of men?
Colossians 2:23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

Let No Man Entangle you into HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE

Romans 1:26: For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
Romans 1:27: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

Let No Man Forbid you into MARRIAGE

I Timothy 4:3: Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

Let No Man Defraud or Frustrate you in any MATTER, ESPECIALLY GRACE VS. LAW SALVATION

I Thessalonians 4:6: That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
Galatians 2:21: I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

What’s up Doc?

Do you ever ask anyone to pray for you? Do you ever follow the injunction to gather two or three together to pray in the name of the Lord?

I mention this because you ridicule the notion of praying to or with dead humans, neglecting the fact that the Lord Himself, while fully divine, was Himself for a time a ‘dead human’. Those who believe in Him and have died, are still very much alive.

He is God therefor, of the living, not the dead, and Jesus states that people who are living with the Lord in heaven are very much alive. To state otherwise is to place oneself in the camp of the Sadducees.

Please read:

37 “ Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Ex. 3.6

38 For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

39 Then certain of the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well said.”

It goes without saying that the condemned are themselves ‘alive’, living in eternal judgment.

19”Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20”For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

Recall too that the Lord Himself, while on earth spoke to, what some may call a, ‘dead human’.

…3 “And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”…

As a point of order, I do mention here that Elijah has not yet died, but was taken up to return a the time of the Anti-christ. Moses still makes your ‘dead human’ team, though.

It is NOT a question that these men are dead, for surely Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elijah, and all faithful men and women in the Old Testament are alive with the resurrected Christ. But on the issue to praying for the dead, or those alive with Christ, this is not a Biblical matter to pray to, for Christ, the Head of the Church, His Body, all believer-saints, have HIM as our mediator to pray directly to God the Father by means of the Holy Spirit and Christ Jesus.

I Timothy 2:5: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus

There is no need, nor any impress upon Christ Jesus, if we continue to pray to the dead (or alive with Christ, as to the point you are making). Today, we pray only directly to God via the mediation of Christ Jesus. He is the LORD over those who are alive with Christ, so why must anyone pray to the lower when we already have the HIGHER, which is Christ Jesus, the one mediator between God and men. All believer-saints should abandon praying to the dead (or alive with Christ). It accomplishes nothing that prayers to Christ Jesus would accomplish.

If you avoid Christ’s instruction to pray together, then yes, your point makes sense. However, the principle of two or three praying together states that we can and should pray for each others’ needs.

If Christ instructed us to do so, He certainly knows what is best, and this means that we are to INTERCEDE, (i.e., pray) for one another.
This in no way negates Christ’s role but rather, we are the BODY OF CHRIST, so we pray for each other IN HIM — the head of the body. We are IN CHRIST.

“So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” Romans 12:5

Whether you call someone on the phone to pray with you, or you are with brethren in person, you are still praying together. We pray for each others’ needs, and like providing food or medicine; this is an act of charity.

A husband can certainly pray for his wife, or a parents together ofor for a child. These are acts of love and protection. And love is stronger than death; it does not end with the grave.

Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is stronger than death,
passion fiercer than the grave.

We are part of the communion of saints, and united with the God of the LIVING; Christ is the head, and we are all parts of that one body. One Body. The Church is one in the Lord, whether resurrected or still on earth working out one’s own salvation with fear and trembling.

Ephesians 4:25
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

Your loved ones who may be deceased from this life and have been born into eternal life do not shuck off the memory or care that they have for you. “...being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Phil 2:2-4

Most certainly, those you initially referred to as ‘dead people’ are not at all dead, they, like we, are members of the body of Christ. They love you, they love me, and they, being one in and with Christ, will pray for anyone who asks.

Please forgive my tardy reply. I’m only online at certain times because of work.

I don’t think I will be able to overcome your objections, but I would like to pass along a couple of stories that don’t jibe with the evangelical line (as I understand it.)

The first is from the Old Testament, and it is interesting in that the miracle occurred WITHOUT any prayer by ANYONE. No request was made to God, but rather IMHO, it shows the power of a righteous man, even when dead and in the grave.

Now, I’m sure your Evang hackles have been raised. Before I get to the precise story, keep in mind that God works in His own ways, and Christ had to inform the Pharisees of such. Recall that they were telling Him, in effect, ‘you can’t heal like this, like that, on this day, you must have a demon to cast out demons,’ etc.

This story establishes a precedent on the ways of God, ways which are not OUR ways, or even ways we want to, at times, accept.

It comes from 2 Kings 13:20-21—

…20 Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites would invade the land in the spring of the year. 21 As they were burying a man, behold, they saw a marauding band; and they cast the man into the grave of Elisha. And when the man touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood up on his feet.

My premise is that the bones of a righteous man or woman have the ability to heal. This shows that God wills it so. This story provides that proof.

There is also a story from the New Testament that is in line with Catholic practice, (and I believe the Orthodox as well), which shows the power of a servant of God to bless objects which would heal people.

But first, do you not recall the story of the woman with the hemorrhage who only but touched Christ’s garment and was healed?

Mark 5:24-29
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

Now I ask you to remember that Christ said the HIS FOLLOWERS WOULD DO GREATER ACTS THAN HE!

John 14:12

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”

Acts 19:11-12
11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

And this, my friend, is the basis for some of those Catholic Christian “greater works” (the words of Christ).

When you read the lives of the Saints that the Church cherishes even from antiquity, know that great labor has been spent on verifying the truthfulness of these occurrences.

And ask yourself, how often, if at all, have these greater works than Christ been done in your church?

If Christ wants and wills these things to be done in His name, and they have been done, then I submit that YES, something IS being lost in not using the gifts provided. We are not to bury His gifts to us under a stone, nor to hide our lamps under a bushel basket.

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