Back to basics

By Elizabeth Prata

I wrote this series in 2011, ten years ago. Things are worse now, as we know. Things have worsened exponentially. So I’m bringing back this series for another round in hopes it might help someone in this decade.

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I’ve been mulling over some things about apostasy. This is because in the course of my online and real life discernment and encouragement ministry, I see that the essential doctrines of our faith not only are being eroded “out there”, but also “in here”, in Christian places and in people close to me. I am horrified at the depth and breadth of the erosion of what I believed were the obvious givens. I am grieving over the adherence of many people to the destructive heresies.

In my mind, the “obvious givens” start with the the Gospel. That Sovereign God Jesus lived as fully man on earth, was sinless, died on the cross, bore the wrath of God for payment of our sins, was buried and resurrected by the power of God on the third day. That’s the Gospel. One must believe those essentials in order to be saved. But even this basic tenet, the one that distinguishes us from ALL other philosophies, doctrines, faiths and assertions, is being corrupted daily. I had known it was bad in our faith. I had believed the prophesies about how bad it would get. I hadn’t realized how bad the foundations had been eroded, or how many people are affected.

I worry strongly for the mature in the faith who are being drawn away by doctrines of devils, seducing spirits, empty philosophies that are said to come. (1 Timothy 4:1, Colossians 2:8).

I’m worried for the new believers in our faith who watch the way mature believers act and listen to what the mature believers say as they get carried away with seducing spirits and the new ones are being carried away too.

I’m shifting my focus from discernment and encouragement to explain simply what the basics are. There are people out there who believe we can be saved if we dream of Jesus in a jungle or that God is so big He could justly accept people into heaven who have not been born again by faith in ALL the Gospel… Our brethren are at risk from these false and vain philosophies!

So for a while I’m going to go back to the basics. We have to look at these things through an end time lens, well, because we are in the end time. As a matter of fact, the end time deceptions are simply exploding right now, at a pace that faints my heart. I want to do this because when we’re gone, and it seems that we will be soon, the people who are left behind and need to convert will need milk.

Jesus is paramount. His Word must be adhered to strictly. Jesus finished His Sermon on the Mount, a lengthy discourse on how to live as a follower of Him. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:26-27).

The Word of God is our rock. It will never fall. Let’s begin… This “Back to Basics” series will continue on Saturday and then into next week. I am glad, because I need to re-study the Gospel, the basics, because we can never outgrow the original, transcendent, saving basics of the faith. They’re eternal and encouraging for one and all from the newborn believer to the old in the faith.