Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by: April J. Buchanan

He came into the world to save sinners.

We hardly grasp the thought. We can imagine someone entering our lives, seeing our brokenness, rescuing us from ourselves and from the wounds inflicted by others. But we have not beheld such glory, such holiness, as arrests the heart and shatters every lofty thought, even those clothed in self-pity. We have not been struck with that terrifying fear whereby holiness breaks forth and exposes the wretched man we are.

Oh, what terrifying holiness.

The attributes of God have been romanticized and stripped of their divine glory. Men now ascribe to themselves the worth deserving of such love, such grace, such mercy. It is folly even to speak this way. These words become bankrupt of divine meaning when God Himself is not rightly known.

They love faith, faith emptied of biblical meaning and filled instead with man’s imagined revelations. Faith becomes a tool for selfish gain. Faith becomes a power man possesses to accomplish great things for God and to extract from God what he desires.

Man is far more wicked than he gives himself credit for. He does not know how evil he truly is, nor does he recognize the grace that restrains him from becoming as evil as he is fully capable of being.

Wicked is the man who lies, cheats, steals, and lives according to his fallen nature. But far more wicked is the man who takes upon himself the name child of God and teaches falsehood in God’s name, who uses the holy Word of God to proclaim his own imaginations, who encourages egregious practices falsely attributed to the Holy Spirit.

No, he does not fear God.

How can one who claims the indwelling Spirit continue to prophesy lies, pervert the Word of grace, attribute to the Holy Spirit what is not of Him, restore heretics to churches, and still claim regeneration?

Such men are exposed and rejected by those who obey God and love truth. They are embraced by those who love falsehood and have no fear of God. For if they did, such blasphemies would strike holy terror in their hearts, and they would fall on their faces in repentance, not on their backs in false manifestations.

God is holy. He will not be mocked. Every man will stand before Him.

There are those who boast in all they have done in His name, blind to the reality that what they have done in His name is blasphemous. They are the very ones He warned His bride about. They do not fear now. They boast.

In their folly they speak, act, participate, and encourage some of the most blood-curdling blasphemies, teaching heresies while convincing themselves they will hear, “Well done.” Instead they will hear, “Get away from Me; I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness.”

They do not fear now, nor do those who love the lies spoken in God’s name. These words are horrifying even to write. For unless they truly repent and their faith proves genuine, they are not storing up treasures in heaven. They will not hear “well done.” They will face the holy, righteous, terrifying judgment of God for every word spoken, every deed done in His name, and every wicked work they called good.

What they believed was good is evil, for they do not know God. Worse still, He does not know them savingly, relationally.

Some know exactly what they are doing and have no fear of God. Others are deceived, yet the judgment they imagine reserved for others awaits them as well. They will stand before the God in whose name they prophesied lies, to whom they attributed false manifestations, whose Word they perverted, and with whom they led many to hell.

Repent.