I fully intended for last month’s article to be the last in this series entitled, “Willful Sin,” thinking that as people read about the blatant misinterpretations of Scripture being used in the church today, it would cause them to slow down and think. Surely, they would start listening more closely to what is being taught in their churches and begin to, not only pay attention to what their preachers are saying, but to research what is behind this false direction most are traveling in. Maybe they would begin to ask themselves, “Have I placed too much trust in my pastor?”  “Has my pastor placed blind faith in denominational leadership?” “Have I forgotten Jesus told us that the enemy would sow tares among the wheat?” (Mat. 13:25). 

ACTS 15:1 – “AND CERTAIN MEN WHICH CAME DOWN FROM JUDAEA TAUGHT THE BRETHREN, AND SAID, EXCEPT YE BE CIRCUMCISED AFTER THE MANNER OF MOSES, YE CANNOT BE SAVED.”

The phrase, “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the Brethren,” presents the greatest crisis of the Early Church.

These “Certain men” from “Judaea,” were from the Mother Church in Jerusalem, but without the authority they claimed to have (Acts 15:24). Consequently, irrespective as to who they were, this gave them legitimacy and for all the obvious reasons. All of the original Twelve Apostles considered the Jerusalem Church their Church Home and attended there when they happened to be in the city. The weight of this credibility was awesome to say the least.

In December 2009, Brother Roy Chacon (a JSM minister in music and testimony) and I (a former J.S.B.C. Student) were invited to minister in Arua’s giant Crusade in Arua, Uganda, East Africa. Arua is the birthplace of the former dictator Idi Amin who brought so much chaos and destruction to that nation in the 1970’s. Arua sits in the northwest corner of the nation, bordering the war torn regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west and southern Sudan to the north.