Where Are Jesus’ Disciples?

Excerpt From Newsletter

The efforts of legitimate Early Church leaders failed to keep impostors from adulterating The Teaching of Jesus. Less than a century after the death of Jesus Christ, it mattered little from whom one received teaching. By A.D. 200, it was no longer a matter of handing down The Teaching the Apostles had received from the Greatest Teacher of all time. The “learned” theologians of the Church had already decided they could find that Teaching for themselves, and they were busy arguing about the “right” way to interpret the Old Testament Scriptures. How little they knew.

Jesus never intended the Scriptures to be interpreted. He intended them to be explained—to be taught by a disciple who had been taught by a disciple who had been taught by a disciple, etc. Peter said this clearly:

But know this first of all, that no prophecy is {a matter} of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies.
(2 Peter 1:20–2:1a)

The Church was supposed to have been nourished by a continuous chain of qualified Teachers who all taught The Teaching of Jesus Christ. It has not been so. That Teaching was lost within the first one hundred years.

Where once there was only one Teaching, what the Gospel writers call “His Teaching” (Matt. 7:28; Mark 1:22; Luke 4:32; John 18:19), and Paul calls “The Teaching” (Titus 1:9), now every pastor and layperson alike fabricates his own “teaching.” And not one of them agrees with the other.

That’s not surprising. The ruler of this realm is the father of lies and the father of liars. A liar lies to introduce confusion so that the Truth cannot be discovered. If confusion reigns in the Church today, it is so because the Liar has been at work.

So where are Jesus’ disciples? If what you have read above is true, we now stand at the End of the Age, a Church without hope of ever being that Church “without spot or blemish” (Eph. 5:27) that Christ envisioned for His Own. Or do we?

Jesus said His Teaching had one very special quality that set it apart from the teaching of all other “Rabbis.” That characteristic alone will accomplish what God desires in these Last Days. Jesus said:

“My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or {whether} I speak from Myself.”
(John 7:16b–17)

Let the one who has ears to hear pay close attention to what the Spirit is saying.

“Where Are Jesus’ Disciples?” The Voice of Elijah^®, April 1991, p. 8

Newsletter Details

Contribution of	$6.00
Pages	22
Author	Larry Dee Harper
Language	English