27 How to Reach the Deceived and Deluded
In seeking to win men we are everywhere confronted with
people who have been led astray from God's truth as it is in
Christ Jesus. They are themselves usually very enthusiastic
propagandists or personal workers. They seek by all means
to make disciples for their cults. These errorists are not
unknown to God's Word. They are spoken of, and we are
warned against them.
See God's charge to his preachers and teachers in--2 TIMOTHY 3:1-15. This know also, that in the last days
perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own
selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, truce-
breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those
that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures
more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this
sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly
women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learn-
ing, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also
resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning
the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly
shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. But thou
hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith,
longsuffering, charity, patience, Persecutions, afflictions, which
came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecu-
tions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in
the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a
child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to[166]
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make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus.
2 TIMOTHY 4:1-5. I charge thee therefore before God, and the
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at
his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in
season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-
suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they
heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned
unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions,
do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.We are not to share their errors but to do what we can to
win them to Christ and his truth. [...]
All of these claim the Bible as their Holy Book and profess
to believe it and follow it. [...]
All of these people are hard to reach because Satan has
blinded their eyes by the blind teachings of blind teachers,
[...]
[Few] of them are really saved people. [...]
If we would win them, our attitude should never be harsh,
rarely controversial, always sincere and kindly. We should
168 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
never allow an errorist to outstrip or surpass us in the Chris-
tian spirit and life. [...]The Jews are the hard knot of Christian evangelism. Jesus
and Paul failed in the main to break [...]
The fact that the Jews accept the Old Testament and wor-
ship God as Father does not make them Christians, for Christ
says plainly: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no
man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). "He
that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but
climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a
robber....I am the door of the sheep....by me if any man
enter in, he shall be saved" (John 10:1,7,9). "Neither is
there salvation in any other: for there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved"
(Acts 4:12).1. Help them to see Christ as God's Messiah, revealed in
the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament.
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Use Psalm 22; Psalm 69; Isaiah 53; Daniel 9:26; Micah 5:2;
Zechariah 12:10; Hebrews 7:25-28; Hebrews 9-10.2. Show them the awful consequences of rejecting Christ.
JOHN 3:18, 36.
HEBREWS 10:26-29.3. If they fear persecution when they turn to Christ, con-
sole them with God's promises.
MATTHEW 5:10-12.
ACTS 5:40-41.
2 TIMOTHY 2:12.4. Assure them that through Christ is their only way to
get to God the Father.
JOHN 14:6.
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1 JOHN 2:23.
One who professes a false form of true religion is very
hard to reach with the truth. In dealing with a Roman
Catholic, plant an honest doubt in his mind. Then follow
with the positive plan of salvation by grace through faith.1. Ask him if he is assured of his salvation.
JOHN 5:24.
ROMANS 8:14.
1 JOHN 5:13.2. Show him that to be really saved he must have a birth
from above, a regeneration of soul.
JOHN 1:12.
JOHN 3:1-5.
ROMANS 10:9-10. ...
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2 CORINTHIANS 5:17.
EPHESIANS 1:7. ...
2 PETER 1:4. ...3. Show him that regeneration comes about by repentance
and faith, not by doing penance.
LUKE 13:3.
JOHN 3:16.
ACTS 3:19.
ACTS 10:43.4. Show him that Christ is our only mediator.
1 TIMOTHY 2:5.5. Urge him to read the Bible, and furnish him with a
good copy of the Scriptures [KJB].6. Pray with him and for him.
A Unitarian does not accept the deity of Christ, the per-
sonality of the Holy Spirit, or the inspiration or binding
authority of the Scriptures. Hence he has light notions of sin.
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1. Show him that he cannot get to God, the Father, with-
out faith in Jesus, the Son.
MATTHEW 11:27.
JOHN 5:22-23.
JOHN 14:6.
1 JOHN 2:22-23.2. Show him that there is no other way to be saved ex-
cept through Jesus Christ.
JOHN 10:1-9.
ACTS 4:12.3. Show him that his rejection of Christ as God's divine
Son involves him in awful sin.
JOHN 16:8-10.
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HEBREWS 10:28-29.
1 JOHN 2:22-23.
1 JOHN 5:10-12.Universalists are so-called Christians who believe that all
men will be saved. They base their [false] belief on--
1 CORINTHIANS 15:22.
1 TIMOTHY 2:3-4.They mistake God's loving desire for all men to be saved
for his determination to save them. God desires all men to
be saved; he saves only those who trust him through Christ.
1. Show him that God's desire for men to be saved does
not keep men from having to seek Christ, repent of their
sins, believe in Jesus as personal Saviour, and confess, obey,
and follow him, to have the joys of salvation and service.
LUKE 13:3.
JOHN 3:36.
JOHN 5:40.
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2. Show him that some men are unsaved because they
refuse God's condition of salvation.
MATTHEW 25:41, 46.
JOHN 3:36.
ROMANS 1:16.
2 THESSALONIANS 1:7-10. ...
REVELATION 20:15.Spiritualists believe that living men can and do communi-
cate with the spirits of the dead through persons called
mediums. The best way to meet this cult is to face them
with God's Word on their sin.
DEUTERONOMY 18:9-12.
1 CHRONICLES 10:13-14.
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ISAIAH 8:19-20.
1 TIMOTHY 4:1.Apply God's test of spirits to them--
1 JOHN 4:1-3.Spiritualism denies the humanity of Jesus; hence, it is of
the devil and is anti-Christ.The followers of "Pastor Russell" call themselves Millennial
Dawnists. They deny the doctrines dear to Christians: both
the humanity and the deity of Christ, and hence his resur-
rection; the Holy Spirit; and the eternal punishment of the
unbeliever. The way to meet them and win them is to prove
from the Scriptures the truth of those doctrines which they
deny.
The following passages have to do with Christ and the
Holy Spirit.MATTHEW 28:19.
176 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
LUKE 24:39.
JOHN 1:1.
JOHN 16:13-14.
JOHN 20:24-29.
ACTS 7:56.
COLOSSIANS 1:16-17.
1 TIMOTHY 2:5.Use the following verses to show them that God teaches
that there is a Hell.
JOB 21:29-30.
MATTHEW 25:41, 46.
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JOHN 3:36.
2 THESSALONIANS 1:7-10. ...
2 PETER 2:9.
REVELATION 20:15.
REVELATION 21:8.The soul-winner who seeks to win Seventh-Day Adventists
will need to be able to combat their errors concerning the
sabbath and concerning "soul-sleeping."1. Seventh-Day Adventists [falsely] teach that one must keep the
seventh day of the week, Saturday, as the sabbath in order
to be Christian, that anyone who observes any other day
cannot be saved. Wherever the word "commandment" is
used in the New Testament they substitute "sabbath."
Hence they make 1 John 2:4 to read, "He that saith, I know
him, and keepeth not his sabbath, is a liar, and the
truth is not in him." And the same with 1 John 3:23 and
Revelation 22:14. They interpret "commandment" to mean
[...]
Show them--
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(1) That the law, as a legal set of rules binding on the
consciences of men, was done away with in Christ's rule of
grace.
2 CORINTHIANS 3:7-11.And that in Christ Jesus the child of God is dead to the law
as a legal procedure.
ROMANS 7:4.(2) That each of the Ten Commandments except the
one concerning the sabbath is reaffirmed in the New Testa-
ment (see Christ's example in Matthew 12:1-8).
(3) That belief that the sabbath obligation is binding on
the Christian as a legal observance is declared to be done
away with.
COLOSSIANS 2:16-17.(4) That the sabbath was given as the seventh day, and
Christ by his resurrection transferred it to the Lord's Day of
the New Testament--the day of rest, worship, and religious
service. As such it became the Christian's Lord's Day, with
spiritual freedom to do God's will and work therein, and not
the Jewish sabbath of strict legalistic observance. Christ's
disciples met after his resurrection on the first day of the
week.
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MATTHEW 28:1.
MARK 16:1.
LUKE 24:1.
JOHN 20:1, 19.
ACTS 20:7.
1 CORINTHIANS 16:2.
REVELATION 1:10.The preceding passages teach--
(1) That Christ rose on the first day of the week, "when
the sabbath was past" (Mark 16:1-2).
(2) That the apostles had their meetings on the first
day of the week, at which time Jesus appeared unto them
and they worshiped him (John 20:19-26).
(3) That after his ascension the apostles and disciples,
Christ's church, held their meetings--days for preaching,
partaking of the Lord's Supper, and raising money for his
kingdom--on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor.
16:2).
(4) That this day was called the Lord's Day (Rev. 1:10),
not the sabbath. [...]
180 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
2. The Adventists teach, also, the [false] doctrine of "soul-sleep-
ing," that is, that the soul between death and the resurrection
has no conscious existence.
To meet this error, explain the following passages to them.
MATTHEW 27:52.
LUKE 23:43, 46.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-9.
2 CORINTHIANS 12:2.
PHILIPPIANS 1:21-24.The unmistakable case is that of Lazarus and the rich
man.
LUKE 16:26-31.
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The rich man opened his eyes in Hell, cried for mercy,
remembered his good things, was thirsty, and desired Lazarus
to go to his father's house. [...]
Then refer them to Matthew 17:1-13. "Behold, there
appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him."
Moses had been buried by God's own hand many hundreds
of years before, and yet he appeared and talked. His soul
was not asleep.
The following passages concerning the "sleeping dead"
are easily explained as referring to the bodies of the dead,
not to their spirits.
JOHN 11:11, 14, 39.
1 THESSALONIANS 4:13, 15.Luke 15:10, "There is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repenteth," shows that the de-
182 WITH CHRIST AFTER THE LOST
parted Christians in heaven rejoice when men on earth are
saved.
If the Adventist's heart is not hardened and you can con-
vince him of his error, then seek by methods laid down in
other chapters to bring him to Christ.
JOHN 1:12-13.
JOHN 3:16, 36.
JOHN 5:24.
ROMANS 5:1.
EPHESIANS 2:8.Nowhere is sabbath-keeping given as a condition of
salvation.
SO-CALLED CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS Christian Science, or "Eddyism," is the arch delusion with the
greatest amount of nonsense. We need not ridicule it or
fear it. We should squarely meet it in the light of God's
Word and common sense.
The so-called signs and wonders of Christian Science are
foretold in--MATTHEW 7:22-23.
MARK 13:22-23.
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2 CORINTHIANS 11:14-15.
2 THESSALONIANS 2:8-9."Eddyism" denies so many fundamentals taught in the
Bible that to convince its followers one must go through
the entire system of Christian faith in order to cover their
heresies.1. They deny God's personality. [...]
they say. Almost any Scripture passage referring to God
shows him to be an intelligent, spiritual personality.
2. They deny Christ's deity and humanity, and hence His
atonement for sin. Answer them with--MATTHEW 3:17.
JOHN 1:18.
JOHN 19:30-35.
ROMANS 6:4-5, 8-10.
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1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-4.
3. They deny the doctrine of sin. [...]
Show them in God's Word--EZEKIEL 18:4.
ROMANS 5:12.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:21.
GALATIANS 3:13.
1 PETER 2:24. ...4. They put Science and Health, "the bible of Eddyism,"
above the Holy Scriptures. [...]
Test them out on--
1 JOHN 2:22.
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1 JOHN 4:1-3.
2 JOHN 7.After you run them out of their false refuges, try to win
them to Christ in the same way you would any other sinner.