From Richard Sibbes:
This passage by Sibbes made me want to weep, because I know people who have deliberately sought false teaching for the sake of getting a "Christian" rubber stamp on their pursuit of sin. False teaching isn't a form of benign ignorance but a deliberate rejection of the truth on the part of the the hearer as well as the perpetrator. May God have mercy.
This should teach us to labour for sincerity, to have hearts upright towards God; and then, he will send us men of a direct and right spirit, that shall teach us according to his own heart. But if we be false-hearted, God will give us teachers that shall teach us, not according to his will, but to please our own. We shall light upon belly-gods and epicures, and shall fall into the hands of priests and Jesuits. Where such are, there are the judgments of God upon the people, because they do not desire to know the will of God in truth. We see (Ezek. 14:3,4), the people desired to have a stumbling block for their iniquity. They were naught ['naughty', wicked], and would have idols. Therefore they desired stumbling blocks. They would have false prophets, that so they might go to hell with some authority.Josiah's Reformation, Richard Sibbes, Banner of Truth Trust, 2011 - originally published in 1629, pg. 4.
This passage by Sibbes made me want to weep, because I know people who have deliberately sought false teaching for the sake of getting a "Christian" rubber stamp on their pursuit of sin. False teaching isn't a form of benign ignorance but a deliberate rejection of the truth on the part of the the hearer as well as the perpetrator. May God have mercy.
This is so true and sad.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note: We have this book on our shelf and reading this makes me even more anxious to read it!
This is probably an aside to the main point of the 1st chapter, Hollie. Even so, the warning still hit me pretty hard.
ReplyDeleteThis hit very close to home and makes me weep. This book will be on my reading list! Thanks, Persis!
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