Isn't that your name? Healers and psychics - what does the Bible say about them? St.
The path to the Kingdom of Heaven is narrow and sad also because among us there are people who, under the guise of truth and goodness, try to spread lies and all kinds of evil. The Savior also warns against these hypocrites: BEWARE, He says, FALSE PROPHETS, beware of them! “Notice the meekness of the Savior,” says St. John Chrysostom, “He did not say: punish them, but only beware, so as not to receive harm from them.” Obvious heretics, whom He called dogs, and desperate sinners, whom He called pigs, are not so dangerous, because they are known to everyone.
But false prophets still need to be recognized, because they try to pass themselves off as true Orthodox Christians, WHO COME TO YOU IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING, hiding behind hypocritical meekness and simplicity, even outward piety: alms, prayer, although they all do this in the spirit of the Pharisee, AND INSIDE(actually) they THE ESSENCE OF WOLVES IS PREDATORY. Who are these false prophets? A true prophet is God's chosen one, whom he sends to proclaim His will to people and reveal the future. And since the ancient prophets not only predicted the future, but also taught the people piety, preachers of faith and teachers of piety sent by God were sometimes called prophets. Therefore, a false prophet is an impostor, posing as a messenger of God, as a preacher of truth; he is a false teacher and a deceiver. There are quite a few of them now. But how to distinguish these false teachers from the true ones? The Lord shows the right means for this. All of them are infected with such pride that even all their imaginary virtues turn into nothing in the eyes of God. A tree may have beautiful and fragrant flowers, thick and green leaves; but the whole point is in the fruit: the fruit is good - the tree is good, the fruit is bad - the tree is bad. So a person is recognized not by his words, but by his deeds, by his life and behavior: BY THEIR FRUIT YOU WILL KNOW THEM! Look not at their teaching, which is difficult for the simple and inexperienced to recognize and refute; watch how they behave. The path that I ordered My disciples to follow is a difficult and inconvenient path; hypocrites cannot walk along it, for this they do not have the most necessary thing - humility. DO THEY HAPPEN GRAPES FROM THORN BREEDS?(brush of sweet grapes), OR FROM BURDOR nutritious FIGURES? SO EVERY GOOD TREE BEARS GOOD FRUIT, A THINGY TREE(wood is rotten or unusable) BEARS BAD FRUITS. “The Lord compares a person to a tree,” says Blessed Theophylact, “because if he wants, he can be grafted from fruitless sin to virtue, just as a barren tree is grafted so that it becomes fruitful.” A GOOD TREE CANNOT until it's ruined, BEARING BAD FRUIT, NO TREE IS GOOD while it remains bad, not grafted onto a good tree, BEARING GOOD FRUIT. Likewise, one cannot expect pure, godly, truly Christian, humble virtue from false teachers. “Christ,” teaches St. Chrysostom, “does not say that it is impossible for a bad person to change, or for a good person to fall; but that a person cannot bear good fruit while he lives badly. How did David, although he was good, bear bad fruit?
He did this not in a state of virtue, but having already changed; if he had remained virtuous, he would not have dared to do what he dared to do.” Finally, “in order to console those offended by these hypocrites and to frighten them themselves, the Lord also pronounces punishment on them”: EVERY TREE, NOT BEARING GOOD FRUIT, CUT DOWN AND THROWED INTO THE FIRE, i.e. used to fire stoves. Likewise, all such false teachers will be condemned to eternal torment. The Savior reminds the Jews of the sentence that they once heard from the lips of His Forerunner John. In conclusion, the Lord, as if somewhat softening His formidable word, added: SO, I repeat once again, ACCORDING TO THEIR FRUITS, regarding the affairs of false teachers, YOU WILL RECOGNIZE THEM! God's judgment on all hypocrites and false teachers is terrible. But even those who, although they believe rightly, live carelessly, will not escape the same fate. “The Jews believed everything in dogma, and did not care at all about life. This is why Paul rebukes them: “Behold, you are called a Jew, and you take comfort in the law, and you boast in God.”(), but there is no benefit for you if this is not visible from your life and deeds. Listen to what the Lord says to those like you: NOT EVERYONE, HE SAYS TO ME: “LORD! GOD!", not everyone who acknowledges Me only in words as their Lord and Teacher, WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BUT PERFORMING- only the one who always and in everything, to the best of his ability and with the help of My grace, creates WILL(holy commandments) MY HEAVENLY FATHER. “The Savior did not say: he who does my will, because at first such a thought was too high for their weakness. Moreover, the will of the Son is not different from the will of the Father.” So, faith alone, without good works, cannot save a person. Our Lord Himself says this, and, moreover, speaks of such a strong faith that can even work miracles, for listen to what He predicts next: MANY WILL TELL ME THAT DAY, on that awaited day of My Last Judgment: GOD,GOD! DID WE NOT PROPHESY IN YOUR NAME? Did we not prophesy and teach in Your name? AND DID NOT THEY CAST OUT DEMONS IN YOUR NAME? AND HAVE NOT MANY MIRACLES WORKED IN YOUR NAME? AND THEN open I WILL TELL THEM: I NEVER KNEW YOU, did not recognize you as His own; I did not love you for your wicked heart even when you performed miracles in My name. But you also never knew or loved Me, for you did not do the will of My Heavenly Father; and therefore I do not know, I do not recognize you as Mine even now: DEPARTURE FROM ME, YOU WORKERS OF LAWELESS!
“Oh, a terrible accident! - St. Philaret reflects, “they called on the Lord, therefore, they believed in Him, they knew Him; they prophesied, cast out demons, performed miracles, and therefore had considerable faith; but the Lord does not accept them into His Kingdom and does not even know them!” What an incredible power of evil and human depravity!.. But as it is said: “ “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”(). Yes, if he calls unfeignedly, with all his heart, strives towards God with all the strength of his soul and shows his faith in good deeds. But there are people who “They say they know God, but by their deeds they deny”(). Such a faith is dead, which even rejected spirits have: “and demons,” it is said, "believe and tremble". "What's the use, my brothers", - exhorts the holy Apostle James, brother of God, - “If someone says that he has faith, but does not have works? can this faith save him?(). Of course he can't. Paul also says about this: “If... I know all mysteries, and have all knowledge and all faith, so that I could move mountains, but do not have love, then I am nothing.”(). “You see, miracles do not bring any benefit to those who perform them without virtue. Who, you ask, are those whom Jesus Christ, despite their miracles, presents as worthy of torment? God also acted through Balaam, revealing the future to Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, and Caiaphas prophesied without knowing what he was saying, and some cast out demons in the name of Christ, although they themselves were not Christ’s. Judas also performed miracles, and yet lost the Kingdom of Heaven.” So now, according to the remark of Blessed Theophylact, we are sanctified through unworthy priests who perform the Sacraments; and this happens not because of the purity and dignity of the priests themselves, but because of the faith of those who receive these Sacraments from them. “Let us not, beloved,” exhorts St. John Chrysostom, “let us not think that, by not performing miracles now, we therefore have less grace. For miracles, we ourselves remain in debt to God, but for life and deeds, we have God as our debtor.” In addition, “a miracle worker,” as St. Augustine says, “is always in danger of becoming infected with conceit and pride, and fulfilling the commandments of God leads a person to humility.” So, the Savior, ending His conversation on the Mount of Beatitudes, declares Himself the Judge of the world. True, He did not say directly: I will judge, however, if He Himself were not the Judge, then He would have said: “And then I will declare to them... depart from Me...”“Many are horrified by Gehenna alone; but I think,” says St. John Chrysostom, “it is better to be subjected to countless lightning strikes than to see the meek face of the Lord, turning away from us, and His clear eye, unable to look at us.
And in fact: if He loved me, His enemy, so much that He gave Himself up for me, and if after all this I do not give Him even bread when He is hungry (in the face of my neighbor), then with what eyes will I look? on him? Oh, that we had never been subjected to such disgrace! The only begotten Son of God! If only we had never experienced this unbearable punishment!
Peace to you!
(Matt. 7:23) And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
How can this happen - “NEVER knew”?
According to Christian teaching, after the prayer of repentance, the Lord knows you and you have authority in His name, and the commandments are written in the heart, and the Lord says that He NEVER knew. It turns out that even after a prayer of repentance, the Lord may not know who you are? (Vitaly)
Answers Shimon, Rabbi of the Messianic community in Chisinau:
Vitaly, shalom!
Let's think together. As far as we can see in Scripture, God is All-Knowing: 1 Kings 8:39, Ps. 138, John. 16:30 . That is, He knows absolutely everything. Both in space and time. And also timeless. Based:
“Hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and have mercy; do and reward each one according to his ways, as You provide in his heart, for You alone know the heart of all the sons of men.” (1 Kings 8:39)
We can say that He knows everything about us, everyone. And here the question is - what did Yeshua mean when he said:
« Matthew 7:23 And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.»?
I think that here we are not talking about knowledge in general, but about the relationship that should be between Him and His creation.
Clive Lewis I wrote this about this:
Don't miss the most interesting things!
“Merely to be known by God is to belong to the category of things. We are the same objects of divine knowledge as worms, cabbages and nebulae. But when we really realize this and strive with all our will to be known, then we consider ourselves in relation to God no longer as a thing, but as a person. We have opened up, nothing prevents God from seeing us, a change occurs in ourselves. Passivity gives way to activity. Instead of simply being known, we discover ourselves.”
What the Christian teaching that you mentioned speaks about, I think it speaks of an ideal situation when a person’s repentance is the result of a deep decision. And then such repentance brings what you talked about. And even more, repentance opens up the possibility of a relationship with Him. This is a great treasure. This is the purpose for which man was created, the Tabernacle was created, and Yeshua came to earth. But I think we often lose sight of the fact that repentance is TSHUVE, precedes a decision based on deliberate choice. In general, my opinion is that repentance is not a one-time prayer. Prayer is the voicing of a choice, but the main thing happens in the heart and is confirmed by life. And those about whom the Lord spoke - “workers of lawlessness”, may have once prayed, but did not confirm their choice with their lives... They violated His law, thinking that they were believers and that grace would cover it... Let us remember that He knows everything , including the future. This means that He knew how the wicked would behave. This does not mean that God took away their choice; they could have lived differently.
Here's something else we need to consider: repentance, in Hebrew - TESHUVA- means " return"! And this is a process that takes time. Often we look at the book of Acts, where people repent and thousands come to God. We must not forget that most of them were Jews or pagans who honored the God of Israel and went to synagogues and were familiar with the Word. Those. these people had a preliminary understanding of the relationship with God, the concept of sin and repentance. The soil of hearts was ready.
In addition, in any normal congregation, all new believers are necessarily taught the basics of spiritual life and people are strengthened in their choice. They are taught about sin, holiness, repentance, etc.
I hope my answer has helped you in understanding this scripture. If you have any additional questions, write.
The Lord said: not everyone who says to Me: “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Heavenly Father. Many will say to Me on that day: Lord! God! Have we not prophesied in Your name? and was it not in Your name that they cast out demons? and did they not perform many miracles in Your name? And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
The Lord reveals one of the laws of spiritual life: is the faith that does not manifest itself in anything sincere? Have we noticed that the Apostle Paul also always ends his Epistles with a call to practice the requirements of Christian morality in all life situations?
“Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” The modern world, which has lost faith in everything, is looking for authenticity - and, above all, where they talk about faith. Beautiful speeches do not work: “we are not interested in your call - what to believe in, but tell us what you believe in, do you have true knowledge of God?”
The Lord denounces the appearance of prayer, the hypocrisy of faith, divorced from everyday life, the temptation of those who are reputed to be pious, who have the name of God on their tongue all the time, but whose actions do not correspond to beautiful speeches. The Lord strongly emphasizes the need for agreement between what we say and what we do, between the faith we profess in Sunday worship and the faith we live during the week. Not everyone who goes to church on Sundays and holidays will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In addition, one must also be “doing the will of the Heavenly Father.” “Create”, “do” - this word is constantly repeated in the Sermon on the Mount. This means that our faith must be truly embodied in everyday life - in the family, at work, on vacation. Our participation is required in all church, social, political events on which the fate, and not only earthly, of too many depends.
“The will of the Father,” says Christ. Reading the Gospel, we feel that the Savior constantly thinks only about Him and does only what pleases Him - every minute of His life. “Not the way I want, but the way You want.” What does this “will of the Father” mean? God is love. And for Him there is no other concern than to give us genuine joy. But He does not force anything on us, because He is love. “The will of God” is our personal, greatest success, sometimes under the unexpected guise of defeat. The life of every saint is such a success: St. Sergius, St. Seraphim, St. Tsar-Martyr Nicholas.
"The will of the Heavenly Father." Yes, God our Father is infinitely higher than man and surpasses him. He is in heaven, beyond everything. And living according to His will means a way of life that cannot be “of this world.” In our post-communist, deeply atheistic society - among the dirty stream of advertisements for the sin of a life free from the commandments of God - a Christian cannot help but go against the flow. Anyone who tries to do the will of the Heavenly Father cannot help but reject what is affirmed everywhere through the media about God, about Christ, about the Church, about man, about love, about parents, about marriage, about the attitude towards the Fatherland.
“Many will say to Me on that day: Lord! God! Have we not prophesied in Your name? And weren’t they casting out demons in Your name?” Balaam and Caiaphas were forced to prophesy, and Saul found himself among the prophets against his will. Judas cast out demons and turned out to be the son of perdition. You can cast out demons from others and have a demon in yourself, and be a demon yourself. “And in Your name they did many miracles?” The gift of tongues and healing will be celebrated in the world. But God accepts true holiness. Christ appears here as the great Judge of the end times: “I never knew you; Depart from Me, you who practice iniquity” - words consonant with what everyone will hear at the Last Last Judgment.
Whenever this Judgment is discussed, we must take every word of the Gospel with the utmost seriousness. On this day, God will speak the last word about every person. It is not given to anyone to subject the Lord to ridicule indefinitely. Those who choose to do evil should not expect to be with God for eternity: “Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity.” In the Greek text these are “workers of iniquity”—those who are “without law.” We know that human law is the law of God, the law of Love. Those who choose to live without Christ's love cannot hope to live with God. The Last Judgment for such a person will open with the horror of eternal death - life without Christ's love. “Get away from Me” - from Love, which gives everything to everyone - those who reject this Love.
But the strangest and most terrible thing here is that the condemned do not agree with their Judge, just like in the parable of the Last Judgment. Their whole life was self-deception until that day when the Truth dawned. The Lord says that you can do great things in His name - prophecies, casting out demons, miracles, but if these people do not have love, they will be opponents of Christ. And such will be many, says Christ.
There is something to be afraid of! This warning of Christ must be heeded by us. Truly, many, too many are looking for the bright and spectacular in Christianity - prophecies, exorcisms, miracles, instead of humbly bearing the cross of ordinary everyday love. There is too much abstract theorizing, criticism of everyone and everything, and at the same time - a complete lack of concern for one’s own repentance. Alas, one can “move mountains” and “perform miracles” without love, says the Apostle Paul, “and there is no benefit in it.” How can we learn to live a humble Christian life - day after day - without drumming, without trumpeting, without ostentation, without false significance.
Volodya asksAnswered by Alexandra Lanz, 09/22/2010
Question :
Can a demon cast out a demon?
Jesus says no: "Every kingdom divided against itself will be desolate; and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, then he is divided against himself: how can his kingdom stand? ()
And judging by - yes: “Many will say to Me on that day: Lord! Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? And did we not cast out demons in Your name? And did not we perform many miracles in Your name? 23 And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; go away from Me, the workers of iniquity."
Good day to you, Volodya!
Before moving on to the essence of your question, I want to remember with you what happened several thousand years ago, when the Lord Almighty began to lead His people out of Egyptian slavery. The story itself is amazing and multi-layered, but we will only address a small part of it that directly relates to your question.
When the children of Abraham prayed to Heaven for salvation, God, using Moses and Aaron, began to bring about this salvation. At first Almighty Creator of Worlds sent them to Pharaoh demanding that the people be released. Remember what Pharaoh said?
“Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice [and] let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go” (). In other words, Pharaoh declares that in principle there cannot be a God who is not subordinate to the Egyptian gods, who is stronger than those whom the Egyptians serve. There is no higher or more powerful force than that represented in prosperous Egypt.
Then the Creator commands Moses to perform the first miracle before Pharaoh... and Aaron's staff turns into a serpent. But the pharaoh calls the servants of the Egyptian gods to him and they perform exactly the same miracle - their staffs also turn into snakes. However, it’s not exactly the same; more on that later. Pharaoh is pleased: there is no God stronger than the Egyptian gods!
In response to this, the Creator commands Moses to turn the river and all the water into blood. The miracle was accomplished, but the servants of the Egyptian gods, it turns out, can do the same. Pharaoh is pleased, but the Jewish people are perplexed.
Then the Savior commands Moses and Aaron to perform the third miracle: “Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the streams and over the lakes, and bring out frogs in the land of Egypt. Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and frogs came out and covered the land of Egypt" ().
And again the servants of the Egyptian gods do the same thing!
Only starting with the fourth miracle did the Egyptian Magi completely admit their powerlessness to repeat what Moses and Aaron were doing by the power of a God unknown to them, and even more than that: these people warned Pharaoh: “this is the finger of God” ().
In connection with this story, a logical question arises: why did the Savior not immediately begin with the fourth miracle, why He, being truly Omnipotent, did not immediately reveal Himself, but even allowed Himself to be humiliated to some extent through the fact that other people could do the same the same as His chosen people? I will not answer this question completely because it will take a lot of time and because we are only interested in what is relevant to your question.
So, we see three miracles performed by two sides:
Egyptian Magi– Moses and Aaron.
In this case, each side claims to be a representative of the True God(s). Why did the True God enter into such a strange competition? Is it not to be able to show both the Jews and everyone who will ever believe in Him that they are dealing with a very strong adversary? So strong that he is able (to a certain extent) to imitate what the Almighty does.
Think about the miracles that the Magi performed! After all, it was clearly not human power that acted in them: with just one action they could transform an inanimate staff into a snake, make a huge river turn red and stink with blood, bring out toads so that they would fill everything around with them. It’s as if nature itself is subordinate to them, as if they are able to change its laws! But we know that a person on his own is powerless, incapable of anything like that... unless he receives some kind of power from the outside. Thus, two externally opposing human forces open up before us: one of them keeps us in Egyptian slavery, and the other leads us out of this slavery. It is not people who are opposed, but the forces that these people “use”.
In my deep conviction, God allowed everything described above to happen so that no one would have any doubts about what was actually happening on planet Earth: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spirits of evil in heaven» ( ; ).
We must also pay special attention to the fact that although the miracles of the Egyptian Magi were very similar to what the True God performed through Moses and Aaron, these miracles were still fake.
In the first miracle we see a clear indication of the power of the One on whose behalf Moses and Aaron came, in the fact that their staff, which became a serpent, swallowed up all the other serpents “from the Magi.” In the second and third miracles, we see that the One who stood behind Moses could change the situation in the opposite direction (for the better), and the one who stood behind the Magi could only make things worse (for the worse).
Now, remembering this amazing story about two opposing forces, let's turn to your question.
Can Satan cast out demons? I think you already understand that when it comes to fakes , then “maybe”, but if real exorcism, then cannot. Satan, who himself took possession of a person and brought the person into a state of illness, may well play the role of a savior, commanding the demon to retreat for a while and then return back. But only the real power of the Almighty is capable of casting out a demon so that it will actually be bound and taken out of a person, and at the same time the person will become a new creation, created in Christ Jesus for God’s work ().
Those who try to cast out demons, but do not belong to Christ, deceive themselves, allowing the demons to play hide and seek with them and ultimately possess them and those they “treat” more and more. You see, there is an infinitely huge difference between those who really belong to Christ and those who simply use this name for some of their own purposes.
A person who truly belongs to Christ will live by His teaching, according to His teaching, in His teaching. Read the Sermon on the Mount (Gospel of chapters 6 and 7)– it is precisely this perfection that the life of such a person will strive for. But if there is no such desire, if a person simply uses the phrase “Jesus Christ” to achieve some goals, even if these goals in his understanding are righteous and holy, then such a person will not escape the terrible words of judgment on the Day of Judgment: “I never knew you; Depart from Me, you who practice iniquity" (). Such people will repeat to Christ: “We preached in Your name, and even cast out demons in Your name!”, and He will answer them: “I wanted you to become like Me, so that you would stop living lawlessly and spreading lawlessness,
I wanted My name not to be a meaningless phrase or a magic formula, but something that reveals My character, My Personality to you so that you can become like Me in character. But you didn’t do this, you never really turned to Me to be changed in My image and likeness, so I don’t know you.”
Now in the world there are a huge number of people who use the name of the Savior Jesus Christ in vain, and not in order to be able to become more and more like Him.
Everyone is looking for miracles, healings, casting out demons, signs, but few are looking for the POWER of God, capable of re-creating a person’s heart so that he really becomes like Christ. Satan takes advantage of this to the fullest, providing humanity with a wide range of breathtaking miracles, up to the feigned, very similar to the real action, casting out demons in the name of Christ (). The more miracles, the more interesting life is, but Satan does not care that people healed under his leadership begin to live according to the teachings of Christ, does he? Stana does not care that these people begin to bring their lives to the praise of the Almighty, stopping to sin and loving holiness, righteousness, constant reading of the Bible, constant repentance for the revealed impurity, but on the contrary, it teaches them to love this life, themselves, this coming one more and more. to the destruction of the world.
Both passages you focus on have important words about fruit. "By their fruits you will know them" ( and )
Know a tree by the fruit it bears! Those. find out whether the person in front of you is Christ, . Not by the actions of this tree (this person): healing, casting out demons, etc., but by the fruits in his heart! What are the fruits of the right tree?
“The fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, mercy, faith, meekness, self-control” (). “The fruit of the Spirit consists of all goodness, righteousness and truth” ().
If a person, as a person, possesses these fruits, or at least they ripen in him, then he really belongs to Christ, and if not, then no matter what miracles he performs, all these miracles are just a subtle fake and such a person will definitely hear from Jesus: "I do not know you".
Sincerely,
Sasha.
| Read more on the topic “Interpretation of Scripture”: |
07 May
Answered by Vasily Yunak, 06/11/2007
Some Christians try to discern the source of the veneration of relics in such biblical episodes as the carrying of Joseph's bones from Egypt () or the miracle of the resurrection on the bones of Elisha (). However, neither one nor the other case has anything in common with the current veneration of the relics of saints in Orthodoxy or Catholicism.
The Bible really says nothing about any veneration of relics. In the case of Joseph, we are talking only about the attitude towards the burial place: Joseph believed in the promise given to Abraham about the promised land, and he wanted to be buried in the family tomb, and thereby support the faith of his fellow tribesmen that they would one day emerge from Egyptian slavery.
As for the miracle that occurred in the tomb of Elisha, although this is an extraordinary miracle, nowhere in this or in any other place is this event given any special significance, much less one that would justify the veneration of the relics of saints. The Holy Scripture defines the principle according to which something is accepted: “In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established” (; see also). The Bible does not contain “two or three” testimonies of miracles associated with relics, and therefore their veneration cannot be biblical.
Where did the veneration of saints and their relics come from? Like any other ancient traditions, all this came from paganism. In the first centuries of Christianity, as often happens today, many were baptized by force or for some promises, caring about quantity rather than quality. Christ commanded his disciples to first teach people and then baptize.
And the church began to baptize everyone, often in infancy.
So many Christians turned out to be Christians only in name, but lived according to their ancient pagan traditions. And in Rus', under the guise of traditional Christian holidays, ancient pagan traditions are actually preserved, which were never abandoned by the Russian people, despite the fact that they were all “Christianized” at one time. In almost all pagan communities there were cults of worship of family spirits and the deification of heroes who died in battles.
Yesterday's pagans, baptized into Christianity but not converted, could not accept in their hearts what the Apostle Paul once expressed: “But whatever things were gain to me, those I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. And I count all things as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord.” mine: for Him I have given up everything, and I consider everything as rubbish, in order to gain Christ" (). Thus, elements were and are still being introduced into Christianity that were never accepted and cannot be accepted by God.
What does the Lord say about this? I will give only three words:
“Thus says the Lord: do not learn the ways of the pagans...” ().
