The Worst Perversion of All
“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.” 2 Tim. 4:3-4
The ultimate perversion, the sickest and most wicked of all perversions, may not be what you think. In this day and age you can only imagine – or not – how heinously perverted some people’s imaginations and actions are. Evil is rampant, the world is becoming darker, the news is ever more horrific, and perversion of one variety or another appears at an all-time high. Dictoinary.com includes in its definition of perversion, “to lead astray morally, to turn away from the right course; to misconstrue or misinterpret, especially deliberately; and distort.”
I was reading Joshua 1 one day in which God tells Joshua whom He has called to lead the children of Israel into the promised land now that Moses has died to be strong and courageous and to meditate on His Word and obey His commands so he will prosper and succeed. What could possibly make me think of perversion in reading such a powerful message?
When I was under false teaching years ago, I heard preachers talk about passages like this in the context of how we could wave magic wands and “prosper” to no end by marching lustfully into our “promised land” of getting everything and everyone we wanted to satisfy our flesh and live happily ever after on earth. This is not what God was saying to Joshua, yet countless times I heard people preach the so-called “prosperity gospel” as they perverted God’s Word and turned it into what would draw crowds, garner big bucks, and make everybody exuberant. I not only fell under false teaching. I taught it to others myself in ignorance before God led me to repentance and by His Spirit began to teach me the Truth of His Word.
The ultimate perversion is not only a twisting of God’s Word into something obscenely false, deceptive, misleading, and, ultimately deadly, but it’s the perversion of who God is. I was taught back then that God was essentially my butler to attend to my every whim and desire. I thought He was designed to serve me rather than that we are created to love, revere, fear, honor, worship, praise, bow down before, and serve the glorious, magnificent, beautiful, holy, sovereign, righteous, majestic Lord of all!
I continually meet people who profess to believe in Christ as Lord but don’t read the Bible. They rely on others to teach them and have no way to discern the Truth from the false. They are ripe prey for false and deadly teaching. The ONLY way to a relationship with God now and forever in heaven is through repentance, faith in Christ, and devotion to God and the Truth of His Word.
If you’re convicted, please make the change.