There are more babes in the auditorium of many churches than there are in the nursery. Although I may be wrong, I will continue to rest assured in my assumption that what I will call the feeble minded, those yet to reach an age of accountability, an age for each separate individual that only the Lord knows, and all those young souls in the nursery will disappear on the day that the Lord returns for His church (1 Thess. 4:16), but not all that are sitting in the pews will be going with us. There are those who have chosen by their own volition, for whatever reason, to remain babes in Christ, weaker brothers and sisters as it were, and to be able to tell the difference between these individuals and those who sit alongside them in the pews who are truly not saved nearly every weekend is difficult to say the least. Our Lord knows though, and on that day that He returns for His church, these also will know.
I have always wondered about the strong delusion that the Lord is going to send upon those who did not truly know Him in their hearts after this incredible moment in time, a delusion that is going to be so profound that if it were possible even the elect would be deceived (Matt. 24:24), we must remember that those who will not be deceived, the elect, are not part of the church, not a member of the bride of Christ, we will be gone, at the marriage feast, the door will have been shut and the ceremonies will have begun. Those who went to find more oil for their lamps (Matt. 25:3), are the pretenders, as it were, not truly loving Christ in their hearts, but attending and waiting at the door with those who did. The elect are those who will accept Christ as Lord during the tribulation period, and will be blessed by the Lord to be able to see thru this strong delusion that He will send upon those who were left behind, those who cast out demons in His name, but never truly knew Him (Matt. 7:22), the churchianity group, those who were ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the Truth (2 Tim. 3:7), showing up on Sunday, forgetting Him before Monday. God is going to control the minds of these people, He is going to send a strong delusion, and they will believe this idea. There is no second chance for them (2 Thess. 2:11), they will die in their sins, and they will have no more excuse than they had before the delusion was sent.
These today believe the lies that they are being told, they do not study the Scriptures to show themselves approved (2 Tim. 2:15), they have willingly trapped themselves inside the world and use the pretense of attending a church as proof of their own goodness, not only to themselves but to others, seeking the praise of men above the things of God. They are righteous only in their own eyes, deceiving others while they themselves are self-deceived. It will not take as much as we may think for them to believe this strong delusion that our Lord will send upon them, they are more than halfway there already. Their own pride and self-righteousness has kept them from the knowledge of a Holy God, their humility and humbleness is shown only to others and to the one they see in the mirror, but it does not reside in their heart, a heart which is far from God (Matt. 15:8). Trials and troubles are seen as burdensome, not a cause for rejoicing (1 Peter 4:12-13), to be hated by those who live in the world is one of their greatest fears, when it should be expected (John 15:19), these do all that they can to fit in, never realizing that we are not to be a part of the world (John 17:16), and that all that are, are at enmity with the Lord (James 4:4).
It can take a very long time to recognize these individuals and root them out of the fellowship, which is to be done, for they are blots and blemishes (Matt. 18:17), and yet it rarely happens even when these are found out, for man has determined that his ways are better than God’s way. “Besides, you never know, if we allow them to continue to attend, they just might get saved, and who are we to judge.” If the Lord decides to call us on a Sunday morning, there are going to be a lot more people still sitting in the pews than one might like to admit. The excuse that the world’s call is so very strong is answered with “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4), trying to rationalize that you don’t have time to open the Scriptures and study them is beyond ludicrous, and believing yourself to be good enough to gain entrance into the Kingdom, there’s a lot of really good people in hell, and more going there every day. Perhaps you have adhered to all the prescribed rituals that were demanded of you by those in a position of authority over you in your particular church, because you have been taught that they have been given additional knowledge, and if nothing else, why take the chance, couldn’t hurt, right. There are numerous ways that so many today are being deceived, and so for some that strong delusion won’t really need to be that strong after all.
To discern between the weaker brother and the one who pretends but is truly not saved is one of the most difficult tasks I know, sin is very, very good at hiding, but why would we care, why should we concern ourselves with this endeavor in the first place, why not just leave it up to God to sort them out? Because we are to love our neighbors (Mark 12:31), because for one of these there is hope, and for the other there is still the opportunity for hope. One almost guaranteed way that we can tell the two apart is that the weaker brother will listen, they will question and seek answers from their mature brother so that they can grow, the other though, he will deride you for doubting his faith, he will stand up with pride and proclaim that he is a true follower, that you have no right to question his faith, that you are being pharisaical. This my friends is one way to find the truth, one will continue to seek you out, the other will shun you, but be forewarned, those who are pretending will see to it that you are no longer welcome in the building that they call a church, and many will agree with them, for they are like them, these tend to congregate together. You will be labeled contentious, judgmental, and hypocritical, and they may not come right out and ask you to no longer attend, but it will be well known to you. You will be hated by those you love, those you have tried to help as a faithful friend (Eccl. 6:14), just remember that they hated our Lord first (John 15:18).
Here is where you have to make the decision of who you are serving. We have not been placed in complete authority over anyone, Christ is the head of the body (Col. 1:18), it is not your responsibility to root every one of these individuals out, but you must not shy away from any task that the Lord has placed before you. In other words, do not spend an inordinate amount of time secretly studying an individual to decide where they stand, but do not fear to ask certain questions. Look again at 1st Peter 3:15, “But sanctify the LORD God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” The pretenders as we have called them today will not be able to do this, and so they will lash out at you, and you will almost certainly become their immediate enemy.
Love them, try to help them, but don’t expect too much, more than likely you will be the one who will be ostracized from the fellowship, just know that if you have acted in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, a way that was intended to assist a fellow human soul, and was meant to bring glory to the name of Christ, then the only fellowship that truly matters is still intact for you.
