In reading the Shepherd of Hermas, I can across the following verses:

23:15 Now therefore I say unto you that are rulers of the Church, and that occupy the chief seats;

23:16 be not ye like unto the sorcerers.

23:17 The sorcerers indeed carry their drugs in boxes,

23:18 but ye carry your drug and your poison in your heart Ye are case-hardened,

23:19 and ye will not cleanse your hearts and mix your wisdom together in a clean heart, that ye may obtain mercy from the Great King.

23:20 Look ye therefore, children, lest these divisions of yours deprive you of your life.

23:21 How is it that ye wish to instruct the elect of the Lord, while ye yourselves have no instruction?

23:22 Instruct one another therefore, and have peace among yourselves, that I also may stand gladsome before the Father, and give an account concerning you all to your Lord’.

I could not help but think of the leaders of TEC.

“Now therefore I say unto you that are rulers of the Church, and that occupy the chief seats; be not ye like unto the sorcerers.” That is an apt description of many in leadership roles in TEC, sorcerers of New Ageism and gnostic gospels. Because they find that they can not measure up to the requirements that Our Lord Christ Jesus has laid down for us, through the magic of heresy, they have reinvented Him into their image. They have conjured up a god and a ‘christ-like’ figure that conforms to their image of how he should be. Ignoring some scripture and embracing others they have, like skilled surgeons, dissected the True Gospel of our Lord and Savior in to a ‘new thing’ that is both heretical and hedonistic.

“The sorcerers indeed carry their drugs in boxes, but ye carry your drug and your poison in your heart. Ye are case-hardened, and ye will not cleanse your hearts and mix your wisdom together in a clean heart, that ye may obtain mercy from the Great King.” Indeed they do carry their drugs and poison in their hearts.

Matthew 15:18-20a

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’;

The thoughts of the heart that are orated from TEC leadership are both a drug and a poison for the lost. First, the unsaved receive the drug that tells them that their sin is not a sin and that they should treat their sin as if it were a gift from God. Karl Marx referred to religion as an opiate for the masses but the false doctrine and heresy from the pulpit is the opiate for the lost and unsaved. They hear that they will have to sacrifice nothing, repent of nothing, enjoy their sinful action and help the poor by throwing money into the offering plate every Sunday and Wednesday and Christ’s redemption will be theirs for the taking.

The lost accept this as the true gospel because it requires nothing from them. It requires no worship or respect for the triune God and replaces the sovereignty of Holy Scripture with the traditions of the church and the values of the secular world. Traditions that are not really traditions because they are open for interpretation and reinterpretation as any situation may merit. Paul warned us about turning from the True Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Colossians 2:8-10 he spoke to them of the very thing that we now witness within the houses of worship we have come to love and are now being taken from us.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.

“Look ye therefore, children, lest these divisions of yours deprive you of your life. How is it that ye wish to instruct the elect of the Lord, while ye yourselves have no instruction?” Here we see the drug that the Church leadership shares amongst themselves in their crack house of heresy. It is a drug that deludes them in to thinking that they are wise and in touch with the living God. Much like the visions and hallucinations of LSD seem real to those who partake of the drug, so does the false wisdom and delusions seem real to heretical. When they share this ‘new-ageism’ with the lost it becomes the poison that condemns the unsaved to eternal darkness and separation from the God they so desperately desired communion with.

It is sad to see that those who would know the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are being lead in another direction altogether. They don’t have the road map of scripture to tell them that they are headed in the wrong direction so they blindly trust the false teachers and (dare I say it) snake oil salesmen and charlatans. It is easy to accept a false doctrine as truth when it provides you a seemingly easier road to take. The ride gets comfortable and it is just too easy not to look at a map. Besides some who are headed to hell on a worldly tour bus don’t really want to know the true destination. It is too easy so say “I was misled” and hope that God’s understanding and mercy will be available when they cry out. What they don’t seem to understand is that if hell is the absence of God, will He hear them?

“Instruct one another therefore, and have peace among yourselves, that I also may stand gladsome before the Father, and give an account concerning you all to your Lord’.” Do those who would lead the lost have a chance to turn things around? There are some that believe that once the apostate has crossed a certain line they cannot turn back; salvation is no longer an option for them, but are they really apostate when many of them have never truly known Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? Someone who is apostate has renounced their allegiance to and faith in Jesus Christ, but did they ever really have faith to begin with? This is a question that only they can answer and may God have mercy on their souls if John Owen and others are right and they did at one time truly believe.

Hebrews 6:4-6

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.