Okay, everybody ready here? Let's get to 1 John chapter 2. We're going to be starting at the 22nd verse, so please find your place there. And we're going to be answering some questions, I suppose, right? So John says, who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? That's where we stopped last week. You know, we had to establish what's called the doctrine of the deity of Christ, that we don't have Christ as just a good teacher or a good prophet of some kind. He is God in the flesh. And this is what becomes, as it were, kind of the byword or the password for the first century Christian, that Christ is Lord, that he is the Lord of Heaven. So John makes the point here about those that are spreading these false notions. There were at least two groups that were involved with this, the Gnostics, and we'll be talking about them again, and also there were the Jews called the Synagogue of Satan. So we want to kind of delineate some teaching about this. So who is he that they deny that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Lord? If so, he's Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. You know, the co-unity of the Father and the Son is what he means by this. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. So this is almost syllogistic language, so it's an equation, as it were. So if you know the Father, you know the Son. If you know the Son, you know the Father. So that's syllogism, isn't it? So that's the notion of it. Now, Jesus, while he was here on earth, was queried by one of his own, and Philip said, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus said, if I've been so long time with you, Philip, that you ask to see the Father, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Now, that could qualify as a blasphemous statement if it were not true. But it is true. And this would be the ultimate cause for the Jews condemning him to death. They considered it blasphemy. He made himself equal to God. So as a result, Pharisees and the Sadducees and the various religious rulers at that time actually united and they weren't really a monolith. As we've seen before, the Sadducean party is rather liberal, and the Pharisees were quite conservative. But when it came to what Christ, the claims that Christ was making, they became a monolith. They decided together that this, he has to be crucified, get rid of him, and they forged what you might say now an alliance that would ultimately lead to what the book of Revelation refers to as the synagogue of Satan. In fact, John is the writer of the epistle here, and he's the writer of the book of the Revelation. The beatific vision comes to him and he sees from the Lord, he hears from the Lord in Revelation 2.9, I know the blasphemy of them that say that they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Now, what does he mean by this? Well, the voice of the Lord, remember, this is the Spirit of God speaking to John, this revelation to the seven churches is the Spirit speaking expressly. Now, here he speaks of, they're not Jews at all. Well, wait, they call themselves Jews, but they've rejected their own Messiah. And the point is now that they now have forged an alliance, they have a religious alliance that is false, and they have forged now a synagogue of Satan." That's very strong language, and apparently this was intended to warn the first century believers of what they were beginning to promulgate, the lie that Jesus was just a commoner, that he was a blasphemer, that he deserved to be crucified, and he told nothing but fable and fabrication. So there was that kind of animus against Jesus and we see it in the trial of Jesus when he was dragged out of the Garden of Eden and he was taken as a criminal and appears first before Annas and then Caiaphas. So there's this agreement between the high priests, Annas being the former high priest, the ex-high priest, as it were, who had stepped down into retirement and passed the reins of power to his son-in-law, Caiaphas. So this kind of... Well, this, I'll get back to the trial. This trial, this was all done, of course, in Aramaic, this particular film, The Passion. He forgot to put it in his pocket. In his pocket. He forgot to put it in his pocket. He forgot to put it in his pocket. He forgot to put it in his pocket. He forgot to put it in his pocket. He forgot to put it in his pocket. He forgot to put it in his pocket. He forgot to put it in his pocket. He forgot to put it in his pocket. He forgot to put it in his pocket. I'm not afraid of you! I'm not afraid of you! I'm not afraid of you! We are the people of Rakhashok, and we miss you. We want to see you again. We want to see you again. We want to see you again. That gives us a pretty good idea of what sort of animus that the Jews had at that particular time in the Sanhedrin. There certainly were voices of opposition. Nicodemus would have been one and Joseph of Arimathea and perhaps others, but they were in minority and they were shouted down and ultimately they were dismissed. So you can understand why this strong language is used in the book of Revelation referring to the Jews now who have become totally apostate. They have crucified their own Messiah. And so as a result blindness in part has happened to Israel and continued on of course until they were cast out of the temple in 70 A.D. The wandering Jew then, of course, depended at that particular time on the writings of the Mishnah and the Talmud. I've mentioned these things before, so it's somewhat of a review for you, I would imagine. But the Mishnah and the Talmud, and this is a picture of how the Talmud was assembled. So what you had was a quarter of the page given to the actual scriptures. And then three quarters of the page would be taken up by commentary. And this commentary is what we call the Mishnah. The Mishnah was actually an oral tradition, and the Talmud actually became a written tradition. So when we say Mishnah or Talmud, really it's one and the same. Whatever the Mishnah had to say in an oral, traditional way the Talmud put down in writing. But then, of course, the Talmud added other things, and especially after the crucifixion of Jesus. So the Talmud actually adds more than just the traditional halakha or the traditional law. They actually go beyond that and they give comment on Jesus and who He is and what He is. And we'll get to some of those quotes again. In Matthew 15, this is a great illustration of the traditional law. Jesus answered and said unto them, Why do ye transgress the commandments of God by your traditions? For God commanded, in this word tradition, this is the Mishnah, the oral traditions. For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandments of God, of none effect by your tradition. So this concept, this all has to do with Corban. Corban was the gift that would be dedicated to the temple in some fashion. So if you wanted to die and you wanted to leave money to the temple, it would be called korban. Anything dedicated to God then was considered sacred and you couldn't use it for any other purpose. But of course, that was part of the traditional law, Corban. And so they made it so much so that it was actually a loophole. So rather than helping your parents who were destitute, You could say, well, I'd like to help them, but this money that I have here is in reserve, and it belongs to the Lord. I promised I was going to give it to the temple, and so forth. Thus, the law, or the traditional law, of Corban. We begin to understand all these loopholes, and that this is what the legalists had in mind, and the lawyers, and the scribes, and the Pharisees, they were expert in not only knowing the law, but also knowing how to get around the law. And to this day, that's pretty much what attorneys are all about. They're paid big money to get around the law, find loopholes and so forth. And your arresting officer did something wrong. He didn't tie the person's hands correctly or something of that nature. And lo and behold, they find a way around it. Very costly. If you get a good attorney, a real sharp attorney, a real legal beagle, he's gonna cost you $10,000 just for standing in front of a magistrate. So we understand something about where we're headed and what was happening here. The complete dissolution of love for God and service for God and it became again nothing more than arguments about legal matters and picking the law apart in such a fashion without ever understanding the heart, the motive of God behind the law. And thus Jesus condemns them and says, Isaiah saith of thee, you draw near to me with your lips, but your heart is far from me. And so that was his lip service. We get that expression to this day. That's all it became. In John chapter 8, we have this intense a diatribe between the scribes and Pharisees and Jesus. The Sadducees of course were involved. This is the 8th chapter of John where he says, Year of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father you do. He was a murderer from the beginning and he abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. For he is a liar, and he is the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convicteth me of sin? And if you say the truth, why do you not believe me if I say the truth? He that is of God heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. At the end of this diatribe, they were taking up stones to stone him because he had made himself equal to God. So again, we see the formulation of what false religion was going to ultimately lead to. And John will call the synagogue of Satan. And in our epistle, they are antichrist because they deny the Son. They deny the Son. They crucified the Son. That movie in particular was released in 2001 or 2002 or something of that nature. The Jewish Anti-Defamation League railed against it. They considered it an insult and that they made the Jews look like the murderers of Jesus. And truly, this has been a cause of great concern over the centuries of time. Anti-Semitism rose up because of passion plays and so forth in the Middle Ages that portrayed Jews in this fashion. Even Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice where we have the pound of flesh that was exacted for interest by the Jewish greedy keeper and so forth. And so the Jews were portrayed in this fashion, and anti-Semitism grew especially, of course, through the Roman Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church believing that they had superseded the Jew, that they were now the elected people, and that the kingdom of God was in the reins of the Holy See, and that the Pope is the vicar of Christ. And Jews were persecuted. In fact, during the Inquisition, they were hunted down and persecuted. And during the Crusades, they were taken and forced to convert to Christianity. So you begin to understand the dynamic tension between Jew and Christian even to this day because of these false Christians. At any rate, The synagogue of Satan continued to evolve. In other words, that was their meeting, and they became adamant about their rejection of Christ. And to this day, Jews will disown you. If you're a Jew and you become a Christian, you're disowned by your family. They even have funerals for you. But all their works they do to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries, they enlarge the borders of their garments. This passage is going to be explored here in the morning message at 11 o'clock, so I won't go much further here, but it was rather serendipitous that we would be talking about this now and Matthew 23 will be our study for this morning and tonight's message. But you can see here where Jesus brings this flaming excoriation against these Jews and their hypocrisy. And he says, well, you make broad your phylacteries and broad your garments, long robes, and all this is just an outward show. And you see, Jesus at first was calling all to repentance, but the Jews were adamantly rejecting of him. And they became recalcitrant and Jesus knew their thoughts and he knew they were conspiring in secret to kill him. And so Jesus becomes more pointed in his dialogue as he closes in on the last week of his life. And he spares no feelings at this point. calls them for what they are. So, and ye serpents of, and ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell, which is almost kind of the conclusion of this fiery sermon in Matthew 23. But we'll get to that either this morning or tonight. I have a little bit of 22 left, I think, so. So, the Talmud then. The Talmud, they begin writing now in the Talmud the view the Jews ought to have of Christians. And so kind of in reaction to what the believers now that had come to Christ, even Jewish believers that came to Christ, they had to be put out of the synagogue, this notion if you were accepting Jesus. You'll find this happened to the blind man in John chapter 9. And he came and he was healed. And they said, well, now you weren't always blind. Well, they called in the parents. They had this great interrogation. And the parents said, no, no, he was born blind. But they said, well, how does he see? Well, they didn't want to touch that because they knew, it says in John 9, that had they confessed Christ, they would have been put out of the synagogue. And that was the sacred meeting. And to them, that was everything. That was their lifeline to God. So they weren't willing to do that. But they did finally force the confession out of the mouth of this blind man who said, well, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. But I know one thing, I was blind, but now I see. That was enough. You're one of his disciples. And he was cast out. He was cast out of the synagogue. And immediately Jesus takes him up. At any rate, you can see where the Talmud went with their the best they could to denigrate the nature of Christ. And nothing really has changed over the centuries of time. Don't be fooled by modern apologists from the Jews, we have Dennis Prager, but he holds fast to the Talmud and he speaks highly of the Talmud and so forth. But here's what the Talmud has to say about Jesus. Jesus was born out of wedlock. to his mother Miriam and her lover Pantera. She is said to have been the descendant of princes and rulers and to have played the harlot with a carpenter. Jesus spent time in Egypt from where he learned magic. He was a magician and deceived and led Israel astray. He mocked at the words of the wise and tainted with heresy and was thus excommunicated. He called himself God, also the Son of Man, and said that he would go up to heaven. He was near to the kingdom and had five disciples. He was tried at Lydda, of course that's Jerusalem, just another way, as a deceiver and as a teacher of apostasy. So he was executed in Lydda on the eve of Passover, which was also the eve of the Sabbath, by being stoned and hung or crucified. For 40 days a herald proclaimed that he was to be stoned and invited Evil, I think it says that, or evidence in his favor. Maybe I should put my glasses on. I can't read this. I can't read that. But I can read this. We're good, right? At any rate, so he was put to death under Pinchas, the robber, when he was 33 years old. He was punished in Gehenna. by the means of boiling filth. So you can see that they put some of the truth together with a certain degree of lore and myth and this is how they painted and portrayed Jesus. And through the centuries those that are committed to the Torah are also committed to Mishnah and to Talmud. These, they believe, are not sacred writings but they're given by the inspired rabbis and the rabbinical school of knowledge taught the truth and that they were to follow that truth. So this is anti-Christian, obviously. This is anti-Christ. It is what John has in mind here, though he's probably just seeing it in a seed form when he writes this epistle, and then later, of course, in Revelation where he actually is hearing from the Spirit of God that this is nothing more than the synagogue of Satan. So these are hard statements. They are harsh. As you will see in Matthew 23, Jesus spared no feelings and he let them know who they were, a generation of vipers, and that they could not escape the damnation of hell. So that's as strong a language as could be heard. So I think that's what John has in his thinking as he's writing here under inspiration. And he's warning about those that are deniers of the Father and the Son. So they deny the Son, then they've denied the Father. So that's how they're putting it. And so that's at least an aspect of the anti-Christian movement of the first century. But also, as we mentioned before, there were the Gnostics. This was a separate movement, in a sense, Some of them may have been Gnostic Jews. So the expression Gnosis or Gnostic came early on. There were those that were intellectual Jews that believed in certain amount of esoteric writings and so forth, the Kabbalah. And they were given to that sort of thing. And they believed in higher knowledge. And that's how we have the expression Gnostic. It's just kind of a generic term. But we have those that had specific heresies in the 1st through 4th centuries. So we have right from the outset these Gnostics rising up and John's addressing that issue and they begin to formulate false doctrine, especially when we get to the 4th century and there are several of these that I've mentioned in passing before, this certainly Arius, who was the founder of Arianism, Jesus was the first and greatest of all that God had created. Jehovah's Witnesses believe this. He was closer to them than all others, but not divine. So that's Antichrist right there. What's deceiving about Arianism is that they will acknowledge Christ, same as Jehovah's Witnesses will. and the Mormons will. And so this becomes confusing to people. They think, well, you must be a Christian if you acknowledge Christ. But what do they think of Christ? You know, the question was raised, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? And so that's a very important question that has to be answered. And Arian would say, well, he was a good man and whatever. He was close to God, but he wasn't God. He wasn't divine. This strange teacher, Origen, considered by some to be a great scholastic and fourth century scholastic, and even canonized, I think, by the Roman Catholic Church as a saint, saint Origen. But if you explore his writings, now there's much to be said about Origen as far as, you know, he was willing to be martyred. His father was martyred. So, they were strange times and difficult times. Nonetheless, that does not in any fashion preclude that we have good doctrine coming from him. We have to explore what the man taught, what did he teach. And I'm just giving you a little sampling here. He said, there could be degrees or grades of divinity with the son being slightly less divine than the father. So that's called semi-Aryanism. In other words, he was kind of buying some thoughts from Arius. And from Gnostics all the way back to the first century, who are what? Denying the equality of the father and the son. So you have that element. Sabellianism is another false heresy. God is only one person who acts now as Father in creating the universe, now as a Son in redeeming sinners, and now as the Holy Spirit in sanctifying believers. This is called modalism. And it's simple to remember because it just means that God acts in different modes. So, but he's not three at the same time and one. So that's the, it's the denial of Trinitarianism. All of this has first century roots. This is all anti-Christian. The fact that we put some labels on it, Sabellianism, Arianism, and so on, doesn't, that's just to make it convenient for us. But they didn't really have denomination those first four centuries and so on. They weren't called by these names. We do it just simply to categorize. Back to Origen, you know, there's so much about him and this is something to take note of as to where he was. He lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria, Egypt was a hotbed for pseudo-intellectualism. It was there that they had, you know, one of the ancient wonders, right? The library that was noted to be the most voluminous library in the ancient world. If you wanted to be smart, you went there. It was the Harvard of that generation. And it was where Origen lived and it's where he studied. Now, you know, he may have begun well even, and that's a possibility, but what happens when you're influenced by an intellectual culture, you begin to acquiesce to it. The pseudo-philosophical positions that they were taking at that particular time, it was what was called Neo-Platonism, if you're familiar with this at any rate. The thoughts were materialistic, essentially. You had a hard time selling anything spiritual to them. And as a result, I think the compromise here that Origen made is that he began to allegorize the Bible, as people do it today, by the way. They say, wait a minute, are you telling me that there was a serpent that talked? You see, it makes you look foolish, doesn't it? Because intellectuals say, come on now, what are you telling me about? So, you know, it's tempting for us to say, well, that's just a story. But if you start with that line, there's no end to it. And that's where I think Origen went bad, allegorizing the scriptures and saying, well, the first several chapters of Genesis aren't to be taken literally. They're just a story and they teach us a lesson. So that's very dangerous thinking. And what did that lead to? Well, when you begin to explore Origen's writings, we really don't need to, okay? But since John is warning about where Gnosticism leads a person and it is anti-Christ, perhaps we do need sometimes to take a closer look at how the leaven of false doctrine began to infect the body politic of the church. So here's Origen, lived from 185 to 254 AD, so he's kind of a third century, second, third century crossover, right? So he believed the Holy Spirit was a feminine force. He believed in soul sleep, Soul sleep is a position that's held by the Christian church. They don't believe that there's a resurrection. When you die, your body goes to sleep and you wait for a general resurrection at the end. Soul sleep is also taught by Mary Baker Eddy, who was a false teacher. So they may have soul sleep, this notion. Of course, again, these are all ancient. The devil really doesn't have anything new. He just puts a different wrapper on it, that's all, maybe a different name. He was a very strong proponent of baptismal regeneration. Catholics hold to the fact that you bring your baby to the church, the priest says an exorcism prayer over, cast the devil out of the baby. anoints the ears, the nose, and the mouth. You see, so people come to me and say, well, someone wants me to be a godfather for, you know, my niece, and they're Catholics, and it's an honor. What should I do? I said, well, I would have nothing to do with an exorcism. Oh, what did they say? What do you mean? Well, that's what it is. The Catholic doctrine will tell you that, but I don't think the priest would tell you that. These are things that are hidden from the populace. They don't want common people to understand these things. It's too deep. Only priests get it, and so on. But that's exactly what it is. And if you press them on the point, you'll find that out. So I would think, how would I want to be a part of that? I would probably say politely, look, I am honored that you would consider me to be the one, but first of all, number one, I am not a Catholic, and therefore I could not pledge to raise this child as a Catholic, which is what a sponsor is to do. But the Catholic Church now, they're pretty slick about this. They say, oh, now you can have Protestants. Because they think the Protestants ultimately, they went astray, but they're really Catholics at heart or whatever. But I know that that's what it was all about. And you made that vow and promise. And secondarily, I don't think you'd want to be a part of what I consider to be a satanic ritual. Babies being baptized in water now, actually cleansing the soul. Why would I want to be a part of something like that? That's nothing but mysticism. At any rate, so he believed that Jesus was only a created being. Jesus became Christ at his baptism, but that he was never God. He was just a good man with very high morals. He believed in the doctrine of purgatory. He believed in transubstantiation. He believed in the transmigration of the soul and reincarnation of the soul. He doubted the temptations of Jesus in Scripture and claimed they could never have happened. The Scriptures were not literal but allegory. Genesis 1-3 was a myth, not historical or literal, as there was no actual person named Adam. Based upon Matthew 19, a true man of God should be castrated, which he did to himself. He taught eternal life was not a gift. Instead, one must grab hold of it and retain it. Christ enters no man until they mentally grasp the understanding of the consummation of the ages. This is very Gnostic in its summation. And he taught there would be no physical resurrection of the believers. So how would you judge the matter? These are distilled from all of his writings, so how would you judge the matter? What is he? Well, to me, he's Antichrist. So I don't know why he remains an anomaly to Christians except, you know, so many people are enamored by scholarship. So one reads his various tomes and thinks, well, you know, this man, he has a full grasp of things eternal and so forth and a vocabulary that just, you know, amazes you. And so he must be a Christian, right? Let's be real careful. I don't know if he was a Christian or not. Only God knows that. But I know these are all heresies that he taught. And so if he taught the heresies, why would I be interested in canonizing him or making him some kind of a hero or a saint? Of course, none of us have the advantage of living contemporaneously with any of these heretics, so how would we really know we didn't have any discourse or conversation with them? All we have are scraps and extant writings that might help us to formulate opinions about him. Perhaps by the end of his life he changed his mind on some of these things. I should hope so. I hope so. At any rate, So we're back to this notion of Gnostic heresy infecting the first century and on through the centuries of time. The Gnostics believed in the pleroma. Remember this word I used it last week? It's a Greek word, but the word pleroma means a fullness. It's used in the Bible when it speaks of Christ in the book of Colossians, that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So pleroma. But the word itself here as adopted by the Gnostics has a completely different meaning. Of course they have their own little trinity and their trinity consists of the Demiurge and the Christ and the virgin goddess, Ashtaroth. So their belief is that the Demiurge was the evil god. And that he's the creator. He's the God that's seen in the books of the Old Testament. And he's a mean and ugly and terrible being. He is malevolent. And he intentionally puts men in bad situations so that he can captivate them and hold them captive. Now, I forget already what the name of the movie is that Disney just came out with a couple months ago. Something about the star, right? Wish, that's right. Thank you. So wish is, it's demonic and it's Gnostic in its perspective. Disney is no friend to Christians. Everybody needs to realize that. We don't realize it because, you know, he somehow has this image of being squeaky clean and whatever. But that's not who Disney is. Disney has a lot of evil to sell our young children. So you want to keep your children away from these. Or maybe not. I've kind of lost the battle in so many ways. People thinking that I'm extreme and they don't want their kids shielded from this. This is part of their culture. I don't know what I can say. All right. At least make them smart enough to discern what the evil is. Maybe that's important. that we would sit with them and say, wait, wait, you see this evil master here that has his people all enslaved and so forth? Well, that's not, they're trying to make that the image of God of the Old Testament and that people have no choice and no free will and that sort of thing. Well, anyway, we're into detail on this on Wednesday Night Teachings. So if you're really interested, you could check the YouTube channel out on it and you'll find me somewhere about four or five months ago teaching a complete lesson about the Demiurge. But the Demiurge, they said, well, he's got to be eliminated. The serpent actually came as a friend to Adam and Eve, tried to liberate them and try to open their eyes to what the truth was. And as a result, you know, he was cast aside and cast into hell, cast down from heaven. So they have a real twisted perspective about the pleroma and so one wants to be very careful about how far we go with this. They also believe in the Christ. The Christ comes to save and liberate men from the power of the evil God of the Old Testament. So what we have is a typical Eastern concept of yin and yang, an equal and opposite force of good and evil, and it is Gnostic. That's the Gnostic perspective and so forth, and that the Christ has come actually to liberate us from the powers of the demiurge. So that's it in a nutshell, to some degree. So of course, all of this, through the centuries of time, evolves. One thing about the Bible is that it's static. Its revelation has been given. There's nothing to be added to and nothing to be taken from. And you'll always be wary of anybody, like the Mormons that come and say, no, no, there's other books. And they start that stuff and so forth. So you want to reject that notion. God is static in his revelation. It doesn't need to say anything else. The Catholic Church says that's true, that's why we have the Magisterium. And the Magisterium can tell you what the active will of God is for the centuries to come. We go to the Catholic Church and the Magisterium will tell you about Lent and tell you about the seven sacraments and tell you about the co-redemptrix of Mary and so forth, and they add all these false doctrines. So you want to be wary, you've got a Bible, stay by it. It doesn't change. It's the same yesterday, today and forever. So we don't have to worry about adding new things, but there are all these permutations of the Gnostic religion, that's for sure. And we have it to this day. It comes in the form of the New Age. It comes in various emissaries. Oprah is one big advocate of new age, Gnostic thinking, and she has multiplied millions that adore her and think that she's the sum total of all wisdom, and it's just not true. Are you all right with all this? I don't know. I never liked studying the cults. It's like working in a sewer. Do you know what I'm talking about? Have you ever worked in a sewer? I mean, I'm not Ed Norton or anything, but I mean, I've had my hands in muck before. And you have that feeling the rest of the day. You feel dirty. And I know I've got to get home and I've got to get clean, right? And my wife stops me at the door, right? Will not come in like this, right? You're not permitted to come in like this." I said, well, how am I going to take a shower? Well, all your dirty clothes have to be left here, you know, and we have to go finally clean it all up. But it is a grand feeling to finally have it all cleaned out, right? I think when you study the cults and Gnosticism and so forth, I feel dirty at the end of it. I don't even want to countenance their thinking. It's twisted. It's perverted. And in some strange way, it's seductive. It seems to attract people. And now, of course, now that we have these various means of communicating it, we have movies that sell this religious tripe. And people think, you know, they're just action movies. They're not action movies, they're religious tripe. They're teaching you a religious line. That's what Star Wars is all about. It's all about the good force and the evil force. That's what these Disney films... Pocahontas, you know, and it's all about the creation and the creation, you know, is alive and speaking to us. The Lion King and the idea, you know, that there's this circle of life. That's taken straight from Gnosticism. That's pure Gnosticism. But people are ignorant. And I'm not saying, that's not demeaning. They just don't know any better. They're ill-taught. I don't think they're really interested in learning. I think there are a lot of people who think after they've gone to high school or college, my learning has ended. They call it commencement for a reason, don't they? Commencement, I'm just starting, just starting to learn. But some people shut it down after that, nothing more to know and that's it and all the information they ever get is from a television screen that talks to them. Reading, nobody interested. So, apostates in the early church, antichrists, Gnosticism as we've noticed here in various forms, particularly Valentianism, reliance on a revealed knowledge from an unknowable God, a distinct deity from the demiurge who created and oversees the material world which is all evil. Marcionism. So we talked about these two forces and the Gnostics believe that the good God came down in the form of Christ. See how dangerous this is because we believe that. We believe that God was in Christ. Christ was in God. that they are one and the same. So they take this but they'll twist it slightly and say, well he was a lesser God but he was God nonetheless, right? And he came in to defeat the demiurge and he had to do it. And Martianism speaks of dualism, two different gods and in battle with each other. The God of Jesus was a different God from the God of the Old Testament. mountainism and relied on prophetic revelations from the Holy Spirit. What a dangerous thing this is. When you begin hearing voices telling you things, audible voices even, and then inspiring people, telling them things that nobody else has heard, prophecies, the gift of prophecy terminated with John at the Isle of Patmos. People aren't hearing from God directly in that fashion. We don't need to. We have a Bible. So, it's a monolith. See, but when we start adding to it, we start saying, well, no, no, God told me this and God said this. I always tell the story of a guy, he had a very infamous criminal down at the county jail way back in the 80s and he had committed double murders and he had been given two life sentences, as a matter of fact. But he came to my Bible study. He was Erudite, a very intelligent guy. He could memorize scripture. It was amazing. His mind was like a sponge. He could take it all in and so forth. And we had quite a dialogue back and forth and so on. And all seemed well until he said, you know, I'm being released. I said, really? Yeah, he said. I said, well, how do you know that? Did you go to trial with the judge? No, no. He said, I had a gift of prophecy and the Lord told me of my release date. I said, really? Yeah. And he said, I want you to do the wedding. I'm going to marry my girlfriend. I said, well, I'd be honored to do that. But he said, oh no, it's going to happen. We're printing up the invitations. I said, well, you still haven't been sentenced. Well, he said, I'm telling you, they're going to drop all the charges and I'm going to go home. And God told me that. And there was another guy that taught Bible study at that point there and he was charismatic and he was agreeing with this guy and telling him it was so and affirming it. And I said, well, Bill, I can't go with you on this one. I'm sorry. Oh, he said, that's a negative confession. I said, well, whatever you want to call it, I just don't agree with. I don't think you heard from God at all. Well, of course, a couple weeks, months go on before Judge Dower, he was going to stand before Judge Dower, real famous. You could talk about an acronym. Dower, he's a doer, you know, he's a mean judge and so on. And he sentenced him for two life sentences. And he was totally shocked that this happened to him. He's still serving out life sentence. I just heard from him, I don't know, a year ago. He wrote me a letter from Florida. He's in Florida serving out two life sentences and he's hoping to have at least one of them commuted. So he asked if I would write a letter of recommendation. I thought that was kind of interesting. What am I going to recommend to the judge? But at any rate, This monotonism was a heresy of the second century. And there was a lot of emotionalism that was attached to it. It was religion with a lot of emotion. And people like that. They buy into that. I don't want to be stoic. By the same token, emotions can take you in wrong directions oftentimes. And people become overly emotional about things. and the devil plays in the emotions. So be careful. Mountainism. Adoptionism. So Jesus was not born the Son of God but was adopted at his baptism, resurrection, and in other words, Gnostic said, God can't live in a human body because everything on earth was made by the demiurge and everything's evil. So that meant that he was only adopted to be the son of God and he wasn't really the son of God. Oh well, you know what, I've got a dozen more of these, but that gives you some idea. But we're done with Sunday school. So Lord, hopefully we can take what we're learning here, Lord, and I pray that everybody here will just simply be Berean, that they will study to see if these things are so. They don't need to take my opinion, they need to take yours. So help us to give some light to this, Lord. And what strange things emanated forth even from the very first century up to the 21st things that are done in the name of Jesus. We have to be wary and we must be discerning. Thankfully, Lord, your Spirit comes to give us the light. Give us light, Lord, and help us to be directed in the paths of your perfect knowledge. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.