Trojan Horses in the Church
By
Dr. Ken Matto
Matthew 13:25 (KJV) But while
men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
The
Trojan Horse dates back about 32 centuries to the time of the Trojan war which
has been dated at 1194-1184 B.C. It
was a hollow structure which was built by a man named Epeius who was a master
Carpenter. The Greeks were trying
to gain access to the city of Troy but were unable to do so in full frontal
attack. So they built the Trojan
horse and used stealth to gain access.
The Greek army had intentionally left the area and sailed to the island
of Tenedos. They left behind a man
named Sinon who had convinced the Trojans that the horse was a gift to the
goddess Athena who was the Greek god of war and it would keep Troy impregnable.
The gift was accepted by the Trojans but not without a few who opposed
the gift. Nevertheless, they
accepted it and brought it inside the city gates.
Then that same night the Greek army returned and when they were in place,
there were soldiers inside the horse which then left the horse and opened the
gates of the city and allowed the Greek army inside the gates and they won that
war.
Into
every church a Trojan horse has been sent (some have several) and some churches
have chosen to listen to those who can foresee the problems to come.
Proverbs 22:3 (KJV)
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass
on, and are punished. Yet, the
majority of churches do not heed advice and allow the evil to pass right by the
front doors and into the arms of the people.
False teachings and gospels can be stanched before they enter the church
if only the church leadership were astute enough to compare every teaching to
the Scriptures to make sure they are not accepting a false teaching or gospel.
The problem is that in most churches, the leadership is unqualified and
the evidence of that is the condition that the church is in today.
False gospels and false teachings are running rampant in the churches and
it is only continuing to escalate because unqualified leaders are being dumped
on the churches in droves especially in May and June when Seminaries and Bible
colleges have their graduations. I
normally do not blame the congregants because as a congregant whenever I had
brought up a false teaching in a church, my reward for being biblical was
expulsion from that church.
I
wish to present a short laundry list of Trojan horses which have found a resting
place behind the walls of true discernment.
The gates of the city of Troy could be likened to the Scriptures.
When the gates were closed there was safety, and when one encounters a
teaching and compares it to the Scriptures and finds it false, it can be
rejected before it causes any disruption of biblical understanding.
The gate and The Bible are the last line of defense, for Troy and every
local assembly. The Trojans chose
to open the gate and let the horse in, not realizing at the time that trouble
was looming on the horizon. Most
churches have closed their Bibles and have accepted any teaching, not based on
the teaching itself but based on who the preacher or theologian is that is
bringing the teaching. The list I
want to present are teachings, principles, and doctrines which have been
accepted by the churches without even any bit of true opposition.
The reason why Satan is so successful in derailing churches is because he
knows that Christians will NEVER
take time to study, investigate, or research anything and will accept anything
at face value. This is especially
true for the clergy and the elders in the churches.
It seems whatever the pastor says, it holds the same authority as
Scripture, oh they won’t say that but try and tell your pastor he is wrong on a
certain teaching and see the “warm” reception that you will receive.
You will be escorted out the door because no clergyman who makes a six
figure salary is going to want the boat rocked.
Chrislam
A
newer Trojan horse is Chrislam which is the attempt to merge the teachings of
Islam and Christianity to show that both groups worship the same God.
However, if one just takes time to compare the teachings of Islam which
endorse the murder of anyone who opposes them with the teachings of Christianity
who will do no harm to those who oppose us will quickly see that the Koran and
the Bible were written from two different sources.
Sura
2:191 - Sahih International:
And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have
expelled you, and fitnah is worse than killing. And do not fight them at
al-Masjid al- îaram until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill
them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers.
Matthew 5:44 (KJV) But I say
unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
The
Bible teaches love and the Koran teaches hate, so then how can these be from the
same author? They can’t!
Therefore the teachings of Islam and Christianity are diametrically
opposed to each other. Do not
accept the lie that they are compatible just because someone like
pseudo-Christian Rick Warren teaches it and pushes it.
Mega-Churches
Another Trojan horse is the mega-church with its thousands of attendees.
Mega-churches do not help any Christian grow because to maintain a size
like that they must continually water down the gospel and make it palatable to
the unbeliever and the indolent Christian.
The bigger the church, the less growth takes place.
All one has to do is listen to the teachings of someone like Joel Osteen
or T.D. Jakes and any other mega-church.
Christians do not attend these types of churches to grow, they attend
them to hide out so they do not have to get involved while still maintaining the
Sunday go to church testimony to the world.
Mega-churches also hide much behind the scenes scheming because there is
no interaction between the pastor and the congregation and the leaders can get
away with much. How do you think
these pastors become millionaires? No one ever questions their multi-million
dollar salaries and benefits!
Sloppy Dressing – Leaders and Congregation
Another Trojan horse in the church is the incursion of sloppy dressing.
This began as another Rick Warren movement from his “Purpose Driven
Church” book. There was a time when
people dressed up nicely to go to church but now they go like slobs.
In other words, you can dress up for those in the world like work or
going to court but the Lord God who saved you for eternity is not worth the time
to get dressed up for. The pastors
who dress in dungarees and t-shirts on Sunday morning look like slobs so they
can get out to do what they want quicker without having to change clothes.
If there are people in the congregation who cannot afford a suit or even
nicer clothes, then that is understandable but the pastor is being a testimony
to those who come into the church and if he dresses like a slob, then that tells
people that church is not a serious thing and all one has to do is search the
Scriptures to see how important worship is to God and also to His children.
1
Chronicles 16:29 (KJV) Give
unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before
him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
Psalm
132:7 (KJV) We will go into
his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.
Normally the way we dress on the outside is an indicator of how committed we are
on the inside.
Emergent Church Teachings
This
has to be one of the most dangerous Trojan horses the church has ever faced.
They do away with the Bible and go by experience and feeling.
This movement is based upon mysticism and it is really Roman Catholic
Mysticism such as Teresa of Avila or Thomas Merton.
Mysticism basically teaches that one can become knowledgeable about God
not through the study of the Bible or through becoming born again but it is
attainable through feeling, experience, or through meditation.
This is very cultic in nature as many false religions use meditation,
experience, and feeling to gain their “higher consciousness.”
Another tenet of the Emergent church movement is something called
“soaking.” Soaking is when a
Christian is to empty their mind and become very calm and listen for the voice
of God. It can be done in a group
setting or in a sole setting. This
is very dangerous because God is not speaking audibly anymore and He speaks
through His word. This means that
if someone hears an audible voice, it can be the voice of a demon who may sound
religious but will eventually derail the seeker.
This Trojan horse must be totally rejected because it is of New Age
origin and is not compatible with true Christianity.
Sermon excluded
Another Trojan horse in the church is when they exclude the sermon for either
theatrical plays or skits. It is
the sermon where the pastor imparts encouragement to the congregation and
expounds the Scriptures. If the
sermon is done correctly then the congregation will receive biblical principles
for living. If the sermon is done
away with then a major part of the church service has been down away with just
so the sinners in the congregation can feel at home and the good givers never
challenged. If your church has done
away with the sermon then it is time to leave that congregation.
Rejection of Scripture – Avoiding Parts
On
the heels of the exclusion of the sermon are those sermons given by pastors that
intentionally avoid the parts of Scripture which could convict both believers
and unbelievers. They will
especially avoid the parts of Scripture which deal with sin like Joel Osteen.
Many preachers only preach a “positive” message which avoids the
negative. It is these positive
messages which minister only to the flesh making a person feel good rather than
convicted.
Acts 20:27 (KJV) For I have not shunned
to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
The Apostle Paul made sure that he declared to all his hearers the full
counsel of God which includes the judgments as well as the blessings.
If your pastor intentionally omits portions of Scripture from his
messages, then his attitude has become a Trojan horse which sets the stage for
further rejection of Scripture.
7-11
songs – No Hymns
Another Trojan horse in the church is the elimination of the traditional hymns
and replaced with the charismatic 7/11 choruses.
The 7/11 chorus is a description of the type of music that is in place in
the church. It is a short sentence
sung numerous times. It is like
saying a 7 word sentence sung 11 times.
These are nothing more than a mantra which is forbidden in Scripture.
The Bible refers to these as vain repetitions.
Matthew 6:7 (KJV) But when ye
pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they
shall be heard for their much speaking.
We are not use repetition in prayer like the Rosary in Catholicism or the
prayer wheel in Buddhism. The
principle also carries over to our music.
The music coming out of the false charismatic movement is very
repetitious and many churches of non-charismatic persuasion have adopted this
method of singing which is much in opposition to Scripture.
The old hymns had serious biblical theology and ministered to the soul,
the modern music ministers to the flesh.
I can guarantee you never stomped your foot for Rock of Ages!
Praise Teams
Another Trojan horse in the local church is the Praise Team.
Normally it is a band of about 5-10 people who lead the congregation in
worship. However, there is a
problem with these Praise Teams.
They are horribly loud and sometimes you think you are at a rock and roll
concert. In the Old Testament God
had commanded Israel to not only keep the Sabbath as part of the law but they
were also to reverence His sanctuary.
Leviticus 19:30 (KJV) Ye shall
keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
I know some who have been in churches where the music was so loud it
caused them to hold their ears. The
same principle needs to be applied to the local church.
If we are part of a Praise Team, we do not come to church to show how
good we are with drums or a guitar or whatever.
The idea of the local church is to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and to
be encouraged by the message. The
Piano and Organ used for congregational singing is a Praise Team and it
ministers to the soul and not the flesh.
Most churches today are nothing but replicas of football games with all
the shouting, talking, irreverence, etc.
Would we do that at work or in a courtroom?
Of course not, then why do we do it before the Lord of the Universe?
Tongues
Another Trojan horse in the local church is the presence of tongues.
The tongues found in Acts and 1 Corinthians were those of legitimate
languages already in existence. They were used of the Lord to propagate the
Gospel before the completion of the Bible.
The tongues which are used in modern times are nothing more than
gibberish which is nothing more than prattle or babble.
They are of no existing language group which tells us that they are of
satanic origin. Modern tongues
offer no spiritual advantage or any spiritual growth.
What it does is it makes the babbler the center of attention in the
church as if he or she is bringing some type of major message from Heaven.
Galatians 6:3 (KJV) For if a man
think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
These people are deceived because they are not bringing any type of
message just causing more confusion in the church.
They must not be paid attention to and should be removed from the
congregation.
Modern Bibles
Another major Trojan horse in the local church is the ousting of the King James
Bible and modern versions put in its place.
This perhaps is one of the most dangerous incursions in the modern
church. When the American Standard
Version of 1901 came on the market, then the church started to decay.
In 1906 the Asuza Street mission occurred which brought into main stream
the charismatic movement with all its signs and wonders.
As more modern Bible versions came into publication the church became
weaker and weaker. What you have
today is a shell of a church. Each
congregation looks like they are strong but in essence they would not face any
of the issues head on. The modern
versions are all violations of Revelation 22:18 &19 by reason of their additions
and omissions.
Revelation 22:18-19 (KJV) For I testify
unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man
shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written
in this book: {19} And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of
the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
When the King James was translated in 1604-1611, there were 54 Godly
scholars who worked on it, 7 had died so the project was completed by 47 of
them. When we compare those 47 men
to those who have translated the modern versions you will find sodomites,
unbelievers, Roman Catholics, Liberals, ecumenists who worked on the modern
versions. Since when would a holy
God hand His word over to sodomites and Roman Catholics for correction?
If you have a modern version, you are using a Roman Catholic translation
based on counterfeit and corrupted manuscripts.
The power of the church has waned with every new translation that comes
off the presses and is accepted without investigation in the churches.
“The text shared by these two editions was adopted internationally by Bible
Societies, and following an agreement between the Vatican and the United Bible
Societies it has served as the basis for new translations and for revisions made
under their supervision.
This marks a significant step with regard to interconfessional relationships. It
should naturally be understood that this text is a working text (in the sense of
the century long Nestle Tradition): it is not to be considered as definitive,
but as a stimulus to further efforts toward defining and verifying the text of
the New Testament. For many reasons, however, the present edition has not been
deemed an appropriate occasion for introducing textual changes.” – Nestle-Aland
Text, 27th Edition, Page 45, 3rd Paragraph
Free
Will
Another Trojan horse in the church is the removal of salvation from the hands of
God and placed into the hands of unregenerate sinners.
The will of man is in bondage to sin and according to the Scriptures
unsaved man is spiritually dead. To
teach that a person can raise themselves from the dead into salvation is nowhere
taught in Scripture and is a figment of the imagination of pride filled people.
No one can save themselves and people only become saved when God
regenerates them and then they can believe but before regeneration, it is
impossible for anyone to believe.
Mark 10:26-27 And they were astonished
out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?
{27}
And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God:
for with God all things are possible.
Jesus Himself acknowledges that a person cannot be saved without God.
So then why does the modern church exclude God from the salvation
process? Pure pride in
believing that salvation is in the hands of man.
Even Jonah knew better.
Jonah 2:9 (KJV) But I will sacrifice unto
thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed.
Salvation is of the LORD.
Love
Over Truth
Another Trojan horse in the church is the concept of allowing love to supersede
truth. The problem is that the
churches have been taking their definition of love from the world.
Remember when our not so Supreme Court decided that marriage is also
between 2 men and 2 women? Well the
biggest cry that day was “Love Won.”
The problem is that biblical love is much different.
Worldly love is a surface love which can change at any moment, just look
at all the divorces, even in the churches.
Biblical love is a deeper love which has sacrifice as its root.
True love sacrifices for the object of the love.
The Lord Jesus Christ is a prime example of that sacrificial love.
He sacrificed Himself on Calvary for the sake of the Elect.
The Apostle Paul faced tremendous opposition in his ministry but it was
for the purpose of the love he had toward the young churches.
2 Corinthians 12:15 (KJV) And I
will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love
you, the less I be loved.
Worldly love is totally inferior to true biblical love just as worldly
repentance is inferior to true biblical repentance.
2 Corinthians 7:10 (KJV) For godly
sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of
the world worketh death.
Pastors need to do a better job explaining the difference to their congregations
or they will continue to buy into all the false love, especially coming from the
sodomites.
Ecumenism
Another Trojan horse in the church is the acceptance of the ecumenical movement.
No place is this more evident than in the Pro Life movement where
Christians are joining forces with all kinds of unbelievers.
Throughout the Old Testament God warned Israel not to make any alliances
with unbelievers like the Philistines, Canaanites, et al.
What finally happened to Israel after they made alliances with the
foreign gods of the foreign nations?
They totally lost the rights to the land and both Judah and Israel went
into captivity.
Joshua 24:20 (KJV)
If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do
you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
It does not matter what reason is given, the true Christian is never to
join hand in hand with unbelievers.
If a church is going to fight against abortion, they need to do it in the power
of the Lord not in the evil alliances that have cropped up since 1973.
Maybe this is why God cannot bless any forward movement in stopping
abortion because the church has gone to the unbeliever for strength rather than
God Himself.
Women
Preachers and Elders
Another Trojan horse which has come into the church courtesy of the charismatic
movement is the ordination of women as pastors and elders.
The Bible strictly forbids women in places of authority in the church,
you may not like it but that is how it is.
The problem is that the feminized men in these churches do not have the
guts to stand up and rebuke this heinous practice.
1 Timothy 2:12 (KJV)
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man,
but to be in silence. How much
clearer can a passage be? The
problem is that the feminized men have bowed the knee to the women’s movement in
the world and as a result the churches have declined in strength and truth.
They are not have authority over the men in the church and the same in
the home even though they are equal.
God has placed in the Scriptures an order of authority and the churches
have abandoned that to the satanic feminist movements and it has wrecked the
churches.
Unsaved Pastors
Another Trojan horse in the church is unsaved pastors.
Every day we see and read about Lesbians being ordained in main line
denominations like the United Methodist Church or the Presbyterian Church of the
USA. There is no way unsaved people
can ever bring the true message.
All they will do is spawn congregations of their own kind, whether they be just
unbelievers or sodomites like the Metropolitan Community Church.
What really baffles me is why anyone stays in the congregation when these
ungodly people are being elected to office.
Psalm 50:16-17 (KJV)
But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my
statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?
{17} Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.
Psalm 50:16-17 state plainly that the wicked (which are unbelievers) hate
biblical instruction and hate the words of God and yet they play church with the
eternal souls of the congregants.
Unbelievers take pastoral positions so they will not have to go out and work as
evidenced by a friend of mine who was told by an unsaved pastor who was recently
ordained that he could now catch up on his golf.
Acceptance of Sin
Another Trojan horse in the church is the acceptance of sin under the guise of
ignorance. We saw that God stated
in Scripture no women preachers and those churches who have them are willfully
sinning against the Scriptures.
Those churches which have formed alliances with unsaved churches and
denominations are also sinning. God
condemns the churches going back into the old life and holding hands with
unbelievers. We read that modern
bibles tend to add and omit words which means they are sinning which will have
an eternal curse on them. How many
churches have flown the multi-colored flag of the sodomites?
Instead of rebuking their lifestyle, and seeing them as a mission field,
the churches have embraced them under phony love which only leads to eternal
damnation. Churches need to
seriously assess what they are accepting as a normal practice to make sure they
are not perpetuating the sins of the world.
No
Prayer Meetings
Another Trojan horse in the church is the elimination of the Wednesday night
prayer and Bible study meeting.
Most churches today have also eliminated the Sunday evening service which means
that young people are getting only one service per week but are getting pounded
with false teachings at school 5 days a week and TV and Internet 7 days a week.
The Wednesday prayer meeting is a mid-week refresher which takes
Christians out of the world for a few hours and gets them looking forward to the
Lord’s Day for worship. It seems
the more pastors are being paid, the less they are doing.
The Wednesday night and Sunday night service need to be reinstated in
your church if it has been eliminated.
If there is not enough participants to warrant opening the church
building, then arrange to have the mid-week meetings in homes.
If the church wants to have mid-week services they will find a way.
Modern Israel
There
is probably no greater Trojan horse in the modern church than the modern nation
of Israel. For some reason, because
the name of the country is Israel, it is automatically connected with ancient
Israel which ceased to exist in 70 A.D. because of its rebellion toward God.
How does God view rebellion?
1 Samuel 15:23 (KJV) For rebellion is as
the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because
thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being
king. Rebellion is as the sin
of witchcraft which is Satanism.
When modern Israel became a nation in 1948, the churches went crazy because they
believed that we have entered the last days.
News Flash! The last days
commenced at the cross.
Hebrews 1:2 (KJV) Hath in these last days
spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom
also he made the worlds; What
we have is a very bad understanding of Scripture thinking that 1948 ushered in
the end. If God was going to bring
the nation of Israel back into existence, do you not think that He would have at
least mentioned it once in the New Testament?
In fact, He does not even mention the destruction of Israel in 70 A.D.
Why? Because it was no
longer factored into biblical history.
Ancient Israel had a special relationship with God because the Messiah
was to come through the tribe of Judah and that is why God preserved them.
Once the Messiah came on the scene and died and was resurrected, no
longer was the nation of Israel needed and therefore they were destroyed and the
people were scattered throughout the world.
The
churches have clung to this new nation of Israel as if their spiritual lives
depended on it. There is only one
chosen people that the Bible knows of and that is the people chosen in Christ
and placed in the Kingdom of God.
1 Peter 2:9 (KJV)
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a
peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
The unsaved Jews are not the chosen of God.
That statement “The Jews are God’s chosen people” is a political
statement which had its start in 1956 at a national meeting of the Presbyterian
Laymen’s League. Have you also
noticed that since 1945 the USA has never won a war?
Since 1948 we were involved in Korea and Viet Nam and both were loses for
America! It is no coincidence that
1948 was the year the USA politically and the churches abnormally embraced
modern Israel and we have been declining politically and spiritually since then.
Modern Israel is not only a Trojan horse for the church but also politically for
the USA as we continue to fight serial wars for Israel.
Christian Zionism is a false gospel and must be rejected if the churches
are to once again become strong.
The Bible was written about the Lord Jesus Christ but the modern church has made
it all about Israel by taking Old Testament passages and applying them to some
future kingdom where Israel is going to rule the world.
The majority of Old Testament passages point to the first coming and not
the second coming. The church has
weakened itself with this unholy alliance.
We need to heed the advice the Lord gave to Israel in the time of the
Judges.
Judges 2:2 (KJV) And ye shall make no
league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but
ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
The word league is a synonym for alliance.
There is nothing in the Scriptures giving approval to making alliances
with those who hate the Lord Jesus Christ!
It is time to burn all the Prophecy books and get back to pure Bible
study.
Summary
As
you can see the modern church has weakened itself by allowing many ungodly and
evil things to come into the church.
I do not blame the congregants but the leadership who think they are
smarter than all the others in the congregation and yet with the condition the
churches are in have shown they are plain stupid.
Evil teachings and practices are not even minutely investigated before
they are allowed past the vestibule.
If some TV or Radio theologian or pastor endorses it, then it is accepted
willy-nilly. When church leaders
have proven themselves to be unqualified and undiscerning, then it is time to
let them go. We are dealing with
the eternal souls of people and to exchange that for some “pastor nice guy” is
an evil exchange. It is probably
too late for most churches and for many it is just plain too late.
Maybe it is time to start disbanding those churches which stand on
apostasy and have no reason of existence.
If your church has adopted any of these evils, then it is time to
re-evaluate where your church stands biblically.