There is a famine in the land

There is a famine in the land. Spiritual discernment is lacking in the Christian community. Although there are faithful pastors and Christians who take the Word of God seriously, there is an increasing number of Christians who are abandoning the clarity and commands of Scripture and substituting political correctness, feelings and tolerance for biblical truth.

They want to make Christianity more palatable so that the gospel offends no one, but they fail to realize that the gospel that offends no one is not the gospel of the Bible. Though we are not to be purposely offensive, but in the name of truth, offenses will sometimes come and we should not shy away from them just to make people feel good.

It was Satan in the Garden of Eden who first challenged the Word of God when he asked Eve, did God really say, and he went on, he cast doubt on the Word of God. He cast doubt about the truth that God had revealed, which is really doubt about the integrity of God himself.

The Fall, Heresy, and Spiritual Famine

This led to a lack of spiritual discernment by Eve and then by Adam. The result was the fall, and the path to all subsequent heresies and apostasies was laid wide open. In today's Christianity, signs of spiritual famine are evident.

Women pastors and elders are increasingly considered to be acceptable. Like it or not, biblical revelation speaks to the contrary when it says that the elders are to be male, 1 Timothy 3 .2 -4, Titus 1 .5 -6, where it literally says that pastors and elders are to be the husband of one wife, and the Greek literally is a man of one woman.

And it says in 1 Timothy 2 .12 -13 that women are not to be in positions of authority over men in the church, 1 Timothy 2 .12 -13 and also with 1 Timothy 3 .15. This is what the Bible teaches. Also on TV, charlatan evangelists routinely talk about sending them seed money, or that they are little gods, or that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy.

False Teaching in the Church and the Emerging Church

The emerging church movement, though good in some areas, is dangerous in others, and its conversations and centering prayers that often have anti-biblical teachings mixed with Eastern mystical practices are making their way through the Christian community.

Books like The Shack, with its warm, heartfelt message, teach many unbiblical concepts, such as the Father being seen, patripastianism and universalism. It has been accepted and promoted along with its heresies which are excused because it is only fiction.

Since when does fiction make it okay to contradict God's Word? What do we do to develop better spiritual discernment? First and foremost, you must be born again, John 3 .3 and 2 Corinthians 5 .17, so that you may have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2 .16.

How to Develop Spiritual Discernment

Second, you must study the Word of God and believe it. Third, you need to develop a proper biblical theology that includes the sovereignty and holiness of God found in both the person of Christ and in the Bible.

Proper theology is the bedrock of discernment. Biblical theology teaches, whether anyone likes it or not, that men are to be pastors and elders, and that they are to be examples of righteousness, strength and goodness.

Likewise, God nowhere promises us health and wealth. If anything, He tells us that we will be persecuted for righteousness' sake. Biblical theology does not permit fiction to be used as an excuse to violate God's infinite holiness and majesty.

Commit yourself to Christ and His truth. Know God's Word so well that you will clearly recognize the enemy's lies. As the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5 .21, Examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that which is good.