Before Christ ascended back to heaven, He warned the Apostles to "take heed, for after I go many will come in my Name" The Apostles knew that Christ wanted them to record what He told them as it applies to us also.
If you asked the average Christian who their worst enemy is or what represents the greatest danger to them, you would get a lot of different answers. But Christ was clear about who our greatest enemies are, He described them as "wolves in sheep's clothing.
Christ also told the apostle John, in the book of Revelation that there would be a great falling away and the love of many would grow cold. These warnings were directed at believers, Jesus knew that false prophets would sneak into the Church and teach false doctrine in order to lead the flock away from Christ.
So our worst enemy is not the Devil and his Demons, because we know what they're all about. Our greatest enemy is a false prophet and the Church is full of them, these days.
Our second worst enemy is ourselves, the Apostle Paul describes this enemy in Romans 7:18-21 Here Paul describes the true condition of every Christian, we don't do what we know to be good, but we chose to do the evil which we know is bad.
According to Paul, we will continue to wrestle against our sin nature and we won't conquer it in this life. Most Christians don't know their worst enemies and this makes them very vulnerable.
Every army General studies the enemy before He goes to war against it, but Christians aren't even convinced that they themselves are one of their own worst enemies. Nobody likes to hear the cold hard truth, that's why those Churches where the Gospel is proclaimed faithfully are nearly empty while the wolves fill stadiums.
This explains why the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, we wouldn't need to fear God if we weren't inherently wicked. As long as Christians think they're doing well and there's nothing to fear the devil will leave them alone, because he knows they're headed to the same place as he is.
If you asked the average Christian who their worst enemy is or what represents the greatest danger to them, you would get a lot of different answers. But Christ was clear about who our greatest enemies are, He described them as "wolves in sheep's clothing.
Christ also told the apostle John, in the book of Revelation that there would be a great falling away and the love of many would grow cold. These warnings were directed at believers, Jesus knew that false prophets would sneak into the Church and teach false doctrine in order to lead the flock away from Christ.
So our worst enemy is not the Devil and his Demons, because we know what they're all about. Our greatest enemy is a false prophet and the Church is full of them, these days.
Our second worst enemy is ourselves, the Apostle Paul describes this enemy in Romans 7:18-21 Here Paul describes the true condition of every Christian, we don't do what we know to be good, but we chose to do the evil which we know is bad.
According to Paul, we will continue to wrestle against our sin nature and we won't conquer it in this life. Most Christians don't know their worst enemies and this makes them very vulnerable.
Every army General studies the enemy before He goes to war against it, but Christians aren't even convinced that they themselves are one of their own worst enemies. Nobody likes to hear the cold hard truth, that's why those Churches where the Gospel is proclaimed faithfully are nearly empty while the wolves fill stadiums.
This explains why the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, we wouldn't need to fear God if we weren't inherently wicked. As long as Christians think they're doing well and there's nothing to fear the devil will leave them alone, because he knows they're headed to the same place as he is.