While the Church Slept.

     Jude lays it out simply, "certain people have crept in unnoticed." I call these certain people the "creeps." 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

 (Jude 1:3-4 ESV)

What a better time to creep in, while the church slept (my words, not Jude's). 

    This brings to mind the Tet Offensive of '68 when communist forces who had stealthily moved into towns and villages in South Vietnam over a period of months, waited patiently for the signal from Hanoi to begin their attack. And around midnight on February 1, 1968, the signal was given. Just after midnight the attacks began, from the DMZ to Saigon and lower into the Mekong Delta. Communist troops hit South Vietnam with ground troops and rockets by the thousands with the dual goals of defeating American forces and taking down the American Embassy in Saigon. But regardless of the thousands upon thousands of commie soldiers involved in the attacks, they were beaten back by American forces working together with the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam. Millions of Vietnamese, both North and South lost their lives, not to mention the hundreds of American troops. Army Intelligence knew something was up but not exactly what. So, the Tet Offensive caught everyone off guard. American forces were not asleep, but we were unaware of the North's intentions. I was there and witnessed it firsthand.

    While the church slept, and for the most part is still asleep, these certain people crept in and are still creeping in to this day. But will the church listen? Probably not. It prefers to go along to get along. The average churchgoer is content to live with a false sense of security and bliss while the enemy has already crept into their own places of worship. As often as I have personally railed against creeps the likes of Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and Jesse Duplantis and Bill Johnson of Bethel Church of Redding, Ca., Creflo Dollar, T.D. Jakes and Joel Osteen, they are still gaining ground as they spread their different gospel and their different Jesus. "And my people love it so." But what does Scripture say about these deceivers? "Let them be accursed" (Gal. 1:6-9). The visible church embraces the very people the Bible say are anathema.

    Christendom today is marked by a Biblically ignorant people. Is it any wonder it is so easily and willingly deceived? Why should the average churchgoer read his/her Bible? "That's what we pay the preacher for. He reads it and preaches it and we hear him. That's good enough for me. That's the way it's supposed to be. Right?" And thus, deceivers like Joel Osteen can win the hearts of the average churchgoer.

    But that's just me, beating a dead horse.