Hopefully making theology simpler to understand! (2 Corinthians 1:12)

It is about time for a short message series.

For the past few weeks and over the next couple of months, I will upload short messages based on the book of Malachi. It will probably be eight total and based on the section divisions in the English Standard Version of the Bible.

No special titles. Just taking a quick look at what was said.

So read along with me, and let us study what Malachi said to his people about 2,400 years ago.

Malachi 2:1-9

Remember that Malachi literally means “my messenger”, so he is God’s messenger, as all the Prophets were.

Chapter 1 was about God’s love for His covenant people – those who obey and love Him – versus those who refuse to listen to Him. The priests offered lame, sick, and injured animals as sacrifices, basically taking the Lord’s name in vain by calling it acceptable even though they were worthless gifts.

Now, God rebukes those priests:

^{“And now, O priests, this command is for you. 2 If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. 3 Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. 4 So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. 5 My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8 But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, 9 and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.”}

From verse three we see a reference to Exodus 29:14, that the sacrificial bull’s flesh, skin, and dung were to be taken out of the camp to be burned as an offering.

The unclean parts were taken away from God’s community of people and burned.

The priests were supposed to be keep/teach the life, peace, and fear of the Lord.

Naturally, our Perfect Priest – the teacher and source of life and peace – is Jesus.

Keep in mind: Malachi was written about 430 years before John the Baptist and Jesus came on the scene. He was the last prophet for 430 years, and he lived about 100 years after the end of the Exile and about the same time as Ezra and Nehemiah.

And the priesthood was already falling back into the old patterns that led to the Exile in the first place …

TODAY

We now see the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), the hyper-charismatic movement – with people like Kenneth Copeland, Bill Johnson (and the Bethel Church at Redding, CA, leadership and friends), IHOP (Prayer, not Pancakes) with Mike Bickle and friends – who look good at first. They perform many signs and wonders and say we need Jesus, right? They say that Jesus is the Son of God, right?

I mean – we could say – doesn’t 1 John 2:23 say, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also“?

But Jesus (and Paul, Peter, and John, including from the passage just quoted) warn about coming antichrists. “Christ” means “anointed one”, and Jesus warned about the last days in Matthew 24:23-36:

Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.

Almost all of these modern “apostles” and “prophets” and teachers, especially at IHOP, say we should be seeking Jesus in the inner prayer rooms. In and of themselves, prayer rooms are not bad.

However, these people teach that we can be little christs (Yes, I know “christian” means “little christ”!), that we can receive special anointings (“I am the anointed of the Lord,” they say) and perform mighty signs and wonders.

Yet they also teach things like Jesus being the first to be born again, that He did not become the Son of God until [baptism, resurrection, ascension], that we can do literally everything Jesus can because we have His authority to do whatever.

They teach we should all learn to heal people and prophesy.

These are the the people who in March 2020 declared and prophesied that the C-19 virus would not lead to a pandemic, that it would be done by Passover, that a mighty south wind would bring a heatwave (Kenneth Copeland) to kill the virus (literally the day before a days-long cold snap hit the US).

C-19 proved they are all false prophets and teachers.

Some try to claim that a wrong prophecy merely means they got it wrong, that they are not necessarily false prophets. Yet Deuteronomy 18:20-22 says that if someone prophesies and it does not come true, they are a FALSE PROPHET. (And there are more passages.)

These people are not teaching truth. The prophesy life and peace, but they are at best deceived and at worst liars.

And God said in verse 3 that they have the dung of their pathetic offerings all over their faces. They are to be taken out of God’s community and burned.

Do not follow them, or you will follow them to the same eternal destination. (NOT with Jesus!)

As verses 8-9 tell us, God curses their offspring (in this context, those who follow them and even teach others the same things), and they are despised and abased before all people. They have been proven false teachers, prophets, and apostles.

Do not follow them.

Turn to the authority of Jesus Christ who commands us to go into all nations making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all He has commanded. (Matthew 28:18-20)

Follow Jesus.

Test everything I have said (and they teach) with the Word of God.