If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods (gods you have not known) and let us worship them," you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer.
The LORD is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and all your soul... You must purge the evil from among you.
Deuteronomy 13:1-3, 5, NIV
Under the Law of Moses, any person that even suggested that an idol be worshiped, regardless of whether that person was a stranger or the closest of kin, that person was to be put to death. That is how serious God was about having idols before Him. Such evil had to be purged or it would become the downfall of the entire nation.
Now this may sound harsh to those of us who have only lived under the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2), but you have to remember the era in which these people lived and the standard of holiness that the LORD placed upon His chosen people. The punishment had to be swift and final lest the entire nation be tempted to turn away from God and follow the fornication and shedding of innocent blood that accompanied idol worship.
But why talk about such difficult things today? Don't we live under an era of grace and love? Isn't it true that God will save us regardless of what we have done? The answer to these questions is "yes and no". Now I don't want to sound like I'm double talking, but I do believe that we should understand what grace and love will do for us today. God's grace will give us a second chance, if we will seek that chance in His way. God's love permits us to come back to Him, if we will come back on His terms. And God in His mercy will forgive us of any sin, but only if we seek that forgiveness in His prescribed way.
You hear a lot of talk about "unconditional" grace and love and forgiveness, but such talk is ridiculous. God does extend these things to all men regardless of sin - that is true - but we must never misuse God's mercy in such a way as to imply that it is unconditional. Do you realize that if God's love and grace and forgiveness were without conditions that there could be no Hell? Maybe that's why some modern day "prophets and dreamers" have come to us saying that there is no such place of eternal punishment...
but they are lying to you!
Now before I continue, I do want to be clear on this: I am not suggesting that everyone who uses the phrases, "unconditional love" and "unconditional grace" are intentionally lying to you. It is true that God extends His love and grace to all - along with His offer of forgiveness, but God has always had conditions on what defines acceptable service to Him, and we should not mock Him by saying that such service comes without a change of lifestyle, including repentance.
It was Jesus who warned us of Hell! It was Jesus who told us that we must not merely say to Him, "Lord, Lord" but that to enter Heaven we must do the will of His Father who is in Heaven. Why then do we believe such lies when we are told that God has no conditions upon our salvation? It is because we are human and our human nature longs to hear what it wants to hear. This was true during the time of Moses when people wanted to believe the false prophets who said they could indulge in the adulterous pursuit of idols, and it is true in our Christian era when false teachers will come and promise us the right to sin and still be saved without repentance and having our sins washed away.
So what are we to do? Fortunately, we are no longer commanded to kill such false prophets - God will take care of them in His time - but our duty is still the same: We are to purge the evil from among us, because God's standards for holiness have never changed. And despite modern day "dreamers" who say otherwise, God's grace has never been intended to be used as a license for sin.
For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
Jude 1:4, NIV
Today is the 26th day of the 30 day challenge to study the Books of Moses, with Deuteronomy 13-16 being the text for today. May God richly bless you as you purge the evil from your life in order to serve Him in the way that His holiness requires!
