Counterfeits
November 15, 2023
Here’s another oldie but goodie from my postings in the Island Dispatch, circa 1975. Major edits are going to be {} bracketed. Remembering that I wrote this, circa 1975, might be of some interest to someone… Here we go…
There are many voices out there for your time, money and/or commitment. Political Groups and even Religious Leaders clamor for your undivided attention to their offers of promises and salvations of various and sundry kinds and methods.
“Someone may come to your door with a fried egg over his left ear, claiming, ‘This egg has given me joy, purpose, and strength for living!” That quote is from Paul E. Little of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship fame. He continued pointing out that, obviously, this declaration would come under scrutiny. He also pointed out that most counterfeits are much more subtle.
A representative of some pseudo-political group may visit you — in person or online — weighed down with armfuls of literature, telling of some menacing conspiracy against you. Fortunately, those conspiracies will disintegrate like that of the world dictator foretold in the Bible book of Revelation 13:11–17.
{ Note that the same type of fraud is being perpetuated today — only much further and wider and faster, because of the Internet. }
Perhaps you are naturally concerned about young people, and a pseudo-religious group appears on your neighborhood’s doorsteps. They will fein true concern for young people, too. Unfortunately, they represent Rev. Moon or some other cult, perhaps Scientology, who intend to capture much more than your children’s attention.
Spiritual counterfeits are everywhere. Therefore, we must use our heads and use them for something more than a place to hang our ears. Counterfeits try to duplicate the real thing. In my experience, most try to take the place of the Gospel of Jesus Christ — the most valuable “commodity” on Earth or in Heaven.
The best way to avoid being deceived is to know the genuine. Did you know that you can know Jesus in an up close and personal way? After all, He is resurrected and living today. So, your lifestyle can be established in His teachings recorded in the Bible.
{ God’s Holy Spirit will come alongside you to gently guide you, to remind you of what you have read in the Bible, and to establish all of it in your lifestyle. With the Word of God in your heart and mind, you can become like a deeply rooted oak tree, and you will not be blown around by windy charlatans. Furthermore, If you are worried about counterfeits at your doorsteps, but you are looking for the genuine, Jesus taught that if you ask and keep on asking, you will receive the necessities of life. And if you seek and keep on earnestly seeking, you will receive transcendent, eternal answers to life’s questions. And if you knock and keep on knocking with importunity. you will not only find and keep on discovering spiritual gems, you will obtain true fellowship with Jesus and God the Creator of the Earth and the Universe, and you will find fellow believers with a loving kindness like you have never known friendship before. }
