History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Volume 1 — John Shaqi
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Volume 1Smith, Joseph, Jr.
Religion
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Volume 1
Smith, Joseph, Jr.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Smith, Joseph, Jr., 1805-1844
Peter also had something to say with reference to the danger of
heresies and false teachers which menaced the Church. He declared that
there would be false teachers among the saints, who "privily would
bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and
bring upon themselves swift destruction." "And many," said he, "shall
follow their pernicious ways: by reason of whom the truth shall be evil
spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
merchandise of you; whose judgment now for a long time lingereth not,
and their damnation slumbereth not. For if God spared not the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them unto chains
of darkness to be reserved unto judgment"--he argued that the Lord
would not spare these corrupters of the Gospel of Christ, who, like the
dog, had turned again to his own vomit, and the sow who was washed to
her wallowing in the mire. [66] He charged also that some were wresting
the epistles of Paul, as they were some of the "other scriptures," unto
their own destruction. [67]
John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, also bears testimony to the
existence of anti-Christs, false prophets, and the depravity of many in
the early Church. "It is the last time," said he, "and as ye have heard
that anti-Christ shall come, even now there are many anti-Christs,
whereby we know that it is the last time;" * * * * "They went out from
us * * * * that they might be manifest that they were not all of us."
[68] "Try the spirits," said he, in the same epistle, "whether they are
of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world." [69]
Again: "Many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver, an anti-Christ."
[70]
Jude also is a witness against this class of deceivers. He admonished
{XLIX} the saints to "contend earnestly for the faith which was once
delivered unto the saints;" "for," said he, "there are certain men
crept in unawares, * * * ungodly men, turning the grace of our God
into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus
Christ." [71] The rest of the epistle he devotes to a description of
their wickedness, comparing it with the conduct of Satan, and the
vileness of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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