Has there been any reference to the devil? Please do not stretch for reasoning. Of course everything in the world is of the devil but is Jesus Christ speaking about the devil? Yes all false teachers are unsaved and essentially doing the will of Satan but is that who Jesus Christ is speaking about specifically in these verses? The only fair answer must be no. So when we come to the key verse and Jesus say that the thief comes only to steal kill and destroy, whom is He actually speaking about? If you said false teachers congratulations; you have been set free from one of the most misused passages in the bible. The delicious irony of course is that nearly every false teacher misuses this verse to pretend Jesus is speaking about the devil but that aside it infects all Christian teaching at some point. Some may still be saying what's the big deal but then you have not been paying attention because eternal life hangs in the balance. Maybe not for you but for many people who think they have been saved by a false gospel and sit in apostate churches listening to wolves and not being able to tell the difference. As if to drive this point home the second half of the key verse reminds us that while the false teacher has come to steal, kill and destroy -- the true Gospel of Jesus Christ brings the abundant life. This is what is on the line beloved. Look, if you want to say the devil also comes to steal, kill and destroy fine. Just go find the correct passages to support that conclusion and leave this one alone to properly warn people of the eternal damage done by following false teaching. This section of scripture now wraps up:
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father." -- John 10: 11-18 (ESV)
We know from the purpose driven church that pastors are now being taught to blessedly subtract dissenters out of their sheepfold. That is why they are hirelings. The vast majority of pastors today will not name names when it comes to false teachers and that is why the vast majority of them are false themselves. I ask defenders of false teachers all the time why they seem to care more about the wolves than they do about the sheep. The Good Shepherd lays down His own life for the lives of His sheep. He does it of His own accord because that is love. That is the true voice of God. That is the Gospel. Find someone who is preaching it and not compromising it, and then stand. For you will have found your Shepherd's voice. You will have come home.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- November 12, 2018
