I'm amazed at how much the Internet has changed!
Dec 6, 2019 12:24:35 GMT -5
fearnot, Leigh, and 1 more like this
Post by Cindy on Dec 6, 2019 12:24:35 GMT -5
Most who read this will be familiar with our old board and know that I had a list of hundreds of authors who had given us permission to post all of their articles. In attempting to keep this board updated daily, my first recourse was to go to the sites of those same authors. When I closed our board a few years ago, all of them (but one) were up and running as usual, but now, many have disappeared completely! I know that several of them have died, but others simply disappeared. When I used google to see if they had simply moved to another site, it comes up blank. It's amazing and strange!
Where is the Christian witness on line that there used to be? Oh, yes, there's still some folks, including us, but if you know what our old site was like and compare it to this one, then you know there is no comparison. This is but a pale shadow of what our old board was like. And it's often the same way with the Christian sites that do remain. They too are just shadows of what they used to be - mainly for lack of participation.
If the average unsaved person goes on line to look for information about Christianity, they'll find plenty of it. Does that sound contradictory? It's really not, because 90% of what they'll find is false teaching. It's only the good scripturally sound sites and teachers that are disappearing, not the garbage ones. Those are still growing and expanding all the time. In fact, the worse their teaching is, the more likely they are to flourish! Sound strange? It does to me until I remember that the Lord told us that this would happen.
We are living through the "great falling away" and things are bound to look bleak as far as orthodox Christianity is concerned. (Orthodox simply means, "conforming to established doctrine".) “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1) It's kind of ironic to me that these deceivers that are flourishing online are teaching people the opposite of what the Bible says about our time. They're telling people that there will be a revival. But then they say many things that are the opposite of what the Bible teaches, so we really shouldn't be surprised.
When I closed our old board, I was absolutely sure that I was doing so according to the Lord's Will. I've questioned that decision recently; mainly because I miss our old board and the fellowship we had there. In discovering how many of our good scriptural teachers are gone, and how many of the good solid Christian sites, including other message boards, are gone, I've come to realize again that I did what I was supposed to do then. I remember just a few weeks before I closed our site, I got a private message from a new member saying that they were shocked to have found us because they didn't think there were any sound Christian boards left. Sadly I had to tell them that ours would be gone within a month too. I had received a number of messages like that during the last few years our site was open. It seemed like with each passing year, the number of messages I received increased that said they were glad to see there was still a Christian board that wouldn't allow false teaching or heresy.
Why would God allow this falling away to happen in the Church? These scriptures show that it will happen and why it will happen:
“The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3–4)
“You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:6)
In other words, because people have turned away from the true Gospel and refused God's great gift, their hearts have become hardened so that they no longer are interested in what is true. So now God is giving them what they want instead of what they need.
Thankfully there are still some folks on line that are speaking the truth, including us. The big difference is that the sites, like this one, that deals in the Truth, instead of in false teaching and "feelings", have very little traffic. That's actually what killed all the good Christian sites to start with. People were abandoning the solid Christian sites. The only way that a site administrator could keep the site active would be to allow false teaching, as then people would show up and stay and defend their false teaching. But sites that stood strong and wouldn't allow it, unless it was to defend the faith in apologetics, lost members until there was no point in staying open. The final thing that killed the good Christian sites was facebook. The few people who would stay with a good Christian site, rather then go to false teaching, were more interested in being on facebook then being on the Christian site. I'm honestly not making this up. I got messages from many administrators and owners of other Christian message boards during the last few years we were open. All of them told me the same tale...the one I've just explained to you here.
It would be wonderful if Christians would rally around the good Christian sites that are left. But I'm afraid it's more likely that the current trend will continue just as the Lord has said. The good news is that this shows that we are indeed living in the very last days!
Where is the Christian witness on line that there used to be? Oh, yes, there's still some folks, including us, but if you know what our old site was like and compare it to this one, then you know there is no comparison. This is but a pale shadow of what our old board was like. And it's often the same way with the Christian sites that do remain. They too are just shadows of what they used to be - mainly for lack of participation.
If the average unsaved person goes on line to look for information about Christianity, they'll find plenty of it. Does that sound contradictory? It's really not, because 90% of what they'll find is false teaching. It's only the good scripturally sound sites and teachers that are disappearing, not the garbage ones. Those are still growing and expanding all the time. In fact, the worse their teaching is, the more likely they are to flourish! Sound strange? It does to me until I remember that the Lord told us that this would happen.
We are living through the "great falling away" and things are bound to look bleak as far as orthodox Christianity is concerned. (Orthodox simply means, "conforming to established doctrine".) “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1) It's kind of ironic to me that these deceivers that are flourishing online are teaching people the opposite of what the Bible says about our time. They're telling people that there will be a revival. But then they say many things that are the opposite of what the Bible teaches, so we really shouldn't be surprised.
When I closed our old board, I was absolutely sure that I was doing so according to the Lord's Will. I've questioned that decision recently; mainly because I miss our old board and the fellowship we had there. In discovering how many of our good scriptural teachers are gone, and how many of the good solid Christian sites, including other message boards, are gone, I've come to realize again that I did what I was supposed to do then. I remember just a few weeks before I closed our site, I got a private message from a new member saying that they were shocked to have found us because they didn't think there were any sound Christian boards left. Sadly I had to tell them that ours would be gone within a month too. I had received a number of messages like that during the last few years our site was open. It seemed like with each passing year, the number of messages I received increased that said they were glad to see there was still a Christian board that wouldn't allow false teaching or heresy.
Why would God allow this falling away to happen in the Church? These scriptures show that it will happen and why it will happen:
“The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3–4)
“You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:6)
In other words, because people have turned away from the true Gospel and refused God's great gift, their hearts have become hardened so that they no longer are interested in what is true. So now God is giving them what they want instead of what they need.
Thankfully there are still some folks on line that are speaking the truth, including us. The big difference is that the sites, like this one, that deals in the Truth, instead of in false teaching and "feelings", have very little traffic. That's actually what killed all the good Christian sites to start with. People were abandoning the solid Christian sites. The only way that a site administrator could keep the site active would be to allow false teaching, as then people would show up and stay and defend their false teaching. But sites that stood strong and wouldn't allow it, unless it was to defend the faith in apologetics, lost members until there was no point in staying open. The final thing that killed the good Christian sites was facebook. The few people who would stay with a good Christian site, rather then go to false teaching, were more interested in being on facebook then being on the Christian site. I'm honestly not making this up. I got messages from many administrators and owners of other Christian message boards during the last few years we were open. All of them told me the same tale...the one I've just explained to you here.
It would be wonderful if Christians would rally around the good Christian sites that are left. But I'm afraid it's more likely that the current trend will continue just as the Lord has said. The good news is that this shows that we are indeed living in the very last days!