Suppressing the Bible’s Counsel by Omission: A Key Ingredient in Apostasy

Most churches which claim to believe in the 66 books of the Christian Bible as being their ultimate authority are not actually governed by what is written in those books. This often occurs by suppressing the Bible’s counsel, not blatantly through the church’s faith statement, but rather through practical omission. Such omission will work to produce a Pagan product. Here are a few key samples of how Biblical truth can be suppressed by omission in notable ways and greatly mess up people’s understanding.

In a typical evangelical church virtually all of the regulars know Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” They know this passage well because they have heard it countless times at church.

Yet the same people have likely, not even once at church, ever been exposed to Ephesians 5:5-7: “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.”

Not only is Ephesians 5:5-7 bad for business, it also exposes the pastors who don’t adequately account for what it states in their mindset and preaching as deceivers. Many pastors were never even confronted with Ephesians 5:5-7 in their corrupt Bible college educations. If they were, they were likely taught to explain these verses away.

Even some who account for Ephesians 2:8-9 and Ephesians 5:5-7 in their message don’t adequately account for the reality that the latter was written to authentic born-again Christians. Simply saying that anyone who lives wickedly was never really born-again in Christ like many do is a lie which neglects the entirety of the Bible’s counsel and contradicts many of the Bible’s instructions- even instructions right within the Book of Ephesians.

Ephesians 5:8-11: “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”

Having been born again to become a child of light does not make it automatic that one will walk as a child of light nor make one immune to being devoured by the devil and spiritually dying.

We even read later in Ephesians 6:10-13: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Those who are born-again in Christ need to be diligent to walk by faith as children of light going forward. Only those who do so to the end will ultimately overcome and be saved. The common ideas that one just lives holy as a by-product of being born-again, and that one who has really been born-again can never fall away and spiritually die afterwards, are lies which prevail in countless churches that claim to be under the authority of the Bible.

You are also likely to never be confronted with the warnings to real Christians in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 within the same churches- at least not without those warnings being explained away or framed as if they only apply to those who have never really been born-again at all. Please actually read Revelation chapters 2 and 3. Note who was being spoken to and what they were being warned about. The state of each church was largely a reflection of the church’s leader. Not every church was wicked and pathetic, yet most had serious issues which Jesus did not find acceptable. The problem of the churches which were out of the way was not that their leaders nor their members had never really been born again. The eternal salvation of the people in the churches was at stake in relation to whether they responded in accordance with the exhortations which they were given or not.

The counsel in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 is utterly foreign to multitudes of churches which claim to be under the authority of the Bible. How could Jesus be pleased with a church which doesn’t adequately account for the counsel which He gave to churches right within the very pages of the Bible?

Another key sample along these lines is the common partial quotation from Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…”

This phrase is not even a full quotation of one Bible verse. Moreover, quoting the entire Bible verse indeed communicates something notably different than just quoting the first half of the verse. The entirety of Romans 8:1 actually reads: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

The rest of Romans chapter 8 goes on to show how truly believing in Jesus Christ brings freedom from bondage to sin. It communicates that believing in Jesus is inseparable from following the leading of His Spirit and thereby fulfilling the righteousness of God’s law. We are either bound by the flesh (i.e. one’s carnal inclinations to transgress God’s law) and thereby under sin’s dominion; or we are delivered from sin’s dominion through a living, active faith in Christ which chooses to suffer death to the flesh in order to be under the dominion of Christ. Those who walk after the flesh are indeed condemned. Anyone who has been born-again in Christ was only made alive in Him because they chose to repent and identify with Him in death to sin in order to walk in the righteousness of God’s law through the power of His resurrection life. The law of God is a guide to faith when used as intended. Christians are even directly warned that returning to living after the flesh will result in their spiritual deaths later on in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8:13: “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

The common partial quotation of Romans 8:1 is typically accompanied by the common lie that the defeated man in Romans chapter 7 was the Apostle Paul’s own experience as a Christian. Yet reading the conclusions and instructions which precede and follow that description proves otherwise. It is no wonder that those who claim that the defeated man in Romans 7 was Paul as a Christian will often just quote the first half of Romans 8:1 without going any further.