Friday, August 28, 2026
Knowing the price of our salvation paid by Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary, the suffering He endured by the crowds of Jews who mocked Him, the soldiers who platted a crown of thorns and beat Him, are we as believers not deeply moved to love and believe what the Lord Jesus taught? It would surely seem that in the face of those truths believers would believe and defend all that Jesus and His Spirit taught. But unfortunately that’s not the case as many are led by deceptions. And those deceptions come from unexpected sources – from pastors who should know better.
In these end-times a lukewarm spirit is prevalent in many believers, wanting to be told what to believe by trusted pastors. Why? Because they believe who they see. But that’s not faith. God said “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6). Many trust their pastor(s) more than Jesus. Have you ever thought about that? You should, because it’s the very thing that has led much open rebellion. If you know God’s word, the Holy Bible, you must have noticed that when God says one thing, many of those trusted pastors will teach the exact opposite. And the problem is that many pew-sitters don’t even care, but are content for rebellion to govern them.
Some examples. Jesus taught only one resurrection, John 5:28–29, “at the last day” (John 6:40, 44, 54). But Dispensational-trained pastor(s) say there are multiple resurrections and multiple raptures of different believers at different times. It’s nonsense! Christ said He gathers His elect “Immediately after the tribulation” (Matt. 24:29–31). But Dispensational pastors say, “Not true”, that Christ gathers His elect before the tribulation. Who do you believe, for you cannot believe both? One is right and the other is wrong. Is Jesus or the Dispensational-trained pastor right? The Bible says that if we love Jesus, we believers actually believe Him, and act on that belief by faith because Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, Matt. 28:18. Jesus said He gathers His elect after the tribulation, but pre-trib pastors say before, the exact opposite! They deceive millions, caring more about their traditions than the inerrant word of God in Christ.
Do you know why Jesus lovingly told us many details of the end-times? Because He wants His believers to be prepared to endure the seven-year tribulation to the end of the age as He taught at Matt. 24:13. But Dispensational-trained pastors promise people they won’t need to endure the seven-year tribulation, but that they’d be raptured before the tribulation even begins. Now, that flies fully in the face of what Jesus taught! Note again, Jesus said that he who endures to the end will be saved, but Dispensational-trained pastors say the exact opposite! Satan destroys the truth, and it’s by his authority that those pastors speak instead of the Lord Jesus Christ! This needs to be revealed as it’s being ignored by tens of millions of professing believers in Christianity. It’s called open rebellion, and it’s as old as ancient Israel. That’s why God divorced Israel, Jer. 3:8.
Dispensational-trained pastors say Jesus wasn’t speaking to believers in Matt. 24 and many other end-time Scriptures of the tribulation and resurrection rapture which He and His Spirit described. But those pastors lie in order to defend their traditions. Again, by what authority do they speak? It’s certainly not God’s authority. They speak by Satan’s authority, who desires to destroy the word of God in Christ. Do you believe pastors who contradict the Son of God who laid down His life for your salvation? You say you love Jesus, right? Judgement Day is coming when we must all give account. When you look at the Judge of all heaven and earth, will you tell Him that your Dispensational-trained pastor(s) told you to believe the opposite of what Jesus taught? How do you think that will go? Do you think your Dispensational-trained pastor will come to your defense? You know that’s foolishness, right? You say you love Jesus? Then why not believe Jesus who has been given all authority in heaven and earth. That’s what true Christians do.
Let me give you another example of church leadership asserting its own authority over God. If your pastor is a woman, preaching and teaching in church, you bear witness to open rebellion! It’s disgraceful the levels to which rebellion has gone in organized churches today. You can’t make this stuff up. It’s nearly everywhere! God’s Spirit said: “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. [Then God gives us the reason] For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression” (1 Tim. 2:11–14). Women pastors confirm that rebellious “transgression” and model their open rebellion together with the open rebellion of men who assist women to positions of authority in the church! God said “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7).
1 Tim. 2:11–14 is further confirmed by God’s Spirit saying “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:34–38). The rebellious lead the open rebellion. God’s authority in churches has largely been replaced by the leaders themselves acting in open rebellion. Again, many teach the exact opposite of what God and His Spirit taught and commanded. And it’s open rebellion to satisfy the traditions of men and unbelieving culture. Satan is being allowed to neuter God’s word because thousands of pastors don’t have the spiritual fortitude to preach the authority of Almighty God in Christ.
Another open rebellion is the Israel-First Zionist movement that deceives tens of millions of professing believers. God warns believers to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Eph. 5:11). Unbelieving Jews of Israel are “unfruitful works of darkness” Yet, Zionists, in open rebellion to Christ’s New Covenant make every effort to find unity and solidarity with unbelieving Jews of Israel, the very people who vehemently reject Jesus and very people who Jesus Christ twice called “a synagogue of Satan” because “they say they are Jews and are not, but lie” (Rev. 2:9 and Rev. 3:9). God’s true Jews are revealed at Rom. 2:28–29. God commanded “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:14–16). Those believers in the Zionist movement, e.g. Mike Huckabee, et al, reveal a greater love, honor and respect for the unbelieving Jews of Israel than for Jesus Christ Himself. But Judgment Day is coming. And on that Day what will those of open rebellion say? Who will be their advocate?
We haven’t even discussed the ungodly LGBTQ+ Pride agendas adopted by many mainstream denominational churches. Many church leaders effectively shake their fist in the face of God in their proud rebellion. Cultural pressures to conform and approve the LGBTQ+ agendas reveals just how spiritually weak many church leaders are. Many denominations are split on this issue: Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholics, Mennonites, Anglican and United Methodists just to name a few. It’s beyond the pale that same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ issues are even up for debate in any professing Christian church. From millennia past God in Christ explicitly rejects homosexuality. “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves … For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased [KJV “reprobate”] mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Rom. 1:24, 26–28); “speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Tim. 4:2).
These are examples of how little Jesus and His word is actually loved in the organized churches. How do you reconcile such open rebellion? It’s impossible! Rebellion was rebellion 3,000 years ago when God divorced ancient Israel, and rebellion is still rebellion. These matters of rebellion have weakened the church which is not prepared for the Tribulation to come. And I will tell you what the Tribulation will do: it will separate believers from unbelievers; it will separate those prepared from those unprepared; it will separate those who actually know God by faith in Christ from those of a mere said faith which is effectively faithlessness. It will be just as God said: “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still” (Rev. 22:11). Amen!
I hope you see the pattern of open rebellion that’s clearly revealed in the examples above. God says one thing, but church leadership says the exact opposite, and many people don’t care! Christ says we must endure to the end, but church leadership says the exact opposite and the people say amen! Jesus teaches the tribulation and gathering of His elect after the tribulation, but leadership says the exact opposite, that Jesus gathers His elect before the tribulation and people say amen! God commands that women be silent in the churches and are not to hold positions of teaching or preaching authority, but church leaders do the exact opposite by appointing women pastors and teachers to positions of authority, and the people don’t care! It’s all open rebellion. How can one grow spiritually in such a toxic atmosphere of open rebellion? That’s the very point: one doesn’t grow spiritually, but is held captive by deceits. So, “Come out from among them” (2 Cor. 6:17).
A lesson we better heed: God said “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king” (1 Sam. 15:23). And God does not change. Rebellion brings the rebuke of the Lord Himself: “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Rev. 2:4). It’s time for personal introspection. Is God and His word in Christ your first love? We must love Jesus more than our spouse or children, indeed, more than anything else in this world. Why? Because it was Jesus Christ who laid down His life for all, that whosoever would believe might by true faith in Jesus have everlasting life, Rom. 3:23, John 3:16, Acts 2:38, and Rom. 10:9–10.
My second book “ON EAGLES’ WINGS” explains in detail how to know Christ and find God’s Bozrah sheepfold of safety and place of provision for the last 1,260 days of the great tribulation.
Marlin J. Yoder
