When Scripture is Twisted

[00:00:18] Speaker A: Okay, well, guess what, guys, it is spring. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. I'm so excited to get out of the dreary months of winter. So welcome back. This is Grace Ingrit Mindset podcast and I'm Shannon Williams, your host. And before we jump in, I just want to make a really quick announcement. I'll try to make this super quick. I got some really cool stuff going on I want to tell you about and I don't want to wait till the end because I know some of you will jump off before you hear these announcements. So my friends and I, we are called the spiritually well woman. And we have, we have retreats every so often. And we have put together a retreat this May, May 1st and 2nd, and we are going to be hosting a small retreat. It is limited to 12 women. It is called Crossing Over. Crossing over the Jordan. And we've never been this way before. And that is coming from Joshua where finally, you know, the children of Israel, all the gripers and complainers have died. God has released Joshua and Caleb or Joshua to lead them across. And they say we've never been this way before, you know. And so it's just kind of this, this idea and the theme is that, okay, we feel like God is calling us into something new, but we don't really know exactly what that looks like. And it's a transition, but we don't know how exactly to let old patterns, how do we leave those behind and step into the newness of what God's calling us to? So it's going to be that type of thing. And we don't, you know, with our ministry we are very spirit led and we have our ideas of what we think will happen. And we put together teaching, we put together times of teaching. We of course we have amazing food, we'll have amazing lodging. We'll be in the mountains of the Ouachita Mountains up in Mena, Arkansas. We'll be in some luxury cabins. It'll be two nights, three days. And there's going to be times for you to just be in nature. There's going to be times for you to get into a sauna or get in a hot tub. There's going to be times for you to just, you know, hang out with some other women, but there's going to be a lot of ministry opportunity for you. There's going to be times of worship, teaching. We're going to be pouring into the women that are there. So space is very limited to 12 women because we do keep it very small, intentionally so that we can pour into to the women that are There is a very, very hands on personal type of retreat. It is not like a loud conference type retreat. So if that's, you know what you're accustomed to and you're looking for something different, you're looking for a more intimate retreat. This is that type of thing. And if you're interested in that, I will put the link in the show notes for you to sign up. We are filling up so don't wait. We do have an early bird special. It is going on for just the next six days through March 26th. So that's that. Also want to tell you really quick on on the heels of that, I have put together a book in the last 10 days that is kind of pulling from some of the podcast episodes I've done and some blogs I've written. So I was able to put that together in 10 days and it's called Choosing Better, Leaving the Mountains. We were never meant to circle. So it is about these mindset shifts and these things that we need to stop circling because we cannot step into what God has for us until we do that. It's things like anxiety, it's things like negative thinking. It's things like insecurity, fear. I cover that. There are 13 chapters in the book and I cover about 11 different or 12 different topics of things that we circle over and over year after year. You know there's a scripture in Deuteronomy where God says, you have circled this mountain long enough, turn north. And there's a time in our life where, you know, we have got to stop circling the same thing over and over and just move on with our life. Make the right choice, choose better and make the right choice and move on. For crying out loud. So that's what the book is about. I'm helping you move on. Choose the right, choose better and move on with your life. You know you have to make the choice. God cannot make you do that. That is something you have to do. But sometimes it is a matter of us learning and getting our mind wrapped around what that choice is or our understanding a little bit better. Maybe our understanding is lacking about some. So that book will be ready. Gosh. I think it's going to release on the 16th of April, so be looking for that. I'll be talking about that pretty soon. How you can get it, all that fun stuff. Your best bet is to find me on social media. I'm all over the place. I'm on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. You can join my email list shannawilliams.com I'll definitely be talking, talking about it to my email subscribers. Okay, that was a lot. Okay, so we have been talking about, if you're still with me, thank you for coming back. By the way. We have been talking about something so super fun to me and that is studying the Bible. But beyond that, it is, you know, the need to know the Bible so that we are not deceived. That was kind of the foundation and the reason that, that I felt like I wanted to talk about this and I felt like the Lord stirred my heart about it. And really this came about because of a lot of false prophets, quote unquote. And charlatans are being exposed right now in the church because they had some double lives going on. And we're not just talking about people who maybe stumbled a little bit, we're talking about people who led double for decades and were, I mean, these are horrendous charges that were leveled against them and they are, you know, for confirmed by lots of witnesses. Now obviously these have to be proved and all those kinds of things proven. But from what it looks like, it looks like, you know, obviously we can't make that judgment call. But if they are true, these are terrible things. And the sad thing is, is that a lot of leaders in the body of Christ knew these things were true and did not do anything about it, which was just a whole other subject. But the thing that I wanted to talk about was, you know, how can we as believers avoid falling into these situations where we are deceived by shepherds or platform ministers or people in the body that hold these authoritative positions, you know, that, that sway people that have a lot of influence and you know, I mean, yes, ideally none of us would fall prey to that. But you know, when you get desperate, when you get in situations where you find yourself needing hope, needing encouragement, needing a miracle really, because you know, think about somebody like, well, there's some people out there, I'm not going to say their names, but there's some really big well known people that have been out there for decades that they've built their whole ministry on healing and you know, a lot of their healings have been proven to be fake and there's a lot of documentaries about them and but a lot of people came to them because they were so desperate and they just wanted to be healed. And it breaks my heart that people have misused the gospel because Jesus does heal. I mean, I was just reading this in the Gospel of Matthew because my husband and I Are reading through Matthew. Jesus does heal. It is in his heart. It's in the Father's heart to heal people. You know, this guy asked him, you know, can you heal me? And Jesus said, can I really? Do you? I mean, almost like he's asking him, will I. Do you not believe I want to do this for you? I'm kind of paraphrasing, summarizing that, but I mean, it's in the heart of the Father. He does want to heal people. So it's not wrong for people to seek out healing, you know, but what's wrong is when someone in these positions of influence, they, they manipulate and control people, all in an effort really, to get money. Because the bottom line is usually what's underneath all this, when you look at all of the people and the, the common denominator was money was the, the, the reason they were doing it. They were trying to get rich because they all have these immaculate homes and cars, and it's really sickening. But the reason I want to talk about this is because I don't want us to fall into that deception. Right? So today I want to talk about. Because we've had several episodes in a row, and if you haven't heard them, go back and listen, you know, to them. I think this is probably number four today. I want to talk about when scripture's twisted and how that starts. So when scripture gets twisted and how it starts. So I'm going to touch on cults specifically. This is a. This is a more historical type episode. So if you're a nerd and you like documentaries and you're a historical person, you're kind of going to like this today. If you're a person who's like, no, I just wanted a devo, this is probably not going to be your thing. So if you want to devo, go back and find one of my other episodes that might be more your thing. So this is kind of where I want to go today. You know, some of us, some of, some of the most dangerous Christian movements didn't start by rejecting the Bible. They started by misusing it. Now, that is scary. Some of the most dangerous Christian now, quote, Christian movements didn't start by rejecting the Bible. They started by misusing it. Now I'm going to go into some of those here in just a minute. So you're going to be like, hopefully, I don't lose a bunch of people over this, but it is what it is, right? So. So most people don't wake up one day and decide to follow something false do they? Do you wake up one day and decide, I'm just going to follow something false? Right. It usually starts with something that sounds almost right. It's kind of like Eve in the garden and Satan comes to her and he says something that has some truth to it, but it also has some lie mixed in with it. And that's usually the way it works with this type of stuff that we're talking about as well. Deception in this doctrinal belief system that, that the way that cults get started. You don't need to go, I'm sorry, let me back up. So let's see, let's see. Let's look at some of these groups. Okay, so how does this get started? Right, so some of these groups, you can see these patterns in some of the groups like Jehovah's Witness, Mormons or the Latter Day Saints, Branch Davidians, which was David Koresh and Jim Jones. These are just four examples of how these are cults. And if you are in one of these, if you are Jehovah's Witness or Mormonism, I'm not trying to offend you or hurt you. Just hear me out. And then, you know, see for yourself. You need to research the beginning of your own religion and see how it started. Your own denomination, rather whatever, however you want to call what you believe. I'm not attacking you. I'm just observing a pattern of how your specific denomination or religion got started. So there's a common thread in, in all of these. And here is what it is. So when you step back and you look at how these started, there are a few patterns that show up over and over again. So here there's. There's about four or five of these. So there's four. So here they are, number one, a person claims a special revelation. Okay? So a person's going to claim a special revelation about something they've been told. An angel visited me or I understand a passage. Nobody else understands this passage the way that I do. I've been given enlightenment in this area, whatever it might be. God showed me something that someone else missed. And when that happens, it tends to elevate their interpretation above scripture. Because all of a sudden they're not only elevated above scripture, but they're also elevated above everyone else. Right? So now they're like, oh, I'm special. And so other people around them begin to go, oh, my gosh, they are special. Okay, so that's number one. Then. Number two is this scripture is used, but it's used selectively. So there's Verses, and we talked about this. The verse is being pulled out of context. Last week was talking about using context surrounding the scripture so you don't misuse it. Right? So they use scripture, but they use it selectively. They pull verse out of context. They. It's repeated until that becomes the foundation. So like they, they use that specific verse over and over and over until that becomes their foundation. Have you, have you been in a situation where you see that? And I just, gosh, I just, I hate talking about stuff like this, but it's just so necessary. I've seen this, and I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but I've seen this in churches where something that really doesn't mean what the, the Bible really, you know, contextually means. And on a passage and, but that gets start, you know, people start saying it and then, then it's like a little slogan in the church and everybody's saying, but that's not really what it meant. You know, that's kind of the way I see this. It's like selectively using a scripture, but that's not really what it meant. And then number three, authority slowly shifts. So the authority moves from the word of God to a person or a system. So the questioning, and then the questioning becomes wrong. So like, once the authority moves from the word to a person or the system they created, then it becomes wrong for you to question it. If you're, if you're an attendee, you don't get to question it, or a member. You can't question the system, or you can't question the person in charge. You're not allowed to. Right? And now no longer is the word of God the authority, but the person or the system they created is the authority. We've completely moved away from the Bible being the authority. It's really scary, guys, but, but if you look at these, these cults that I just read the names of, that's what they do. That's what they do. Number four. And then isolation is the fourth part of this, you know, scenario. And it's subtle at first usually. So you'll, you know, we're the ones who really understand. So that's what they kind of tell their new members. We're the ones that really understand you. You just need to come be with us. And it creates an us versus them mindset in the people. So you come be with us. It's us versus the world. And that's why you see, in Mormonism, you see them kind of all congregated in a certain Area. And I was even watching a documentary because I'm fascinated by belief systems and sociology and what people believe and even when they're confronted with the truth. Like I watched a documentary about LDS and you know, their leader who was marrying 12 year old girls and was forcing these girls to have sex with him and they had audio proof of the rituals he was putting these little girls through and the sexual stuff, it was horrible, y'. All. And legally they came in and rescued these girls and pulled all these little girls out of the control of the, the parents, the adults that were there because they weren't protecting them. Right? They pulled them out and of course all the people lost their mind and. But the, the federal government was like, this is not okay. The FBA was like, this is not okay. And. But then they took the guy, I can't remember his name, you guys probably know it. They took him and he's in prison. But then they went in and they were talking to some of the women there that were a part of that, you know, that were, that were the parents or that were there when it happened. And they were still believing in this man, that he was still the prophet, he was still, you know, God's choice. And I mean, they, they were confronted with the realities of him being a monster. And they knew that all the. And they did not care. They had elevated this man above the truth, above what the Bible says or any, anything that was real. They did not care. It was such a us versus them mindset. And it was terrifying to me. And someone even kind of said that to her and she said, I don't care. I just want to live in my own reality. I want to live here. And I don't care what, what is out there and what might be real. This is what, this is what I want to believe. And it was just shocking to me. It's just, it's scary that people want to live like that, you know, but the truth is people want to twist, twist scripture. It's true. We see that all through the Bible that people twist things to their own agenda, what they want it to say, and I hate it, but it's true. And I want to just make this a little more real for you and give you some real examples and tell you how it actually happened. Right? So with Mormonism, since we just talked about that. So Joseph Smith was the founder of Mormonism and this is how his started, his started because he said that he had a revelation, he claimed an angel and his name was Maroni, revealed hidden golden plates and he Said the existing church had become corrupt, and he introduced new scripture, the Book of Mormon. Now, I don't know if that just sent chills down your spine, but as I'm reading that, I'm literally thinking about scripture that talks about how Satan comes as an angel of light to deceive. And so I do believe that these people probably do get some kind of visitation from something, but it is not a real angel. I think it's a deceptive spirit. As a matter of fact, I was just googling a minute ago before I came on here, I wanted to get her name. And you know, a lot of Mormon people, and I'm not just like ragging on Mormons, I'm so sorry, but I just think there's such a deception in that specific cult. A lot of Mormons believe in angels, visitations and things like that. And you know, Lori Valo Debel was the one who was in the conspiracy to, and was found guilty recently to issue of killing her children. And I think she even brought her brother into it. And, and they buried her kids behind her house or whatever. And she had, you know, she was saying that her children were evil and the only way she could save them was if she killed them. And the angel had come to her and told her to do these things. So I mean that. What I'm saying is a lot of people that are trapped in this deception, they believe in these angels come to them and tell them things, to do things, and that's the only way they can save their children or whatever the lie might be. So you see this a lot in this specific cult. There's just a lot of appearing of angels. And it's really, it's terrifying to me. But, you know, I mean, in. In the specific way that Mormonism started is that this angel, quote unquote, said that the existing church had become corrupt. And so he needed to give Joseph Smith a new scripture, which was the Book of Mormon. So here we have it. Here's the steps that we went through a minute ago. Here's what happened. The authority moved from the Bible alone, and now you have additional revelation. So now Joseph Smith becomes the authority and his revelation and this new book becomes the revelation. So the pattern is God showed me something new that no one else has. Therefore, I am in charge. My authority is what matters. I become the authority. And what I have written and what I have been showed, showed, shown is the authority which basically ultimately gave him power. I mean, at the bottom of this, or however you want to say, the bottom of the top Whatever is power. That's what these people were after. They. They wanted to contrive a way. How can I get power? Well, I can brainwash people. I think that's a lot of what's going on here. So let's look at Jehovah's Witness. And again, I am not trying to pick on you. If you stumbled upon this podcast and you are Jehovah's Witness or you are a Mormon, I hope that this wakes you up a little bit. I hope that you see that maybe what you've been believing is not true, and it makes you evaluate and look at the roots of what you've been taught. I want to tell you that Jesus Christ is real, that God is real, that he loves you, that there is truth, but there are also lies. And God did send his son Jesus, and there is no one else that can save us but Jesus. And nothing can add to or take away his Word. Only the Bible, only what was actually canonized by the founding fathers of the church is what we can rely on as Scripture. All right, let's look at Jehovah's Witness. So here's the. Here's the quote, unquote, revelation. It was written or it was founded by Charles Taze Russell, which I didn't even know that. So what it did, was it his revelation, was it reinterpreted key doctrines? So he took key doctrines and just basically said, I'm going to reinterpret these doctrines. He denied the Trinity. That was one of his big things. He redefined who Jesus is. That's terrifying to me. He claimed traditional Christianity had misunderstood scripture. Not really sure what made him such a. I don't know, such a smart fellow that he could, I guess, basically say, everybody else had this wrong and I got this right. So what shifted was there was a heavy emphasis on their specific interpretation. He's like, I'm the only person that got this right. Everybody else who's ever come before me or even my contemporaries have you all. You guys have gotten it all wrong. So over time, the organizational authority became strong. So he found a group of people who actually would believe what he was saying. Probably desperate, probably people who potentially maybe couldn't read, I don't know, at that time, you know, when this was developed. So the pattern became everyone else has gotten this wrong until now. And using that type of paradigm, he was able to pull people into this cult of, you know, and maybe it was people who were disillusioned with the church in general. Everybody else has it wrong. So you guys come over here and join me. We're just gonna. I'm gonna make up my own thing over here. You know, the Trinity, they've got it wrong. Jesus is not who they think he is. They don't understand Scripture. Let me just redefine it all, okay? So out of that, he starts his own thing. Jim Jones. This is number three. This is. Jim Jones created the People's Temple. And, you know, they were the ones that drank the Kool Aid and all died. So his revelation was it started within Christianity, and he used scripture early on, so that's good. But here you go. We got to twist it, right? But it gradually it shifted to claiming prophetic authority. And this happens a lot when people start getting into prophetic, because I think. And this is my own spin on this, I'm getting. I'm getting close to my. I don't really care. I was gonna say my time limit, but you know what? I can do what I want. It's my podcast, right? But I think what happens when people start operating in the prophetic is they like the way it feels. I will tell you something. When you operate in that sphere, there's a certain power that you feel. You. You feel the power of God flow through you. And some people who have never felt that, or people who are weak, like me, in your own. Like my own person, I'm a weak person. And when you feel the power of God operate through you, it can. It can become something you strive after. And you. You want that feeling, so you'll do whatever it takes to get it. And you don't like who you are without it. So I think oftentimes what happens is people go, oh, I got to get that. I've got to become the person who is. You know, I have that authority all the time. I want to feel like that all the time. What do I have to do to get it? And so, you know, because you can't. You can't force God to operate through you like that. So what you can do, though, is you can manipulate people and you can become dominant over people and obtain power that way. And so in some regard, you do get power in that way, and it's wrong. Absolutely wrong. But you do get a certain high from it, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. So I think that's what's happening in these situations. So he gradually starts with Christianity, but he shifts into claiming prophetic authority. And eventually he positioned himself as the voice people should follow. Follow. So now he's Mr. Prophet. And. And so what shifted in him was that scripture was replaced by his voice, the leader's voice. And so people stopped evaluating truth for themselves. Now they're not listening. They're not really paying it. You know, they're not saying, hey, what you said doesn't really match scripture. Now we're just listening to you. And scripture is like, whatever he says is the truth. Now I'm going to tell you something. I knew somebody like this years ago. They're not alive anymore. And God in his mercy, removed me from this person's presence because they had a magnetic personality. But this person really believed that they were one of the final. The last two prophets. Like the prophets at the end in Israel, like Elijah and Elisha, you know, at the wailing wall type thing. And I really believed that that's who they were. And I mean, so deceived. And any. Anything this person said, people just hung on it, just believed everything that they said. And it was. It was terrifying. And so there's people out there like this that they really feed off of other people believing everything they say. And, you know, that's. It's really scary to me. It's really scary. If the word of God's not enough for us, something's wrong. Something's wrong. You know, there was a time in history between Malachi and Matthew where there was complete silence. 400 years, it says there. There were no words from God. There was no prophetic words. He had said all he was going to say until Jesus came. And I often wonder, you know, how would we feel right now if we had no, nothing, you know, nothing. Would that. Would that be enough for us? And we have the Bible. We have the Bible. Why are we always itching for some other something? You know what I mean? I think we just need to crack our Bibles open more than we are and stop always trying to get some, you know, having itching ears to constantly hear something from a person. And so the pattern in that situation is, and we have to be careful of this, when we hear someone who's saying things like, trust me more than what you can read for yourself. Trust me more than what you can read for yourself. That's terrifying, guys. All right, let's look at one more. Let's look at David Koresh. This was the. The Branch Davidians here in. Was it Waco, Texas? I think so. Here. His revelation was that he claimed unique ability to interpret the book of Revelation. Good Lord, why would you ever claim that? Right? He positioned himself as a central to end time fulfillment in times fulfillment. That's like what I just said, this person I knew that positioned themselves as end time fulfillment, like prophet, so. Oh, God, that's scary. So what. What shifted? Scripture becomes or became filtered through one person only. So this one person, all of the end time scripture filtered through the one person, y'. All. Wow. And the followers depended only on their interpretation. There again, it's all about the power, right? So now the one person has all the power. And. And it's like if you could shake the little followers so they could see. Do you see what they're doing to you? They're. They're. They're doing this so that they can control you. It's all about control and power. And ultimately it's about money probably. It's about money and glory and riches because he has the power. Probably has the money. So this is. This is scary stuff, and I really hate this, y'. All, but I think it's just necessary. These, you know, these. These examples, these didn't start with people rejecting the Bible. They started with someone adding to it, reshaping it, or play or placing themselves above it. And I just. I just tremble when I think about somebody placing themself above the word of God. I tremble. I'm like, is there no fear of the Lord anymore? You know, I just. I just can't. I can't go there. You know, I. I'm terrified of it. I mean, scripture says that teachers just don't. Don't want to teach. Teachers are judged by a stricter standard, you know, but that these people, they just go. They'll go out and teach and teach whatever they want for their own gain and. And just so they can have power over people and get rich and whatever it might be. And I'm like, have you no fear of the Lord? I just pray for a return of the fear of the Lord and the fear of His Word. We should be trembling at His Word. I pray that we all do. I pray that I do every day when I sit here or speak or write or whatever I'm doing in his name, that I remember that His Word is holy, that he is holy, that I never want to say my own opinions or thoughts as the gospel, but I want what I say to be his truth. That should be all of our prayer prayers. Is that, you know, what we say and what we put out there is his truth, his gospel, not our own. I pray that. I hope that this was not too. I don't know, too studious for you today or just too documentary, but I think we need these kind of episodes from time to time it's kind of like, hey, wake up everybody. We need a serious conversation. I love the little Devo episodes, but sometimes I think we need like a real, like a reality type thing, which is what this is. Hey, if you know someone that needs like a jolt, send him this episode. Like, you know, my prayer is that anyone trapped in a cult would get out. Really? Seriously. It could destroy your life. There's just been so many people who lost their lives in a cult or it messed them up for so long, they had to get so much counseling and therapy once they got out. It's terrible. It's terrible. So any. Anyway, how do you, how do you exit out of an episode like that? I just pray you guys. I pray you have a good week. Maybe next week we'll move on to something a little more light hearted. But I will drop in my show notes the link for more information about the retreat in case you're interested. And until next next week, I pray that you're blessed. And hey, get into your bible more. See ya. [00:36:10] Speaker B: Not even death can hold his beloved Hell. Go. Hey. Here he comes again Riding on the clouds he's shifting the wind he's bringing [00:36:28] Speaker A: new light [00:36:32] Speaker B: Hell no. [00:36:33] Speaker A: Hey. [00:36:33] Speaker B: His fire is burning light His L is breaking through the night he's coming for me saying that I'm delight Wow. Wow.