The church of Christ

At Granby, MO

Dear friends, I wanted very much to write to you about the salvation we all share together, but I found it necessary, rather to write to you about something else more urgent at this time.

I want to encourage you to strive hard for the faith that God gave his holy people. God gave this faith in its entirety only once, and it is good for all time. Some people have secretly entered your group. Long ago the prophets wrote about them. They are against God. They have used the grace of our God in the wrong way, to do sinful things. They refuse to follow Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.

I want to help you remember some things you already know.  Remember that the Lord saved his people by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. But later he destroyed all those who did not believe.  And remember the angels who did not stay within their own appointed domain but left their proper dwelling place.  So the Lord keeps them bound in darkness to be judged on the great day of the Lord. Also, remember the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other towns around them that also gave in to sexual immorality and have practiced homosexuality.  Suffering the punishment of eternal fire, they serve as an example for us to see today. 

It is the same way with these people who have entered your group. They are guided by dreams. They make themselves filthy with sin. They reject God's authority and publicly slander those in authority over them.  Not even the archangel Michael would dare act like that, even when contending with Satan over the body of Moses, all he said to him was "the Lord rebuke you".

But these people criticize things they don't understand.  And all that they do understand is like the impulses of animals, incapable of reasoning their actions and they will be destroyed because of it.  Shame on them.  They have followed the way that Cain went with self made worship.  Like Balaam, they counsel the enemies of righteousness to throw stumbling blocks in the way.  And likewise perish like Korah who spoke against those in authority to personal gain.

These people are as dangerous as hidden shelves of rock beneath the waves of the sea while they share in the meals you have together.  They fearlessly eat with you like shepherds who feed themselves while their flocks are left to starve.   They are like clouds that promise rain but are blown about uselessly by the wind.  They are like trees that have no fruit at harvest time and are pulled out of the ground by their roots, twice dead. They are like powerful waves on the sea that bring nothing but muck and trash with them, littering the shores with it to their shame.  Like shooting stars that blaze across the sky for a moment but fall into the blackness of night forever gone. 

Enoch, the seventh descendant from Adam, said this about these people: "Look, the Lord is coming with tens of thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone. He will punish all those who are against him for all the evil they have done in their lack of respect for him. Yes, the Lord will punish all the ungodly sinners who don't honor him and He will punish them for all the evil things they have said against him." These people always complain and find wrong in others. They always do whatever evil things they want to do, boasting about themselves with great swelling words. The only reason they say good things about others is to get what they desire. 

Dear friends and loved ones in the Lord, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said before. They taught you that, "In the last times there will be people who will mock God's glory who seek only the pleasures of the flesh. These are the people who will divide you. They are not speaking to you with the confirmation of the Holy Spirit so don't believe them. 

But you beloved friends, build yourselves up in with your most holy faith.  Pray in the Holy Spirit.  Keep yourselves in God's love, as you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life.

Help those who have doubts or are caught up in error.  Rescue some with fear of God's eternal wrath, snatching them from the fires of Hell.  Treat them all with mercy, but be very careful that their sinful ways do not lead you astray with them.  

Now to our God who is able to guard you from stumbling and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy, who is the only God, our savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be all glory, majesty, dominion and power, now and for ever more.

Amen.