Beware, false prophets are among you!

The apostle Peter has much to say about false prophets in 2 Peter 2.  As I read through it the other day, I was stunned. Even though I've read the Bible many times, I find there are so many things I've either missed or God deemed I wasn't ready to know the last time I read it.  This entire chapter was one of them.

Peter describes them like this:
They walk after the flesh
Indulge in the lust of polluting passion
Scorn and despise authority.
Presumptuous
Self-willed and self-loving creatures
They scoff at and revile dignitaries (glorious ones) without trembling,
Unreasoning beasts
Mere creatures of instinct,
Railing at things of which they are ignorant
They have eyes full of harlotry, insatiable for sin.
They beguile and bait and lure away unstable souls.
Their hearts are trained in lust and greed
These are springs without water and mists driven along before a tempest,

Then I read something that startled me
They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions and carousing together even as they feast with you.....Forsaking the straight road they have gone astray;

These prophets were once Christians! Or at least they call themselves Christians.  In fact, many of them are still among God's people like wolves among sheep.

Here's what they do
They beguile and lure with lustful desires of the flesh those who are barely escaping from them who are wrongdoers...they promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity and defilement-

Why am I telling you this? It's not to frighten you. It's to make you aware that not every one who calls themselves a Christian is one. Love everyone. Trust no one. Not even your pastor. Jesus told his disciples to be as gentle as doves but as wise as serpents. Question everything you are taught in your church, your Bible Study, books, (even my books!)  Find out the truth for yourself by reading the Bible. Don't rely on anyone else for your knowledge of God. Especially not your church traditions or beliefs.  Test them against Scripture. Discard them if you can't find them in the Bible. Cling to those you can.  I believe there are many people today in the church in powerful positions who are leading people astray. And it can be ever so slightly. Just a slight twist of Scripture. And then another twist, and another. And before too long you are way off the Path.
I believe in these last days, God wants us to be a people of the Book. We must know the Scriptures inside and out on an individual basis. Or we may be deceived. For the great deceiver, Satan himself, will soon appear in human form and trick the entire world.

For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the full, personal knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome, their last condition is worse for them than the first. 2 Peter 2:20

As Thomas Jefferson said "Question with boldness, even the very existence of God."