By Morris Hafley
In the Ohio Valley there is a deadly virus. It has killed thousands already and more have been diagnosed with the virus. Small children and adults are dying horrible, lingering painful deaths. You may not have heard about it until this moment. The government is trying to keep it a secret. That’s the reason you have not heard about it.
There is a doctor in the Valley that has the cure. He is the only one, but for some unknown reason he is not sharing the vaccine with any one. I suppose he is waiting for the highest bidder and/or he is the meanest, most heartless doctor of all time. Perhaps he wants to remain friends with “the higher ups.” Government officials know this culprit and are saying that “he is an old man and has done much good in the field of medical research for many years.”
People (those who have heard) are moving from the Valley and getting as far away as quickly as possible. It is a mass exodus such as I have never seen. They are running as fast as they can lest they contact this deadly virus, leaving behind all they have ever known, and selling their land for little or nothing just to escape. They have no concern for their jobs or their possessions. They are only concerned for their lives.
The government is warning all not to tell others, but as you can see I am not listening. I want you to know as quickly as possible. I would want you to tell me if the situation were reversed. The government says it will create a panic and the economy will be destroyed if the rest of the country knows about this.
Though the above is not true I am reminded of a virus that indeed has infected us all, the virus of sin (Rom.
3:23). It is a virus that kills (Rom. 6:33). I also know of a Physician who has the cure and is not hoarding it for the highest bidder (Mark 2:16-17; 16:15).
Do we want to hear of “outbreaks” of sin? Certainly not! After all it separates us from the one who loves us most (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; Isa. 59:1-2). If it is a deadly disease it does not matter with whom it starts. We want to know ASAP! Why would we want to protect someone who could lead us to torment with a deadly doctrine (Matt. 15:13-14)? It, too, is a slow, lingering, painful death (Luke 16:19-31; Matt. 8:12; Rev. 20:14).
I want to go on record right now by saying if I teach a doctrine that is contrary to the Word expose me if I refuse to repent. Tell all who I am and what I am teaching just as God did in 1 Timothy 1:20 — “Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.” Warn all that my “word will eat as cloth a canker” and that I have “erred concerning the truth” (2 Tim. 2:17-18).
Refusing to repent I may in all honesty, as sweet as a little lamb, cry, “I’ve been misrepresented.” Do not let that deter you from exposing me (John 3:20-21). Some think that before one may be labeled as a false teacher, he must have horns and fangs and be rude, crude and tattooed with a devil insignia.
Do not allow how long I have been preaching to stop you. Do not allow our longtime friendship to sway you. Do not allow my friends and what they may say or write about you to scare you. Paul, in all honesty, went about making “havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison” (Acts 8:3; 23:1). His sincerity did not make him right.
The Lord stopped him (Acts 9). Please! “SOMEBODY STOP ME” before the judgment!
Stop the virus of sin. Do not wait until it has a good head of steam before you try to stop it. It could steamroll right over you and any in its path. “But there were false proph- ets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber” (2 Pet. 2:1-3, NASV).