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Counterfit Conversions and their Remedies by Mark Harris
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Evangelical Missiological Society, "EMS Southwest Regional Meeting", April 4th 2024
Mark Harris, Mission Consulting Group
Counterfeit Conversions and Their Remedies
The Bible uses animal metaphors to describe various kinds of people who populate churches. The sheep of the Lord recognize His voice. They are true believers. Goats, on the other hand, often mingle with the sheep but are not believers. They won’t be fully identified until the judgment, when they will be divided from the sheep (Matt. 25:32). There are also wolves, who come among the sheep for their own nefarious purposes.
This same idea is illustrated using wheat versus tares, which look alike in the beginning and are only obviously different at harvest time. The landowner allows them both to grow together, due to the difficulty of separating them (Matt. 13:24-30). Here we see specifically that tares are sown by an enemy. Satan is a liar and destroyer, who relentlessly battles against the church. Counterfeit believers are one common way he uses to damage and ultimately destroy churches.
So, it is clear from Scripture that hypocrites are going to be an ongoing issue for churches throughout the church age. They are a danger to themselves, to true believers, and to the congregations, and ultimately to the reputation of God in this skeptical world. Churches are often unprepared, however, to detect them and deal with them biblically.
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