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St. Paul’s Defense In writing to the church at Corinth, St. Paul said, “For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves! For you bear it if a man makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face.” (II Cor. 11:19,20) What was it that had caused St. Paul to become so upset with the situation at Corinth? The problem was the presence of false teachers and the fact that many in the church at Corinth were following them. The same sort of false teachers are around today, so we must beware. Because of TV, radio, and print, these false teachers are even more effective and wide spread than they were in St. Paul’s day. Whether the First Century or the Twenty-first Century the false teachings remain basically the same. Their first attack is directed at the foundation of our beliefs, the Word of God. One of life’s most fundamental questions is, “How may we know?” As Christians we believe that God has revealed ultimate truth to us; truth we could not discover on our own. There are two common errors about the Bible of which we need to be aware. The first tells us that we don’t have to believe the Bible in its entirety. The false teacher will emphasis certain portions of Scripture, while ignoring other equally important sections. To Timothy St. Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (II Tim. 3:16,17) A second error is introduced when they tell us that the Bible is good, but it is not enough. So along with the Bible we must have the Koran, the Book of Mormon, the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, etc…. They will say that the Bible is true, but it must be interpreted by this other book, because the Church has distorted the true teaching. Of course this places the book of the false prophet above the Holy Scriptures. Another variation of this is the false teacher who introduces his own personal revelation from God. “God told me” is how they present their falsehoods. They set themselves up as one through whom God is now speaking, making their words equal to the Word of God. This practice is common with certain TV preachers. Beware of anyone who undermines or adds to the Scriptures. A second common thread among false teachers has to do with sin. It is a teaching which says you don’t have to give up your sins. There are two versions of this one. There is the liberal version which teaches that God is evolving and changing. If that is the case then His moral attributes are growing and developing. This of course means that there are no moral absolutes, all is evolving and relative. They teach that at one time in the distant past a practice such as homosexuality was wrong, but God has evolved beyond that and so should the Church. This teaching is common in liberal denominations. The truth is that moral standards do not change, because God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Morality is a reflection of God’s unchanging nature. Unfortunately there is an evangelical version of this false teaching. It maintains that since we are justified by faith not works, we therefore do not need to do good works or forsake our sins. These false teachers say that Christ can be our Savior without being our Lord. To this St. Paul said, “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (Ro. 6:15) Salvation produces radical changes in the life of a believer (see: Phil. 1:9-11, Col. 1:9,10, Gal. 5:22-24, Mt. 7:16-20) The third deception of the false teacher is to get people to trust them implicitly. What we see here is essentially a personality cult. Why did the Corinthians tolerate these men who were described by St. Paul as fools? (II Cor. 11:19) They did so because they had become convinced that these false teachers were wise. What standard of evaluation had the Corinthians used when they turned from a true apostle to these false prophets? Well St. Paul was not handsome nor was he a great preacher, whereas, these others were good looking, dressed well and were powerful orators. (II Cor. 10:10) The Corinthians were using the standards of the world; the methods of Madison Ave. Teachers should be evaluated on the basis of truth, not appearance. St. Paul was very concerned about the church at Corinth. He would be just as concerned about the church today, because the same false teachings are being promoted throughout our land. We need to be on our guard and heed the Scripture which says, “test everything; hold fast what is good….” (I Thess. 5:21) By Rev. F. M. Levi   Church News Both the Church and Preschool had display booths at the Discover Tinley Expo at the Holiday Inn Convention Center on Saturday, April 21, 2007. This is the second year we have participated. We thank those who helped man the booths. A series of Discipleship Training classes began April 25, 2007. The classes will cover such topics as: how to read the Bible, how to pray, how to witness, etc. All parishioners are encouraged to attend that together we may become better disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Classes are held in the chapel every Wednesday from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m., except the 2nd Wednesday of each month. Missionary of The Month Judy King, Bible Translation/Discipling. Amazonas, Brazil Father's Day June 17, 2007 OLD GLORY AND THE U.S. MARINES * Marines carried our flag in France during World War I (1918) from the defense of Aisne, through the battle of Belleau Wood, Soissons, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne and into Germany for occupation duty. * On August 7, 1942, the Stars and Stripes were flown over Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, in the first offensive of American forces in the Second World War. * After Guadalcanal, the Marines planted the Stars and Stripes on Bougainville and Tarawa, November 1943; Cape Gloucester, December 1943; Marshall Islands, February 1944; Marianas Islands, June and July 1944; Peleliu, September 1944; Iwo Jima, February 1945; Okinawa, April 1945; and Japan, August 1945. VISIT OUR WEBSITE www.andrewrec.org       Happy Birthday! June 3 – Madeline Levi June 7 – Grant Chessman June 8 – Mildred Buescher June 8 – Melissa Drobnak June 9 – Patty Levi June 14 – Carl Spencer June 16 – River Christenson June 17 – Dave Sellers June 18 – Jacqueline Robertson June 18 – Paul Sellers June 21 – Anita Rago June 22 – Rev. Robert Novak June 23 – Brian Stultz June 30 – Frank Levi, Jr.   FATHER’S DAY SPECIAL by Ruth Lommatzsch Now and then it’s time to say Something in a special way, And so to father’s everywhere; May God grant you His special care. Give you health and happiness And all your families richly bless, Not just while Father’s Day is here, But on each day of every year!