COLONIALISM - THE POLICY OF A NATION SEEKING TO EXTEND ITS AUTHORITY OVER OTHER TERRITORIES 

The denominational world works much like this. Colonialism is the only thing many of them even know. It probably started with the Catholic Church as they spread along with the rest of the Holy Roman Empire. Now certainly we should be desiring to spread the gospel to all the world as the great commission commands, and we should seek to extend God’s authority to all by teaching them to submit themselves to his will. There is a difference in spreading the gospel and extending my authority or my churches authority.  Recently some circumstances and certain statements have caused me to wonder if some congregations of the Lord’s church are taking on the denominational structure of a mother church and her baby churches. I must say here that I am thankful that the Florence Blvd. church of Christ, which supported the work here in Butler, was not and is not like some others. What makes an eldership think that since it supports a work financially it can dictate how that work is carried out? The scriptures teach that there should be elders in every church. Sometimes when there are not elders in one congregation, another that has elders thinks and even acts as though it has control of the other. 

In conversation the other day, a man told me that their congregation was supporting a particular work and explained that the newly planted church was “under our elders”. In another situation the elders of the congregation supporting a work hire the preacher rather than allowing the congregation which will have to work with him to choose the man best suited to them. Have we lost touch with the Biblical doctrine of autonomy? There is to be one head, Christ; an eldership over each congregation; and never an eldership over two congregations. There is a way for a congregation to handle a supported work that is not scriptural: stop supporting it.  We have others who are trying through their papers or via other means to control other congregations. One preacher after being written up in a paper had a ready response that should be sufficient to cover the situation. He simply replied that the elders at the congregation where he preached knew what he believed and taught and if any correction needed to be made they would be the ones to make it. Sometimes an eldership doesn’t make the corrections that need to be made, but that doesn’t give another congregation the right to take over. It is sad and painful to see entire congregations go astray, but if others go beyond the limits of their authority to attempt to bring them back then we have two tragedies in place of one.  We need to lovingly exhort one another. We need to truthfully teach one another. We need to never go beyond the authority of the scriptures, even for a good cause. The end does not justify sinful means. Leave colonialism to the politicians, it has no place in New Testament Christianity. 

CLERICALISM - CLERICAL POWER IN THE GOVERNMENT 

Here is one we don’t have to worry about much in America; unless you count humanist and atheistic leaders as clergy of their respective religions. Our government was founded with the idea that one church not have control of the state. The intent by our founding fathers was to limit government's role in religion and to keep one religion from controlling all the others. What has happened instead is that government has so restricted religion that those claiming Christianity in Alabama were lambasted when they joined forces to defeat the lottery. We were accused of violating the separation of church and state. Isn’t that amazing. Individuals are not even allowed to vote their religious beliefs. We aren’t supposed to let our faith interfere with politics. The alternative is to allow politics to interfere with our faith. We find ourselves today right where Peter and John found themselves in Acts 4 and we must decide whether to obey God or man. 

We are all concerned about the lack of morals and mocking of values that goes on in our country and our government, but the opposite extreme wouldn’t really be any better. If our government were to be controlled by a religion, which one would it be? You might say, “Christianity”. Great, now which version of Christianity; Catholic, Baptist, Jehovah’s Witness, etc.? You would obviously want what you believe to be the ruling law. Therein lies the problem. England had a system like that and what the King believed was the law, and you believed what the King believed or else. Just look at the atrocities of the Holy Roman Empire under the rule of a “Pope” who decided what everyone would believe. No, we don’t want the clergy ruling our land. 

Aside from a Theocracy where God plays an active part in governing like he did with the children of Israel there is no better form of government known to man than the one we HAD in this country. A law under which religion is allowed to be religion and government is not supposed to interfere. Oh, if we could only get back to that. 

Let us pray that our nation will halt its destructive way of thinking and return to God. We must reach one person at a time, we can’t vote people into obedience to God, nor should we want to do it by force. (Psa 33:12) “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”   (Isa 1:4-6) “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. {5} Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. {6} From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.”  (Prov 14:34) “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” 

CLASSICISM OR CLASSICALISM  - THE PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIC LITERATURE AND ART.

Many of us enjoy things of a classical nature and there is certainly nothing sinful in that alone. Whether it be music, art, or literature from those classical periods, they can be very beautiful and inspiring. What we must remember, however, is that the philosophy behind those things was not Christian in nature by a long shot, and in many cases didn’t even recognize the true God. The same thing can be said about the arts and literature of today. As Christians we can still enjoy some of those things, but we must be discriminating and never compromise our beliefs and convictions.  Paul was a good example of this. When he found the many gods that the Athenians were worshiping he used their own literature to describe the true and living God to them. He didn’t compromise his principles, but he had obviously read and studied those works in order to know what they had said.  (Acts 17:28) “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.” Paul used some of the literature of the people of Crete against them when he wrote to Titus. (Titus 1:12-14)  “One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.  {13} This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; {14} Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.”  When some thing is good and true it can be used by the Christian, but things that don’t fit that description should be avoided. Some of what is commonly referred to as classical art is in actuality nothing more than an ancient form of pornography. A Christian is to have nothing to do with works of darkness. (Rom 13:12-14) “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. {13} Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. {14} But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” We can separate the good from the bad and we need to do so. There are some who say that all of this or that is evil and we should have nothing to do with it. There are few if any things in the world that truly fall into that category, however. Most things in the world today, like the men who make and/or use them, are both good and bad. Classical literature falls into this category. There are great truths presented in some of their works and great lies told in others. The music that was written in what we call the classical style is some of the most beautiful music ever written, in fact, we sing the tunes of some of that music in our worship to God. The men who wrote some of those things that are so useful in praising God lived some of the most morally impure lives that can be imagined. We don’t need to throw them out because of that. Some of the Psalms in our scriptures were penned by a murderer and adulterer, but God used those evil occasions for His glory. 

Whether it is modern, classical, or other let us be discriminating and chose the good and abstain from the bad. 

CENTRALISM - A CENTRALIZING SYSTEM
 Businesses cannot survive long if they do not adhere to some centralizing system. The church also is dependent on centralism. There are only two kinds of centralism: the right kind and the wrong kind. Most religious groups have some kind of headquarters on earth. It doesn’t matter if there is one man ruling the church and sending down edicts, or a council of leaders that makes creeds for them to go by, they are still being led by men from an earthly headquarters.

 The Bible makes it clear that there is no authority above the local congregation other than God, Jesus, and Their Word. (Eph 1:22-23) “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, {23} Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” Despite the clear Bible teaching that we are to obey God and not men, the church in the early centuries succumbed to this very thing. It didn’t happen overnight. It was a process of years, starting in the second century with the idea that one of the elders in a congregation was “first among equals” as if that were possible. This ‘head’ elder was soon referred to as bishop while the others retained the office of elder. Through this process centralization of and apostasy of the church on earth continued and was completed when around 600 AD Boniface proclaimed himself to be the head of the church. Of course this was no longer Christ’s church, because only Christ is the head of His church.

 We might think that that could never happen again, but we are mistaken. The church is always only one generation (or less) from apostasy. Failure to teach our children properly will result in falsehood in the church. There are as I type men and women in the church that are not satisfied with the autonomy (rule of each congregation through the Word by men from within the congregation) of the church. There are elders who are not happy with being on equal terms with the other elders of that congregation and want to rule everything themselves. There are elderships that are not happy with overseeing the congregation where they are, but desire to spread their rule over other congregations.

 There are those like Diotrephes who want to have preeminence, and worse than him want to throw whole congregations out if there is anything they don’t like about the way the congregation is led. I am not saying that anything is ok, far from it. Those congregations who are not faithful to the word will be spewed out of the Lord’s mouth like Laodicea. However, we need to all be watching our own congregations and helping them to stay on the right path rather than sticking our noses into other congregations of which we are not even part.

 I often express to our congregation the beauty of autonomy like this: Because each congregation is ruled from within and the only outside force is from God through the word, it doesn’t matter if every other congregation in the U.S. or even in the world goes astray, we can still be faithful. It doesn’t work that way with any earthly centralism. Under any central system you believe what the council or the Pope, or the Apostle of that denomination commands (whether you want to or not).  Of course as is obvious from this emailing itself, that doesn’t mean that we are not all part of the same body of Christ because we live in different places. We are all brothers and sisters as many of us as are in Christ. So keep encouraging your brothers and sisters no matter where they may be, and be sure to thank God for his wisdom in providing the only kind of centralism that can work, a system with Him as the Owner/President/CEO at the headquarters in heaven.

CATHOLICISM - FOLLOWING THE TEACHINGS AND PRACTICES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
 There are enough dangers with Catholicism that I could spend the rest of the year on this subject alone. If you are interested in further study on this topic you might be interested in two books:
1) Traditions of Men Versus the Word of God, by Alvin Jennings, published by Star Bible Productions, Inc., P.O. Box 821220, Fort Worth, Texas 76182, 1-800-433-7507.
2) Catholicism Against Itself, by O. C. Lambert, published by Star Bible Productions, Inc., P.O. Box 821220, Fort Worth, Texas 76182, 1-800-433-7507.  There are probably other good books on the subject as well, and the Bible itself is full of incriminating evidence against the Catholic religion.  Let’s look at just a few of the teachings of Catholicism that contradict God’s Word.

1) They claim to trace the Papacy back to Peter. According to their own regulations, however, Peter could never have been a ‘Pope’ because he was married (Mat 8:14) “And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.” Further, according to history the first Pope proclaimed himself such, it was not passed down to him, and that was Boniface in 608 AD. No, the Catholic church is not the same church that Christ established in the first century.

2) Priests are called ‘Father’. (Mat 23:9) “And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”

3) Only a priest can mediate between the congregation and God. The Bible says that only Christ is our mediator and that all Christians are priests. (1 Tim 2:5) “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” and (1 Pet 2:5) “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” and (1 Pet 2:9) “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:”

4) Tradition and teaching of ‘Popes’ and councils is held above the Bible and study of the Bible is not encouraged. Jesus condemned tradition that violated God’s law, and Bible teaches that it is all sufficient and should be studied.  (Mat 15:3) “But he answered and said unto them, ‘Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?’” (2 Tim 2:15)  “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim 3:16-17)  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: {17} That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.  There are many more doctrines that are held by the Catholic church in direct opposition to the Bible (idolatry, prayer to those who are not God, infant baptism, confusion over saints, etc.), but I suppose that is what happens when you believe that man’s ideas are better than God’s. Let us always look to God and his revealed will for our authority in religion and in life.

CATECHISM - A BOOK CONTAINING A SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPLES OF A RELIGION, IN THE FORM OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
 Unless I am mistaken, there is a book that contains the principles of Christianity. Last I knew it was called the New Testament, and had references to prophecies in the Old Testament as well as the teachings of Christ and the Apostles. I would hope that we would all study the scriptures in order to answer any questions we have. (1 Pet 3:15)  “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” One of the problems with a system like a catechism is that those involved are not encouraged to study the Word for themselves, in fact, in many instances they are told not to or that there is no need. ‘Why study when you have all the answers right here?’ They don’t think about the fact that the Bible is inspired of God and a catechism is written by fallible men.  Even if I had a book that gave me a pat answer for all these questions, and I had memorized the answers, I would still not have an understanding of why that was the answer. 

How many religious people believe what they believe for the following reasons:

1) My parents told me that was the way it was - What if your parents were wrong?
2) The ‘pastor’ told me - What if the ‘pastor’ was taught the wrong thing?
3) I read it in a book - What if the author was mistaken?
4) That is what my church teaches - What if the church isn’t founded by and on Christ and his teachings as it should be?

The problem with all of these and many other reasons for us believing something is that we are depending on someone else to get us to Heaven.  (Phil 2:12) “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” You see we alone are responsible for what we believe. Our salvation is far too important for us to leave it to someone else. I am taking my car to the shop on Friday to have it worked on, I have to go to the dentist to get my teeth taken care of, I had to study books to learn to read and write and do math, but I better not go to anyone besides Jesus to find salvation.

 Here is an answer that is much better than the others. I believe it because the Bible teaches it in such and such book, chapter, and verse. Let us all strive to have a biblical answer for what we do, believe and teach.

CASTROISM - THE POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND REVOLUTIONARY THEORIES AND POLICIES ADVOCATED BY FIDEL CASTRO.
 Oh, how Castro has been a thorn in our side for years. Because of his dictatorship we have been on the verge of war, and are currently fighting to avoid being overwhelmed by the refugees trying to flee Cuba for the US. All of this because one man wants everything done his way. Of course, that could never happen in the church, could it? How many congregations have been split, choked, smothered, stunted in growth, and even killed because someone wanted things done their way?

 There are no doubt many congregations, some with elders and some without, which suffer under a form of Castroism. This type of dictatorship is certainly nothing new. John spoke of a man in this position in 3 John 1:9 “I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.” Diotrephes was obviously a very intimidating man to be able to control the others in the church to such an extent that he would not even receive one of the apostles. He had apparently taken the place of Christ in this particular congregation and John let it be known that the arrogance shown would not go unpunished. Diotrephes should have known that Christ is the only one to have preeminence in the church; (Col 1:17-18) “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. {18} And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” And we should know the same today.

 The reason these individuals are able to succeed in the first place is because there is no one to withstand them. Many times they will bring in their whole family to support them in their power grab. Unfortunately, we often let it go. John said it was something that could not continue. (3 John 1:10) “Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.” The situation was backwards here as it is in many places today. The one who should be cast out of the church is the one who desires to be like Castro.

 It is never an easy thing to “... put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” (1 Cor 5:13), but there are many things in Christianity that are not easy. We cannot shy away from doing what is right just because it is harder than doing what is wrong or doing nothing. Don’t be like Diotrephes and don’t let the church come under the power of one like him.

CAPITALISM - AN ECONOMIC SYSTEM IN WHICH INVESTMENT IN AND OWNERSHIP OF THE MEANS   OF PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND EXCHANGE OF WEALTH IS MADE AND   MAINTAINED CHIEFLY BY PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS OR CORPORATIONS.
 As an economic system Capitalism works as well if not better than any other that has ever been used. We need to remember, however, that an economic system is just an economic system and not any part of the foundation for Christianity. It seems to me by all accounts of the early church that the system of economics working actively among them was a form of voluntary socialism or communism. Not that they divided everything equally, nor was it forced, but they had all things in common, no one thought of the possessions he had as his own, and they willingly sold their goods to care for the poor among them. I would like to see this attitude of stewardship return to the Lord’s church.

Capitalism is an effective economic system for a country, but the church cannot be effective if it holds too tightly to that doctrine. I have been in congregations where capitalism had taken over the church and the results were disastrous for the body. Here are a few of the problems that developed and the error of the thinking involved.

1) “Don’t sit there that is MY seat” - Have you ever seen this? Are you guilty of it? The Pharisees had a problem kind of like this one; (Mat 23:2) “Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:” (Mat 23:6) “And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,” We don’t want to be like them

2) “Do it how I want or I will take MY money out of the treasury” - We need to remember that all that we have is a gift from God. The money that has been given into our keeping is not ours, nor do we deserve it any more than we deserve the air we breathe or the water we drink. We have no right to take God’s money out of the treasury unless the church is being disobedient to Him with it.

3) “This is MY/OUR church and we decide how things are done” - Is it really? Did any of us die to purchase the church with our blood? Are we baptized into our names our Christ’s name? What name does the church wear?  If it is the bride of Christ it better wear his name. There are no doubt many congregations and entire denominations that don’t belong to Christ, but we better.  Christ is the one who decides what his church is to do and we are here to obey.

4) “ME and MY FAMILY built this church” - Did you really, now?! If you and your family or my family and I built the church with which we worship then it is safe to say it isn’t the same one that Christ promised to build in Matthew 16:18

Now someone will say, “You know what I meant, and it isn’t like you are interpreting it”. I realize that we many times use phrases in our common language that are not meant in the way we say them. We say it is MY church meaning that it is the congregation I worship with. Often when someone speaks of building the church they mean the building. We must realize that many of the things we say leave the wrong impression and sometimes our speech exposes our true feelings. The church is spiritual and not physical, and it belongs to Christ. We cannot nor should we want to own it. We instead should be content and happy to be part of it.

CALVINISM - THE DOCTRINES AND TEACHINGS OF JOHN CALVIN OR HIS FOLLOWERS, EMPHASIZING PREDESTINATION, THE IRRESISTABILITY OF GRACE, AND THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF APOSTASY
 I could go for hours on this one, in fact, I preached for 5 weeks on it. If you would like to have more extensive information on it than what I give here, and many of you might, go to the website www.bible.ca\ It may be a bit slow, be patient. I don’t advocate everything they have there, but what they have on Calvinism is very good.

First, Calvinism teaches that we are born sinful. If so then either Jesus was born sinful, or he was not tempted in all ways like we are, or he was not fully human.

Second, it teaches that God picked certain individuals to be saved and certain ones to be lost. In his picking there is nothing that anyone can do to be moved from one list to the other, in fact even if someone who had been chosen to go to heaven began worshiping the devil God would never change his mind. Why did Jesus preach about Hell and tell people to believe and repent if He knew all along that they couldn’t. Why did Jesus tell the Laodiceans that he was going to spew them out if they couldn’t be lost. Why was Paul concerned about his lifestyle, (1 Cor 9:27) “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” If indeed he could not be lost.

Third, it teaches that Christ did not die for everyone, but for a pre-approved few, the elect. Now we realize of course that Christ’s blood does not cover everyone’s sin. There are millions and billions that die without Christ. But the question is are they outside the umbrella of his redeeming blood because he did not die to save them, or because they would not accept his redemption?

This brings us to the final quandary, is God a liar? When God said that he is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” was he lying, unable to come up with a plan whereby all could be saved, or is He desiring that very thing, but unwilling because of His nature to force his human creation to do what they do not want to do. There are many similar problems that Calvinism brings to the table. Why did God create Adam and Eve and then allow them to sin if this sin resulted in every child from then on being born in sin? What about aborted babies? Are they going to Hell? How can God condemn sin if we don’t have any choice in the matter and still be just. Why should we preach the gospel to others if only God knows who is on His list of people to be saved, and will force them to obey Him with His irresistible grace? If I can’t fall from grace what is the point of living righteously? Paul’s opponents had a point why not sin that grace may abound? Paul knew better, he knew there was a point where one could leave the shadow of grace. We know that we can never work our way into heaven, but don’t fall for the deception that we can’t work our way out of heaven.

The Calvinist says our way of thinking takes away our security as a believer. I say it is just the opposite. I know that nothing out there can affect my relationship with God, and I know that if I properly respond to God’s grace and through faith strive to obey his commands, then even though I am unable to do so perfectly, like Abraham I will be credited with righteousness. Following the logic of his own teaching, the Calvinist may live an entire life teaching his doctrine and converting others to it, he may even do a better job of living a holy and pure life than I do, but if God decided before the foundation of the world to put his name on the Hell list he has no hope. John said that he wrote so that we could know we have salvation. Now since John didn’t write a list of the names of people going to heaven, we must infer that there is another way to know. How? (Rom 8:16) “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” The Spirit bears witness through the word, and our spirit bears witness through our actions and words and thoughts. If the two are in agreement then we are the children of God, if they disagree, be assured that it isn’t God’s spirit that is wrong.

BOTULISM - DISEASE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM CAUSED BY BOTULIN IN SPOILED FOOD
What a topic for Friday the 13th, hope you know what you ate last night. If you have ever had any kind of food poisoning, you know how dangerous it can be. Our next door neighbor has had a baby in the hospital with it for the past week. I don’t know the statistics, but I know many people die from the different kinds of food poisonings. Amazingly, many of us may get food poisoning and never even know it. Our body fights it off in small enough amounts, and even in larger amounts a healthy adult can overcome most food poisoning if it is not a continuous occurrence. Since there isn’t really much danger of the church being destroyed as a result of food poisoning deaths, we must turn to a spiritual application.

The Word of God and the doctrines and teachings that come from It are referred to on many occasions in scripture as food. Of course we know that we can’t live on only the teachings of the Word, but Jesus also told Satan, and recorded it for us as well, that man can’t live without it either. Oh sure, people exist all around us without the Bible, but they aren’t really alive. We must have spiritual food to feed our souls, and without it we can’t have true life.

(1 Pet 2:2) “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:”
(1 Cor 3:1-2) “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. {2} I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.”
(Heb 5:12-6:2) “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. {13} For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. {14} But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. {6:1} Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, {2} Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”
(John 6:31-35) “Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. {32} Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. {33} For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. {34} Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. {35} And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

We see there are many different spiritual foods: Milk for the newborn, meat for the full grown, and Jesus, the bread of life, for any who are hungry and will come. We were talking about botulism and food poisoning, however, and all of the above are free of any dangers. There is a type of food that is spiritually dangerous that we should watch out for. It isn’t referred to as botulism in scripture since the people of that time would have never understood that term. Jesus spoke to his disciples about dangerous teachings and likened them to leaven. (Mat 16:5-6 & 11-12) “And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. {6} Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
(11) How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? {12} Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”

I think that if Jesus were teaching today he would find the food poisoning analogy to be a good one as well. When we consume false teaching, like food poisoning, it will make us sick. If we are healthy Christians, we will be able to fight off the poison, but if we are very young (spiritually), immature, or weakened we may succumb to the poison and the result could be the loss of our soul if we don’t find the cure. Be careful what you put in your spiritual mouth just like you are careful what you put in your physical mouth.