Part 1. What Christians Must Deny 

Things We Must Not Think
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As many as… know not the deep things of Satan… I cast upon you none other burden. ― Revelation 2:24

God gave life to Adam and Eve, and he gave them a law (Genesis 2:16-17). By that man sin entered the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men (Romans 5:12). Yet, lest people should say, I am sinless; I die only on account to the sin of somebody else (Adam), God gave a Law to Moses to give to Israel. That law seemed to promise life to anyone as long as he could do the impossible – to anyone who could himself be sinless – to anyone under the Law who would keep the Law perfectly (Leviticus 18:5; Galatians 3:12). By that, every Israelite could see that he himself was imperfect and not worthy of eternal life. A former ultraorthodox Pharisee, Paul says, “The commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death” (Romans 7:10). Hope of life through the Law was illusory.

However, the Law had directed people to hope for unending life. That life was made possible by Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all; the testimony to be borne in its own [due] times” (1 Timothy 2:3-6). Because eternal life is, and will be, possible only through Christ, and not through the Law, Paul further tells us one thing we must absolutely not believe:

A second thing we must absolutely not believe is that the resurrection is past: “Their word will eat as doth a gangrene: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; men who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some” (2 Timothy 2:17-18; 1 Timothy 1:19-20).

Few today would say the resurrection is history – entirely past. Paul does not delineate how these two (and perhaps Alexander the coppersmith) had concluded the resurrection was past. One of several possibilities is as follows: Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and there were more than five hundred witnesses who saw him then. When Stephen was killed, people did not see him come back from the dead. Therefore they might have concluded there would be no further resurrection. Perhaps similarly muddled thinking prompted Paul’s logical argument to the contrary: “If Christ is preached that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:12-17).

Some other things are almost as forcefully required to be denied. Jesus said, the devil “was a murderer from the beginning… for he is a liar, and the father thereof” (John 8:44-45). The reference is to Satan’s original lie, spoken through the serpent in the garden of Eden, “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4; Revelation 12:9). So it would seem evident that the Bible-believer must deny that there is no death, or that death is not a reality.

Paul supports this thought: “There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another… So also is the resurrection of the dead… it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body [Literally, it is sown a body of the soul; it is raised a body of the spirit]… and this mortal must put on immortality” (1Corinthians 15:40-53). Clearly, if a soul puts on immortality, it can only mean that he did not previously have it. Incorruption and immortality are rewards for obedience; so people are not born as, or with, immortal souls.

Our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ said to an earlier period of church history, “As many as have not this doctrine [of the “Jezebel” church], and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden” (Revelation 2:24 ASV). The doctrines and the deep things of Satan are not spelled out for us; so we must do our best to deduce them and to reject them. Included among the deep things of Satan are likely the “doctrines of demons,” specified as “forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats” (1 Timothy 4:1-3 ASV). Yet, these are not so much intellectual false doctrines as practical ones. The majority of other doctrines which the Bible requires the Christian to reject are of the practical kind, as may be seen in eight of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:3-7, 13-17); the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:19‑21); jealousy and cutting off one’s brother, teaching for profit, and spiritual pride (Cain, Balaam and Korah; Jude 11, 1 John 3:12, 2 Peter 2:15, Revelation 2:14);

Also, “Flee youthful lusts,” and “Keep yourselves from idols” (2 Timothy 2:22; 1 John 5:21); such practical doctrines are dealt with in the next four articles.

In summary, there are just a few intellectual errors that the Christian absolutely must reject. More than that we are not authorized to require of others, though we ourselves must reject every error.