“Truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (Jn. 10:1-3).”
Why does Christ call false teachers thieves, robbers, and similarly ravenous wolves?
The first trick false teachers do with this passage is to make it a question about, “Are you (the laity) truly a born again Christian.” This simpleton’s shenanigan deflects Christ’s real warning. It is not about, “Are you really saved”, but a warning about false teachers. So false teachers attempt to deflect from themselves what the Lord is actually warning about to the laity.
When Christ calls false teachers thieves, robbers and ravenous wolves it is not because they “steal” sheep (Christians) primarily in terms of membership transference or some such—although that occurs as an effect. They are thieves, robbers, and ravenous wolves because they steal baptized souls by entrapping their consciences.
How does this happen?
To know how it happens is to form a defense. In order to steal a soul, one must first snare the conscience. To entrap the conscience one must make it dirty (i.e. guilty). Once the conscience is captivated by guilt the soul can be taken, and at length imprisoned forever (the final real goal of the devil). The conscience that hears the words of their lies, the snare, becomes alarmed about its eternal status and over time religiously and spiritually entrapped. False teachers bind consciences where God has not—where God has absolved and freed them by His absolving Word (i.e. Gospel), baptism, and the Lord’s Supper (a.k.a. the sacrament of or divine promise of the altar). In their constant and relentless seeking out who is really saved or truly elect they are precisely the false teachers and preachers of who the prophet Ezekiel warns:
“They hunt to death souls which God never bound!” (Ez. 13:18).
By what means do they do this?
Their primary target is the baptized, and grown up baptized infants are a special target of theirs. False teachers do not shanghai the baptized. One cannot snare the conscience that way. Such a procedure would only make the conscience all the more resilient and resistant to the whole idea. A conscience cannot be forced, it must be convinced that it is dirty and thus become entangled in that guilt. In so happening the fearful conscience and soul flee for a new assurance or certitude. It needs to know what it must do to be sure it is (now/again) truly saved, elect, regenerate, or has genuine saving faith. When the conscience becomes troubled this way nothing in the world or about life matters since eternity is in question, and it knows death is always approaching. Under this condition we can begin to see how the neighbor in and of him/herself also begins to no longer matter as works are done to assure the conscience of salvation or election (i.e. idolatry). Once the conscience is snared, the soul becomes ripe for theft and robbery. To do this they further craft clever religious traps through Satan’s insinuated doctrines using scripture. Worst of all they think they are godly and doing Christ’s work. Yet they do not actually speak His words in His voice.
How do they go about capturing the conscience?
The first step is to attack faith’s strength and unhinge it. So they attack all avenues of God’s freeing unconditional infallible absolution assuring them. For as long as these remain strong, the conscience cannot be made dirty because the voice of the Gospel (absolution) silences the voice of the law. By attacking faith’s strength, the baptized no longer have any real sense of assurance from God that they are saved, reborn, regenerate, or elect. They no longer have the certitude that they have been forgiven, possess eternal life, and will be resurrected. Thus, false teachers first preach and teach the devil’s words against Christ’s words concerning one’s certain faith and assured hope. They assail the Word of absolution given by a pastor or another Christian as not being given from God but a mere man. Likewise, they brutally assault baptism and counter every word in the sacred scripture on baptism saying, “It is only a sign of an inward reality”, “It does not confer forgiveness”, “It does not give the Spirit”, “Water baptism is not the same as ‘spiritual baptism’”, “It is not for and promised to your infants and children (Contra Acts 2 and Acts 22). They blather that baptism does not save (contra 1 Peter 3:21). They reduce baptism to a sign of faith and not the promise itself, nor the actual presence of the Holy Trinity. Not satisfied with this sacrilege they “preach” and teach Jesus did not mean that the bread and wine contain His actual body and blood that He specifically said to remember to eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sin so that you will know. All of these amount to returning to the serpent’s words and voice in original sin, “Hath God really said (Gen. 3:1)” and “believing the lie (Rom. 1:25).”
Having unhinged faith’s strength they then proceed to mint “holy” shackles to bind the fearful conscience that are sold as avenues to assurance. Their forms are various and legion but all boil down to a return to the opinio legis (i.e. the nagging fear of the opinion of the law is in the end right). Through this subtle constancy they set one to continually work toward holiness—as if Christ alone was not sufficiently your holiness. They label these religious procedures variously with Christian-like names and phrases such as, “proofs of faith or that you are truly reborn, regenerate, saved, or elect”, “(alleged) fruits of faith”, “(so called) sanctification”, “pursuing holiness”, “killing sin”, and “desiring God”. They will even make faith a requirement for forgiveness rather than the instrument that apprehends the forgiveness that is the case.
The overall two fanged poison injected (i.e. the effect) is to create doubts in the absolution from Christ first, then bindings in the voice of the law second. Once the conscience has been unhinged from its assurance that God cannot and did not lie in its absolution, baptism, or the supper—once that is gone—the conscience flails about for certitude becoming ripe for the snare to snap shut in the voice of the law. The soul is then stolen for bitter slavery to the devil to engage in the pursuit of holiness, grow in “Christlikeness”, desire God, work toward a future grace, and parade one’s fruits around to prove one’s born again-ness or to substantiate one’s election.
The Sheep’s Wool over the Wolf!
The baptized should beware that the most insidious aspect of these a
ntichristic traps is the Christian camouflage and it is flawless! Deception does not primarily happen through the buffoonish type of preachers such as the Benny Hinns or Joel Osteens of the world. Even the investigative teams at 60 Minutes© can rightly discern these religious charlatans without the slightest hint of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, preachers of this type do not persecute the promise and absolution of the Word and Sacraments. The church is not largely in danger from blind boobs like this who more or less babble silly inane things not worth hearing.
The greatest danger to the church are the very erudite, serious, and hard working exegetical super preachers and grand pulpiteers. The best deception comes from theologians of the highest quality who espouse Christ’s very name with great vigor and seriousness; “Who in order to deceive the elect show great signs and wonders (Matt. 24:24).” No doctrine is a greater sign or wonder, nor bewitching temptation or deception to the elect than those who espouse a doctrine regarding election that simultaneously denies the absolution and sacraments for you and elects you, and then point you to an election outside of the preached word!
As the age increasingly nears its end, these false teachers metastasize and cover the light of the Gospel like a horde of locust, yet with disarming “Christian-like” appearances (Rev. 9:3). They are the false teachers we see today in the likes of the John Pipers, Tim Kellers, Paul Washers, and John MacArthurs of the world. Luther points out that a true false teacher is not one who errs in ignorance, accidentally, or due to a lack of knowing, but says he knows and denies the promise. Thus, these and their kind gather together for another gospel in order to disgorge their doctrines openly despising the word and sacraments for one purpose and one purpose only—to capture consciences and thereby steal souls. Through their pulpits and gatherings these thieves and robbers hop over the fence of the sheep’s pen and endlessly shamelessly persecute the word and sacraments with their propaganda. They attack the absolution and promise in the blessed word and sacraments as they truly are, not as they blasphemously define and teach them. By their own words they are found and marked out, already condemned in the darkness of their teachings, to be avoided.
“For they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge (Rom. 10:2).”
The high quality of such false teachers make their concealment so impeccable that they are the best thieves, robbers, and wolves. Yet despite their appearance they do not adhere to the word of absolution and the sacraments, but rather deny it looking down upon it as nothing and not of the Christian faith. In contrast to Christ, they deny your one baptism for the forgiveness of sin. They deny that your baptism gave you the Spirit; that it is the divine promise for you and your children; that it saves you; that it regenerates you; and that it assures you of your salvation. Furthermore, not satisfied with their religious profanity regarding baptism, the deny that the bread and wine have the very body and blood of the Son of God given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sin so that you know—in direct contradiction with Christ. They do not give absolution to you ‘while you are yet still a sinner and enemy of God’. They deny that a preacher or Christian can absolve you, nor do they absolve a single Christian thus they:
“Do not allow those entering heaven to go in, shutting the door to the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, and do not go in themselves, nor allow those who are trying to enter to go in (Matt. 23:13).”
They unhinge the conscience freed by Christ’s absolution, which is certain and sure, then rebind the conscience to their false teachings of seeking holiness in a vain desire of God for a future grace saturated in a scheme of the law. Once the conscience is bound to their word, the plunder proceeds as they steal the soul to imprison it in the hell that they are gate-keeping. Thus, Christ rightly calls them thieves, robbers, belly preachers, and ravenous wolves.
What is worse is that such fine and knowledgeable false teachers do it in the name of Christ as if they are doing the works of God. So under the spell of the serpent themselves, they do not realize that they are mules for the words of the devil and not Christ. They claim they are vigorous preachers of Christ, but yet do not really preach Christ Who is Christ. Thus, Christ warns that in the latter days, “At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is’, do not believe it (Matt. 24:23).” We see here the clear warning that the worse false teachers will do this in the very name of Christ and say, ‘Here Christ is’ and ‘There is Christ’.
How?
The method is consistent. They do not point you to the absolution, baptism, or the Supper where Christ said He is so clearly that a three year old can understand Him. They say, “Here is Christ in the pursuit of holiness, in desiring God, in (purported) sanctification, in future grace, and in (supposed) Christlikeness.” Similarly they say, “There is Christ in fruit production proving your faith or demonstrating that your rebirth, election, salvation is true.” One finds their other christs to be all over the maps, manifold, and legion truly as Christ warned, “Here is Christ, there is Christ”, but Jesus says, “Do not believe it.”
Christ is very clear where He is for you, where the Holy Spirit is for you, and where the Father is for you. He and the entire Holy Trinity are in baptism as was shown at Christ’s own baptism, and as He said when He instituted it to make Christians in the last chapter of Matthew, “and behold!, I will be with you always even unto the end of the age.” God cannot not be where His name is! He is precisely where He said He is when Christ breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples and said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you…whose ever sins you forgive they are forgiven (Jn. 20:23)”. He is precisely and exactly where and when He said He is in the Sacrament/Promise of the altar (the Lord’s Supper) when He said, “Take eat this is My body given into death for you, take drink this is My blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sin.”
What child could not understand Christ’s clear words? Could Christ’s words not be plainer where He is!
There is more! First, He is God and is omnipotent and thus able to do these things He promised and nothing can thwart His will for you. Second, He is God and cannot and will not ever lie about your absolution, your baptism, and the Supper put into your mouth. Third, He is God and cannot be deceived about it because He foreknows NOTHING contingently, and thus is not surprised by having not expected your sins your entire life. Finally, He is God and WILL BE justified precisely by this almighty faithful Word of absolution, baptism, and supper for you so that you know for certain and shall be assured no matter what.
A conscience that is held fast by the invincible absolution, baptism, and holy body and blood of Christ is held fast by Christ Himself so that these robbers, thieves, and ravenous wolves can never steal them away.
It is neither safe nor wise to leave baptism, rather let it hold you fast for it is Christ!
This Sacrament is the Gospel 