“Gangrene” Devotion by Pastor Fred Snider

"Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth." 2 Timothy 2:17-18

This verse is personal with me. The reason may surprise you if you don’t know my story. When I was five I had acute appendicitis that was undiagnosed, and my appendix ruptured. My father drove me to the hospital in the sheriff’s squad car with lights and sirens. From what I am told, gangrene had set in and I was close to death as I had emergency surgery in 1955. The advances in medicine have been wonderful, but back then I guess this was pretty miraculous that I pulled through that. Gangrene is a bad thing. Until today, I had never really researched it much. Gangrene is the infection that happens when there is no blood flow and tissue dies. The description of gangrene here, whatever it was called 2,000 years ago was probably even more serious than 1955. Gangrene is death.

These two individuals were death to the teaching of the early church. When the life flow of blood is cut off, there is death. There is no life without the blood. If the blood is not in the body, the body cannot live. These two heretics did not believe in the Resurrection. Without the Resurrection there is no victory over death or conquering of sin. The shed blood of Christ our Savior for sin and then resurrecting is at the core of what we believe. There are a number of non-negotiables about our faith and this is one of them. Heresy of this magnitude kills the Body of Christ, the church, and must be cut out of the Body. Very serious business. So what is at the root of gangrene? Lack of blood flow. The lifeblood of the church today must be connected to the teaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and resurrected. We are not a religion of intentions or platitudes, of intellectual interpretation of religious notions based on sketchy association with the doctrinal teaching of the Word of God. We believe the whole Word of God, inerrant. As it says in our Doctrinal Statement, The bible is our sole source of faith and practice

Today, we must be as fervent as Paul in defending the core beliefs about the Gospel which include the Atonement and Resurrection. If not, the gangrene will spread. The only way to keep from wandering from the truth is to study it and be accountable to its doctrine and precepts.

For His Word,
Pastor Fred

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