Although there are countless religions and belief systems, there is one God, one truth, and one true faith, one Creator of all, who is above all. Since not all who take the name of God as part of their identity are united under the same belief, it is evidence of the vast number of deviations from the oneness of God in the world.

The miracles, signs, dreams, and visions spoken of throughout the Bible, which also later appeared in the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection, evidenced the authority given to them by God to be His witnesses to the world. They were united and of one mind, diligently searching the scriptures daily to confirm everything written before by the prophets.

Over time, divisions over doctrine brought about the splintering of believers into various groups and sects with conflicting beliefs, a development that has continued to take place ever since. Thus, there are many misconceptions surrounding the character of Christianity, both in and outside of the church.

The doctrinal divisions that have evolved and increased over time among churches have made adherents competitors rather than fellow workers in the faith. Much like commercial businesses competing for their share of the pie, many churches resort to marketing methods and business models of men’s cunning to grow and maintain their congregations; often, more weight is placed on doctrinal teachings and traditions than on the eternal word of God.

Like grocery stores of theologies that sell doctrines, modern teachers remove old items that are no longer selling well and replace them with new products they believe the current culture today will buy. Investing heavily in ad campaigns disguised as the gospel, they present social constructs of self-righteous dogma, attempting to integrate the gospel into modern culture. Nonbelievers can see through their facades and find it off-putting. Thus, they are a stumbling block rather than a light to the path, and society is becoming increasingly secular because of their display.

Christ intends his church to be a salvational movement, but many have turned him into a social movement. Their objective is to grow religion rather than to preach the gospel—to make faith acceptable to the world rather than to bring the world to an acceptable place before Christ. They forsake holiness for social coexistence.

Therefore, the power presented in the scriptures is denied to them. In response, some declare God has ceased his miraculous works of old and suspended the outpouring of His power evident in past ages. Others turn to the fabrication of “miracles” to substitute for being denied the true power of God. Thus, they turn people from the faith by professing to know God but not providing a witness to the power of God.

The apostles warned that the time would come when many would no longer endure sound doctrine but would heap to themselves teachers that would speak the things they desire to hear. Even in reading these verses, they apply them to others and remain blind to the errors of their ways; therefore, the apostasy is great.

Even as religious Jews are blind to their falsehoods and Muslims to their delusions, many Christians, despite rightly declaring Christ as Messiah, are blind to their doctrinal fallacies. All religions are certain of their faith, but it cannot be that they are all right. Jesus said the greatest darkness occurs when the light within is actually darkness—when one believes that he sees while being blind.

Still, the great darkness upon the world is not absolute. There are some whose faith and hope are in the Word of God alone and not in vain traditions of the past or modern teachings of man-made religion.

Joel prophesied of the corruption of God’s word followed by a restoration in the latter days. He declared there would come false teachers who would feed upon the greenness of God’s teachings and devour the truth to feed themselves, each one consuming those things most desirable to their taste and leaving the things they judge to be unsavory, as it is written,

“That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.”

Joel foretold of the days when the Spirit would be cut off from those who corrupt the word of the Lord, saying, “Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.” He laments the destruction by an army that comes, perverting the word of God and laying waste to his harvest.

The true ministers of God mourn: “He has laid my vine waste and barked my fig tree: he has made it clean bare and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The meat offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn. The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.”

Rebuking the pastors and husbandmen over his people and laying the responsibility on them for the souls they stumbled by their ill stewardship, the Lord said, “Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished.”

The Lord decries the spiritual state of humanity and his people resulting from the failure of leaders to maintain sound doctrine: “The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.” And then Joel is given a prophecy of restoration.