Have you ever heard of Charles Templeton???
Well read the link to understand who he was. I first heard about him while watching a documentary about Billy Graham. We all know Billy Graham is, a world renowned Evangelist. But many are probably not familiar with Templeton. Well Graham and Templeton came up around the same time in the 1940's. They teamed together to form the Youth for Christ which brought thousands upon thousands to hear word of God. These young men were very successful, witnesses say hundreds of seekers came nightly to seek the Lord as a result of their ministry. There is so much that could be said about the Youth for Christ that was set up by these two men, but YFC is not the purpose of todays topic.
Mr. Templeton is who I would like to focus a few moments of my attention today. After reading his story, I really became sad for this man because he was doing some great things for the Lord. You see this man was a great evangelist during his time. He toured across America and Canada trying to reconcile young men and women to the Lord. As great as this sound, he was struggling on the inside. He was in a battle with the Devil, and the battle was for his mind. There was a call on Templeton's life, and Satan knew it, and the battle was on. The greatest battles of men are not on war fields, but they occur right in the mind. The bible instructs us in Romans 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Templeton failed to renew his mind daily for the Lord. Instead he allowed the enemy to drop hints in his head.
Templeton questioned the validity of the bible, as well as advocated science over the book of Genesis. He endured science to tell him that the earth has been in existence for billions of years, which is hard to prove through the word of God. This initial question caused him to take a nose dive straight into Apostasy. Afterwhile, he gave both ears to the Devil and refused to give an ear to God. This refusal led him to shut God out of his life completely. Eventually Templeton began to whole heartedly refute the bible and tried to get others to join in with him. Can you say confused??? This is an extreme example of confusion because he went from one end of the spectrum to basically atheism. He didn't understand how God could allow bad things to happen to people, he didn't understand why violence was in the world. It appears that he basically ignored a fundemental understanding of the bible. When God first created the earth, it was intended to be a place where mankind would dwell and never die. God created the heavens and the earths, and he created Adam. God saw that all the animals had helpmates but Adam did not. So God created Eve, and we all know the story. Well if you don't quick snapshot......Ready...Here goes.....well there was a tree in the Garden of Eden. This tree was the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17) and was forbidden by Adam and Eve to eat. One day Eve was in the garden when a serpent spoke to her. He questioned why she didn't eat of it and even dangled Godly authority in front of her face. She took the bait and ate of the tree. But that was not the sin that did it. She brought Adam some of the fruit, he ate it and BAM!!!!! Just like that, sin was imputed into the earth. So when sin became apart of this world, it changed the very landscape of earth.
Templeton knew the scriptures but decided to follow after a lie. He decided to believe what the wise men of this earth tell him instead of the almighty God. The scriptures are indeed real, God will use the foolish things of this earth to confound the wise. (I Corinthians 2:27).
Why am I telling you this???
Because I don't want you to be bamboozled by the devil. Satan is very crafty, but he does not have dominion over the Holy Ghost filled believer. The enemy will try to confuse and put our minds in a wreck, but the Devil is a Certified Liar!!!!! Make your you renew your mind daily, seek the Lord while he may be found. Talk to him everyday and flex your spiritual muscle over the Devil. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to RESIST the wiles of the Devil. Sadly, Templeton didn't have on the whole armour, he forgot his helmet.
