========================================================================
  FALSE PROPHETS AND THE FALSE APOSTLES
  by Ignatius of Antioch
========================================================================

Summary: The sermon emphasizes the importance of spiritual authority,
the contrast between true and false leaders, and the role of Christ in
salvation.

Topics: "Holy Spirit", "False Prophets"
Scripture References: John 14:26, Romans 15:4, Ephesians 4:4, 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 10:14

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ignatius of Antioch expresses his deep love and concern for the
believers, emphasizing the importance of prayer for spiritual growth and
perfection. He highlights the unity in the Spirit among the prophets,
apostles, and believers, all receiving the same Holy Spirit through
Jesus Christ. Ignatius underscores the singular God of both the Old and
New Testaments, the one Mediator, and the Comforter who empowered the
saints throughout history. He points to Christ as the source of
salvation for all believers, uniting them in hope and love.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

My brethren, I am greatly enlarged in loving you; and rejoicing
exceedingly [over you], I seek to secure your safety. Yet it is not I,
but the Lord Jesus through me; for whose sake being bound, I fear the
more, for I am not yet perfect. But your prayer to God shall make me
perfect, that I may attain that to which I have been called, while I
flee to the Gospel as to the flesh of Jesus Christ, and to the apostles
as the presbytery of the Church.

I do also love the prophets as those who announced Christ, and as being
partakers of the same Spirit with the apostles.

For as the false prophets and the false apostles drew [to themselves]
one and the same wicked, deceitful, and seducing spirit; so also did the
prophets and the apostles receive from God, through Jesus Christ, one
and the same Holy Spirit, who is good, and sovereign, and true, and the
Author of [saving] knowledge. For there is one God of the Old and New
Testament, "one Mediator between God and men," for the creation of both
intelligent and sensitive beings, and in order to exercise a beneficial
and suitable providence [over them]. There is also one Comforter, who
displayed His power in Moses, and the prophets, and apostles.

All the saints, therefore, were saved by Christ, hoping in Him, and
waiting for Him; and they obtained through Him salvation, being holy
ones, worthy of love and admiration, having testimony borne to them by
Jesus Christ, in the Gospel of our common hope.

========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/ignatius-of-antioch/false-prophets-and-the-false-apostles/
========================================================================