Our adversaries’ motives
These guys don’t listen to God anymore. They get paid from the Roman church and then use that pay to keep their kitchens stocked. If disobeying what God has clearly said in the Bible and teaching all kinds of ridiculous things means keeping their big bellies full, they’ll do it! Plus, they like being bossy.
They might say that what we teach is brand new and sneaky, that we haven’t done any miracles to prove what we say is true, and that our ancient church-fathers would give us the frowning of a lifetime if they only knew what we taught. But of course what we say sounds silly to them, because when we start talking they just stick their fingers in their ears and shout, “I’m not listening!” over and over again. So listen up!
New teaching or old?
Sha, our teaching is new! New to them! But if anyone has read, say, Romans 4:25, where old St. Paul says “Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose for our justification,” then they know it’s not really new; it’s just the old, true, but forgotten teaching from God himself.
If it meant getting in trouble or having an empty cupboard, our enemies would drop all their false teachings like hot-mutton. But because our message is, “Because Jesus died for us, God has no more wrath for you,” we’re willing to die and face the wrath of man to keep on teaching this good news.