You, I and much of the world agonized over the tragic murders that recently took place in Charleston, South Carolina, a city known as “The Holy City” due to her many churches. It was heart-warming to see people from all over the nation and the world congregate in the heart of the American South to lend emotional support to those poor souls who lost loved ones to a true, Satan-controlled racist. The physical travesty was all too evident–loved ones suddenly gone at the sound of a gun as inconceiveable hatred reared its ugly head. Those who watched the aftermath of this senseless carnage will ever forget it.

Throughout the weeping city there was much-welcomed peace and a heartfelt cry to come together, hurt together and heal together. Forgiveness of the killer voiced by family members was such a change from the vitriolic hatred that had spewed forth from Missouri and Maryland in recent days. It was truly humbling to see thousands of strangers holding each other up while hearing words of comfort, forgiveness and restoration coming from those who were hurting the most. The families involved and the city itself had suffered a terrible blow that only time can heal.

However, as horrific as the mind-numbing butchery has proven to be, the spiritual destruction caused by well-meaning mourners was much more devastating in that it served to further ingrain a Satan-generated theological principle that has been entrenched in professing Christendom for some 1700 years. The error involves the belief that numerous references to God and the Bible in a religious setting guarantees that the Lord is present and actively involved in what is taking place. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As emotionally gratifying as the scenes of mass prayers, hymn singing and uplifting sermons were, those who believe the Word of God know that Satan used that entire situation to further implant into the Institutional Church’s collective heart the belief that God is present anywhere He is praised, acknowledged, thanked, prayed to, preached and sung about; that He had personally orchestrated what was televised to the world; that His Holy Spirit hovered over the people as they repeatedly and passionately invoked His name. Again, not so. Please allow me to illustrate my point with a “what if” situation.

What if someone went on prime time television and announced that hundreds of people had witnessed Jesus Christ Himself personally appear at a cemetery where He raised the speaker from the dead as he was being lowered into the grave? What if the entire scene had been filmed? What if the speaker and the witnesses were going to be in Cowboy Stadium in Dallas next Sunday morning to show the film on the giant screen and to speak the Truth Jesus had told them to share with the world? HOW MANY PEOPLE WOULD COME TO HEAR THE WORD OF GOD AND WATCH HIM RAISE THE SPEAKER FROM THE DEAD? WOULD THE NETWORKS BOTHER TO COVER THE EVENT? I suspect that I could easily seat the attending congregation in my living room. I assure you there would not be a tv camera in sight. Why? First of all, the speaker and those with him might belong to the wrong denomination. Secondly, church people are not interested in God’s Word or work; they are only interested in getting to heaven and the man-centered religion that supposedly guarantees that they will make the trip. They are interested only in the religion designed by man, conducted by man to exalt man (Catholicism/Protestantism)–a religion comprised of hundreds of man-serving splinter groups designed to meet the religious proclivities of each and every churchite, regardless of how far they deviate from God and His Word. Unbeknownst to those who practice the multi-facited religion, God is nowhere to be found in it. God’s name is invoked repeatedly in an attempt to legitimize the members in each others’ eyes. The Lord speaks of this in 2 Corinthians 10:12, 18. Here Paul warns the church about those who evaluate themselves, not by comparing themselves to God’s Word, but to each other: “For we (true saints) dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves to those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends (is approved by Him).” To be continued. L.J.