We continue with the church-Bible comparison relative to doctrines and practices.

SATAN: “God made the New Covenant with Gentiles and it includes neither Israelites nor the Law.”  GOD: “I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah … I will write My Law in their hearts” (Jer. 31:31-33/ Heb. 8:8-12).  In writing to the Hebrew converts, the Apostle Paul said: “Jesus shed the blood of the everlasting New Covenant (Heb. 13:20), which obviously involved the Hebrews and the Law.  God’s Word and His Law are one and the same.  All–Israelites and Gentiles–who believe in and obey God’s Word/Law become part of “the church–the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16).  SATAN: “One is saved the moment he accepts Jesus as his Savior.”  GOD: Following conversion one has “the hope of salvation” (I Thes. 5:8).  “Now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed” (Rom. 13:11).  Paul said in Romans 5:21 and 6:22 that eternal life is the end result of a life liven in righteousness and holiness, which are opposite of sin, which is the transgression of the Law.  SATAN: “Justification (forgiveness of sins) is granted based on one’s faith and God’s grace and never involves the Law.”  GOD: Initial justification (forgiveness of one’s past sins) is based on man’s faith and God’s grace (Rom. 3:25).  However, to retain one’s justification one must obey God’s Law.  “For not the hearers of the Law are (now) just(ified) before God, but the doers of the Law shall (continue to) be justified” (Rom. 2:13).  Jesus told the prostitute whose past sins He had forgiven to: “Go and sin no more,” which is the same thing He told the man he had healed at the Bethesda pool (Jn. 8:11; 5:14).  To “Sin no more” one must obey the Law, the breaking of which is sin (1 Jn. 3:4).  SATAN: “Each person is allowed to interpret the Bible for himself.”  GOD: “Knowing this first of all: no prophecy of Scripture is of any private (personal) interpretation, but holy men of old spoke (and wrote) as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet.1:20).  By interpreting (perverting) God’s Gospel (Gal. 1:6-9), professing Christendom has created another Christ whom they worship and serve (2 Cor. 11:4).    SATAN: God commands the church to celebrate Easter instead of Passover in honor of Christ’s resurrection.”  GOD: “Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, therefore let us (the church) keep the (Passover) feast” (1 Cor. 5:7,8).  Some 25 years after the founding of the New Covenant Church God’s saints were still celebrating Passover.  This practice would continue until the middle of the fourth century.  At the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. Roman Emperor Constantine did away with Passover and instituted the pagan Easter celebration in order to honor the goddess of fertility who called herself “The Queen of Heaven.”  He declared that Easter would always be celebrated on Sunday–“the venerable (holy) day of the sun” on which sun worshipers honored their god, sacrificed their children to it and used their blood to color eggs.  Constantine’s decree covered the entire Roman Empire.  In 364 A.D. Pope Sylvester I made the emperor’s decree applicable to the Catholic Church.  Catholics and Protestants have honored those Satanic decrees ever since.  SATAN: The church celebrates Christmas in honor of Jesus birth.  GOD: “Learn not the ways of the heathen ….  For the customs of the people (heathen) are vain, for one (heathen) cuts a tree out of the forest … fastens it with nails and hammers, and decks it with silver and gold” (Jer. 10:2-5).  This was done in honor of Tammuz, the sun god who returned to earth each December 25 (his birth day) and left gifts for people under the trees.  Tammuz was the illegitimate son of Simiramus (Ishtar/Easter), the wife of the supposed original sun god who supposedly impregnated her with his rays.  Simiramus/Easter later married her son Tammuz who was killed at age 40 and supposedly went to the sun where he replaced his supposed father.  The Lord warns us about becoming involved in this heathen religion in Ezekiel 8:13-18 where we find women in the Temple weeping for Tammuz because of his early death.  It is from this heathen custom that the Catholic Lenten Season was derived.  Then we see an even greater abomination being committed by other people in the temple–men bowing toward the east as the sun came up.  It is from this spectacle that came the traditional church Sunrise Service.  Admittedly, in my ignorance I participated in the Satanic ritual on Easter Sunday.  SATAN: “One is saved by faith and grace.  Works have nothing to do with salvation.”  GOD: “Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one commandment, he is guilty of all.”  “What does it prophet, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, and has no works, can his faith save him?”  “Faith without works is dead, being alone.”  “I will show you my faith by my works.”  “Faith without works is dead (faith).”  “You see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith alone.”  “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (Jam. 2:1o,14,17,18,20,24,26).  Righteousness is the opposite of sin.  Sin is the transgression of the Law (1 Jn. 3:4).  Therefore righteousness is obedience to the Law, which God calls “works.”

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but that way leads to death” (Prov. 14:12).  Note that the religious man is sure that he is right.  His false prophets, family and churchmates assure him that he is right.  However, both he and they are dead wrong.  False prophets, having been deceived by their teachers, have enabled Satan to lure billions of God seekers into his church system.  God describes these prophets as “Evil, seducing men (who) wax worse and worse” (2 Tim. 3:13).  These evil men have changed the Words of God to make them match their perverted theology.  As a result, “The mystery of iniquity (Lawlessness) is at work (in the church)”–2 Thes. 2:7.  Rejection of God’s Word is as much a part of “Christian life” as carrying that Word to church on Sunday.  Jesus said that rejection of God’s Truth proves that one “despises” both Himself and His Father (Lk. 10:16).

The Lord warned repeatedly about the consequences of rejecting His Word/Law/Gospel/light.  Jesus said: “They do worship Me in vain by teaching man’s commandments instead of My doctrines” (Mat. 15:9).  “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not what I say?” (Lk. 6:46).  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father (Mat. 7:21).  In Matthew 12:44-50 Jesus describes as His brethren as those who “… do the will of My Father in heaven.”  He declared to His disciples that He came to die only for His friends.  He then told them that they were His friends only “… if you do whatsoever I command you to do” (Jn. 15:13,14).

For those who prefer church doctrine over God’s Word, Satan has a variety of churches, faiths, denominations, sects, cults, etc. from which to choose.  God promised to “render unto every man according to his deeds (good works), who, by well-doing (obedience), seeks eternal life” (Rom. 2:6,7).  No works=no eternal life.  ETERNAL LIFE IS EARNED BY BELIEVING EVERY WORD IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES AND OBEYING THEM.  Jesus said that man will be judged by those Words (Jn. 12:48).  L.J.