The Almighty calls the spiritual “walk” which is founded on His light (Word/Law) His “good olive tree.”  He calls all other religious beliefs–Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, etc.–Satan’s “wild olive tree” (Rom. 11:17,24).  His describing all other religions as “wild” means that they are not controlled by Him.  Either He or Satan controls every human being and every human endeavor on earth.  If God is not in control, Satan is.  Man chooses which of the two masters he will obey and serve.  HE OBEYS AND SERVES ONE OR THE OTHER TOTALLY.  Just as a drop of Sarin poison in a glass of water will kill the one who drinks it, a sin in the life of a believer spiritually kills him/her.  The parable of leave in bread speaks to this Truth.  For this reason Jesus told the prostitute and the man at Bethesda: “Go and SIN NO MORE.”  He did not suggest that they cut back on their sinning, or that they eliminate the really bad ones.  Rather, He commanded a complete and permanent removal of sin from their lives.  The so-called church refutes this.  For this reason the church belongs to Satan–her god whom she obeys and serves.

Satan allows the “branches” (parishioners) of his tree to design their own map by which will supposedly take them to heaven.  Those of each religious persuasion come together into two groups–Catholicism and Protestantism.  Those in the Protestant group he allows to break off into sub-groups called denominations.  Some denominations split again into various sects and cults.  Every man is, at his core, religious.  Everyone worships something or someone.  Atheists worship themselves.  This morass of religious confusion has been embraced by the vast majority of mankind, over two billion of whom call themselves “Christians.”  The Biblical God calls His people “saints” (holy ones) who comprise His “little flock,” His “remnant,” His “Very Elect.”  These are the “few” who have entered His “strait (difficult) “gate” (church) and have walked (obeyed) His “narrow” (restricted) “way” (Law) which will take them to paradise (Rom. 6:18,19,22).  Satan’s branches (sinners saved by grace) have chosen to enter his wide (easy) gate and walk his broad (unrestricted) path to death (Mat. 7:13,14).  Each human being, having reached the age of accountability, becomes a fruit-bearing “branch” who is attached to and receives spiritual nourishment from a “tree trunk.”  The “trunk” receives its nourishment from its ultimate source.  If God is the source the trunk (church) receives His Truths found in the Holy Bible.  The branches (saints) then partake of the church’s spiritual food and produce the fruit of holiness.  In order for the branch to produce such holy fruit it must stay connected to the trunk and thereby be constantly receiving spiritual nourishment from the Source of all good food–God.  Just as “We are what we eat” in the physical realm, spiritual man is what he consumes spiritually.  God’s people constantly dine on His Word of Life which must be obeyed in order to receive eternal life.  Satan’s people dine on his word, which is a perversion of God’s Word (Gal. 1:6-9) which Satan’s false prophets put forth as His Truth.  The airwaves and religious bookstore shelves are filled with Satan’s various versions of God’s Truth.  His counterfeit gospel is, like Sarin in water, hidden poison in the heart of God seekers.  The devil’s wild olive tree is the whole of false religion–the rider on the white horse in Revelation 6:2 who has conquered 99/99% of mankind and continues to conquer generation after generation.  That white horse rider is false religion in all of its various forms.  The largest single religion created by him calls itself Christianity.

In Romans 11 the Apostle Paul explains that all must come to or return to God’s good olive tree.  The Israelite branches who were broken off due to sin must be engrafted back into His tree and become His branches “again” (vs 23) in order to be saved.  Gentile branches who have been part of Satan’s wild olive tree must be “broken off” from it and engrafted into God’s “good olive tree” in order to be saved (vss 13,17,24).

In 1 Corinthians 12:2 and Ephesians 2:11 Paul refers to biological Gentiles as FORMER GENTILES, meaning that they had become full-fledged spiritual Israelites–God’s people.  In order to attain that status they had to have been broken off from their wild olive tree and engrafted into the Lord’s good olive tree.  His rules of engagement has not changed.  In order for a Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, etc. to become a child of God he/she must separate from his former religion and embrace the Bible-reflecting religion of the eternal God.  That the separation and the engrafting must be complete and eternal is made clear by Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 where he warns those within counterfeit Christianity that they must “come out” of that “unclean thing” and have nothing to do with it.  They must “cleanse themselves of all religious filthiness and achieve personal holiness in the fear of God.”  This cannot be done while remaining in what is called “the church.”  Once engrafted into God’s tree, the engraftee must not be like the cleansed sow that returned to her former  mire and the healed dog to its vomit.  He/she must, as Jesus said, “Go and SIN NO MORE.”  The merciful God will accept branches that have been broken off from both His tree and Satan’s tree and will graft them into His good olive tree.  If they remain engrafted by obeying His Word to the end of their lives or the end of the age they will then be saved (Mat. 10:22).  L.J.