I was, as they say, “born and raised in the church.” One of the main themes I learned early on was that when Jesus said before giving up His spirit, “It is finished,” it meant that all that needed to be done for me to secure salvation had been done. I was taught from pulpit to podium that, due to Adam’s blunder, sin would always be part of the Christian’s “walk” (life’s journey), and that the job Jesus finished was to provide forgiveness for any and all sins, no matter what those sins were or how many times they were committed. Jesus, I and billions of other salvation seekers were and are still being told, had died to apply the heavenly “White-out” that made our sins disappear as quickly as we could repent of them. In other words: THE FIX WAS IN for the sinning church member who had taken Jesus as his/her Savior. Following death, the pearly gates would be the next thing the saved soul would see. However, anyone in the church who had not “taken Jesus as his/her Savior,” also being a sinner, was destined for the fires of hell. For one sinning churchite (called a “sinner saved by grace”), Christ’s crucifixion meant eternal life was a surety–PERIOD. Not so for his/her churchmate who had not taken Jesus as his/her Savior. If both committed the same sins, one’s wages was death and the other’s wages was eternal life. I can’t remember when ever believing that church “truth.”

Faith, church people are still being told, is all that is needed to provide a continuous solution for the incurable disease known as “sin.” Christ’s death, the sinner is assured, provides the “final solution” to man’s inherited, thereby natural spiritual disease for which there is no cure. Christ’s death had not provided a cure that would permanently remove sin from the believer’s life, but rather a continuously applied treatment that removed the previous disease manifestation before the next one (sin) occurred.

People within professing Christendom are told that when Jesus said, “It is finished,” all that could be done had been done–He had taken the final step. Now all one needed to do in order to get to heaven was to confess and repent after each inevitable sin until the instant of death. Then, on his/her way up to heaven, Jesus would perform one final forgiveness session as the pearly gates come into view. Read about Justification. Key word–Justification.

Those who (1) STUDY both the “headlines” (promises of God) and the “fine print” (conditions that must be met in order to receive God’s promises–including salvation), (2) BELIEVE what they have studied and (3) DO WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN COMMANDED TO DO (“WORKS”–read James 2:10,14,17,18,20,24,26) find that there is much more to salvation than believing that all that must be done in order to affect salvation had been done on Mt. Calvary. They learn that when Jesus said, “it is finished,” He was announcing that HIS work was finished, and all that was needed to assure eternal life was faith on the part of church sinners. Is this true? It is for the 2.4 billion people trapped inside Satan’s Catholic/Protestant Religious System known by such titles as “Christianity,” “the faith” and “the church.”

What Jesus “finished” was His personal sacrifice that serves as the STARTING POINT for attaining the believer’s salvation upon His return. As this ministry was commissioned to do, I tell the “fix is in” group that there is much left to be done in order for them spend eternity with the Lord. Jesus did not finish the trip for believers. Instead He made it possible for them to take the commanded steps which, if continued to the end of their lives (Mat. 10:22), will enable them to rise to meet Him in the clouds upon His return to the earth, descend with Him and His angels to the Mount of Olives, enter Jerusalem and there assist Him in creating the Kingdom of God from whence He and they will rule the earth for 1000 years (the millennium) and, following that, rule the universe for eternity. Read the Three Resurrections and The Kingdom of God. Key words–Three and Kingdom respectively.

In the series titled The Process of Salvation (key word–Process) I go into detail about the steps that one must take in order to enter God’s Kingdom. The “fix is in” people point to the Apostle Paul’s statement that he preached one basic message: “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” as proof of their theology. Anyone who has read his and his fellow ministers’ letters to the churches knows that they all go into detail about the Lord’s command to obey the Law. Paul meant that his and his fellow apostles identified the cross as the STARTING POINT for one who is seeking to spend eternity with the Lord. The journey BEGINS WITH FAITH in what Jesus finished on the cross. How one conducts him/herself following that reality determines if he/she will join Him in the future. This is why Paul calls the believer’s “walk” after recognizing what Jesus did at Calvary the walker’s “race.” Note that the race must be run according to the rules (conditions–“fine print”) in order to receive the prize.

Read Bible Truth Versus Church Doctrine. Key word–Doctrine. Having done so, you will understand why those in the Institutional Church DESPISE THE WORD OF GOD AS WELL AS BOTH FATHER AND SON (Lk. 10:16). Like Adam and Eve, they much prefer the various feel-good, only believe versions put forth by the leaders of professing Christendom’s hundreds of religious organizations whose mantra is: “Have it your way. Come as you are; stay as you are. God loves you just the way you are.” NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER SATAN HAS OVER PROFESSING CHRISTENDOM. L.J.