What does the Almighty say in His Holy Bible about observing His weekly Sabbath, His Holy Days, Easter, Valentine’s Day and Halloween?  What does He tell us about death, life after death, conversion, salvation, justification, repentance,  the rapture, the trinity, when human life begins, abortion, the soul, the heart, the character of His people?  What is His attitude toward denominations?  What does He teach about His ministerial call, whom He calls and the message they are to deliver?  What is the true gospel?  What does He say about Satan, demons and the part they play in the lives of the masses? What does He say about His wrath, the resurrections and judgment?  What does He tell us about His true church, the false church and false prophets?  What does He say about the persecution of His people?  The church does not know because the church has never heard God’s Truth.  Why she remains Biblically ignorant is the subject of this series.

I have written and spoken extensively about these and many other subjects on this website and my YouTube site (proveallthingsofgod).  Using the Holy Scriptures, I have proven that the Institutional Church has allowed Satan and his angels to deceive her into believing, teaching and obeying their false “truths” about the subjects listed above, as well as many others.  Jesus and the apostles warned the church repeatedly about Satan’s false prophets who would speak just enough Bible Truth to convince church people that they were sent by God.  Having gained their confidence, they would then deceive salvation seekers in the same way as they themselves had been deceived.  The deceived would become the deceivers.  Just prior to His crucifixion Jesus warned the disciples that Satan and his demons would gain control of the minds of religious people who would be searching for leaders who would tell them what they want to hear.  Having itching ears, they would hire men (and women today) to scratch them (2 Tim. 4:3).  Basically, the people want an easy ride.  Jesus promises the opposite.  Because His ride involves holiness and self-denial, the religious masses ignore Him and reject those who speak His words, even while agreeing that the Words they speak are indeed His.  Their rationale is as follows: why go to all that trouble when they are already saved, born again and rapture-ready?  And Satan smiles.

When asked about the end times, Jesus warned the disciples and us about religious deception in the days just prior to His return: “Take heed that no man deceives you.  For many (false prophets) will come in My name saying, ‘I am Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Mat. 24:5).  Notice that men will profess that He, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Christ.  That truth having gained the confidence of the people, they would then deceive them.  Jesus warned that false prophets would speak just enough truth to gain acceptance by God-seekers, then would lead them into Satan’s religious system.  This successful ploy has a long history.

In the Garden of Eden the Serpent (Satan) spoke truth to Eve in order to gain her trust.  He admitted that God was indeed God, and that He had indeed said that she and Adam could not eat of a certain tree.  Eve added that God had said that if they did eat of it, or even touch it, they would die.  Having gained Eve’s trust by quoting her God, Satan inserted a sweet-sounding “truth” into the mix.  He assured her that she and Adam could eat of the forbidden tree and “… not surely die.”  He convinced her that they could sin and still live forever in the paradise God had created for them.  Sound familiar?  This Satanic lie has become one of the church’s most often repeated “truths”: “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.”  In other words, if one believes in Christ one can sin and live forever in paradise.  “Only believe” is the key to eternal life.  As the god of Catholicism/Protestantism has repeatedly told his parishioners, “Believe in Jesus and salvation is guaranteed.”  Adam and Eve believed in the God Who had created them as well as the paradise surrounding them.  Though they believed IN Him, they did not believe HIS WORDS because they were not what they wanted to hear.  Satan met that need.  Salvation seekers have dined on the verbal sweet treats his ministers have offered ever since.  Only a few, Jesus prophesied, would believe Him, enter His difficult gate and walk His narrow (My way or the highway) path that leads to salvation.  The masses, He said, would enter Satan’s easy gate and walk his wide (any way you want it) path that leads to eternal death (Mat. 7:13,14).

Returning to the first paragraph, Satan’s demons, working through his ministers, have convinced professing Christendom to believe his lies about the subjects I have listed.  By keeping her ignorant of God’s Truths, it was easy to convince her to believe his self-serving lies.  Religious man believes what he is told by Satan’s “ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:13-15) and therefore does not feel the need to “Study (the Scriptures) to show yourself approved of God” (2 Tim. 2:15).  Eve did not feel the need to speak with God again about the tree situation.  Her “I’ve heard enough” example has been the church’s downfall.  I was once told relative to God’s Word, “I know all I need to know.”  What the speaker knew was John 3:16, which she heard every Satan’s Sabbath.  And the speakers got even that wrong.  I know because I heard the same sermon preached by the same false prophets in the same church for many years.

The devil and his demons have deceived the church into believing what the Apostle Paul called a “perverted gospel” (Gal. 1:6-9).  As he pointed out to the churches in Galatia, what they were hearing from their false prophets was in reality not “another gospel,” but rather a perverted version of God’s true gospel.  Which is what the Serpent spoke to Eve.  He led off with a truth: “Did God say you could not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden?” which was exactly what God had said.  Having set the hook, he then reeled her in by assuring her that she could eat of the tree and “… not surely die.”  Hearing what she wanted to hear, Eve became the first so-called “sinner saved by grace.”  Since Eden she has produced masses of spiritual children who today number in the billions world-wide.  They are those who call themselves “the church.”

Satan’s perverted gospel is preached, believed and obeyed by masses of people today who “know” that what they are hearing is the “gospel Truth.”  Operating under the direction of his demons, the church has perverted every subject listed in the first paragraph.  She has turned God’s Biblical Truths into lies by making them say what they want said.  As Jesus proclaimed in John 12:48, we will all be judged by WHAT HE SAID, not by what ear-scratchers tell us He said.  The difference between the two versions of the gospel is the difference between life and death.  I say to my readers and listeners what Moses said to the Israelites: “I set before you this day life and death; blessing and cursing, therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live” (Deut. 30:19).  As he said: THE CHOICE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH IS OURS.  Being “active in church” has no effect on that Truth.  L.J.