A man and his wife have five children. They receive an invitation to a party but only three of them can attend. The family would refuse to go–they all go or none of them go. This the church will agree on to a person when the subject is a party. However, when it comes to eternity and the Word of God her attitude is totally different–she goes along with those who lead her to believe and obey only those portions of the Bible that fits their respective theology. The following will bring this out.

In Matthew 4:4 Jesus is making a definitive statement: “Man shall … live by EVERY WORD THAT PRO- CEDES FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.” God has spoken every Word found in the Bible. Upon “hearing” His Words delivered by His Holy Spirit, prophets and apostles spoke and recorded them “… for our (the church’s) admonition” (1 Cor. 10:11). God admonishes those who seek Him to live so as to be sanctified by Him. In John 17:17 Jesus asks Him to sanctify us through the Truth. He then identifies the Truth: “Thy Word is Truth.” We are, He said in Eph. 5:26, cleansed of sin by “… the washing of the water of the Word.” The process is further explained in John 15:3 where He tells us that we are clean through the Word that He has spoken to us. From 4-10 He tells us that in order to abide in Him we must obey the Word and therefore produce much fruit. In verses 9,10 He says that in order to abide in Him and the Father they must keep His commandments. Jesus then makes an astonishing statement–that HE ABODE IN GOD’S LOVE BY KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS. “Even as I” means “In the same way as” He had kept God’s commandments and (therefore) abode in His love. Obedience to God’s Word (singular) is the primary sign that one is His child.

In Second Timothy 2:15 Paul tells Timothy (and us) to “study” the “Scriptures” in order to “rightly divide” them. This, we are told in Isaiah 28:10,13, is to be accomplished by studying them “… precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” Paul reminds Timothy that salvation requires obedience to the “Holy Scriptures” which, as we are told in Romans 6:19-22, results in righteousness which, if maintained, results in holiness which, if maintained results in salvation. In First Timothy 1:3 Paul (and we) warned that any doctrine that is not from God’s Word is false, no matter how religious or holy it may seem to be. See the introduction to the website for examples. In Second Timothy 4:13,16 Paul tells his young friend to heed (obey) THE DOCTRINE (singular), that to deviate from it would be to blaspheme god and His Word (6:1), which Timothy was to use to exhort, reprove, correct and rebuke those who did not obey it (2 Tim. 4:2).

Paul admonishes Titus (1:9) to hold fast to the “faithful Word” which he calls “sound doctrine” and to use that doctrine to rebuke the “gainsayers” (Gr.-antilogos–those who contradict God’s Word). The Counterfeit Church openly, loudly and repeatedly contradicts God’s Truth and, by doing so, judge Him (Rom.3:4) and find Him guilty of lying. Irony=she claims to have been saved by an inveterate liar.

Jesus said in Luke 9:23-26 that those who have His “sayings” (the Bible/Word/Truth/doctrine) but do not obey them are “… ashamed of Me and My Words,” and that because of this, Jesus will be ashamed of them when He returns to earth. For those who are still not convinced that God is deadly serious about strict obedience to His Word, I submit the following.

Second John 1:9 tells us that whosoever does not obey “THIS DOCTRINE” has neither God nor Jesus. Only those who obey “THE DOCTRINE” (2 Tim. 3:16,17) have both Father and Son. Those who claim to belong to both and do not obey the one doctrine (singular) have neither and have been deceived by Satan (Rev. 12:9). Note that WORD, TRUTH, GOSPEL AND DOCTRINE are all SINGULAR, meaning that the Bible cannot be divided, that God sees Genesis to Revelation as ONE ENTITY. Second John1:10,11 tells us to reject anyone who preaches anything other than THAT ONE DOCTRINE. Paul warned the Galatians against those who would come with “another gospel” which, he says, is actually a perversion of God’s gospel (1:6,7) which points the hearer toward “another Jesus” (2 Cor. 11:4). We are warned to stay away from those who mix the holy (the Bible) with the evil (church doctrine) (Eze. 22:26), for what agreement does holy have with evil (2 Cor. 6:14-16)? In Romans 16:17,18 Paul tells us to “mark” and “avoid” such people for they deceive the “simple” whom Jesus describes as those who “… draw near to Me and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” These are they who worship Him in vain by substituting man’s commandments for God’s doctrines (Mat. 15:8,9). In Mat- thew 7:21-23 Jesus said that He would reject such people at judgment because He has never known them. Though the problem is deadly, the solution is simple–emulate the publican (Lk. 18:13), separate from the unclean (2 Cor. 6:17), enter the strait gate (God’s church) and walk the narrow way (strict obedience to God’s Word) that leads to life (Mat. 7:13,14). All other ways, though popular, are counterfeit. Contact me at L. Jaques P.O. Box 2352 Athens, TX 75751 U.S.A. or LPJ4142@gmail.com or (903) 677-5642.