The Apostle Paul’s epistle to the church at Rome summarizes the apostasy of the Institutional Church which, because the nation follows the lead of the church, is resulting in the downfall (apostasy) of America and all other “Christian nations.”

When in office, former U.S. President Barach Obama made a statement that infuriated millions of church people. I wrote at the time that he was correct. He said that America was not a Christian nation. I noted that we are a religious nation, and that, because there are churches everywhere, we call ourselves a Christian nation. We are a churchy nation that goes through all the man-created churchy motions. However, compared to God’s Biblical characterization of His true church, America is Christian in name only. America’s versions of Christianity are of the church variety. True Christianity is Biblically defined, not church defined. The two are as different as light and darkness, life and death.

Beginning in chapter one Paul describes the pattern of apostasy that began to work its way into the church not long after her creation on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. To trace her spiritual descent to its ultimate fulfilment as exhibited by the modern church we will study what Paul wrote to the church at Rome in which he outlines the fall of the modern church and the nations that house her.

In 1:1 Paul was careful to define the message God’s ministers, including His Son Jesus, preached, calling it the Gospel (“good news”) about the kingdom that Jesus will establish in the Promised Land upon His Second Advent.

As was pointed out in previous postings, church people reject God’s Gospel and embrace a false gospel about Jesus Himself which neither He nor the Father commanded to be preached. GOD’S GOSPEL IS HIS TRUTH WHICH HIS SON AND HIS APOSTLES PREACHED AND CONTINUE TO PREACH TODAY. Rejection of that Gospel was one of the first sins Satan deceived the church into embracing. In John 12:44-50 Jesus said that He spoke only the Words His Father gave Him to speak, which He spoke to His prophets and apostles who repeated His Words, which rarely referred to the man Jesus. Rather, they spoke and wrote about the Kingdom of God, SPECIFICALLY HOW TO ENTER IT BY OBEYING THE TEN COMMANDMENT LAW–ALL OF IT, INCLUDING #4. Read James 2:10. The church chose to nail God’s eternal Law to Christ’s cross. Concerning the singularity of Their message, Jesus said: “The Father and I are ONE” (Jn. 10:30). Only those who agree with and obey their message are one with Them. Only those who are one with Them will join Them in the coming Kingdom of God.

Another Bible Truth that is rejected by professing Christendom concerns the resurrection of Jesus Christ which Paul touches on in 1:3,4. Here he notes that Jesus was PROCLAIMED TO BE GOD’S SON BY HIS RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD THROUGH THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. The church has plagued herself with a series of problems revolving around Christ’s resurrection. The foundational problem is that SHE DOES NOT ACCEPT IT. She claims that HER SAVIOR was in the tomb only ONE DAY AND TWO NIGHTS (Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night). Jesus said numerous times that He would be in the tomb exactly THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS. Due to this discrepancy, the Biblical Christ cannot be the Savior of “the church.” It is through Christ’s Biblically-proclaimed resurrection that God declares Him to be His Son (vs 3). However, the church rejects the Biblical resurrection. Sadly, there is more heresy connected to the resurrection issue. Because it was through the Holy Spirit that Jesus was resurrected, the church rejects the Holy spirit as well (vs 4). But there is more.

Because the one-day-and-two-nights church savior cannot be the three-days-and-three-nights Biblical Savior, EITHER THE CHURCH OR THE LORD IS LYING. The church points the finger at God. A lying God cannot save a soul. By rejecting the Biblical record of Christ’s resurrection, the church rejects the Biblical God, the Biblical Christ, the Biblical Holy Spirit. Because the lying Biblical God proclaimed the Ten Commandment Law by which He rules His true saints and instructs them as to how to enter Their Holy Kingdom, THE CHURCH HAS DISQUALIFIED HERSELF FROM RECEIVING ETERNAL LIFE. In that she refuses to obey the Lord, she is Christian only in her own mind. Read about the Trans Church using the key word Trans.

In verse five Paul reminds the church that it was through the Words of God, Christ, the prophets, apostles and via the Holy Spirit (all of whom they reject) that faith is formed: “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God” (Rom. 10:19). Faith is taking God at His Word. Considering that man is “saved by faith,” and that the church rejects the Word from which faith comes …. Connect the dots.

Beginning in 1:16 Paul explains the process by which the church went from faith-filled to faith-less. Since she rejects God’s Word, she cannot receive His righteousness which is revealed ONLY IN HIS WORD AND ONLY “FROM FAITH TO FAITH” (the increasing of faith). In that only the righteous will be saved (1 Pet. 4:17,18), and in that “the righteous live by faith” (vs 17), much has to change for the church to qualify for the next life. Paul makes it abundantly clear in Romans 5:21 and 6:22 that it is ONLY through righteousness and holiness that eternal life can be acquired. Read those verses carefully. Note that SALVATION IS THE END RESULT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS. Note in 1:16 that the Gospel is “the power of God UNTO salvation.” The power of God’s Gospel, IF BELIEVED AND OBEYED will lead the obedient believer TO salvation. Carrying the Gospel to church on Sun God Day while wearing a cross and a smile has no effect on the salvation situation. Read The Process of Salvation. Key word–Process.

Man is not saved, born again, etc. in this life. It is during this life that he can qualify for salvation to be awarded at the return of Jesus. He qualifies ONLY by obeying God’s Word–the source of the faith by which he can be saved. Read Born Again. Key word–Born. The Institutional Church is ignorant of God’s Truth, having never heard it preached. And having been led by her false prophets to ignore His “fine print” it in its written form …. The problem is obvious. It is only by coming out of the Laodicean (Catholic/Protestant) Church System and embracing God’s unedited, undefiled, uninterpreted Word that church people can qualify to join Jesus in the first resurrection upon His arrival. Read The Three Resurrections. Key word–Three.

By reading the last part of Romans chapter one we see that God allows Gospel/Law-rejecting church people to become what they want to become and do what they want to do–“suppress the Truth” (1:18). Jesus said that God’s Word is His Truth (Jn. 17:17). Though they know God, churchites do not glorify Him by obeying him, thereby “darkening their minds” (1:21) by not allowing God’s light to show them His ways. In verse 32 Paul condemns darkness dwellers for their proselyting. He notes that, although they know God’s that those who reject His Law deserve death, they not only continue to sin (break His Law–1 Jn. 3:4), they take joy in convincing others to join them.

And why not? Did not Jesus die so that they can break God’s Law and get away with it by turning His grace in to a license to sin? thereby “denying the Lord Jesus Christ” his rightly-earned status as Lord of their lives. Read Jude 4. The Counterfeit Church gladly takes Jesus as her Savior, but rejects Him as her Lord Who must be obeyed. The Scriptures tell us that if He is not our Lord in this life, He will not be our Savior in the next life. Reminder: Read For whom did Christ Die? and Who are the Sanctified? Key words–Whom and Sanctified respectively.

The rejection of God’s Holy Sabbath and the embracing of Satan’s sabbath, the celebration of Christmas and Easter, belief in the trinity and the rapture, the rejection of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the nailing of God’s Holy Law to Christ’s cross are only some of the signs that declare the apostasy of the church. These and other “doctrines of devils” that Satan has deceived her into embracing in direct defiance of God’s Holy Word shout to the world that the institution that calls itself “the church” is an abomination unto the God she claims to represent. Only His remnant, His little flock of true believers are left to carry on His ministry. Though numbering only a few thousand world-wide, we are ministering to those whose hearts desire oneness with the Lord God based on His desire and will. All others, of whatever religious stripe, are counterfeits–Christians in name only.

By rejecting most of God’s Word the Counterfeit Church reveals that she has no fear of Him. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). Enough said. L.J.