One of the major themes of Christ’s and His apostles’ ministry takes the form of a warning: BEWARE OF FALSE CONVERSION.  Billions of people have been led to believe that they are “saved” and “born again,” that they are members of God’s true church who will join Him in heaven immediately upon either their death.  These unsuspecting souls have been deceived.  They who are deceived do not know they are deceived, else they would not be deceived.  I know, for I was not only deceived in the past, I was guilty of leading other people into joining me in my deception.  But all the while there was a “voice” calling me and guiding me into ever more, ever deeper study of the Holy Scriptures.  I could not get enough of that Book.  It was after thousands of hours of study, that my Lord revealed His Truths to my hungry heart (mind).  One of those Truths involved the subject of this series.  God forgave me for believing what my preachers had told me concerning conversion.  He also forgave me for leading others into the same error.  Incredibly, He commissioned me to teach those with eyes to see and ears to hear His Truth concerning step one on the road to the Kingdom of God. I praise His holy Name for that privilege.

Incredibly, there are over two billion church people living today who believe that they have been “saved” simply by believing in the false savior put forth by the false church and taking him as their savior.  These unsuspecting, deceived souls “know” that they are saved, born again and rapture-ready.  If God’s Word can be taken at face value, not one of the church-declared “truths” mentioned above is a Scriptural Truth.  Read Hope and Salvation and Born Again.  Use “Hope” and “Born” respectively as your key words.  Those who believe what the church teaches about conversion, worship, salvation, etc. believe that they are worshiping and serving the Biblical God.  They are in fact worshiping Jesus Christ IN VAIN.  “Impossible,” the vast majority of church people say.  What do you say?  Do you believe that one can actually WORSHIP JESUS CHRIST IN VAIN?  How?  By worshiping Him without obeying God’s Word?

When something is done “in vain,” what is done has no relevance, no real purpose or effect.  If anyone knows the Truth about worship it is Jesus of Nazareth who said about the masses who followed Him, worshiped Him and claimed to be His disciples: “IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME” by substituting the commandments of men for My doctrines.  They reject the commandments of God so that they can keep their own traditions” (Mk. 7:6-9).  Many of those doctrines and traditions are listed on the Introduction page to this website.  This ministry is focused on those who believe and practice such church “truths.”

Though those within socially accepted religious circles disagree on a number of things, the one thing about which they do agree is that faith is absolutely necessary.  Which is true.  The Apostle Paul wrote: “… the just(ified) will live by faith” (Rom. 1:17).  He also tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6).  Relative to faith, two questions must be answered.  1) What is faith? and 2) what are true faith and false faith?  There is only one source of spiritual Truth about faith–God’s holy Word.  The Apostle Jude says this about the faith commanded by the Lord: “Beloved, when I diligently wrote to you about the common (agreed upon and practiced) faith I did so in order to encourage you to earnestly contend for THE (ONE AND ONLY) FAITH which was ONCE DELIVERED unto the saints.”  Why was Jude so adamant concerning THE faith that God’s saints possess and by which they live?  This faith was delivered to the holy ones (saints) because of God’s grace.  But something was wrong.  Jude warned the early church that  “… certain men have secretly crept into your midst … ungodly men who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness–a license to ignore God’s Word.  By doing so they deny our Lord God and His Son Jesus Christ” (Jude 3,4).  “Lasciviousness” means having the freedom to do what seems right according to man’s conscience, even when one’s conscience contradicts God’s Word.  As did Adam and Eve, their descendants have decided to let their conscience be their guide instead of heeding what God says in His Word.  They proclaim that they can reject God’s commandments, embrace their church’s doctrines and traditions, and have God’s blessings while doing so.  Let us reject that mind-set and turn to the Holy Bible, the fount of all that is knowable about God.  It is that Bible upon which true God-commanded faith is constructed: “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God” (Rom. 10:19).  That Word is also called the Law.  Paul speaks to this Word-Law connection in Romans 2:13 where he tells the church to be “… doers (obeyers) of the Law and not hearers only.”  Only those who do the Law/Word can be justified–forgiven of past sins.  Common sense tells us that if we must obey the Ten Commandments in order to be justified (forgiven), then continued obedience to the Law is required in order to be saved.  This is life and death information which Satan does not want church people to know.  His success at keeping this Truth from them is obvious, for the vast majority believe that the Law was “nailed to the cross.”  Fact: God did not nail His Law to the cross; the Law nailed His Son to the cross.  Sin is the transgression of the Law (1 Jn. 3:4).  The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).  God made Jesus become sin (2 Cor. 5:21) and earned the wages of sin.  Because of His sacrifice, we have been given the Holy Spirit that empowers us to resist the devil’s temptations to sin and to walk in holiness, thereby avoiding the wages of sin–death.  This is what is meant by being “no longer under the Law” (of sin and death).  HE DID NOT DIE SO THAT MEN COULD SIN AND GET AWAY WITH IT, which is what the church teaches.

Even before the New Testament had been written there were those whom Satan had set in the young church for the purpose of turning grace into a license to sin.  Though the word “grace” does not appear in the dialogue between the Serpent (Satan) and Eve, lasciviousness was offered by him and embraced by her.  The Serpent in effect said: “I know God forbad you to eat of the tree, and that He threatened to kill you for merely touching it.   But He did not mean it.  He has given you a license to do as you please.  You will not surely die.  Go on now and do what SEEMS RIGHT TO YOU AND HE WILL HONOR IT.  YOU ARE, AFTER ALL, HIS CREATION, HIS POSSESSION, HIS CHILDREN.”

This is one of the fables about which the Apostle Paul warned mankind.  Through revelation from on high he foresaw that in the future, “… evil men and seducers will grow worse and worse.  They will be deceived and will in turn deceive others ….  For the time will come when they will not accept sound doctrine, but will follow their own reasoning.  They will turn away from God’s Truth and embrace FABLES” (2 Tim. 3:13; 4:3,4).  One of those fables concerns conversion–the act of turning away from sin.  These men and their followers will reject God’s Word and thereby DENY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND HIS FATHER.  These are they who teach and believe a “no works” doctrine.  In his letter to Titus Paul lamented that such people “profess that they know God, but in (not doing holy) WORKS they deny Him, making themselves abominations.”  By refusing to do holy works they reveal that they are reprobates (1:16) and prove the Truth of God’s Word which states that: “There is a way that SEEMS RIGHT TO A MAN, but that way leads to death” (Prov. 14:12).  Note that man’s church-directed way seems to be the right way to lives(see Introduction).  The key is to learn, believe and obey what the Lord Himself taught.

The go-to Scripture for “only believe,” “no works” people (99.99% of Christendom) is Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.”  Paul’s statement was plain, easily understood, to the point, and true.  Paul is known for saying what he means in his “headlines”–statements of major importance.  However, he expects the reader to already understand his words, or if not, to search the Scriptures to find understanding.  The Acts 16:31 passage presents one of those situations where we must consult the Lord’s “fine print” in order to gain understanding of Paul’s “headline” statement.  As I have said before, God is in the fine print.  The fine print which sheds light on this church-wide go-to headline tells us that believing in Jesus is the starting point for the long, arduous, precarious, persecution-producing journey to salvation.  It is like telling your children that in order to go to travel across the United States they must get in the car–step one.  Believing in Jesus is like getting into the car.  There are many other things that must be done before they arrive at the desired location.  Those “other (find print) things” the “only believe” people must do are HOLY WORKS–the must obey the Law of God.  If they fail to do those things they will never receive salvation.  This is the plight of the “only believe, no works” traveler who has entered Satan’s “wide gate” (church system) and are walking his “broad way” (church doctrines and traditions) to death.  Entering God’s strait (one and only) gate and walking His narrow (one and only) way is the one and only way to qualify for salvation at the return of Jesus Christ following the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.  The journey begins with step one–true conversion.  L.J.