In Acts 16 we find the Apostles Paul and Silas in jail for preaching the Word of God. We are all familiar with the story of the earthquake that opened the cell doors, as well as the jailer’s reaction. Upon being counseled by the apostles, he asked what he must do in order to be saved. The apostles told him to: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you and your family will be saved” (30-32). The substitution of one of those fateful words for another has caused billions of salvation seekers to switch from God’s true salvation path to Satan’s false salvation path. The rejected word (“shall”) is found in verse 31. The substituted word is “are.” The apostles told the jailer that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ would later (“shall”) result in his salvation. They did not tell him that faith would automatically save him and his family at that time. He would learn that there was a lifetime of spiritual work to be successfully done before the Lord would bestow salvation upon him and his family. This is brought out by the apostles’ next action as noted in verse 32: “Then they SPOKE THE WORD OF THE LORD to him and to all who were in his house.” Question: why teach them God’s Word if believing on Him was all that was necessary to be saved? Answer: because faith alone cannot save the believer. The Apostle James states this in 2:14 where he asks if faith without works (obedience to God’s Word/Law) could save a man. The answer, as he points in verses 17,18,20,24,25, is a resounding “NO.” “FAITH WITHOUT WORKS (OF FAITH–OBEDIENCE) IS DEAD” (17,20,26). Dead faith produces a dead person. This ministry is dedicated to taking God’s Truth to the Institutional Church which is as dead as her faith. She has faith in God, but not in His Word, which is the basis of faith. Satan has faith in God, as do his demons. They will burn in hell forever. Those who have faith in God but do not obey His Words will burn in the same flames.

The problem with dead faith is that it is disguised as true faith. Dead faithers express their faith in the Lord while refusing to obey Him. Jesus asks modern believers in Luke 6:46: “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not what I command you?” Only church people call Him their Lord. A life or death producing Truth that religious man rejects is found in John 15:13,14. Here Jesus is telling His disciples that His love is so great for His friends that He would die for them. Then He delivered the words that are despised by the Institutional Church: “You (disciples) are My friends, IF YOU DO WHATSOEVER I COMMAND YOU.” Note this most important fact: Jesus did not die for everyone; He died ONLY for His friends. Not everyone that calls himself a friend of Jesus is in reality His friend. “Not everyone that says to Me, “‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but he who obeys the will of My Father in heaven” (Mat. 7:21). That group is comprised of very few people (Mat. 7:13,14). If His God-picked disciples (friends) (Jn. 17:9) had to obey God’s Word in order to be saved, what makes churchman think he doesn’t need to? Also note in this verse that Jesus does not pray for everyone, but only for His friends: “I pray for them (the disciples). I DO NOT PRAY FOR THE WORLD, but for THOSE WHOM YOU (GOD) HAVE GIVEN ME.”  Recall that many of Christ’s early disciples left Him and went back into the world (Jn. 6:60,66). He no longer prayed for them. As the following will show, they were no longer in His love.

“But God loves everyone at all times no matter who they are or what they do” is a familiar refrain heard within religious circles. Is this true? Let Him answer. In John 15:9,10 Jesus says Words to His disciples that the church claims do not apply to her: “As the father has loved Me, I also have loved you: abide in My love (their choice). If you keep My commandments you will abide in my love, just as I have kept the Father’s commandments and (therefore) abide in His love.” The moral is clear: God’s  salvation-producing love depends on our obedience to His Word/Law. God loves His creation just as we love our neighbors, even those we do not know. But we take care of and will our belongings to those within our family, who love us with a special kind of love. The obedience=love law applied to Jesus Himself Who remained in God’s love ONLY BECAUSE HE OBEYED HIM. Read Psalm 5:5 to learn what God says about His love relative to the sinner.

OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S GOVERNMENT (LAW) IS ESSENTIAL FOR SALVATION. Nothing else, no matter how spiritual it may be, will substitute for strict obedience to the Law of God (Genesis to Revelation) which He condensed into the Ten Commandments, wrote them in stone with His own finger and placed them inside an ark that cannot be found. This should tell us something about the importance of those commandents, which includes the Sabbath commandment which man breaks every Saturday. As if that were not enough, he then practices idolatry the following day in the name of the One Whose command he rejected the day before. In Luke 10:16 Jesus uses the word “despise” to describe His and the Father’s attitude toward the rejection of Their Word/Truth (Jn. 17:17). Jesus said in Luke 10:16 that if one rejects any part of the Bible one shows that he dispises both Jesus Himself and the Father. The English word “despise” in the Greek language spoken by Jesus is atheteo which means to reject, to cast off, to set aside, to bring to nothing. No one can receive eternal life who does not believe and obey “… EVERY WORD that procedes from the mouth of God” (Mat. 4:4). To reject one Word is to despise the Godhead. The justified, Paul tells us, must live by faith in those Words (Rom. 10:19). FAITH IS BELIEVING GOD’S WORD (Rom. 10:19). If one does not obey what he believes, his faith (belief) is dead. Dead faith=dead faither.

Salvation will be awarded by Jesus Christ upon His Second Coming. In this life we have the “HOPE of salvation” (Titus 1:2). Paul said that we grow CLOSER to salvation each day (Rom. 13:11). Jesus said in Matthew 10:22 that those who endure to THE END will (then) be saved. Religious man despises these Scriptures and their Authors. So said Jesus Christ.

In 1 Peter 4:17,18 the apostle, speaking under the power of the Holy Spirit, says that judgment is ongoing in the church, and that only the righteous will be saved, and they just barely. He goes on to ask that, if the righteous will barely saved, what will be the future hold for ungodly sinners in the church who have supposedly been saved by grace? This was a rhetorical question in that he knew the answer.

The path to salvation has been made clear to those who believe God’s Word and obey it. The religious masses have rejected God’s strict way and have embraced Satan’s more user-friendly wayh. As Peter said, we must be judging ourselves daily by comparing our lives to God’s Instruction Book, making sure that we “walk even as He walked” (1 Jn. 2:6), that we “purify ourselves even as He is pure” (1 Jn. 3:3) by “the washing of the water by the Word” (Eph. 5:26), and that we “overcome (Satan) even as I (Jesus) overcame (him). Only those who do so will sit with Him on His throne in the Kingdom of God (Rev. 3:21).

The four steps that comprise one’s journey through this life and into eternity must all be completed successfully. The end result of the journey is holiness, “the end (result) of which is eternal life” (Rom. 6:22). L.J.