Webster’s Concise Dictionary of the English Language defines “COUNTERFEIT” thusly: to make a copy or imitation of something with the intent to defraud.  Four words stand out in this definition: “make,” “imitation,” “intent” and “defraud.”  “Make” infers that the fraud is not accidental, but is designed using thought and reasoning.  “Imitation” infers that the fraudulent item is designed to imitate a true item.  “Intent” points to a mind-set deliberately focused on passing the fake off as real.  “Defraud” means that the fake has zero value.

Commercial counterfeiting is both big business and dangerous.  A counterfeit bill cost very little to create but is valued at whatever number appears on it.  The damage it can do is minimal.  However, a counterfeit medication is dangerous and can cost the lives of many unsuspecting victims.  Spiritual counterfeiting is no different.  Like a commercial counterfeiting operation, the Counterfeit Church is indeed big business as billions of dollars pass from her billions of victims to their false prophets, false soul-saving endeavors, missionary efforts, the purchase of t.v. and radio time, print ministries, etc.  The Counterfeit Church, like counterfeit medicine, is also deadly in that it promises something it cannot produce–eternal life–and produces what it claims to prevent–eternal death.  The false church is an example of counterfeiting raised to its highest and most dangerous level.  It is darkness passing as light, and “great is that darkness” (Mat. 6:23).  It continues to reign supreme throughout the “Christian world” because “men love darkness more than light” (Jn. 3:19) and, I can add with certainty, men, including church men, know much less about spiritual light than they do about spiritual darkness.

Though the two types of falsity share some characteristics, those who look behind the scenes will find some hidden differences between them.  One will find that the commercial defrauders have, over the centuries, carefully improved the craft that was passed down to them, knowing from day one that they will use it to defraud the unsuspecting public.  To the contrary, spiritual defrauders have used the same techniques for almost 2000 years, not knowing that they are defrauding others.  And just as important, they are totally unaware that they themselves have been and continue to be defrauded.  And there is another difference, one that concerns attitude.  When commercial counterfeiters are caught and presented with undeniable proof of their guilt, they admit their crime and accept their punishment, calling it “the cost of doing business.”  However, spiritual counterfeiters, when shown undeniable Biblical proof of their error, deny the validity of the proof and proclaim the rightness of their leader–Satan.  We first find him practicing his craft on human beings in the Garden of Eden where he substituted his counterfeit truth for God’s Truth and convinced both members of the Church of Eden to accept it.  Only the numbers have changed.

In this series I will summarize the work for which the Lord designed, established, commissioned and anointed this website: to expose religious falsity.  Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit I will do this by presenting side-by-side comparisons of God’s Biblical Truths and Satan’s counterfeit truths.  The master counterfeiter designed his “almost truths” to deceive salvation seekers into entering his church system and walking the various doctrinal paths his operatives proclaim will usher the traveler through heaven’s pearly gates.  Jesus warned of this in Matthew 7:13,14.  Recall that the Serpent fooled Eve by changing ONE WORD of what God had told her.  That word was “NOT,” as in “You will NOT surely die.”  That one word changed the world.  The entire world still believes him, approximately 1/3 of which are church people.

In this series I will identify and describe a number of counterfeit truths the devil has convinced billions of salvation seekers to embrace.  I will then take readers to God’s pure Word which will enable them to compare His Truth to what they are being told every Sun God Day.  As readers will discover, the differences between God’s Word and what they are being told are not only obvious, but astounding.  Let us begin our journey into Satan’s brand of reality that, as the reader will soon learn, is ALMOST a mirror reflection of God’s Biblical reality (remember “not”).  Due to Scriptural ignorance, church people do not pick up on the “nots” Satan uses to deceive them.  The Apostle Paul sheds light on this common problem in a letter to the churches in Galatia (1:6-9) where he writes: “I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ to ANOTHER GOSPEL, WHICH IS NOT ACTUALLY ANOTHER GOSPEL, but a PERVERSION of Christ’s gospel being presented to you by those who are troubling you (remember “not”).  But if we (apostles), or even an angel from heaven, preach to you any other gospel than that which you have heard from us, HE IS ACCURSED (CONDEMNED).”  On a doctrine-by-doctrine basis we will watch the Almighty destroy His enemy’s counterfeit truths that are continually preached by his false prophets who, like their leader, are accursed/condemned by the Lord.  The Apostle Peter laments the fate of those who believe and follow the teachings of Satan’s false prophets.  In 1 Peter 4:17,18 he warns that judgment is on-going within God’s church and wonders about the fate of those who do not obey the Words of the Lord: “And if the righteous will barely be saved, what will happen to the sinners in the church” (1 Pet. 4:17,18).  Today such people call themselves “Sinners Saved By Grace.” As Paul stated, these people are “removed from Him” Who called them (vs 6).

In 33 A.D. a man named Simon Magus (the magician), having been rejected by the Apostle Peter, set out to create a church that would appeal to anyone regardless of his religious proclivities.  Simon’s theology consisted of some of God’s Words, some altered passages in His Word and numerous Babylonian beliefs and practices.  This appealed to the masses in that they were allowed to believe and do whatever they wanted as long as they remained committed to the church Simon had created.  As a result, his “It’s all good” religion was an immediate success.  In just a few years his “Universal Church” had come to dominate the religious scene.  That domination became total after the “conversion” of Emperor Constantine who ruled the Roman Empire, the most powerful nation on earth at that time.  From that time forward, the church had the backing of the empire.  As Revelation 17:1-5 depicts the situation, the religious whore ended up riding (controlling) the political beast.  Simon’s universal church came to be known as Catholicism.  Because of its affiliation with the church, Constantine and his people came to be known as the Holy Roman Empire.

There came a time when some of the church’s parishioners “protested” against the practices of the church’s priests, causing them to leave the mother church.  Over time these “Protestants” began to split into various cults based on the “deeper insights” of certain men.  These men had come up with ways to improve on God’s Holy Spirit-dictated Scriptures.  These men had “heard from on high” that the Scriptures needed to be interpreted by them.  This in spite of God’s command not to interpret His Word (2 Pet. 1:20) because the Bible interprets itself in the Lord’s “fine print.”  Over time the cults that formed around those who had “heard from on high” came to be known as “denominations.”  It will be noted that the so-called protestors did not protest against the mother church’s doctrines, beliefs and practices, most of which they took with them when they left in “protest.”  It is these heathen beliefs and practices that form the foundation of what is known globally as “Christianity.”  As will soon become obvious, the difference between God’s doctrines and the church’s doctrines is the difference between true and false, right and wrong, holy and profane, light and darkness, LIFE AND DEATH.  In the following posting we will begin our examination of some of those differences.  I will state an accepted church doctrine, then present God’s response.  This series will serve as a summary of what the Lord commissioned me to do–EXPOSE SATAN’S FALSE CHURCH TO THOSE WHOM HE HAS LURED INTO IT.  At the end of the series the reader will have two choices.  He/she can either follow the Lord’s command found in 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1, or go back to church.  L.J.