This series is designed to highlight the dominating power that heathen religions and deceived church members exert over what is commonly called Christianity.  If God’s Word is to be believed, calling Satan’s religious consortium by Christ’s name is a slap in the face of God’s Messiah and man’s only hope.  For the sake of those who have not read the other series presented on this website I will provide a short summary which explains how heathen beliefs and customs gained entrance into Christianity and, having joined with unregenerate man’s wishful thinking, came to form the foundation upon which Satan’s Catholic/Protestant holding company is built.  We will begin with the corruption of the faith caused by the absorption of Babylonian mystery religions into the church.  Heathen beliefs and practices, together with the spiritual connivings of immoral churchmen, eventually produced what has become the two-headed religious monster today called “the church.”

Not long after Catholicism came into being Roman Emperor Constantine got religion and placed the power of the Roman Empire at the disposal of the church.  One of her first acts was to force everyone in the empire into the church at the point of a Roman sword.  Their new “converts” were heathen peoples who worshiped a variety of gods and goddesses, animals, earth formations, heavenly bodies, serpents, mythical beings, fire, etc.  In order to pacify the mass of new church members and to maintain peace within the organization church leaders incorporated their various objects of worship, beliefs, customs, etc. into the church’s catechism.  To legitimize the heathen doctrines and celebrations in the eyes of the congregation they changed the names, times and forms of the heathen personages, entities, holidays, etc. by giving them Biblical names, titles and activities.  Because the people were not allowed to own, read or hear the Holy Scriptures being read, and because they were taught the Bible in Latin, a language they did not understand, the people did not know the truth about what they were being told.

When the self-professed Protestants departed from the mother church they took her heathen beliefs, teachings, etc. with them, believing them to be of the Lord.  Though they could now own the Holy Scriptures and study them for themselves, they failed to do so, preferring to believe what their leaders told them.  And so it is to this day.  We find that those same heathen beliefs and practices are being preached and practiced in the name of the Lord, the same Lord Who calls them abominations in the very Book they own and read but refuse to believe and obey.  For this reason Jesus refers to the Catholic/Protestant religious system as the mother “whore” and her “harlot” daughters in Revelation 17:1-5.  He calls the two-headed monster “mystery, Babylon” because many of her beliefs and practices came from Babylon–the source of most of the world’s false religions.  Due to Satan’s efforts and man’s laziness the self-identified “church” continues to be nothing more than a conflicting, competing, contradicting conglomeration of heathen beliefs and practices.  It is my commission from the Lord to speak Bible Truth to those with eyes to see and ears to hear it.

Not all of professing Christendom’s false beliefs and customs are of heathen origin.  This is one of several church-concocted, man-generated, Satan-“proven” lies the “father of lies” has perpetrated upon salvation seekers through his false prophets whom Jesus warned about in Matthew 24:4,5 where He warned of those who would come in His name, claim that He is indeed the Messiah, then “… deceive many.”  Revelation 12:9 tells us that their god has succeeded in deceiving the “whole world.”

Of late I have been hearing and reading statements by popular preachers who are carrying on professing Christendom’s deception campaign through the mass media.  Their “Come as you are, stay as you are; Jesus loves you the way you are so there is no need to change” messages are eagerly embraced by those whom God warns repeatedly in His Holy Scriptures.  Those who own but do not obey His Holy Tome reject His Words, preferring instead to believe Satan’s “It’s all good” prophets.  Because Satan’s “truths” are summarily embraced by the vast majority of church people, they are rarely, if ever challenged by the church body.  I and others like myself must proclaim God’s Truth from outside institutional religion.  Fortunately, in the last days of this world He is opening the airways for us to proclaim His Word unobstructed, at least for now.  This will change, and soon.  For this reason I work night and day to tell as many people as possible what has happened, is happening and will continue to happen in the near future.  The foundation of God’s ministry is His Word.  Let us now turn to that precious Book in search of His Truth which must be believed and obeyed in order to be awarded eternal life at the return of His Son.  The timing of the award is the first issue we will explore.

I was once told by a preacher friend that he had just led two boys to Christ a block or so away from where we were standing.  Of all the unscriptural nonsense put forth in God’s name, the myth that belief equals salvation is, in my opening, the most devastating.  For that reason I will begin my attempt to shine God’s light on Satan’s darkness series by attacking this soul-destroying deception.

Upon reading or hearing my take on the believe-now-saved-now church “truth” a headline-hunter might refer to several Scriptures that, without a thorough search of God’s fine print, will “prove” that man can be saved in this lifetime.  For example, in Ephesians 2:8 the Apostle Paul stated that by grace “you ARE saved,.”  Then in 1 Corinthians 1:8 he refers to “us who ARE saved.”  Biblically speaking, it was a Middle Eastern custom to state a future event using a present tense word.  Let us examine a couple of examples of this verbal trait.  One will notice that often the statements that “prove” man’s current salvation status (a “headline”) also include the “fine print” which clarifies the meaning of the headline.  One will also notice that such fine print items are consistently ignored.  In 1 Corinthians 15:1,2 Paul refers to the gospel upon which the church stood, and by which “you ARE saved, IF you remember (and obey) what I have told you, otherwise you have BELIEVED IN VAIN.”  To the “only believe” people Paul is saying that faith without obedience is, as the Apostle James said (2:14,17,18,22,24,26), dead faith.  James asks: “Can faith save?” (vs 14). Dead faith cannot save.  Only living (“working”) faith can save the soul.  Work requires time and effort.  This, along with the following statement, are examples of the fine print I keep writing about.  Returning to Ephesians 2:8 we find Paul telling the church, “it is by grace that you ARE saved, through faith.”  Faith, we are told, is believing what we do not yet have (Rom. 10:19).  Paul also said that we ARE saved by hope.  He then asks why does one hope for what one already has?  (Rom. 8:24).  The word “are” is used in an “if” context, meaning that a true believer IS AS GOOD AS SAVED IF he/she obeys what God commands.  For example, Jesus told the 12 disciples, including Judas, that they were as good as saved, “… IF you do whatsoever I command you to do” (Jn. 15:13,14).  Judas did not make the cut because he did not obey the Lord.  I will close this very important segment with the words of Jesus Christ Who makes it plain WHEN those who qualify for salvation through strict obedience to Him will in fact receive salvation.  In Matthew 10:21,22 and Revelation 21:26,27 He is warning believers what to expect if they obey Him (hatred, rejection, ill treatment, perhaps death).  He ends with these words, “… he (anyone) who endures (persecution) UNTO THE END (OF LIFE) SHALL (THEN) BE SAVED.  For Bible believers, the “believe-now-get-saved-now ruse is a dead issue.  Read Hope and Salvation.  Key word–Hope.

Our next subject will pick up where this one ended.  The topic will be the church’s persecution of God’s true saints.  L.J.