To be right means to be in accord with the Standard that defines 1) right and 2) explains the difference between right and wrong, wrong being the opposite of right by definition. In God’s world, recognition of, belief in and obedience to His written, Spirit-inspired Standard–the Holy Bible–shows that one agrees with His concept of right. God recognizes only His Standard, making the church’s various standards wrong by divine definition. Adam and Eve rejected His Standard and embraced Satan’s standard. As a reward, he supposedly gave them the power to determine right and wrong. Since then billions of God-seekers, who either do not know God’s Word, or know it and reject it, have followed in their spiritual footsteps. Comparison of ten doctrinal examples will reveal that within today’s church world a great gulf separates those who embrace God’s Standard and those who, like Adam and Eve, have gone the way of the devil. We will examine only ten of the deadly sins by which Satan rules professing Christendom. Listen to the voice of God (the Bible) and compare It to the voice of Satan (church doctrine) as each speaks in his own language.

God: “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8-11). Church: Pope Sylvester I changed the Sabbath to Sunday at the Council of Laodicea in A.D. 365. God: “Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the (Passover) feast (1 Cor. 5:7,8). Church: Roman Emperor Constantine did away with Passover and instituted Easter at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 324. God: “Learn not the ways of the heathen … for one cuts a tree out of the forest … fastens it with nails and hammers … decks it with silver and gold” (Jer. 10:2-5). Church: Christmas honors Jesus. God: “We are saved by hope” (Rom. 8:24). “Our salvation is closer than when we believed” (Rom. 13:11). Church: Salvation is instantaneous upon accepting Jesus as Savior. God: “Let there be no divisions among you” (1 Cor. 1:10). Church: God established denominations to allow each group to develop its own version of Christianity. God: “To transgress the Law is sin; for sin is the transgression of the Law” (1 Jn. 3:4). Church: God nail the law to the cross. Sin has nothing to do with the law. God: “Faith without works is dead” (Jam. 2:17,20,26). “I prove my faith by my works” (Jam. 2:18). Church: Faith alone saves the soul. Works are of the devil. God: “The soul that sins, that soul dies” (Eze. 18:20). Church: Man’s soul never dies. God: The way to the Kingdom is difficult and restrictive (Mat. 7:13,14). Church: The way to heaven is easy and all-inclusive. God: “You shall make no graven image” (Gen. 20:4). Church: Crosses, fish, pictures and statues honor God. God: Jesus was in the grave three days and three nights (Mat. 12:40). Church: Jesus was in the grave one day and two nights.

“There is a way that seems RIGHT to a man, but that way ends in destruction” (Pr. 16:25). That way is the way of Catholicism/Protestantism. The above are only a few of the heathen doctrines and customs the Counterfeit Church embraces and declares to be the way of God. Each pagan practice defies God’s stated commands, which make it a sin. Sin has separated professing Christendom from God (Isa. 59:2). In order to have any hope of eternal life, those involved in the false church must recognize their lost condition, learn the ways of God, believe them, repent for having rejected them, reverse course and leave the Institutional Church without so much as a glance backward. “Remember Lot’s wife” (Lk. 17:32). L.J.