What makes billions of people answer the church’s call to join one of its organizations, to call themselves by the name of that organization and to follow the teaching of that organization that will supposedly get one saved?  The answer: lures.  Very effective lures have been and continue to be used to entice salvation seekers to “join the church of your choice,” as one world-famous evangelist instructed the heaven-seeking throngs who flocked to his evangelistic meetings to “get saved.”  Read Hope and Salvation.  Key word–Hope.  The church one chooses is determined by the type of lures it uses.   Over the past 200o years the lures have not changed.

THE primary lure used by the vast majority of religious groups is summed up in the following.  The pitch goes something like this: in order to be saved, people need only indicate their desire to be “saved,” repeat the “sinners prayer” and “receive Jesus into their hearts.”  Instantly the fix is in; the die is cast; one’s salvation is as sure as God’s Ten Commandments that were written in stone by God’s Himself.  An added lure is that the instantly saved person does not need to obey His Ten Commandments, or the Bible, or anything else other than one’s own desires.  At the completion of the prescribed ritual the prophet declares that salvation has been awarded and the recipient’s name is recorded in heaven.  This salvation reportedly includes all rights and privileges promised in the Book the recipient does not need to obey, even if he could.  I can summarize THE lure that entices the masses to embrace the church of one’s choice thusly: You can come as you are, stay as you are because God accepts you as His child just the way you are.  Such a lure is hard to resist.  The convenience offered by the organization; the time element involved in receiving eternal life; the ease of a no-effort, only believe guarantee; the freedom to do as one pleases; the absolute surety of the promise–who could resist such a deal?  I coined a saying that explains why the professing Christianity’s lure is so successful.  In order to get to heaven one need only “show up, pay up, ‘fess up and prepare to go up.”  Could a religion be made any more a-LURE-ring?  A famous pastor in a nearby city runs an ad on t.v. in which he tells viewers that to be part of his congregation one does not have to be a “good person.”  Sin, holiness, obedience, disobedience, etc. are meaningless mental constructs that have nothing to do with the wishing for and the receiving of salvation.  Therefore there is no reason to change anything about one’s life when one joins his church.  No matter what your sin happens to be, the church will simply expand its circle of behavior acceptance to include the sinner and his sin(s).  The only requirement for church membership and  guaranteed salvation is to believe that “Jesus loves you.”

Another church in another state has on its website the following message: “No matter what you’ve done, Jesus invites you to come as you are.  Rejection is painful.  It leaves us feeling unwanted, unworthy, and like we just don’t belong.”  Notice that neither message is found even a mention of a change in behavior.  The lure is that Jesus died so that you could sin and get away with it, so why change?  Sin is fun and natural.  Holiness is boring and impossible.  Change is unnecessary, illogical, and impossible.  What’s not to like about that religion.  The hundreds of lure choices makes Christianity irresistible.

Because these churches keep their victims ignorant of God’s Word, the lies (lures) they present to their potential victims are perceived as His Scriptural Truths.  But as Jesus warned in Matthew 24:4,5, we must watch out for deceivers, because WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU GET.  What you see (the lure) is “The Word of the Lord” that supposedly comes straight out of His Holy Bible.  What you get (church doctrine) is PERVERTED RELIGION based on a perverted gospel (Gal. 1:6-9) which those who are deceived (Mat. 24:4,5) believe to be PURE RELIGION (Jam. 1:27).  Which brings up the question: What is religion?

Is religion merely an incidental interest that is secondary to many other interests offered by the world in which we live?  On our priority list, does religion fall behind such things as earning a living, family, friends, recreation, television, sports, entertainment, hobbies, etc.  RELIGION REFLECTS ONE’S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.  Pure religion has God, not as number one, but as the ONLY one.  Everything else must be relegated to a lesser priority slot.  But such is not the case within conventional Christianity.  In today’s church world run by and on behalf of man, God knows His place and stays in it until he is allowed to make an appearance at which time He can speak if, that is, He speaks the prescribed jargon.  Until that allotted time arrives He waits patiently for His handlers to finish doing their fun stuff.  Then, and only then, can He make an appearance at which time they graciously allow Him a few minutes to make His case.  His time in the spotlight normally runs from two to five minutes per day.  If there is a problem, the time limit is expanded a few more minutes, depending on the seriousness of the situation.  The more serious the problem–the more time allowed.

RELIGION IS OUR CONNECION WITH GOD.  IT DEFINES OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM.  BY IT WE KNOW WHAT CHANGES WE MUST MAKE IN ORDER TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM.  THE OLD MAN MUST DIE BEFORE HE NEW MAN CAN BE CREATED.

The lure of conventional Christianity is that it requires no change in our behavior in order to reap the promised reward.  THE OLD MAN DOES NOT DIE.  HE ONLY CHANGES WHAT HE DOES ON SUNDAY MORNING.  Only one thing is required of the saved one–belief in Jesus.  Concerning those pesky sins is programmed to commit–no problem.  Jesus has already paid for them.  Change?  What change?  According to Christ’s handlers, when He told the diseased man and the prostitute whose sins He had forgiven to “Go and sin no more” (Jn. 5:14; 8:11), He actually meant that they could “Go and sin some more” with His blessing.  Why did He make their sins disappear?  Because they believe in Him.

The conventional Christian rejects what God says about the previous paragraph.  I received an email from a woman who was incredulous that I actually believed what Jesus said about sin and its consequences.  She scoffed at my belief that I would be judged by God’s Word.  She asked if I actually believed that my salvation will depend on my obedience to God’s Word.”  To her and her kind, John 12:48-50 was simply the ramblings of a man named Jesus who had undoubtedly imbibed too much wine.  His mental confusion was evidenced by His statement that everyone would be judged by “… the Words that I have spoken”–meaning Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.  This woman is not alone.  In fact, she represents the vast majority of church people.  This in spite of the Apostle Peter stating that judgment is on-going in the church, and that ONLY THE RIGHTEOUS WILL BE SAVED, AND THEY JUST BARELY (1 Pet. 4:17,18).

Church people believe that God thinks like they do.  Keeping in mind such statements as: “I am the Lord, I do not change,” and that “He is the same yesterday, today and forever,” let us examine what He said to King David about his sins:  “These things (sins) you have done, and I kept silent.  You thought that I was like you.  But I will punish you and bring your sins back to your remembrance” (Ps. 50:18-21).  God had not immediately punished David for his sins, which included adultery and murder.  He gave him time and opportunity to repent and return to Him.  But David had come to believe that he and God were on the same spiritual wavelength, that if he (David) determined that something was right, then God also determined that it was right.  Sound familiar?  It does if you are part of the institution that calls itself “Christianity.”  For the religious masses, the lure of easy, comfortable, prioritized, no-obedience-required salvation offered by Satan is simply too good to ignore.  In his version of the gospel, one is encouraged to forget the Biblical God until meal time, Sunday morning or when a problem arises.  God is placed at the end of one’s “to do” list and allowed to make a BRIEF appearance AFTER all of life’s more enjoyable, more important “to do’s” have been addressed.  After all, the Lamb of God smiles on all who call themselves by His name.  Reality check: The Lion of the Tribe of Judah is not smiling  L.J.