As a sociology professor I was interested in the various types of societies located throughout the earth, especially in the realm of their social and religious traditions. The beliefs and practices followed by some of those groups were indeed fascinating. An interesting aspect of group life involves the power of the group in determining what is considered beauty and actions are considered permissible, or in some cases, required. A perfect example of this phenomenon was made clear by a tribe of people whose concept of beauty involved the sharpening of one’s teeth into points. Pictures showed the people smiling and proudly showing off their “beautiful” cat-like teeth. Another society refused to clean their teeth. Another group’s concept of beauty was to cut their lips and insert wooden plates in increasing sizes until their lips were as big as saucers. The bigger the plates, the more beautiful the person. Then there were the women who stretched their necks to incredible lengths. The longer the neck, the more beautiful the woman.

Such customs and traditions had been handed down over many generations and were therefore “right” without question. To not sharpen the teeth or stretch the lips or increase the neck length or brush was to reject what was “right” and “beautiful” in the eyes of others. To say that the people were zealous in their pursuit of their respective ideas of attractiveness would be an understatement. No one would even think of not doing what everyone in the tribe or society “knew” was attractive and acceptable. Other groups ate the flesh of fierce enemy fighters they had killed in battle in order to ingest their fighting spirits. Another group preserved the body (sitting in a chair) of the previous tribal leader. The preserved corpse was brought out to be viewed and honored publicly once each year on the day set aside for such festivities. Some of these and other practices involve religion. For example, ancient worshipers of Baal sacrificed their children to him. To not do so would have been a slap in the face of their god.

While most of the world views such practices as abhorrent, those who engaged in them understood that to refuse to do what the society or tribe deemed “good” would be social suicide. Why? Because “that is what we have always done.” If something has been done or believed generation after generation, the belief or act is “right” without question. When people are told what is “right” by the people they “know” are right, such as relatives and social or religious leaders, to challenge the rightness of the act or belief is akin to heresy. Take my word for it, traditions, especially those in the religious realm, are “right” 99.99% of the time when contrasted to what is written in the Bible. I have been in this ministry for many years and I can count on one hand the number of people that I know personally who, when shown God’s Truth, have believed the Bible and rejected their former Catholic or Protestant religious traditions, some of which are listed on the home page of this website.

The vast majority of Bible owners automatically reject God’s Truths found therein when they contradict religious traditions that have been handed down over the centuries. Almost everything they have been taught in church is either partially or totally false. Even when this Truth is proven Biblically beyond a doubt, church tradition wins the truth battle with extremely rare exception. The Philadelphia Era of church history (mid-1930’s to mid-1980’s) was the first time the true Word of God had been preached throughout the world in over 1900 years. Not surprisingly, belief in and preaching of God’s unedited Word was not welcomed within professing Christendom. Traditional church people refused to hear what God was saying and had been saying in His Holy Book for thousands of years, which is how long His Word had been rejected. The arrival of the Laodicean Era (mid-1980’s) had no appreciable effect on the Philadelphians’ status within the religious community. We Philadelphians have been spiritual outcasts since the mid-1930’s and will remain so until the return of Jesus Christ. Darkness hates the light, those who proclaim it and the Father and Son Who Spoke it (Lk. 10:16).

Religious traditions are almost impossible to disprove to their practitioners even though they have eternal consequences. Try telling a practitioner of Zoroasterism that fire is not god and you will have a verbal fight on your hands. Convincing a professing Christian that such “Biblical” traditions as those listed on the website homepage are of Satanic origin by showing them where God condemns them is an impossible task in most cases.

Within professing Christendom tradition wins when pitted against Bible Truth. The fact that the Bible openly and plainly contradicts tradition has no effect on the matter. When there is an open reaction, it is normally anger. The irony is that the anger is directed at the One Who wrote the Bible they claim to believe. This ministry is focused on trying to convince church people that the Bible they carry to church on sun god worship day is the Truth that Jesus declared it to be in John 17:17. Truth deniers are zealous in their refutation of the Lord’s Words that contradict their church’s traditions. Tradition creates zeal and fervency in its fight against God’s Word. In the following posting we will look at zeal and fervency as they apply to both the positive and the negative aspects of Christianity. Both zeal and fervency have their place in true Christianity. The question concerns whether they involve Bible Truth or church “truth.” In one case, they produce eternal life. In the other case, they produce eternal death. L.J.