Why does the whole of professing churchdom proclaim that the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is about the man Himself–His birth, His life, His sacrifice and His ascendency to heaven where He now awaits churchman’s arrival, keys to his mansion in hand?

Because it is so much easier and less time consuming to simply believe in Christ, perform a prescribed ritual, get dunked in water and be declared “saved” than to study His message and do what He tells us to do in order to receive eternal life.  Faith, being a mental construct, requires no effort on the part of the believer, no rules to obey, outcomes based on action, no commands to obey and no results based on one’s reaction to those commands.  Just believing cuts to the chase without all that obedience nonsense.

The exact opposite is true among those who believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ features His message, His commands, man’s reaction to His commands and His corresponding reaction to man’s reaction.  Sociologically, this is called “cause and effect.”  For every effect, there is a cause.  Moses wrote two chapters in the Holy Bible that perfectly sum up the Lord’s cause and effect Gospel.  Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are the Bible’s cause and effect chapters.  When STUDYING these chapters one will see that simply BELIEVING IN HIM AND WHAT HE ACCOMPLISHED FOR MANKIND will gain the believer exactly nothing.  Satan believes every Word in God’s Law–Genesis to Revelation.  He quoted Scripture to Jesus during the great temptation as recorded in Matthew 4:6.  Satan not only knows the Word of God, he has great faith–HE KNOWS IT IS TRUE.  And he is angry because “he knows his time is short” (Rev. 12:12) because he knows and believes God’s signs and prophesies.  His problem is that he does not obey what he knows is true.  Being more spiritually astute than those in his church, he has not convinced himself that he will spend eternity with Christ simply because he believes in Him and can quote Him verbatim.  His fallen spirits (devils) also know the Scriptures and believe them, causing them (demons) to “tremble” (Jam. 2:15).  They tremble BECAUSE THEIR FUTURE FATE IS RECORDED IN THOSE SCRIPTURES (Mat. 25:41,46).  Like their leader, they are also more spiritually astute than their human churchmates who will be cast into the same fire “… which God has prepared for the devil and his angels.”  Back to Matthew 25.

One will notice that in verse 14 those with whom the man in the parable (Jesus Himself) dealt with upon his return were “HIS OWN SERVANTS.”  These were they who SERVED HIM in ministry to His people.  Note also in Matthew 24:31 that it is HIS ELECT which he gathers unto Himself upon His return.  Notice in chapter 25 that it is His TEN VIRGINS He deals with upon His return, five of whom were excluded from the marriage feast.  Those five former sheep had fallen away from God and had become goats.  Notice that the doorkeeper told them: “I DO NOT KNOW YOU.”  He had known them in times past, but no longer knew them (vs 12) because they were false virgins.

Notice that the people Jesus referred to in His parables (stories depicting true future events) all involved what would become members and leaders within His future church.  Note that He called them His “elect, His “virgins,” Gus “servants.”  Note that upon His return the man (Jesus) gathered them before Him.  The same episode is depicted as the gathering of sheep and goats, wheat and tares, good fish and bad fish.  Note that sheep and goats, wheat and tares, good and bad fish had been together (and called “the church”) before His return (Second Advent).  Note that when He returns they will THEN be separated and dealt with.  Note that the sheep, the wheat and the good fish will be preserved and taken unto Him while the goats, tares and bad fish will be destroyed.  Read All That Glitters.  Key word–Glitters.

Another parable spoken by Jesus concerns good and bad fruit trees.  All fruit trees produce fruit.  The question involves the kind of fruit one bears.  In Matthew 3:8-10 John the Baptist speaks to a group of Pharisees who had come to him for baptism.  He sees through them immediately.  He characterizes them as snakes who know that God’s wrath is coming on them unless they get right with Him.  They believed that going through the motions would be good enough, that they did not need to reverse their character.  Satan had convinced them that believing in God and being baptized would make them right enough.  John warned them that going through the religious motions without a total transformation of character would gain them nothing.  In verse 8 John commands them to produce fruit (good works–obedience to God) that would reflect true repentance of their sins.  He told them that being “children of Abraham” (today expressed as having been “born and raised in the church”) meant nothing to the Lord.  Just believing, being baptized, etc. would not be enough.  They had to do good works–obey God’s Gospel as it would soon be put forth by “one who will come.”  That “One” would turn out to be John’s cousin–Jesus of Nazareth.  Merely believing in the One who would come would not save them.  They had to put forth GOOD FRUIT–works of obedience which would produce the holiness and righteousness necessary for salvation.  The Apostle Paul affirms this truth in Romans 5:21 and 6:22 where we are told that salvation is the END RESULT of a life lived in righteousness and holiness–good fruit production.  Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 7:17-19 where He tells us that producing fruit–being religious, taking Him as one’s personal Savior, being baptized, etc.–will not result in eternal life.  As Jesus said in Matthew 10:21,22, one must WALK THE WALK OF HOLINESS which is guaranteed to produce hatred, rejection and discrimination from those in the false church.  Note that only those who maintain their holiness and endure the hatred of others UNTIL THE END SHALL THEN BE SAVED.

Those who believe that, because of Adam’s sin transfusion miracle and God’s grace, all they need to do in order to be saved is to believe in Jesus.  These, the Scriptures tell us, are in for a shock come judgment time.  We will now take brief note of some passages of Scripture that destroy the church’s “only believe” universally-embraced Satanic lie.

When asked what they had to do to receive eternal life, a lawyer and a rich man were instructed by Jesus to obey the “Law”/”commandments” (Lk. 10:26/ Mk. 10:17-22).  The rich man had great faith and proved it by going away sad, knowing that he would not receive eternal life.  He knew it BECAUSE HE BELIEVD JESUS.  However, his faith was dead because he did not combine it with good works–obedience to God’s Law (Jam. 2:10,14,17,18,20,24,26).

In reference to obedience to the Law relative to salvation, the Apostle John tells us in 1 John 3:4: “To transgress (break) the Law is sin, for sin IS (then and now) the transgression of the Law.”  The Apostle Paul reminds us that the wages of sin (breaking the Law) is death (Rom. 6:23).  John, writing to the church, warns sinners therein that their spiritual father is the devil (1 Jn. 3:8), and that he who does (works) righteousness is righteous (3:7), that whosoever is born of God (converted) does not commit sin (3:9), that one who does not DO (work) righteousness does not know God and is a child of the devil (3:10).  In I Peter 4:17,18 the apostle tells us that judgment is ongoing in the church, and that only the righteous in the church will be saved.  In John 14:15,23 Jesus said that those who loved Him would “keep (work/obey) my commandments.”  In Matthew 19:17 He said that in order to inherit eternal life one must obey the commandments/Law.  Paul said that the Law IS (now) holy, just and good (Rom. 7:12).  In Romans 2:13 he said that only those who obey the Law are justified (have past sins forgiven).  James (1:22) tells us that those who only hear the Law and do not obey it are deceiving themselves.  The Prophet Isaiah (42:21) wrote that the Lord’s Messiah would come to earth to “magnify the Law and make it holy (again).”  The Messiah said that He did not come to destroy the Law, but rather to fulfill it (Mat. 5:17).

As a man Jesus had to obey God in order to fulfill His commission.  In John 15:10 He said that He had to keep God’s commandments in order to remain in His love.  ARE WE BETTER THAN JESUS CHRIST?  The church shouts a resounding “YES.”  Jesus said that He had to obey God’s commands in order to be accepted by Him.  However, the church, whom He supposedly saved, claims to be exempt from any such rules.  She needs only to believe in Him in order for the fix to be in.  Simply put, she does not have to obey God’s Words.  As life-long sinners already saved by grace, they need only believe in Him.

Do we need to guess who are the goats, tares, bad fish and bad fruit fruit trees?  These are the super religious churchites who will stand before Jesus at judgement and remind Him of “… ALL THE WONDERFUL WORKS WE HAVE DONE IN YOUR NAME.” To whom He will reply, “I never knew you.  Depart from me you WORKERS OF INIQUITY (Lawlessness)”– Let us not forget that Judas preached the Gospel, healed the sick and cast out demons.  And he was a thief who not only stole from Jesus and the other disciples, but then betrayed the one he called his Lord.  L.J.