I well remember in my growing up years singing an hymn titled “Victory in Jesus.”  The spirit-rousing song assured me that, because I was “saved,” I had “the victory.”  Growing up in church I assumed that whatever I was told from the pulpit and Sunday school lectern was true and not to be questioned.  Being “saved” and having “the victory” meant that all was “well with my soul,” which was the theme of another ancient hymn.  If hymns could save the soul, I had a lock on eternal life, which was the consensus among those of us in the “right” church, you know, the “only one going to heaven.”

Beginning in my late childhood, at around 10 as I remember, something began to happen in my life.  I cannot remember when I did not believe in God and did not believe God.  But suddenly,  I developed a passion for reading.  In our home there was no reading material–no newspaper, no books, no magazines–nothing.  Nothing, except my mothers bible.  We had a book case whose shelves were about a foot wide and over six feet tall.  I can still see that old, worn Bible laying on one of those shelves.  That was the only reading material we had.  As I have stated before, I praise God that He saw to it that I grew up poor, and that I loved to read.  Having nothing else to read, I read the Bible.  This is one of many inexplicable happenstances that have been so much a part of my life.  From “out of nowhere,” I was given total faith in the Bible.  In my 81 years of life I have never been told by a church leader to believe the Scriptures, then told and shown how to live accordingly.  In fact, I was told and shown how to do the opposite.  Belief in Jesus was as deep as they ever delved into the Book everyone carried to church on Sunday morning, then ignored until the next Sunday.

I learned early on that what I was being taught in church was not what was written in the Bible, which I knew was God’s Word.  My religious world revolved around “the church,” not around the Bible.  If asked if one was a Christian one would automatically identify the church one belonged to as proof of one’s Christianity.  Once God laid his spiritual hand on me I began to recognize the deadly error of that kind of thinking.  In short, I learned that it did not matter which church one was affiliated with, what mattered was one’s obedience to the Holy Bible.  I was not aware of this before the Lord touched me through His Holy Spirit when I was about 14.  That was the first of several times I literally felt the Spirit “speak” to me.  What the Lord began to teach me would have been rejected by those I heard on Sunday morning.  As I grew in Scriptural knowledge I grew farther away from the church, though I continued to attend.  I have never attended a church that taught God’s Word.  What we heard was man’s wishful thinking about what He actually said.  Nothing has changed.

One of the numerous universally-rejected Truths I have learned from God concerns His promise of VICTORY which is preached about, taught about, written about and sung about in all churches world-wide.  The problem is that, like so many other Bible Truths, the promise of victory has been twisted into meaning the exact opposite of what God intended.

In 1 Corinthians 15:57,58 we find these words: “But thanks to the Lord Who gives us the victory THROUGH our Lord Jesus Christ.  THEREFORE, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always ABOUNDING IN THE WORK OF (OBEDIENCE TO) THE LORD, for you know that YOUR LABOR (WORK) IS NOT DONE IN VAIN IF IT IS DONE IN THE LORD.”  Then in 1 John 5:3,4 the apostle says: “For this is how we prove our love for God–we keep His commandments (Law) ….  For whosoever is born of God (converted) OVERCOMES THE WORLD.  And this is the VICTORY THAT OVERCOMES THE WORLD–OUR FAITH.”  “Faith is developed by hearing the Word of God” (Rom. 10:19).  Anciently, most people were illiterate.  The only access to the Tora was to hear it read in the Temple or the synagogues.

Obviously, our victory comes THROUGH the Lord as we live IN Him and receive faith from Him–“the Word” (Jn. 1:1-4). Through that faith we achieve VICTORY OVER SATAN AND THE WORLD HE RULES.  It is our FAITH by which we gain the victory over him, his devils and the world, all of which strive to entice us to sin.  Faith is taking God at His Word.  Victory over sin is accomplished as we apply our faith to a temptation knowing that we have the power of the Holy Spirit within us to reject it.  Sin is the transgression of the Law–God’s Word.  We overcome Satan’s push to break God’s Law.  We overcome him by faith in that Word and by working (obeying) that Word (Jam. 2:10,14,17,18,20,24,26).  As James tells us, faith without works (obedience to that in which we have faith–God’s Word) is dead faith.  Great faith, if not “worked,” is dead faith.  Satan knows the Word, has great faith in that Word, and even quoted the Word–the source of Christ’s faith–to Him (Mat. 4:6,7).

Unlike Satan, the church does not believe God’s Word.  She also does not believe in doing works of faith–“walking as Jesus walked” (1 Jn. 2:6) with absolute faith in God’s Word and strict obedience to it.  The church, rather than celebrating victory in Jesus, instead celebrates victory OVER Jesus.  Consensus holds that because He died for man’s sins, “saved” man does not have to obey His commands.  I will at this time replay the ditty I composed which states this church “truth” as well as I know how to state it: “Sin and grin, my friend, for in the end, you’ll still win.  Pie in the sky, sin ’till you die, for in the sweet bye and bye, you’ll still get to fly.”  So-called Sinners Saved By Grace should adopt my ditty as their theme song.   Jesus speaks to each of the heathen church “truths” listed in the Introduction to this website, which is dedicated to alerting “the church” to her deadly error.  Few believe its message.  Because her parishioners are supposedly saved, born again, sanctified and sealed, they “know” that they can live in continuous sin and still be greeted by St. Peter who will be standing at the pearly gates of heaven upon their arrival.  Like Adam and Eve, church people have eaten of the forbidden tree and have had their eyes opened so that they can decide what is right and wrong.

I will end this expose’ of professing Christendom’s open rejection of Jesus Christ and His Father by putting forward two passages of Scripture–again.  In Matthew 12:46-50 Jesus stated that His mother Mary and his half-siblings were “NOT HIS SPIRITUAL BRETHREN because they did not believe what He was preaching.  His brethren, He said were ONLY those who “DO THE WILL OF MY FATHER IN HEAVEN.”  The Holy Bible is God’s will in print.  In John 15:13,14 Jesus told His disciples that He would lay down His life for His friends.  “You (disciples) are My friends IF YOU DO WHATSOEVER I COMMAND YOU TO DO.”  Does this sound like sin-grin-and-win?  “pie in the sky? or “to receive you need only to believe?”

Contrary to universal church opinion, one does not have victory over Christ’s commands for holiness.  True believers have victory over Satan’s temptations to reject Christ’s commands.  Christ died so that we can receive the Holy Spirit which empowers us to resist Satan and obey the Lord.  L.J.