In order to answer that question it is necessary to know, believe and understand the Holy Bible in which He tells us how we must conduct our lives (“walk”–fulfill His will) in this life in order to inherit eternal life. Man has been reading most of His Word since the days of the prophets and some of it since the days of the apostles. Yet it remains, as some people have correctly noted: The most read, least understood and least believed book ever printed.

This in spite of the fact that God wrote it through “holy men of old as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21). Through such people He wrote and preserved His “Love Letter to man” in the hope that every human being ever born would be saved and spend eternity with Him and His Son (Jn. 3:16,17). All man has to do is believe and obey the most often purchased and most often stolen book in the history of printing. Today, less than 1% of mankind believes what is written in the Holy Bible. Why?

The answer is found in Second Timothy 3:16,17 where the Apostle Paul tells the Timothy the Evangelist: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” At the time Paul wrote that letter the New Testament did not exist and would not exist for 40-50 years. Paul was referring to the Old Testament from which the apostles taught the New Testament Church. It would only be after all of the original apostles except John were dead that the New Testament would come into being. John collected and combined the letters the apostles had written into one book which is called the New Testament. As Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:20: “The (New Testament) church was founded on the (writings of) the prophets and the apostles.” Note it: THE TWO TESTAMENTS ARE EQUAL IN IMPORTANCE FOR TEACHING THE CHURCH HOW TO OBEY GOD AND THEREBY QUALIFY FOR ETERNAL LIFE. Again, what is the problem? Why do church people reject yet proclaim that it proves that they are already saved? Which it does not. Could that be the problem?

The problem is found in Paul’s letter to Timothy. God states in His Word that the Holy Scriptures are to be used to REPROVE AND CORRECT SALVATION SEEKERS. Like everyone else within the human species, church people do not like being told that they are wrong (reproved) and then told what is right (corrected). That is what the Holy Bible, and those who minister it, do. And that is why both are hated and rejected by 99% of church people. The 1% are those who, having been reproved and corrected, believe and obey the Holy Scriptures. These, Jesus said, are few (Mat. 7:13,14; 22:14).

The Bible is God’s spiritual mirror which, if studied and believed, reveals the flaws of those who claim to be His people. These own but reject God’s mirror. The Bible reflects back to us our flaws relative to our thinking, speaking and acting. By comparing what God says to what we do, say and think, we see ourselves through God’s eyes as we actually are, not as we like to see ourselves and have others to see us.

In Hebrews 4:12 we learn exactly how that process works: “For the Word of God is quick (alive) and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart (mind).” The Word of God not only cuts cleanly, it cuts going in and coming out. All that we do or say begins in the heart in the form of thoughts. God’s “sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6:17) opens up the heart to its owner and reveals to him/her exactly where he/she stands relative to God’s will, Whose will must be obeyed in order to qualify to inherit eternal life at the return of Jesus Christ to earth. Upon His return He will establish the Kingdom of God where Father, Son and their Very Elect (first resurrection) saints will spend eternity. Read The Three Resurrections and The Kingdom of God. Key words–Three and Kingdom respectively. You will not hear these Bible Truths spoken in your church, which is why God tells you to “Come out of her My people; touch not that unclean thing” (Second Corinthians 6:14-7:1). As noted, one can qualify for salvation only by “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” which cannot be done in Satan’s citadels of sin known as the cults that make up professing Christendom. Read Who Are God’s People? Key word–People. Those in “the church” reject every word of what is written above. Like Adam and Eve, they do what pleases themselves, then try to justify their acts by perverting the Holy Gospel (Gal. 1:6-9). Sound familiar? It should, for that is exactly what 99% of professing Christendom does continually. And what is worse, they claim that God approves of their hundreds of different versions of His Gospel.

Paul wrote to Timothy in Second Timothy 4:1-4 that the time would come when men would not accept sound Biblical doctrine. That time arrived hundreds of years ago. The church’s rebellion against God has only grown in size and scope since. As Paul prophesied, Church people have “turned their minds away from God’s Truth and have turned to fables.” As Old Testament people told God’s prophets to do, modern religionists pay their hirelings to follow their orders to not preach to them the things God calls right, but rather to speak to them “smooth things, lies and deceits” (Isa. 30:8-10). Their “wolves in sheep’s clothing” are more than happy to do so. The “truth” is whatever keeps the money coming in.

Because of this deadly error, God says that church people are carnally-minded, and are therefore headed for destruction and death (Prov. 14:12). While prophesying about the time in which we now live, Paul said: “Evil, seducing men will become worse and worse” (2 Tim. 3:13). Therefore, we must “prove all things” relative to Biblical teachings (1 Thes. 5:21). We can distinguish between the true and the false only by the Holy Bible. Church doctrine (what the Lord “actually meant”) proves only that people do not believe God. If they did there would be one church doctrine (His Word) and one church–the Church established by Jesus Christ on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. That church exists today in the shadows of world religion. It is normally found locally consisting of one, possible two people. For this reason Jesus said that where two or three gather in His name, He will be there among them (Mat. 18:20). He knew that the vast majority of salvation seekers would reject His strict, no options, His way or the highway, pure, Bible-based religion. All others (the 99%) would stroll into Satan’s Catholic/Protestant, you-want-it-you-got-it, come as you are, stay as you are, it’s all good religion.

At this time God’ true church is hidden, like a diamond in a field. But not for long. The time is coming, and soon, when the world will hear God’s Word, His Truth, His Light, His true Gospel AND WATCH IT MATERIALIZE BEFORE THEIR EYES. John 14:12 will be displayed before the collective eyes of the world through the internet and television. His true ministers will make the Book of Acts pale by comparison. L.J.