Hold fast

Trials and tribulations come our way. There’s nothing we can do about it but ride out the storm when it hits. We must simply get through it the best we can. I recently had a discussion with my daughter where I told her that it isn’t in the easy times that we grow and learn but in the midst of the hard times that we gain our greatest growth.

It’s in those hard times that so many cry out to the Lord, both the saved and the unsaved…the regenerate and the reprobate. Many people who won’t acknowledge Christ at any other time do so in the midst of trouble or despair. That seems to be something ingrained deep in our human hearts and minds. For many this reaching out to Christ in times of need is as natural as breathing even if they don’t acknowledge His existence at any other time.

For the regenerate though…what do we have to gain during the times of our greatest trials? It’s easy to hold onto our faith…whether real or only surface deep…when things are good, when life is easy. It’s during those times of great stress and personal pain that the truth is so often seen.

I know of at least one person that was saved, regenerated, during a time of deep personal pain. In crying out to the Lord in that pain this person was saved. It was instant. And this person felt the difference. How many people are saved by the Lord during their deepest moments of anguish?

But for those that have already been saved what do we have to learn and gain from that deep place of pain? The Lord has a purpose for all our trials and tribulations. There’s a purpose for everything we experience. What might He be trying to teach us in those moments of despair when we’d do anything to escape the troubles we’re going through?

He’s already saved us, already brought us to Him. That can’t be the purpose of the pain. There has to be something else there. Why would He put us in a situation to go through such hurt when our salvation can’t be the reason?

Is it to teach us a lesson? To punish us for something? To bring us to a deeper understanding of Him? To change something in us? To get us to do something that is in His plan?

We can’t know the answers to those questions until after the pain has passed, until after we have weathered the storm and come out on the other side. Even then we may never know the reason but we can know that there is a reason. We can know that He has a purpose and a plan. We can know that we are to hold fast to our Lord and our faith and ride out the storm.

And we can trust that He is taking us somewhere even if we would rather not go there at the time.

False teachers leading false 'churches'

Not that long ago I wrote a post titled Peddling Christ. In that post I spoke about preachers and how they make Christ serve them rather than them serving Christ. Quite honestly this is a subject that I fell into rather than feeling any real need to write about. You see, that post was the result of someone asking me if I could take several verses and make a post out of them. This person did give me a general idea of what they hoped I could convey in that post. The rest…was up to me. It was a challenge but being as how the message they wanted conveyed was a belief I share I was able to actually pull it off.

 

From there I expected to be finished with the topic but found myself writing yet another post almost as soon as I finished that one. Then through discussions in life and comments on my blog I wound up writing even more posts. You see…it isn’t so much that I set out to speak against preachers but that I found myself sucked into a topic that had me doing just that. I have nothing against preachers in and of themselves. It’s what they’re teaching…or not teaching…and the way they’re doing it that bothers me.

 

Today…I was looking something up online and found myself reading someone else’s article on peddling Christ. And once again I got sucked into a topic I never intended to be in the midst of. But I write what’s on my heart and mind. I don’t foreplan anything, don’t usually do any research into what I’m writing about. I generally just sit down, put my fingers on the computer keys and…there’s an article. It’s that easy…and that confounding.

 

I don’t know where these things come from except to say that they’re given by the Lord…or at least the ability to do so is. And so today…I find myself writing on a subject I never thought to follow any further.

 

The more I think of what it means to peddle the Word of God…the more it hurts to even consider it. I don’t remember the days of true peddlers, have had very few encounters with door to door salesmen. I do, however, know the frustration of having people show up on my doorstep…usually when I’m trying to cook or something else that takes my attention…and try to sell me something I don’t want. I know the frustration of having them repeatedly try to convince me to buy what they’re selling despite the fact that I keep saying no. And I’ve learned the art of being rude by saying ‘we’re not interested’ and quickly shutting the door , cutting off their protests as I do so. It’s not ideal but sometimes it’s the only way.

 

I’ve had certain religious groups show up on my door and try to sell me their beliefs in much the same way. With these groups it seems that if you so much as say ‘hello’ they move in for the rest of the day. They tell you there stories, invite you to their worship buildings, give you there reading material, and…as I’ve had happen on one occasion…sit with you and tell you everything they believe and why, all while reading to you from their religious book.

 

As my grandmother is fond of saying ‘you can’t win for losing’ with them. If you’re nice to them in any way they take advantage of it. If you’re not nice to them…they take advantage of that too. And when you’re not nice you’re left feeling bad about whatever reaction you give.

 

As I think of those ‘religious’ people coming to my house peddling their beliefs…at least they aren’t actually trying to get me to buy them…I think of what it would be like to have someone actually come to my door and try to sell me ‘Christ’. I’ve seen the so-called preachers on television that tell you if you’ll just send them money ‘god’ will do x for you. And I can only imagine what my response would be if they were actually standing on my door trying to convince me to buy their ‘god’ and his blessings.

 

But that’s what so many are doing. They may not come to our door, they may not sit in our living rooms, they may not even stand in our presence but they’re doing it just the same. They’re peddling…selling…’Christ’ for their gain with little to no consideration for the souls of the people that buy into their ‘christ’.

 

It’s so easy…for most…to see the peddling that takes place by those television ‘preachers’…although the fact that they’re still on T.V. tells us that many fall prey to their peddling…but how many see the peddling that takes place within ‘church’ buildings every week?

 

Many years ago I was a regular in a ‘church’ that passed an offering plate every Sunday, they taught often on tithing and how it was required, they printed and mailed out little envelopes with your name on it and each weeks date so that you could ‘give’ your ‘offering’, and thy questioned you when they didn’t see your ‘tithes’ in the weekly ‘offering’. They went so far as to say that if you didn’t ‘tithe’ you weren’t ‘right with God’. But they didn’t stop there. Outside of your weekly ‘offering’ they had near weekly missions ‘donations’ where they profiled some organization that they felt the ‘church’ should financially support. And they put much pressure on each person to do just that. I have even seen them tell the congregation that a certain ‘offering’ for a mission organization wasn’t enough and pass around the ‘offering’ plate again, all while telling people to ‘dig deeper’ and ‘give more.’

 

Was that not peddling?

 

Unless it falls into the category of con artists.

 

The thing is…this kind of ‘peddling’ takes place every week, week after week, in ‘church’ after ‘church’.

 

I was a one time visitor in another ‘church’ building this past winter. My husband and I went for the sole purpose of listening to a quest ‘preacher’… that wasn’t really a preacher at all but a speaker…because he speaks Truth. Or mostly speaks it. While we sat on the pew, in the midst of hundreds of others, they passed an ‘offering’ plate. As expected many people put money into those plates. But like with the ‘church’ I attended so many years ago, they didn’t stop there. Once the ‘offering’ plates were collected, they passed around ‘offering’ baskets. This time was supposedly a special ‘offering’ so that the ‘church’ could use it to help their members that were in need. They explained how they used it to help those with financial problems pay bills, get to the doctor, buy medicine, clothes…whatever they may need.

 

And as I sat there watching this ‘offering’ being collected all I could think was…isn’t that what the regular ‘offering’ should be used for? And since it obviously wasn’t…what did they use it for?

 

About a year ago I was told of a preacher that told the members of his ‘church’ to give them the routing number on their checking accounts so that the ‘church’ could pull their tithes out of their account.

 

I have to ask…do any of these so-called preachers sound like men that are serving the Lord? Do any of the things I listed above sound like something Paul would have done? Do they sound like something Christ would have done?

 

Do they sound like men that are serving the Lord?

 

Or do they sound like men that are serving money?

 

For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:17

Paul clearly separated those that sincerely tried to preach the Word of God from those who were merely selling a product.  The Geneva Bible states that verse as…   For we are not as many, which l corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.   Notice the word corrupt in place of peddlers. The KJV also uses the word corrupt. Either version clearly portrays the message that Paul was giving…these men were taking the gospel and using it to their gain. One implies the selling of it, while the other implies the twisting and changing of it. As I read those two different versions I can’t help but think of what we get if we combine them…Peddlers that corrupt the Word of God…or the corrupt peddling of the Word of God.   Is that not what we have today in the majority of ‘churches’?   Basically Paul was saying that he…and the others…was giving the true gospel, they were speaking Truth with no twisting or changing of it. They weren’t watering it down, they weren’t making it fit man but were giving it so that it might man might fit into it. This was Truth pure and simple. It was Truth as Christ gave it and it was Truth as they delivered it.   And it wasn’t being delivered out of some higher agenda, out of some idea that they might gain from the Word of God. It was being delivered from sincere hearts with the sole desire to deliver the Truth as Christ gave it. Paul said that it was the ‘power of…salvation’ (Romans 1:16).   Paul understood what that meant. He knew what he himself had experienced in his conversion and he sought to deliver the Word of God in Truth and nothing but Truth.   Why?   A question we should ask ourselves anytime anyone seeks to deliver the Word of God is…what motivates this man? Does he stand to gain from what he’s teaching?   Paul’s motivation was to save souls and he gave up everything to do it. He sought no personal gain.   If a preacher delivers a message while being careful what he says so as not to offend his listeners…is he not corrupting the Word of God? If he stands to gain financially in any way…is he not peddling the Word of God? If he leaves out anything of Scripture because it might offend someone or keep them from ‘coming to Christ’…is he not watering down, thereby corrupting, the Word of God?   And if we have a corrupted Word of God…is it truly the Word of God? Is it Truth as Paul taught or is it a mere facsimile of Truth…one that will pull many to the wide path but leave few to find the narrow gate?   What purpose does the wide path have if walking on it makes you run head first into a narrow gate that you can’t get through?   Is this not what the many ‘preachers’ of today’s ‘churches’ are doing? Are they not pulling many onto the wide path by giving them a ‘gospel’ with a ‘God’ they can accept and love, because the ‘Christ’ they’re peddling requires little of them?   And if the ‘gospel’ being given by these ‘preachers’ isn’t the true gospel as Paul preached it…then is it the gospel at all? And what of the preachers that are giving a false gospel…are they not false teachers?   And what happens to the ‘church’ when a false teacher gives them a false gospel?   I know so many people that get every bit of their ‘Christian’ beliefs from the mouth of their ‘preacher’. They say things like ‘my preacher said’ or ‘my preacher believes’, or ‘my preacher teaches’. They put their very souls into what a man is teaching them…and most of those men are false teachers.   What then becomes of the ‘church’ whose pews are filled with people whose very faith rests in the teachings of the preacher on the stage?   Instead of the Church as Scripture defines it we have false ‘churches’ packed with false believers being fed a false gospel by a false teacher. And the Truth that they think they’re getting and believing in is a truth that Paul wouldn’t recognize.   Jesus himself called such false ‘churches’ "synagogues of Satan" (Rev. 2:9; 3:9). Whether or not the ‘churches’ of today would actually fall under that definition wouldn’t any ‘church’ that teaches anything that differs from the Truth as taught in the Scriptures be teaching a lie? And if they’re teaching lies and calling it the gospel…have they not fallen into Satan’s domain? Scripture tells us that Satan is the father of lies. And no matter how you want to look at that we can’t deny that Paul warned many times of false teachers. We’re told that they’re wolves in sheep’s clothing.   These false teachers are peddlers…hucksters…that corrupt the Word of God. Whether they do it for money, for man’s acceptance, to bolster their own numbers of ‘conversions’ and therefore their own pride, or even just for their own (false) sense of security…the end result is the same…a perversion of the Truth. And many of them do it while claiming to be ‘called by God.’ Would God ever ‘call’ anyone to teach and promote anything short of the entire Truth of His Word? Would He ‘call’ them to sell it, whether for monetary gain or some man oriented reasoning? The reality is that most, if not all, of today’s ‘preachers’ aren’t called by God but rather by themselves. They have some interest in preaching and believe that means they have been ‘called’ by God to do that. They then follow their ‘calling’ into expensive seminaries to get man-made certifications that will allow them to send out resume’s to apply for a job and thereby a paycheck to put their ‘calling’ to work.   Does that sound like a calling by the Lord or does it sound like men following their own desires?   Once these preachers have gained their expensive certificates and earned themselves a job through their resume’s they may then begin to preach (and ‘earn’ their paycheck) by leading ‘God’s flock’ through the ‘gospel’ that they have been taught to teach by men. They can use the very Word of God to create and promote a ‘gospel’ that looks nothing like the Truth as its presented within the pages of Scripture. And they preach not the gospel but a ‘gospel’ that is found nowhere in Scripture. Paul himself saw this happening and warned against it.   For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.  2 Corinthians 11:4 But it wasn’t just the false teachers he warned against. He clearly told those that accept it that they are putting up with it. In other words…by listening to it they are actually allowing it to happen. How many Christians sit in the audience of ‘churches’ and listen to a message being delivered that speaks something other than the Truth? How many sit idly by and listen as the very gospel our Lord gave his life for is corrupted and peddled…and do nothing. They put up with it readily enough. They put up with listening to a message being delivered that isn’t the Truth of Scripture. They put up with turning the solemnity of the Word of God into a form of entertainment designed to draw in crowds, to boost numbers, and to keep those crowds entertained so that they aren’t offended and will keep coming back. Was the Truth that Christ died for entertainment? Was it so inoffensive that it appealed to everyone? Was Paul beaten and imprisoned for a Truth that was careful not to offend? What of the many ways ‘churches’ fund their ‘ministries’ through worldly entertainments that are designed to draw in an even bigger crowd so that they can line their pockets for the purpose of continuing the perpetuation of the twisting and perverting of the true gospel? Did Christ die for that gospel? Did He teach that it’s okay to feed the carnal minds and hearts of people…rather lost or saved…at the expense of their pocketbooks to further any form of the gospel? And yet as Paul said…you put up with it readily enough. My husband just showed me a video about televangelists that buy multimillion dollar jets…now I ask…what possible need could anyone that’s supposedly concerned about the souls of the lost need with a high dollar jet. If…and I stress, if…they absolutely had to go somewhere that flight was required why wouldn’t they go by the cheapest flight available so as to put their ill-gotten gains to better use serving the people that they claim to care about? One of the ‘preachers’ in this news video is shown literally bragging of having bought not one but two very expensive jets and paying cash for it. I have to ask what the people that regularly give their money to this man think of his new ‘toys’. But that doesn’t happen in your average ‘church’ some might say. Maybe not in some but I personally know of a ‘church’ in a mid-sized town where the preacher owns multiple high end vehicles and his own airplane. And it was all bought with ‘church’ funds. And what of the ‘church’ that provides the funds for such extravagances? …you put up with it readily enough. These preachers peddle their versions of ‘God’ and the people put up with it. I can understand that when we’re truly talking about wolves in sheep’s clothes…or preachers that teach such subtle differences that a person would have to know the Scriptures well to know that what’s being taught is a lie but what of those that sit in the audience…or their living room…and listen to the blatant blaspheme of the Lord while hearing these men tell of ultra-expensive purchases? Even those that teach subtle lies as Truth are they not men who have a form of godliness while denying its power (2 Timothy 3:5). Are they not wolves in sheep’s clothing? Are they not teaching lies and therefore leading ‘churches’ that have fallen into the hands of the ‘father of lies’? I’ve heard many times…while sitting in the pew of a ‘church’…that Satan will attack the ‘church’ but I must ask…why would he need to attack the ‘church’ when lies are on the menu of every sermon? If anyone is saved out of such a ‘church’ it’s in spite of the ‘church’ and not because of it. The Lord can, and does, use all things to His glory. These false teachers and their false ‘churches’ may be responsible for the true salvation of some but it isn’t because of the false gospel given within its walls…it’s  in spite of it. It’s because that was the method the Lord used to save one of His own. But what of the false gospel being delivered week after week from the very men that claim to be working for the salvation of others?   They are false teachers delivering a false message that has no power to salvation except for that which the Lord gives to those that are his.   There is, in fact, a method to the madness that is preached from the pulpits. While these men are in their expensive schools earning their ‘calling’ they are actually taught to profile their targeted audiences and to tailor the message to those that will be listening.   They are in fact profiling their audiences straight into hearing a fake gospel that sends people straight to hell. But I’m saved, some might say. But I said the prayer, another will say. I chose Jesus is the reply of so many.   And that last part is the worst of all because it completely disregards the fact that Christ said you did not choose me but I chose you.   Even still…the sad reality is that most have no idea that Christ even said that. They don’t know because they’ve been taught the false gospel by the false teachers and they take those false teachers at their words. They lay their entire salvation into the hands of men. And those men hand them straight into hell.   They follow the wolf like slaves following their master. Where the wolf leads, they follow. And sadly enough heaven isn’t where those wolves are leading. They follow their masters (preachers) believing they are being given the gospel for salvation when in fact they are being fed lies that get them nothing but eternal damnation.   There are two very basic problems with what’s happening there…two things that are perpetuating the system. 1) those preachers have been so indoctrinated with the gospel that they preach that they don’t know they’re teaching lies to the very people they believe they’re leading to salvation, and 2) the people they’re leading don’t want to hear the Truth even if the preacher knew how to give it.   If a preacher actually got behind a pulpit and told his audience that the prayer they prayed didn’t save them, that their free will is a lie, that their salvation rests in the hands of the Lord and nowhere else…his audience would quickly disperse. If they made it through the first sermon, they wouldn’t return for a second.   Years ago I was given tickets to go and hear a classical pianist. I knew nothing about the woman but was told that I would love listening to her, that her music was amazing. I went to the concert and barely made it through it. What I had been told would be classical piano...which I don’t care for…was anything but. Rock and roll would have been a better definition. The next time that woman came to town I was once again given tickets to go listen to her. I made sure not to make use of those tickets.   How many people that pack the pews on Sundays would be sure to avoid those same pews if they ever heard the true gospel delivered from the stage they spend so much time in front of?   You see…most of those in the audience don’t want the truth. They want their false teachers giving them a false doctrine through an entertaining program that feeds on their own sinful desires.   They don’t want to be taught a gospel that teaches a saving faith. They want a false gospel that teaches they can have their hearts desires and still have faith. They want to be told that it’s okay that they think of movies and food before they think of Christ. They want to be told that it’s only normal for them to have reacted the way they did to a certain situation. They want to be told that ‘God’ loves the things they love. Because…they put up with it readily enough. Paul warned… For the time is coming when people will not endure sound[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 People of today have turned away from Truth and have followed myths. The biggest one that I can think of in the ‘church’ is the myth that man ‘chooses’ Christ or that he has the free will to do so. These same people have ‘itching ears’ that want to be give a gospel they can grab onto and because of that they ‘accumulate’ or follow teachers…preachers, authors, speakers, etc…that give them what they want to hear. They have turned away from truth and wouldn’t sit still to listen to it and they sure wouldn’t go back for a second helping. I sat in one such ‘church’ building about a year ago and heard the preacher tell the audience that whatever part of the Bible made them angry was the very part they needed to spend time in. I would have to agree with that preacher on that. But I’d also have to ask the question…why? Why does that part of Scripture make you angry? What is it about that part of Scripture that makes you angry? Are you scared? Threatened? Do you see something there that shakes what you believe? Why? I saw a headline online a few days ago that said a ‘church’ is ordaining homosexual ministers. I have to ask if that really sounds like a ‘church’ but then I would have to ask…is there any part of the Bible that makes those so-called ministers angry? And if so…why does it make them angry? Could those so-called ministers walk into a church of true regenerate believers and be allowed to preach or teach any sort of message? How long would they last before someone interrupted their message to correct them using the very Scriptures that probably inflame their anger? And so there are entire ‘churches’ that meet to support and encourage one another in the very sins that the true church would reject outright. The people that go to those ‘churches’ do so because their false teachers pat them on the back and tell them that what they believe is okay instead of telling them that they’re living in sin and they need to repent and beg the Lord to save them from their very sins. But it isn’t just the obvious things like homosexuality that falls into this category. There are entire ‘churches’ formed around certain lifestyles. The rich go to ritzy  ‘churches’, cowboys go to cowboy ‘churches’, country folks go to country ‘churches’. They all have their catagories and they pretty much stay within the ‘church’ that best supports their lifestyles. A farmer isn’t going to go to a ‘church’ that frowns on dirt getting on their fancy floor more than a time or two if he’s having to go straight from the field to the ‘church’. He will soon find a ‘church’ that welcomes him, dirt and all. Sin is the same way. The sinner is the farmer that’s looking for a ‘church’ that will welcome him sins and all. What does that say of the preacher of the church that welcomes the sin into their midst instead of rebuking the sinner and teaching him the Truth of Scripture? What does it say of the ‘church’ that embraces the sinner and his sins with open arms because ‘God would love him’? They are false ‘churches’ being led by false teachers and being fed a false gospel that caters to their wants instead of to the Truth.

 

Accepting what the Bible condemns

Social media is one of those things that I can’t quite figure out if I like or not. I never intended to be a part of it, was adamantly against it, but wound up joining it because I found myself in a place where there wasn’t much of an option. Now that I’m on it, I’ve discovered that it not only lets me stay in touch with far off family members but it also gives me an outlet for sharing the things I believe in.

And sometimes…

It gives me ideas for things to blog about. That is the case with this post. Someone I really don’t know put something on their social media page that caught my attention. It was one of those articles that could have been so good but wasn’t. Still…I didn’t know what exactly it was about or what the beliefs of the author were when I started reading. I made it all the way through the article but found my interest fading out after the first couple of paragraphs. Why is it that so many so-called ‘Christian’ articles can manage to make the first couple of paragraphs sound good, like maybe they’ll be Biblically sound, only to fall over a cliff about three paragraphs in? At that point some of them really sound like they’re making up stories than trying to convey Biblical truth. Such was the case with this article.

My attention was snagged with the headline. It was about Christians accepting what the Bible condemns. That should have been good, right?

Should have been was the operative description because in truth it wasn’t good. I wanted it to be though. I wanted it to be one of those articles that you start reading and you find you can not only identify with what the author is saying but that you’re encouraged and edified at the same time. That’s what I wanted. It wasn’t what I got.

Now I find myself thinking on the original question, the title of the article.

Why do Christians accept what the Bible condemnss?

Why do Christians accept what the Christ died for?

The answer is we don’t. There are Christians and then there are ‘Christians’. There are true regenerate followers of Christ that have been transformed by the Lord into what He wants them to be and then there are those that claim to follow Christ while following the world instead.

According to the article I read 70% of Americans are ‘Christians’. I can’t seem to find an accurate number on just what percentage of Americans claim to be Christians. Everything I read seems to give a different number. Since the article I just read gave a percentage of 70%, and because that is the lowest number I’ve seen, I’m going to use that number for this post.

So…70% of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Presumably that means they believe in the Bible and what it teaches. Why then, do so many Americans openly support things which the Bible clearly says is wrong? Why do these ‘Christians’ accept and even promote what the Bible clearly teaches against?

Because they aren’t Christians. They’re ‘Christians’, or professing ‘Christians’, and there’s a big difference.

I know very few regenerate Christians but the one’s I do know would no more promote the things the article spoke of than they would deny Christ.

The article I read said that nearly ¾ of the ‘Christians’ polled said that sex outside marriage was okay and that being homosexual was okay.

Sexual immorality is clearly spoken against in the Bible. Over and over again. How then can a ‘Christian’ be okay with it in any form?

After giving those statistics the article went on to say that many of the Christians didn’t know their Bible.

I have to ask…does a person have to be well read Biblically to know that the Bible opposes sexual immorality? It’s kind of like lying and murder. Most people seem to understand, seem to have absorbed through our culture, that God is against those things, that Christians aren’t supposed to do them.

The summer before I went into the second grade my mother enrolled me in a Christian school. After I was enrolled but before school started a friend told me to say something that wasn’t bad but wasn’t nice either…maybe it was the word stupid…I really don’t remember exactly what it was but know it wasn’t what I knew to be a bad word. I told that friend that I couldn’t say that because I was about to go to a Christian school and saying things like that would be wrong.

No one had told me I wasn’t allowed to talk like that. No one had said that saying such a word went against God or the Bible. I just inherently knew it to be true. In my seven year old mind that was something that Christians didn’t do.

Everyone I’ve ever been around seemed to inherently know that sexual sin was wrong from a Christian perspective. They may have been okay with it, may have participated in it, may have promoted it, but when it came right down to it they understood that it was wrong.

And yet a poll said that almost ¾ of those questioned were okay with it.

And the person writing the article wrote their responses off as the fact that most ‘Christians’ don’t know their Bibles.

It doesn’t take knowing your Bible to know that sexual sin goes against Christianity. That’s something we just seem to absorb.

But it gets worse. I think I could more easily accept the first excuse than the second.

Christians are rejecting Biblical morals.

What?!!!!!!

Really?

A ‘Christian’ that rejects Biblical morals is rejecting the God they claim to follow. That wasn’t a new revelation for me. I’ve known it was happening for some time. I’ve seen it in people I know. What got me was the way it was written off as an easy explanation by the author of this article. The author as easily wrote off the fact that ‘Christians’ are doing these things as the ‘Christians’ that are accepting what the Bible condemnss. The author didn’t reject unacceptable explanations, they accepted them as fact and being the reason that ‘Christians’ are accepting that which is Biblically wrong. Never once did the author question whether or not the ‘christians’ were in fact Christians. Never once did they wonder if maybe some of these people may not be what they thought they were, what they claimed to be.

Can you reject the morals of the Bible and still be a Christian? Can you reject the rules the Lord put into place for us and still belong to Christ?

The Bible tells us…

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Corinthians 13:5

Should we say something?

I’ll be the first person to admit there are lots of things I don’t understand in Scripture. Or maybe a better way of putting it is there are lots of things I don’t yet know from Scripture. My husband proves this to me almost daily. His knowledge of the Scriptures so far surpasses mine that it often amazes me.

I love to sit and listen to him talk about Scripture.

There is very little I find as enjoyable as being able to hear him talk about Scripture. I love to do Bible study with him for that very reason.

In my extended family I am now considered the person to go to when someone has a question about Scripture. It’s commonly understood that I will know the answer. Even if I don’t. I understand that reasoning because I feel the same way about my husband. I must admit to being a bit surprised the first time he told me he didn’t know the answer to some question about Scripture. I simply wasn’t used to him not knowing.

The problem…for me…with my family looking to me for Scriptural answers is that they don’t see Scripture the same way I do. And that can…and does…pose problems. I had to tell my sister not all that long ago that I would try and help her with a bulletin for her ‘church’ building but that I may not be able to do it because the very nature of what she was asking me to make went against how I see Scripture and how I believe.

But she was my sister and she needed my help.

The best I could do was a basic invitation to their services. It wasn’t what my sister wanted. She wanted something saying how much God loves everyone and when they’re feeling alone all they have to do is believe. Then she wanted the sinner’s prayer.

And I couldn’t do any of that.

In the end we were both satisfied, if not happy, with the bulletin I was able to make for her. She got what she needed even if it didn’t say what she wanted it to and I was able to help her.

I recently found myself in the same spot but for a different reason. Someone was telling me about how her preacher came to see her and her new baby in the hospital. How that preacher had prayed over the baby.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think all of that is great. The fact that he went to the hospital showed he cared about the people he’s supposed to be serving. And prayer is always a good thing. What I found I had trouble with was the way this woman talked about it. Like her baby had been blessed because this preacher came and prayed over it.

And I found myself wondering when it’s better to just keep quiet…which is my standard response to situations like that…and when it’s best to speak up. I’ve found myself wondering the same thing on social media here lately. There’s someone that’s very big into the name it and claim it type belief that is friends with me online. I used to mostly just ignore the posts from this person but here lately I’ve found myself wondering if I’m failing as a true follower of Christ if I just ignore those situations.

I don’t want to speak up and I sure don’t want to be drawn into some kind of online debate but…is there a point when we really should say something?

The person I’m friends with online that posts all the name it and claim it type of posts is someone I don’t know. I’ve never spoken to this person in real life or online. We’re simply friends because we had a number of common friends. I know nothing about this person except that she seems to believe strongly in what she believes and that she not only seems to take comfort in what she’s posting but from the nature of some of her posts I get the impression she truly believes she can bless other people by posting things online, things that include prayers with requests for blessings for the person reading them.

For the most part I have no problem not saying anything, not responding, to those posts. I’m glad that she seems to find comfort in something. But then I wonder where does my place as a Christian come in? Even then I am able to leave her with her beliefs and not get involved. I have enough posts online that if she looks at what I’ve posted she will see a different side of things. Whether or not she believes it is in the Lord’s hands.

But what about family? I have family members that profess a belief in Christ that have no idea what I believe. Those are the people that truly leave me wondering when it’s time to say something and when it’s time to keep quiet. I do not think that those family members would believe any differently if I shared my beliefs with them but who am I to know that?

When is it time to share those beliefs? And when is it best to keep quiet?

The 'God' of Arminianism

There was a time when I thought that idols were the little gold statues, or big statues, that are worshipped in other religions. I know now that idols are much more than that. Those are idols, sure, but so are the many, many other things both physical and mental that are put before God.

I was recently in a large city where there stood on every street corner…or so it seemed…large ‘church’ buildings. These buildings were look-at-me buildings. They may or may not have been designed with the intent to draw a person’s attention but the sheer size of them made sure that they caught your attention.

I’ve driven through neighborhoods with houses made on the same scale. Whatever the owner’s reason for building or buying such a huge house it’s quite impossible to drive past one and not notice that it’s there.

And that’s just houses.

            I’ve seen cars that you couldn’t pass without looking at them, whether you liked them or not there was something…the color, the size, the number of toys in the window, the bumper stickers plastered on it…something that drew your attention. How about stores? Playgrounds? Restaurants? The list goes on and on. As you drive through any town, any area, there will be something that draws your attention. On an old country road with no buildings in sight your attention may be drawn to the biggest tree, the brightest flower, or the deepest pothole, but whatever it is…your attention will go to something.

In nature your focus is at least on that which the Lord created. A Christian might drive down that country road or walk through those woods and think about the One who created such a display. But even a Christian is hard pressed to find the Lord in the midst of the look-at-me everything’s that our society has built.

My mind goes time and again to those large ‘church’ buildings. I’ve written of them before and will probably write of them again. They simply stand out in such an extreme way that it’s hard not to think of them.

There’s no doubt in my mind that those huge ‘church’ buildings are idols or at least a place to worship an idol. The building wasn’t built to worship the Christ that was born into this world in a barn. They weren’t put there to worship the God that hates the wicked.

The God I spoke of could care less about big buildings. He’s more concerned with the condition of hearts than of outward appearances. He’d rather have one of His true Children worship him from a cardboard box than a million idolaters from inside a monstrous building.

There is no building that can get anyone closer to Christ.

But it isn’t just buildings that serve as idols in the eyes of those that claim to worship Him. I could probably write a blog post every day for a year on a different something that is worshipped, that’s an idol, and I’d still have so many more things to write about that I could fill another year with daily posts.

The other day my husband said that our country has reached the point of being lovers of pleasure.

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. ² For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. 2 Timothy 3:1-5

            They will become lovers of pleasure… What in our society hasn’t come to the point of pleasure? What hasn’t moved from serving a purpose in our life to being pleasure? Hunting has gone from a way to feed ones family to a sport. Fishing has done the same thing. Cars have gone from a means of getting from one place to another to a hobby. Clothes are collected to the point of overflowing closets and dressers rather than having just enough to clothe us. And the list goes on.

            I was surprised to discover the other day that there is…at least one…entire website complete with forums dedicated to a certain kind of ink pen. I knew there were websites with forums for flashlights, cloth diapers, parenting, fertility, child raising… But a pen? What can anyone find to talk about a pen enough to dedicate a whole website to it? But there it was before me. When I stumbled on it I took the time to look around. Who wouldn’t? What is there to say about a pen?

            As it turned out…pretty much what you’d expect. Designs, colors, types of ink, colors of ink, ways to use the pen…

            If that’s anything short of idolatry I’m not sure I want to know what it is. Basically if your mind is captured by something…anything…you can probably find a website, and mega store, to support it.

            But it isn’t just things that become idols. It can be a person, a place, or even the way you worship.

            I recently wrote a post on Arminianism. I don’t mind admitting that I felt ill equipped to write that post. I simply didn’t know enough about Arminianism to feel like I could adequately cover it but the need to write on that topic was there and with research I learned what I needed to know to turn out that post.

            It wasn’t until after I finished the post that I began to think of something else. I wrote the facts and my thoughts in that post but I failed to take note of a rather large…rather glaring…detail.

            The Arminian belief is idolatry.

Yes, I said it. It is idolatry. I grew up with that belief, have written many times of how I was taught to believe as a child. I know that other people hold different beliefs than my family did. I know that they practice those beliefs in different ways.

But I’ve noticed something among those that hold to the Arminian belief system. Some of them hold so fast to what they believe that they simply won’t accept correction. Not even if it’s delivered straight from the pages of the Bible.

 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16

How does a person that professes to believe in the Bible refuse to take correction straight from the pages of the Book they claim to base their most basic beliefs on, claim to learn from?

I’m not saying all Arminian’s are this way, I’m saying some of them are. I know there are others that are easily swayed from one type of belief to another and yet they all hold fast to the same basic belief that if you accept Christ then you are saved. I don’t know enough about the various denominations to be able to give examples of how they all do it but the general consensus seems to be that you must accept Christ to be saved.

That belief puts the individual and their decision, their choice, their free will, above God. And that becomes idolatry.

2 Timothy 3:6-7 goes on to say…

For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, ⁷ always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

Something I learned while I was reading about Arminianism was how Arminius started it. He accepted a position to teach at a University that held to reformed beliefs. He pledged that he believed the same way. Then while teaching what was required in his classes he turned around and handed out private…confidential…papers that taught Arminianism.

He was a sneak. He didn’t just stand up and admit what he believed then try to teach it to those that wanted to hear it. He crept into a University teaching reformed faith and secretly taught something that went against, not only his job, but the very Bible he supposedly believed. He led students that trusted what he said was truth astray by teaching them a different doctrine than the one they were supposed to hear at the University.

He poisoned their minds under cover.

And today the things he taught are the number one type of Christianity in America. What he taught under cover in the late 1500’s is now being openly taught in ‘churches’ across the country. It’s filling books and movies. It’s even infiltrated the Bible to the point that one must be careful when buying a Bible with any kind of manmade notes in it lest they get one filled with the same heresy written within its pages.

That is idolatry.

 Arminianism has become synonymous with Christianity. When a person hears the term Christian they think of the Arminian belief. When most people hear the name God they think of the ‘God’ of Arminianism.

And anytime we think of anything higher than we think of God…it’s idolatry.

We’re warned time and again in Scripture to have no other gods, that our God is a jealous God, that idolatry is punishable by eternity in hell and yet…Arminianism is taught as the way to Christ. Those that hold to the Arminian beliefs scoff at those that see the Bible as it is really written. They call the regenerate Christians that try to teach them the dangers of their erroneous beliefs all sorts of names and often kick them out of their ‘church’ buildings.

If their beliefs are the right ones according to Scripture then why do they need to remove those that are using Scripture to point out something other than what they believe? Why can’t they simply use the Bible to contradict the reformed belief being presented to them?

Because idolatry isn’t easily given up. No idol is. And because most of them don’t know the Bible well enough to be able to use it to contradict anything.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21

The Arminian belief in ‘God’ is an idol that gets them no closer to Christ than does total disbelief. What’s worse is that in all their certainty…many are still going to hell.

What would the Armenians say about any religion that believed something that went against the Bible? What would they say about a person that believed their salvation lay in anything other than Jesus? And yet they believe strongly in a system of religion that is based on

a gospel that isn’t taught in the Bible. The gospel that was once taught by Arminius and is now so widely accepted and believed was easily seen as being something other than the true Gospel in the 1500’s. Today it is what is considered by most to be the gospel of the Bible.

Arminius’ beliefs catered to the flesh and became popular with in the secular world but was seen by the Church as a heresy, as false doctrine. Arminius was very much a wolf in sheeps clothing. He slipped into a University where only reformed faith was taught, lied about his beliefs to secure a position there, then quietly and secretly set about spreading his beliefs.

These were brand new beliefs, beliefs that Arminius himself held and wanted to share. Like a burgler in the night he snuck into places he wasn’t wanted and took what wasn’t his. He spread lies and gained believers.

How?

Because the belief he shared was something that the secular mind could grab onto. It was a ‘god’ that anyone could have. It was a ‘god’ that man need only to accept to gain acceptance by. Where the reformed church taught the Truth which stated that man can only be saved by God and that unless God saved him he had no way of attaining salvation, Arminius changed all that with a ‘god’ that man need only accept and choose to follow.

No wonder the Arminian belief is so popular today. No wonder it has thousands, millions, of followers. The modern day ‘church’ in America has not only embraced the Arminian belief they have grabbed onto it with both hands and refused to let go. It’s a life raft for a drowning person. It’s hope when there is no hope.

The modern American ‘church’ has not only grabbed onto the Arminian belief…they are chasing after it in large crowds. They’re selling books, movies, and music that promote the belief’s they hold dear. They have conferences and conventions that uplift and encourage, they have revivals, they have Bible studies, schools, colleges, that all promote the Arminian belief.

And they promote a belief that is an idol and not the real Gospel. They promote a ‘God’ that isn’t the God of the Bible.

People that hold to the Arminian belief go into countries where people are desperate for help, they promote the same ‘gospel’ that Arminius did so many years ago, and they ‘convert’ hundreds and thousands of people to a belief system that’s false. Then they report on the vast number of people that have been reached ‘for Christ’.

All this is done because the Lord allows it to happen. It’s done for reasons we can’t know. I have no doubt that the Lord is using the Arminian system to save some of His elect…I’m proof of that.

But it’s still a religious system that not only believes in a false doctrine…they try and share it with as many people as they possibly can.

Years ago mothers used to take their children to what was known as chicken pox parties. The idea behind those parties was that children needed to catch the chicken pox while they were young so when one child came down with them other parents deliberately exposed their child to them in the hope that they would catch them and get them over with.

Arminianism is much like a chicken pox party only most of them don’t realize they’re spreading a false gospel. They ‘catch’ Jesus and then want to spread to it as many people as they possibly can. So they go from house to house trying to share their gospel, they go into impoverished countries offering to help the people there but in exchange those people have to listen to the beliefs they hold dear. They share their ‘Jesus’ and count the number of converts that ‘catch’ him.

And it’s a success because the numbers keep climbing. Their brand of chicken pox has reached epidemic proportion and they keep spreading it.

Never knowing that they’re spreading lies to millions of people. What they believe in gives them hope on earth and they want others to have it. There’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone needs something to hope in. The problem comes in that what they hope in isn’t there. And when you hope in something that isn’t there…there is no hope.

It’s all a smokescreen that serves no purpose.

‘Here is my ‘Jesus’, accept Him and you will go to heaven with me. We’ll be together in eternity.’ Only their ‘Jesus’ doesn’t save people. He can’t save people because he must wait for them to save themselves. The heaven they think they’ve bought into isn’t waiting for them because it’s being set aside for those that Christ has saved.

The same ‘Jesus’ that they’re sharing with anyone and everyone is so sought after because he supports the secular mind. He allows them to live as they want, to continue to chase after bigger and better things. Their ‘Jesus’ is proud of their big tabernacles they call ‘churches’ and he applauds the sheer numbers of converts that ‘catch’ him. Their ‘Jesus’ is a god of the flesh that puts few if any demands on how they live their lives.

And he is happy when they sell him in their ‘Christian’ books. Happy when they portray him in their movies. Happy when they sing about him in their music.

Whole stores have been opened dedicated to selling the ‘Christianity’ of Arminius. Walk into one of those stores and you must look long and hard to find anything that promotes the true Gospel. Where in that store filled with ‘Christian’ materials is the real Christ? ‘Christians’ are turning out books and other materials sold in those stores at a rate that nearly rivals those in the secular world. ‘Christians’ are making millions off their ‘Christian’ bookstores and the things that are sold there. They’re making millions off false teachings that are spreading heresy.

And the ‘Jesus’ of Arminianism thinks it’s wonderful.

Hollywood, and its miniature versions coming from wherever they come from, have discovered that there’s money to be made in ‘Christian’ movies and they’re turning them out. Some of the more recent so-called ‘Christian’ movies are nearly impossible to find any form of God in them. But people are making millions off these ‘Christian’ films and ‘Christians’ are flocking to them.

And the ‘Jesus’ of Arminianism is thrilled because he is being sold to so many people.

The Arminian ‘Jesus’ is being taught in the seminaries, new preachers are being turned out ready to spread their ‘Jesus’ to anyone that will listen. They’ve been taught where to find their ‘Jesus’ in the Bible and how to teach him to the masses. New ministers are ready to go out and spread ‘Jesus’ far and wide. They’re ready to teach him from their pulpits to people that trust everything they say to be true. They’re ready to push him further by instructing the children they encounter by teaching them ‘Jesus loves you’.

And the ‘Jesus’ of Arminianism loves it.

Arminius taught a religion that the secular mind could grasp and grab onto. The modern day preacher teaches the same religion. It was a religion based on the work of man when Arminius taught it and it is a religion based on the works of man today.

Arminianism has been called many things from great to ‘deep darkness’ (Johnathan Edwards). I think I like the term deep darkness best. There are many people out there that believe in nearly anything but Christ. They chase their ‘gods’, and their beliefs that there is no God but I think for me the saddest part is when they come so close. Some Arminians have a deep belief in their ‘Jesus’. Some of them change their lives for him.

I heard a reformed preacher once say…they will get to heaven and say I was so close. It was there before me.

Armenians are so close. They know that Jesus is the Son of God. They believe that He is. And yet their belief is not in the Jesus that the Bible teaches it’s in a Jesus that they’ve made up in their own minds.

It’s in a ‘Jesus’ that is nothing sort of an idol that stands in the place of Christ. Their ‘Jesus’ hangs on their walls, speaks on their shirts, walls, and cars. Their ‘Jesus’ encourages the spreading of him to as many uninfected people as they can reach.

Let me ask you something…Does that sound like the Jesus of the Bible? It is the Christ that taught that he came not to bring peace but a sword? Is it the Christ that said if they hated me they will hate you?

Christians are told not to worship idols…

Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves molded gods: I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 19:4

That hasn’t changed. God’s people have always been forbidden from worshipping idols. Idols are anything that are placed as more important than Christ in our lives. They are things that take His place in our hearts and minds and lives. They are what we seek after, what we chase after.

There are gods for just about anything man can think up. ‘Gods’ of fertility, gods of the stars, gods of prosperity. There are gods of money, gods of things, gods of loved ones…dead and alive.

Their land is also full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. Isaiah 2:8

Arminianism is just as much idolatry as the worshipping of golden statues. It’s idolatry because it is worshipping a god that doesn’t exist. It’s idolatry because it’s being spread like a disease to those that are desperate for hope in a depraved world. It’s idolatry because it takes the place of Christ and gives credit to a ‘God’ that isn’t the God of the Bible.

Scriptures warns that idols are not to be worshipped. Anything that is worshipped in the place of the one true God is an idol and should be seen as such. But the Arminian ‘God’ can’t be seen that way because he is promoted as being the God of the Bible.

This ‘God’ isn’t the God of the Bible. He holds little resembalence to the God of the Bible even though that ‘God’ did many of the same things that God did. That ‘God’ created the earth. That ‘God’ sent His Son to earth to die for sins. That God can be learned about in the pages of the same Bible that the real God can be.

That ‘God’ takes what God is and changes Him into some idea of what ‘God’ should be based on man’s ideas. The God of the Bible is pushed aside, ignored, laughed at…forgotten…to make way for the ‘God’ of man, the ‘God’ of Arminianism.

Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. Jeremiah 18:15

They have forgotten God.

When Arminianism was first being taught Arminius was investigated. His beliefs were seen as lies, they were seen as the heresy that they are. Today most people in the American ‘church’ don’t know that there’s any other God than the one that’s being taught from their pulpits.

I grew up in ‘church’ buildings, surrounded by ‘Christians’, even went to a ‘Christian’ school and yet I had no idea that the ‘God’ I was taught loved me was a ‘God’ that others said wasn’t the God of the Bible. I never knew until long after the Lord had changed the way I understood Scripture that the ‘God’ I had grown up believing in didn’t exist. I’ve known many other ‘Christians’ in the Arminian system that don’t know there’s any other God than the one that they’ve been taught. Though they hold the Word of God in their hands they simply have no idea that what they’ve essentially been brainwashed to believe doesn’t exist within the pages of the very Book they base their entire belief on.

Most of them wouldn’t know the term Arminian if you asked them what it meant. It was a term I never heard uttered in the many years, the many ‘churches’, I was a part of that system.

The ‘Jesus’ of Arminianism is a well guarded idol  and most of his followers have no idea that he is nothing more than an imaginary idol created hundreds of years ago by a man that promoted him in secret.

Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy. Jonah 2:8

How many people lose all hope of mercy when they believe in this ‘Jesus’ that doesn’t exist? How many place their faith in a ‘God’ that will do nothing for them? How many ‘Christians’ that spent their lives believing in, teaching about, ‘Jesus’ are in hell right now?

How many of them cry from the depths of torture ‘I was so close’?

What of the ‘God’ that wants only good things for you? What of the ‘God’ that allows you to claim all the blessings of this life? What of the ‘God’ that encourages chasing the things of the world?

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul… Matthew 16:26

Does that sound like a God that wants you to have prosperity on earth? Does it sound like a God that wants to give man the many blessings this earth has to offer? Or is it a god made up in the secular mind of man? A god that has been created to cater to the earthly desires of man?

What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, the molded image, a teacher of lies, that the maker of its mold should trust in it, to make mute idols? Habakkuk 2:18

What profit is an image of god that isn’t God? What good does it do to have a god that can’t save the people he supposedly loves? How powerful is a god who sits back with tied hands awaiting man to come to him before he can act on their behalf?

But more than that, notice the words in the middle of the above verse… a teacher of lies. That is exactly what Arminius was…a teacher of lies…and it is what those that continue to teach the Arminian belief are. They are teachers of lies.

Teachers of half-truths, deceptions, outright lies, that they go around teaching to others, filling their heads with those things until they can’t see that there’s any mistruth to them.

Where does such a deception come from?

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8:44

I have heard many a preacher tell his audience that if the devil isn’t afflicting them then they aren’t ‘right with God’ because the devil doesn’t need to try to tempt those that aren’t ‘right with God’. Based off that statement…I have to ask…does the devil even need to mess with the ‘church’ in America today? His lies were spread far and wide and the many believers have fallen victim to them, they worship a god that doesn’t exist, they hold to doctrines that aren’t true, and they refuse to believe the ‘lies’ of people that try and show them the God of the Bible.

Idolatry is rampant in what is commonly believed to be ‘God’s’ people. They worship a god that doesn’t exist and because their god allows it…they worship many of the things of the world. Their god is a god of the secular mind, a god that lets them live as they want to and hold fast to ‘god’ at the same time.

People study the Bible, think on its verses, interpret them with their ideas of what they should be instead of seeing them for what they are, they write it in books, put it in movies, teach it as gospel…and other people grab onto it like it’s a rope thrown to a drowning man.

Christians are to keep themselves from idols…

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. 1 John 5:21

We are to keep ourselves from idols whether they are physical idols or mental, real or imaginary. God hates idolatry. He specifically spoke against it in the Ten Commandments, warned against it time and again in Scripture, gave examples of what it is.

Idols are imaginary gods made up by man’s deprived mind to give the sinner something to focus on because he can’t focus on Christ. No matter what the idol is, what form it takes, it is simply something that takes the place of Christ. Idols are useless things that serve no purpose beyond the need that the unregenerate place on them. They have one purpose…that of leading people far from Christ. Sinners minds and hearts are so busy following after their idols that they have no room for Christ.

Arminianism is an idol that pulls people far away from the real God and gives them a ‘god’ that they can grab onto.  It gives them a ‘god’ that has no real value, a ‘god’ that is held captive by the will of man, a ‘god’ that can do nothing unless man allows him to. A ‘god’ that serves the whims of man, a ‘god’ that caters to his desires, a ‘god’ that is what man wants him to be.

You can find this ‘god’ in just about any place that you see the term ‘christian’. If you don’t like the ‘god’ that’s in one ‘Christian’ establishment you can shop around until you find the kind of ‘god’ that you like.

That ‘god’ has no value beyond what man places on him. That ‘god’ does nothing for man’s soul. That ‘god’ gets his believers no closer to salvation than they were when they caught him.

Years ago while attending an Arminian ‘church’ I was taught that the earth is only a battle ground where souls are tested so that it can be figured out which ones follow Satan and which ones follow Jesus. That isn’t what I believe now but it was widely taught in that ‘church’ building. Earth was essentially seen as a war zone between Jesus and the devil. People were put here so that Jesus could know who followed Him that way only those that believed in Him would make it into heaven.

Let me say…I do not believe that way, I’m not sure I ever did, but it was taught in a ‘church’ I went to.

But…if a person subscribed to that philosophy…why would the devil need to do anything in the modern American ‘church’? The battle for souls has already been won there…if it were a battle…because the masses of people that flock to their buildings, that fill their pews, believe in a ‘god’ that doesn’t exist. There’s no need to fight over something you already own.

The truth of why man was put on earth is far different than the reason that was given in that ‘church’. There is no battle because God doesn’t need to fight for those that are His.

But if things were as that ‘church’ said…why would the devil have to battle when he’s already won?

The Bible is clear that idolaters will go to hell. Those in the idolatry of the Arminian belief are already lost. If earth were a battle ground the war for those souls is over.

Sadly, that’s just one of many of the false teachings served up in the Arminian ‘church’. The ‘deep darkness’ of the Arminian belief system perpetuates that which does not come from Scripture and they do so at an alarming pace, converting as many as they can to their belief.

And many of them do so in ignorance.

Will ignorance save them from condemnation from the God that they don’t serve? Scripture says it won’t.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Hosea 4:6

Week after week, service after service, the ‘god’ of Arminianism is worshipped, often in ignorance. He’s perpetuated far and wide. He’s accepted and revered while the true God of the Bible is forgotten.

I don’t know about you but I find the verses about God forgetting our children, or visiting the iniquity of the fathers onto the children… I don’t know what it makes me feel exactly other than the fact that it is a vivid reminder of the power of God and how far He will go in His wrath against the wicked.

He will forget the children because the parents forgot Him. While Arminians believe they are worshipping God, they have…instead…no knowledge of Him. The ‘God’ they worship is not the God of the Bible.

You shall have no other gods before^[me. Exodus 20:3         

… for I the Lord your God am a jealous God…Exodus 20:5

If you read through Exodus 20:3-5 you get a very clear picture of what God thinks of idolatry…

You shall have no other gods before me. ⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me

Those verses pretty much spell out the whole of idolatry. Have no gods before me. Do not bow down to serve them. I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children…of those who hate me.

God equates idolatry with hating him and the punishment doesn’t stop with the person that commits it but is passed onto the children for three and four generations.

Arminianism is serving a ‘god’ that isn’t the God of the Bible. It’s idolatry. It’s worshipping a ‘god’ that doesn’t exisit. And it’s being taught to people in a repetitious cycle that is passed from parent to child.

Does that sound like a god that loves his people or does it sound like the wrath of a God that is punishing not only the parents but the children too?

As I write this post I find myself thinking of what I wrote toward the beginning. The god of Arminianism was created in the mind of a man, he was taught to others through deceit and lies, through sneaking. He crept into the minds of young people that were deceived by lies. That ‘god’ is now considered to be the living ‘God’ of ‘Christianity.’ He lives in the hearts and minds of people that claim to put their faith in Christ. He is taught from their pulpits, in their movies, in their books, in their songs, and in their Bibles.

Stop and think about that for a brief moment. The Arminian ‘God’ was created in the mind of a man.

That ‘God’ must be happy about that.

The Arminian ‘God’ has taken over the God of the Bible as the ‘God’ of ‘Christianity’.

Their ‘God’ must be happy about that.

The Arminian ‘God’ lives in the hearts and minds of people that claim to seek God.

Their ‘God’ must be happy about that.

The Arminian ‘God’ is taught from their pulpits and in their entertainment.

Their ‘God’ must be happy about that.

Now I ask you…Does their ‘God’ sound like God…or does it sound like lies that have been fed to people. Does it sound like God or does it sound like a warped version of God? Does it sound like God or…

Satan?