Ephesians 4:11-12
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Through my ten years of walking in the newness of life, I have encountered the good and bad and the ugly in the church. By keeping Scripture as always the ultimate authority, discernment can be reached with any teacher of God’s word. Some teachers may sound passionate, great and sound in Christ, but careful listening will discover that some are not edifying the body of God or equipping the saints, but teaching a false gospel and propping up themselves to a lustful world. Remember always that a little truth in a teaching will not cover up the rot of a false gospel. It is either 100 percent true by Scripture’s ultimate test, or it is a false teaching and be discarded and that teacher exposed so as to warn others especially new believers who can be trapped into that false doctrine.

Below is a brief list of some of the main resources I have personally turned to of which I believe closely aligns with the Apostolic and Biblical Gospel God had taught me through Scripture, and the systematic doctrinal teaching through the whole Bible which is necessary for equipping and edifying the body of Christ. I found these teachers quite HELPFUL in convicting me to learn and to study doctrines carefully by the authority of Scripture. Each are a different in personality as expected, but they all align and teach the doctrines of the Biblical Gospel.

You can find their teaching sermons on Sermonaudio.com, Youtube, or a Google search of their websites.

Voddie Baucham Ministries – Pastor Voddie is highly recommended. He does not mince his words and will be straight forward with the Gospel and Scripture. I personally recommend his series on the Book of Revelation if you find yourself struggling to understand this book. He is a solid hermeneutics teacher and uses systematic context as his guide, never his personal opinions. A sermon I highly recommend listening to from him is called “Brokenness”, but all of his sermons are serious, to the point, and quite passionate and edifying. I have learned much in witnessing the Gospel through Baucham.

Grace to You – John MacArthur – Mr. MacArthur was one of the first resources I listened to upon my rebirth. I heard this guy on the radio in my former life which I know now looking back God was drawing me to. MacArthur teaches the Biblical Gospel. One very strong thing I found with his particular teachings is that on the gty.org website, he has the actual pdf – written words of his sermons which go back almost 50 years. One can read along as he speaks, and see the actual verse references, stop the sermon, study, and continue. I learned much on some passages and verses which were a little harder to understand this way. MacArthur always points to God’s word as the ultimate authority and asks the listener to discern him by this. You can listen to a sermon of his from 40-50 years ago, and it will remain relevant because he sticks to teaching from Scripture, and is not distracted by tradition. One of my favorite powerful sermons of his is “Looking at the Cross through God’s perspective” he preached in 1991.

Patrick Hines – Bridwell Heights Presbyterian Church http://www.bridwellheightspca.org/sermons.html – I will admit that this resource is fairly new, but in just a week I have already learned much from Patrick Hines. He is a solid Gospel teacher, and will not mince words or try to confuse the listener. His authority being Scripture will confirm many things you are being taught, but gives you more in the logical equipping department from God’s word especially on God’s sovereignty and also the discerning of false gospels which you may have overlooked. He is also quite good with giving new resources you may have not heard about to edify your walk. I would call him a diamond in the rough as you may not have heard of him, and I would say the endearing thing about Hines is that he is not clamoring to be a celebrity preacher, but a humble preacher of God’s word and takes his responsibility quite serious.

James White – Alpha and Omega Ministries Pastor White is a solid Gospel teacher. And if there was a source I could point you to of which would equip you how to witness to Roman Catholics and answer their questions, White would be one of the first ones recommended. He has debated several renowned Catholic apologists through the years, and I have learned many things from him on church history and different approaches to refute false Catholic doctrines. He is also quite good in teaching on God’s sovereignty. If I had a criticism of him, is that sometimes he can get distracted in his podcasts on other things which makes it hard to listen to at times. At times, he tends to be drawn in by critics of him and sometimes will appease instead of convict, but concerning the main cog of the Gospel, White is a good resource.

RC Sproul – Steve Lawson – Ligonier Ministries – The late RC Sproul was a very logical Gospel preacher. With MacArthur, he was one I turned to in the beginning of my walk with Jesus. Sproul will come across as more of an intellectual if you listen to his sermons, but this is good in our discernment and equipping. Steve Lawson who learned from Sproul, is also a high powered teacher of the Gospel. This resource does quite well in explaining the sovereignty of God and the understanding of it through a systematic context as to equip you in order to explain it. If you manage to hear the entire series from Sproul/Lawson on God’s sovereignty, rest assured you will learn many things you may have not thought of. Sproul made no secret that he would never compromise the Gospel with Rome and was one of the first things that drew me to him. His command of church history is one the best you will hear and learn from. He is highly regarded among all reformed circles. Although he is no longer with us, Sproul’s sermons are readily available online.

Give these guys a try. Turn off the hunk dorky evangelists who do not teach on sin and the holiness of God. I recommend only those who push and convict you to learn more! If you are not growing in your walk, you are dying, so avoid any teaching resource which is not pushing you to grow more and those universalist kind where the Gospel is used as a punchline rather than the POWER of God unto salvation. Gospel teachers are always edifying and equipping, they aren’t your nurse maid or your psychologist or your motivational speaker, as God did not task His teachers in this respect. They equip, they edify, they teach only the word of God, never their mere opinion or from feelings. They command repentance of sin just as Jesus and the Apostles commanded it and do not water down the Gospel for the sake of social easiness.

Lastly, every Gospel teacher from God is accessible. If they are too big in their own sight, a red flag should go up. Such as those who make their teaching all about them, never pointing to Jesus Christ and to Scripture. The true teacher knows that the Gospel is the power unto salvation, and are not the converter, God is. Bear this in mind when you hear one on the radio or a broadcast or even the pastor in your local church. If you are not leaving your fellowship as being equipped by the teachers and instead feeling hollow, empty, and starving in your growth, ask yourself why are you wasting your time there.

There are many false gospels being presented of which can be discerned by Scripture as false. Below is a brief list of the main ones you might encounter which are quite prevalent in the modern religion claiming Christianity. These false gospels DO NOT SAVE, they hold NO POWER unto salvation. If you find yourself encapsulated in any of these, you are most likely on the road to destruction.

1. “You can lose your salvation” Any gospel being preached in the name of Christianity and Jesus Christ which teaches that a sinner once saved can lose their granted eternal life (an oxymoron) is a false gospel. A church which teaches this must be condemned by Gal 1:8-9. Led only by the devil, this false gospel states that Jesus will lose His inheritance, His granted sheep, making His work on the Cross a failure. Eternal means forever, not a temporary state. If you can lose your salvation, this means you are working for your salvation thus you are boasting, whereas Scripture says no one can boast. Any gospel which separates salvation/justification from eternal life is false!

2. “Salvation and eternal life are not the same thing” Many false teachers will try to teach a gospel of works and can be very cunning in this as they separate salvation from eternal life. Meaning they will say a sinner is justified from God by grace through faith, however that is just the start point. The sinner then must do enough works and be completely free of sin by rituals and a penance, of course by perverting God’s grace as the instrument, and in the end they possibly can enter heaven. That there is this long process of justification and then only by a final justification by works a sinner will be granted eternal life which contradicts the Gospel as shown in Scripture completely! REPEATED Any gospel which separates salvation/justification from eternal life is false!

3. “When you die, if saved you must wait to enter in the presence of God” Roman Catholicism will teach an after-death purgatory where the Catholic is purged of remaining sins and by punishment is made clean enough to enter heaven. Some world religions teach a soul sleep, where when you die, you basically await the last Day and then you will see God. Whereas Scripture is clear, if you are saved and granted eternal life, immediately upon physical death your soul will be in the presence of God. There is no separation of the saved sinner to the Savior Jesus Christ.

4. “Scripture has errors and contradictions or is not sufficient” Many false teachers will say the Bible is NOT inerrant. They do this because their doctrines are not testing out in Scripture, so Scripture must be the error or is lacking. The dependence then is on the false teacher who supposedly was given some supernatural enlightenment which will correct those errors and complete the truth God left out. Run from any church who believes God’s word is in error. You see, if a false teacher can convince you that the Bible contains errors and is lacking in sufficiency, you will doubt God at His word and then trust the false teacher instead who will lead you to hell.

5. “All Roads lead to Heaven” I call this the Oprah (Winfrey) or the “unknown” false gospel. It calls on a fallacy that man cannot really know what the judgment of God is, thus if you live a good life no matter what you believe, the road will lead to heaven, that all religions in effect lead to heaven. However, we do know by the plain truth in Scripture that there is just ONE ROAD, through Jesus Christ. John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 affirms this without any confusion. This false gospel plays on human insecurity, ignorance, and unbelief, and tries to omit the perfect work of Jesus Christ and His righteousness as the only means by which one will enter heaven. It may sound good to the wayward sinner on the outside that all roads lead to heaven, but is completely false.

6. “Who am I or you to judge salvation” This false gospel mirrors number 5 above. A guy on Twitter the other day spoke of this gospel as he said on the abortion debate, “how can you judge another, nobody really knows the truth”. This one uses an emotional appeal, and mainly perverts Matthew 7:1-2 where Jesus said “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” However, Jesus is NOT saying “you can’t judge another”, He is teaching to be careful in your judgment. To be absolutely sure in your judgment or you are projecting your own judgment. God has already judged the human race GUILTY of SIN, so calling out that judgment in truth is not going to be any problem for God. If Scripture is your ultimate authority in the judgment, any judgment in Scripture passes God’s test because it is His word, His documented promise.

7. “You need to do good works and be perfect in obedience to be justified by God” Any church preaching that one needs to do something outside of faith in Jesus Christ to be justified by God and by this granted eternal life is teaching a false gospel! This demonic gospel teaches sinners to be saved by the law instead of Jesus Christ. The lie here is to say a sinner can actually be perfect in God’s eyes by the law. But Scripture tells us that if we sinned, we broke ALL of God’s laws, every single one of them. The actual Gospel teaches a sinner enters heaven based on Christ’s righteousness, never by their own flawed sinful righteousness. Romans 5 teaches us that God justifies the ungodly sinner, never the “godly” or it would render the Cross vacant.

8. “You have an ultimate freedom to choose salvation” This false gospel puts the sovereignty over salvation into the hands of the sinner and their self righteousness. The sinner decides, not God, as to if they want to be saved or discard the standing offer. That Jesus Christ’s work on the Cross was just a potential offer, a good try, a billboard display, not really an atonement. Problem is, all of mankind by their sin has decided to reject God. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in Romans 6, that we are either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness (saved). Slaves are not free in nature. It is God who has chosen to either by His mercy grant freedom or to leave them as slaves to sin. God is ALWAYS sovereign over salvation. If you have been chosen by God by nothing you did, how could you boast? If you think you chose to be saved, you are boasting!

9. “God really does not know the future” This false gospel is the natural result of point 8 above. Because if man is ultimately free in nature and can choose salvation based on free-will, God cannot know the choice before the sinner makes the choice. So the consistent logic which is the heresy of demonic open theism would then mean God cannot know the future. However, Scripture clearly shows us that God is omniscient (all-knowing) and is not learning things, He knows the end from the beginning. Man’s attempt by Satan will always try to displace God or make salvation a cooperative effort, when it was always One man’s effort, Jesus Christ’s which saves a sinner.

10. “Salvation comes through only by religiosity, rituals, church attendance” I called this the “Churchianity” false gospel. Churchians believe by their religious involvement they will be saved in the end. They can live like the devil all week long, and by that one hour of church, all is well. Churchians are not Christians. Churchians believe by a little incense, repetitive prayers, singing a few hymns, and the external piousness while in a building complete with a steeple and bells, this would make them “God’s child” or a “Christian”. Having never been born-again, the Churchian’s testimony in Jesus Christ is spiritually void and empty. Churchianity REEKS of hypocrisy to the unbelieving world.

11. “There is no hell, all are ultimately saved” This has been the sounding call from Satan since the beginning. The ploy is to get the sinner to believe that sin does not defile God’s holiness, just as He deceived Eve in the Garden. The “God is love” extreme views will attempt to say “God cannot be a loving God by sending a sinner to eternal punishment”. But then God would be an unjust God, and unholy as well if He looked the other way, and then sent Jesus to the Cross for literally no reason whatsoever. It mirrors Oprah’s “all roads to heaven” false gospel.

12. “Those sins are not sins any longer” The relativism gospel is also a Satan favorite. It attempts to claim that since society has voted on a sin as being normal human behavior, well it can’t be a sin any longer. Proponents of abortion, homosexuality, etc. will play this relativism game. That while God was intolerant of sin, He now is tolerant of many disgusting sins and repentance is merely a suggestion. Roman Catholicism for example will subjectively call some sins lesser as “venial” and some serious sins as “mortal”, teaching the Catholic they can actually die in their lesser sins not completely atoned for and everything will be ok. As Matt 7:21-23 declares, many will call Jesus “Lord” and declare all these great things they did in His name, and He will say “I never knew you, be gone from me you workers of lawlessness”.

Romans 1:24a “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts”

Romans 1:26a “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions”

Romans 1:28b “God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting”

Romans 1 is an awesome case study on the Almighty God’s sovereignty over evil and what is happening in modern society. The Greek phrase “paradidōmi autos paradidōmi” translated as “gave them up’, shows that there is a restraint of evil from God, and in this case it is being lifted.

The clearly contradicts any notion of man being born without a fallen state as many world religions may teach. Man clearly is fallen and it is only by this common grace of God that evil is restrained. Without this restraint and if God loosens it, man’s devices of their fallen heart pursue evil, not Him as some may think and believe.

We see the horrors almost each day of this loosened restraint from God as a judgment from Him. I can pretty much see a headline each day of a horrific evil murder or a video of pure evil as if human life didn’t matter in the hands of the murderer.

Case example? In Oakland over the weekend, a shooting occurred where many were in need of emergency medical care. The crowd celebrated this as women perverted in nature, performed disgusting acts near the ambulance as people laid dying, as they celebrated this evil in the most disgusting way. The national media for the most part was silent, they didn’t report on this because of the race of the individuals performing this degenerate depraved act.

Another case example, in the town where I live, several juveniles decided to set on fire a fireworks display inside a Hy-Vee grocery store. The reports from the media focused on Hy-Vee having to close their doors amidst of the destruction with hardly anything mentioning the evil depraved act of these juveniles. The parents of these kids most likely declaring “kids will be kids” instead of handing out any disciplinary actions. Reading the comments on social media affirmed this as well, “don’t say anything about the degenerate juveniles” was the sentiment. “paradidōmi autos paradidōmi“

These are just two examples in the past couple of days, imagine if we just went back to the beginning of the year. Yes, thank God for His restraint on evil, because He only knows what would happen if that restraint were missing. The bloodshed and evil would be something unimaginable!

Genesis 6:5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Before the Great Flood which desolated the entire world less 8 human beings and animals of each kind, this pure wickedness and evil was also experienced. So do not think for a minute that there is not a restraint from God. And don’t be surprised when you see horrific disgusting evil each day, Scripture promised it.

Pray that God’s will be done, and place faith in His purposes. “God gave them up” is showing itself as good is now evil and evil is now good by a totally depraved degenerate world. It is not the guns which are to blame, it is always the one who pulls the trigger.

James 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; ¹⁴ whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

I would venture to the guess that the majority of those who claim to be Christians view God as sovereign over just some of the important things such as the birth of Christ, His death, and resurrection. You know, the big good things. But then would in the same breath claim God “would be a monster” if our future including the mundane things were determined.

James 4:13-16 clearly refutes such a notion that God’s will only encompasses major biblical events and the good things which happen in our lives. James is speaking about traveling and working, he didn’t mention “faith” or any religious thing when it came to God’s will in this passage. James intent was to show that God is sovereign over ALL things, even the little taken for granted mundane moments of our lives.

Some would protest that God is manically creating robots to do what He wants when He says. But really think of this in a broader sense in the realm of who God is and what His purpose is which is ALWAYS to bring glory to Him alone. He is the potter we are clay, we have no right or ability to tell the potter what to do and when to do it. It also speaks to God’s unfathomable intelligence, His omniscience. He knows the end from the beginning.

Once you get to this level of understanding of who God is, your understanding of Scripture opens up big time! Things which did not make sense before start to make perfect sense. If you believe God created man as a free agent, able to do anything outside of His sovereign will and purpose, you not only made man sovereign but Scripture will never make sense in a systematic context. You will be ignoring much of Scripture and centering on only those verses or passages which you think is making man sovereign.

No earthly man will have privy over the complete council of God outside of His revealed word. Our finite brains could not for a second contemplate to His level and all the details which He has purposed according to His will according to His good pleasure.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The question for every Christian is, if you have you been born-again. Some have been told that they were born-again by their cult or by their church or by a priest or pastor who declared this on their behalf. The problem is the sinner was never born-again, thus they live a life of confusion and deception and grief regarding their faith. The argument with sin and their salvation never ended.

Thus as Jesus declared, unless you are born-again you cannot see His Kingdom. The Kingdom and its glory can be described to you by the Gospel, but it is never realized or seen. Christianity to you seems boring or just plain stupid or hypocritical or much too hard to follow according to what you desire. You were told that without Jesus, you will go to hell, so out of guilt you may try to listen and repent of your sins, but this is totally unnatural and hard to live that way. You continue to question the existence of God, and His promises. Scripture seems to be a boring juggernaut, a unexplainable riddle to you. Some parts you can get on board with, some parts need to be avoided. Going to church is out of guilt, not out of desire to worship. This is the way of the false converts, and those who have not been born-again.

When the argument with God ends, and you have actually been born-again, there is really no mistaking it. There is a realized change, a lasting one. Because you now know who you are in God’s sight, your lustful desires are now something you are embarrassed of and repent of naturally. The natural desire to sin, to hide your sins, has changed to not wanting to do so. You realize that you now represent the name of Jesus Christ deep in your core so it is no longer a nagging chore to worship and follow Him.

Those who ask the fallacious question, “now that you are saved, does this mean you can sin freely and remain saved?” have not realized a regeneration, being born-again, by God. Because IF you have been born-again, living in and seeking sin is not your desire. Jesus paid for all your sins on the Cross with His life, so why would you want to see if you could out-sin God’s grace and mercy on the Cross and sin as you did as if you had not been saved? If saved, it is not a license to sin freely, it is a freedom from the ultimate penalty on your sin which is God’s wrath. Those who have been born-again now naturally seek and desire holiness, the argument to sin freely as ended.

If you are part of a religion leading you to eternal hell such as Roman Catholicism, the argument with sin never ends, they won’t allow it. Even after death, the argument with sin and God continues in purgatory. Other world religions teaching legalism won’t allow it to end either as they teach “you are one sin away from hell”. So the sinner out of fear of sin and not being born-again, lives a life of despair and paranoia and guilt. Repentance of sin is never realized, it is totally unnatural still. Some who have been part of such false churches give up, and rightly so based on the false gospel of trying to be perfect or the impossible notion to be saved by the law instead of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Again, when the argument with sin ends, you know you have been born-again! Each sin committed will have been paid for by Jesus Christ who gets ALL the glory for your salvation. Your new natural desire is to repent, to turn away, from that sin in thanksgiving and in a new desire to strive for holiness. It isn’t a chore, it isn’t hard to live this way now. Your behavior and attitude has naturally changed, so some friends and family and certain places may not be so enticing now to hang around as they continue on in sin. And since you have been saved, you aren’t doing this to be saved, it is because you have BEEN saved.

Examine your faith, did the argument with sin end? Or is it still warring and raging on in your core. If it has ended, there is absolutely NO DOUBT in your mind you have been placed in Jesus Christ, you are in His peace, His rest for an eternity and your new behavior will show this while your new life’s testimony is now growing.

2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

Scripture warns us over and over again, that there would be an infection in the church of false teachers and frauds. By ignoring this warning, you will be subject to these frauds who will various play mind tricks on you, and the religious play-acting as a Christian church complete with smoke, incense, pomp and circumstance and organ music as to indoctrinate you into their false teaching which leads only to hell.

There is ONE disinfectant that the Almighty God graced the church with, it is called Scripture. No fraudulent teacher can get past its detection. And granted, some will try incessantly to stave off any detection by using a little truth here and there as to avoid being exposed. Or they will be the kindest, gregarious, and helpful people you will meet, again to avoid any testing of their false doctrines.

The fraudulent gospel will always flunk Scripture’s authority. The fraud will either add to or omit certain key aspects of the actual Gospel so that the sinner becomes enamored and dependent on the teacher or church. When they get a sinner on the hook, guilt will then be used. They may use a sinner’s testimony of sin against that sinner for example in an extortion like game. The sinner then becoming slowly brainwashed submits to the fraud and then promotes the fraud as well. The guilt being that the fraud will teach the sinner that they, not Jesus Christ, hold the keys to their salvation. It will be basically “believe ONLY us and what we teach you, not Scripture and what you see as the Gospel, or you will go to hell for sure”. They attempt to supplant the Holy Spirit as the source for any personal enlightenment to God’s truth.

Who is behind these frauds, the main influencer? The devil, the serpent from the Garden who roams about seeking to devour wayward sinners while using the frauds to do so. The devil knows that a little bit of truth combined with a false teaching and false gospel is enough to convince many sinners. The devil studies human behavior, he understands completely what our fallen nature lusts for as he is the father of all lies and a grand deceiver beyond our intelligent comprehension and cunning beyond any human deceiver.

If you are NOT grounded in Scripture as your ultimate source for truth, beware that the devil is lurking with the frauds working for him and his end of destruction. The devil would like to see as many wayward sinners thrown in the lake of fire as possible with him. He knows his end, do you know yours? Many sinners on Judgment Day will be at a loss when Jesus says “I never knew you!” All these religious things they did, all those good things by a subjective worldly standard, and Jesus will call them “workers of lawlessness”.

The fraud will teach that the Jesus Christ is not the only way to salvation and the Gospel does not hold the power unto it. They teach that one can be saved by the law, subjective commandment keeping. They will teach that saving faith is self-generated by self-righting will-power. They will teach one can lose their salvation, so you need to work harder to keep it. They teach Jesus’ death on the Cross was just a demonstration, not an atonement. That sinners still end up in hell with having their sins atoned for, in essence Jesus Christ’s atonement was NOT sufficient to save just one soul.

By the devil’s prompt they will greatly pervert James 2 and Matt 25 into saying that a sinner must WORK for their justification from God. They will teach that there is no direct relationship with God through Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin, that the sinner is bound by the church and a religious ritual THEY totally control to make this contact with Him. They will teach that Scripture is NOT sufficient, things are left out of those promises and that Scripture is also in error. They will attempt by idolatry to replace Jesus by Mary, a pope, a priest, by a religious ritual, by superstition and other religious nonsense all in the effort to stave off any direct faith alone in Him for the forgiveness of sin.

Counterfeits must be discerned carefully. They look like a church, they claim to be “holy” and “good” and religious and of Jesus Christ from the beginning, but the counterfeit hides the fact they are teaching a false gospel. A counterfeit also will claim a history, that this history suffices as legitimate again even with a false gospel. The counterfeits will be money and lust driven, and will never teach on the holiness of God and the sinfulness of sin in full truth. The analogy would be counterfeit money, a counterfeit $100 bill printed out can look exactly like a real $100 bill, but a careful eye will be able to discern things like a missing water mark or an added mark. You must also discern the counterfeit gospels very carefully in the same respect, something will be missing or and addition will be made which Scripture will expose.

More importantly IF you are involved with a counterfeit, your own testimony and witness in Jesus Christ will be empty and void when challenged to come up with one. You may have been part of that counterfeit for decades and cannot come up with any truth of any repentance of sin in your life for example. It is a life of repeated cycle of emptiness and sin while you sit in the pew by guilt thinking God will need to accept your religiosity and reciting of a creed if anything while the fraud continues to say “follow us” instead of placing your faith alone in Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior.

If you are following a fraud and counterfeit, and are unwilling to discern, the onus will be on you on Judgment Day. God won’t listen to your excuses and the blame game because it is YOU who rejected the Gospel for the fraud.

Every religious cult will have a similar indoctrination marching order from the very pit of hell, “there is no salvation outside our church”. The indoctrinated congregant because they lack faith in Scripture or the ability to discern right from wrong when it comes to the things of God, buys the marching order. They may also buy the marching order based on “everyone else believes it, so why not me” or some historical fallacy such as the church being around for a very long time, and their friends and family who live by that marching order.

Why is the call of “no salvation outside our church” a lie from the pit of hell? Because the TRUTH of God is that there is no salvation outside the person and work of Jesus Christ. And, the power of God unto salvation is the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ! That false church attempts by the aide of Satan to replace Jesus Christ in other words. Salvation can only be found in Jesus Christ, and the Gospel is the power which will save the sinner.

The ACTUAL church of Jesus Christ shares the Gospel, and gets out of God’s way. It will be the power of God alone which works in the sinner to believe the Gospel, and if it is His will, the sinner will BELIEVE, they will REPENT because God has granted them saving faith. So the church being the pillar and foundation of the truth, only UPHOLDS the truth, it doesn’t own the truth, it holds NO power unto salvation outside the Gospel.

If you are involved with such a cult which attempts to say “we are the way, the truth, and the life”, don’t walk, RUN from this demonic notion. The actual church of Jesus will only point you to Him, that direct and unimpeded path straight to Him. A false church will always try to say they have the ONLY direct connection with God, and that you MUST abide by their rules, their teachings, of which mind you will contradict the Gospel and/or Scripture, or you will go to hell.

The devil is not working on the inherent evil because there is not much for him to do there, he is actually centering his attention on these false churches, the cults, which claim to be hold the keys to salvation. This goes back to the Pharisees and further. The Pharisees invented many new laws and traditions outside of God’s laws, and told the Israelites that they either do what they say, or they would have no part in the Kingdom. The devil realizing this, knows human behavior of fear and dependence, thus gets behind this in full force! He knows that if a sinner fails to place their faith alone in Jesus, they will NOT be saved. Yes, the devil knows the Gospel, he like every fallen sinner rejects that Gospel, and hates God.

Every false church and demonic cult will have one central thing in common, they discard Scripture as the authority and believe THEY are the power unto salvation. And by this false notion of “power”, they believe they can make up the new rules for the Gospel, man-made tradition, etc. to keep the indoctrinated sinner dependent on the cult for life and in the end see them in hell.

Galatians 1:9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

The main call of a false gospel from world religions is to teach that God saves the inherent “good and “godly” sinner. Problem is? There is NO ONE who is “good” enough by that standard. This would also contradict Romans 4:5 and Romans 5:6, but it does not stop these religions from continuing by the devil’s hand. It is the legalistic religion of the Pharisee, the foolish quest to be saved outside the Cross of Jesus Christ.

If you are to be saved by the law instead of faith in the work of Jesus Christ, Scripture teaches us that you must be perfect in every respect. “Be holy as God is holy”. And that if you break one point of the law, let’s say by a simple white lie, you break the WHOLE law from top to bottom (James 2:10 Galatians 5:3). Again, this does not stop the world religions in their false teachings that a sinner can be this perfect, or that the sinner can give it the old “good college try” and in the end God will save them.

Now this false gospel will also use Jesus as a back drop, mainly that His job in coming to earth was only to make it a possibility that a sinner by their inherent goodness could enter heaven. That if the sinner diligently “cooperates” their whole life with what that religion teaches as “grace” (which is not grace but work), they MIGHT be saved. Or it will teach that Jesus’ job was to show us as a good example on how to get there (The “What Would Jesus Do” false gospel). This false gospel trashes every bit of the Good News as it discards Jesus Christ’s actual work which was to provide a complete atonement of sin, and the sinner who places their faith alone in Him is saved BY HIS WORK!

The devil is the influence behind this false gospel of “self goodness”. He knows human behavior, and what our fallen nature naturally would believe which is not to have faith in Jesus Christ, but in our own inherent “goodness”. The calls are “to thine own self be true”, “you can do it, just work harder”, “it is all in you, you are the superstar, just bring that inner motivation out”. And these world religions parrot these calls to their parishioners. The sinner then by this demonic indoctrination may live a lifetime striving for heaven by substandard religiosity and subjective goodness as they see it, only to end up in eternal hell because they FAILED to place their faith ALONE in Jesus Christ.

The weeping and gnashing of teeth will come as Jesus promised with the sinner muttering to themselves “I just don’t get it, I was a GOOD person, I did everything my church said to do, I even went to church every Sunday, so why exactly am I in hell?”. There is one reason why they will be in hell, they did broke God’s law, and they did not achieve the perfection and holiness needed to pass His judgment. Jesus achieved that perfection, but they FAILED to place their faith alone in Him so they were never placed in Him. So it is off to hell! Sorry, I don’t do not make the rules, God did.

Proverbs 19:29 Judgments are prepared for scoffers, And beatings for the backs of fools

The scoffing and mocking and scorning at this message is as old as the hills. But the fact is a false gospel stands condemned. No human being will be saved by any inherent self goodness. A sinner who has been forgiven by Jesus Christ and placed in Him for an eternity has been saved. They were granted saving faith, they placed all this faith in ONE person, Jesus Christ. Believe in the Gospel!

So if you have been put off by all the hypocrisy of a world religion, you have every right to be put off. Discard that demonic influence nonsense in the garbage because it is pure trash from the put of hell! They lied to you and continue to lie about the path to heaven. Narrow is the way, place your faith in Jesus Christ, repent of your sins, and you will be saved. Have faith in His perfection, His obedience, His righteousness, and all this will be credited to you, this is the actual Gospel! Does it give you a license to sin? No! But it grants you the eternal freedom from the punishment of sin, GOOD NEWS. And by this, IF you have been saved, your new nature will not desire to sin, but to strive instead for holiness.

If you struggle in believing what I am saying here, test all of this by the teachings in Scripture and you will discern those demonic world religions leading sinners on a path to destruction. They may have all the pomp and circumstance, smoke and incense, fancy vestments, people on their knees praying, the flamboyant passionate minister complete with organ music and solemn hymns, but it does not mean they are teaching you the Good News.

You can foolishly be a failure and try to be saved by keeping the law perfectly by your world religion led by Satan which is never possible, or you can be saved by the promise of Jesus Christ which will NEVER fail you! Put it this way, God won’t be comparing you to other sinners on Judgment Day, He will comparing YOU only to Himself! So place your faith in Jesus Christ, by being placed IN HIM, you met the holiness and perfection standard needed in this judgment!

GOOD PEOPLE DO NOT ENTER HEAVEN! FORGIVEN SINNERS DO!

Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”

2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Today I write about Pablo Rojas Jr. or “Paul” as he was also known. This young Christian in his 30s recently passed away from cancer and last night was his celebration of his life of which I was blessed to tune into. This awesome memorial to Paul was something I personally have never witnessed at the RCC funerals I have attended, which are many in the past few years. In this little south Texas chapel, a man’s faith was celebrated in the most genuine fashion.

I got to know a little about Paul from his cousin Isabel and aunt Sara. While Paul was battling cancer for months I was asked to pray for him and honored to do so while asking my Christian groups to join in. Isabel would relay messages to him initially from me, and it was almost immediately I knew Paul was definitely one of us, a saved Christian. I knew that he was fully trusting in God’s will through the utmost trial of his life which was awesome to witness.

Having gone through the battle of cancer with a loved one recently, I could empathize as to what Paul was going through. Not only the physical pain, but the worries, the anxiety, the money stressors, the many surprises and unknowns. And how VERY important it is to trust in God alone, to just let go and let God’s will be done. A very BIG test by tribulation for any Christian to go through but I will say there was always a reason for this from God.

The reason why Paul did not fear his physical death or blame God or fall off from his faith, was because he was already resting in peace in Jesus Christ, he was ALIVE in Christ for an eternity. Something of which I wrote about recently. Romans 5:1-2 teaches us that a justified Christian has PEACE with God through Christ Jesus, and Paul definitely was a witness to this! I never met Paul in person, but I knew his great faith by the same Holy Spirit which indwells me.

Last night as I intently watched the tributes the several speakers gave to Paul, it not only confirmed everything I already knew about him, but it also was quite awesome to witness! You see, I am not part of an immediate family of believers as Paul was, they disowned me when I announced my witness in Jesus Christ and left the Roman Catholic Church. The many funerals I have attended never spoke about the faith of the individual, but all their worldly accomplishments which are meaningless if you think about it. It was never about the glorious work of Jesus Christ and His glory, but their personal works which really mean nothing in the end, they get thrown into the fire with the trash.

And as I watched Paul’s father Pablo get up and speak, it was personally very moving! His heart was broken, but Pablo shared the Gospel! Something Paul would have only wanted to be remembered by. Something I know my own father would not be able to do if I was in the same position. What a blessing of a family! And then Paul’s uncle rose up, also deeply grieving, but his message was not about Paul’s worldly accomplishments, but again it was the Gospel! Speaker after speaker, it was the same thing, the Gospel! What a great testimony in Jesus Christ that Paul’s last statement on this earth would be the Gospel! Something every Christian should hope for. Paul’s young daughter also rose up, her heart equally if not more broken, and had the strength of a Christian to just share her honest and genuine thoughts in such a setting. My heart goes out this family!

You see, by a fallen world Paul was not famous, you may have never heard of him, but by God’s standard, he was a superstar! How many famous musicians or actors are remembered for the Gospel? Absolutely NONE! All their worldly accomplishments mean absolutely nothing as they sit in Hades now awaiting judgment because of that rejection of the Gospel. Paul’s ultimate gift to his family and friends and even those he did not meet was the GOSPEL! The Good News of Jesus Christ which is the power of God unto salvation, so that even after his death, the memory of Paul and the Gospel will be known. Paul is in the presence of the Almighty God as you read this, those so-called famous people by worldly accomplishments are weeping and gnashing their teeth.

Paul was asked how he would like to be remembered, his humble and simple reply was “less of us, more of Him”. He did not want his legacy or remembrance disunited with God’s glory. In other words, he wanted the Gospel to be remembered and his witness and testimony to it!

I do not know all of the things of God’s counsel, but the celebration of Paul’s life and his sad death at such a young age always had a purpose. We may not understand why in this lifetime, but know there was a perfect purpose in God’s will for it. That here was such a great Christian who finished the race, he kept the faith, and his last statement to his family, friends, and the church was the Gospel. To know the very pain he went through to end this race as well, he endured to the end by that awesome Holy Spirit which indwelled him. The witness knowing that you can be presented with absolutely ANYTHING in this lifetime, trials, tribulations, hardships, and IF you placed your faith alone in Jesus Christ, there will be nothing to worry about, you WILL endure to the end!

To the grieving family of Paul who maybe reading this. Know he was resting in peace well before his death. The church mourns this great loss with you. We naturally will miss him. Know also, that God has graced you with the memories of Paul. That you were BLESSED! And there are some of us in the church which will never experience such a love as you did with him. As time goes on, always remind yourself that no matter what the circumstance, the persecution, be just like our brother Paul and end that race well, keep your faith, and always be confident that you will by our loving Almighty God!

Let us always thank God for the blessing of Paul to the church!

Romans 8:37 yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For many decades I was taught by the Roman Catholic church that salvation was all about me. That God would save me if I did these things they prescribed, if I cooperated with these inventions, if I was just more religious, if I attended Mass each Sunday without fail.

Notice the “I” in what I said? It was ALL about me, and ALL on me to get into heaven. Jesus was used a back story, that “He opened to door to heaven, now it was my job to walk through those doors”. As time went on, pride grew. “Look at me, and how much better than I am compared to you” was the mentality. I subjectively kept the commandments as Catholics are led to believe, that only the commandments such as murder and adultery from a human standpoint were those biggie sins we should never break. That if I attended the sacrament of reconciliation where a priest replaces Jesus and I confessed my sins, did a prescribed penance making it further about me, I would be then “good”. It was ALL about me!

It was not until God opened my eyes, regenerated my heart, that I learned almost immediately that salvation was NOT all about me, it was ALL about Jesus Christ! I did absolutely nothing in the salvation equation other than sin against God which made salvation necessary. Jesus did every last bit of the saving without one thing I contributed. It was not a 50-50 cooperation deal, it was 100 percent Jesus and 0 percent me. The analogy I give is that I was an unconscious dying patient, helpless, and Jesus being the doctor in the equation saved my life.

So when this all was realized, I understood completely that I could NEVER take credit for my salvation, not even an ounce of it. The glory went to Jesus Christ who is the only One who deserved it in the equation.

Furthermore, to give you an idea as to how Roman Catholicism really tries to eliminate Jesus from the salvation equation, many Catholics will try to say it is not all about them, but it is also about Mary, RCC “saints”, and the RCC who help them hopefully one day gain entry into heaven. But logic tells us it is STILL all about the Catholic because it is their job personally to utilize these false notions to gain entry into heaven. I can see the passage of Matthew 7:21-23 ringing true for this false religion, as many Catholics will be quite surprised on their judgment day why Jesus is calling them “workers of lawlessness”.

If you were taught that you could lose your granted salvation, that salvation does not come with eternal life but just potentially based on your behavior, again by this mentality you just made it ALL about you! Why? Because you are now trusting in yourself solely to keep that salvation by what you do instead of the person and work of Jesus of which would have saved you. And if this is the case? You are not saved, you are no better than a Catholic which believes this very falsehood!

When and if you finally understand that salvation is never about you, it is all about Jesus Christ, you can rest assured in Jesus Christ. You fully trust in His obedience, His righteousness, His perfection were enough to wash your sins cleans in front of a Holy God. You live your life not in doubting this, but completely at peace with it. You are not fearing your pending physical death, because your salvation has been paid for by Jesus.

Once you do get to this level of understanding, your view of God also changes. He isn’t some feeble old man as He is portrayed being whipped around by a world religion which tells Him what He can do or He can’t do, who He can save or who He must send to hell. You will submit to His complete sovereignty over salvation! And also know that NO man, NO world religion, NO decree from a “church” will change His promises or add to them or detract from them.