Introduction
Paul’s last words about the time that would come have indeed
developed into the condition of the church today, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having
itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and
shall be turned unto fables [mythos]” (2Ti 4:3-4). The Greek
noun mythos is where our English word
“myths” is derived. The teaching of Protestant churches that God is a Trinity
of Persons, man is an eternal spirit being, and salvation is by faith are myths.
But because these beliefs have been taught consistently for hundreds of years,
people have become acclimated and settled with them and now turn their ears
away from hearing the truth.
This current plight is no accident. The devil is deceiving,
confusing, and distracting with false doctrines to keep people from the truth
so that they will perish. The Protestant Reformation wasn’t an initiative to
return to the beliefs of the early church as it was acclaimed. It was a
calculated and formulated deception by the enemy to infiltrate myths to the multitudes
in a façade of the truth.
The
Protestant Reformation
The
Protestant Reformation was an apparent split from the Roman Catholic Church
(RCC) about 500 years ago and is hailed as the point where Christians finally
returned to “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jde 1:3).
However, it wasn’t so much a reforming as it was a rebranding. A reform is an
improvement upon what is wrong to something better which would have been the
case if it was a matter of getting a wrong gospel message right. But the errors
of the RCC were far deeper and more pervasive—it had a wrong view of God, a wrong
view of man, and a wrong gospel message. But rather than discarding the entire mess
and truly reforming, the Reformation kept the same wrong view of God and man,
then simply formulated another wrong gospel message out of it. Protestant
churches today are essentially the RCC rebranded under a new name and image
with a new message. It’s the same “product” but in new packaging—a subtle and
devious marketing strategy.
Similarly, as
the Protestant Reformation wasn’t a reformation, it also wasn’t a protest—it
was by the agency and design of the RCC. Its own Martin Luther appeared to lead
a dissent from the mother church after having come to the “enlightenment” that
justification is by faith. The true intent of this event, however, was that in
the course of diverting everyone’s attention to the noble endeavor of getting
the gospel message right, it was covertly reinforcing the Trinitarian view of
God as right! In other words, it was a deflection from the underlying issue
while buttressing it in the process. Though both sides have been hotly debating
for hundreds of years whether salvation is by faith plus works or by faith
alone, hardly a peep has been chirped about the correct view of God. This was
never in question. Fighting passionately against the things that were wrong
left the false and fatal impression that everything else was substantially
right.
Making all of
this the more disheartening and discouraging is the fact that both sides of the
“faith” debate are also wrong! Protestant churches contending “faith alone” and
the RCC defending “faith plus works” have been two false gospel messages duking
it out and accumulating myriads of converts to boot. The entire ordeal has
proven to be a sinister and successful campaign by the enemy to destroy us.
The mother of harlots
So
he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit
upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of
names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and
scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having
a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her
fornication: And upon her forehead was
a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I
saw the woman drunken with the blood of
the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her,
I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:3-6)
Many have recognized and maintain that this woman is the
RCC. She is decked in the pomp and pageantry of her popes and cardinals attired
in purple and scarlet, gold, and precious stones. She established the doctrine
of the Trinity by anathematizing and putting to death those that stood for the
truth taught by Jesus Christ. And she is “THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS” by having
given birth to thousands of Protestant Trinitarian churches all over the world
committing fornication with a Trinity of Persons rather than knowing “the only
true God” (Jhn 17:3) the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ.
The seven
heads of the beast carrying the woman could be the seven largest Trinitarian
organizations: the RCC, Reformed, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, Pentecostal,
and Baptist. We were told earlier, “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and
saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and
upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his
heads the name of blasphemy” (Rev 13:1). If this is the true
identity of the seven heads, then “the name of blasphemy” on the heads is the
name “Trinity.”
In the end
times, however, God’s people will come out from this woman, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be
not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev 18:4).
Within the RCC and Protestant churches are many of God’s people that embrace
the Trinitarian view of God in sincere ignorance—only because it was taught to
them. But the day will come when they’ll no longer be ignorant of the truth and
will be given a final opportunity to depart.
Now the Spirit [Breath] speaketh expressly, that in the
latter times some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in
hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and
commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received
with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. (1 Timothy 4:1-3)
Paul
described the coming RCC quite descriptively. They forbid their priests from
marrying and require abstaining from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and
all Fridays during Lent. And this is what the Breath spoke expressly or
specifically would happen in the latter times.
Jesus Christ
was sent by God and He taught that He is the Son of God and that His Father is
God and even His God. The doctrine of a Triune God didn’t come from Him! Then where
did it come from? What’s its source? Paul said that doctrines of devils come
from those forbidding marriage and requiring abstinence from meat, and the
doctrine of the Trinity came from the very organization that fits this
description.
Vain
babblings
The
Protestant Reformation wasn’t about standing for the true gospel message, but
about furthering the spread of the false Trinitarian view of God through another
means. People seeking the narrow road that leads to life now had an option
other than the RCC. And although this other option might have seemed more
appealing, it’s still not the narrow road.
The subtlety
behind the Reformation is that it continued the spread of the RCC false view of
God and man primarily through diversion tactics. Its first and main diversion
was that salvation isn’t by “faith plus works” as taught by the RCC but by “faith
alone” or the Latin sola fide. But
Martin Luther was wrong in this understanding of “The just shall live by faith”
(Rom 1:17) because Habakkuk wasn’t talking about faith but faithfulness,
“because of his faithfulness” (Hab 2:4 NET) “by his faithfulness” (Hab 2:4
NIV). Paul even clarified this later in Romans, “This was also to demonstrate
his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’
faithfulness” (Rom 3:26 NET). The just live—have eternal life—by Jesus
Christ’s faithfulness to His Father in sending Him as the sacrifice for our
sins.
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to
write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto
you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith [faithfulness] which was once delivered
unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were
before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of
our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus
Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how
that the Lord, having saved the people
out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed [trusted] not. (Jde 1:3-5)
Trinitarian theologians
claim that “the faith [faithfulness]
which was once delivered unto the saints” is a body of doctrinal beliefs that
was delivered to the early church by the apostles. And this body of beliefs, of
course, is their system of theology that they teach today! But Jude wasn’t
talking about a belief system but the faithfulness God delivered to His people
at the time of the Exodus, “the Lord, having saved the people out of the land
of Egypt.” God disciplined them to be faithful to Him and trusting in Him—the
same way we’re saved today! Jesus Christ taught us to be faithful servants to
Him as Lord: “No man can serve two masters” (Mat 6:24); “Who then is a faithful
and wise servant” (Mat 24:45); “Well done, thou
good and faithful servant” (Mat 25:21); “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do
not the things which I say?” (Luk 6:46).
The
Protestant doctrine of justification by “faith alone” is just as false and
damning as the RCC doctrine of “faith plus works.” It only sounds more
appealing because it supposedly glorifies the finished work of Christ on the
cross by excluding any of our works. But this isn’t what it does. It’s just
another false gospel message founded upon the RCC false view of God and
intended to keep people from the truth.
By inventing
the artificial issue of “faith alone” versus “faith plus works” and making such
a racket about it, it underhandedly sold the bill of goods that the RCC had the
correct view of God since that issue wasn’t even questioned. Paul warned
Timothy several times about those spreading vain babblings or words to no
profit: “From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling” (1Ti 1:5-6); “O
Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain
babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called” (1Ti 6:20);
“Of these things put them in
remembrance, charging them before the
Lord that they strive not about words
to no profit, but to the
subverting of the hearers” (2Ti 2:14); “But shun profane and vain babblings:
for they will increase unto more ungodliness” (2Ti 2:16).
The devil is
a master distractor. Sola Fide, Calvinism, the rapture, Once Saved Always
Saved, speaking with tongues and many other popular mainstream doctrines are
simply smokescreens intended to confuse and deceive, waste precious time and
resources, and divert people’s attention away from the real issues of the false
Trinitarian view of God and the false view of man as an immortal spirit. Much
of what’s being taught in Protestant Trinitarian churches today is simply vain
babblings intended to distract and divert people away from the narrow road that
leads to eternal life so that they will perish. These churches are not trying
to help us get saved.
Calvinism has
proven to be a huge distraction that has wasted unfathomable amounts of time
and resources over hundreds of years. It’s simply a cloak to divert people’s
attention away from the true gospel message hidden in a mystery from the
beginning, “in heavenly places in
Christ” (Eph 1:3), “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven … the
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night” (Gen
1:17-16). Trinitarian theologians don’t want us to learn the truth hidden from
the beginning, that becoming God’s child is by being joined to His chosen
people in Christ Jesus, “According as he
hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ
to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Eph 1:4-5), “Ye are
the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor
make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For thou art an holy
people unto the LORD thy God, and the
LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above
all the nations that are upon the
earth.” (Deu 14:1-2).
The entire
Calvinist and Arminian debate about whether “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph
1:4) means God chooses which individuals will be saved, is simply a grand
diversion to keep people from learning the truth that it’s about God’s chosen
people. They don’t want people to learn that we’re saved by being joined to
God’s people and faithfully serving their Lord and Messiah.
It’s an utter
shock to realize that Calvinists and Arminians are on the same side! They’re
not trying to find the truth but fight the truth. They’re working together to
keep people distracted from finding the truth themselves. In the process of endless
debates endeavoring to debunk each other, they’re deliberately robbing our
precious time from learning what Paul so earnestly wanted us to understand, “The
eyes of your understanding being enlightened” (Eph 1:18). The entire Calvinism
and Arminianism debate is a sinister ruse to keep us blinded from the truth.
It’s a deluge of questions, debates, and controversies along with disputes
about the meaning of words, “doting about questions and strifes of words” (1Ti
6:4). Does God choose who will be saved? Do we have free will? What’s the
meaning of foreknowledge, predestination, and election? Are you supralapsarian
or infralapsarian? It’s wasting people’s time and damning them in the process.
Another
shrewd distraction from the truth is the doctrine of the rapture. The intent is
to detour people’s hope away from the Lord’s return and the resurrection by
inventing an independent rapture event. Rather than the living being caught up
with the dead at the Lord’s return, it’s now about looking to escape the
Tribulation period by a rapture up to heaven. It’s just a digression from our
true hope to a false one.
Probably the
most nefarious divergence of all is the detouring of honest seekers away from striving
to keep the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus told us to teach new
converts obedience to everything He commanded, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen”
(Mat 28:19-20). But this isn’t what’s happening today in Protestant churches.
As an
unscrupulous substitute, Protestant leaders devised “discipleship” programs
where new converts are taught to memorize Bible verses on index cards, stick to
a daily Bible reading plan, and participate in small group Bible discussions,
but to get their understanding of the Bible from their sermons, books, and
commentaries. This isn’t simply an oversight or misunderstanding about what
Jesus told us to do. Theologians and scholars are highly intelligent men with
no problem understanding His simple statement. Rather, it’s a deliberate and
intentional misleading of honest seekers to the path of destruction. By
diverting them to a lifestyle of such religious practices, they’re effectively
keeping them from a life of faithful obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord. They’re
preventing their salvation.
Jesus taught that
we’re to not only hear but also do the commandments He delivered in His Sermon
on the Mount, “Therefore whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise
man, which built his house upon a rock … And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth
them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house
upon the sand” (Mat 7:24, 26). He said that if we’re not doing His
commandments, He will banish us from His presence and we’ll perish, “And then
will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Mat 7:23).
Conclusion
Protestant
churches are steeped in myths about God, man, and salvation purposely intended
to keep its members deceived, confused, and diverted away from the truth taught
by Jesus Christ. The pastors of these churches teach and preach anything other
than what will get people on the narrow road that leads to life, “Because
strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and
few there be that find it” (Mat 7:14). They’ll teach topically, they’ll teach
verse-by-verse, they’ll teach on marriage and family, they’ll teach
apologetics, they’ll teach theology, they’ll teach against sin, they’ll teach
on faith, they’ll even teach through the entire Bible, but they won’t teach the
commandments of Jesus Christ and they won’t agree with what He declared about
God and Himself.
Jesus said, “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil” (Mat 5:37). If someone doesn’t answer a simple Yes/No question—also called a polar question—with a simple “Yes” or “No” answer, then evil is involved in their motives. If you feel so inclined, just ask your Trinitarian pastor this simple polar question, “Is God the Father, Jesus Christ’s God?” If he answers “Yes,” then he isn’t a Trinitarian. If he answers “No,” then he’s disagreeing with Jesus because He called His Father “My God” before His death (Mat 27:46), after His resurrection (Jhn 20:17), and after His ascension to His Father’s right hand (Rev 3:12). If he answers something other than “Yes” or “No,” then according to Jesus, there’s evil in his motives. Not answering “Yes” or “No” to a polar question is dodging the question as to not be identified with one side or the other. But why wouldn’t a pastor want to be identified with Jesus Christ?