Church and Christianity
To virtually all the world the words "Church" and "Christianity" are synonymous with the people that profess to believe in and follow Christ. Amazingly, the word "church" does not occur in the Greek of the New Testament but is a mistranslation.
At the end of this age, in the book of Revelation, we find God calling to His people to come out of a place he calls Babylon and the Great Whore to avoid the plagues she will receive for her sins. Where is this place that God's people find themselves that is a "habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit" (Rev. 18:2).
The apostle Paul told us that "such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." (2Cor 11:13-15). Where are these false, deceitful ministers who claim to be sent by Christ? Where is Satan's influence to be found posing to be a source of light to those seeking God?
They can only be in places that claim to be of Christ! Christian denominations! As you read these articles prepare to be surprised and shocked. Satan deceives the whole world. He is hiding in a place that seems to be above suspicion but Paul also wrote that the one who "as God sitteth in the temple of God" will "be revealed in his time" (1Thess 2:4,6). As we draw nearer to the events that will herald the return of Christ the truth about the antichrist spirit and where it is hiding will be revealed.
New Birth Teaching Series
"You must be born again"
Three hours of audio teaching (transcript available) from Pastor John Clark, Sr. on the subject of the "New Birth".
When is a person born again and how do you know? The Bible contains clear revelation from God about when a person is born again. Learn what had to occur before the new birth was available to man. Listen as Pastor John covers these topics and more:This is perhaps the most important issue for a person to understand.
Have you been born again?
Thought for Today
May. 10
MATTHEW 16:13-19, PART THREE
". . . upon this rock I will build my congregation,
and
the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."
When there are legal matters to pursue, civil or criminal trials, lawsuits, or other such matters, we in this country usually must go to a courthouse. That is where "court" is held, for it is there that judges and juries hear cases brought before them and make legal judgments. Ancient Israel, along with other ancient cultures, most often held their court proceedings at the gates of their cities. At the gate of a city, the elders of that city would gather and deal with legal issues. They would hear complaints of one citizen against another and make decisions that required wisdom and discernment, and their judgments held legal and moral weight. For this reason, only the most experienced and knowledgeable elders sat at the gate of the city, and it was considered an honor to be counted among them.
Suffering Job wept when he remembered bygone days when he sat among the judges in the gate of his city and was honored even by judges older than he. His decisions were so full of wisdom and righteousness that after he spoke, no one else had anything to say. Even the princes, Job remembered, would keep silent after he had rendered his judgment in a matter. But there were also dishonest judges who sat in some gates. There is an abundance of evidence in the Old Testament that princes and elders who sat in some city gates were not always dispensers of justice and that the system was sometimes used by wicked men to accomplish cruel designs. Such men hated godly elders who could not be bought, judges who rebuked evil-doers in the gates. Wrote Amos, "they abhor him that speaketh uprightly" (Amos 5:10). When the Israelites had turned from the Law, God's prophets called upon them to repent, and part of that repentance demanded by God was that Israel had to re-establish justice in their gates (Amos 5:15).
THE GATES, NOT HELL ITSELF
It is a popular phrase among ignorant and superstitious people to say that "demons of Hell" have done this or that evil thing. But there are no demons from Hell. Demons are on earth and have never been to Hell. In fact, there are no people from Hell, either. Everybody who is condemned by God and cast into Hell stays in there. This is what makes Jesus' reference to "the Gates of Hell" significant. Jesus said in Matthew 16 that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against a congregation that is in fellowship with God. He did not say "Hell shall not prevail against it", but "the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." Hell can prevail against nothing; it is irrelevant to life on earth because it has no influence here among the living.GATES TO HELL.
There are places among men through which many are led cheerfully into Hell. These are highly esteemed places where respected leaders pronounce weighty judgments that are wrong, and where the laws of God are misapplied and misinterpreted. The Gates of Hell are the places where lies are told as if they were from God. They are places to which people go who want to know God, but who are instead directed by the elders of those gates away from the light of God and toward the very Hell they are seeking to avoid. The "Gates of Hell" are "Gates to Hell". These "Gates to Hell" are Christian churches, where people gather to hear men proclaim the truths of God, but their words are not of God.
Today, the greatest stumbling block to people who are searching for God is the religion of Christianity, with its pretty buildings, its lofty creeds, its pompous titles, and its dazzling ceremonies. When one has been persuaded by the elders of any Christian sect to enter into that sect, when anyone becomes a member of any sect in the religion of Christianity, he has entered into one of the Gates of Hell. The gate into Catholicism is one of the "Gates of Hell". The gate into Methodism is another, and the gate leading into Pentecostalism is still another. There are many such Christian gates, and none of them is a gate to heaven. They all are gates into Hell. There are many unacceptable methods of serving God, many false doctrines, many man-made organizations that call themselves churches. That is why Jesus spoke of "gates" of Hell instead of only one "gate" of Hell.
UNITY IN THE GATES
The ministers who sit in Christianity's gates cannot agree with each other concerning the laws of God. They make different judgments and interpret the words of Jesus in different ways. That is why they sit in different gates. They teach doctrines contrary to each other. Some feel that some truth can be found at virtually all the gates of Christianity, while others teach that theirs is the only gate of right judgment and teaching. Some perform ceremonies that others do not recognize as legitimate. Catholic elders, for example, would judge a Pentecostal minister as unqualified to sit in their gates and teach their people. Christians have historically held to many different traditions, and have at times fought and killed one another over their traditions and doctrines. The only thing that unites all the judges in all of Christianity's gates is their opposition to the truth of Christ. They cannot agree among themselves as to what is right, but they all agree that the Truth we preach is not from God. Even if they all gather together in opposition against the saints that hear the Word of God, they cannot prevail! Jesus said so.
Solomon said, "though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished." The meaning of these words is that it makes no difference to God what men say about anything, or how many men say it. If everybody on earth joined hands and voted to believe a particular doctrine, that unity would not make that doctrine true. If at the gates of every Christian sect on earth, all the judges somehow managed to agree that the experience of speaking in tongues no longer exists, God would not be intimidated or confused. As He said to me during one frightening visitation some years ago, "What difference does it make what men say about anything? Am I confused by your delusions?"
WHAT DO YOU SAY?
What God says brings to nothing everything said by anybody else. God said through Paul that we become children of God by being baptized by the holy Ghost. The judges sitting in the Gates of Hell say that you can become a child of God by joining one of their Christian churches. What do you say? And Jesus said that when a person receives the holy Ghost, the voice of the Spirit is always heard. Most of the elders sitting in the Gates of Hell say that the Spirit does not speak (in tongues) through people any more when it comes in. What do you say? Jesus said, "He who shall endure to the end shall be saved." Many of the "wise men" sitting in the Gates of Hell claim they are already saved, and they tell people who come to their gates that if they will just perform a certain ceremony, then they will be already saved, too. What do you say? Paul said that in Christ, there are no longer any Sabbaths, nor any other holy days. Judges sitting in the Gates of Hell teach that Sunday, or sometimes Saturday, is a holy day, along with others. What do you say? Jesus and Paul taught that the communion of the saints is spiritual. The elders who sit in the Gates of Hell say that if they give you a little piece of bread and a little wine, then you are holding communion with the God of heaven and earth. What do you say?
Before you answer, let me remind you that it doesn't make any difference what we say about anything unless God has sent you to say it. We do not have authority in ourselves to say anything. That is what makes it a sin for Christianity's teachers, those who sit in high seats at the Gates of Hell, to speak the things they speak. It is a sin for Christian ministers to stand before congregations and deliver sermons that God has not sent them to deliver. They have no authority from God to speak who have not heard the voice of Jesus. And that is, in the final analysis, the very thing that makes Christian churches the Gates of Hell. Christian ministers have been ordained by men to minister, not by God. They cannot judge rightly because they have not been judged by God. They cannot speak the truth because they have not been spoken to by the Spirit. If they spoke the truth, they would be demoted and refused a seat among the honored elders at one of the Gates of Hell, and they know it. They teach what they have been trained by others to teach, and they are all wrong.
The Gates of Hell have an impressive look. They carry much weight among men. The best way for the few who love the truth to deal with such an impressive-looking opponent is not to look at him at all. The safest way to deal with Christianity is to ignore it and to "look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." The saints that are impressed with Jesus and love what comes from God cannot be overwhelmed by anything, even the highly esteemed Gates of Hell. Jesus said "that which is highly esteemed by men is abomination in the sight of God." What impresses me is not the exalted claims of highly esteemed ministers sitting at the gates of Christianity, but the unshakable Word of God. The Gates of Hell, crowded with "wise and prudent" men as they may be, cannot prevail against God's called out people when they believe and are nurtured by the Word of God.