God only knows how many billions of people will spend eternity burning in
Hell because of the shameful behavior and tarnished reputation of 99% of
churches in the world. In fact, 99% of what people call “churches” are
really religious cults. To qualify as a genuine Bible church, the group
assembling must be composed of born-again believers. That is, sinners who
have put their complete childlike truth in the name of Jesus as being the
only begotten Son of God, the Christ. John 20:31, “But these are written,
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that
believing ye might have life through his name.”
With this truth mind, we can eliminate the following religious denominations as not being real churches, because they all teach a counterfeit plan of salvation which cannot produce the new birth by the Holy Spirit of God: Roman Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, Lutherans, Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist, Baha'i Faith, United Methodist, Seventh-Day Adventists, Christian Science, et cetera. We can also eliminate all so-called “churches” that preach the Devil's falsehood commonly known as “Lordship Salvation.”
Lordship Salvation is a heresy which says that faith is not enough to get to Heaven. In addition, you are required to be sorry and commit to turn away from a lifestyle of sinning in the future. It is falsely taught that this attitude toward sin is what it means to “repent.” So even if you have faith in Jesus as your Savior, you are told that it won't be enough to get to Heaven unless you hate your sins and are determined to forsake them. Unfortunately this is not what it means to repent in the Bible. Billions of lost sinners have been given a false hope by lying pastors, ministers and priests, assured of eternal life if they cease from living a lifestyle of sin; but that is self-righteous works, not the free grace of God which is by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:9, “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:”
I have met countless lost sinners in my lifetime who hated churches and religion in general, and I cannot blame them one bit. I have had the misfortunate of attending numerous horrible churches in my lifetime. I know that there are no perfect churches, no perfect pastors and no perfect people. However, there is a spirit in every church that the senior pastor creates by his attitude and global thinking (i.e., his general mindset). Everything rises and falls on leadership.
I attended a pathetic Baptist church where the pastor actually believed and taught that it is not the church's job to go soulwinning, it is only individual believer's duty to go soulwinning with the Gospel. That foolish pastor blamed his church members from the pulpit for the church being 75% empty Sunday after Sunday for year and year. The truth is that it is the church's job to go soulwinning! If preaching the Gospel is our individual duty as believer's (and it is according to the parable of The Sower and the Seeds in Luke 8:11-15), then how can it not also be the church's job? Is not the church a called out assembly of believers? Yes, it is. If the pastor does not organize a regularly scheduled time for the members of the church to go soulwinning together, then it won't get done!
If the church pastor endorses the counterfeit gospel of John MacArthur, then so will the entire church family. Pastor Marty Herron was the incompetent senior pastor of the Harvest Baptist Church on Guam between 1999 and 2018. Marty Herron has much blood on his hands from the thousands of religious lost sinners, whom he gave false hope to with his counterfeit lie of Lordship Salvation. Pastors will be held doubly accountable by God on Judgment Day! When a man sets himself up as a leader above the people, and he teaches them a falsehood instead of the free grace of God, that wicked man has blood on his hands. Woe be unto the accursed religious man who preaches another gospel (Galatians 1:6-9). Not one verse in the inspired Holy Bible says to turn from your sins to be saved.
Ungodly Churches Gone Wild
You need to understand that becoming a born again child of God, and walking with God as a believer, has nothing at all to do with religion. Granted God wants all saints to meet together with other local believers, but you need to have the wisdom to know the difference between a true church and a religious cult. I wouldn't give you a penny for these corrupt neoevangelical churches today that use dozens of different Bible versions. Literally, when I attended the Harvest Baptist Church on Guam in 2014, one of their pastors admitted to me that they have at least two dozens different Bible versions circulating in their pews each Sunday. What kind of pastor would be okay with that confusion? An incompetent and irresponsible pastor, that's who! I am so sick and tired and utterly disgusted with 99% of pastors today.
Jeremiah 23:1-2, “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.”
There's nothing new under the sun. There were corrupt worthless pastors back in Bible times too. There is a woeful lack of love and compassion in nearly all churches today. The average pastor is a mere church employee and his mindset is that he has a job. That is the pathetic attitude of the pastors of Campus Church at Pensacola Christian College (PCC). I know that because of how they disregard hurting people like me and Samantha Field (a female alumnus of PCC; go search for her name online and prepare to be sickened). When I reached out with sincerity in 2021 and 2022 for their love and help at Campus Church, Pastor Jeff Redlin threw me under the bus and had zero compassion for me as a hurting divorced man. The leaders at PCC and their grossly incompetent pastors are the epitome of everything that is wrong with the clergy today!
“The pastors have destroyed the churches, and they've been trained by people that have never built churches, and they have no compassion.” —Pastor Jack Hyles, “Many Pastors Have Destroyed My Vineyard”
Dr. Hyles is so right! It is rare nowadays to find a genuine man of God as a pastor who genuinely cares about people and has compassion. God never intended for Christianity to deteriorate into a stinking business (i.e., a den of thieves). The pastorate ought not be a mere profession, but a calling from God where you believe the Lord desires for you to spend your life feeding His sheep. God pity the pastor who merely thinks he has a job! Please do the cause of Christ a big favor and resign!!!
Dear reader, you can become a born again child of God and never step foot into any church. You don't have to become religious. You don't have to be water baptized, partake of any church sacraments, nor anything else. Christ has already made full payment for your sins on the cross. Jesus paid the price for our sins with His precious blood (1st Peter 1:18-19). All you need to do is take God's gift of eternal life by faith. Simply believe that Jesus has already done it all for you! Just receive His sacrifice on the cross as full payment for your sins, believing that He was buried but then physically resurrected from the dead three days later. That is “the gospel” (1st Corinthians 15:1-4).
False Prophets Creep In Secretly (Undetected)
Billions of hellbound lost sinners see religious con artists like Oral Roberts, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Pat Robertson and his shameful The 700 Club, TBN, The PTL Club, et cetera and they want nothing to do with churches. Can you blame them? I don't. Hell will be filled with people because of lying charlatans and fraudsters who deceived the masses in Jesus' name, exploiting Christianity for their own personal greedy gain...
2nd Peter 2:1-3, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
Carefully notice that the Bible says in every generation THERE SHALL BE FALSE PROPHETS AMONG YOU. 2nd Peter 2:1-3, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” Also, carefully notice that they will secretly introduce their damnable heresies into the churches. I cannot emphasis the importance of understanding this Bible truth enough.
The inspired Holy Bible teaches that:
-
There shall be false prophets among you
-
They will secretly bring in damnable heresies
“Secretly” means undetected. A perfect example are Bob Jones University and Pensacola Christian College. These are two of the longest and most trusted religious colleges in the United States. Yet, they have adversely changed for the worst over the past couple decades, now both preaching a counterfeit gospel of partial faith in Christ plus works. BJU changed first and then PCC followed them. What one generation tolerates the next generation will embrace. This is why it is imperative that each generation of Christians contend for the faith (Jude 1:3).
Sadly, what has happened is that the ministry organizations and churches have continued to stand by these failing institutions instead of contending for the faith. This is how false prophets privily (secretly) infect Bible colleges and church while undetected. I speak that to their shame! For example: The Sword of the Lord still promotes PCC in their monthly paper. The Sword of the Lord and their editor Dr. Shelton Smith have blood on their hands for wickedly bidding Godspeed to cults! Tragically, Shelton Smith couldn't care less, or else he'd stop promoting PCC's stupid ads each month. But PCC pays them. Truly the love of money is the root of all evil.
Beware Of The Cult At Pensacola Christian College
I humbly wrote this article to emphasize the truth that you can be saved without ever going to church. And if you are a born again child of God, you can walk with God and have perfect peace even if you cannot find a good church to attend. Some of the biggest hypocrites, jerks and horrible Christian people I know faithfully attend church. Campus Church at PCC are as carnal as can be, full of judgmental hypocrites, which is why I am banned from attending their church. Only a cult selectively cares about people!
In hindsight, they did me a favor at PCC by forbidding me from attending their cult, because I learned afterwards that they are wrong on the Gospel. Satan is a beautiful liar! PCC are pulling on the same rope as the Devil. Their sport's teams and classroom curriculum are traps which you should avoid. I can't believe parents are taking out student loans, going into massive debt, so that PCC's ungodly leaders can continue to pay themselves disgusting 6-digit salaries!
I admit that I am utterly disgusted with churches today, particularly Baptists! Tragically 85% of Baptist churches today preach a counterfeit plan of salvation. I just heard a foolish preacher say the other day that to be saved you must invite Jesus to be the Lord of your life. Folks, that is NOT how to get to Heaven! Go read Matthew 7:21-23. They followed Jesus devoutly and called Him “Lord, Lord,” but Jesus denied knowing them as His sheep. They did “many wonderful works” but were not true Christians! Judas followed Jesus, one of His very apostles, but still went to Hell in unbelief. Jesus warned Nicodemus in our text passage from John 3:7b, “Ye must be born again.”
The Importance Of Going To Church
Please don't misunderstand my article. I am all for going to church. A lot of people look at all the problems with churches today, and then use that as an excuse never to go to church. God sees and knows your heart friend. God knows if you just dread church, like I do. Yes. I dread church. I dread today's dead churches! I dread the greed and push to enlarge the Bible colleges at the expense of the churches. I loved it when I attended the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana when Pastor Jack Hyles was still alive. Those were awesome days! Dr. Hyles was a true man of God. He wasn't perfect but he really did care about people. Brother Hyles loved sinners and always gave people a second, third and unlimited chances to come back to church, unlike Campus Church at PCC that has banned me since August 2, 2022 from attending their Campus Church. They are a rotten insincere cult at PCC!!!
Everyone needs to go to church, which is our spiritual family in the Lord. We go to church to be encouraged by the pastor and to comfort one another. The purpose of the local church is to:
-
Exalt the Savior
-
Evangelize the sinner
-
Edify the saints
Every church should have a scheduled organized time to go soulwinning each week in the community. If the pastor doesn't set the example by leading the way, things won't get done. That is why most Baptist churches are empty today, because there is no soulwinning at all. I believe in going to church, but I refuse to give money to a dead church where the pastor gets paid $80,000 a year for playing church. I want no part of that! I am sick of today's corrupt churches that use, sell and promote Satan's corruptible seed. That is, the modern perverted Bible revisions, like the English Standard Version (ESV). A corrupt Bible produces false converts!
You'll have a difficult time finding a local church that only uses the inspired King James Bible.
You'll have a difficult time finding a local church that preaches a simple free grace Gospel (not that demonic garbage which says you must turn from your sins or invite Jesus to be Lord of your life to be saved).
You'll have a difficult time finding a local church that goes soulwinning. The first two things I mentioned are deal breakers, but I can tolerate a church that doesn't go soulwinning, but I won't be happy in a bad church like that.
If you can find a local King James Bible only Baptist church in your town, that preaches a free grace Gospel and goes soulwinning, preferably with a Bus Ministry, count yourself extremely blessed by God.
So I am not encouraging anyone to avoid going to church. I am simply saying that if all you have found are horrible religious phonies and fake churches, and hateful bigots like I met at Pensacola Christian College, then all hope is not gone! You can still get saved and walk with God, and find peace in your soul while you pray and search for a real church. Today's shameful pastors are cowards, jerks, abusers, hateful, grudge holders, arrogant, theologically incompetent, far from God and woefully lacking in compassion. Thankfully, they don't represent the entire clergy!
“When America lost her way to the right kind of church, she lost her way to living right!” —Brother Lester Roloff, “Titanic”
I am not aware of one happy Christian who goes it alone with no church to attend. We all need fellowship with other likeminded believers. There are still some great churches, but you may have to move to where it is located. Having a great church to attend is worth more than all the gold in the world. In his classic sermon titled, Titanic, Brother Lester Roloff (1914-1982) rightly said: “American was 'great' when she was good, and she was good when she had great churches.” That is so true!
Marriage is now at a historical low in the United States. Millions of American women are either divorced or single, having a few children with a wagon of emotional baggage, desperate to find a husband but they cannot find a man who wants to commit to them in marriage. And why should they since most American women today are whores, giving their bodies away for free instead of waiting for the marriage vows? (Hebrews 13:5). This is the dire consequence of generations of spoiled brats who've been raised without going to church, schooled without reading the Holy Bible in the schoolroom, educated without prayer or faith in God at school. We have brought damnation upon ourselves as a nation!
Brother Roloff was absolutely right: “American was 'great' when she was good, and she was good when she had great churches.” America, what have we done?
