I have been attending a church on and off for the past year and a half. At first the head pastor seemed to be preaching God's Word to the best of his ability, but it seems that now he is allowing false doctrine to dilute the Word by leaving out the fact that Jesus Christ died for us. The true Gospel has become more of an offense to people and I fear that the church today is in such depraved condition because they are giving people a false sense of salvation. For example, the preacher of this church recently preached a message on Romans 6, which is a chapter about how not to let sin rein in the Christian life. But, the pastor completely eluded the fact that we should keep our faith in Christ and what He accomplished on the cross and went on about how we need to devote time out of our day to our Heavenly Father by spending time in prayer. While I believe prayer is vital in forming a relationship with Christ, I believe that if a person does not know that they must not place their faith in how much religious activity their involved in because that only results in self-righteousness and pride which God hates. Pride and self-righteousness nailed His Son to that cross. My concern is that those in the congregation that don't know that they should not place their faith in simply reading God's Word or how holy they seem to appear and forget that ...while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) By doing what this church is telling them to do, they are trying to earn grace. Grace is not something to be earned, For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8, 9) I feel the burden for souls that Jesus has because when the pastor stands behind the pulpit and says that we must spend time in prayer and he doesn't make it clear to the people that salvation is a gift of God and not of works; he not only tells the people this but he also is preaching in order to please man and not God by being all smiles and no grit. That is not the true preaching of Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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I hear what you are saying. Today's pastors are more concerned with tickling the ears of their followers; it comes down to NUMBERS. People want to hear that Jesus saves on THEIR terms, not Jesus'. We have been warned repeatedly to beware of false prophets and their doctrines. Why? MONEY, MONEY, MONEY! It has come to the point where people are having to leave church to find God and truth. The average pastor has been caught up into the apostate new evangelical movement. There is so much jealousy amongst the pastors that to keep their churches growing, they preach another gospel. In today's society, our church leaders, country leaders, etc., listen to the atheist's and the Islamic beliefs rather than pursue the Bible that the foundations of our Christianity is based upon. On the day of Judgement, Jesus warned that it would be worse for them than what lies ahead for Sodom and Gomorrah. Churches today are rapidly abandoning the fundamentals of the Christian faith, replacing them with Modernistic teachings from the latest New York Times Best Seller. America's churches are saturated today with the unbiblical, ecumenical and compromised teachings of such false teachers. God's Word condemns us all as GUILTY sinners, deserving of Hellfire. Jesus said in John 3:3, "Ye MUST be born-again!" There can be no salvation without the Law of God which condemns mankind to Hell. The Law reveals our sinfulness, and thus shows us our need for the Savior, Jesus Christ. Galatians 3:24 states, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." "Opening your heart to Jesus" won't get you into Heaven. You'd better come as a good-for-nothin' sinner to the cross of Jesus Christ, so the precious blood of Jesus can wash your sins away. There is no perfect church; but we have a Perfect Word from a Perfect God preserved in the precious King James Bible, not some of these so-called new PERversions. I could carry on and on, but the truth of the matter is that we need some of that old time religion and hell-fire preachers.
Whilst I agree that we are saved by grace and not by our works, may I point out that the sinners of today need that old time preaching so that they can fully understand the Gospel, not this watered down can of beans that todays so-called pastors preach. We have splinter churches crowding on every corner of our cities, but if you listen to their messages, it makes a born-again literally cry. There is only ONE way to be saved and that is through the Blood of Jesus, not money as many of them are led to believe. Hell is a reality, just as heaven is, and we need to keep reminding these lost souls about it. Glory to God, I was saved at such a meeting in 1967, and I will continue to tell people that they are heading for either heaven or hell by doing it their way. They need to know they MUST do it Jesus' way. Shalom
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