Not long ago, I was in conversation with a fellow who quit the Seventh Day Adventist church because he was against it’s membership in the World Counsel of churches (WCC). He claimed that he believes in Jesus Christ, yet he quit his chosen church which preached salvation by the Bible. This saying that he quit what he believed was his chosen church and his means of salvation because of his personal disagreement with his church.
Our conversation began about the false traditions of other Christians where he spoke of his short findings about the WCC, but when he asked me if I belonged to a church and I told him, his tune quickly changed, hypocrisy and ignorance began to rear it’s ugly head.
The focus of his correspondence changed. He attempted to tell me about Mormon’s and what he read, saying it was a cult. I redirected the correspondence back to the scriptures, by asking him how can he discern what is of God and what is not.
His reply continued with comments about “Mormonism”, but at the end of his message, he did answer my question by stating that the method to discern what is of God was to compare it to the Bible. My intent was to lead him back into a correspondance about the false traditions and doctrines of Christiandom. Without speaking about Mormons or this Church, I revealed to him the truth about proper spiritual discernment as per the King James Bible.
To determine what was of God and what was not, according to the Bible,was by the method of “spiritual discernment”. This discernment, as he believed, was to compare “letter for letter” as said in the phrase “compare it to the Bible”. I advised him that the “letter” brings spiritual death or emptiness, but by comparing spiritual with spiritual a person can discern truth. I showed him all the Bible passages that applied, proving God’s teachings as I described. He confirmed that I was correct, but he continued to harp on his beliefs about Mormons. As much as I tried to show that he was holding to falsehoods (false traditions of other Christians), which had hold of his mind and heart, he continued to think that I was promoting Mormonism.
Not once did I speak or promote “Mormonism” and I kept to the Bible showing him how falsehoods exist, yet even with the truth I spoke and he confirmed it was truth, he still believed I was trying to convince him to be a Mormon.
That was the contradiction, the hypocrisy. He was claiming that God’s truth from the Bible was an attempt to convert him to Mormonism. What would cause a person to call God’s truth as “Mormonism”, a cult?
I realized at least part of this problem. The false traditions of Christiandom was to hold to and believe falsehoods, things that were not in the Bible because it was from Christian Creeds. This was to accept falsehood and ignore the truth. This was to claim the Bible is true, but in no way abide in it. That is what these false traditions, doctrines and creeds taught. We can see the same contradictions and hypocrisies in politics.
Then claimed that the truth I spoke in the Bible passages were copied from my Church lesson or study book.
Ok, now the correspondence was becoming twisted. I told him he was incorrect. I told him that my email correspondence to him was completely authored by myself, word for word, except the scripture passages I referenced from the Bible.
He was not seeing the truth.
I saw he abided in false traditions and false teachings and by these falsehoods, his thinking was sorely corrupted. He could not accept the truth, even from the Bible, because these false Christian teachings would not allow his mind and heart to open to the truth. The ignorance taught by these false traditions and doctrines of other Christians have effectively made him ignorant.
He was an older fellow, who had established himself over the years in these false Christian doctrines and like a bad habit, found it rather hard, sometimes impossible, to see the truth. He was not comparing it to the Bible, that was a lip service reply, he was comparing it to the Creeds and traditions.
It was rather sad to see this happening. Even after many of my assurances to him that I was not seeking his conversion to Mormonism, but instead I was promoting “right thought” toward questioning the traditions of Christiandom, this did not matter, the fear of “Mormonism” prevailed. His responses did not come from the Bible, not in any manner, but came from one (now deceased) author who claimed we were a cult. He followed contention and fear and did not follow the scriptures, not one word of God.
This was not surprising because I saw from the beginning that he chose the spirit of contention, even against his own church when he left it. Our conversation was not a battle against the doctrines held by the Seventh Day Adventists, but a battle between truth (Scriptures of God) and fear (Creeds). He lost his belief in God because he never leaned to God’s word, but leaned to his own personal understanding and issue making, which was contrary to the teachings of the Bible.
As he denied the Bible by his actions and choices, he established himself in another gospel, the one called fear mongering, babble and murmuring. Contention filled rhetoric from many Anti-Christs.
As correspondence ended, I told him that he needed to regain his Salvation, to put aside his contentions and issues against his own church and other false doctrines he believed and seek the truth by proper, sincere and humble study and prayer to God. Telling him, that if he does this, the Holy Spirit will show him and teach him the truth.
He thought this was another attempt to convert him to Mormonism. Oh heavens, how blind he was that I spoke the exact teachings by Jesus Christ in the Bible.
No where in those words of warning did I speak about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I specifically spoke of the importance to seek God directly by prayer and proper study of God’s word, even telling him the Holy Ghost would come to his aid to open the truth to him, to give him wisdom ( as per God’s instruction in James 1:5), but he would have nothing of that.
It is sad to see that there are so many Christians who are like this one fellow. Nice on the surface, but badly corrupted within. What this fellow reflected was the state of affairs with so many Christians. How they spend more time reading, researching and preaching contentious rhetoric. No where in all the “cult” accusations and studies is the word of God and no where in all of that, is Salvation. No where was the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for repentance and baptism. No where. Yet they teach it, live it, breath it and by that worship it. Such is of the devil, not of God.
Ignorance and fear is their Gospel.
Comments