Are You Going to Church or Just to a Nice Building on a Finely Manicured Lawn?

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It's time to confront the reality of "Easy Christianity", the prosperity "gospel" crowd and others that look like Christian churches but aren't. I could tell that this place of worship isn't Christian if it's held by what's obviously pseudo-Christian. A Roman Catholic parish is already obvious to me it's not Christian. A Iglesia Ni Cristo parish is already obvious to me it's not Christian. A Mormon temple is obvious to me it's not Christian. Any pseudo-Christian denomination's parish is not Christian. Any institution that teaches salvation by faith plus works is not Christian. Works salvation is a more obvious wolf and it's easier to shoot at. But do you know that we've got "churches" today that look Christian to the true Christian until they dig into their teachings?


The bigger problem is when I think that this place is a Christian church but it's really a trapdoor church. We've got many places of worship today that don't really belong to the Church. It's not a house of God. It's a place where the Gospel is not preached. Instead, you've got these heretical places where the pastor is not a man of God, where the members are not really converted and yet they claim to be born again Christians. This pastor leads sham conversions. Worse, the members think they're born again Christians but they hate sanctification and holiness. They maintain the view that you can be a Christian and still stay as sinful. When I ask them where is that in the Bible they get personal and start using red herrings, Ad Hominem, character assassinations and strawman arguments.

These churches produce false converts because they're afraid to offend lost sinners who need the hard Gospel. They just want to have a feel good organization. They think that all you have to do is to "say a prayer and you're in" without understanding the Gospel. Don't get me wrong. Some people who are genuine Christians said the sinner's prayer. It's not about the sinner's prayer but the pastor who didn't preach a watered down Gospel. This pastor isn't afraid to offend anyone with the truth about sin. Many of those who responded to the altar call and were led to a sinner's prayer had real repentance. Although they didn't cry or wail but there was some remorse. The repentance isn't perfect but it's perfected daily. That's what true conversion is. True conversion doesn't stop at salvation but it continues in sanctification. It's not just Once Saved Always Saved but also Once Saved Always Sanctified.

One good  reading material is "Hard to Believe" by Dr. John F. MacArthur. That book is a real eye opener to me to all the mistakes in the kingdom of Easy "Christianity". Nothing was more horrifying to learn that today many just want a Madison Avenue Jesus. This Jesus doesn't make hard demands for sanctification. This Jesus isn't the Jesus of the Bible. This isn't the Jesus who provides grace and makes Christians grow in grace. This Jesus would just leave converts barren making good works rather optional to the Christian life rather than something that validates the Christian life. Many today think they're saved but they're self-deceived. If self-righteous people think they're saved because of their good works then you've got people who think they're saved even if they aren't regenerate to start with. If they ever bother to read the Scriptures they will realize that true salvation results to sanctification (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Ephesians 2:8-10, Titus 2:11-14).

It's not surprising that these "churches" seek to discredit sound preachers and sound preaching. It's not surprising they hate expository preaching because it exposes their error. It's not surprising they want to dismiss the great Charles H. Spurgeon because he emphasizes true and false conversion. They just want to have a Christianity that saves people in their sins rather than from their sins. I would suppose they want to call sound preachers like Spurgeon, John Gill or other sound theologians as "Roman Catholic Jesuits" if they're anti-Catholic or "dividers of the flock" if they're pro-Vatican. They hate sound preachers because they hate sound preaching. I guess if they could get sound preachers beheaded, stoned or murdered in any way they might actually do it. Remember angry mobs have stoned the prophets who called for repentance. Remember John the Baptist was beheaded at the order of Herodias. There's nothing new with these kinds of people.

I don't care how many members these pseudo-churches have because I only care about what the Bible has to say. Matthew 7:13-14 warns this truth. Look there are many people in the broad road. Many people they're right with God because of the majority. I've had Roman Catholics who tell me that they're on the right road because they're over five billion. Just because a religious group has a lot of members doesn't make it right. Truth always remains as truth even if everybody says it's a lie. Falsehood always remains as falsehood even if everybody says it's the truth. Many of them are just a group of whiny assemblies who can't handle hard biblical truth and just want to be in their comfort zones. I'm sorry but the Christian life isn't meant to be easy. It's meant to be hard. It's not meant to be your best life now. Instead, it could be your worst life on Earth then your best life in eternity later.

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