Why Don't Most Churches Preach the Truth?

This magazine preaches the plain truth from your Bible. You can prove it for yourself. Jesus Christ does not require His followers to have a seminary degree  in order to understand His teachings. So, why are so many millions who call themselves “Christians” totally unaware of Christ’s actual message?

Our entire Western, formerly “Christian” society is rapidly changing. Many educators and writers have noted how swiftly entirely new ideas are accepted about same-sex marriage, legalization of marijuana, persecution and often state sponsored prosecution of people for following biblical teachings that used to be part of the very fabric of our society!

Yet, the vast majority of “Christian” churches either go along with these unbiblical ideas and practices—or even teach and promote some of them! So we now have acknowledged lesbian ministers in an increasing number of churches. And most so-called “Christian” ministers are even participating in the practice of men supposedly “marrying” other men!

Wow! What next? Group marriages? Several men “marrying” each other all at once? If they try to convince people that animals have intelligence and feelings “just like us,” will bestiality become the next “civil right”? If you carefully follow all the ideas and reasonings that are out there, the answer is probably “yes”! We would not want to discriminate against people who truly “love” their pets, would we?

What Is MISSING?

The problem with such carnal human reasoning is that it neglects the Creator of mankind and His inspired word. If the Bible happens to be considered at all, it is nearly always handled in a very incomplete or even derisive manner.

A major problem is that most churchgoers—and even most ministers—do not take the Bible literally. The theological seminaries—or theological cemeteries as they probably ought to be called—have been infusing their young students for many decades with concepts originally derived from German-led “higher criticism.” Students are continually bombarded with the idea that a genuine, personal God of power and righteousness probably does not even exist, and that the Bible itself was assembled over many centuries by divided and confused men without the infallible guidance of a Creator. Obviously, they say, the “miracles” of Jesus and other servants of God were meant as metaphors or “teaching tools” to somehow describe God’s love and mercy—if this nebulous God even exists as a Divine Personality at all!

These students, robbed of their former simple faith, go on to teach their congregations. So it is no surprise that the average churchgoer in America, Canada, Britain and Australia is almost totally ignorant of the Bible and what it actually says.

How will all of this affect your life? Very powerfully indeed! For specific prophetic indicators show that we are near the end of the age of Satan’s rule over this earth. Christ will return within the lifetimes of most of you reading this article. But first, as our nations turn away from God and every vestige of Christianity, God will bring down the unrepentant, rebellious peoples of the earth!

So, how can you prepare to survive what is coming? Somewhere on this earth, there is a true Church of God. This Church genuinely understands the Truth of God’s purpose, and what is ahead in prophecy. Those who are faithful in that true Church will be taken to a “Place of Safety” somewhere on this earth (Revelation 12:13–17). The “woman”—the true Church—will be taken “into the wilderness” (v. 14). Note that heaven is never called a wilderness! Satan will try to destroy the woman (v. 15) and “make war” with the rest of her offspring: “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (v. 17).

This Spirit-led Church—soon to be taken to a place of safety—exists right now. You, personally, need to find out where it is! You need to be willing to “search the scriptures” as the Bereans (Acts 17:11) and prove to yourselves that the Bible is inspired, and that a very real God has a true Church on this earth today. Then you need to act on that information!

You Need to ACT!

If you procrastinate, fool around and do nothing, you may well end up being in the coming prophesied “Great Tribulation” that Jesus Christ specifically predicted (Matthew 24:21–22). Jesus directly indicated that His true followers would “flee” to escape this tribulation. He instructed: “And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath” (v. 20). If you fail to act on these inspired commands, your whole life will come crashing down around you and you will abhor yourself for your laziness and unwillingness to prove the key things of life: Is there a real God? Is the Bible the inspired revelation of God to mankind? Is there a true Church on earth today with God’s direct guidance?

All of these issues are absolutely vital. For they will determine whether you live or whether you die over the next several years during the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord, and whether you really come to understand the genuine purpose of your Creator—who made us in His image and wants us to become His full sons in His Kingdom and Family forever.

If you fail to act, you will lose the opportunity to prepare yourself to be among those kings and priests that Jesus Christ talked about who will soon rule under Him in His soon-coming Government over this entire world (Revelation 5:9–10).

Yes, you will really miss out on so many, many things if you do not truly heed Jesus’ basic command: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

Many are prophesied to miss out.  Indeed, millions of churchgoers and their ministers are living in almost total ignorance of the real purpose of God and of genuine understanding of His inspired word. Describing the coming false prophets, Jesus said: “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:16–17). So the “fruit”—the results—of modern “churchianity” are entire societies almost devoid of real understanding of the Bible. They include a ministry that is mainly involved in a type of “social work”—doing very limited good as far as helping people understand God or His purpose. These ministers are themselves deceived. Referring to the religious leaders of His day, Jesus stated, “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (Matthew 15:14). The Bible makes this exceedingly clear over and over. God tells us about Satan the Devil: “who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).

Are people really deceived? Research commissioned by the American Bible Society found that the majority of Americans (69 percent) believe the Bible provides answers on how to live a meaningful life. But while 79 percent believe they are knowledgeable about the Bible, 54 percent were unable to correctly identify the first five books of the Bible. Approximately half of Americans surveyed could not describe the fundamental differences between the teachings of the Bible, Koran and Book of Mormon. Forty-six percent said they believe all three books teach the same spiritual truths (American Bible Society, State of the Bible 2012).

Wow! With such pitiful understanding of the inspired word of God, it is no wonder people can be easily deceived and manipulated. It is no wonder that many of you reading this article have not gained much understanding of the Bible—or the specific prophecies of the Bible—in the churches you have attended. You have been in ignorance—even though you may have attended church regularly for most of your life!

Ministers Must WAKE UP!

I do not wish to hurt the feelings of ministers or priests around the world. But I have to say as a true servant of the living God: most of you had better wake up! Most of you have been absolutely derelict in teaching the basic truths of the Bible. Your congregations are in absolute confusion! As an article in Insight Magazine related: “People are looking for comfort and answers. The reason people are leaving church now is they have serious questions as to where their dead daughter is or how the world is going to end. Churches offer musical productions and food, but they are not answering the questions” (May 27, 2002).

Millions of Americans, Canadians and Britons attend church and recite standard prayers, sing songs, clap their hands and hope they are learning something worthwhile. But they are not actually learning to understand the inspired word of God. They are not being taught the details of why they were actually born, the ultimate purpose of life and how to attain that purpose. They are not being told of the dozens of specific prophecies now beginning to occur, which will greatly affect their very lives over the next decade or two. They are not being taught the “whole counsel of God” as the Apostle Paul taught (Acts 20:27).

In an inspired passage in Hosea—a book Almighty God directly inspired as a message to the British-descended people of America and the British Commonwealth nations—God states: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame” (Hosea 4:6–7). Certainly, as the power and wealth of America and the British peoples has increased, we have definitely turned away from God. And we have certainly “forgotten” the law of Almighty God—the Ten Commandments! Again, speaking of our peoples, God states: “I have written for him the great things of My law, but they were considered a strange thing” (Hosea 8:12).

After these peoples go through the coming Great Tribulation, Almighty God will bring them back to their own lands and make a “new covenant” with the House of Israel and the House of Judah—two separate peoples finally reunited. Does that covenant—soon to be made by Christ—in any way do away with the fundamental spiritual law of Almighty God, the Ten Commandments? No way! For God tells us: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33).

For your own Bible tells you again and again that as Christ’s Kingdom is set up on this earth in a few years and all nations flow to it, God’s inspired law will be the very basis of the entire society: “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2–3).

Christ’s Direct INSTRUCTION

Nearly all professing Christians understand that in order to be an acceptable sacrifice for mankind’s sins, Jesus Christ had to keep the law perfectly. But what law did He keep, and what did He expect of His followers? Here is how Christ Himself described His mission: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17–20).

Many today do not grasp the vital importance of those words! Christ said that not “one jot or one tittle” (the tiniest marks in the Hebrew script) of the law would pass from the law until heaven and earth pass away. Since heaven and earth have not passed away, we must understand that the law remains. And Christ condemned those who would falsely teach men to break even the “least of these commandments.” Rather, He explained that those who both do and teach the commandments will be called “great” in the kingdom of heaven! Could anything be more clear?

Did His “fulfilling” the law somehow change these commands? Or did they change after Christ’s resurrection? No! Heaven and earth did not pass away at His resurrection. And we must understand what He meant when He said that he would “fulfill” the law.

In other words, Jesus came, as Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 42:21), to “magnify” God’s law and to show its fullest intent and purpose. What Jesus Christ sought to abolish were the abuses of the law, and the man-made “traditions” perverting it. His sacrificial death, foreshadowed by the temple sacrifices, made those animal sacrifices and washings irrelevant for Christians. But His life showed that the spiritual law—the Ten Commandments—was and would remain relevant for those seeking to obey Him. One cannot properly understand His teachings without understanding the Old Testament scriptures and the law they contain.

Subtly, but surely, Satan the devil has deceived most of today’s ministers into believing that Christianity was a brand new religion—seemingly cut off from the Old Testament and the teaching God gave through Moses. And although some may not be consciously aware of it, a definite anti-Jewish bias crept into early Christendom and has continued to this day!

But the biblical and historical facts show that Christianity was a continuation—an enlargement and magnification of the teachings God gave through Moses—not something brand new! As the Apostle Paul was inspired in the New Testament to explain to the Gentile Christians at Ephesus: “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:19–20). So a basic part of the very “foundation” of true Christianity consists of the writings and teachings of the Old Testament prophets—those writings that Christ and the Apostles referred to as “Scripture” again and again!

For Jesus Christ was a circumcised Jew (Luke 2:21–22; Hebrews 7:14). It was His “custom” to keep the seventh-day Sabbath—right along with the other Jews (Luke 4:16). Far from abrogating God’s Sabbath, Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man—not just the Jews, and Christ also said that He was “Lord” of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27–28). So the Sabbath is, in fact, the true “Lord’s Day” as far as a day of rest and worship is concerned!

Long after the crucifixion, it was the Apostle Paul’s “custom” also to keep the seventh-day Sabbath (Acts 17:2). We also find Paul observing the annual biblical festivals such as Pentecost (1 Corinthians 16:8), Passover and Unleavened Bread (1 Corinthians 5:7–8) and other festivals.

The true Church of God—named “Church of God” twelve times in the New Testament—was itself started on the Day of Pentecost, one of the seven annual Sabbaths God gave Israel. Christ Himself will return at the “seventh trump” (Revelation 11:15)—pictured by the Feast of Trumpets, another one of the biblical Holy Days. And the living Jesus Christ, who inspired the entire Bible, also inspired His servant Zechariah to explain that after Christ’s return the whole world will be observing the Feast of Tabernacles (Zechariah 14). 

Practice the Christianity of CHRIST!

True Christians who observe the biblical Sabbaths and biblical festivals are, in fact, pioneers. They are not only following the pattern of the original Christianity taught and practiced by Jesus Christ; they are pioneering the Way of life which all nations will soon learn in tomorrow’s world!

For example, the seventh-day Sabbath pictures the reign of Christ during the coming seventh millennium of human history. It is the “rest” which God commanded from the beginning (Hebrews 4:4). That is why Paul was inspired to write, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God” (v. 9). It is important to realize that the Greek word here translated “rest” is sabbatismos—the “keeping of a Sabbath”—whereas katapausin is the normal Greek word for taking rest and is the word used throughout the rest of Hebrews 4.

God’s Sabbath and His annual Holy Days picture His great Plan. Yet true Christianity, of course, involves far more than keeping the biblical Sabbaths. It involves an entire Way of life based on Jesus’ example and His teaching, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 4:4). And over and over, throughout the entire Bible, God’s Word shows us clearly that obedience to the Ten Commandments is the way of life Almighty God prescribes for His true “saints”: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

But the devil has injected into the minds of most ministers the strange idea that “grace” somehow supersedes obedience to the very law of Almighty God, which was somehow “done away” after Christ. They are taught that all one has to do is “believe on Jesus” and one’s sins are immediately forgiven even though no real repentance is required! But even many of these ministers realize that this is a theory of “cheap grace.” They know the Biblesays clearly that one must repent of sin in order to be forgiven and receive God’s Spirit (Acts 2:38). The Bible also says clearly: “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4, KJV).

If sin is breaking God’s law, then that is the very thing to be repented of! And to repent does not mean to just be sorry and go right back and sin all over again. To repent means to change, to turn around and go the other way! How clear!

True Christians must be willing to do what Christ taught! Over and over, even “mainstream” theologians have acknowledged that Christ clearly taught the Ten Commandments and practiced them as a way of life! So why do professing Christian ministers fail to teach these things? And why do they fail to pay attention to Jesus’ inspired challenge: “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

Modern churchianity is confused about all these very basic issues because Satan the devil has indeed “deceived” thousands of religious leaders into preaching something entirely different from what your Bible clearly states! So listen to what the Apostle Paul was inspired to warn the Christians of his day: “For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!… For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:4, 13–15).

May God help you to “wake up” and be willing to “come out” of modern Babylon while you have the opportunity! May God help you to be willing to “prove all things” and find out for yourself what your inspired Bible actually says! And may God help you to be willing to act on God’s Truth—to seek out where God’s true Church is today—and to act on that precious knowledge before the end of this age or the end of your life.