The claim of Christianity and Catholicism—that if one merely believes in their church and their doctrines, one is thereby a true Christian who has attained salvation—is nothing but the church of architecture, never spoken of in the Word. Rather, these are religions governed by traditions, customs, ordinances, commandments (ideologies), and doctrines that were created to justify their worship of theft, which stands in opposition to the Word, becoming its enemy and adversary. Thus, the doctrines and ideologies of these religions called Christianity are, without exception, mostly contents forcibly fitted to their own corruption and false doctrines and ideologies. They are only doctrines and theories that parade external appearance and surface values, while abandoning the inner and profound value of the love of the cross. As such, the majority of churches, pastors, and believers can only be those who put forward a hypocritical and cunning love—no more than a superficial kindness and benevolence which even worldly men and idol worshipers practice—while discarding the sacrificial love of the cross.
Instead of the supreme law and the greatest commandment, which requires one to sacrifice even one’s life, pouring out everything without withholding, they exalt ritualistic and social acts of charity and relief—no more than hypocrisy and self-display used by the world to boast of themselves and their institutions—as if it were the very love of the cross by which the Lord gave His life for us. For this reason, the love of the cross is mocked and reproached even by unbelievers.
False religions that parade love and mercy justify themselves and exalt their own righteousness under the pretense of mercy or love, abusing charitable works and relief that are no more than hypocrisy and self-display, in order to rationalize their churches which feed their greed and selfish desires. Hence, because they exalt such works as though they were the love of the cross which lays down all ideals, all values, all life, and even one’s very soul, it is inevitable that these are churches, pastors, and believers in whom the love of the cross does not exist.
These are faiths that can only heap up greed and sin, pursuing worldly success, desires, ambitions, and lusts, and so while repeating the cycle of sinning and regretting, they turn back again to sin. In this vicious cycle they either treat sin lightly or rationalize it, and thus, within and without the church, their behavior differs, their outward and inward intentions differ, and their words and deeds differ. Accordingly, they are churches, pastors, and believers in which quarrels, hatred, envy, jealousy, and divisions ceaselessly arise according to their interests. This is proof that the love of the cross is absent; it is a false Spirit, a forced and counterfeit rebirth, and a vain savior.
How can the love of the cross exist in those who always carry envy, jealousy, hatred, lust, strife, quarrels, and disputes with them, repeating again and again the vicious cycle of sin? How can those without the love of the cross be pastors who testify of the love of the cross? How can teachings and learnings that lack the love of the cross bear the fruits and results of true salvation?
Thus, are envy, jealousy, strife, lust, hatred, lies, divisions, and slanders—sins equivalent to murder according to their interests—the marks of Christ, the temple of the heart becoming like God, the fruit of the Spirit, and the evidence of rebirth? Do those who claim to be reborn tear down, hate, envy, and quarrel with one another according to their own interests?
O learners who follow those who, having received forgiveness of sins, treat sin lightly and grow bold in sin, losing the very conscience of sin—do you not know that forgiveness is obtained within the love and sacrifice of the cross? Did not the Lord command you also to take up your cross and follow Him? Those who avoid the suffering and sacrifice of the cross, putting forward only words and theories to seek salvation, are the cunning and shameless ones who fill today’s churches, pulpits, and congregations.
Like shameless farmers who discard all toil and labor required to sow seed until harvest, desiring only the fruits, their fruits are only teachings and learnings that multiply quarrels, envy, hatred, divisions, slanders, lies, flattery, and hypocrisy. How, then, can they walk the path of salvation that follows the love of the cross, which is shown in giving, serving, and caring in charity and relief? How can they seek the love of the cross in their worship of theft? How can the signs and glory of salvation appear in sermons that put forward only words and theories?
Rather, they crucify Christ once again, justifying their sophistry and excuses with counterfeit rebirths, false spirits, false gifts, false tongues, and false soteriology, all of which profane the holy will of God and bring reproach upon the love and blood of the cross. It is only natural that such religions and churches must fall on the Day of Judgment.
The Word testifies that all religions are placed under sin so that on the Day of Judgment God might judge righteously; and that He, who sits on the eternal throne of glory, shall judge those who, belonging to this perishable world, have made the architectural church into a means to exploit the saints for their greed and selfishness.
In order to proclaim throughout the earth the love of the cross—not in words and theories, but as an example in deed and practice—by feeding, giving, and sharing with the poor and needy lambs, cherishing, honoring, and serving one another, they have instead taken the tithes and offerings as a means to strengthen their own power and satisfy their selfish desires. To justify such theft, under the pretense of God’s temple, they exalt the church of bricks, deifying it, and deceive the saints as though it were the eternal and glorious church of God, thereby blinding their eyes and ears. Thus, by putting God forward to deify themselves and their churches in order to rationalize their theft, can there truly be any salvation within the churches of today’s Christianity and Catholicism? Thus, their sins testify against them, for according to their personal gain and interests they cannot but repeat sin and regret; and the Word declares, ‘Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.’
Those who claim to have received the Holy Spirit yet show no fruit of love, mercy, gentleness, peace, goodness, patience, self-control, joy, or faithfulness—do they not instead envy, hate, quarrel, lie, lust, and divide according to their interests?
O arrogant ones who profane the Spirit! O false spirits driven by the spirit of pride! Do not profane the holy name of the Spirit any longer! Can those who claim to be reborn, yet live lives heaping up sin and greed in the vicious cycle of sin and regret, truly be said to have been reborn? Can those who claim to have obtained salvation, yet fail to build within themselves the temple of the heart that bears the love of the cross and reflects God, while their actions inside and outside the church differ, and their outward appearance differs from their inward intent, be said to have true faith? If you have a conscience, reason it out!
How can those pursuing worldly greed, ambitions, satisfactions, and desires possess the suffering love that sacrifices everything as the highest law and commandment? How can the tears and sufferings of poor and needy brethren and neighbors exist within faiths that only pursue their own joy, comfort, and delight? Their intercessions are nothing but excuses for their circumstances, their charity and service are mere hypocrisies and pretenses, and their few occasional acts of kindness are exalted as though they were the love of the cross that endures even unto death. For this reason, most churches boast of and teach a love that is less than that of those who do not act at all.
Thus, because they have already received their reward in the praise of men and in perishable possessions, most faiths today are vain, unable to receive the reward of heaven and of God. As it is written, “Let not your left hand know what your right hand does”: their boastful and hypocritical charities and relief can never be the same as the love of the cross, which lays down all things.
Therefore, no matter how much they devote themselves to the church, to the altar, and to the pastor, if their teaching and learning do not bear the temple of the heart that follows the love of the cross—serving, cherishing, and caring for one another in charity and relief—they can never manifest the fruit or testimony of Christ.
Thus these are churches, pastors, and believers who profane the love of the cross, seeking salvation only through words and theories while avoiding the suffering and sacrifice of the cross. For God created and established man, and sent the Word, the Law, the Apostles, the Truth, the Grace, the Gifts, the Prophecies, the Tongues, Moses, and Christ into this world for the sole purpose that, through charity and good works—feeding, giving, serving, and cherishing the poor and needy brethren and neighbors in the love of the cross—His children might be conformed to His divine nature and thereby be made heirs of His eternal glory.
Therefore, faiths that pursue only worldly ambitions, desires, successes, and happiness, rather than the hope of Christ and the life of the Spirit that follows the love of the cross, are dead faiths.
Such ones are those who, while living in the world, claim to be reborn, yet repeat the vicious cycle of sinning and regretting, and are false faiths that only heap up sin in envy, hatred, strife, lies, greed, jealousy, slander, and divisions. They claim to have the Spirit, yet their lives are but duplicity and hypocrisy—seeming holy, gentle, and kind outwardly, but inwardly harboring other intentions, behaving differently inside and outside the church, and speaking and acting with duplicity. These are cunning postures parading as faith in Christ, but they are only deceptive and shallow.
Without even a mustard seed of fruit, testimony, or glory of Christ, they chase their greedy ambitions, values, and desires as though they were missions or talents given by God. Their pride, confidence, determination, and stubborn will they exalt as though they were God, the Word, or the Truth itself, thereby corrupting their own conscience.
Thus, they kill even their conscience, which ought to be the standard of righteousness, and are trained in the habit of pride, treating sin lightly and justifying their own fanaticism, stubbornness, and lies as though they were the Word, faith, and religion. These are today’s religions, churches, pastors, elders, and believers.
Their common trait is this: rather than following the love and sacrifice of the cross in feeding, giving, and caring for the poor and needy lambs and brethren, they pursue only perishable worldly desires, ambitions, and satisfactions, thus heaping up sin. Their claims, born of excuses and rationalizations, become their word, their God, and their faith. Under the guise of mission or talent, they exploit their ambitions, desires, and lusts.
They exalt themselves as though they bore holy talents and missions, establishing a standard of pride, teaching worldly values, ambitions, and satisfactions, while using adversity to craft human lessons and inspirations. But what do such things have to do with the cross-life—the spiritual life—that conforms the heart to God through the love of the cross, which feeds and cherishes the poor and needy lambs?
Is faith that seeks only that one and one’s family might eat and live well the gospel of the cross? Did the Lord hang upon the cross and die for the insatiable wealth, honor, success, and happiness of mankind?
Faith that pursues worldly ambitions and satisfactions under the guise of mission and talent, without the highest law and the greatest commandment, can never follow the love and sacrifice of the cross. Rather, such faiths corrupt the Word of God, using it as a tool to fulfill their lusts and ambitions. For this reason, the churches that teach and learn in this way must fall; they are the tares bound for judgment (Matthew 24:1–2; 8:19–23).
Thus, as one elder confessed: there are many churches, but no church of Christ; many pastors, but no shepherds who tend the sheep; many believers, but no Christians. The Word says the wheat and tares will surely be separated; the tares look the same outwardly, but they are pastors and believers with no fruit.
This is the testimony of their own sins and consciences, for they cannot but repeat sin according to their interests. Their lives, increasingly weary and corrupted like those of worldly men, show no testimony, no proof, no power, no fruit of Christ. Their supposed rebirth, which piles up sin while only putting forward words and theories, is false. This is the same for both teachers and learners alike.
Because they try to serve God alongside the world and possessions, ideologies, doctrines, traditions, customs, ordinances, and commandments corrupted and twisted by men have been handed down, and thus to this day, endless lies and errors continue to produce heresies upon heresies.
Thus, a good tree bears good fruit, and an evil tree bears evil fruit; so it is only natural that heresies spring forth from heretical roots. Among the religions of this earth, Christianity is one that has produced the most heresies. That Christianity continues to birth heresies upon heresies is itself the evidence (Matthew 7:17–19).
From the roots of heresy, no witness of salvation can arise, nor can true Christians exist. One cannot serve both the perishable world and the eternal throne of glory.
Therefore, how can the sermons and churches taught and governed by such hypocrites with double hearts, who believe for the sake of their perishable desires, ambitions, and lusts, contain the path of salvation? How can those who cannot even govern their own bodies, enslaved to their unquenchable greed, lead others in the path of the suffering and sacrifice of the cross?
Because they are worldly and lack the love of the cross, they remain trapped in the vicious cycle of sinning, regretting, and sinning again, unable to escape, and thus heap up even more sin. What then can they teach or learn? Shall they learn excuses that rationalize sin? Or boldness that deceives conscience? Therefore, their faith, which rationalizes itself with such evil claims, exalting their pride, confidence, and zeal as though they were the Word, is false.
Thus, the Word is used by them only as a tool for their worldly ambitions and desires. Their prayers, put forward under the guise of mission and talent, are not the prayers of Christ’s hope, born from a heart that loves and serves brethren as oneself, but are only prayers to fulfill their greedy desires and worldly ambitions.
Such vain prayers testify that they belong to the path of sinners, and so it is as the saying: there are many believers, but no Christians; many tares, but no wheat that bears the fruit of Christ.
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.(Exodus 20 : 7)
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.(Deuteronomy 5 : 11)
Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.(Levitus 19 : 11~12)
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.(Matthew 6 : 31~32)
And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.(Luke 12 : 29~31)
Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.(Psalms 78 : 36~37)
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.(James 4 : 3~4)
As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.(Lamentations 4 : 17)
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;(Ephesians 5 : 3)
And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.(1 Samuel 12 : 21)
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.(1 Corinthians 10 : 31~33)
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.(1 Corinthians 10 : 23~24)
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;(Ephesians 5 : 1~3)
It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.(Proverbs 25 : 27)
For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.(Romans 14 : 7)
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.(2 Timothy 2 : 21~22)
And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.(Ezekiel 33 : 31)
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.(James 2 : 14~19)