Calvinism vs. Legalism - Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

PART 1 - Answering CALVINISM

Calvinism (the core doctrine of Baptist, Presbyterian, "Reformed," and multitudes of other Protestant and Ecumenical churches, formulated in the 16th Century by ex-Catholic John Calvin) stands (and falls) on five planks, known widely by the acronym TULIP.

T - Total Depravity of Man

U - Unconditional Election

L - Limited Atonement

I - Irresistible Grace

P - Perseverance of the Saints.

ALL FIVE of Calvinism's pillars are seriously flawed and unbiblical.

1. Total Depravity. No man is BORN depraved. We are NOT born with SIN IN US. SIN, by definition is the transgression of the law. An innocent baby has never transgressed the law, and is therefore NOT born in the total depravity of sin. Sin is an ACT, not a condition of your DNA.

2. Unconditional Election says that certain men are ordained before the foundation of the world to be saved, and others are foreordained to go to Hell, and there is absolutely nothing ANYBODY can do to be saved if you are not on the good list. Don't believe me? I'm telling you exactly what Unconditional Election stands for. Unconditional Election is believed SO STRONGLY by Calvinists, that they literally believe that even when Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, it did NOT mean that anybody would be saved who was not already foreordained. Unconditional Election is ludicrous; preposterous.

The CORRECT VIEW on this matter is to understand that the only ELECTION of God is made when GOD SEES OUR CHOICE to do the will of God. There is a WILL OF GOD for the righteous, and a WILL OF GOD for the wicked. You and I are foreordained to follow either the path of the righteous, or the path of the wicked. But GOD DID NOT MAKE THAT CHOICE FOR US!! WE must make the choice whether or not TO MAKE OUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE. "WHOSOEVER WILL" may come to the waters of salvation and drink! Most Baptist Churches adhere very strictly to Calvinism and TULIP. Occasionally, you will see a "FREE WILL" Baptist Church, and that means that they do NOT agree with Unconditional Election. Calvinists do NOT believe that man has a free will, but is hostage to predestination.

3. Limited Atonement generally says that ATONEMENT is ONLY good for those who are Unconditionally Elected, as described above. Bah. Humbug. The grace of God is freely offered to every man living, no exceptions.

4. Irresistible Grace says, in effect, that if you are Unconditionally Elected, it is impossible that you will NOT be saved. God is going to save you whether you know it or not. The flip side of that Irresistible Grace nonsense is that you can't go to Hell even if you try (if you are Unconditionally Elected). What kind of idiot believes that? Millions and millions and millions of Calvinists around the world. This big, fat lie is the nuclear engine that drives Joel Osteen and Joseph Prince's "Grace Revolution." Joseph Prince even goes so far as to say that if you believe on Jesus, "thou shalt be saved, AND THY HOUSE!!" He elaborates, declaring that if YOU get saved, ALL YOUR FAMILY will be saved automatically - EVEN YOUR DEAD MOTHER will be saved. I personally heard him say it.

5. Perseverance (aka Final Perseverance) of the Saints, (aka "Eternal Security," or "Once-Saved, Always-Saved"). This false doctrine presumes to say that once you ever "accept the Lord as your personal Savior," it is impossible for you to ever go to Hell. They argue that no man can "pluck you out" of God's hand, never recognizing that anybody can JUMP OUT of God's hand by their sins. "Once-Saved/Always-Saved" is as damnable a lie as Satan ever concocted in the world. Eternal Security heresy is more addictive than heroin, and more destructive. Jesus said that if we don't bear fruit in the vine, he will "purge us." Every branch that does not abide faithfully in the vine will be CUT OFF. That means that YOU ONCE HAD LIFE in Christ, but GOD CUT YOU OFF. That is NOT Eternal Security. There will be MULTITUDES of sons of God in Hell, because they left their first love, and God removed their candlestick from the Church.

If you are within a mile of Calvinism, flee it like the Bubonic Plague. It is among the worst of all the world's heresies. 

You MUST be born again according to John 3:3-7 and Acts 2:38 by 
1. Repentance
2. Water baptism in the name of Jesus
3. Baptism of the Holy Ghost speaking in other tongues. 

You must be FAITHFUL to God until you die. If you backslide, you WILL be lost and you WILL go to Hell. 

You certainly don't need Calvinism to tell you its abominable lies.

In Part 2, I will show the purported antithesis to Calvinism, and that is "Legalism." Hardly anything in the Theological Lexicon has more ambiguity than the subject of LEGALISM. The brand of legalism is a death-knell to any professing Christian, and the charge is leveled by, more than anyone else in the world, Calvinists. Is legalism what Calvinists say it is??

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PART 2 - Answering LEGALISM

LEGALISM: It is not what you have been told.

"They are legalists!" "We don't want anything to do with legalists!!"

That charge is a sentence of death in today's religious environment. The legalist is a heretic. The legalist must be shunned. The legalist must be banned. The legalist is anathema; cursed! All of heaven and earth must pounce on the legalist and beat him to a pulp. The legalist must go to the guillotine. When he is dead, his body must be burned to ashes, and spread over Judas' Iscariot's field of blood.

"CURSE THE LEGALIST!!!" That is one of the strongest condemnations you can ever dread to suffer, and most of the time, the accusation comes from the Calvinist camp. If you are a legalist, you are a leper, an outcast, a wretched, noxious soul. A legalist is a social reject; a pathetic, warped, demented freak.

There is only one problem. Nobody really knows what a legalist is.

"Legalism" is perceived to be as deadly as HIV/Aids. Once you have been called a legalist, nobody wants to touch you. People stop calling you. They don't visit you anymore. You have become a dreaded, highly contagious pathogen that must be quarantined - exiled from society - until you die.

SO WHAT IS LEGALISM, and WHO IS A LEGALIST??

The first thing that usually comes to mind is the Pharisee. The Pharisee and the legalist are considered to be synonymous. Not that the Bible ever called the Pharisee a legalist. Somebody, somewhere, at some time decided that the Pharisee was a legalist. But whoever that phantom accuser was, he forgot to tell us exactly what a legalist is. Just a Pharisee.

And in the minds of most professing Christians, the Pharisee is a total enigma. What exactly is a Pharisee??

1. What did the Pharisees actually BELIEVE that made them legalists?

2. What did the Pharisees actually DO that made them legalists?

Of course, those questions uncertainly presume that the Pharisees were in fact legalists.

That presumption is that CHRISTIANS MUST NOT DO ANYTHING THAT IS LEGAL, or they become a Pharisee.

The false belief prevailing in modern Christianity is that...

"CHRISTIANS MUST NOT DO ANYTHING REQUIRED BY LAW."

If you do, you are a legalist.

Stop right there for a moment.

The historical Antinomians would have a frenzied, ecstatic seizure over that statement. Antinomians were the lawless ones. The word antinomian means "against the law." Antinomians defiantly insisted that Christians are not under the law. They are not obliged to keep any of God's commandments. 

Antinomianism is Calvinism on steroids. Antinomianism is the inevitable outgrowth of Calvinism and its total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints - every one of which is a heresy. 

If, as a Calvinist, you believe that you are chosen unconditionally and saved irresistibly, then the LAW has no possible effect on your destiny, whether you keep the law, or break every law in the book. The Calvinist believes that whether you are spotlessly clean or as vile as excrement, on Judgment Day you will be saved. 

That cannot possibly be true. Calvinists teach you that once you "accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior" you cannot be lost. They damn the law. No rules apply any more. You are home free as soon as you say a 10-word prayer. 

Calvinism is the pounding heartbeat behind the incessantly "Trust Jesus!" mantra. "Trust Jesus!" that you will be saved no matter how bad you are. "Trust Jesus!" that your sins will not keep you out of Heaven. "Trust Jesus!" that you are eternally secure; once-saved, always-saved. "Trust!" Sorry, Calvin, I don't trust you or your "trust Jesus" ruse.

Calvinism is a screaming lie born in the belly of Hell. Of course you can sin! Of course you can go to Hell! No confession on earth can exempt you from your godly responsibility to walk in TRUTH, RIGHTEOUSNESS, and HOLINESS.  NO RELATIONSHIP with God is unconditional. God LOVED Jacob, but he HATED Esau! That is NOT unconditional love. Did God hate Esau because Esau was divinely predestinated to be hated, or did God hate Esau because Esau made a deadly choice to despise the blessing of God? I say, the later is the cause. God hated Esau because Esau dissed God.

God says, "...be thou FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH, and I will give thee a crown of life," Revelation 2:10. What happens if you are NOT faithful?

"And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God," Luke 9:62 KJV. What happens if you look back? Remember Lot's wife.

NO SIN is going to enter in to the Kingdom of God. Therefore, if you commit sin, and fail to repent of it and quit doing it, you are going to go to Hell.

Calvinists, like the Devil, want you to believe that you can eat the forbidden fruit and you will not die. CALVINISTS were the first to level the false charge of "LEGALISM!!" against God-fearing, Commandment-keeping Christians. In the mind of the Calvinist, it is against the law to be observe the law. They tell us that we need no longer keep the Old Testament Laws, and IF WE DO, WE ARE LEGALISTS!!!! They "turn the GRACE of God into lasciviousness," Jude 1:4, and that is nothing less than a license to fulfill the lusts of the flesh without penalty. Again and again we are told, "the Old Testament is no longer relevant. We do not have to keep the law in the New Testament." It is literally a License to Sin.

Against the law? What laws are we talking about? Which LAWS are we no longer beholden to? Please tell me.

1. Thou shalt have no other gods?

2. Thou shalt make no graven images?

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain?

4. Keep the Sabbath?

5. Honor thy Father and thy Mother?

6. Thou shalt not kill?

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery?

8. Thou shalt not steal?

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness?

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's things?

So must we BREAK the law to be a Christian?

Am I a legalist because I have no other gods?

Am I a legalist because I do not have any idols, graven or molten?

Am I a legalist because I honor my parents, don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, and don't covet other people's stuff?

Am I a legalist - an extremist, a Pharisee, a damned rule-keeper, because I don't commit incest, homosexuality, bestiality, or pedophilia? Those are Old Testament laws, too.

So what laws make me a legalist?

The keeping of WHAT LAWS make me a legalist?

MAN-MADE LAWS, you say?

OK, let's look at the "MAN-MADE" laws that instantly bring a diagnosis of terminal illness.

Holiness laws.

Holiness laws are considered to be the first symptoms of legalism.

At your very first hint of observing a holiness lifestyle, you become a legalist. You must wear an emblazoned "L" on your forehead.

Let's consider modesty. Modesty is considered legalistic. If you are too modest, you are a legalist. They say. They think.

If holiness people refuse to wear bikinis, speedos, g-strings, or any skimpy apparel that exposes buttocks, thighs, midriffs, bare shoulders, cleavage, or crotches, we are damned legalists.

We are damned legalists because we won't go out in public exposing ourselves. We are the scourge of modern Christianity. We are shunned like we have the bubonic plague.

We must not be legal. If we actually keep God's laws in these days of the "Grace Revolution," we are malodorous transgressors who must be exiled from the church, and banned from its pulpits.

Sexual correctness.

Sexual correctness is legalistic nowadays. It is anathema, cursed. If a man is too manly, or a woman too feminine, it is anathema. In this open-minded, liberated day, men are congratulated and lauded for expressing femininity, and women are praised, celebrated and ENCOURAGED to show masculinity. It is a sign of their self-expression, their sovereignty, their freedom from religion. If a person is rigidly heterosexual and monogamous, that is being too rigid. That is legalistic. If we make too much of gender identity, we are legalists. If a man condemns effeminacy, or if he ever (God-forbid) asserts authority over a woman, he is a macho, male chauvinist pig. But even worse, he is a legalist. If a woman is a stay-at-home mom, or a poor, mere housekeeping wife, she is deemed oppressed and subservient. If he or she actually believes what God told Eve in the Garden of Eden, "Unto the woman he said, ...and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and HE SHALL RULE OVER THEE," Genesis 3:16 KJV - he or she is a legalist.

Answer me. Am I a legalist for keeping the laws of God?

No. I am NOT a legalist for keeping the law.

Am I a legalist for preaching and teaching the law?

No. I am NOT a legalist for preaching and teaching the law.

Jesus said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven," Matthew 5:18-19 KJV

"And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord," Mark 12:29 KJV.

This gets DEEP really fast. JESUS said the first commandment is to HEAR: "The Lord our God is ONE LORD." If you don't obey this commandment, you are in big trouble already. If you believe that God is THREE LORDS, you are already out of order. Jesus Christ is the fullness of God bodily. Jesus is the IMAGE of the INVISIBLE God. If you see Jesus, you see the Father. "I and my Father are ONE." A Trinitarian cannot pass this law. A Trinitarian is already in disobedience to this law.(If the FATHER is the Lord, and the SON is the Lord, and the SPIRIT is the Lord, and they are three co-equal, co-eternal persons, then NECESSARILY, by the Trinitarian definition, there are three Lords. And that is HERESY.)

But there is so much more.

Jesus also said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments," John 14:15 KJV.

LEGALISM???? Not on your life. KEEPING COMMANDMENTS? Absolutely!!

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him," John 14:21 KJV. JESUS measures your LOVE by your KEEPING COMMANDMENTS!!

Legalism??? No!!! Keeping Commandments??? You'd better believe it.

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love," John 15:10 KJV.

Jesus revealed to us that the REASON the FATHER loves the SON OF MAN is BECAUSE HE KEPT THE FATHER'S COMMANDMENTS.

Legalism??? No. Keeping Commandments?? Yes.

"Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen," Acts 1:2 KJV.

Jesus continued to make commandments until the day He was taken up into Heaven. Don't kid yourself. Jesus has LOTS and LOTS of commandments to keep, and OUR KEEPING them is the proof of our LOVE for Him.

That is NOT LEGALISM.

"Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God," 1 Corinthians 7:19 KJV.

All teachings in the Bible are to be obeyed, both Old Testament and New Testament, unless a particular teaching is SPECIFICALLY revoked in writing in the New Testament. There are indeed a few things that were revoked and changed in the New Testament. Old Testament dietary laws were changed in the New Testament, so that Paul specifically told us that we need not keep those old laws pertaining to the eating of meats. The need for circumcision ended in Jesus Christ, since the purpose of circumcision was to prove a man was the physical descendant of Abraham. Jesus' own circumcision was bodily proof that He descended from Abraham. But since Christ, physical circumcision is needless, but "the circumcision of the heart," (crucifying the flesh, and the lusts thereof) is a New Testament commandment. With a few explicitly defined exceptions, the Old Testament AND New Testament laws continue to stand today.

"If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord," 1 Corinthians 14:37 KJV.

The LAW was not abolished in the New Testament. ONLY the particular ORDINANCES of the Old Testament. We no longer conduct the ordinances and ceremonies of the Old Testament Tabernacle in the wilderness, nor of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. No brazen laver, no altar of incense, no menorah, no veil, no ark of the covenant. No ordinances. No ceremonies.

"Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances," Ephesians 2:15 KJV.

All the MORAL and SPIRITUAL LAWS are just as effective and required today as they ever were. Adultery is still a sin. Homosexuality is still a sin. Incest is still a sin. Murder is still a sin. All the moral laws of God are still sinful to disobey.

The ONLY LAWS that we need NOT observe are laws that are made by men.

"...the commandments and doctrines of men," Colossians 2:22 KJV.

"Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth," Titus 1:14 KJV.

Back to the Pharisees. The Pharisees in fact, were NOT legalists. They DISREGARDED God's laws and made up their own laws. 

Under the surface, the Pharisees subscribed to many of the ancient Babylonian mysteries that had been introduced to them through the teachings of King Solomon and Hiram of Lebanon. Over the centuries, they adopted Babylonian mysteries, that included such in-depth teachings as came to be known in the Gematria, the Talmud, and in modern times, Cabbalism. These MYSTICAL, MAN-MADE teachings were EXACTLY what Jesus was condemning when he accused them of "making the COMMANDMENT OF GOD of none effect BY YOUR TRADITION," Matthew 15:6. They regarded the TALMUD as authoritative, but the TORAH (God's Word) was NOT authoritative.

And their reliance on man-made commandments showed up in the silliest, most impertinent ways.

GOD'S LAW said "Honor thy Father and thy Mother." The Pharisees said that whatever kindness they did for their parents was a "gift." The Pharisees' law flew in the face of God's law. 

GOD'S LAW said nothing about washing hands before eating. But the Pharisees made it a great sin to fail to wash your hands. They made up crazy things like this. They "strained at gnats, and swallowed camels."

THAT IS NOT THE SAME AS teaching true Biblical commandments. 

When a holiness preacher teaches that it is a SIN for a woman to cut her hair, he is NOT teaching the commandments of MEN. He is teaching the WORD OF GOD from 1 Corinthians 11. I don't have time to deal with the subject here, but you can read all about it at this link. HAIR LENGTH ON MEN AND WOMEN That subject is NOT LEGALISM as erroneously defined by the Calvinists. It is the COMMANDMENT OF GOD. 

The same thing is true about modest and gender-specific clothes. MALE AND FEMALE: GOD'S GENDER-SPECIFIC COMMANDMENTS 

And it is also true about the wearing of JEWELRY. See ORNAMENTS OF JEWELRY.

These subjects are NOT MAN-MADE!!! They are GOD-MADE! They are commandments of God, and every Bible-believing person is obliged to KEEP those Commandments, regardless of how counter-cultural they are, or how offensive they are to the carnal, worldly professing "Christian."

It is NOT LEGALISM to preach these things. I am NOT A LEGALIST when I preach about HAIR, MODEST GENDER-SPECIFIC CLOTHING, JEWELRY, and other subjects. I am being FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH to the Gospel message as CLEARLY DELINEATED in the NEW TESTAMENT.

It is NOT LEGALISM to say that the wearing of jewelry is wrong, if the entire Bible supports that premise. It is NOT LEGALISM to say that the cutting of a woman's hair is wrong if the Bible clearly supports that premise. It is NOT LEGALISM to say that the wearing of immodest clothes is wrong when the Bible clearly supports that claim.

In the most accurate sense of the word, a LEGALIST is one who carefully keeps God's laws. And THAT IS GOOD!!

But a Pharisee is NOT a legalist in the purist definition of the word, because he does not keep God's laws. He keeps HIS OWN LAWS, and makes his OWN COMMANDMENTS that are CONTRARY to the commandments of God.

Man made laws are evil. But God's laws are good. If it's in the Bible, it's good. If it is CONSISTENT with the Bible, and if it AGREES with the Bible, it is good. If it is contrary to the Bible, or if it contradicts the Bible, it is bad.

IF IT IS NOT IN THE BIBLE, IT IS NOT A COMMANDMENT.

IF IT IS IN THE BIBLE, IT IS A COMMANDMENT.

And no matter how you slice it, God's commandments are for keeping.

In the most accurate sense of the word, a LEGALIST is one who carefully keeps God's laws. But a Pharisee is NOT a legalist, because he does not keep God's laws. He keeps HIS OWN LAWS.

Therefore, in a large majority of all cases, when Calvinists lower their guns and fire off charges of "LEGALISM!! LEGALISM!! LEGALISM!!" they really are making war against keeping the Commandments of GOD, and that is abominable. 

And unfortunately, the very same Calvinists who purport to hate "man-made" laws, are as guilty as sin for making their OWN man-made laws!

In that regard, most of modern "liberal" Christianity is Pharisaic, because they do NOT keep GOD'S LAWS, but instead practice and preach MAN MADE LAWS such as social services, good works such as digging wells in Africa, running soup kitchens, supporting orphanages, or running medical missions or disaster relief projects. THOSE ARE MAN-MADE ways to Heaven. They are NOT God's ways to Heaven. Calvinists, despite all their rhetoric, are among the world's best at performing good works to justify themselves. And they are among the worlds WORST at actually preaching the everlasting Gospel that Jesus and the Apostles preached: 

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of WATER and of the SPIRIT, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

Marvel not that I said unto thee, YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit," John 3:3-8 KJV.

Peter preached the NEW BIRTH in Acts 2:38, providing the EXACT FORMULA for the New Birth:

"Then Peter said unto them, 

Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation," Acts 2:38-40 KJV.

You can't even PAY a Calvinist to preach Acts 2:38. Why? Because they say that is SALVATION BY WORKS! Well that is NOT salvation by WORKS. That is salvation by OBEDIENCE, and they don't like laws. Nevertheless, they love to show their good works. They would rather build a thousand water wells in Africa than to obey the Holy Ghost and speak in other tongues. They would rather support a thousand orphanages in India, than to dress holy, stop cutting their hair, and quit wearing jewelry ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF THE LORD.

Jesus Christ did not come to build a social service organization. He came to preach the eternal Kingdom, and turn men from sin to righteousness, to be baptized with His baptism, and to be filled with His Spirit. He came to turn us from worldly, terrestrial things to heavenly, celestial things.

And the only way to get there is to follow His teachings from A-Z, including believing and teaching the Oneness of the Godhead, the New Birth, and the holy, consecrated life.

"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments," 1 John 2:3 KJV.

"He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him," 1 John 2:4 KJV.

"And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight," 1 John 3:22 KJV.

"And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him," 1 John 3:24 KJV.

"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments," 1 John 5:2 KJV.

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous," 1 John 5:3 KJV.

"And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it," 2 John 1:6 KJV.

Just before Jesus Christ returns to this earth, SATAN will make war with all the saints of God on earth.

"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ," Revelation 12:17 KJV.

Make note of the fact that they both 1. Have the TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, and 2. KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS of God.

Stop screaming "Legalist! Legalist! Legalist!" and start obeying the laws of God - if you want to be saved.

"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus," Revelation 14:12 KJV.

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city," Revelation 22:14 KJV.

Jesus said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it," Matthew 7: 21-27).

Keeping the LAW by itself will not save me. I must be born again according to John 3:3-7 and Acts 2:38. But after I have been born again, I must "walk in the Spirit." The Spirit and the Word are one. It is impossible to walk in the Spirit of God without walking in the WORD of God. And it is impossible to walk in the WORD of God without keeping God's commandments.

I am going to preach, teach and practice keeping the Commandments of God until Jesus comes. They alone won't save me, but they will definitely help keep me saved. And if I break them without repenting, I won't be saved.

"Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments. My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly," Psalms 119:165-167 KJV.

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I Don't Trust Anybody Before I Scrutinize Them

What is behind the mask?

In my 64 years, during most of which I have been intensely involved in Christian ministry, first as a Trinitarian Pentecostal preacher, and for the past 33 years, as a Oneness Pentecostal Holiness preacher, I have been influenced by many, many people. Some of them influenced me in quite godly ways, and for that I am truly thankful. Those whose examples were consistent with Bible teachings left a profound, indelible and priceless impact on my life. I thank God for true men and women of God.

But in too many cases, I have been grossly misled by people that I thought were true men (or women) of God. It is impossible for me to tell all the stories of the times in my 64 years when I pursued the counsel of someone I trusted, only to find out too late that their beliefs and teachings were very much contrary to the truth of God's Word.

I used to be very, very trusting. I trusted just about everybody. I have believed and trusted in preachers and leaders who, in some cases, had enormous influence over multitudes of people (including myself), but I finally realized that their counsel was intolerably contrary to true Bible doctrines and holiness.

As a young minister, I was obsessed with the biographies of great preachers. For years, I read a long list of biographies and autobiographies of famous preachers, seeking to know and put into practice the things that made them great. Decades later, I realize that those "HEROES" were "ZEROES" because they never preached the TRUE Gospel and never stood for the TRUE teachings of the Bible. They were champions of heresies and error. As such, I should have been REPULSED by them, NOT intrigued or enamored. 

I did not realize at first just how dangerous, even deadly, their teachings were. I thought they had some kind of fresh or new or special revelation from God that caused their enormous successes. I hoped that by following in their footsteps, I could fast-forward into some great place with God, or into a position of great fruitfulness and fulfillment and successes in my own life.

But in the end, I painfully discovered that Satan had used them to stumble me and lead me into great error, and into a way of life or a way of ministry that was completely unacceptable to God and His Word. In some cases, I found myself embracing great heresies after following people who were highly esteemed, even lauded by their peers, but not so highly esteemed in the eyes of God.

NOT A FEW TIMES, have I found myself at the end of a dead-end street spiritually. I had to turn around and go BACK to where I began, and start over, admitting that I had been duped. I had been deceived. And in several cases, I was very nearly completely destroyed. More times than once, I found myself looking into the face of Hell itself. But for the magnanimous grace of God, I would almost certainly be in Hell this very day.

I will never forget those who misled me, and by the help and grace of God, I will never gain allow anyone like that to talk me out of what I know the Bible says, and what I know that God requires of me.

Now, I am most concerned for the multitudes of other seekers who are presently under the same or similar delusions that I have been deluded by. In retrospect, I don't know if anybody could have convinced me that I was on the wrong track back then, but now I wish that SOMEBODY had tried to dissuade me. I wish that SOMEBODY in my life had take a bold, strong stand against my erroneous beliefs and practices. I don't know if they could have saved me from my foolishness, but I would like to think they could have.

Even now, I don't know if anything I can say or do will have any effect on you if you are under a strong delusion like I have been under so many times over the years. 

All I know is that God's eternal and infallible Word is the litmus test against which EVERY teaching and EVERY practice must be scrutinized. I am aghast at the total naivety and foolishness of this generation to follow celebrities, both preachers and musicians and "Christian" entertainers whose beliefs and teachings and practices are at the best, ignorant or foolish, and at the worst, downright abominable or grossly heretical. They HONOR and ADORE them when they should be RUNNING AS FAST AS THEY CAN RUN from them!

This generation knows almost nothing whatsoever of TRUE MEN OF GOD. There are so very, very few true men of God in the world today, it is next to impossible to even FIND one, much less be profoundly impacted by such a one. Most of the "men of God" or "women of God" in our day are self-appointed pseudo-Christians who are virtually biblically ILLITERATE. They do NOT know the Bible. They do NOT know God (although they would swear that they do).

I am not impressed with very many things or very many people anymore. I don't care if your church runs 30,000; if it does not clearly teach the Oneness of God, the New Birth (Water and Spirit baptisms) and Holy, separated living, it is a trap door to Hell. You WON'T BE SAVED in a Church like that. You and the entire congregation, including the Pastor, will wake up in Hell one of these days.

I refuse to be impressed with pedigrees or your secular educations. "The world by wisdom knew not God," I Corinthians 1:21. I refuse to believe that psychology degrees, sociology degrees, accounting degrees, business degrees, or financial or business successes, et cetera, are necessary to effective ministry. "For as many as are led by the SPIRIT of God, THEY are the sons of God," Romans 8:14. "The FLESH PROFITETH NOTHING, it is the SPIRIT that quickeneth (gives life)," John 6:63.

I don't want the counsel of anybody who thinks they have some shortcut to God. If anybody is going to influence me, I want them to have real mastery of the Bible. I want them to be the godliest, most consecrated, most fully committed Pentecostals that can be found. If you don't understand that God is not a Trinity, I don't want your counsel. If you don't understand the New Birth REQUIRES full repentance that leads to holy living, water baptism in Jesus' name, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost, speaking in other tongues (John 3:3-7 and Acts 2:38), I don't want your counsel. And if you don't have the greatest convictions about living a holy, godly life separated from carnality, worldliness and selfishness, then I don't want your counsel.

I have a Bible, and if I can't find anybody like that, I will read the Bible and pray until I FIND somebody like that. I have to be genuinely convinced that this person is a real lover of truth, righteousness, and holiness, or I just can't follow their lead anymore.

Meanwhile, I'm keeping my distance from anybody I can't trust. I do not and will not trust anybody without putting them to a strict Bible test. If they pass it, they're in. If they fail it, they're out. That just how it has to be, and that is how it is going to be.

So what are you supposed to do if you discover that the leader you are following is NOT leading you biblically? You must go to God in prayer and fasting. You must ask God for help. You must search the horizon for someone who CAN lead you according to the scriptures. If you truly cannot find a church and a pastor who can lead you in the Oneness, Apostolic, Acts 2:38 Pentecostal, HOLINESS, way, you should ask God to lead you to a place where you CAN find such a church and such a pastor. If you have to move to another city, it is imperative to the saving of your soul, and the saving of your family.

Until you do, you must personally cling to all the truth you know. You must not personally compromise, even if you are surrounded by compromisers. You must not believe, embrace or practice false doctrines or false teachings, even if you are in a huge church where false doctrines are at work. 

I don't trust ANYBODY without scrutinizing them. It won't hurt you to carefully scrutinize a person, but it may hurt you profoundly if you don't. I will do everything in my power to make certain that I will never be misled again. And if you are wise, you will too.

"Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits whether they are of God:
because many false prophets are gone out into the world,"
1 John 4:1 KJV.

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The Tragic State of Preaching and Preachers

Preach the Word!

It occurs to me that I have extraordinarily strong emotions about the state of preaching and preachers nowadays.

In my lifetime, I have come under the influence of many of the most powerful Pentecostal preachers of the 20th Century, both as a Trinitarian in my younger years, and as a Oneness Apostolic for the past 32 years.

In this, my 51st year of preaching, the state of preaching and preachers today - compared to what I saw and heard as a younger man - is a lot like comparing Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama. I should not have to elaborate on that point. 

Long ago, preachers were not politically correct. They had utterly no idea what political correctness was. They said what they meant, and meant what they said; and they didn't much care WHO thought WHAT about it. They preached what they saw in the Bible, and expected wise men to take heed.

For the most part, they were not stupid. Most of the preachers who influenced me in the first half of my life were men who had great, great mastery of the Bible, and were men of frequent fasting, regimented prayer, and were powerful, powerful men in a pulpit.

Men like David Wilkerson, C.M. Ward, Leonard Ravenhill, and B.H. Clendennen were role models for me in the first half of my life. All of them were GIANTS among Fundamentalist, Evangelical, Pentecostals in their day. I sat under, and was personally influenced by Wilkerson, Ward, and Clendennen.  All were men who were known around the world, and who personally influenced many millions of people in their lifetimes.

All of them were fearless men of great conviction and passion, and were extraordinarily single-minded about the ministry. They were not men of sports and entertainment. You could scarcely find a frivolous cell in their bodies. They had no interest in wealth, or entertainment, or being culturally compatible, or having the world's approval. They lived and breathed ministry.

But when the Roman Catholic Ecumenical Charismatic Renewal took center stage in "Christianity," men of great conviction were silenced almost overnight, and WIMPS took over.

Nobody was allowed to speak their mind anymore. The teaching of DOCTRINES became the worst  taboo in the history of Christianity. It was the birth of GENERIC religion; come-as-you-are, do-as-you-please Christianity. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. GRACE. GRACE. GRACE. GRACE. GRACE. That's all we ever heard.

The "Holy Spirit" ceased being the "HOLY" Spirit I had known and read about in the Bible. The new "Holy Spirit" winked at sin and approved of just about any and all behavior. The new "Holy Spirit" did not care if you drank, or smoked, or cursed, or went to dirty movies, or looked and acted just like you always did before you "joined" the "church."

In the 1960s and 1970s, the age of rebellion, the sexual revolution, free love, dope smoking and hallucinogenic drugs, I dare to say that a preacher who preached real Bible DOCTRINES was committing - in the minds of that new generation - a worse taboo than one who slept with strangers, or tripped on acid.

I observed that the Church I had read about in the Book of Acts (at the age of 10 years old), was being totally re-invented.

In my youth, I was accustomed to seeing SINNERS come to Church because they were TIRED of living in sin, and wanted to CHANGE their ways, and consecrate their lives to God.

But suddenly, in the new LOVE environment, sin and sinners became obsolete. Extinct! Nobody condemned anything. RELATIVISM invaded the pulpits. MORAL relativism and DOCTRINAL relativism. You could be saved on just about any kind of terms you wanted to be saved on, as long as you said, "Jesus is LORD!"

Nobody had to actually CHANGE to join the church anymore, because LOVE accepted them just as they were. Psychology and psychologists invaded the church, and they told us that we should NEVER make anyone feel GUILTY! If we made them feel GUILTY, we were harming them; committing mental and emotional abuse! Psychology quickly replaced Bible doctrines and standards for living. Preachers COVETED their degrees in Psychology, and in many "churches," a PhD in Psychology was the ultimate credential for selecting a Pastor.

The wordly, faddish, culturally-addicted lifestyles were made to fit right into the church. As of today, the typical modern "Christian" preacher is a faddish cult-hero who presides over a giant social environment where the Bible is minimized and music is maximized. Entertainment and social activities define the modern "church," and preaching is watered-down swill that appeals to the carnal and worldly appetites of his followers.

I want NOTHING to do with that kind.

Give me a Bible preacher. A REAL Bible preacher. One who actually KNOWS the Bible thoroughly and masterfully from Genesis to Revelation. One who actually knows the difference between the WORLD and the CHURCH and DEMANDS a distinction between the world and the Church.

Give me a preacher who actually KNOWS ALL THE BIBLE definitions of sin, and knows exactly what sin is in the world today, and CONDEMNS sin, and calls men and women and young people to FLEE from every sin named in the Bible.

Give me a preacher who is a Holy Ghost filled, tongue-talking, devil-hating, praying and fasting, signs, wonders and miracles firebrand. Give me a preacher who can quote large portions of the Bible, and preach powerfully and authoritatively on just about anything in the Bible, beginning with the knowledge of the ONENESS OF GOD, the TRUE NEW BIRTH, HOLINESS, and BIBLE PROPHECIES FOR THE LAST DAYS.

That is the ONLY kind of preacher who can help save this lost and dying generation.

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