And the Tragedy continues...

In 1978 a self-proclaimed prophet, Jim Jones, led nearly 1000 of his faithful followers to Jonestown, Guyana in an attempt to escape the law and charges against him here in the states.  While in Guyuna Jones somehow convinced his followers that they could drink poison but that it would not hurt them.  I assume he used this scripture, "They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." to lure them into believing that his concoction of kool-aid and Cyanide would not kill them or even make them sick.  As most people, they believed their "pastor" (and I use that term lightly) and drank the deadly concoction.  Sadly, all those who had partaken of this mixture died, including Jim Jones himself...such a tragedy.

On the morning of February 28, 1993, outside of Waco, Texas, governmental authorities descended on a religious camp of the Branch Davidians, a small religious group of about 1400 people led by David Koresh.  The government had been tipped off that this religious group was ilegally buying and selling "arms" and that Koresh had been raping and abusing young women and children.  Although it was not the governments intentions that anyone be harmed in the sting, hoping only to take Koresh into custody and rescue his followers, nearly everyone in the compound was killed, including Koresh when the compound burst into flames and burned to the ground.  Sad!!

Here we are reminded of two separate tragedies.  Two very diffrent incidents but with one common denominator.  Innocent, good people lost their lives from following the wrong leader.  We've asked ourselves how can these things happen?  How do completely normal, hard working people get involved with and become followers of crazed religious lunatics, not to mention allow their families and children to be influenced by and become victims of them as well?  Of course, that is IF we are speaking of rational, normal people, right?  I mean no one in their right mind would become a member of a cult or follow someone who wasn't teaching them directly from the word of God, would they?  What was wrong with all these people?  Were they crazy?  Were they mindless, ignorant, simple folks?  Were they possessed?  I mean really, how does someone come to the point of blindly following a so called religious leader to their own death? 

Can I just say, this is still happening today!  Yes, it really is.  Though people are not being led by droves to the nether regions of South America and though we don't hear of too many Jim Jones' or David Koresh's these days, people are still blindly following "liars" for leaders even to their own destruction.  I believe the bible calls them false prophets and they have been around since day one. 

The original false prophet..."Satan" in the Garden of Eden perverted God's word and Adam and Eve fell prey.  There are self-proclaimed even bible college proclaimed "men of God" everywhere who, instead of teaching the unabridged, complete and accurate word of God as it is written; are teaching opinions, fables and traditions of men to good folks around the world, and people are still falling prey to the lies.  (Read Matthew 24) Why? Are these people stupid?  No!  In fact, most of them are very intelligent. So how then can they be sucked into the lies of a false prophet?  Because people want to go to heaven and "preachers" are supposed to know the way.  Most people really do want a good, solid relationship with a good and loving God; so much so that they are unwittingly putting their own souls and the souls of their family in jeopardy because they are listening to and trusting some "nice guy" standing behind a pulpit at their church.  Am I saying that all preachers are liars?  NO!!  Absolutely not! However, I am saying that there are good people who sit in church services week after week who believe they are "saved" simply because the preacher told them so and because they have repeated some ritualistic "sinners prayer" and accepted Jesus as their personal savior.  This in itself is more of a tragedy than a hundred Jim Jones or David Koresh stories put together because the slaughter and abuse to souls goes unnoticed.  People by the thousands even billions are sitting on church pues every week but are sadly dying and going to hell because of the misrepresentation of God's word.  Let me just go on the record as saying, I am afraid for those people.

There is much more to salvation than repeating a prayer and accepting Jesus, but there are tons of people who believe only that simply because that is what their pastor teaches without researching the matter for themselves and that is where the problem lies.  Is your pastor a nice guy?  Probably!  Does he have evil ulterior motives to purposefully lie so folks go to hell?  I doubt it, but folks, there is no sinners prayer found in the bible and there is no recorded incident in the bible of someone being saved by repeating one.  As far as accepting Jesus as your personal savior, that's a great thing, but wouldn't it be more beneficial to find out if Jesus accepts you as his child?  Because if not, you are not going to heaven. There are some definite truths in the bible regarding salvation that many churches and preachers simply do not believe in or teach. Namely, repentance and baptism in Jesus' name followed by the reception of the Holy Ghost, evidenced by speaking in other tongues.

What's worse is that many denomations believe in and are teaching a division of the godhead stating that there are three parts when the bible specifies that there is only ONE God and his name one (Zech. 14:9).  There is never any mention of a triune godhead in the bible.  The word trinity is not in the bible nor is there any suggestion that there are three divine beings that are co-equal and co-eternal, yet millions upon millions of people believe in the trinity.  The trinity is simply NOT truth.  It is a made up and far fetched system of beliefs, founded by the worlds so called religious and paganistic leaders at the council of Nicea in 325 A.D., and which was NOT founded on the bible or any of it's principles, yet it has been passed down from generation to generation as truth.  Preachers today still teach this concept of the trinity because that's what they were taught, and it's what momma, daddy and what grandma and grandpa believed.  Though they study the word, the revelation of Jesus Christ has either never really hit home or they have seen the truth in God's word but have chosen to dismiss it simply because it would be too hard to admit that they and everyone else they know have been wrong all these years; and so they continue passing the lies and misconceptions of God's word down to other unsuspecting souls.

Now, I'm sure I have offended some folks with these words, but that truly is not my intentions.  My hope is that these words will stir you into taking a good look at your personal walk with God and also into taking a good look at your spiritual leader and what he is teaching you.  Are the principles he teaches for your life founded in the word of God and not in fables or opinions?  Have you followed and obeyed ALL the steps to salvation as recorded in the Holy Bible?  Do you know all the steps needed for salvation?  Do you have a clear understanding of the godhead (who and what God is)?  Do you study the word for yourself so that you know if what you are being taught is truth, or have you been told that there is no need for you to study the Word yourself because lay people cannot understand it?  If you have questions about any of these things, please examine your walk with God and by all means examine your spiritual leader. 

Am I saying that you should ditch or distrust your pastor?  No, but you don't have to be a sucker either.  After all it is YOUR eternal soul at stake.  We are exhorted to "study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15).  Do we still need a man of God in our lives.  Absolutely! But only one who teaches, believes and practices God's word in it's entirety.  The Apostle Paul said, "follow me"; however, not just "follow me" but "follow me as I follow Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1).  In other words he was saying, so long as I am following Christ and his teachings, follow me, but if or when I choose not to follow Christ, you are no longer obligated to follow me.  He also said than if he, any other man or even an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than what was first preached, let them be accursed (Gal. 1:8-9).  Just because someone's a nice guy, just because they have gone to bible college and earned a degree, and just because they call themselves a preacher doesn't mean that you must follow them or their beliefs.  You do have a mind of your own and you are NOT stupid; so please make sure that you know who you are following, that your man of God preaches the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  Make absolutely sure that you are following a man who is following Christ so that at the end of your life you do not find yourself as another victim to some tragic story, but that you really do get to meet Jesus face to face and hear him say "well done, thou good and faithful servant".