Chapter 1

The Decline of Christianity

(1) Paganistic Theology Exposed

Most Christians are not aware that Christian theology can trace its roots to Western philosophers. One of the reasons that true Christian doctrine became obscured is because the early Christians sought the truth through philosophical study rather than through the study of the Bible itself. Philosophy originated with the Greeks to help explain what they did not understand in the world and God. Such men as Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates developed theories about the world and God that later influenced Christian thinkers.

As early as the first century Christians began to use philosophy, rather than the Bible and the Holy Spirit, as their source for developing Christian doctrine. Even before the formation of the Roman Catholic Church, philosophy was used as a guide to the Christian apologists, such as Justin Martyr of the second century who used philosophy to try to prove his arguments to other philosophers. Origen was a very famous theologian of the third century; his training was in philosophy:

Thrust thus at so early an age into the teacher’s chair, he recognized the necessity of completing his education. Frequenting the philosophic schools, especially that of Ammonius Saccas, he devoted himself to a study of the philosophers, particularly Plato and the Stoics. In this he was but following the example of his predecessors Pantenus and Clement, and of Heracles, who was to succeed him. (Catholic Encyclopedia)

So it was that philosophy took hold and was used by the Church in the formation of its doctrines. Even Protestants have followed the error of the Catholics by mixing the Bible with philosophy, by which we get our present theology. This is proven by the fact that Western philosophy is still taught in both Catholic and Protestant seminaries and is even seen as essential to understanding God. Over the centuries they became intertwined so much that now you cannot teach theology without philosophy, and you cannot teach philosophy without theology.

The following was taken from Theology Today, a quarterly journal of Christian theology, published by Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ.

One could put the case boldly: Christian theology cannot be understood and Christian ministry becomes superficial when philosophy is left out. … The history of Christian theology and the history of Western philosophy are virtually parallel. Each has borrowed from the other all along the way. Fundamental modes of thinking, basic questions, patterns of argument, and many of the particular concepts that have given Christian theology its shape from the earliest centuries into the present have been adapted in part or adopted wholesale from secular philosophical sources. Augustine simply would not be Augustine without the Neoplatonists, nor Aquinas without Aristotle, nor Bultmann without Heidegger. In the other direction, it would be impossible to imagination what the works of Descartes, Leibniz, Hume, Hegel, or Kant would look like if they had not had Christian doctrines of God, creation, and humanity to presuppose.

This mutual dependence is not just a matter of past history either. If anything, contemporary theology is more dependent than ever upon philosophical methods, categories, and insights. And not only systematic theology. Biblical studies, historical fields, mission and ecumenics, church and society, all the areas of practical theology–every field of inquiry in the theological curriculum depends heavily on contemporary work in philosophy. Hermeneutical, linguistic, ethical, and fundamental methodological concerns penetrate all of these areas, and they cannot even be broached without philosophical expertise. . . .

At many points divergent, sometimes in conflict, and certainly not synonymous, Christian theology and Western philosophy are nonetheless simply unintelligible apart from one another. One cannot read any major Christian theologian with more than superficial understanding or comprehend in any depth the central teachings of the Christian faith without some philosophical knowledge. … (Philosophy in Theological Education, By Craig Dykstra) (http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/oct1987/v44-3-symposium1.htm)

You would think that Christians would turn first to the Bible and the Holy Spirit, but most people are not independent thinkers. People generally fall into three categories: The first group is those who believe what they are told to believe and never question it; the second group contains those who believe whatever they want to believe regardless of the evidence; the third group is made up of those who seek truth regardless of where it may be found. This last group is the smallest group.

Once the rules are agreed upon, society and institutions actually frown upon anyone who does not follow the accepted rules. This applies in all areas of life and thought, which is why the largest group are those who believe what they are told to believe. The first group gets along well with established systems and organizations because they do not rock the boat.

Truth cannot be rightly understood without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, yet, men of supposed high learning and intelligence turn to paganistic philosophy for guidance. Astounding! While God can use anything to bring someone to Christ, even philosophy, it does not mean that we should accept and endorse anything that happens to bring someone to Christ. A tragic accident may bring someone to Christ, but that does not mean we should pray for God to bring tragic accidents upon people as a regular practice.

It has been argued that philosophy is merely “reason” and a means of understanding, but I will show it to be quit the opposite.

Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 16:17) (NKJV)

Notice that God revealed an important truth to an unlearned fisherman. Peter did not need a seminary education to know this truth. In fact, those with the highest educations were the Pharisees and Sadducees who rejected Jesus as their Messiah and plotted to kill him.

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. (Luke 10:21) (NKJV)

Notice that God has actually “hid” the truth from the highly learned, but has revealed the truth to the common man, at least those who seek to be led by God. Yet it has been the highly learned who have formed Christian doctrine, both in the early centuries and after the Protestant Reformation. As you can see, I have proven beyond any doubt that theologians have used, and continue to use, paganistic philosophy in an effort to understand the truth about God, even though the Holy Spirit and the Bible were given to us for that purpose:

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things . . . (John 14:26) (NKJV)

One of the primary jobs of the Holy Spirit was and is to teach us the truth. In fact, the Bible actually says that men of high learning cannot understand the Scriptures unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to them.

12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned [recognized, understood]. (1 Cor. 2:12-14) (NKJV)

It did not take many decades after the apostles until church leaders turned away from being led by the Holy Spirit and sought to be led by paganistic philosophy. And we are supposed to trust these men; that they know more about truth and so we must believe what they have said? No!

The Jesus Seminar is a group of theologians and seminary professors from around the country who meet in Chicago twice a year to vote on the accuracy of the Bible. They have concluded such things as: Jesus’ resurrection is a myth and that the only words Jesus actually spoke in the Lord’s Prayer were “Our Father.”

How is it that men of high learning, with degrees in theology can become what amounts to unbelievers? It is because of philosophy and theology which has been obscuring the truth from the beginning. Here is a very important quote from SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY Vol. 1, by Charles Hodge, a Protestant theologian, about different methods of theological analysis:

The second is the method adopted by those who admit a supernatural divine revelation, and concede that such a revelation is contained in the Christian Scriptures, but who reduce all the doctrines thus revealed to the forms of some philosophical system. This was done by many of the fathers who endeavored to exalt pistis into gnosis i.e., the faith of the common people into philosophy for the learned. . . . Men lay down certain principles, called axioms, or first truths of reason, and from them deduce the doctrines of religion by a course of argument as rigid and remorseless as that of Euclid. This is sometimes done to the entire overthrow of the doctrines of the Bible, and of the most intimate moral convictions not only of Christians but of the mass of mankind. Conscience is not allowed to mutter in the presence of the lordly understanding. It is in the spirit of the same method that the old scholastic doctrine of realism is made the basis of the Scriptural doctrines of original sin and redemption. To this method the somewhat ambiguous term Dogmatism has been applied, because it attempts to reconcile the doctrines of Scripture with reason, and to rest their authority on rational evidence. The result of this method has always been to transmute, as far as it succeeded, faith into knowledge, and to attain this end the teachings of the Bible have been indefinitely modified. Men are expected to believe, not on the authority of God, but on that of reason.

I am amazed that a theologian will admit to and confess the truth, that paganistic philosophy is used as a guide rather than the Holy Spirit, but you have just read one confession. So there, you have heard it straight from the horse’s mouth. Theology and philosophy are mixed, like leaven in bread. “A little leaven, leavens the whole loaf.” Therefore, a definition of theology is: ideas about God and doctrine arrived at by using human reason and philosophy, rather than by the Holy Spirit and the Bible. So it is no wonder that seminaries often produce atheists.

In 1976, Noel Wesley Hollyfield, Jr., a seminary student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, did a survey of SBTS students and the results showed that the longer the students attended that seminary, the more they became unbelievers. Here is part of his survey results that were published in a tract in 1981:
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Noel Hollyfield, Jr. wrote his thesis for a Master of Divinity degree from SBTS based on that survey. The thesis was titled: “A Sociological Analysis of the Degrees of ‘Christian Orthodoxy’ Among Selected Students in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.” His thesis was read and approved by the SBTS committee, which indicates that they accepted the contents as accurate and the conclusions valid. Here is part of the survey results:

Master of Divinity Students
Diploma—-1st Year—-Final Yr.—–Grad.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS—–

I know God really exists,I have no doubt about it.
100%——-74%——–65%———63%

Jesus is the Divine Son of God and I have no doubts about it.

100%——–87%——–63%——–63%

I believe the miracles actually happened just at the Bible says they did.

96%——–61%——–40%——–37%

The Devil Actually Exists:

Completely true.
96%——–66%———42%——-37%

Probably true.
4%——–18%———-26%——15%

Probably not true.
0%———12%——–23%——–32%

Definitely not true.
0%———5%———-9%———15%

There is Life Beyond Death:

Completely true.
100%——–89%———67%——-53%

Jesus Was Born of A Virgin:

Completely true.
96%———66%——–33%——-32%

Probably true.
4%———17%——–33%——-37%

Probably not true.
0%———14%——–21%——-15%

Definitely not true.
0%———–2%——–12%——15%

Do You Believe Jesus Will Actually Return To Earth Some Day?

Definitely.
100%——–79%——-56%——-53%

HOW NECESSARY FOR SALVATION DO YOU BELIEVE THE FOLLOWING TO BE?

Belief In Jesus As Savior:

Absolutely necessary.
100%——–85%——-60%——59%

Holding The Bible To Be God’s Truth:

Absolutely necessary.
73%——–42%——–33%——21%

… (www.tbaptist.com/aab/apostasyatsbts.htm)
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The thesis was 159 pages long with numerous charts that showed conclusively that the more education Southern Baptist seminary students received, the less they believed in truth. You might be interested to know that there are some famous people that went to seminary only to come out atheists; and in some cases they would go on to persecute and murder Christians.

At age sixteen, Darwin left Shrewsbury to study medicine at Edinburgh University. Repelled by the sight of surgery performed without anesthesia, he eventually went to Cambridge University to prepare to become a clergyman in the Church of England. After receiving his degree, Darwin accepted an invitation to serve as an unpaid naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle . . . (www.lib.virginia.edu/science/ parshall/darwin.html)

In case you are not aware of it, Darwin is the father of the theory of evolution, which would never have happened if they had taught the truth at the seminary where he graduated. Another famous 19th century man who went to seminary was Joseph Stalin. He studied for the priesthood from 1894-1899, but was expelled. He became a believer in Marxism while still a student, and later became a disciple of Lenin. He went on to become leader of the U.S.S.R. Why did Stalin go to seminary in the first place? Perhaps he was pressured by his family or perhaps he was seeking after truth, which most young people do. But he clearly did not find it or he would not have become a Marxist revolutionary and one of the worst mass murderers in world history.

Karl Marx earned a PhD in philosophy. And according to the previous quotes, theology and philosophy have become intertwined through the past 2000 years so that it is not possible to study one without the other. This means that one cannot gain a PhD in philosophy without having studied theology as well, yet he was one of the most dedicated atheists in history.

Philosophy is the pinnacle of human reason, which is the opposite of being led by the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul was educated and so was well aware of human reasoning and philosophy and spoke out against them in the above quoted passage in 1 Corinthians 2:13; “in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit” (ESV). He continues speaking even more clearly against philosophy in the next chapter:

18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” (1 Cor. 3:18-20) (NKJV)

The literal translation of verse 20, says, “The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are worthless” (LITV). In another place Paul states:

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God . . . (2 Cor. 10:5) (ESV)

The word for “arguments” above literally means reasonings or thoughts. Clearly Paul was saying that man’s reason works against the true knowledge of God. Man’s reasoning will bring one to a false knowledge; it will result in theology.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1:25-29) (NIV)

Those who have a Ph.D. in theology are not likely to have any practical understanding of the Bible; they are more likely to disbelieve the Bible. As such, seminaries have truly become non-prophet organizations.

I have already quoted the apostle Paul speaking out against men who think themselves wise, and against human reasoning, which is philosophy. Here is a final word from Paul that clearly and unequivocally warns against philosophy, in five different translations so you can see clearly, and know beyond any doubt, what the passage is saying:

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:8) (NIV)

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (ESV)

Be careful not to let anyone rob you of this faith through a shallow and misleading philosophy. Such a person follows human traditions and the world’s way of doing things rather than following Christ. (GW)

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. (NKJV)

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. (NAS)

The original Greek also says “philosophy.” As an educated man Paul knew about philosophy and knew that it was against the true knowledge of God. He never at any time would have suggested that we use philosophy to prove the Christian faith or use it to arrive at true Christian doctrine, but that has happened. As a result, Christianity has strayed from the truth; it may be the main reason why early Christianity strayed from the teaching of Jesus and the apostles, and why the gifts of the Spirit ceased in the early church in the fourth century (more on this later).

The Spirit is not opposed to intelligence, education, and reason, because all are from God. You must have an intellect to receive and understand truth from the Holy Spirit. But all human philosophy amounts to nothing; the only thing that matters is truth which can only come from God. And the only way to arrive at the truth is to study the Bible with the aid of the Holy Spirit.

A recent example that shows we do not need seminaries, is the story of Sunday Adelaja who has built the largest church in Europe in Kiev, Ukraine. Because he was saved for only six months before he went to Russia to attend college, he was never even a church member. After graduation he went to Ukraine to work and eventually built a church. He has built over 300 other churches throughout the world.

(2) The Worthless Shepherd

In Zechariah 11 there is a prophecy about thirty pieces of silver which most Christians know refers to Judas who betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver. Immediately after those verses there is a prophecy which refers to God raising up a foolish, or worthless, shepherd, which refers to a church:

Then the LORD said to me, “Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs. 17 “Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!” (ESV)

It is not a coincidence that this passage occurs immediately after the prophecy about Judas betraying Christ. The prophecy of the worthless shepherd refers to the rise of false Christianity that took place in the first 400 years after Christ’s death. It tells us that the church that came into dominance was a false church. That church was the Roman Catholic Church which came to power in the fourth century under Emperor Constantine and his sons. Clearly, God knew that the Roman Empire would convert to Christianity and would pollute the Church, causing it to become apostate.

The right arm becoming crippled and useless signifies that this church will not carry out the functions of true Christianity for the benefit of the people as instructed in the Bible. Its right eye being blinded signifies a loss of insight and understanding of the truth. It departs from the faith outwardly in how it acts and operates, and it departs from the faith by means of false doctrines.

You would think that Martin Luther and the Protestants would have thrown out all Catholic doctrine and sought to find correct doctrine only from the Bible; but not so. Some of the doctrines which Protestants currently believe originated with the Catholic Church.

This passage also tells us that God himself raised up this false church. But why? Jesus said narrow is the gate that leads to life and few will find it, and broad is the way that leads to death and many will find it. Perhaps God only wants those who seek after the truth to find it (Luke 11:9-10; John 8:32); only God knows for sure why he created it.

If you study Christian history, especially the fourth century, you must come to the conclusion that it was completely apostate by 350 A.D. Not merely because of false doctrine, but also because of how the bishops acted, organizing mobs to attack those with opposing views.

A belief existed that the office of bishop was authoritative regardless of the character of the man who held that office. This means he could commit acts of violence and murder and still be part of the true Christianity; but they were wrong. This is the principle reason so many Catholic priests have engaged in child sexual abuse. The other reason for the abuse is that the Catholic Church does not teach people they must strive to stop sinning.

When a priest hears confessions, he hears about all sorts of sins like adultery, theft, homosexuality, gambling, murder, orgies, etc. Are the priests any better than the people? Certainly not, so after years of hearing all these sins being confessed, they no longer think that it’s unusual to commit those sins. After all, they only have to go to another priest to confess and their sin is wiped out, or so they believe. Beware the Worthless Shepherd.

However, this does not mean that all Catholics will go to hell. God raised up the Catholic Church to be what it is, a church with half truths, and it was the only Church that existed for 1,200 years (approximately 325 to the Reformation). Therefore, it is possible to be a Catholic and make it to heaven, but you have to be a very good one. The same can be said for Protestants; the good ones will make heaven, but most will not.

(3) Where We Are Today

Far too many Christians have compromised with the world and live no differently than nonChristians. Barna Research has found that people who profess Christ as their savior and are looking forward to heaven, are just as likely as unbelievers to gamble, commit adultery, and lie:

In virtually every study we conduct, representing thousands of interviews every year, born-again Christians fail to display much attitudinal or behavioral evidence of transformed lives. For instance, based on a study released in 2007, we found that most of the lifestyle activities of born-again Christians were statistically equivalent to those of non-born-agains. When asked to identify their activities over the last thirty days, born-again believers were just as likely to bet or gamble, to visit a pornographic website, to take something that did not belong to them, to consult a medium or psychic, to physically fight or abuse someone, to have consumed enough alcohol to be considered legally drunk, to have used an illegal, nonprescription drug, to have said something to someone that was not true, to have gotten back at someone for something he or she did, and to have said mean things behind another person’s back. No difference. . . . but they were slightly more likely to say they had helped a poor or homeless person in their community (53 percent versus 45 percent). (page 47)

This loose living is the result of the compromised doctrines being taught in churches today. Cotton candy theology tastes good but has no nutritional value and will result in spiritual malnutrition and sickness. There is teaching on grace, as there should be, but there is not enough teaching on living right. Too many people refer to efforts at right living as legalism, but that is false. We will never live perfect lives, but the problem is churches who are accepting conduct which the Bible calls sin. Legalism is forcing others to live by your rules, whatever they may be. Notice that Christians are only slightly more likely to help the poor!

The Christianity that exists today is gradually becoming the broad path that leads to death, rather than the narrow path that leads to life that few will find. One TV preacher, when asked about the Gospel in an interview, said:

It’s about having good relationships; it’s about having peace in your mind; it’s about having healthy bodies; to me I’m saying that God wants you to be blessed and to be happy in every area of your life. (2007 interview)

False preachers with skillfully spoken sermons and smooth words, also plagued the apostles.

By their smooth talk and flattering words they deceive unsuspecting people. (Romans 16:18b) (GW)

Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California, said:

I believe that much of the American churchgoing population, while not specifically swimming downstream, is slowly floating away from Christ. (Crazy Love, page 93)

Joel Vestal started his own foreign missions organization while still in college, ServLife, and has trained and sent out native missionaries and runs orphanages in India, Africa, and other regions. He states:

The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard pointed out that the church is filled with “the admirers of Jesus” but not many followers. For too long we have allowed ourselves to be satisfied with churches full of people who are merely cultural Christians or admirers of Jesus and have never had their lives transformed by the power of the gospel. . . .

Perhaps the root of the problem is that we have made the gospel too easy or too comfortable for too long for too many people in the church. We have allowed people to hear the gospel over and over in comfortable complacency with no visible progression toward transformation. (Dangerous Faith, page 38, 39)

Christians used to humbly confess that they were just sinners saved by grace; but today we have become arrogant; calling ourselves King’s Kids, we think we are something special. This might be the result of the teaching that condemns the humble confession and replaces it with “we are royalty.”

People who publicly claim to be Christians, yet live an openly sinful lifestyle, like some Hollywood actors and sports stars, give Christianity a black eye just as much as those who hold up signs that say God hates gays. We don’t transform society by becoming politically active and forcing unbelievers to live by Christian standards; we transform society by meeting the needs of those who are oppressed, hurting, broken, and poor. The Roman Empire did not become Christian by making it illegal to worship the Roman gods. It became illegal only after most of the population became Christian.

(4) Corporate Sponsorship
I came across an article online that I had a hard time believing. At first I thought it was a joke, but it turned out to be true. It seems that churches are accepting money to mention products in sermons and even advertise inside churches. Some churches have even changed their names to reflect a corporate sponsor. Here is the entire article reprinted by permission.

Corporate Sponsorship a Boon to Church Budgets
by Joel Kilpatrick

TUSTIN — In the wake of declining tithes and offerings, churches from coast to coast are partnering with corporate sponsors to supplement their budgets, in exchange for high profile if controversial ad placement.

“This [offer] couldn’t have come at a better time,” says Jacob Helsinki, pastor of Mach 4 Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, Wash. His church has sold much of the “visual space” in their facility to advertisers, including the bathroom stalls to Burger King, the rim of the collection plates to Hewlett-Packard and the backs of pews to JollyTime popcorn. “We were facing real cutbacks for our youth programs, and these companies were more than happy to step in and bridge the gap, financially speaking.”

His church isn’t alone. Other churches have sought corporate cash to buy Bibles, fix cooling systems and fund vacation Bible schools — all at the relatively small cost of ad space. In one case, a church in Arizona offered new converts a free Bible whose cover reads, “The Holy Word of God, brought to you by Liu’s China Express.” Liu’s is a local restaurant.

“I think it’s ingenious,” says William Teash, professor of religion and business at Claremont College in California. “It’s an expanded form of tent-making, but the tent-makers in this case are bigger and incorporated.”

At the end of the Sunday morning service at Doritos Cool Ranch Assembly of God church in Tustin, Calif., the worship leader segues from an uplifting praise song into the latest McDonald’s jingle, “I’m loving it.” The congregation joins in tentatively, some laughing at the irony. By the end of the jingle, they’re singing heartily.

“We do our duty,” says one parishioner after the service. “It helps buy Sunday school materials.”

But other pastors are engaging in subtler forms of persuasion that strike some as ethically questionable. A pastor in Austin who wished to not be identified, says he is paid $500 a week to wear Tommy Hilfiger clothing, and to somehow incorporate references to his new clothes into the sermon.

“It’s not a complete departure from who I am, so I’m very comfortable doing it,” he says. “And I tithe on the money, and give some to missions.”

Other pastors participate in a controversial “pay-for-play” program offered by a company called On Message. The company’s web site lists dozens of “advertising opportunities” from local and national vendors. For example, Colgate-Palmolive offers $150 for a single reference to any of their products. All that’s needed to collect the money, in most cases, is a videotape showing the remarks being made to a group of 100 or more people.

“We call it spontaneous advertising,” says a publicist with Colgate-Palmolive, which is one of the largest companies to jump into the untested area. “Our philosophy is this: If you are telling a story about the kind of morning you had, and you see an opportunity to mention our brand of toothpaste, we’ll reward that choice.”

At Mach 4 Baptist Church, [Mach 4 is a brand of men’s razor] some congregants complain that their trust in their pastor has eroded somewhat. They ask themselves why he chose a particular brand of clothing to wear, or if corporate influence is behind the sermon illustrations he gives. Some say he tends to rub his face more now, “like he got a really good shave,” says one older congregant. “You start to wonder if he made a closed-door deal with the razor company to goose their sales. It breeds a little distrust, but if it allows us to bring one more person into the Kingdom, I guess it’s worth it.” (By Joel Kilpatrick, www.LarkNews.com)

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I can understand selling space on a sign on church property, but selling endorsements inside a sermon is getting into bed with Babylon the Great prostitute (Revelation 17). It is a very bad, very sad, sign of spiritual decay. Can you smell the rotting corpse? It is too far gone to save, we must leave it before the maggots and flies get onto us as well. Next there will be a Christian casino using the justification of raising money for God’s work! High-roller preachers and businessmen will fly in to gamble for God! After all, the money goes to missions.

(5) Summary of the Basic Gospel

Even though the main purpose of this book is to explain an important element that has been lost from the Gospel message, because there may be people reading this book who know little about the Christian faith, I will first provide a summary of what we already know to be the Christian Faith.

God sent his Son into the world to show us the way. Jesus also died to pay the penalty for the sins of those who will believe in him. Therefore, the blood of Jesus paid for our sins, which allows us to be forgiven; to have our sins washed away. But he also rose from the dead and is alive today in heaven. He then sent the Holy Spirit which comes into the hearts of all those who put their trust in Jesus and gives us new life; thus we are born again spiritually. The Holy Spirit changes our hearts and gives us the power to follow Christ, to resist temptation, and love others. Christ will return to Earth to judge the living and the dead. All those who are judged righteous will be changed in their physical bodies so they will live forever; thus, the Bible tells us that all Christians have eternal life (John 14:6; Romans 10:9-10). All those who believe and follow him will eventually be given immortal bodies, like Jesus now has, and will live forever.

This is the basic Gospel message that ninety percent of all professing Christians agree with. But there are many other beliefs related to the Gospel message about which there is disagreement; some of the beliefs on which we disagree will be discussed later in the book.

For example, some Christians believe it is a sin to remarry after a divorce, others believe it is not. Some Christians believe that all people on Earth will eventually go to heaven, but most Christians believe that only God-fearing believers in Jesus will make heaven. This list of doctrines on which various churches disagree is very long. This brings us to an important point, which is that too many professing Christians today do not actually believe the Bible; they believe what they want to believe and disregard the rest.

I may disagree with a particular doctrine but I do so after logically and reasonably and prayerfully studying the Bible to obtain the truth from it, rather than merely believing or disbelieving it because it is part of official church doctrine. So I do not consider myself in the disbeliever camp or the Fundamentalist camp, I am somewhere in-between. I am a little bit conservative and a little bit liberal.