Since the time of Babel there have been prideful self-righteous religious people influencing the world that think they should be honored and set above the rest of humanity. They claim to be enlightened people who dare to speak for God and like to be called prophet, priest, reverend or some other exalted title for “holy men”. They pretend to be people enlightened by God but many of these religious leaders are actually megalomaniacs doing the work of Satan.
We see these religious examples many times in the Old Testament opposing the true prophets and anointed leadership that God raised up. When the Messiah came to Israel, it was the Jewish religious leaders that rejected Him and opposed Him. Jesus called the religious high priests of Judaism a brood of vipers and sons of their father the Devil (Joh 8:44).
There should be little doubt that by the time that Jesus made his appearance to the Jews that the Jewish priesthood was ruled by the satanic elite. We can argue if these men allowed themselves to be deceived by Satan, or if they were born to be the vessels of Satan, but in either case most in the priesthood were self-righteous religious leaders obsessed with keeping up outward appearances. The religious leaders did not keep God’s standards themselves but they looked down on everyone else that did not meet their own standards.
The only condemnation from Jesus during His ministry on earth was against these religious leaders. He equated the ruling religious leaders of Israel with the rebels preceding them that opposed and killed the prophets. Jesus said they were sons of the Devil. Jesus had no delusion that these religious leaders would see the light that was standing before them. He knew that they would literally crucify Him.
Paul warned us that wolves would also come into the Church and lead many astray (Acts 20 29-31). We can see how that played out over two thousand years of Church history, and nothing has changed today except the wolves are now worldwide and in positions of power in most religious institutions.
Many religious leaders within Christendom are doing the work of the Devil. Some are megalomaniac control freaks that drive people out or put them in bondage and others drive the gospel of salvation out of the institution that they lead.
I am convinced that the greatest harm to the gospel of salvation of grace through faith in Jesus comes from hirelings and religious zealots that gain Christian leadership positions. Paul warned us that these wolves would come and we not only can see their evil influence throughout Church history we can see their evil influence within “Christianity Today”.
God for His own purposes gives certain people authority to rule over others in the flesh. However, the satanic elite that reach the highest levels in religious institutions are empowered by Satan in his attempt to destroy men’s souls. That is why Jesus had condemnation for religious leaders but did not have any condemnation for state secular leaders. The religious leaders of Israel would not only not come to salvation themselves, they tried to prevent the people of Israel from finding salvation through the only way that God provided.
Throughout Church history we see how the religious hierarchy within attacked and corrupted the Christian salvation message that they claimed to promote by adding traditions of men and doctrine of demons to the gospel of Grace through faith in Jesus.
They replaced God’s atoning sacrifice for sin and the resurrection power of a risen Lord with earned brownie points and satanic religious dogma that nullified God’s finished work for atonement of sin on the cross. In other words, they replaced God’s righteous work to save mankind from their fallen fleshly sin nature, with man’s own self-righteous efforts to try to restore paradise lost through works of the unrighteous sinful fallen nature.
There was only one spiritual Church on earth since Pentecost and there still is only one Church on earth. Even so, the satanic religious elite created a religious hierarchy within visible church institutions and then lorded over Christians, oppressed them, lied to them, and even killed those that would not submit to their heresy and rule. Read the history of the Roman Catholic Church and you will see how much of this played out in Church history (A Woman Rides the Beast, by Dave Hunt is one book that outlines some of the wretched history of the Roman Catholic Church).
Religious leaders in the world, more than ever, are still the major hindrance to getting the simple gospel of salvation out to the people.
The Roman Catholic Church is not physically killing people today, but Catholic leaders are still the major hindrance to Catholic people ever finding salvation for their souls that comes through grace through faith in Jesus Christ period.
Salvation does not come by good works, earning brownie points, or following any ordinance, decree, or ritual instituted by religious leaders at the Vatican. The Roman Church traveled the whole world seeking converts to Christ, but along the way the satanic elite replaced the gospel of salvation through trusting in Jesus Christ alone with a Babylonian influenced satanic theocratic system and self-effort that saves no one. (I am not saying that there are no Catholics that are saved.)
Islam came from a bastardization of Christianity by Muhammad or whomever invented his legend and sayings. The religious leaders of Islam are now the ones promoting killing people in the name of a Creator that they cannot even know (The Creator is only revealed through His son Jesus). Many of these religious leaders are making the modern world into a hell hole and its going to get a lot worse.
The religious leaders of Islam will not allow the only gospel given through which people must be saved to even be taught in the land where they rule. Sharia Law was thought up by religious control freaks to keep everyone under their submission.
Many of the religious leaders of Protestantism corrupted the gospel of salvation by buying into the satanic teachings of atheist philosophers that taught humanism. There is hardly a mainstream denomination or church that has not been corrupted by their philosophies and psychologies. Most leaders in liberal Protestantism no longer believe the Bible is uniquely the word of God, so why would they believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation like the Bible teaches? Most of these satanically influenced religious leaders just believe and teach what fits their own humanistic worldview.
Satan now is working through many of the religious leaders of the remaining Bible believing churches. Evangelicals and Pentecostals are rapidly falling for some postmodern more relevant gospel of living your best life now, or how to find God within yourself by whatever works for you. Just create the Lord you want in your own mind and you have established a spiritual relationship with God.
Other religious wolves among the Charismatics are controlling people by claiming spiritual powers that they do not have and teaching a neo-Gnostic Dominion Theology that the Bible does not teach.
I suggest that Christians get the book Religious Trojan Horse, by Brannon Howse if you really want to understand what is going on in contemporary Christianity. Others are also seeing that picture and warning people. In the link in my last post even Tom Horn warned about these people.
Don’t be deceived. Jesus, Paul and Jude made it quite clear that the enemy of the gospel would come mainly via false teachers and wolves in sheep’s clothing hidden amongst confessing believers. The main enemy of God and His work on the cross is the religious leaders that are hindering the clear gospel message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus. Many are teaching a path to God that may seem right to many but the end thereof leads to death (Pr 14:12).
Thanks Don, I often kid the D.D. after many religious leaders meant doubly destitute.
Exactly why my family or I myself have not attended church in 2 yrs & 2 months. I’m done. Better off to read the bible and ask God or Holy Spirit to show me the meaning or truth of what I’m reading. I have mentioned to you before Don, the changing of my old Pastor Gregory Dickow, and once he hooked up with TBN he started the BS about having a bigger church, spent 20 minutes every Sunday talking about tithing and sacrificing to get the church built, which went from a cost of $9 million up to $25 million. The church was told by Dickows wife Grace that we should get 2nd or 3rd jobs, put off buying a car, no vacations to help while they lived in a gated community, had several luxury cars/trucks, and lived like kings. They brought in weekly guests like Creflo Dollar, Oral Roberts, Jesse Duplantis, and Kenneth Copeland who preached the prosperity gospel of using God as an ATM. I was soon gone after that, especially when we were asked to close our eyes in prayer, and Dickow would leave out the side stage entrance to go preach in the city. The wife told some of us who were leaving, ” excuse me, where are you people going? I didn’t dismiss you.” I won’t repeat what my wife told her here, wasn’t bad language but too much detail. Never went back again.
This article made my soul leap with gratitude!! Well written and true. I’ve reacently stopped attending West Angeles COGIC in LA, CA because of what has been eplained in the article. This deception comes in all variations. In a strange way, the truth of this article confirms that I’m ‘truly’ saved. Thanks, Don.
@ Robert Rivera 7/13/13]: same story, different church!! What a mess.
The heretical leadership for monetary and power gains have obviously been going on for a very long time.
It is my understanding that the Catholic “Purgatory” was created by the priests at the time to get the living in a mournful state to give money and possessions and were led to believe it was a way to somehow increase their deceased one’s status in Purgatory…when in actuality, it was a way for the Catholic Priests to fund a large cathedral.
Oddly, it is still a belief in the Catholic Church today…and why not, it’s a way to play on the emotions of the Catholic Church people into giving them money.
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Robert Rivera,
Get a 2nd or 3rd job ?…wow, I’m surprised that they didn’t ask you to sell off some of your internal organs that you might not be using…those luxury cars do need tune ups, ya know.
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Jeff M.
What is D.D. ?
Nice article! I love your articles, I’ve become a bit obsessed with end time prophecy lately. I agree with much of what you write, you have wisdom my friend.
@ David. D.D. is Doctor of Divinity
I was watching this car program (I have a ’46 willys) and they picked up some old pre-fiat micro-car to “flip”. They showed some clips to explain what this thing is and one of the clips was (and I am not making this up) a catholic priest (or even the pope) sprinkling/throwing “holy water” at the car! I practically lost it right there. Is there a special formula to get the water “holy”? I never understood what that was all about.
I think I was “confirmed” way back when, and I have absolultely no idea what that even means. That religion (obviously, catholicism) had me totally lost, even clueless. And don’t get me started on when I’m supposed to kneel or stand or sit. “And also with you” — I did get the whole “and also with you” thing down. It’s about up there with “I know you are but what am I?”
I don’t get the organized religion thing. Even the process of getting some new pastor, as a post on a prior blog (from someone “down under”) eluded to, just has me scratching my head. So, one or two bad apples (liberal parishioners) with their corrupt agenda outweigh the needs of the many to thwart the selection of an evangelical pastor? Huh? I’d give them a serious “what for” and call them out for what they are (literally, unsaved “wolves”).
Even more disturbing, seminary students graduating people [women, for that matter — and don’t get me started on that… as disturbing as that is… read your bibles people] that are promoting the Obama agenda. That’s not just disturbing, that is a sickness.
And yet they (unsaved wolves) make every effort to boast about how they “pray”. More like “prey”. Instead, “go in the closet and pray”. I don’t need to boast, I’ll let works be known to the father in secret.
Rant over. That did feel good, though.
Craig,
The priests make Holy Water by just blessing it with the sign of the cross. Heck, they can put Jesus inside a wafer so what is hard about making water holy?
Hi Don,
It really is a brilliant strategy the enemy is using… The efforts to eradicate the true church failed during the first few hundred years under Roman rule. So instead, use corrupt individuals to worm their way to leadership positions.. Then.. Derail the focus from the inside. I don’t mean to sound like “Captain Obvious” here… But the movement over the last few decades has been to allow pastors to tell people what the Word of God says, instead of studying the word for yourself. People are much to busy with their lives to be bothered by such things as reading the Bible… That is what pastors are for.. Right? So the opening was provided, and the wolves walked in without much opposition into the leadership positions.
And yes, historically, the concept of purgatory provided the leaders of the Catholic church with a means to raise significant amounts of money. It also provided a means of fear based control.
The role of Psychology must also be noted. The problem of Psychology is that it is typically very “me” focused. As a practitioner, I have no problem with helping clients work on their issues. But the field as a whole has clearly avoided God. Now, most large churches have Psychologists practicing within the church. Which I believe has such dangerous potential.
This article you posted is clearly an accurate assessment of the state of things today. Eventually, it seems that real Christians will return to the roots of the church and begin small groups where true worship takes place as the “church” continues it’s march toward further apostasy.
I agree, it’s not going to get better until Jesus returns…
Rod in Oregon
As it states in John 14:6, Jesus said I am the Way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me”., I have been told by so called Christians that all other faiths have similar teachings as Christ and that they to can attain heaven if they follow their so called rules. Not so, if you believe the above scripture. Today I have heard everything in Church that is contrary to scripture, which has been twisted to suit whomever it pleases. The Holy Spirit has been sent to teach us, should we decide to receive him. Fellowship is necessary for those who believe, what we choose to believe is up to us. Many have gathered unto themselves teachers who tickle their ears, and that they shall have. As previously stated God and Christ have become ATM machines, because that’s what we want to live in absolute prosperity and opulence while the world staves not only physically but spiritually as well. The Church that my wife and I attended now support Homosexuality, I advised that pastor that I could not support the church any further. As Rod has stated we now gather with a small group, study the word and pray. I enjoy your blog Don, and the people who send responses, it tells me that I am not the only one that thinks this way. God Bless
Do not give up on going to church not all churches are bad and let us not forsake the gathering of believers.
Hi Clint
Although I don’t think you are making an accusation, the ‘not forsaking the gathering of believers together’ comment is often used as an accusation against those of us who have had enough of ignorance and compromise and separate ourselves from the laodiceans as a consequence.
The simple answer (and comfort) against such an accusation is Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”.
Where Christ is in the hearts of two or more believers gathering in his name we have the Church. I do feel for those who don’t have a godly spouse or children.
Clint…I agree…Christians are not to “forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is’ but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25)….don’t grow bitter against all churches and throw out the baby with the bath water. Even up here, in the most ‘nonreligious’ state in the country, Vermont, I was able to find a good conservative, Bible believing church. House church, as its called, should be only a last resort, when there are literally no decent churches around. Plenty of people at our church drive 45 minutes to over an hour to attend, although most live in the area. I, personally, cannot imagine going to such a church that Don has wrote about and not having the insight and discernment to recognize it after the first visit! Perhaps too many Christians dangerously straddle the line of the world, without spending enough time in the Word and prayer to recognize heresy and apostasy when it shows its ugly face. Great article Don, as usual.
Yup. You are not unaware of the Devil’s schemes, Don. When you read the book of Jude — excuse me, the page of Jude — he mentions the hidden reefs. It is these people. Cain wanted to worship God his way. Balaam wanted to lead the nation of Israel away from God’s will. The acid test to ID these people is to confront them with the word of God. Do they obey it?
If you don’t mind me saying, the excessively greedy church leaders can at times be easy to spot. As well as power hungry catholic priests. The worst of the reefs are the best hidden ones the ship hits at full speed. These are the liberals who creep in and try to nullify God’s word by appealing to a sense of goodness. The best example is gender roles. The Bible clearly makes a distinction between men and women. Yet liberals, like Eve, ask if God really said what he said. Just like Eve appealed to wisdom, they appeal to modernity. “It’s cultural,” they say about God’s command for women keeping silent in church. BOOM! The ship begins taking on water. Soon, no command of God is obeyed and the church is presiding over gay marriages, then lobbying for illegal alien amnesty (it’s compassion), then hosting an ecumenical interfaith prayer service to sign people up for Obamacare.
And as I love to point out on my website, feedingjimmy.com, these reefs love to teach people what to eat. They hate God’s commands about sex, but they invent food rules. The church becomes a nutrition advocacy group. It’s the same for the catholic church too. Remember when eating meat of fridays was a mortal sin? I Tim 4:1-4
Thanks Brian for your response. My wife and I have been praying for a fellowship to attend which preaches the Word. I know that we will not find a church that is perfect, if you wish to use that phrase. We live in a small town in southern Alberta, there are 5 churches, the largest is the Mormon’s, the Catholics, Word of Faith, the United Church which is a combination of Methodist and Presbyterian and the Dutch Reform. The largest being the Mormon which is a cult, the Catholic is the next of which I came out of, the Dutch are more concerned with doctrine (rules and regulations) and of course the word of Faith which is still on the prosperity kick, and where we attended the United Church. In the past we have driven 50 miles to attend church only to have it break up. Our group consists of 8 people who believe in the word, as Don said salvation through Faith in Christ. I will wait until God shows or sends me to a fellowship, until then I choose to wait for God to lead me. It is our duty to pray for one another, I would ask that all of you who choose do that for me.
Thank you Brian from Oz. And Wayne, I too have been praying for a group of Christians I could meet with. I would prefer a small home group where people actually pray together. I don’t know what ‘fellowship’ is supposed to mean. I have zero interest in the next pot luck dinner or bible study from a book other than the bible.
I just finished reading ‘Tortured for Christ’ and believe me when the persecuted Christians meet together there is no nonsense to have to filter out because their lives are on the line.
I’m not saying I want to be persecuted or tortured. I’m saying I want the real thing.
I read the paragraph on leaving LC, and the comments about Grace Dickow. I did
attend there many years ago, for maybe 5 or 6 years, and left because of the changes I saw: the focus off course, no longer Christ-centered. For some reason, these comments made by Grace disturb me very much. How do people sit in a church, and submit to someone telling them not to leave when they want to (apparently most of the congregation did just that)?? Talk about CONTROL with absolutely no authority behind it!! What kind of church tells you that you can’t walk out when you want to? Very disturbing and scary scenario. But people get calloused to the truth when “loyalty” is esteemed more than the truth. And that is what Dickow demands. Saw it first hand. Bad indicator.
And the pressure about contributing more to support a financial undertaking like that? While they live in luxury? I seldom watch LC broadcasts, because it’s so disturbing. But I heard for myself Greg brag in a so-called sermon, “I am wealthy. I am extremely wealthy.” I shuddered, I closed the video, and shook my head. Love of money. What else can you call that? The Dickows are out of place to demand sacrificial giving with the lifestyle they live. Again, people are blinded to the truth.
I will not have anything to do with churches similar to that.