CHAPTER 12
“The last two or three years of the 1990s and the first five or six years of the new millennium were very difficult years for the church. Things were changing and the changes were hurting the church. Cults were the fastest growing religions in the world. It seemed they were filling the needs of their new converts. Actually, the cults were leading people down a path of destruction. Almost all the cults taught that man could become God. There was no place called Hell and there was no higher being a person had to answer to. Even the fundamental churches were teaching things that had never been taught before. Preachers were caught in sin, and the sin was announced all over the world. There was corruption, as well as out and out lies from the pulpits in America.
“What was happening?
“Was the church on the verge of collapsing?
“No, the church was not on the verge of collapsing, God was purging the church of the leaven. In other words, those who claimed to be Christians and were not were being removed by the Holy Spirit. The falling away that was predicted in Second Thessalonians 2:3 was about to commence. Second Thessalonians says: ‘Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come the falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.’ But it just wasn’t the falling away from the truth, it was that people did not want the Bible to direct or guide them in the way they should live. They said, ‘We don’t want a lot of rules and regulations. The Bible is just another book for those people who think they are holier than thou. The Bible is useless to read.’
“The Christian community was going to face a battle it could not win. In Second Timothy 4:3, 4 - the Bible says, ‘For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but, after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
“The people that were in churches were going to go after teachers that taught false doctrines. The lie they loved, the truth they would shun. Individuals that were not qualified to be pastors or elders became pastors and elders anyway. In First Timothy 2:12-14, ‘But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression.’ The Bible says a woman is not to usurp authority over a man, but churches did not want to hear what God’s Word had to say. They put women into the highest position in the church, that of senior pastor. The churches proclaimed we are living in the modern days, not the dark ages. The sad thing was the members considered it the right thing to do. The Bible had no part in most of the churches that were changing. Many churches that taught that there was no Hell, they also started teaching that there was no sin. If there is no sin, there was no need for a Savior to cleanse man of sin. If there is no sin, then the church is open to anyone who wants to join. The churches opened their arms to all types of groups. Homosexuals started going to church. When some of the members complained about the homosexual lifestyle, the pastors would say the members were inconsiderate and they should not judge one another. There were many churches that changed and became homosexual churches. The pastor was homosexual, as were the elders. They considered themselves as Christian homosexuals, whatever that meant. Some churches even called themselves Apostolic. What they meant was, they had some members who were elected to be apostles. They did not care what the qualifications in Acts 1:22 said. They thought they were apostles, but if you asked their friends whom they worked with, you were given a different story. Churches became festering sores of sin. There was nothing that was sacred. There were contests to see who could bring the most people to church. There were church rallies where you could throw pies in the pastor’s or an elder’s face. Some churches would even tape an envelope under the pew and once everyone was seated, you could then open the envelope. If you were the lucky person, you won a $50 bill. It became so popular the prize money went up and the church would have to have two or three services.
“The churches stopped being a place where you went to worship God. They now became a place where you socialized. There were many people who had a lot of head knowledge, but when it came to the heart, that was another story. The game was to go to church on Sunday, but live any way you wanted the rest of the week. Many churches even stopped praying. They said it wasn’t what the church was supposed to be doing. The job of the church was to get people inside so they could hear the word. Well, the word that was being preached was not THE WORD of the Bible. The pastors were preaching something that was alien to the Word of God. But I am getting a little ahead of myself. It is best if I give you some examples of what I am talking about.
“The Grace Baptist Church was having a contest. The person or couple that brought more new people to church would win a $100 gift certificate to the local Christian Book Store. Bill and Marsha already had eight new people coming to church the next day, but they knew their best friends, Alan and Barbara, had 10 coming. They had to find at least three more people who would come to church. They went shopping at the giant mall that opened only two months before. Just by chance, they thought, ‘We could meet an old friend.’ They walked around the mall, looking at all the nice things to buy, and each person they looked at, they thought how nice it would be if they would go to church with them tomorrow. They were not interested in the persons' souls, they were only interested in the gift certificate and the prestige of winning.
“They went into one store where Marsha loved to buy clothes. The sales lady asked if she could help. Bill said his wife was interested in a few dresses. The dresses were exactly what Marsha was looking for. While Marsha and the sales lady were talking and looking at the dresses, Bill thought of a way to get one more person in church. Bill asked Marsha if she liked all the dresses and Marsha said she couldn’t believe it, but they were all her size and they fit perfectly. The total for the six dresses came up to $337. As he looked at the dresses, he said, ‘Well, the dresses at the other store were nice also; maybe we should go back there and buy them.’
“The sales lady could see her commission walking out the door. She asked, ‘Is there anything I can do or say that will make you buy my dresses?’
“Bill smiled and said, ‘Well, I do need a favor and you could help me with that favor.’
“The lady asked, ‘What kind of favor do you need?’
“Bill told her about the contest at church and said, ‘If you will come to our church tomorrow, I will buy the dresses right now.’
“The sales lady reluctantly asked, ‘So, where is this church located and what time does it start?’
“Bill paid for the dresses with his ICAN credit card. On the way out of the store, Bill turned around and said, ‘If something happens and you do not show up tomorrow, I will be back on Monday to return the dresses and get my money back.’ Before the day was out, Bill and Marsha had talked three more people into coming to church.
“The next morning the church was completely filled. The preacher preached a sermon titled 'How Does A Person Get To Heaven?’ He started out with the statement, ‘The Bible does not say we have to keep a great number of rules or laws in order to get to heaven. We are graded on a scale. Our good works are placed on the right and our bad works are placed on the left. If our good works outweigh the bad works, you are assured of heaven. But if your bad works outweigh your good works, you do not go to a mythical place called Hell, when you die. You just cease to exist. God is a loving God; he does not send people to a place where they would be punished forever. But, the loving God that He is does have a place prepared for those people who are good. That place is called Heaven. I know almost everyone here is going to that place called Heaven. The way I know is by looking around at all the people our members brought to church. This shows the good in each and every one of you.’
“The preacher continued until he was at th
e end of his sermon, and as the custom was, he would say amen, and that meant he was finished. He did not open the message with a prayer or close with a prayer.
“He then spoke about the contest. Bill and Marsha were beaming from ear to ear. They knew they had won the prize, and any moment the preacher would call their names and they would join him at the podium. Everyone would be looking at them, and the pride could already be seen on their faces. The preacher announced the winners of the contest. It was Alan and Barbara. They knew they had family coming in town to visit and would take them to church but intentionally had not included them in the number they had reported yesterday. Bill and Marsha did not talk to Alan and Barbara for almost two months. Bill and Marsha were very jealous of Alan and Barbara. I said they were best friends previously. Well, it was still true for Alan and Barbara, but for Bill and Marsha; that was a different story. If the contest would have been won by Bill and Marsha, then Alan and Barbara would still be called their best friends. But Bill and Marsha felt humiliated. They had told everyone in church they were going to win. To have their so-called best friends humiliate them in front of the whole church, that was something they could not live with. They did not tell Alan or Barbara that they resented them, but they told their children, John and Sammie.
“Both families had a son and a daughter. When Alan Jr. made the high school baseball team, Alan and Barbara were very happy, and they thought their best friends would be happy also. But because John did not make the team, they resented Alan Jr. The resentment even infected John. John and Alan Jr. had done everything together. That all changed. John even tried to pick a fight with Alan Jr. Also, the girls stopped doing things together because of the resentment Bill and Marsha harbored.
“The High Valley Community Church was lagging behind the other churches in the area of attendance, also. They had to come up with a new idea that would get more people into church. One plan after another was suggested, but they were all turned down. When one elder came back to church after his vacation, he told the pastor about his trip to California. He said the church they visited used a technique that brought many new people into church. Before the services started, the elders would tape envelopes under the pews. One envelope had a $100 bill in it, and others had $10 and $20 bills in them. Once everyone was seated in the sanctuary, the pastor would make the announcement, ‘You may open the envelopes.’ Sometimes there would be a little scream from a child or a woman when they won the $100 bill. If a man won, he never said anything; he just raised the bill over his head and waved it back and forth, gloating. The plan sounded great to the pastor, and it would start Sunday.
“The church put commercials on the radio and also had a small advertisement put on the second page of the newspaper. They said a $100 bill would be given away to a lucky person who was sitting in the right seat. The total amount of money given away would be $300. Everyone had a chance to win. That Sunday, there were twice as many people in church. The pastor thanked everyone for coming, and said, ‘Now is the time everyone has been waiting for. Open your envelopes.’ The $100 bill was won by a man and, yes, he did the same thing the man did in the other church. He waved the bill above his head so everyone could see the bill and so everyone could see who had won. Everyone was excited about coming to church. The pastor talked to his elders after church and said he had not seen people so excited about church for years. ‘The last time I remember people being this excited was when I was preaching out of the Book of Revelation. That was 20 years ago.’
“Well, that is the way it was in the social churches in the last days.
“The social churches did not forget about the young children or the teenagers. They had programs for the kids from the age of two through the age of 18. The teenagers were in the youth group until they were out of high school. The children from two to five were in a thing called the ‘Little Church.’ There were a number of adults who helped, but the person in charge was one of the associate pastors. He taught the small children all about the Bible from a liberal point of view. He said it really had not rained 40 days and 40 nights. More than likely it was just a local flood. Noah did not really build an ark; it was probably just his weekend boat. He told the kids, ‘There was no universal flood, and if there was, how could all the people of the world possibly come from the eight people who survived the flood? Jonah was not swallowed by a whale. The throat of a whale is not large enough to swallow a man.’ Story after story, the children were told lies. The Bible was not real to them; it was only a book of myths and fairy tales.
“The kids from six to 12 were in a program called the ‘Progressive Church.’ This program was focused more on memory verses and knowing there were no absolutes. Some of the verses the children had to remember were: John 9:3 - Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents. John 10:28 - And I give unto them eternal life. John 3:16 - For God so loved the world. These were just a few verses the children in the Progressive Church had to learn. They did not learn the whole verse, just a portion of the verse. The verse in John 9:3, the associate pastor said, ‘See? Neither you nor your parents have sinned. The Bible says it. If we sinned we could not have eternal life, but the Bible says we have eternal life. John 10:28 is speaking to all of us. We all have eternal life. If we all have eternal life, then who goes to hell? The reason there is no Hell is because God is a loving God. If He were not a loving God, He could not make the statement we find in John 3:16, ‘For God so loved the world.’ Everything I tell you is the truth. I will read it for you again.’ The associate pastor read those verses once again, and he read even more verses to show how holy they were. The children believed they were not sinners and that they had eternal life.
“The youth group was made up of all the teens. They had a great number of things to do. They had dance parties just like the adults. There was one party that was held once a quarter. It was called the ‘Booze It Up Party.’ The youth pastor thought it was a funny name to call a youth party. He asked the pastor and the elders, and they thought it was funny also. The party really didn’t have any alcohol in the drinks; it was fake alcohol. It tasted just like real beer and smelled just like real beer, but it did not have any alcohol in it. The youth pastor never told the youth group it was fake beer. The kids acted and talked like they were drunk. Even the pastor and some of the elders would come to the parties and have a barrel of laughs. What a sad state the social churches were in. The pastors of the social churches gave the people what they wanted. They wanted everything, but not God.
“The preacher taught what the people wanted to hear. He did not preach the Word of God. Almost all the people in the church were lost; they did not know the way of salvation. If the preacher were to preach a message on salvation, it would mean the people would have to change. And that is exactly what they would do; they would change. Change churches!
“Another church two blocks down the street was totally different. It was not one of those churches that had a membership of two or three thousand. It was small, only 82 members. Their church was known all over town as the church of the fundamental outcasts. All the other churches in town had changed, but not the little fundamental church that taught the Word of God. They did not preach the social gospel. The little church was called the Full Gospel Church of Winslow.
“Back in the late ‘90s and in the early millennium, if a church was called a Full Gospel Church, it usually meant it was a very charismatic church, or one that said all the spiritual gifts are for today. They would speak in tongues without having an interpreter and say it was of God. Or they would have someone come forward that was supposedly crippled and they would heal him. The people were tired of being fooled and lied to, so they left those churches. If they had used the Bible as their guide and not taken verses out of context, the churches may have survived. They were guided either by their feelings or their pastor, but never the Word of God. They began to go downhill, and by 2005, th
ey were all closed.
“From 2005 until the rapture, if a church was called a Full Gospel Church, it meant they preached the Fundamentals of the Faith, which included the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you asked the people who were going to the social churches what the Gospel of Jesus Christ was, they would say it was a new hymn. But those who were true Christians knew the Gospel was ‘That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and was buried and rose again the third day.’ Also the Full Gospel Churches preached the great doctrines of the Bible: The Shed Blood of Christ, the Deity of Christ, the Virgin Birth, the Inspiration of Scripture, the Resurrection, and the Trinity.
“The people in that small church prayed for their members. Also, before the preaching service would begin, the pastor would ask if there were any prayer requests. Every Sunday it took five to seven minutes to write down the name of the ones that needed prayer. The preacher prayed before he started to preach his sermon, and at the end of his sermon he would pray. He would give an invitation and tell everyone what they needed to do to be saved. The people in the church were happy when their boys were able to make the baseball team or the football team. And the girls who went out for sports were encouraged by all the members. If any of the girls or boys did not make the team, they were encouraged not to stop, but to try harder next year. Yes, there were rivalries, but friends continued to be friends. They did not hate each other because one was able to accomplish something the other could not. They were not jealous of each other, but they were helping each other to achieve the goals they had set for themselves.
“One Sunday a new family had come to that little church, and after the service they made the comment that the sermon and the songs had a lot of blood in them. That family never returned. They started going to the social church down the street. Not many new people would come to that little church, only the ones who knew there was something wrong at the social churches. When they heard the Gospel, they knew they were a sinner and they needed a Savior. They would accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, and that is when they knew they were saved. Almost all of the people in that little church had holes in their jeans, not because they were worn out, but because they were on their knees in prayer.
“One has to remember the changes did not occur overnight. May years before the churches were infested with non-believers; the seminaries were infested. Professors would be hired, and what they believed was never asked. In the classrooms they would twist the truth just a little. As the years went by, they would twist the truth a little more, until they were teaching lies. Seminary after seminary became liberal schools of thought. It was not uncommon for a seminary to have 10 teachers who believed the Bible and 40 teachers who did not. Some seminaries even had teachers who were members of cults. The young men who were in the liberal seminaries came out of those seminaries very liberal. Churches believed they had to get someone who was ‘qualified’ to be their pastor. The young liberal men would go into the church, and within five years the church believed exactly what their liberal pastor believed. If you did not like what was being taught, you could leave. The real Christians did leave, as quickly as they could.
“The social churches were doing everything they could to get people in the front door. When the church was not being used on the week days, the leaders decided it was best if they started playing bingo. The bingo games would start at 7 and last until midnight. It started out small, but soon they had to turn people away because they were so crowded. Many of the people who started coming on the week nights to play bingo also started coming to church on Sunday. I guess they needed all the luck they could get if they were going to win at bingo. There was one rule in all the churches that were playing bingo on the week nights. No one was allowed to smoke in the church. That rule really made the leaders of the church feel holy. After bingo started, the church still had one night open; that was Saturday. What could they do on Saturday to draw people? One elder remembered about the tea dances his parents used to go to on Saturday.
“‘We could get a band to come in and charge just enough to cover all our expenses and that might get more people into church on Sunday.’ Well, the dances started out just like the bingo, very slow, and soon the social room was full of people dancing. The music that was played was a mixture of just about everything. If the band was really good, they would play a little country, or rock and roll, and they always played one or two tunes from the big band era. Since it was called a ‘Tea Dance,’ they served tea, along with Cokes, Dr. Pepper and other soft drinks. The church made a rule that made them feel just a little more holy than the no-smoking rule. They said there could be no alcoholic drinks brought into the church during the dance. The social church was getting a little religious with all its rules. But with all the rules, it did not change how they thought about Christ. They made Him less than what He was.
“One pastor said from the pulpit, ‘Christ was not born of a virgin. It is totally impossible for that to happen. Christ had the same sin nature that everyone born on this earth has.’ The statement that received a standing ovation from the congregation was when he said, ‘The Bible is not the inspired Word of God. The only inspired Word of God is what man wants to believe is inspired. Since men wrote the Bible, how can we say it is inspired by the Holy Spirit? If the Holy Spirit inspired men to write the Bible, then why are there so many errors and contradictions?’
“Many, many years before the rapture, there were Godly men teaching the Word in almost every church on Sunday. If you missed church, you could turn on the radio to any Christian station and hear a very good message from God-fearing pastors. The fear of God did not exist just before the rapture. And right after the rapture, people did not have a fear of God either.
“The social churches did what they were supposed to do, they led people astray. The social church began to die off in 2006. People were not happy with all the things the social churches were doing. If the people weren’t winning, they felt cheated. They needed a change. But the change would be a real change. A person could go to the little fundamental church. Or they could start going to the religion that had been founded by Dr. Mohammed. His church had an air of God about it, but it was a real change from the social churches. The social churches were not meeting the needs of the members any more.
“At this time I will answer any questions that you have.”
“Brother Steven, why would people not want to read the Bible?”
“That is a real good question. In the 1960s, people started to find other things they thought were more exciting that reading the Word of God. They had a form of godliness, but they were not saved. They did read the parts that made them feel good or that did not condemn them of their sin. But sin was part of their life, and to repent and ask for forgiveness was falling from their vocabulary. When they had children, their children did as their parents were doing. They were in the same sin as their parents. They just did not want to have anything to do with God. They just didn’t have time for God either. I hope that answers your question.
“The next question is: Why didn’t the people check to see if the preachers were preaching the Bible?”
“Sometimes it is very difficult to catch a person telling a lie or telling an untruth. The liberal preachers had different ways of saying things that made you think they were teaching the truth. One preacher would hold up the Bible and say, ‘This book contains the Word of God.’ Well, that is true, but the Bible IS the Word of God. What the liberal preacher was saying was, if this portion of the Bible does not contain the Word, then I will tear those pages out. It was their call what the Word of God was. And if they say only three or four verses are the Word of God, then their statement about the book containing the Word of God is true.”
“My question is about jealousies. Why would parents be jealous of their friend’s kids or jealous of their best friends?”
“Many parents wanted their children to be what they never wer
e. They even pushed their children into things the children did not like to do or want to do. When they would see their friend’s children excelling in sports or other things, they would get very upset. It is like I said about the last question. Children are like their parents. If the parents like steak, the children will probably like steak. If the parents are jealous of someone, the children will probably be jealous of that person also. It is sad to think people are like that, but the cause was their pride and they were envious of others.”
“Why would churches have contests?”
“Some churches were only interested in numbers. If the church down the street had a larger number in attendance, the other church would have to do something to draw more people into their church. The churches did many things to draw people in. One church would have a giant garage sale once every three months. At the garage sale, members would pass out invitations to church, and there were coffee and donuts. If the sale lasted past noon, the church would have sandwiches and drinks for everyone who stopped by. Many people did start going to church because of the garage sales, but they did not go for the Word, they went for the socializing. Other churches used other methods to draw people into their church. One church gave away free pancakes, but the free pancakes were on Sunday morning. By having the free pancakes on Sunday morning, they could get the regular members to church and they could also pull in anyone who wanted a free meal. Churches in the last days were not interested in the souls of men, they wanted numbers. Big numbers. The bigger the better.”
“Brother Steven, you said women became preachers. Could you tell me how it all started?”
“That is a very good question. It all started one Sunday when Pastor John McWilliams was preaching and he became sick. His wife had typed the sermon for her husband, and she had been the audience when he had rehearsed. The elders helped the pastor to the back, and he stated his wife knew the sermon better than he did, and she could finish it if they wanted her to. His wife finished and it was such a success, she would join him at the podium each Sunday. Pastor McWilliams would preach for a while, and then his wife would preach. When he had his heart attack, she preached for three months. The crowds grew because no one had ever seen a woman preacher. Two years after his heart attack, he had a stroke and died. She became the new pastor. She had authority over all the men in the church, which was a clear contradiction of scripture. If any man in the church said anything about her being pastor, they were asked to leave the church. Other churches saw the large crowds that were coming to see a woman pastor, so they would have women come and preach on Sundays. Similar situations happened across the nation. In the following years women preachers were a mainstay in the churches in the United States. The women, who were pastors and were saved, paid dearly at the Judgment Seat of Christ for taking the positions that were supposed to be filled by men.”
“You spoke of homosexual churches. Did the people who were members of those churches believe they were saved?”
“Some did, but most were there because they could be with others that believed that homosexuality was not a sin. At those churches, they could meet people who believed the same way they did. During the week, they would meet at different homes and get better acquainted. The people who did believe they were saved, believed that because they had been told they were born a homosexual and that was natural, just like being born a girl or a boy. They believed there wasn’t anything that could be done for them, even though they wanted to have a normal life like everyone else. The social churches were teaching there was no sin, and if there is no sin, then being a homosexual was not sinful, which meant they were saved. Some of the lucky ones did attend one of the few Bible Believing churches and heard that they were sinners and the only way of forgiveness was through Jesus Christ. They would accept and leave that lifestyle. But most continued going to the homosexual churches, and they paid with their souls.
“I must be going, but you will have plenty of time to ask more questions tomorrow.”