Lies from the Pulpit #1

Reading from what was originally the introduction to: Biblical Truth Ministries (biblicaltruthministries.org) {transcriber's note: now truthofgod.org}

The world is in the grips of deception and lies. In today's world a diabolical, deceptive, guiding spirit has taken hold of every aspect of life—from the cradle to the grave. It is a universal problem affecting all nations, peoples and religions of the world! This worldwide phenomenon permeates nearly every institution of government, the electronic and printed media, nearly all schools, universities and religions on the earth.

In this post-modern world, most people do not know the truth or even what it is. They have been taught that "truth is whatever one believes." Therefore, it is reasoned, everyone's opinion is supposedly true because he or she believes it is true. Hence, one's opinion is equally valid with all others. Consequently, truth is no longer truth that is provable and stands alone as absolute truth. Rather, truth has been exchanged for personal opinion, emotion, illusion, fantasy and lies. Christianity has fallen victim to this sinister deception.

Through the centuries, after the death of the original apostles of Jesus Christ, various denominations of Christendom have developed their own religious traditions, doctrines and dogmas. In establishing these beliefs, religious leaders have used some scriptures from the Bible and blended them with the traditions of men grafted in from pagan philosophies and religions. These distorted, erroneous, entrenched teachings—counterfeit "truth"—have been dogmatically taught and accepted by their followers as the true doctrines and teachings of the Bible.

Furthermore, very few religious, church-going people ever take the time to study their Bibles in order to prove whether the teachings of their churches are actually the true teachings of the Bible.. They have assumed that their priests or pastors would surely only teach the truth from the Word of God. Little do they realize that most of their churches' teachings and doctrines are actually a blend of pagan religious beliefs and philosophies. As such, most of what is taught is contrary to the true teachings of the Bible—yet, it is done in the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, very few people understand that what they have accepted as true Christian teachings are only myths—fabricated by men. Little do they realize that when these teachings are compared to the Bible, fully fifty to ninety percent of what they believe is not true—they believe lies.

Because they have believed a mixture of truth and mostly error for so long that when they hear the true Word of God preached or read their Bibles, they can hardly believe it. To make matters even worse, for centuries most of the true teachings of the Bible have been branded as "heresy" by the leaders of paganized Christendom.

Consequently, today, the Christian world is upside down! Truth has been branded as error and lies. Error and lies have been accepted as truth. As Dresden James once noted:

"When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic."

As this proverb relates, you will be utterly astounded at the true teachings of the Bible. At first, you may think that since such teachings are contrary to what particular well-established Christian denominations teach, they cannot be true. However, in order to begin to understand the real truth of the Bible and the New Testament in particular, you must set aside all religious myths and lies of men. Then you must recapture the original teachings of Jesus Christ and His original chosen apostles—the true original Christianity, also known as "Primitive Christianity."

However, men have created many stumbling blocks to keep people from understanding God's Truth as contained in His Word. The greatest stumbling blocks are various corrupted versions of the Bible itself. Too many men, claiming to be experts and scholars have taken upon themselves to destroy the true Word of God by producing translations that are made from corrupted Hebrew and Greek texts, and rendering translations in modern English that utterly change the meaning of the true teachings of the Bible. Therefore, before you can begin to sort out the Biblical Truth from the errors of men, you must have a Bible that is a faithful translation of the true Word of God.

Here is the reason why we have to have the right Bible and compare the teachings of various so-called Christian religions with the Bible: Many people—millions, maybe even billions—believe that what they are taught, in particularly in the Roman Catholic Church, is the Word of God. But when you get down to it, and you ask these people who are faithful to that religion: 'Do you study the Bible.' Well, no, the priest says that we cannot study the Bible unless he is there to interpret it.

• Why would that be?
• Is it because they're really concerned for the people that follow them?

or

• Is because they have something to hide?

It's even been said that if you read the Bible you'll go insane. They point to the insanity that Martin Luther suffered in the last years of his life as proof that if you read he Bible you will go insane. However, if he priest reads it, he won't.

What we are going to focus on is the Ten Commandments. Herein we find one of the great lies, which most Catholics and other religions—some of the Protestants understand this—however, they have fallen victim to their own set of lies. Satan is very clever. He's been a liar from the beginning and he that deceptive diabolical guiding spirit, which is deceiving all the nations of the earth (Rev. 12:9).

So, if you're in one Christian religion and you see certain things in there that are lies, well then he'll say come over here to this one, which has a little more truth, but it is its own set of lies and you don't realize that the set of lies that are there until you start getting in and checking it out with the Bible. So, that's why it's important that you have the right Bible. That's why a lot people insist on the King James Version of the Bible, because it is one of the more faithful Bibles.

{note: The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version is the most reliable and can be found at truthofgod.org or afaithfulversion.org}
Every Bible version that you run across, even the authorized Catholic Douay version—which they say it's okay for you to read—does not have the same Ten Commandments that they do in their catechisms. In a catechism that I have here called My Catholic Faith it says very clearly that this is all you need. What's written in here is what it is to be a faithful Catholic. When people believe that and are told that the Catholic Church is the true church—which when compare it with the Bible you have to ask: How could that possibly be? And that outside the Roman Catholic Church there is no salvation, which they still preach in their ecumenical movements, when you get down and really read the details of what they say.

So, I'm going to read to you, first of all the listing of the Ten Commandments in this book My Catholic Faith. While I read this open your Bible to Exo. 20 and compare, because if the Bible is likened to a legal contract for eternal life, and if you allow it to be changed, God does not have to honor that contract with those who accept a deficient contract.

Pay close attention as we go through:

First Commandment: I, the LORD, am your God. You shall not have other gods besides Me (Exo. 20:2-3)
Second Commandment: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (Exo. 20:7)

They even note the Scriptures and no one asks what happened to 4-6? Amazing, isn't it?

Third Commandment: Remember to keep the Sabbath holy
Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother

Someone recently told me a very unusual thing where Paul Harvey was telling The Rest of the Story and after he said, 'We all ought to keep the fourth commandment, which we're going to see what he gave was the Catholic version, and The Rest of the Story was that we all ought to honor father and mother.

It becomes very important because it has been changed; here is the bait and the switch. Let's read a warning that God gave; we're going to see this again and again. Let's understand that the Ten commandments God gave in Exo. 20 were spoken by God Himself. The Ten Commandments written on the table of stones was written with the finger of God. Dare any man change that? Anyone who changes that:

• puts himself above God
• makes himself God
• says, 'I know more than God'

Deuteronomy 12:30: "Take heed to yourself that you do not become ensnared by following them…"—the heathen nations that Israel was to succeed when they went into the 'promised land.'

"…after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not ask about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods that I may also do likewise?' You shall not do so to the LORD your God, for every abomination to the LORD, which He hates, they have done to their gods; even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods. Whatsoever thing that I command you, be careful to do it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it" (vs 30-32).

That's plain language; I don't think anyone can misconstrue that.

Continuing with the Catholic order of the Ten Commandments:
Fifth Commandment: You shall not kill
Sixth Commandment: You shall not commit adultery
Seventh Commandment: You shall not steal
Eighth Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
Ninth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife
Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor's goods (house)
(http://www.beginningcatholic.com/catholic-ten-commandments)

In order to cover their base and make it look like there are still Ten Commandments they ignore the longest, biggest one and completely remove it. And they split the 10th commandment in two part. Lest someone read the Bible, here's what they say:

The Catholic enumeration of the Ten Commandments differ from some of the Protestant enumerations.

It also differs from God's Word, and even in their own Douay version of the Bible.

The Catholic version was in use in England until the Protestant revolt; it is still used by most Lutheran churches. The Catholic system is based on the Hebrew text…

But not all of it!

…and principally on the enumeration made by St. Augustine.

So, they let a man redo the commandments.

It was adopted by the Council of Trent…

So that makes it okay? How many men can okay a change in Word of God, which God Himself spoke? Zero!

The first commandment contains everything relating to false worship and false gods.

Does it?

The ten-fold division is safeguarded by dividing the last precept regarding desire into one's relating to sins of the flesh and another referring to sins of property, just as acts against purity are forbidden separately from acts against property.

They use logic to justify what they have done. So, it is a very clever, very diabolical deception. Here's another one:

Are we obligated to obey the commandments of God? We are strictly obligated to obey the commandments of God…

Which then is a contradiction of the very thing that they're trying to state. If you leave out the second commandment and you say you're under obligation to keep the commandments of God, how can you keep the second commandment, under which you're obligated to keep, if you eliminate it? Here's he rational:

God has imprinted the substance of the Ten Commandments in the human heart and mind…

That is not true!

…and they have, therefore, binding force. Even if they have never been revealed, we should be still be obligated to keep them, for we are dictated by reason and taught by natural law.

Which is human philosophy!

While it is true that reason does not tell us to sanctify Saturday or Sunday, it certainly requires us to keep some day, or Holy Days that give exclusive honor to our Creator.

This is the diabolical, cleaver mixing and blending of philosophies and traditions of men to make void the Law of God!

This is incredible stuff when you understand it. How many millions, hundreds of millions and even billions of people are out there who don't know the Truth and now, in this generation—with the new translations of the Bible going out in many languages, that absolutely destroy and corrupt the Word of God almost beyond recognition—are they ever going to find the Biblical Truth of the Word of God so they can live by it?

Even as the Catholics admit, 'we are strictly obligated to obey the commandments of God.' But their interpretation is that since the pope is the vicar of Christ, his word is final.

Let's read the second commandment. It's quite revealing because God knows the human heart. Speaking of the human heart; if the commandments of God are written in our heart and we understand it by nature, then there should be very little sin in the world.

This reflects the writings that we have been reading; Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" That's the natural mind that all human beings are born with.

Rom. 8:7 tells us why they got rid of the second commandment. It created enmity because they did not want to get rid of their idols, statues and relics: crucifixes and so forth.

Romans 8:7: "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God; neither indeed can it be. But those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (vs 7-8).

The commandments of God are not written in the heart and mind by a natural process. They must be put there through the power and Spirit of God. Let's see a good description of this world, which has the morality of the 'religions' of this world.

Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way, which seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death."

It seems right to the Roman Catholic Church to take out the second commandment, and what does that lead to? Life or death? Death!

When people say that they don't understand the Bible, it is not because that they are reading complicated Scriptures that are hard to understand. It is because they don't like the simple to understand ones that commands them to obey!

We're going to read that here in Exo. 20. If you have a Catholic Bible get it and open it to Exo. 20 and read it. You'll find that it's there. Then it might be very instructive to run down to your cathedral and ask your local pastor or priest why your church doesn't follow it. After all, if you say that you're 'strictly obligated to obey the commandments of God' then this one has to be obeyed—doesn't it?

Here is the true second commandment, here are the three verses that they deliberately leave out in the catechetical listing of the Ten Commandments:
Exodus 20:4: "You shall not make for yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow yourself down to them…" (vs 4-5). So far that's pretty easy to understand!

"…nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments" (vs 5-6).

Why would you want to take the sixth verse out of the Bible? Because it shows loving God and keeping His commandments are equated together! Let's look at this again; first of all, you're not even to make them. Even a first grader can understand this: "You shall not make…" (v 4).

When I was on KFI radio in Los Angeles, Religion on the Line, I was invited to be there three Sunday nights in a row, and I was there supposedly as the Protestant minister; there was a Jewish rabbi and a Catholic priest. Every week someone would call in and ask the Catholic priest why he had the cathedrals filled with images and idols, and why people bowed down to them, and why do they worship and venerate them?

They miss the whole point. God said, "You shall not make…" (v 4). So, if you keep the first part of this commandment, you're never going to be guilty of the rest of the prohibitions!

"…or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above…" (v 4). So, they have statues of Jesus and angels, supposedly, and they believe that Mary is in heaven, so they have statues of her and worship her, which is another god, and they bow down before her idol.

"…or that is in the earth beneath…" (v 4)—any man, any pope, any so-called beatified saint.

"…or that is in the waters under the earth" (v 4). One of the signs that they have that they are Catholic is that they have a fish, and you will see that little idol on the back of a lot of cars. Also, the fish-god was the god of the Assyrians: Dagon!

If you don't believe what I am saying here, I invite you to go to our website—truthofGod.org—and where the whole book The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop, shows all of these philosophical paganized doctrines that have been adopted by the Catholic Church, and their origin is not from the Bible, but from ancient Babylon. If you haven't read that book then you have no cause to be angry at me or at the words that you hear.

If it does prick you a little bit, and it does cause you some angst then you are obligated to prove whether what is being said is true or not. Anger isn't going to resolve any problem, all you're going to do is add sin to more sin.

Verse 5: "You shall not bow yourself down to them… [so, that eliminates all genuflexing] …nor serve them…"—because you have a lot of religious orders in the Catholic Church that are dedicated to the sacred heart of Jesus and Mary.

"…for I, the LORD your God am a jealous God…" (v 5). In other words, He's saying, 'I am God and you have no right to do this, and in doing so you are teaching men to sin.' He's jealous over that. The ones God is angry at are the ones who take His Word and mix and blend in with it a way that destroys the knowledge of the Word of God and hence is fulfilled.

Reading from the beginning comments what Dresden James said:

"When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations… [centuries] …the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic."

That's the state of 'religion' so-called Christian is today in this world. But:

• God commands us to speak the Truth
• God commands us to live by every Word of God
• God commands us to raise up our voices like a trumpet and let the people know their sins

That's why God is jealous.

"…visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me" (v 5). A lot of people are suffering because their forefathers rejected God. A lot of people are suffering today because their forefathers worshipped idols. I challenge you to look anywhere in the world where there is gross idol worship and ask yourself: Are these nations blessed or cursed? You'll find that they're not blessed!

Verse 6 also brings this in: "But showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments." In other words, when you keep the commandments of God you are blessed and you receive mercy!

When you do not keep the commandments of God you are cursed and you have no mercy. Let's see a verification of this in Deut. 28. Don't anyone start saying, 'Oh that's Old Testament!' Hold on, we'll get to the New Testament later.
God made it clear. Everyone wants to do whatever he wants to do and still receive the blessings of God. It's very akin to what serial murderers do. They go out and wantonly kill people and then when they're cornered they raise their hands and say, 'Don't shoot! Don't shoot!' That's the insanity of thought that comes about with this kind of reasoning here.

You can't have the blessings of God without obedience! It's that simple! You try that even in your own family. Here's a promise that God gave:

Deuteronomy 28:1: "And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD your God to observe and to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you will obey the voice of the LORD your God" (vs 1-2).

The question is not what God will or will not do, the question is what will we, as human beings, do or not do? It's dependent upon us!

"…if you will obey the voice of the LORD your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, the increase of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep. Blessed shall be your basket and your store. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The LORD shall cause your enemies that rise up against you to be stricken before your face. They shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways" (vs 3-7). Every blessing that every nation and people want and desire!

But, you see, people want to be save in their sins, rather than be save from their sins. So, obedience is required.

Now let's see what happens if you don't, v 14: "And you shall not go aside from any of the words, which I command you today…" Why eliminate the second commandment? In order to justify the bondage of idols! Can it be any other reason?

"…to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. And it shall come to pass, if you will not hearken to the voice of the LORD your God to observe and to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your store. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your land, the increase of your livestock, and the flocks of your sheep. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. The LORD shall send on you cursing, vexation, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings by which you have forsaken Me'" (vs 14-20).

You can read the rest of it: every sickness, disease, everything. Ask yourself: As you look at the world today, as you look at the United States of America, Canada, Australia and every other land of this Earth, are not these curses upon us? Is not the hand of God upon us for harm, because of sin? Yes! One of the greatest sins is idolatry! We'll cover the other one later, which is the rejection of Sabbath-keeping, the seventh day of the week known as Saturday today, and the adoption of Sunday-keeping. Those two sins have brought:

• curses
• mayhem
• war
• crime
• drugs

and has led to:

• abortion
• adultery
• homosexuality
• and every other sin that God says you shall not do

and it needs to stated in truth!

Now let's look at some of these things here and see what happens. Let's look at the immediate result of idolatry. This is barely, if we give the benefit of doubt, a month after Moses went up on the mount to get all of the rest of the commandments of God because he was up there 40 days and 40 nights. And just like it is with people, they can't wait, so the people couldn't wait. This is very instructive section of the Bible:

Exodus 32:1: "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, then the people gathered themselves to Aaron, and they said to him, 'Up! Make us gods which shall go before us, for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'" They he told them to bring the golden earrings from their wives, daughter, sons and bring them.

Verse 4: "And he took them from their hand, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf. And they said, 'These are your gods, O Israel…'"

So, the first thing they did—right under the nose of God, right after He gave the Ten Commandments—they went and committed idolatry and made the golden calves, worshipped the golden caves and notice what Aaron did, and this is an instructive lesson for everyone and every minister and every church in every denomination anywhere in the world: the leaders subvert the people! Aaron did it!

Verse 5: "And when Aaron saw the calf, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.'" All of these abominable things that people do in the name of the Lord, which are against the commandments off God, He cannot stand! In particularly idolatry!

So, if you go into a massive Buddha cathedral, or a massive Catholic cathedral, or whatever it is and you see all these statues and idols and incense and candle burning, all of this sort of thing. A lot of people are in awe of that and they go up and bow down before he idol. Notice what God did:

Verse 6: "And they rose up early on the next morning, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play." Notice what they did; it's a feast unto the Lord. They're trying to serve God through their idols and have a feast day. But God didn't accept it. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings; the people were there having a good time. They "…sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play." What this actually turned out to be is what we would call today a rock concert, a sex orgy!

Verse 7: "And the LORD said to Moses, 'Go! Get you down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.'" Whenever you have idolatry you are corrupting yourselves and the Word of God.

Verse 8: "'They have turned aside quickly out of the way, which I commanded them…. [less than a month] …They have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who have brought you up out of the land of Egypt." And the LORD said to Moses, 'I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people'" (vs 8-9). God was ready to destroy them right there, but Moses intervened. Then:

Verse 15: "And Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand: the tablets were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other. And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God. It was engraved upon the tablets" (vs 15-16).

You couldn't have anything more important, more profound than the very writing of God. Yet, men today have no compunction in changing, removing and modifying the Word of God and he commandments of God to suit them.

Notice what happened, there's a great lesson here, v 19: "And it came to pass, as soon as he came near to the camp and saw the calf and dancing, then Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them at the bottom of the mountain."

He was so upset that here he was in the presence of God, receiving the Word of God to give to these people to live their lives in such a way so that God could bless them and they went to idolatry and sin and sexual orgies, and he threw down those tablets that God had written on there in absolute utter disgust as to what these people had done.

Verse 21: "And Moses said to Aaron, 'What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?'" This is true to any religionist; notice Aaron's response, and isn't it always the religionists who make the excuses? Yes, it is!

Verse 22: "And Aaron said, 'Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on mischief, for they said to me, "Make us gods who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." And I said to them, "Whoever has any gold, let them break it off." And they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and there came out this calf'" (vs 22-24). I didn't do it myself!

Same thing today; no one ever does wrong, someone made me do wrong. Not true!

This section containing the words of Aaron show the weakness and the insipidness of the religious leaders who sin against God and sanctify those sins and see no harm in it. After all, 'this people is given to mischief.'

We'll summarize the rest of the story: Moses said to the Levites, 'You sanctify yourself and you go through the camp and you slay'—I want you to understand what God thinks of idol worship—'everyone that is not on God's side.' By the way, that's another mistake that a lot of people make; they say, 'God is on my side.' NO! God is on nobody's side. If you're not on God's side, God isn't on any side. It's human being that have to get on God's side, not God Who has to get on the side of human beings.

Verse 28: "…And there fell of the people that day about three thousand men." Moses had to go back and redo the whole thing again. That tells you a lot about it—doesn't it?

Deut. 29—here are some of the last admonitions that Moses was giving before they went into the 'promised land,' and here's another warning. We're going to see that the children of Israel constantly went back to idol worship, constantly went back to worshipping the sun-god, all the way through their whole history. You can read Joshua, Judges, 1st & 2nd Samuel, 1st & 2nd Kings and 1st & 2nd Chronicles constantly over and over again. The reason is because people don't want to keep the commandments of God.

Oh, they want the blessings of God, but they want the freedom and liberty to tell God what to do and when to do it, and therefore, they sit in the seat of God.

That's why when you study and read your Bible and you find something there that God says to do, you do it! If you find something there where God says, 'Don't do it,' do not do that!

If you have crosses or crucifixes or rosaries in your home you need to think about what you need to do with those, because God never commanded that those things be used!

If you can't pray to God with a pure heart on your knees, in a repentant attitude in heart and mind toward God, then God isn't going to hear you though you have 10,000 rosaries; though you have 100,000 crucifixes.

Deuteronomy 29:17: "And you have seen their abominations and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them), lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God to go serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood, and it shall come to pass when he hears the words of this curse that he shall bless himself in his heart, saying"…" (vs 17-19).

This is what most people do: Oh well, God understands! Or This is okay, because this cross with the dying Jesus on there is a reminder to me of Jesus! God never said to remember that way. Remember, He said, 'You shall not make…'

Verse 19: "And it shall come to pass when he hears the words of this curse that he shall bless himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,' to the sweeping away of the watered and the parched."

Is that not a hedonistic attitude? Is that not the attitude that we have in the world today? Without a doubt!
Verse 20: "Then the LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but the anger of the LORD and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven."

Now, that's pretty strong language. Let's see how the children of Israel, instead of being the sheep of God, were the 'sheepal' of their own lusts.

As I read Judges 2, I want you to think about, especially for those who live in the United States of America, how that this nation started out as a Christian nation. And by the way, a great proportion of them were Sabbath Day-keepers. It was founded upon the principles of the Bible. Think about all the blessings that God has given this nation because they made as Christian a nation as they could.

Now look at the evil that is coming upon it because it is being taken apart systematically by evil men who hate God, who hate His Word, who hate the Truth, and we are all suffering and being victimized by it because of the leaders. When any leader tries to do good, he is ridiculed, beaten down and mocked. Let's see this here:

Judges 2:7: And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD that He did for Israel." And Joshua died and was buried.

Verse 10: "And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers…." We are living in a very similar situation. The 60th anniversary of D-Day was celebrated in 2004; the war to free the world of tyranny. Many people sacrificed their lives and many of those people had a semblance of Christianity, which had far more obedience to more of the Laws of God than they ever have today, and they're dying out.

There is a generational change coming, and has been coming for quite a while. It's beginning to have profound and devastating affects upon this nation, and individual lives in particular, because they don't want the Truth of the Word of God.

• they want their own opinion
• they want their own way

"…And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor even the works which He had done for Israel" (v 10). Same way today, exactly!

Verse 11: "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim." Here's one thing you need to understand: Israel's sin was Sunday-keeping, because Baalim is a sun-god.

{go to truthofGod.org to see many sermons and booklets on the true Christian Sabbath; also see sermon series on: Why God Hates Religion}

Verse 12: "And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, Who brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods, even the gods of the people who were around them, and bowed themselves to them, and provoked the LORD to anger. And they forsook the LORD and served Baal and Ashtaroth" (vs 12-13)—queen of heaven; ref. to the book The Two Babylons.

This is very similar to what's happening in this generation today, which has been given over to:

• licentiousness
• sex clear down into the grade school
• perversion clear down into the grade school
• no teaching in even so-called professing Christian churches that meet on Sunday

Christianity has fallen out of favor because of its sins, and the sins of those people who don't want to repent. That's where we are! We need to face the reality of the world in which we live, and the realities in our own lives and confront our own sins and repent of them and return to God.

God may not save this nation, but He can save you!

Verse 14—here's your answer to "9/11" whether you like it or not: "And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and He delivered them into the hand of spoilers who spoiled them. And He sold them into the hand of their enemies all around, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies."

That day, if it is not here, yet, is about here! Now, here is the summary of the whole book of Judges:

Verse 18: "And when the LORD raised judges up for them, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge, for the LORD took pity because of their groanings by reason of their oppressors and their crushers. And it came to pass when the judge was dead, they returned and made themselves more corrupt than their fathers in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way" (vs 18-19).

You can read the rest of the book of Judges and find that out. And 1st & 2nd Samuel, 1st & 2nd Kings.

• What happened to the ten northern tribes of Israel?
• Does God hate idolatry? Yes, He does!
• How many idols do you have that God hates that you need to get rid of?

You've probably heard warning from many people. If not, you go online and search the Internet and you will see that there are people who are warning about the demise of this nation, warning about the invasion of foreign troops, warning about many things. Unless there is a great repentance in the land—beginning with each one individually—the hand of God is not going to be turned back. We need to understand that.

2-Kings 17:7: "Now, it came to pass because the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods."

• Is not the land filled with other religions today?
• Is not the land filled with temples to other gods?
• mosques to Allah
• cathedrals to the queen of heaven
  • Is it not? Yes!
  • How many people today practice Buddhism?
  • How many people today practice New Age religion?
  • How many people today practice the sexual orgies that go with it?

Verse 8: "And walked in the statutes of the nations whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which the nations had made."

• Why did God cast these nations out? Because of their sins!
• Do you think that God is going to spare us then?

Verse 9: "Now, the children of Israel secretly did things that were not right against the LORD their God…."

Stop and think! Whenever you have idolatry and living in sin, you are doing these things against God. God's judgment is going to come upon you. God does offer repentance if you repent from the heart, and forgiveness. But you have to do as Jesus said, 'Go and sin no more!'

"…And they built high places in all their cities…" (v 9). They had to plan it, build it and everyone would go out and look at it and say how wonderful it is. The priests of Baal would come and anoint it, bless it, pray for it and offer incense.

"…for themselves from the Watch Tower to the fortified city. And they set up images and groves for themselves in every high hill, and under every green tree" (vs 9-10)—where they had their 'religious' sexual orgies.

Verse 11: "And they burned incense in all the high places, like the nations whom the LORD had removed from before them, and they practiced evil things to provoke the LORD to anger."

A lot of the things that are happening today such as same-sex marriage, such as teaching homosexuality to kindergarten kids is going to provoke God to anger!

Verse 12: "For they served the idols of which the LORD had said to them, 'You shall not do this thing.' And the LORD testified against Israel and against Judah…" (vs 12-13). God always sends a warning voice. He does not do anything without sending a warning.

• If you hear this and you're angry, know that you've had a warning!
• If you hear this and repent, you have heeded the warning!
• If you do not, know for sure that the judgment of God is coming upon you!

"…by all the prophets, by all the seers, saying, 'Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the Law, which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.' Nevertheless, they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like the neck of their fathers who did not believe in the LORD their God. And they rejected His statutes and His covenant, which He made with their fathers, and His warnings that He testified against them. And they went after vanity, and became vain…" (vs 13-15).

If you don't believe that is true today, just go through your 200 channels on your satellite or cable and find out. There's nothing lies, deception and vanity.

"…and went after the nations around them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them not to do like them.And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God…" (vs 15-16). Because people don't keep them, God is sending agents to remove them. That's happened.

Example: there was a great monument of the Ten Commandments removed. Though a judge ordered it removed, I am convinced that God had it removed because the people who wanted to keep it never kept the commandments of God the way they should have, and they have been taking the name of the Lord God in vain.

• How many of them keep the Sabbath Day?
• How many of them have gotten rid of their idols?
• How many of them have quit committing adultery and fornication?
• How many of them have quit lying, stealing and cheating?
• How many of them have stopped dishonoring their father and mother?
• How many of them have quite taking the name of the Lord their God in vain?

Oh no! They want God's blessing in their sins; they don't want to repent of their sins. That is the Biblical truth!

Verse 15: "And they rejected His statutes and His covenant, which He made with their fathers, and His warnings that He testified against them. And they went after vanity, and became vain, and went after the nations around them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them not to do like them. And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God and made molten images, two calves for themselves. And they made a grove, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire…." (vs 15-17).

All these things are a 'grove,' where they have trees, the sacred oaks kissing under the mistletoe and the stones; you know that Stonehenge is a grove. That's exactly what it is. Go back and example, maybe through the Discovery Channel or History Channel, all these ancient religions and ask concerning the commandments of God: How many of them did they break? Everyone is all excited about the finds that they found in the Aztec and Mayan societies and now the truth has come out that they were vicious, evil and slaughtered human beings! They would lead them up these steep pyramids, fed them drugs first only to offer human sacrifice and to reach in and grab their heart and hold it up to God while it was still beating!

Then people wonder what happened to these people, they were so civilized. God destroyed them because of their sin. They were not Christian, and they were not Israelites! God's judgment is on everyone everywhere at all times, because He is God. It's about time that people start waking up and really understand what's going on here!

You've seen this on TV where some people walk through the hot coal. Well, the next step is to offer your firstborn in fire. They already do that today with abortion. They've kill 32-plus-million innocent babies through abortion, to be used in medical experiments, and to use the parts because they sell them. There's money in the aborted fetuses, and the older the better. That's why they don't want to do away with the tri-semester abortion. It's so they can carry on their fiendish things.

Didn't we, in WWII, condemn Dr. Mengele because of what he did. Yet, we are doing the same and worse, and we have the gall to call ourselves Christian. Every one of the Sunday-keeping preachers, and all of those who go against the Word of God are responsible to God for causing the attitude in this nation that it became the way that it is today. That is the Biblical Truth, because they're doing exactly the same thing here; notice what happened:

There's divination; we have witchcraft everywhere. And because of Harry Potter, we have witchcraft covens in grade-schools bringing:

• curses upon children
• curses upon their teachers
• curses upon their parents

"…And they used divination and sorceries, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger" (v 17).

There's a problem worldwide in many nations where there's kidnapping of children and they harvest the body parts—the eyes, the heart, the lungs, the liver—and sell them to the medical profession so that others who have sinned all their lives can go and say, 'Oh doctor, save me!'

Divination also includes yoga where you sit in various positions and you are divining yourself to be in contact with the universal soul and that universal soul is none other than Satan the devil. They are recommending these things for health purposes, but the ultimate goal of it is not health, it is to lead you away from God, get you to worship Satan the devil and to destroy your life.

Abortions are up to over 40-million which equals the nine southern states. That is a gross and great sin before God in addition to all of the others.

Verse 18: "So, the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of His sight…" That is the destiny of any nation that so gives itself over to evil.

Let's look on an individual basis in the New Testament lest someone say that 'you're just reading the Old Testament and we are not in the Old Testament times. If we're not in Old Testament times why are these curses still here? Those things of God that He gave there are not restricted to Old Testament times.

This is the Apostle Paul doctrine, which by the way he told them that what he wrote was the commandments of the Lord. So, if you were to ask Jesus Christ Himself, 'What about today? Do the things back then in the Old Testament have relevance for us today?' Here's His answer:

1-Corinthians 10:1: "Now, I do not wish you to be ignorant of this, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And they all ate the same spiritual meat. And they all drank of the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them. And that Rock was Christ" (vs 1-4)—the Old Testament Lord God, the One who became Jesus Christ.

You cannot separate Old Testament and New Testament and throw one away and say that we have a greater interpretation in the New Testament, because that's the same old excuse that has been used down through time to commit sin.

Verse 5: "But with many of them God was not pleased, for their dead bodies were strewn in the wilderness. Now these things became examples for us, so that we might not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be idolaters, as were some of them…" (vs 5-7). So, idolatry in the New Testament is condemned.

"…as it is written, 'The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.' Neither should we commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and twenty-three thousand were destroyed in one day" (vs 7-8).

Paul is saying that if you read and study the Old Testament, and if you don't learn that sin is wrong, you haven't learned a thing! If you go out and do the same thing that they did, you're going to suffer the same penalty. Paul was talking to people who were Gentiles, who are in the Church of God who had the New Testament being written to them who had the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Verse 9: "Neither should we tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted Him, and were killed by serpents. Neither should we complain against God, as some of them also complained, and were killed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages are coming. Therefore, let the one who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall" (vs 9-12).

Let's look at some more admonitions concerning idolatry. Here's how our conduct is to be. Again, New Testament doctrine. No one can say that it's okay to make any idol, to bow down to it, to worship it, to pray to it; no one can justify and sanctify that in the name of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, in order to give a semblance of Christianity within a paganized religion, such as Catholicism and Orthodox, to say nothing of the open paganism of Buddhism and Hinduism, they must remove from their official teachings of the church the second commandment.

The only alternative is to repent and admit that they have been serving Satan the devil and not God the Father and Jesus Christ, though they use His name. See what happens when you do away with one commandment? You break all of them! Just like James says, 'If you break one, you've broken all of al them.' If you take out the second commandment then anything else you say from that time on is taking the name of God in vain.

Here is how our behavior is to be, Ephesians 5:1: "Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children; and walk in love… Jesus said, 'If you love Me, keep My commandments.'] …even as Christ also loved us, and gave Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornication…" (vs 1-2)—which includes all sexual immorality, homosexuality, abortion and the whole works!

"…and all uncleanness or covetousness, do not permit it even to be named among you, as is fitting for saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking or jesting, which are not becoming; but instead, thanksgiving. For this you know, that no fornicator… [every homosexual needs to read that] …or unclean person, or covetous person, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. Do not let anyone deceive you with vain words; for because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience" (vs 2-6).

New Testament doctrine! God is the same yesterday, today and forever!

• We're going to investigate more lies from the pulpit.
• We're going to investigate the other commandments

{see part two}

If you want a more in depth study for any of these things, you can go to truthofgod.org and we have many sermons, studies and things you can download that will help you an awful lot.

All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version

Scriptural References:

• Deuteronomy 12:30-32
• Jeremiah 17:9
• Romans 8:7-8
• Proverbs 14:12
• Exodus 20:4-6
• Deuteronomy 28:1-7, 14-20
• Exodus 32:1, 4-9, 15-16, 19, 21-24, 28
• Deuteronomy 29:17-20
• Judges 2:7, 10-14, 18-19
• 2 Kings 17:7-18
• 1 Corinthians 10:1-12
• Ephesians 5:1-6

Scripture referenced, not quoted: Revelation 12:9

Also referenced:
Books:

• My Catholic Faith by Louis La Ravoire
• The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop

Sermon Series: Why God Hates Religion
Sermon: Lies from the Pulpit #2

FRC: bo
Transcribed: 5/21/17