Counterfeit Christianity

Chapter Three - A Different Jesus and Beliefs

        Many of today’s church doctrines are false and every denomination and independent group has some truth mixed in with untruths. To defend their particular truths, each is compelled to defend its lies at the same time.

A LITTLE LEAVEN LEAVENETH THE WHOLE BUNCH

Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. . . How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Matt. 16:6 and 11.

        The apostle Paul says, "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" 1 Cor. 5:6. Although Paul was alluding to injecting parts of the written law into the New Covenant, the principle is the same. Let a little false doctrine enter and before you know it, it is like a snowball rolling downhill.

WE HAVE NOT EARNESTLY CONTENDED FOR THE TRUTH

       Jude 3 states, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestlycontend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."

       The Amplified Bible puts it this way,

Beloved, my whole concern was to write to you in regard to our common salvation. [But] I found it necessary and was impelled to write you and urgently appeal to and exhort [you] to contend for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints [the faith which is that sum of Christian belief which was delivered verbally to the holy people of God].

        The starting point is our Christian belief that the Bible is God's inspired and inerrant Word. If we do not believe that the Bible is applicable today, or that it is old-fashioned or out-dated, or that it is filled with errors and only a loose and general guideline for living, then the church is a ship without rudder.

       I personally find the Bible an incredible instrument of absolute truth. It contains over three thousand promises or prophecies, of which over two thousand, five hundred have already come to pass. There are over three hundred and eight prophecies about Jesus, and over two hundred and fifty have been fulfilled. There is no other religious holy book that contains prophecies of future events, including the Sanskrit and Quran.

        Errors in the Bible are mostly translational since the original forms of Hebrew and Greek have changed and men have made mistakes in interpretation for whatever reason. Sometimes, the same Hebrew or Greek word has several meanings and translators choose the wrong one.

        The Bible has been proven amazingly accurate concerning history and the names of people and places long lost to antiquity. Time after time, the Bible has proven correct after centuries of claims that it is in error. For instance, the existence of Kings David and Solomon were doubted for thousands of years until July of 2013 when archaeologists uncovered Canaanite inscriptions on a jar dating to the time of Kings David and Solomon, that made specific reference to the two kings.

        The Book of Isaiah so accurately prophesizes the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, that for centuries Bible doubters claimed that it was written by Jesus’ disciples to create a false religion after Jesus died. But, a young goat herder accidently discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls while looking for stray goats in 1947. Thereafter, archaeologists found additional records up until 1956, some of which proved to be copies of the Book of Isaiah. Except for a few grammatical differences, the Dead Sea Scrolls were almost word for word the same as the Book of Isaiah in modern Bibles. The Book of Isaiah was written over 625 years before the birth of Christ.