Is Salvation in Christ Selfishly Motivated?

[William Prest]

What the Churches are Not Saying: A Call to Believers to Leave the Synagogue of Satan

Hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, have heard the Gospel, but what exactly have they heard? We are warned about deception throughout the Bible with plenty of examples provided. It seems that the modern Christian has been led down the garden path, not to salvation, but to something else. The battle between Satan and Christ is more intense than ever and there is a long history of experience behind it. According to the account in the Gospels, Satan is in control of the kingdoms of the earth (Luke 4:5-8). Otherwise, he would not have been able to offer them to Jesus in the temptations in the wilderness. There is a long history and by now Satan has control of almost all of Christendom.

Now, these “synagogues of Satan” proclaim a salvation message, but it appears to be selfishly motivated. We are led in a “salvation prayer” that would have us believe that we are saved by grace, even though we are in sin. This is the basis of selfishly based salvation, which if you think about it, is not salvation at all. Everyone wants to go to heaven or in the Realm of God and that we can enter thereat as is. But this is far from the truth, especially when we examine the scriptures in detail and allow the Bible interpret the Bible.

For instance, we are told to confess our sins one to another (James 5:16) and not just a one time blanket “confession” that we have sinned. True, we have all sinned, but there are many sins of various kinds and these must be accounted for and confessed as the Holy Spirit reveals and how individual transgression unfolds between one another. The churches also neglect to call out sin where it lies and hold those who commit them accountable. The Bible is not short on detail, especially if we examine the more ancient, less corrupted versions. Here are a few things where little is spoken;

• Usury/Interest accumulated on loans

• Worship of tyrants

• Love of Money

• Lying (white lies) to gain advantage

• False Sabbaths

• Sins of omission

• Belief in doctrine of devils

• Invention of evil things

• War

• Failure to train children in the essentials

• Selection of approved targets for violence, bullying

• Distracting from the true Gospel

• Misappropriation of the meaning of the tithe

• Condemning the poor and the so called wealth doctrine

• Sins in the name of Jesus Christ

• A little matter of faith betrays one's real beliefs

These are only a few of the neglected sins, which by ignoring, we place ourselves and others in peril. We need to be aware of it all to work out our salvation with fear and trembling after receiving the grace of Jesus. (Philippians 2:12). Grace is just the beginning; one needs to commit to serve God! We must do this with full awareness. To do the will of Jesus is a sign of velief in him and proves his grace to you.

There is almost no congregation that condemns usury, the charging of interest on loans whether money or goods. Perhaps it is due to the fact that the pastors and leaders are in hawk to the banks over interest bearing mortgages and/or loans. As the banks call the tune on the loan and have the power of foreclosure, those bound by agreements, must dance to their tune. This is likely the greatest reason for the silence on this sin, and yes, it is a sin. Even to hold back wages overnight from the worker is a sin (James 5; Leviticus 19:13)! Yet we live in a world of usury, wage theft and holding back of earnings. If the usurious conditions are not met, there is the garnishee. The church is almost completely silent! In fact, I have never heard of any condemnation of garnishee. Outside of online commentary, I have heard no condemnation of usury. This sin is easier to commit by the moneyed interests who have the means to grant interest bearing loans. As most of us depend on the banks, we are on the exploited side of usury, but we must nonetheless condemn it. That includes churches in hawk to the banks.

We live in a hierarchical society where those who hold power are regarded and treated as a demigod. It matters whether that hierarchy is oligarchy, capitalist, communist, fascist, secular or theocratic. We are apparently told that these tyrants are appointed by God and we must give them due and worshipful respect (Romans 13). And then there is the powerful statement of Ephesians 6:12, especially how it is written in the Geneva version of the Bible. Recall the second temptation of Christ, so we need to carefully consider when we give worshipful respect to kings, presidents and tyrants. God placed them in position, for a reason, but that reason is not unquestioning support, especially when we are instructed to test all things (1 John 4:1-3). We are warned of strong delusion (2 Thessalonians 2:10-13) and many Christians today are deluded. We nee to wake up across the board! This is the crux of this message!

There has been a long history concerning trade and the evolution of a proxy value system that takes trade beyond just barter. This concept has more meaning than is given credit, especially when we deal with other concepts. (1 Timothy 6:10), The love of money, or as the Geneva Translation puts it, the desire for money, leads to error and heartfelt sorrows. There is little said of this, but instead, we are encouraged to use monies for the tithe. There is more on this later, especially concerning the first fruits. Meanwhile, we have developed via a complex and circuitous history, a society of farmers and herds people to one of landless peasants condemned to sell their labor for money to buy the goods that our ancestors made from scratch, This history can be vindicated by your own research. It took various revolutions, such as the land revolution, political revolutions, the first, second and now third industrial revolutions. The powerful, who got that way by theft, extortion, forced labor and other tyrannical mean,now have turned a collection of company towns to company countries and ultimately a company planet. The history of this at every turn has the owner-tyrants using their own invented script money to control their work force. The end result of the desire and love of money is what we see in the secular world today; a world of grievous sin.

Lies are the lifeblood of the modern world. It is so bad, that we now have to consider that we are being lied to unless we see proof to the contrary. The biggest lie of all is the synagogue of Satan masquerading as the true church of Jesus Christ. The true church of Jesus Christ has almost been completely usurped. Hundreds of millions regularly go to church without realizing that there are lies within many churches. One of the most glaring is over the Sabbath question. Hebrew emulating Christians and the 7^th Day Adventists have the basic Sabbath question answered in their actions. There are two sets of Sabbaths, the 7^th day, which is Saturday (technically Friday after sunset to Saturday at sunset). The other is the high Sabbaths that follows the first observance of the new moon crescent in the evening after the exact new moon. They are all meant to be days of rest and worship of the Most High. There are consequences for violating the Sabbath as noted in Exodus 35:2,3. Most Christians worship on the 1^st day, Sunday an are thus following a false sabbath. This is the most obvious lie, but there are others. This is justified by explaining that Jesus rose from the dead after sunset on Saturday, but Jesus never counseled on respecting Sunday as the sabbath. Jesus kept the Hebrew Sabbath! Even though he says the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27), this does not negate following the correct Sabbath. The next worst is the changing of the meaning of scriptures by rewriting them. This is as old as history and the battle in all seriousness began with the attack on the true church in the 1^st century. Then there is a plethora of other lies, some not so serious (the white lie) and others much more so. Deceit is endemic in the modern world and many Christians are complicit knowingly or unknowingly in them. One needs to work out their salvation on this issue! Many lies involve financial corruption.

There are not only sins of commission, such as adultery, lies, etc, but sins of omission, or the failure to do that which is just. If one sees something that is obviously unjust, to say nothing is to be complicit in the sin. One of these omissions is the failure to condemn usury. Others are things like the pro-lifers who condemn abortion, but fail to plead for the newborn, especially those that wind up without mother and/or father and are placed for adoption, many of which wind up on the street after they age out of the support system. Very little call is made to adopt babies and young children vorn into misfortune in our own land. We are directed more to adopt foreign children and pets. When we see issues played out on the media where injustice is played out, and there are so many issues, they can't be listed here. We need at least to call out these injustices as we become aware. Failure to do this, becomes the sin of omission and that covers the gamut of sins.

There are many doctrines of devils and many are found in mistranslated and misunderstanding of the Holy Scriptures. The corruption began early and was cemented at the Council of Nicaea under the direction of Constantine. That Roman emperor was a Mithra follower and not a true Christian. He appropriated Christianity for political reasons. He is responsible for introducing pagan 'holy days' in place of God's Holy Days. Easter (Ishtar) was substituted tor the Passover and days of unleavened bread. The Sabbath was moved to Sunday, replacing the Saturday Sabbath, which was the true Sabbath since the beginning of the age, of Adam and Eve. The Catholic Church that had its start from the Council of Nicaea, introduced the cult off Mary, the so-called Mother of God, Which is condemned by Jesus in the Revelation. Then there are all the false doctrines of science. There are many false doctrines; doctrines of devils that distract us from the true message of God to mankind.

Invention of evil things is mentioned but once (Romans 1:30) as among those who are unrighteous and who won't enter into the Kingdom of God. It is not difficult to find evil inventions that harm rather than help. In fact, many of yesterday;s solutions are today's problems. We should take a careful look at the entire spectrum of invention. Some are obvious, such as hydrogen bombs. Many are not as obvious, but that does not mean they are less harmful and evil. We once thought that pesticides were a blessing, but there was a backlash and the once thought benefit is now seen as harmful. The same goes for most plastics that are now inundating the world. Single use throw away items are threatening the entire planet. There are not many churches that even comment on these issues. The list of evil inventions, many seemingly well intentioned, is mind boggling. Evil inventions run the gamut of human experience.

War has been the norm for most through much of human history and it takes many forms, War iss a violation of one of the commandments on steroids. “Thous shall not kill” for the most part ignored while man and beast suffer the consequences of war. There are many who protest against war, but there are few Christians among them. Also, we live in a society of hypocrisy that condemns murderous acts of passion, while glorifying the mass slaughter and ruination of who countries brought to us by wars; especially for profit. Wars are sold on high sounding principles, while in reality it is for some kind of profit and/or gain of territory. It is little wonder Jesus had blessings for peace makers (Matthew 5:9).

If there is no direct expression of the failure to train children in the essentials, it is at least implied in many ways. Education today is more about indoctrination, including in most churches. Few useful skills are taught. Children are taught to memorize and thinking through problems is discouraged. Often questioning is discouraged, especially if it is directed away from indoctrination. As children are the future, they need to learn essentials like gardening, survival skills, how to handle money, learn essential criticism, and especially, the word of God in all its details and nuances. This is largely neglected to the peril of the child and the future of all of us. Failure to teach what is needed and what is correct, is a sin of omission that will come back to bite us, There is a curious reference in the Bible stating in effect that those who know stand at the gate, but do not enter and worse, the young seeking entry are barred and made into twice the children of hell (Matthew 23:13-15)

Distraction is one method to deflect attention away from either yourself, or that which you are seeking to obscure. Distracting from great sins to target others in bullying is an often used strategy today. This includes ignoring some great sins to focus on a particular sin. The sins of tyrants and money lenders are ignored while total attention is focused on targeting homosexuality. Speaking of sexual sins, this is not the only transgression. Jesus himself had plenty to say on adultery alone (Mark 7:18-23). The one time Jesus expressed force was in overthrowing the tables of the money changers in the temple (Matthew 21:12,13).

There is plenty of distractions from the true gospel. There are many variants. These are doctrines allegedly supported in the Bible. But when scrutinized, they are seen as out of context. Among these are the idea that the law was done away on the cross. Another is the so called wealth doctrine. There are arguments over the true sabbath (Saturday or Sunday) and almost no commentary on the high sabbaths, like Passover and the day of Atonement. There are many Christian sects that emphasize one aspect of the Gospel, or another, but not the whole. Among these are the more familiar, such as the 7^th Day Adventists, the Pentecostals, the Baptists, the Catholic Church, etc. In fact, the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, was directed by the early Catholic Church and established as doctrine in the Council of Nicaea. This council also decided which books made it into the Bible and which were rejected. Between the Catholic Church that kept the Latin Vulgate secret for over a thousand years and the Protestant who translated the Vulgate into German and English, there is a difference of 22 books. The Protestant variant has the shorter Bible. Since the Geneva Bible (the 1^st English translation) there have been multiple variations of the Bible printed and promoted. There is a stern warning about adding, subtracting and changing the scriptures, (Revelation 22:18,19). There is an injunction within the Bible that all of us should take note (2 Timothy 3:16). Given this, everyone should have a copy of the Douay-Reams

Almost all churches survive on the good will donations of church goers via what is called the tithe and that is supposed to be ten percent of the first-fruits. The meaning of first-fruits has changed significantly since Biblical times to our current economic structures. Thus we have arrived at the time of the misappropriating the meaning of the tithe. Now, owing to complex historical developments, most folks now have only their labor power to offer in the marketplace. Few these days live off farming and flocks. It can said this is the combined result of the industrial revolutions and the advent of profiteering capitalism. Here we run into the idea and practice of surplus production/value, dealt with later. In the end, all things are God's and we who are also created, borrow them during our sojourn on earth. Now, things are so different, we now almost exclusively use currencies in our daily trade. This becomes the focus for the tithe. There are no actual first-fruits in currency, but the church has adapted to the situation of currency only and asking its supporters should pay ten percent of their gross income as tithe, Now, most folks pay taxes from 25 percent and up from their gross earnings, leaving a shrunken net income. Then the banks charge interest on loans that take another large bite. None of this is explained in any church dissertation. It is explained here for reason of clarity in this simple, non-complex model. A full understanding comes from understanding how the money system works and there are plenty of resources for that. One has to look outside of the church mindset, but keeping one's mind fixed to God. There is a God centered economy based on the Shimeteh and Jubilee cycle. Under a God centered economy, a tithe would work better.

There is a wealth doctrine that condemns the poor for the sins of collective society. For instance, the armies of the poor, many of whom are homeless exist, not because we can't fix the problem, but because the rich who hoard much of the wealth, won't. All wealth is created by and comes from God and is a blessing for all of God's creation. The Bible makes it very clear about the proper distribution of wealth (Matthew 19:18-21; Leviticus 25:-25-30,33-40). Yet in our secular society, we do anything but, leaving redistribution to those who are generous, but not much better off than those who they give. The author is not sure who started the wealth doctrine, but if God so blesses you, then you should share! The final word on this is “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:22-24)

There is no mention of the idea of surplus production and profit in the Bible, but by logical extension, we can see that this is an extension of usury. Usury is to loaning and money as surplus production is to work. This has been a slow and incremental process, at least for most of history, but since the first industrial revolution and thereafter, the exploitation of labor via surplus production has escalated. We now have a situation where there is super-exploitation. Add to this, robotics that take away jobs, leaving folks destitute while the needed changes in society are ignore. It is still business as usual where the poor are required to help the poor, which many do.

According to the reasoning of many (some Christian), some sins are more dire than others, but worse, some sin is winked at while we target specific sins while ignoring others, Sinning in the name of Christ does not justify it one iota (Matthew 5:18). According to some, the sin of murder is justified when targeting those identified as perverts (Leviticus 20:13). But in the book of Exodus, we read the death penalty for those who work on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:2). There are many other sins that warrant death in Exodus and Leviticus. Unfortunately, we justify one and ignore the other. We need to consider what Isaiah 64:6 Our righteousness in this context, even in the name of Jesus, becomes filthy rags. When we break one law, we are guilty of the whole (James 2:10). We need to carefully divide the Word of God!

There is a little matter of faith that is not so insignificant after all. There are circumstances and occurrences that challenge the faith of all and expose where one's real faith lies. When a plague comes, it turns out most will “duck and cover” rather than working together against the threat. The churches will cooperate with and knuckle under to the demands of the state, no matter how well the intention. Such an act exposes where faith really lies, so faith in Jesus Christ is over ruled by the faith in the well meaning of the secular system. So will we have faith in the system, that is under control of the devil, or will we have faith in Jesus and his great commission. It appears to be the former; that is, belief and faith in the system and hence the undercurrent of a great falling away. No matter who we are or profess, we have faith in something. As a Christian, that faith should be in Jesus Christ and his promises. Many young converts are ruined by the misappropriation of their faith as led by the leaders of the church. In this context, we see the current corona virus/corvid-19 crisis and how this has turned faith away from Jesus and toward a secular system. We all would do well to read James chapter 2 and especially the 18^th verse!(James 2 (18) read the whole)

Here is a word about our most pervasive sin; adultery. The foregoing was presented first because these sins are often ignored, especially under the sheer deluge of sins surrounding adultery. Adultery takes many forms and is responsible for a huge amount of sorrow and disease. From the very beginning, God sanction marriage; man and woman, with the creation of Adam and Eve. That Sanction has not ended at any time. But in many societies, historic and present, the idea of marriage has been blurred to include anything and everything not sanctioned. This also includes everything sexual, actual and implied, outside of marriage. History is replete with all kinds of adultery and it has all carried forward to the current period. Adultery is promoted in popular culture and is rampant in books, films and pornography. It takes the form of long time practices such as extra marital sex, homosexuality, bestiality and the newest variant, sex with robots. If Jesus accused his contemporaries as being a generation af adulterers, today he'd say this is on steroids. Our entire culture orbits around sexuality and it is a multi-billion dollar seller; hugely profitable. Why all the hullabaloo? Well, it engenders jealousy, incites murder, spreads disease and causes untold amounts of pain. There are plenty of Bible verses commenting on and condemning adultery of all kinds and many Christians are already familiar with them. There are entire stories on the subject, one even involving Jesus Christ with the women taken in adultery (John 8:3-11). Curiously, the Jehovah's Witnesses have removed this story from their Bible translation. But then there are the stories of Rome in Romans chapter 1 and in Genesis in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19). There are laws given in Exodus, Leviticus and elsewhere. Adultery is no light sin, but far from the only one.