Being raised up a C of C preacher’s kid in a home of tremendous legalism, I was taught from
childhood that our religion was the only way, and everyone else would go to
hell except us, because we had the only truth and everyone else was wrong. Now
we didn’t vocally tell people you’re going to hell (sometimes we did in an argument),
but we all talked about it among ourselves and would always fight for our
religion. We had a great knowledge of the scriptures (but not combined with
spiritual thinking with faith), really much more than any other denomination,
although we would tell people we are not a denomination, but independent
churches that had the only truth. Even though there are many colleges just for
our specific religion, we would always pretend we were not organized like
others that have a ruling body of men. So many red flags that should make you
wonder.
Like the apostle Paul, we were legalistic and lived by the law, in this case, the laws
of do’s and don’ts always ready to point a finger at someone who were not
living by the laws of the new testament as we saw it. Funny thing is… none of
us could live by these laws either, therefore; being Hypocrites was a normal
way of life. Now we would always go to church Sunday morning and Sunday night
and Wednesday night to try to earn God’s favor of course and show we were great
Christians or make ourselves feel better patting ourselves on the back because
we were so good to go to every service. We also looked down on those who missed
Sunday night services or didn’t live up to our expectations of what a Christian
should be doing. Those of this religion are not taught the grace and love of
God and don’t understand it at all, and faith was something that was dead,
really dead, never using any kind of faith to see God move in their lives, only
legalism rules.
In church services, music was not allowed as
one verse taken out of context which states to sing in spiritual songs making
melody in your hearts to the Lord. Stupid isn’t the word for it, as it escapes
their notice that the bible mentions instruments in many places throughout the
bible. I guess God only allows the Angels to use instruments in Revelation from
their point of view and in Psalms where it mentions using instruments to praise
God was discounted because that was in the Old Testament. If that isn’t living
by the law and rules, then nothing is. What a dumb, dumb rule. It’s beyond
stupid. Music moves people to worship God in a much greater way from the heart.
My dad would constantly listen to albums of Christian music at home because it
sooths the soul and brings you closer to God. Crazy uh…as long it was not in
church.
Other rules that this religion came up with taking verses out of context are like the one
of taking the Lord’s Supper or Communion every single Sunday. On the first day
of the week they gathered together to take the Lord’s Supper. Yes, that is
true, but there is no command to do it every single Sunday. Again, legalism,
not understanding the grace and love of God. Taking the communion at home
everyday can be done if you like, but to make some act a duty is nonsense. Of
course no one ever says anything to those who missed church and missed
communion (but many make a mental note of who missed), but of course it is
always available on Sunday night for those who missed. The greatest problem
about this is that you can actually cause sickness and death to yourself by
doing this by rule, disregarding what it really means is to observe the Lord’s
Supper. The Bible says many of you are sick and die early because you don’t discern
the body of Christ correctly. That means to judge yourself and confess any
known sin and remember that Jesus blood saves you and heals you. It further
states this very fact.. “If we judged ourselves correctly, we would not be
judged.” (1Corn 11:21) That’s judging the body of Christ, you are the body of
Christ, the church as a whole. Your proclaiming the Lord’s death, until He
comes, in remembering His Blood that saves you from sin, it is the cup of the
New Covenant. Putting rules on this observance is wrong, it’s legalism.
Probably the biggest red flag is that this C of C doctrine is unwilling to discuss any verse
in the bible that is not a part of their legalistic doctrine. Now, believe you
me, I used to fight about it big time, even to the point of causing a big ruckus
at my high school where the principle
had to get on the school speakers and tell students to stop fighting about it.
I was dating and Baptist girl at the time, and we would fight about it. I would
tell her you have to be baptized to be saved. I was so wrong, but as Paul I was
legalistic and doing it in ignorance. So, let us discuss the baptism ordnance
and see what it really means.
First let me say, I was baptized as a 10 yr old, then again in High School, then again in
College. Why? Because I was constantly looking for a change in my life, a
feeling of being saved, and I was taught that baptism was salvation and that
you could not be saved unless your baptized. Now, my C of C religion never used
the term “saved.” The reason being they have no faith to believe your actually
saved and you won’t know until you die. Now, that is really stupid and sad. So
many verses state you are saved and sealed for the day of salvation. Sadly,
this doctrine believes if you have sin when you die, you’ll go to hell or there
is no way you can know if you’re going to be saved. All people have sin when
they die…..in their flesh….Sin is falling short, and we have all fallen short.
Sin is also not doing what you know you should be doing, that’s sin as well.
But the difference is by Grace through your faith, Jesus blood constantly
cleanses you from sin. Jesus died once for all. All sin past, present and
future is forgiven, otherwise no one would be saved. Do you accept His
forgiveness? The other thing is sin does not penetrate your sealed spirit. Eph 1:13
states your sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. That is why God looks at you
as righteous, we are the righteousness of Christ, because he sees your sealed
spirit, not your sinful flesh. Doctrines of teaching you unbelief is hard to
break out of because Satan constantly pounds your mind with rules you broke, or
your past sins, or what you must do and the rules you must keep to make it, but
they are all lies of the devil. Satan’s big lie is you have to do something,
you have to do something, the blood of Jesus is not enough, and you have to do
something…what a devils lie!
I finally just gave up on religion, it didn’t work, not for me or most people I knew. I
told God “I just can’t do this…” I was so over burdened by rules and trying to
keep commandments that I couldn’t keep (and neither can you) that I flat gave
up and went to living in the world away from God and doing my own thing. After
all, when you’ve be pounded all your life that you must be good and you can’t
do it, you lose heart and finally give
up. Always in my heart I would say, there has to be more to this, there has to
be truth and freedom and happiness somewhere, that’s why people look in all the
wrong places and do the wrong things. After all, I have been baptized three
times and I did believe Jesus was the Son of God (the demons also believe and
tremble), but there was no change in my life because I was trusting in my own
goodness and me living right, instead of trusting in God who hand is not short
that He cannot save and trusting in the blood of Jesus that cleanses me from
sin, all sin, forever… surely that wasn’t enough, I have to do something don’t
I ? That answer is no…I don’t and neither do you. Your saved by grace through
faith and if you’re really saved, you have the witness in yourself. You know
it, period ! If you don’t have this
witness in yourself by the Holy Spirit, something is wrong and you better seek
God. It has nothing to do with feelings, it’s a knowing deep inside by
faith.
So in Acts every time someone believed they got baptized.
Yes, they did, and it was after they believed from their heart with
their whole heart. They did not get baptized to be saved. They also spoke
in tongues, so why don’t you ? Because of your unbelief. Acts 3: 19 states “
Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that
times of refreshing my come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send
Jesus the Christ appointed for you.” Repent means to turn away from what you’ve
been doing, not crying and begging God to forgive you. Do you know the presence
of the Lord ? If not why not? Jesus is with you always. Now in Acts 4:12 it
further states “ And there is salvation in no one else: for there is no other name under heaven that has been given
among men by which we must be saved. Baptism is Not the name given by which you
must be saved !
I always wondered why the C of C never taught or used the verse in Acts 2:39. Now I
know, it’s because of unbelief. The promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, why?
because they don’t believe it. No gifts of the Holy Spirit has ever been
witnessed by anyone in the C of C ever….because of unbelief and their teaching
of false doctrines. No one gets heals, no one speaks in tongues, no devils are
cast out…..nothing but legalism. Perhaps this makes some of you angry at me,
but if it’s true you know it so get out and do something about it. Later in
Acts when people didn’t have the baptism of the Holy Spirit they had hands laid
on them and received (Acts 8:15). It escapes their memory that Jesus baptizes
in the Spirit not water. Acts 15:8
states “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy
Spirit, just as He also did to us; …..Cleansing their hearts by faith.” How can people be so mislead to believe that
the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not for today….unbelief….nothing but unbelief….
And further in Acts 15 Peter says “ But we believe that we are saved through
the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they also are (vs 11).” The C of
C doctrine totally discounts all the teachings of the Holy Spirit because of
unbelief….I Corn 12:13 say for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one
body….we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
One big verse used to justify their doctrine is 1st Peter 3:21 Corresponding
to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an
appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Exactly….not the water of baptism….the appeal to God for a good conscience through Jesus….Baptism does
not save you…The same book of 1st Peter says the grace of God
through Jesus saves you by faith……
Later on in my life, I finally read the bible for myself and put aside everything I had
been taught and by the grace of God I learned the truth by listening to the
Holy Spirit as I read and prayed and studied. There is no person, no religion,
no doctrine, no angel, nothing created that can discount or retract in any way
or form what Romans 10:8,9,10 says. “…The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart—that is,
the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth
Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you
will be saved; for with the heart a
person believes, resulting in
righteousness and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” People say but what about this or that? No
butts, nothing else, Period ! Not baptism, not any act or ordinance or act of
kindness or church attendance or giving money or helping people or not
drinking or any other fleshly thing can
gain you brownie points with God. You did nothing to gain God’s love, you can
do nothing to make Him stop loving you. When you confess Jesus as Lord God
loves you even more. Legalism will kill you, it will wreck you life and steal
your joy because you can never measure up, and no one can. That’s why Jesus
came, the fulfill the law for us so we don’t have to (as if we could). Jesus
blood shed for us cleanses us from all sin, all sin, past present and future.
Once and for all . All we do is by faith accept His gift of salvation through
the grace God has provided us……..
What about living holy ? Many people incorrectly teach Hebrews 12:14. It says Pursue peace
with all men, and holiness (the sanctification) without which no one will see
the Lord.” This is not saying if you’re not holy you won’t go to heaven. It’s
saying if you don’t practice what you say or preach, that people will not see
holiness in you ! If you talk one way and live like the devil, people won’t see
the holiness of the Lord in you and you become a person who isn’t practicing
what you believe. Your born again spirit is holy and sealed for the day of
redemption Eph 4:30. There is nothing you can do beyond reaching out with your
belief and faith that Jesus is Lord and God raised Him from the dead that will
save you. Now, you might be saying you are giving people a license to sin, no
way. If you live in sin, you don’t know the love of God and His grace to you.
If you live a sinful life, you bring sickness, disease, depression, poverty and
a host of other things into your life. You open the door for Satan to beat you
up. He comes to steal, kill and destroy as you well know. But Jesus came to
give you life and life more abundantly. You stop knowingly sinning and you shut
the door on the devil. But remember, your spirit is brand new and sealed. Works
will not save you, but it is good to do good works, not to gain points with
God, for that is impossible, but to do good for and too others because you love
God and love others. Salvation is not of works lest any man should boast as you
are aware. So live your life as free men and women, for sin shall not be master
over you Romans says. God has already done it all for us, now work to enter
that rest, the rest of knowing God work is complete in Jesus and your complete
in Jesus. Rest in God’s grace with your faith, Rest and be still, rest and be
filled with His Spirit and His love…..
Kendogsinger 