Why So Many Denominations? - STC2412

Are you ready to embark on a thought provoking journey of discovery, curious to explore an alternative narrative that challenges the theory of evolution? What impact has the war in heaven had on our planet, and what are the implications for humanity? What can we learn from this epic battle that is unfolding between good and evil? Here is your opportunity to unlock a treasure trove of spiritual insights from the Bible that will answer these and many other pressing questions, illuminating the path to eternal life which lies just a choice away. Here is Bill Gates presenting why so many church denominations? Our subject today is entitled why so many church denominations? And in the process, we'll make two major discoveries, where the major denominations came from and why. And secondly, we'll also discover which is the last church on planet earth before Jesus returns. The last church is the one that enables God to destroy his enemy, the devil, and his evil angels, permanently from the entire universe. And then sin, sickness, suffering, pain, and death will also be permanently destroyed. And that has to be good news. Some years ago, an evangelist was telling a few of his friends of an experience he had at one of his lectures. A man came down to the front of the stage and he said, excuse me, Mr. Preacher, I'd like to ask you a question. Can you tell me which is the most popular church? The evangelist thought for a moment, and then he named a certain church that he thought was the most popular church. The man said, thank you very much, and was just about to leave when the evangelist said, you have asked me a question. I'd like to ask you one. Why did you ask me what was the most popular church in town? The man said, it's very simple. I've just moved into town a month or two ago, and I opened up a business. It seems to me that it would be best for my business if I belong to the most popular church. And that was the reason why he chose to belong to the most popular church in town. People have all sorts of reasons as to why they belong to a church. Most of us belong to the church that we belong to simply because we were brought up in it. Our father or mother were born in that denomination, and we were born into it. People have all sorts of reasons as to why they belong to a church. Sometimes people never question why they belong to a particular church. Some people belong to a church because it happens to be the closest one to their home. Others belong to a church because they like the preacher or they like the music. There are all sorts of reasons why people have for belonging to a church, but I find very, very few people belong to a church because they are convinced that the church they have chosen preaches the biblical truths. After all, I believe that this should be the only reason that we ought to belong to a church. Now I will read to you from John 17, verse 17, what Jesus Christ, the creator God of the universe, said about the truth. He said, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Now the true church will naturally teach from the true Bible. Well, you say, don't all churches follow the Bible? Well, I guess all churches profess to follow the Bible. After all, we have something like 300 different denominations in Australia at the moment. Sometimes people ask this question, how is it that I struggle to choose which is the right church out of all of these denominations? They all claim to be going by the Bible. How can I work out what is right and what is wrong? I've got to admit with those people that it is confusing to a person who is sincerely looking for truth. But the true Bible manuscripts which claim to be the word of God and not the word of man, says that we must take the true Bible as our base starting point. And if we take this book and search this book, it is the true Bible which will give us the evidences, the clues that we're looking for if we want to find out what is truth. And if we do that, we will have a much better understanding of why there are so many different denominations in the world than perhaps we've ever had before. So the obvious starting point has to be the time when people congregated together for the first public church service, which many people say was the Roman Catholic Church. In fact, I'm surprised at the number of Protestants who believe that the first church was the Roman Catholic Church, because that is not what the Bible says. The Bible book called Acts of the Apostles, chapter seven and verse 38, says, this is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel. So what church was this first congregational public church that acts is talking about when it talks about the church in the wilderness? The first public church that the Bible speaks of was the Church of Israel. And it goes right back to the days of the wilderness at Mount Sinai. Prior to that first public church being established, the worship was conducted at family altars. So this public church that God set up was in existence for 1500 years before there was any church in Rome. In fact, long before there was even a city of Rome, let alone a church of Rome. So the Bible declares that God set up the first public congregational church as the Church of Israel. Now notice that God gave to this church something that they were to give to us. So what did God say that he gave to them that they were to give unto us? We just read about it in acts seven, verse 38. The lively oracles. So what are these lively oracles? The ten commandments of God. I would like to remind us all that God gave those ten commandments of love not just for the Church of Israel, but as the Bible says in the verse we read to give unto us. Remember, the Book of Acts is New Testament reading, not Old Testament reading, and was written long after Jesus returned to heaven. The Bible also states that the ten Commandments were given to Israel in written form so that they would preserve them and keep them and then pass them on to christians, which is so different, isn't it, from what most christian churches say today regarding the keeping of the ten commandments? So what did the Church of Israel do with those commandments? Well, acts seven, verse 53, answers that question for us who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. Now, that was the tragedy with the children of Israel. God gave them the ten Commandments, but they didn't keep the commandments as God gave to them. Nor did they share God's ten commandments with the world as they were supposed to. But worse than that, they actually turned their backs upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself when he came to this earth. Now, not only did God found this first church on the commandments of God, but it was also established on a second pillar. In one corinthians chapter ten, Paul the apostle, talking about the Church of Israel, told us in verses one to four what that second pillar was. Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. So here was the rock upon which the first public church, the Church of Israel, was founded. There were the two great fundamental teachings of the church in Israel, the commandments of God, and the very faith and teachings of Jesus Christ. Two. Samuel 22, verse 17 in the Old Testament confirms this. For us, the Lord lives, blessed be my rock. Let God be exalted, the rock of my salvation. And God did a wonderful work through the first public church of Israel. Just think how wonderfully God cared for them in the wilderness. He kept them warm at night with the pillar of fire. He protected them from the desert sun in the daytime by giving them cloud cover. And he fed them for 40 years with manna, a food that fell from the sky. But the church of Israel, despite all of these advantages, did something very bad. What was it they did? Matthew 27, verses eleven to 26, tells us that they rejected Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, when he came back, the very one who had provided them with all of those blessings in the past. They'd gone so far away from the truths of God that when Jesus came onto this earth again, they didn't even recognise him. But worse than that, they organised with Pilate for the crucifixion of Jesus. Yet they had been looking for the long awaited messiah for many centuries, and which had been symbolised by the slaying of an innocent, substitutionary, spotless lamb throughout the Old Testament period. So this church, which was once God's messengers of truth, fell right away into error, into apostasy. That church, which was once God's true church, ceased to be God's church when it rejected the truth and when it rejected Jesus as the messiah. So do remember, please, that God defines truth as those messages he gave to the Bible writers. That is based on the Ten Commandment law of God, that defines sin and the promised Messiah from sin, Jesus Christ the Saviour. When the first public church, the Church of Israel, rejected Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and his teachings, God then set up a second church here on earth, which we know today as the christian church. Now remember, we're talking about where the churches came from. So now we have two churches. We have the Church of Israel, which God established and which fell into error. And we have the christian church, through which God did a wonderful work. And it too was established on the faith and teachings of Jesus Christ. As we read before, Jesus is the rock of our salvation. And no one disputes that the christian church was built on that rock, except the Roman Catholic Church, who claimed that Peter was the rock. So is Peter the rock upon which the church is built. Does it seem logical to you that when Jesus, the creator God, established the christian church, that he was going to establish it on a created human being called Peter? No, it is not logical. The foundation of both churches has been the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is that rock, as both the Old and the New Testament revealed today. Nowhere does it say in the Bible that Peter is the rock. Peter himself said that Jesus was the rock in his own epistle, and that the rock, Jesus Christ would be a stumbling block to many as one. Peter, two verse eight states and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient. Furthermore, Jesus said in another place that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the rock or against the foundation of that church. Did the gates of hell, which is the grave, prevail against Peter? Yes, they did. He was crucified upside down and then buried. Did the gates of hell prevail against Jesus Christ? Never. Jesus conquered death, for he's still alive today. And he rose triumphant from the grave on the third day. So we should now be able to see that the christian church was founded on exactly the same principle and platform of truth as the first church in the wilderness had been founded on, namely, the commandments of God and the faith and teachings of Jesus Christ. Now, sometimes people wonder and question whether the christian church was founded upon the ten Commandments of God. Seems clearly evident that the Old Testament Church of Israel was. We will notice now that in the New Testament, the Bible stresses that the christian church was founded upon the same platform as the Church of Israel and not on the traditions of the rabbis they were trying to uphold. As a result, Jesus had to condemn the rabbis as follows, as he said in Matthew 15, verse three. But he answered and said unto them, why do you also transgress the commandments of God by your tradition? You see, church tradition in nearly every case that I know of cuts right across God's ten commandments. Are we going to follow what the church says, or are we going to follow what God and his commandments say? This becomes a very relevant area of discussion when it comes to the subject of which day is God's Sabbath day, because there you have church tradition contradicting what God's commandments teach. And that was the issue in Jesus'day when the christian church was being established. Or they to follow what the existing jewish church's traditions say. Or were they to follow God's commandments minus church traditions when they conflicted with God's commandments? Thus, those who are worshipping contrary to God's ordained system of worship are spoken of in Matthew 15, verse nine. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. You see, if you follow church tradition that ignores God's requirements, Jesus calls it vain worship. Therefore, the final authority for determining God's doctrines is to be the Bible alone and not the Bible plus man's traditions. Here is the proof. Most religious scholars teach that God's ten commandments were nailed to the cross. That is, a man made tradition that is in opposition to what God's scriptures teach, see for yourself as we read first John two, verses three to five. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that says I know him and keeps not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Verse five. But whoever keeps his word in him truly is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. So obedience to God's ten commandments in the second part of salvation, called sanctification, cannot be legalism. When God himself says, this is how my love will be perfected in you. And if this is God's chosen method of perfecting his love and his followers, then obviously the ten Commandments could never have been nailed to the cross, as some misguided religious tutors teach. So there was the biblical proof. God says that a true Christian will obey God's ten commandment laws. Tradition says, no, they were nailed to the cross. A law was nailed to the cross, but it wasn't God's ten commandment law. So I repeat, what is to be the final authority? It is to be the true Bible alone. For doctrine with no human traditions added that contradicts what God's word teaches. Otherwise, it ceases to be the pure word of God. And therefore, we need to be in a church that has the same scriptural foundation as the original church of Israel, which means the true church will still keep the ten Commandments and have the faith and teachings of Jesus. And this was also the foundation upon which the second church, called the Christian Church, was founded upon by Jesus Christ. Now, for many, this may mean changing churches, but some say I could never leave my church to join another church. Well, I need to remind us all that if we'd been living in the days of Jesus and had been brought up in the church of Israel, and if we were wanting to stay with God's truths and to follow what Jesus and the true Bible teaches, what would we have to do today? What did every sincere person who loved God have to do in the past? They chose wisely and chose to change their denomination. You see, denominations or churches don't save you. It is Christ and his truth that saves you when accepted. It's also very clear that every one of the twelve disciples had to change. They changed their denomination and became the first members of the new christian church. So there's nothing wrong with and no shame in changing churches if that is what it takes to remain loyal to God and his true salvation messages. I know what it's like to change church denominations as I searched for the truth, I had been a Baptist, a Presbyterian, a Roman Catholic, and finally I changed from there and joined the church that still keeps the teachings of God and Jesus and hallows God's ten commandments. I found what I was looking for at the 7th day Adventist Church in Lower Hut, New Zealand. But it took 30 years of searching to find it. Now, if you had stayed with the Church of Israel when Jesus the messiah came along, would you have stayed in the truth? No, you'd have stayed in error, because this church that was once the bastion of truth gave up the truth for man made traditions and thus fell into apostasy. The Church of Israel went into error, and that is the reason why Jesus reclaimed the truths by setting up the first christian church. So remember, we're talking about why so many church denominations. So, so far we've talked about just two churches, but we've yet to get to the end of the story. Now, I wish I could tell you that everyone lived happily ever after and that the new church kept to the truths of God. But the Bible gives some very interesting prophecies of what was going to happen in the christian church. I shall now read to you a very sad part of the christian church's history, found in the Bible book called acts, chapter 20, and verses 28 to 30. Paul is addressing the leaders, the christian elders of the church of Ephesus. And here is what Paul said in acts 20, verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, unto all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock also of your own cells shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. So what Paul is saying here is that they, as the leaders of the church, the apostles, will hardly be dead in their graves when men are going to arise within the church and they're going to teach perverse and crooked things. In effect, they would be wolves in sheep's clothing. And were they going to meet with success? Yes, they would attract disciples that would follow their erroneous teachings. One particular error that Paul was aware of is mentioned in the next Bible reading found in two Thessalonians, chapter two, verses one to three. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letters, as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand, so Paul is saying here, look, even if you get a letter apparently signed by me saying that Jesus was going to come back soon, don't you believe it. The problem was that people were teaching in thessalonian church that Christ was going to come back in the first century. So Paul says very clearly that is not true. Jesus is not going to come back in the first century. Even if you get a supposed letter from me containing my signature, don't believe it, for the signature will be a forgery. Paul could speak confidently about that because he knew that something very big was to happen before Jesus could return. And verse three describes what would happen. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day. The true second coming of Christ shall not come, except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. So what was it that was going to happen in the christian church before the true Jesus Christ would return the second time? The Bible says that it was going to be a falling away from the platform of truth again. In other words, just as there had been a falling away in the church of Israel, there would be a falling away in the christian church. But in this falling away, who was going to lead out in it? Verse three tells us, except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. He's the one who's going to be responsible, the man of sin. He's the one who's going to lead out in this apostasy, in this falling away. And by the way, what does the Bible say? Sin is one. John three, verse four answers the question for us, as do many other similar verses. Whoever commits sin transgresses also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. In other words, this man of sin was going to lead the people in the church into a great apostasy to go to the very opposite of what God founded the church on, namely the ten commandments of God and the faith and teachings of Jesus Christ. So who was Paul's man of sin? Or Matthew Henry, who wrote a well respected Bible commentary back in the 18th century, stated that it was the success of popes who claimed to be God on earth and who sit on a throne showing himself that he is God, just as Paul wrote 2000 years ago, the Bible also refers to this man of sin as the son of perdition. I don't know whether you realise this, but that statement is only used in one other place in the New Testament and refers to Judas Ascariot, the traitor and calls him the son of perdition. So what do we see when we look at Judas? We see a man who on the outside professes to be a follower of Christ. But what about the inside? Well, the inside of Judas wasn't a follower of Christ at all. He sought only to benefit himself. In other words, what God through St. Paul is saying here about the man of sin is that on the outside it would look good. He'd have all the trappings of being a christian person. But on the inside, he would promote the devil's agenda and not God's agenda. And people are going to be deceived. The man of sin, alias the son of perdition, was going to lead the church into a landslide of error in this falling away from the truth. Now, what were these errors? Well, let us notice some of the errors that the man of sin has introduced into Christianity that are not found in the Bible. Firstly, traditions of men as opposed to the teachings of Christ. And secondly, Sunday worship came in during this time. You'll never read of Sunday keeping in the Bible. You won't find God or the Bible approving of idol or merry worship either. Confession to an earthly priest and penance is not God's teaching. That is an error. Instead, we are to pray to God directly. Baby baptism instead of adult baptism that was brought in during this apostate period. You'll never read about baby baptism in the Bible because they must first be taught before committing to baptism, the worship of saints. God does not sanction that anywhere in the Bible because they are dead and awaiting the second coming in order to become alive again. As a result, they cannot hear your prayers. To them, the infallibility of the pope, that is a man made tradition and not from God. The immortality of the soul being the idea that you go on living after you die in some other place, either purgatory, limbo, hell, or heaven. According to Genesis three, verse four, it was the devil who contradicted God by saying that after you die, you actually go on living. And then there's the doctrine of eternal torment that came from the man of sin. That was not God's message. The man of sin brought in all of these errors by placing human tradition ahead of God's scriptures. All of these errors came into the Christian Church during this falling away period. And God predicted in the Bible book called Second Thessalonians, chapter two and verses seven to eleven that apostasy would happen. The historians refer to this period as the Dark Ages, and it is well named because it was a dark time, the light of God's truths had practically gone out. Now, people sometimes have said in the past, well, why didn't the people object to these false teachings? We need to remember that during the dark Ages, which lasted nearly a thousand years, the ordinary people didn't have a copy of the Bible in their hands like we have today. The printing press had not yet been invented, but when the Gutenberg printing press came along, the people gradually got copies of some parts of the Bible for themselves. Prior to the arrival of the printing press, the church of those days succeeded in keeping the flock in absolute ignorance of what God's word actually taught. The laypeople were instructed that only the priests could interpret the Bible. Therefore, no one was in a position to challenge the errors that were coming into the mainstream church in their day. As a former Catholic, I know this is true. All I was allowed to take to the cathedral was a catechism and a missile. Now, if that was where the Bible left the whole story, it would be terribly discouraging to us all. But the Bible does not leave it there. Repent you, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus, which before was preached unto you, whom the heavens must receive, until the times of restitution, of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. And what was to happen? God arranges for the gradual restitution of the lost teachings. In other words, if we go right back to the beginning in the book of Genesis, all the way through the prophets, all of the teachings that had been lost and trampled down and buried, these are going to be restored before Jesus comes back. Christ is not going to come back until those teachings are restored. So that's a wonderful prophecy. The restitution began big time when a Roman catholic monk, searching in a library, came across a Bible that was chained to the monastery wall. As he thumbed through the Bible, he read hebrews ten, verse 38, which says, now the just shall live by faith. That is to say, an intelligent faith. And that faith was to be based on evidence and supported by witnesses. And when young Martin Luther discovered that verse, it changed the course of european history. From that moment onwards, Martin Luther was an earnest catholic priest. He was trying to find peace in his own soul. He'd been told that if he kept slept on beds of nails, wore sharp things in his shoes, mortified his flesh by whipping himself, or climbed up pilot's staircase on his knees, the more he did that, and the more penance he did, the more righteous he would become with God. But God says that once we come to him, just as we are, and accept Jesus as our personal saviour, and then choose to join God's first kingdom of grace here on planet earth, then God will accept us into his first kingdom of grace and he will write the word pardon in the books of heaven. And he'll do that beside every sin that we have confessed. Then God does something beautiful. He prepares us for the second kingdom of glory, which is in heaven, by helping us to forsake those sins here on earth, thereby making us holy, a work that we cannot do for ourselves. As Leviticus 20, verse eight says, I am the Lord who makes you holy. This Bible text confirms that God is the one who will make us holy people fit for the society of a holy God and holy heavenly angels. Therefore, one does not have to do acts of penance. That teaching is a man made tradition that leaves people extremely frustrated. And therefore these people always lack assurance of salvation from the penalty of sin. And when Martin Luther discovered that the just shall live by faith and not by acts of penance, he began to preach this widely. As a result, millions and millions of people began to protest against the teachings of the church that they had been brought up in. They said, what you have been teaching us is not in harmony with what the Bible says. So what church was established when Luther had been preaching for several years, it was the beginning of the lutheran church. For they agreed with Luther that the just shall live by faith and that faith must be based on the true Bible and not man made traditions. That same truth went across to England. And the new church that was established in England was the anglican church. God did a wonderful work through the anglican church in England. They believed exactly the same as Luther did the Bible for doctrine only and not man made traditions. And they believed that the just shall live by faith. These new teachings then went up there to Scotland. And what church was established there? It was the presbyterian church. God did a wonderful work with the presbyterian church through a great preacher called John Knox. Then the Dutch Reform Church was established in Holland. Throughout Europe, millions accepted the previously lost teachings of faith in God and the Bible and the Bible only. Therefore, they rejected penances. But the errors that have been brought into the christian church took over a thousand years to get embedded into the church. Therefore, do we think it would be possible for one man's lifetime to undo all the errors that took a thousand years to appear? Absolutely not. After Luther died, the people wanted to draw up a creed of beliefs based on what Luther had taught them. And so they drew up a creed and said, if Luther taught it, we will believe it. If Luther did not teach it, then we will not accept it. So we see how God used the Lutherans, the Anglicans and the Presbyterians to start getting the christian church back to the original teachings of God. But God had more truths to reveal to the world from the Bible. And so God used two young brothers in England by the names of John and Charles Wesley. And what a wonderful work God did through these two men. And the Wesley brothers believed exactly the same as the Lutherans and the Anglicans and the Presbyterians. They believed in the Bible and the Bible only for doctrine, and that the just shall live by faith and not by works of penance. But the Wesley brothers went one step further. They said, we not only believe the good foundation that has already been laid, but we also believe in holiness of life. They began to emphasise the importance of a changed and holier life after people have first accepted Christ as their saviour. And this was so that when they eventually go to heaven at the second coming of Jesus, they will then be in tune with the holiness that already exists up in heaven. A place where there is no sin, no pride, no status, seeking, no unholiness. This movement eventually became known as the Methodist Church. And God did a great work through these two brothers, John and Charles Wesley. So we now see how God used the Methodist to bring in another lost Bible teaching, namely holiness of life, so that people are prepared to live in the society of a holy God and also holy angels up in heaven. It's a pity that many christian churches today have lost sight of this aspect of salvation. But God still had more truths to reveal and restore to the world from the Bible. And when the Wesley brothers met up with the Lutherans, the Anglicans and the Presbyterians, they began to read each other's creed, documents that had been written up and eventually, and on the basis that Luther did not say anything about holiness of life, nor did John Knox of the Presbyterian say anything about these things. So they said, accept our current teachings or get out. And so the WESleY brothers were forced out of the existing churches of their day. They went on to say to the members of the holiness movement, you've Got a method in your Bible studies, you've got a method in your giving to missions. You're nothing less than Methodists. And that name, which was given first in derision, had stuck. And they were called Methodists right up until the bulk of them merged into the uniting church in the 20th century, truth has always had plenty of opposition. Instead of the Lutherans, the Anglicans and the Presbyterians accepting the new added biblical truths taught by the Wesley brothers, they pushed them out. They got trapped by their own creeds and wouldn't listen. But even the Wesley brothers saints that they were, never understood all truth either. So now we turn to a remarkable story regarding the pilgrim fathers. A ship called the Mayflower took the pilgrim Fathers to settle in America. And before they left, their pastor John Robinson addressed them. And part of his speech included these key words. And I quote, if God should reveal anything to you by any other instrument of his, be you as ready as you ever were to receive in any truth by my ministry. For I am confident that the Lord has more light and truth to break forth out of his holy word. End of quote. That was great advice, wasn't it? There is a mighty lesson there for all of us. And so God continued to restore truth step by step, just as era had come in step by step. And because all of these churches, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Anglicans and the Lutherans, still had some anti biblical doctrines held in common. One of them was baby baptism. Those churches upheld baby baptism as a fundamental teaching of their church. So when God wanted to bring forth the biblical truth of baptism by immersion for adults, who did he bring onto the scene to preach that doctrine? The Baptists. Once again, God was able to do a wonderful work through the Baptists. But sadly, they suffered bitter persecution also. You see, the Baptists believed, like the Lutherans, the Anglicans, the Presbyterians and the Methodists in the Bible and the Bible only, not in manmade traditions that corrupt God's teachings. And they believed also that the just shall live by faith. Not a blind faith, but a faith that is backed up by evidence and supported by the testimony of witnesses. They also believed, like the Wesley brothers, in holiness of life. But they went one step further and they said that the Bible teaches baptism by full immersion. After a person has learned the teachings of God and knows what they are doing, a baby cannot learn the gospel, which is why baby baptism is not biblical. Jesus was not baptised until he was an adult in 27 AD as an example for us to follow. And so the Baptists began to teach and practise baptism by full immersion. And hundreds of thousands stepped out and followed the Baptists. But a large number of the Methodists said that if Wesley did not preach baptism by immersion and they could not find Wesley teaching that doctrine, then those wanting to accept the baptist teaching needed to accept the Methodist traditional sprinkling or leave. And when the Anglicans and the Lutherans went through their creeds, they said Luther didn't teach this. And the Presbyterian said John Knox did not preach this. So these churches that were once Bible reformers teaching the truths of God, resisted a new light. And they all said, conform to our creeds or leave. Yet the Baptists, saints of God as they were, did not have all the light either. And then God raised up another people called the Adventists. Now this is not 7th day Adventists, but an earlier group called the Adventists. These Adventists believe like the Lutherans, the Anglicans, the Presbyterians and the Methodists in the Bible, and the Bible only for doctrine, and that the just shall live by faith. They believed like the Wesley brothers in holiness of life. They believed like the Baptists in baptism by immersion. But they went one step further. They believed from the prophecies that the second coming of Jesus was about to be seen in the sky to gather his people and take them to real and beautiful homes in the third heaven. And these Adventists were excited about that. And people like William Miller preached about it with urgency. But because most Christians had been taught that they went to heaven at death instead of when Jesus returns, the Lutherans looked through their creed and said, we cannot see where Luther taught this. So they said, conform or get out. The Anglicans, the Presbyterians, the Wesleyans and the Baptists looked through their creeds and all said the same thing, conform or get out. Remember that I told you earlier that I had been a Baptist, a Presbyterian and a Roman Catholic. Not once in any of these three churches did I hear about the second coming of Christ during the 30 years of church attendance. But with the arrival of the Adventists, the Bible doctrine of the second coming of Jesus Christ began to be taught and heard more clearly and from reading church history. The greatest revival since Pentecost in 31 AD took place under the Adventists in the middle of the 18 hundreds. But even the Adventists, saints of God, that they were never understood all truth either. Because the Adventists and the other churches still had two major errors in their church teachings. One was wrongly teaching the first day, Sunday, as God's sacred day, instead of the 7th day, which is sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. And the other was falsely teaching that the human soul was immortal. They were still teaching these errors like all the other churches before them. So when God wanted to bring the final teachings of the reformation to completion and to weed out Sunday keeping and the immortality of the soul. God raised up another people, this time taking the name 7th day Adventists. Now 7th day Adventists believe like the Lutherans, the Anglicans and the Presbyterians in the Bible for doctrine and that the just shall live by faith. They believe like the Wesley brothers in holiness of life. They believe like the baptists in baptism by full immersion. And they believe like the Adventists in preparing for the second coming of Jesus. But they went one step further. They said, we believe God is calling men and women in these last days of earth's history back to keeping the faith of Jesus and to keep all of God's commandments, including the keeping of God's 7th day Sabbath, which has come down to us from the garden of Eden. Even the roman catholic leaders acknowledged this back in May 1995. St. Catherine Catholic Church Sentinel people who think that the scriptures should be the sole authority should logically become 7th day Adventists and keep Saturday holy. So there have been two branches of Christianity now for nearly 2000 years. 7th day Sabbath keepers and first day Sunday keepers. 7th day Sabbath keepers obey God's Sabbath commandment. The first day Sunday keepers break that commandment, and that opposition to the commandments of God still remains today. But John eight, verse 32 tells us something important and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. So here's a question. Are we going to follow truth or are we simply going to be conformists and thereby cling to error? There is no shame in changing denominations if that is what one has to do in order to follow truth. So today we have finally traced the history of the main church denominations that affected doctrinal matters from the Bible. So now I'd like us to notice who God calls a saint, and it is found in revelation 14, verse twelve. Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Do you now recognise that according to God, a saint is one who keeps the commandments of God and the faith and teachings of Jesus? That is the exact same teaching that God first set up in the Church of Israel three and a half thousand years ago. And it's what the last church, the 7th Adventist church that God has set up is built on the same faith and teachings of Jesus Christ and a keeping of all of God's ten commandments. God now has a people in these last days that are back to exactly the same original platform of truth that God set up over three and a half thousand years ago, as I said earlier. So the Roman Catholic Church is not the oldest church is it. But people are put off uniting with our church because of Sunday keeping, church leaders labelling us as a cult and because it is said in a derisive tone. It takes a brave person to decide to unite with the 7th day Adventist Church. So we need to know what is a cult. A cult of Christianity is a group of people claiming to be Christian, but which denies one or more of the central doctrines of the christian faith as taught in the 66 books of the Bible. But as you consider the errors that I revealed today based on manmade traditions, it shall be very clear to you that it is the Sunday branch of Christianity that is the cult. For they do not teach the original gospel teachings that God himself gave to the first public church, the Church of Israel, and which Jesus Christ gave to the first christian church. How do I know that it is the Sunday keeping branch of Christianity that qualifies to be called a cult and not 7th day Adventists? Well, see for yourself. As I read a roman catholic church's letter from the chancellor for the Archbishop of Baltimore dated 10 February 1920, it says here, if Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath day, which is Saturday, and keeping the Sunday. They are following a law of the Catholic Church. All Sunday keeping christians are following a law of Rome on the question of Sunday, instead of following God's law which commands 7th day Sabbath keeping for congregational worship. So notice that anyone who denies a central christian Bible doctrine is the one who was following a cult. And Sunday keepers are the ones doing that big time. For nowhere in the Bible does God command us to gather congregationally on Sunday, the first day of the week. Instead, God commanded us to work on the first six days of the week, of which Sunday is the first day for labour. Freedom of speech is one thing, hypocrisy is quite another thing. As Paul said in romans twelve, verse nine, abhor that which is evil, cling to that which is good. And it is evil for Sunday keeping christians to call us a cult when the evidence clearly shows that we are not a cult. For we're still defending the original and pure teachings of God as found in the true Bible and dating right back three and a half thousand years. Yet I hasten to add that God has a large number of his beautiful people still in the Sunday churches, make no mistake about that. But God tells us in revelation 18, verse four that these dear people will hear the voice of the shepherd and the shepherd says, come out of her, my people, that you do not receive of her plagues. So God doesn't want his people staying there once they realise that their leaders are teaching non biblical errors, but have also shown you that the 7th day adventist church is the opposite of a cult, for it is committed to teaching the central and original doctrines of the judaic christian faith. Don't miss that point. But in 2020, many christians still call us a cult due to their understanding that where we uphold Jesus Christ and the ten Commandments, they only say yes to Jesus Christ, but they say no to God's ten commandments. However, look at who God says is going to occupy heaven according to revelation 22, verse 14, blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. So, as you can see from this text, heaven is reserved for commandment keepers, not commandment breakers. But the commandment keeping is done after we have accepted Jesus Christ as our saviour from the penalty of sin with an attitude of sincerity and gratitude. And so God wants all of these dear people to stand on his platform of truth and not just be conformists to man made traditions that consist of many errors. Now, if we stop here, all I will have done is given you a lot of information. Now it is time to decide whether to stay with the crowd who are following errors or whether you value eternal life to such an extent that you're prepared to stand for God and walk the narrow pathway which Jesus said that few find. Your personal decision is important because Jesus is coming back soon and he brings his rewards for the saints with him. So will he bring a reward for you. That is for you to decide. When should we respond to God's invitation to join his first kingdom of grace, being his church here on earth? The answer is now, for we do not know if we will have a tomorrow and with all invitations, the invitee is asked to respond. And that is what I'm inviting you to do today. If you accept the invitation, then a place will be prepared for you in God's dwelling place in the third heaven. Also, I'm inviting you to worship God in spirit and in truth, to follow the original teachings of God, which consists in having the original faith and teachings of Jesus and the keeping of all of God's ten commandments. And the 7th day Adventist Church is the one church that is still teaching that message today. So unite with us and know that you are pleasing God. Unite with us and know that you will be doing what our first parent, Adam and Eve, did 6000 years ago, for they were God's 1st 7th day Sabbath keepers on earth. May God bless you all and your loved ones now and forevermore. Amen. You've been listening to spiritual treasure chest with Bill Gates, brought to you by 3ABN Australia radio. 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