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The Bible in the hands of sectarians is being made to "teach" every imaginable
contradiction known to religion. In their hands, it "teaches" Christian Science,
Mormonism, Catholicism, Episcopalianism, Universalism, Trinitarianism, Spiritualism,
Baptistism, Methodism, Presbyterianism, Premillennialism, Adventism, and a hundred
more like "isms", all contradictory and agnostic. No two of them can be reconciled.
Each claims God as its author. Each asserts that it is carried on by the "work of the
Holy Spirit." Each believes that it is right and all the others wrong.
Now, who can believe that anyone but the devil endorses and "blesses" such contradictions and religious confusion? The Spirit of God hates and condemns all such divisions and emphatically says that "they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Gal. 5:19-22). But the Spirit of Satan says, "they who practice such things shall inherit the kingdom of God." Denominational divisions are not the servants of Christ, though they think they are. They are deceived and Satan is deceiving them. They say they are not being deceived, but they are liars and Satan is behind it. They may shout "intolerance" at me, but that only intensifies their sin, for all I say, I quote from the Holy Spirit's teaching in the Bible. To accuse me of anything is dodging the force of the Spirit's indictment -- an effort to get me in the same boat with them. What if they succeed? Will that remove their guilt? Why not repent and renounce the divisions of denominationalism and become Christians instead of servants of Satan? Thousands living today have done this. The Lord's church today is largely filled with persons who were once in denominationalism but who, seeing they were lost, fled from it and became disciples of Christ -- Christians only. They simply obeyed the Spirit and came out of Babylon. What about you? Those who want you to remain in denominational confusion and continue to practice division in spite of the Spirit of God will tell you anything to hold you in sin and away from Christ. They will tell you that if you quit the practice of denominational division and become a disciple of Christ or Christian, you will become a "Campbellite." They tell you that to hold you in sin. They are moved by no other motive. They will hate you if you become a Christian, and will love you if you remain in sin with them. Such is the universal spirit of sectarianism, though they simply do not know that themselves. When they ask you to become a Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, etc., they do not realize they are asking you to commit sin against Christ. And if they should find you determined to obey Christ alone -- as the people did on the day of Pentecost -- they will actually get mad at you because they cannot lead you to do something else. Denominations are hostile to Christ, though they, like Saul, think they are "doing God service." But as Saul persecuted Christ in ignorance (Acts 23:1; 1 Tim. 1:13), so are they. That means they, like Saul, must turn from their sinful course and become obedient to the faith of Jesus Christ and leave denominations. May God help us in aiding them to see their duty and turn before they are eternally lost. |