PROUDLY PROTESTING.
True Christianity has always believed in Jesus Christ and His holy Word. Add time and a pope – and Christianity found its faithful followers being condemned to hell, burned at the stake and murdered by the Roman Catholic Church.
And what were these faithful Christians doing?
Believing in Jesus and the bible above the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic political religious system. By holding to scripture alone Christianity protested man-made tradition, by holding to faith alone Christianity protested against works, and holding to grace alone Christianity protested against merit. Because true Christianity refused to bend its knee to a socio-political cult and insisted the visible church reform back under the authority of God’s Word, the ‘Protestant Christian’ term was created.
If some of our readers feel offended reading this article, then you are the protagonists we had in mind when penning this piece. While we often focus on the lies, teachings and scandalous ministries of false teachers, this article is dedicated to all the brainwashed who point their fingers at ‘judging Christians’ – those cognitive dissonant ‘truth-lovers’ who like to drop one of their favourite doctrinal phrases, ‘doctrine divides, love unites’.
To those who love their false teachers and luke-warm ‘churches’, to those who love the ‘doctrine divides’ mantra, we have this to say:
PROUDLY OFFENSIVE.
Of course doctrine divides, that’s why you are offended. Your motivation is fear (so much for not having a ‘spirit of fear’ if you are so easily triggered by doctrinal differences). If you are offended, (because as disciples of Jesus we expose the false teachers and leaders you follow to the Word of God), then that is good offense. We are proudly ‘offensive’ if we are warning you that your false teacher is sending you to hell with their false gospel, false Jesus or false spirit (2 Corinthians 11:4).
This good offense might get you motivated to test what we are saying, by going to your bible and taking an honest look at passages in context.
Because doctrine divides and because you are offended – there is a good chance that you may be on the ‘wrong side’, that you need to ‘examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith’, (2 Cor 13:5). Be noble-minded like the Bereans who tested even the Apostles, who by the Holy Spirit penned the scriptures, against the scriptures (Acts 17:11).
PROUDLY DOCTRINAL.
Of course doctrine divides, Jesus came with divine doctrine – the gospel of salvation. What Jesus brought was love and truth – which is divisive:
““Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” – Jesus the Messiah, Matt 10:34
The one who you say you worship, the one who is Light Himself is now separating light from darkness, truth from error. If you say you are His disciples, why are you not seeing the light of God’s Word, believing it as the sword it is?
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrew 4:13
Jesus says he is The Way. Jesus says he is The Truth. Jesus says he is The Life. So why do you imply with your phrase ‘doctrine divides love unites’, that there is another way and a better life as long as the truth is removed from the heart of a believer? A Christian should be proud to hold to the assured gospel of Jesus Christ and His teachings on love, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, justice and grow in wisdom and maturity. So why do you oppress the Christian who offers life-saving biblical doctrine instead of your man-centred ideologies?
God expects the Christian to mature like an adult and not remain an infant. If you are remaining a juvenile, this is a clear sign those you are under are wicked schemers, tossing you ‘to and fro with every wind of doctrine’, keeping you in infancy so you remain gullible and naive (Eph 4:12-14).
PROUDLY JUDGMENTAL.
Of course doctrine divides, Jesus came to separate the sheep from the goats, the saved from the damned. It is the goats who are upset that doctrine divides – not the sheep. Are you really going to imply that when Jesus, the God of love, judges the living and the dead that he is unloving? Love itself divides! If love protects, it expels danger. If love heals, it repels ailment. If it does not separate itself from evil – it is no love at all. If love does not rejoice in the truth – it is not love (1 Cor 13:6). If love is not good, if love is not fair – then God is not love. God judges. If we are to love, we are to judge. We are our brother’s keeper.
So a Christian is called by God to judge others by His Word. Jesus says we can rightly judge who is a true or false teacher by examining their fruit. If you are finding ‘bones’ in the fruit of your teacher – then you need to find a good tree, not a bad tree that has bad fruit. You need to take responsibility for your faith and your doctrine. You also need to take your relationship with God more seriously.
PROUDLY SOLA.
When Luther and the other Reformers stood on scripture alone saying that God’s Word alone would reform the church, the Roman Catholic Church damned them for holding a different gospel (see the Council of Trent). Because they dared to stand on the confession of Christ’s gospel, the Roman Catholic Church’s response exposed how very little regard they had for Jesus Christ and His Word.
Credit to PirateChristian.Com for the 5 Sola symbols…
Doctrine determined the fate of the Western world, Christianity being starkly separated from a socio-political cult that had its teachings anchored in traditions and myth. To this day – Christianity continues to be divisive because it holds to not just the creeds and confessions of the historical Christian faith but to the Solas.
Therefore,
Christianity is divisive because we confess the authority of scripture above the traditions of men.
Christianity is divisive because we confess faith alone is what declares us righteous before God and not the ‘good’ works of sinful flesh.
Christianity is divisive because we confess when God’s grace (unmerited favour) is received by the sinner, that sinner is saved from their sins.
Christianity is divisive because we confess Christ is the only mediator between God and man, and salvation is found in no other.
Christianity is divisive because we confess that all glory is to be due to God alone, not Mary, saints or angels.
By holding to the creeds, confessions and solas of the Christian faith, we can stand in righteous ‘judgment’ against the those listed below in the heredex (Charismatic = NAR). These cults are rightly outside the Christian faith by their own confession, practice and agendas. They are disqualified to be recognized as being of the Christian faith because they unashamedly blaspheme God, malign and obscure the teachings of Christ and His Apostles.
The heredex (heresy index) broadly records many modern day cults. (Images from heterodoxresearchinitiative.)
PROUDLY CONFESSING.
Because of the Christian’s stance on scripture alone, Christian denominations only divide over more minor issues. So what is the difference between denominational divisions and the heretical cults as seen above in the heredex? Denominational divisions are honest and public about their beliefs. They are open to respectful theological debates. Cults are not.
There are denominations that have different views of scripture – but they have not deviated from the essentials of scripture. They are as follows:
Many denominations are part of the ‘Confessing Movement’, calling their denominations to the solas, stressing they cling to their historical beginnings where they confessed scriptures, Christ and his gospel to remain strong in the faith. Similar to Baptists and Anglicans, most of Pentecostalism has abandoned their AOG denomination, claiming to be Pentecostal while advancing the Charismatic and NARismatic cults. (Eg. Hillsong, C3, Michael Brown.)
PROUDLY CONDEMNING.
Those who invented their own false religion under the guise of Christianity (so their error can be embraced without question or biblical scrutiny), accuse true believers of division. Jesus has already passed judgment on them, calling them lawless ones for rejecting Him, His Word and decrees (Matthew 7:21-23). Likewise, through His Apostles He has commanded us to expose them (Ephesians 5:11), mark them and have nothing to do with them (Romans 16:17).
As the wolves they are, those who claim ‘doctrine divides, love unites’, bring alien doctrines into the one true church of Christ in order to draw disciples to themselves. Christ warns us of this.
There is only true doctrine or false doctrine. Both divide but one truly is loving and sets people free, the other hateful and deceptive, binding people to a false hope under the guise of love.
Know this – lovers of truth confront the error and expose the error. Lovers of the lie will not confront the error but will rather accuse and run, not honestly assessing what they say and do. Lovers of truth are like a good doctor diagnosing the problem and offering the correction so that false beliefs do not rob, kill, or destroy a person, echoing the Great Physician who came for the sick and healing them.
Since the beginnings of ChurchWatch Central, cult followers who have emailed us personally, have accused us of being divisive, having a spirit of slander, carrying a negative/critical spirit and accusations of being ‘offensive‘ – which is not wrong given truth and facts will offend ‘feelings’. We’ve been threatened, mocked, demonized, legally threatened – but do you know what we have not been accused of?
We have not been accused of twisting scripture.
It’s very revealing that those who accuse us of being divisive are those who hold ‘unity’ as a higher standard than God and His Word. That shows you how much they truly care about the one they claim to worship. That is also a sad reflection of their character and how much truth is in them – none at all.
God’s Word speaks of those who claim to know Him but disregard His commandments in favour of unity this way:
“By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments. 4If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” 1 John 2:4
Christians should be ‘guilty’ of holding to ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help us God’. Instead the world blasphemes God because so many disregard His Word at the expense of being ‘united’. This type of unity is one that exists to please man rather than God – an oppressive form of unity that the Pharisees had over of the Jews. Needless to say, God’s Word has no regard for this type of unity many false teachers peddle in the church today:
“Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” John 12:42-3
The fear driving this unity is satanic. Calling devils ‘the Holy Spirit’ and witchcraft the ‘work of the spirit’, out of fear that they may be seen as divisive and cut out from a ‘love-filled’ community. There is nothing loving about that unity.
There is only love found in a faith that keeps reforming and separating, reforming and separating.
Aren’t there enough analogies in God’s Word to say that a Christian must be separated? Wheat, chaff? Light, darkness? Leaven, unleaven? Good tree, bad tree? Pure spring, muddied spring? Fresh water, salt water? Gullible child, mature man? Weed, produce? Goats, sheep?
Of course doctrine divides – God expects those who are His to discern and separate truth from error. He has given us His Word. He has given us a rich Christian history. So what side do you take? Are you going to deal with doctrine biblically and contextually? Or are you really just someone who likes the benefits of religion, the glory of men, more than the commandments of God?
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