Search
አማርኛ
አማርኛ
በኮቪድ-19 እና በዓለም አቀፉ የመላላኪያ አገልግሎት መዛባት ምክንያት ‹ነጻ የታተመ መጽሐፍ አገልግሎታችንን› ለጊዜው አቋርጠናል፡፡
በዚህ ሁኔታ ምክንያት በዚህ ጊዜ መጽሐፎቻችንን ለእናንተ መላክ አንችልም፡፡
ይህ ወረርሽኝ በቅርቡ እንዲያበቃና የፖስታ አገልግሎት እንዲጀምር ጸልዩ፡፡

ስብከቶች፤

Subject 6 : Heretics

[6-2] Who Are Heretics Before God? (1 Kings 11:1-13)

Who Are Heretics Before God?(1 Kings 11:1-13)
“But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites—from the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of Israel, ‘You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not fully follow the LORD, as did his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. So the LORD became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the LORD had commanded. Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, ‘Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.’”


Today, I would like to address the following question as our main topic: How has collective heresy emerged in the Church of the New Testament?
When we turn to the Old Testament, we see that the people of Israel were able to meet with God through their forefathers of faith. In other words, the Israelites were able to encounter God through His Law that was given through Moses, and through His prophets. And according to the sacrificial system, they could be remitted from their sins through the sacrifices offered in the Tabernacle. Therefore, the love of God and His salvation of the remission of sin, which were manifested through the Tabernacle and its sacrificial system, were very important to them, constituting the indispensable Truth that they infallibly had to believe in and obey in order to attain life and salvation. As such, for the people of Israel, the sacrificial system, manifested in the Tabernacle system and instituted for their just salvation, was as precious as life itself.
Having inheriting Abraham’s faith, the people of Israel had kept their faith in God as their Savior until the days of King David. However, from the days of David’s son Solomon, they came to serve idols against God’s wish, and as a result, they drifted far away from the God of Truth and justice. At that time, on account of King Solomon’s sin of idolatry, God tore ten tribes from the twelve tribes of Israel and handed them over to Jeroboam. Israel was therefore split into two separate kingdoms. However, Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom, feared that his people would return to the southern kingdom where the Temple was located, and to prevent this, he made two golden calves for the people to worship in place of God, and he also changed the sacrificial system that had been instituted by God. As a result, the northern kingdom of Israel turned into a nation of collective heresy serving idols before God.
That is how both the northern and southern kingdoms ended up turning into nations of collective heresy, and through the work of Satan, this faith of idolatry was passed all the way down to Christians living in the age of the New Testament. In other words, by making even today’s Christians serve idols, Satan has turned them into collective heretics. The people of Israel had fallen into the sin of idolatry, and as this very same sin has prevailed even in today’s Christianity, it has rendered even those who believe in God’s love to be accursed. Like this, the collective heresy begun by Jeroboam continues to prosper and grow in today’s Christianity, but few Christians actually realize this.


Why Did Israel Turn into a Nation of Collective Heresy?


Why did the people of Israel turn into heretics before God? This originated from the sins of one man, Solomon. King Solomon was the first king of the Israelites to take foreign women as his wives and accept the idols worshiped by them. As Solomon married Gentile women and loved them, these foreign women turned the king’s heart away from Jehovah God and made him serve their idols. And since the king of Israel served idols, so did its people come to worship idols. As a result, the Israelites built shrines in high places throughout the country, and it became very common for them to worship idols. The sacrifices that they offered to these idols were akin to shamanistic rituals, worshipping and bowing before some inanimate objects. Yet God had appeared to King Solomon no less than twice and commanded him, “Do not follow any other gods but Me. If you serve idols before Me, I will tear your kingdom into two and give one of them to someone else.” But Solomon did not listen to God’s warning. And so the Kingdom of Israel was eventually torn into two, northern and southern kingdoms, just as God had said.
As a consequence of this, collective heresy began to emerge in Israel during the days of Rehoboam and Jeroboam. This is described in 1 Kings 12:25-33 as the following: “Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also he went out from there and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, ‘Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.’ Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi. Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.”
On account of King Solomon’s sins, God split the nation of Israel into two kingdoms during the days of Rehoboam. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, succeeded his father to assume the throne of the Kingdom of Israel. When he assumed the throne, the people asked him to reduce the burden of forced labor. His father King Solomon had mobilized the Israelites in forced labor for 7 years to build the Temple of Jehovah and for 13 years to build his own palace. This means that Solomon had coerced his people into forced labor for no less than 20 years to build the Temple and his palace. That’s why the people were pleading King Rehoboam to no longer impose such forced labor on them. 
However, after hearing this request from his people, King Rehoboam responded harshly, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!” As a result, ten tribes from the people of Israel abandoned King Rehoboam, crowned Jeroboam as their new king, and established another kingdom in the north. The nation of Israel had been one state, but now, it was split into two kingdoms, with the Kingdom of Israel in the northern region ruled by Jeroboam, and the Kingdom of Judah in the southern region ruled by Rehoboam. Of course, the people who remained loyal to King Rehoboam were in the southern kingdom. But Rehoboam was followed by only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. Jeroboam, on the other hand, became king virtually by accident, as a by-product of Solomon’s idolatry and God’s punishment of his sins. Jeroboam should then have learned a lesson from Solomon’s case, resolve himself not to fall into sin like Solomon, return to God’s arms, and serve Him, but far from this, he led the northern kingdom of Israel to fall into collective heresy.
It was because of Solomon’s sin of idolatry that Jeroboam had become king of Israel. This should have served him as a warning, but instead, he was now obsessed with his own selfish desires to keep his power, to defend his honor, and to protect his throne. As the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month, approached, he thought to himself that the people in the northern kingdom would go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, and they might then defect to the king of the southern kingdom. He was worried, thinking, “Wouldn’t the people of Israel return to King Rehoboam in the south and kill me?” So he eventually came up with an evil scheme to dispel his worry. His solution was to replace God with golden calves. He thought, “I can then be freed from the God-established law, and my people won’t have to go to Jerusalem either! Instead of believing in the God of Israel according His law, I should just make up another religion that worships idols. Wouldn’t the people of Israel then serve me as their only king?” With this evil plan in mind, he made two calves of gold. He then set one up in Bethel, and the other in Dan, saying to his people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” (1 Kings 12:28).
Jeroboam also changed the Day of Atonement, altering its date to the fifteenth day of the eighth month. Originally, the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement was set for the tenth day of the seventh month. There was a full moon on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, and at that time, he made the people of Israel think of the golden calves as their God and sacrifice to them. This was the very sin committed by Jeroboam that turned his people into collective heretics before God. He not only changed God’s sacrificial system and feasts, but he even changed the statutes governing the qualification of priesthood (1 Kings 12:31-33). Like this, Jeroboam was at the forefront of idolatry.
All on his own, Jeroboam also appointed ordinary, non-Levite people to priesthood and made them offer sacrifices. Originally, only the Levites could become priests before God, and only the descendants of Aaron could be High Priests, but King Jeroboam appointed to priesthood anyone who wanted to become one, even among the common people. So, King Jeroboam had changed everything on his own. The Bible says that because of this, he became the chief of all heretics. It is from here that collective heresy emerged in the Old Testament’s time, and this tradition has continued onto the Church in the age of the New Testament, inflicting untold harm on today’s Christianity.
Long before this, Cain had turned into a heretic individually for not believing in the Word of God himself, but now, the entire people of Israel were turned into heretics collectively. It’s all because of Solomon and Jeroboam that the people of Israel ended up turning into a nation of idolatry. This passage in 1 Kings provides the answer to the question as to why today’s Christianity has been reduced to nothing more than a religious body of collective heresy. In the Old Testament, it was Jeroboam’s evil scheme that had led the people of Israel to collectively fall into heresy. Likewise, in today’s Christianity, it’s because of the work of Satan and the selfish desires of Christian leaders that even those who want to believe in Jesus have fallen into collective heresy.
Today’s Christian ministers want to draw as many people as possible into their fold, but because they consider ordinary worship is not enough to draw people into their churches, they have come up with evil schemes. These evil wiles of the flesh include emphasizing mystical gifts in Christianity and underscoring only material benefits, claiming, “If anyone believes in Jesus, his material blessings, the heath of his body, and the happiness of his family are all guaranteed.” Such schemes are used only as a tool to increase church membership. So, deceived by such sugarcoated sermons, the people of the world have begun to flock to Christianity. And the church buildings have begun to grow larger and larger. Thus in outside appearance, Christianity has seen a great deal of revival, but inside, it has turned into a heresy, resulting into idolatry with its followers serving golden calves as their Lord. Therefore, today’s Christian leaders must realize this fact, that they are now serving golden calves, and come into the righteousness of God by believing in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit as soon as possible. Christianity in the present age must turn around, for it has turned into a collective heresy worshiping golden calves before God. 
To find out the cause that explains the emergence of collective heresy in today’s Christianity, it is very useful to examine how Jeroboam came to commit his sin of idolatry. By looking at his sins, we can realize why heresy arose, and also understand clearly why in this age and time Christianity has been reduced into a collective heresy that worships golden calves.
 
 

To Save Everyone from Sin and Collective Heresy, God Sent His Son Jesus Christ to This Earth


The name of the Son of God is Jesus Christ. Jesus was born on this earth incarnated in the flesh through the body of Virgin Mary, and when He turned 30, He was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. This baptism that He received from John the Baptist was to take upon all the sins of this world. By such a method—that is, by being baptized by John the Baptist—the Lord shouldered the sins of the entire human race in this world and washed them all away. As Jesus was baptized by John, all our human sins were passed onto Jesus, and therefore, it is through this baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross that our sins were cleansed away. 
Every Christian and every human being must realize this gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit and believe in it. It’s by believing in all this Truth that one can be delivered from all his sins. Therefore, everyone must know and believe in Jesus Christ as his Savior, who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is absolutely indispensable. For three years, Jesus bore witness of Himself as the Savior, and He was eventually crucified to shed His blood to death. But He rose from the dead on the third day, and He has thereby saved every Christian and the entire human race to perfection. Jesus Christ is our true Savior. God the Father wanted to save mankind justly by sending His Son to this earth, and it is according to this will that Jesus has saved us through the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. In other words, the Lord has saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
That is why it’s written in 1 John 5:4-8: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.”
This passage means that God the Father has saved mankind from all its sins by sending His Son to this earth—that is, through the water, the blood, and the Spirit. Put differently, the Lord was born on this earth to save us from all our sins, destruction, and curses, and it’s because He shouldered the sins of this world and our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist, and because He paid off the all the wages of these sins by being crucified and shedding His blood, that anyone who believes in this Truth can now be washed from all his sins by this faith. The condemnation of our sins is already complete, for Jesus Christ was baptized and shed His blood on the Cross in our place. To put it simply, this Truth is the gospel Truth of the water, the blood, and the Spirit. It’s by thus coming to this earth and establishing the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has saved us. God has saved from all sins everyone who believes in this gospel of Truth.
This Truth, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, has come from the Triune God in its entirety. It was God’s perfect plan of salvation for mankind to send His Son Jesus Christ, make Him take upon this world’s sins by being baptized by John the Baptist, and blot them all out. The Lord has blotted out our sins with the water and the blood. This is the gospel Truth, that the Lord came by the water and the blood and has saved us from the sins of the world. 
Thus, the Apostle Paul said in 1 Peter 3:21, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism.” It means that the Lord has saved us from all our sins in this way, that is, through His baptism. All the Apostles and the saints of the Early Church believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. From the Apostles Paul and Peter to the Apostles James and John, it was by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that every disciple of Jesus Christ was saved. And they all preached this gospel of the water and the Spirit to countless people. That is how we have also reached our salvation, by believing in the same gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
Although the Apostles in the Early Church times all believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, today’s Christians believe in the golden calves of their own making instead of God, just like King Jeroboam. Because they worship and revere their own carnal desires as their gods, they have collectively turned into heretics, and because of their greed, Christianity is being corrupted into an even more heretical religion. In their mindset, today’s Christian leaders have already taken golden calves as their God, believe so, and are preaching so on countless times either directly or indirectly, all in order to maintain the honor and authority that are granted by their sacred duties into which they were ordained. Even though it is written in the Word that God has saved us from all the sins of the world once for all through the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, they do not believe in this Word as it is, but instead, they have altered it. Just as King Jeroboam had changed the date of the Day of Atonement from the tenth day of the seventh month to the fifteenth day of the eighth month, so have they corrupted the gospel of salvation itself. Why did Christianity replace God with golden calves? It’s because Christian leaders have consistently thrown away any belief that is not helpful for them to amass a fortune, as if it were an old shoe.
Have today’s Christians received the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord? No. In their own mindset of the flesh, they believe that they have received the remission of their sins by believing in the blood of the Cross alone. But this kind of faith is a perversion of the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit. The true gospel is the gospel of the water and the Spirit, not the gospel that proclaims only the blood of the Cross. To advocate only the blood of the Cross is to advocate a false doctrine of one’s own making. 
Today’s Christians are so ignorant of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Since they believe in the blood of the Cross alone as the true gospel, even as they believe in golden calves instead of God, they don’t even realize that they have now fallen into a heretical faith. In other words, even as they are now serving golden calves as their God, they have no idea what it is that they are doing wrong. All the foolish people in today’s Christian communities who believe in golden calves as their Lord are heretics before God.
In the age of the Old Testament, Jeroboam had appointed any ordinary person to priesthood if he only desired. Likewise, in this age and time also, just about anyone can now become a minister with simple approval from a seminary or his denomination. When some Christians fail at their businesses, they think on their own that it was God’s will for their businesses to fail, and that God is somehow calling them to be His servants. So they start attending a seminary in old age, trying to become ministers. Some young Christians, on the other hand, enroll in a theological seminary simply because their grades are not good enough to gain admission to a regular college. Simply put, such people have done nothing more than turning to Christian seminaries as their refuge. 
In the age of the Old Testament, only the descendants of Levi could become priests lawfully. Yet despite this, Jeroboam appointed even ordinary people to priesthood, if they just wanted to join. Likewise, in this age and time also, anyone can now be appointed as a minister, even if he has sin in his heart; all that he needs is approval from his theological professors and pastors of his denomination. Today’s Christian leaders are committing the same sin committed by Jeroboam. To expand their denominational influence and relish in the authority that comes with it, they are ordaining into ministry anyone who graduates from a seminary. But is this really right? Is confessing Jesus to be one’s Savior all that’s needed to become a minister, and is this sufficient for him to be ordained, even if he has sin in his heart? The fact that people are unconditionally ordained into ministry even if they have not received the remission of their sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, is because the appointers and the appointees are all spiritually blind. When you look at this with clearer understanding, you can see that many Christians are now committing the same sin that Jeroboam had committed in the age of the Old Testament. Today’s Christianity has forsaken God and is worshiping golden calves in His place, and as a result, it has already turned into heresy. 
Just as the northern kingdom of Israel had turned into a nation of collective idolatry because of the evil wiles of Jeroboam, so is today’s Christianity turning into a collective heresy because of the greed of its leaders. Everyone under King Jeroboam had turned into a heretic. Likewise, today’s sinners imprisoned by Christian doctrines have also fallen into collective heresy altogether. How did today’s Christianity collectively turn itself into heresy? This happened because countless pastors and believers, and the many who call themselves God’s servants all over the world, do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, do not believe in it, and do not preach it before God. Why have today’s Christians become heretics before God? That’s because they have followed in the footsteps of Jeroboam, who had believed in gold calves to be his God, and committed the same sin.
We must all know the Truth of salvation. According to the Bible, how did Jesus Christ blot out the sins of mankind? He took upon our sins through His baptism in the Jordan River, and He paid off all the wages of these sins with His blood on the Cross. When the Lord came to this earth, He shouldered mankind’s sins by being baptized by John the Baptist, blotted out all our sins, cleaned them once for all by being crucified to death and rising from the dead again, and at once saved all of us who believe in this Truth. We must understand and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we must also spread it. If, however, you believe in and preach only the blood of the Cross, rather than believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then how could people’s sins ever be eradicated from their hearts?
That’s why in God’s Church, absolutely only those who have received the remission of their sins are appointed as ministers. Among those who have been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God’s Church appoints those who have set their hearts to serve the gospel alone as God’s workers. In contrast, those who serve golden calves as their gods are willing to ordain just about anyone as a priest of God, even if he hasn’t received the remission of his sins. They appoint anyone as a minister or an evangelist, so long as he has graduated from a seminary, holds a diploma, belongs to some denomination, and believes in the doctrines advocated by them. This is the evidence of the fact that Christianity is worshiping golden calves. It’s because of this kind of faith that Christianity has been reduced to a collective heresy.


Materialism Rules Supreme over Christianity

Many pastors love money, though not all. Such pastors are ministering only to amass more money from the congregation, build bigger church buildings, and get paid more. Ostensibly, they claim to be ministering in order to lead people to believe in Jesus and take them to the Kingdom of God, but in reality, the fruit of their ministry is nothing more than serving golden calves. Isn’t this true? They have a great deal of interest in which denomination is larger, which church pays high salaries, and which church gets more offerings. Such pastors hastily conclude that a minister awarded with a hefty remuneration from the congregation is a competent and spiritual pastor, while a minister at a small church with a meager salary is incompetent and unspiritual. 
Simply put, today’s pastors are also serving golden calves. The laymen also think that if someone is materially blessed to prosper on this earth, he is a man of good faith, while if someone is not materially blessed, then it’s all because of the lack of faith. As a result, the more time goes by since Christians first believe in Jesus, the more awful they actually become, with an even more hardened and idolatrous heart. So the object of their faith is no longer God, but it’s golden calves. Of course, they still call on the name of God and pray and praise in this name, but the existential worth of this God is only for their own material gain (money), which is what they really love. That’s why there are so many elders and deacons who, after serving golden calves, now find themselves in prison. I am not just rebuking them here for their acts, but I am saying that it’s because they have replaced God with golden calves and trusted in them instead that they now find themselves in jail. 
Even today, many Christian leaders do not hesitate to ordain into ministry someone who does not even believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and therefore has not received the remission of his sins, as a minister to serve the golden calves that they had made. Most people believe that anyone can become a pastor simply by graduating from a seminary. But for a pastor to fulfill his priesthood, which entails the duty to blot out sin from other people’s hearts, at least one question, if nothing else, must be asked without fail: “Do you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit?” In other words, only someone whose heart has been cleansed from his sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit should be appointed as a servant of God.
Therefore, even from now on, Christian leaders should ask everyone aspiring to join ministry like this: “Have you been saved?” 
“Yes, I have.” 
“Do you then know the gospel of the water and the Spirit? And have you really been washed from your sins and born again by believing in this true gospel?” 
“Professor, I do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit.”
“How can you then seek to become a pastor before God? Isn’t it all to serve the golden calves of your own making? That is nothing more than your carnal lust. It’s something that came out of your worldly desires.” Like this, with careful discernment, anyone who is not qualified enough should never be ordained as a pastor. 
Rather than misleading people to serve golden calves, we should preach the true gospel to them, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and make them receive the remission of their sins. Yet seminary professors do not even ask their students whether they believe in the Truth about the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Nor do they want to hear any testimony of salvation from the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit confessing how God has blotted out their sins. When God’s servants hear someone’s testimony of salvation, they can discern whether or not this person has sin in his heart, and whether or not he is serving golden calves as his God.
For the righteous who have been saved from all their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, their testimonies of salvation are invariably the same, for they have all clearly reached salvation by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The testimony of salvation in its essence is not something that’s different for each person. For all Christians, there can be only one testimony of their salvation from sin: It is that they have been remitted from all their sins by believing in the God-given gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. This means that there is no other way to attain the remission of sin but to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Your remission of sin is not attained by serving golden calves, but it is received only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Regardless of when it was that you came to hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit, it is only by believing in this gospel with your heart that you can be remitted from your sins. There can be no other testimony of salvation before God. That’s because it is not any golden calf that has washed away your sins and mine, but it is Jesus Christ the Son of God the Father who has saved us through the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, made us God’s people, and turned us into His workers. Therefore, believing in this Truth, thanking God for it, and bearing its witness are what the testimony of salvation is all about. 
As such, someone who still retains his sins intact by refusing to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is categorically not qualified to become a pastor, and such people are too deficient to be even saints. While being insufficient in one’s acts doesn’t constitute a disqualification, if one has sin in his heart, then he cannot become a minister. There is no one in this world who is not insufficient in his acts. However, there are those who have been made sinless by believing in Jesus who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and then there are those who believe only in the blood of the Cross, and whose hearts still remain sinful. Such people who believe in a false gospel, and consequently have their hearts’ sins retained, must never be allowed to become ministers. Not only is there no way for these people to ensure their own souls’ escape from the curse, but they will also end up leading their congregation to death.
Such false ministers, who either do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit or do not believe in it even as they know it, are actually serving golden calves, and that is how they have led countless Christians to collectively fall into heresy by propagating their false Christian doctrines. Even though people obey Christian doctrines and believe only in the blood of the Cross as taught by Christianity, in reality, their hearts still remain sinful, and they actually believe in golden calves rather than fearing God truthfully. Today’s Christians think that they believe in God faithfully even as they are worshiping golden calves. Even as they remain completely oblivious to the gospel of the water and the Spirit that brings true salvation, they think that they can be saved if they just believe in the Lord blindly. So, many pastors think all on their own that since they believe in Jesus, they have been saved, even though they still remain sinful.
However, the gospel that the Bible speaks of is the gospel of the water and the Spirit that brings the remission of sin into the heart. The Bible makes it clear that one can receive the remission of his sins in his conscience only if he believes in this gospel. When we turn to 1 Peter 3:21, it is written, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Here it’s said that the baptism of Jesus is the infallible evidence of our salvation. This means that Jesus shouldered our sins by being baptized. That the Lord came to this earth and saved us from our destruction and our sins is all because He was baptized by John the Baptist. It’s because the Lord had taken upon our sins through His baptism that He had to die on the Cross, and it’s because of this that He rose from the dead again and was able to save us. That’s why the Apostle Peter said, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” When it’s said here, “not the removal of the filth of the flesh,” it means that when you receive the remission of your sins, it’s not your body that is cleansed to never commit sin again, but it’s your conscience that is cleansed. 
Anyone who has been saved is bound to answer God in a good science. If you really want to be saved from your sins, then you must receive the remission of your sins in your conscience. Do those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit before God have sin or not? They have no sin. Why do they then have no sin? They have no sin in their hearts precisely because the Lord took upon their sins by being baptized by John the Baptist when He came to this earth, and therefore all their sins were passed onto Jesus. As for me, I have also been saved by faith, for the Lord accepted all my sins through His baptism, carried them to the Cross, shed His blood on it, and rose from the dead again. In other words, because I believe that the Lord came to this earth for me, bore my sins by being baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved me, my conscience has been freed from my sins and I have attained my true salvation. The Bible said that true salvation is “the answer of a good conscience toward God.” Whoever believes in the gospel of the water and the blood can be saved from all the sins of his conscience. Even though our flesh still remains insufficient and continues to be weak, our consciences have been saved by faith. That is why our salvation is called the salvation of the soul.
My fellow believers, there is no one in this world, not even one, who does not make mistakes and commit sin with his flesh. Even for us the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there is no one who does not commit sin. The Bible clearly says that salvation does not mean the removal of the filth of the flesh. Do you think that our salvation from sin was reached by being removed of the filth of our flesh once for all so that our flesh would never commit sin again? Do you want to be saved so that you would be sanctified in your flesh? Do you believe in Jesus as your Savior so that you would stay away from your vices, not to drink and not to smoke? No, that’s not the reason why you believe in Jesus. 
You believe in Jesus because you want to go to God in a good conscience. The Bible mentions good conscience here precisely because it is our hearts that have been remitted from our sins, as the Lord has saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We were all helpless before our fate, destined to be cast into hell for our sins, but our Lord saved us by coming to this earth, being baptized by John the Baptist, and dying on the Cross. So in this light, not to believe in this Truth, that the Lord has saved us from our sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, is the evilest of all. In contrast, when we innocently accept this Truth into our hearts and believe in it, and thus reach our salvation, it is then that our conscience is made a good conscience. Given how the Lord has saved us so perfectly, for us not to believe in this is to render our conscience to remain perpetually evil.
My fellow believers, it is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have been remitted from all our sins. Our bodies as human beings will rot away when we die. However, when the Lord returns, this body will also be resurrected. Although we will be resurrected into imperishable bodies at that time, while we are still living on this earth, we cannot help but continue to commit sin with our flesh, for the flesh is still insufficient, even though we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and have received the remission of our sins. That is why the Apostle Peter said, “Not the removal of the filth of the flesh.” In other words, this is what Peter was saying: “It is not to commit any sin with our bodies that we have been saved. Because the flesh is weak, we are bound to commit sin until the day we die. But that is irrelevant to our salvation. It is our souls that have been saved, so that we may go to God boldly with a good conscience. God has blotted out all our sins.” 
That’s right. Anyone who has sin in his heart cannot become a pastor, nor an evangelist, nor a deacon, not even a saint—indeed, no such a person should ever be allowed to assume any church office at all. Anyone whose heart is sinful is someone who still remains outside Christ (Romans 8:1). He is not someone who has come into Christ. That’s why such people must first be saved in their conscience.
Recently, while riding a cab, I had a chance to talk to its driver. The cab driver seemed like a good Christian, as he had some gospel tracts in his cab. So without revealing that I was a pastor, I asked him, “How is your conscience? Is it sinless?” 
He then said to me, “How can anyone’s conscience be free of sin?” Yet he also claimed that he was saved, even as he had sin in his heart, just because he believed in Jesus. So I asked him, “How were you saved?” The driver then quoted Romans 10:10 to show that he was saved. Romans 10:10 says the following: “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
However, this passage does not mean what the driver made it out to be. The entire chapter of Romans 10 was spoken by the Apostle Paul to the people of Israel. The people of Israel were well aware of the sacrificial system and therefore knew well that the Messiah had to be put to death after taking all their sins through their representative laying his hands on Christ. That is how one of the thieves that were crucified with Jesus could be saved by faith. In short, the Israelites had the basic knowledge of how to be saved from sin. 
The real meaning of Romans 10:10 is that one is made righteous and saved from sin only if he believes with the heart in the righteousness of God that Jesus fulfilled with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and confesses it with the mouth. Just because someone believes in some Christian doctrines with the heart, this does not mean that he is saved even if he ignores the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
My fellow believers, only those who have been saved from the sins of their conscience by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the ones who have truly been saved by God. What about you then? Has your conscience been saved from all your sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? How did you reach your salvation? Did you attain it by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Or did you reach it through your own godly acts? You received your salvation by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. What is this faith then? It is to believe in the just salvation of the Lord, that He has saved us from our sins by coming to this earth, receiving His baptism, and being crucified to death. This is the very faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Christians in the era of the Early Church believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and preached this gospel. The New Testament is the Word that was written during the Early Church era. The Early Church believers were saved in their conscience by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They kept their faith in this gospel even as they were persecuted. However, in 313 A.D., as Emperor Constantine I of the Roman Empire issued the Edict of Milan and granted religious freedom, many people came to believe in Christianity. According to historical records, by 312 A.D. Constantine I was facing an unavoidable clash with his adversary Mexentius over a struggle for political leadership. At that time, Maxentius held uncontestable military superiority over Constantine I. The night before this historical confrontation took place, Constantine I saw a vision, in which he was told to put “the sign of Heavenly God” on the shields of all his soldiers before heading into the battle. So he did so accordingly, and he actually won the battle. Crowned as emperor, he then unified both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, and granted legal recognition to Christianity. 
This man, however, ended up committing the same sin that Jeroboam had committed. As the Emperor of Rome, he made himself the ruler of Christianity. He called the First Council of Nicaea and presided over the conference himself. He was not just the ruler of an empire, but he had made himself ruler over Christianity as well. So from then on, Christianity began to turn into a worldly religion, ultimately reduced to a collective heresy.
How did today’s Christianity fall like this to be nothing more than a collective heresy? That’s because its leaders served golden calves like Jeroboam. It’s because Christian leaders have replaced God with their golden calves that today’s Christianity has turned into a worldly religion that worships such inanimate idols. In Christian communities nowadays, anyone can become a priest just by graduating from a seminary and affirming the doctrines advocated by his denomination, even if he does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and even if his heart has not been washed from his sins. Just by enrolling in a seminary, paying the tuition, and graduating with enough credits, anyone can be ordained as a pastor and begin ministering, no matter how his heart still remains sinful. That’s why today’s Christianity has turned into a collective heresy worshiping golden calves. Even if one has sin in his heart, if he can just teach Christian doctrines with some competence, then he can easily become a minister. Such pastors are committing the same sin that Jeroboam had committed in the Old Testament age.
Despite the fact that Christianity today has collectively turned into a heresy, Christians themselves do not even realize that they are actually serving golden calves. Today’s Christians think, “Surely, true salvation can also be found in Christian doctrines,” and are convinced of themselves that they not serving gold calves. This, however, is not true. In Christian doctrines, the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit is nowhere to be found. Far from believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Christianity today is serving golden calves, and therefore as long as you remain in this religion, you can’t help but believe in all its useless doctrines. Isn’t this the case? Since Christians do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they have not received the remission of sin in their conscience, and since they therefore have no Holy Spirit in their hearts, they neither understand nor preach the gospel of Truth. That is why Christians who have not been born again cannot help but believe in and follow their idolatrous golden calves intoxicated and blinded by Christian doctrines.
I, too, was like them before. But the sins in my conscience had at least compelled me to think, “Something is wrong to believe like this.” For a while, however, I continued to be tormented by my heart’s sins, and there was nothing that I could do but only offer my own prayers of repentance in tears all the time. Yet even so, God eventually met with me through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This event was the greatest of all miracles. For you also, the fact that you heard this gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is the greatest of all miracles. That I am preaching the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit is for your sake and for the sake everyone in the world. It was not that easy for me to preach this Truth to you. You should realize that preaching the Word of Truth is not so easy. If I didn’t know the Bible, and if I didn’t know the history of Christianity and its doctrines, then I would not be able to boldly refute its collective heresy and false doctrines, nor preach that only the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the Truth.
All on their own, many of today’s pastors and missionaries think that they have been remitted from their sins in their conscience just by believing in the blood of the Cross, even as they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. How misguided they are! It’s precisely such phenomena that are driving today’s Christianity further toward collective heresy, turning it into nothing more than a heretical gathering. Christians must therefore realize this and turn away from such a religion of collective heresy. They must return to God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They must return to the Word of God that has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and thus bring joy to God’s heart. Today’s Christians must know the Word of God, listen to it with their ears, learn it, believe in it, and be saved from all their sins. You must now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and let your conscience be washed from all your sins.
Therefore, today’s Christian leaders should not ordain just anyone into ministry. It’s a great mistake to ordain anyone who graduates from a seminary as a pastor. Nowadays, we are living in such a competitive society that it’s not so easy to succeed by graduating from a mediocre university. So, faced with an uncertain future and unable to find a suitable job, some people think that they would be better off to just attend a seminary and become pastors. Even if they have sin in their hearts, they can begin ministering just by graduating from a seminary. They can preach by copying off some Christian doctrinal books, and they can boast their knowledge by plagiarizing someone else’s commentaries. From this, they may even come to be highly respected as God’s servants in Christian communities and prosper. They live with an honorable title, always called “Reverend.” Gas prices may go up through the roof, but do they worry about this? No, the church pays for it all. The church also subsidizes them for all kinds of different expenses, from their children’s tuition to their book purchases and travel allowances. On top of all these, the church also pays them a substantial amount in honorarium. I don’t visit any church member’s home, but it’s a common practice for the congregation to provide an honorarium to their pastor when visited by him. So it’s said that if a pastor’s monthly salary is $10,000, then the money that he gets under the table is more than $10,000. That’s because church members are approved for their lives of faith when they are favored by their senior pastor more than God Himself. 
By any chance, is there anyone among you who wants to be a pastor at a worldly church? The very moment you become one, you will surely fall into Jeroboam’s sin and be cursed by God. God will not spare any of these false prophets, but He will put every one of them to death. That’s because they have committed the same sin that Jeroboam had committed. All the people of Israel had followed this sin, and as a result, they all ended up committing the sin of idolatry. Even though God had told them, “Do not walk in the way of Jeroboam,” they followed in Jeroboam’s footsteps, practicing his acts and committing his sin, and they were consequently all condemned by God and perished away.
Those who do not believe that the Lord has saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit are heretics. It’s none other than these people, who do not believe in the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit, that are heretics. The Lord said, “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). He also said, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Even though we cannot be holy in our acts, by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our conscience can be made holy. Is it God’s will for us to still have sin in our hearts even as we believe in Jesus? No, that is not His will. Those whose hearts still remain sinful even as they profess to believe in Jesus are heretics.
Combined together, Catholics and Protestants constitute about 1.5 billion Christians, but almost all of them have fallen into heresy. Yet despite this, they are completely oblivious to what heresy really is and how they themselves now belong to heresy. Nowadays, Christians in general consider as a heretic anyone whose beliefs are even slightly different from the doctrines of their own denominations. In contrast, the Bible writes that a heretic is someone who has condemned himself even as he believes in Jesus.
Paul said in Titus 3:10-11, “Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.” A divisive man, that is, a heretic, has not received the remission of his sins, and therefore he condemns himself as a sinner, for his heart is full of sins. In other words, such people admit themselves that they are sinners even as they believe in Jesus, saying, “Lord, although I believe in You, I confess that I am a sinner before You. I cannot but be a sinner.” They say this because they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and even if they know it by any chance, they do not believe in it. That’s why they say, “I was a sinner before I believed in the Lord, and I am still a sinner after believing in Him. Before I believed in the Lord, I was a genuine sinner, and now that I believe in Him, I am a saved sinner.” Even though they confess their faith based on theirs own doctrines, saying, “I have been saved from my sins through the precious blood of Jesus,” their sins still remain intact in their hearts, and so they describe themselves as saved sinners or Christian sinners. My fellow believers, today’s Christianity is worshiping golden calves, believing in the bizarre doctrines of their own making. None other than this is the evidence that Christianity has turned into a collective heresy.
The present day heretics in Christianity are those who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and worship golden calves instead. Spiritually speaking, anyone who has fallen into Jeroboam’s sin is a heretic. The vast majority of Christians in this age and time have fallen into idolatry to worship golden calves. Yet they do not even realize that they have fallen into heresy, and the reason for this is because they have turned into heretics all together. In other words, because almost all Christians do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they cannot discern heresy, and because virtually all mainstream Christians are leading their lives of faith in this way without even receiving the remission of their sins, they adhere to the faith of heresy, thinking that what they believe is right. If just one pastor teaches wrong, then everyone in the congregation ends up misbelieving like this. The reason why so many Christians today are destined to hell, unable to blot out their sins even as they believe in Jesus, but instead piling up even more sins, is precisely because they are now serving the golden calves of Christianity. Therefore, to escape from such heresy, no one must reject the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Too many Christians still continue to retain their sins in their hearts. Could such people go to Heaven, just because they now believe in Jesus? Could they avoid the just judgment of God? No, anyone who has sin in his heart will be cast out to hell by God, regardless of whether he is a self-professing Christian or not. When Christians are asked, “If you have sin, will you go to Heaven or hell?” most of them would say that they would go to hell. When they look at themselves, they are compelled to admit that they are bound to hell. However, they don’t try to eradicate their sins by believing in the true gospel that we are preaching.
If you look into your conscience and find sin there, then you have a serious problem at hand. In contrast, for those who know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, even though they may be too weak to avoid committing sin, they can still affirm to their conscience that they have no sin, for they believe in this gospel of Truth. They can say with a clear conscience, “I am absolutely sinless. Because the Lord has saved me, I have no sin. Thank You, Lord!” That’s why the gospel power is so amazing. And that’s why we are so thankful to the Lord. Those who have truly received the remission of their sins raise their voices to praise the Lord and His grace. The gospel power of the water and the Spirit is tremendous. It has freed you and me from all our sins and saved us all. This gospel of the water and the Spirit has delivered us from all our curses. It has saved us from our destruction. That’s why we are so thankful. Its power is so marvelous.
Most Christians throughout the world, Catholics and Protestants alike, claim in their ignorance that they have been saved from their sins simply by believing in the passion of Jesus, in the blood that He shed on the Cross. Even Catholic priests say that one is saved by believing in the blood of the Cross. How has the blood of the Cross alone saved us? It’s because the Lord had shouldered our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist that He carried them to the Cross and was condemned for them by shedding His blood, and it’s by believing in this Truth that we have been saved from our sins. To instead believe blindly that the Lord has saved us just by being crucified is akin to serving golden calves. If you now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you can be washed and saved from all your sins once for all.
In today’s Christian communities, those who still remain sinners even as they believe in Jesus have turned into heretics before God without even realizing it themselves. However, when the end times come, countless people will believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and return to God. In the days to come, countless Christians will believe in the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit and return to Him. After the passing of the Early Church era, myriads of Christians had collectively turned into heretics by believing in golden claves, but now, Christians will come to know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and thus return to the Lord altogether. When the end of the ages nears, people all over the world serving gold calves will come to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in mass. Once a few people begin to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, countless people will follow in their footsteps and also believe in this gospel. All this time, Christians have mistaken golden calves to be their gods and misbelieved to this day, and so even now, they must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and reach their true salvation. 
Is there any sin in your heart or mine? No, as you and I believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there is no sin in our hearts. My conscience is completely free of sin. Even though my acts are insufficient and I even curse someone once in a while, I am still sinless in my conscience. How is your conscience then? Is your conscience also free of sin? Of course it is. Who, then, are those whose conscience is free of sin? Who can ever say to be sinless, but for those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Apart from you and me, and our coworkers all over the world who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, who can look into his own conscience and say that he has no sin? Only those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can say with a clear conscience that they have been made sinless. 
This gospel of the water and the Spirit is the very gospel of power through which the Lord has saved us. The power of salvation is brought to those who believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. That’s why the Bible says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,” and it also says, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:16-17). It is by faith that we the born-again live, believing that the Lord has blotted out our sins once for all with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is by knowing and believing that the Lord has saved us that we are made righteous, for God has indeed saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit truly has the power of dynamite to blow away all our sins. Now, if anyone no longer deceives his own conscience and admits his sinfulness, we must teach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to such people, let them know how the Lord has blotted out all their sins, and lead them to believe in this. By coming to this earth, and taking upon the sins of the world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, the Lord has saved all who believe in this Truth. Therefore, if anyone wants to be saved, he must understand properly and exactly how Jesus has saved him before he believes—that is, you must realize and believe clearly that the Lord has saved you by accepting all your individual sins when He was baptized by John, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again. Anyone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can be made a sinless person and a person of clear conscience before God. That is the power of the gospel. The gospel is like dynamite. If anyone believes in it, all the sins committed throughout his entire lifetime will be blown away once for all, just as a stick of dynamite will blow away this entire building when lighted.
If anyone hears the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and believes in it, then he will surely put on God’s power of salvation. So many sins that had once plagued him will then be all blown away, and he will be made sinless. Whoever believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will see all his sins disappear completely. That’s how you are made a sinless person with a clear conscience before God. And that is how you are shaped into a worker of the righteousness of God.
Believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have now thrown away golden calves from the presence of God. We all hope and pray that Christians throughout the whole world would also stop serving golden calves, believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and return to the arms of God. I thank God for using us for such a precious ministry.
 
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
RETURN TO THE GOSPEL OF THE WATER AND THE SPIRIT