Jeremiah 2:12-13 says: “Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord.  For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”

What are these broken cisterns that can hold no water which the evangelical churches in America have hewn out?

Dispensationalism: Dispensationalism overreaches regarding the distinction between the Old Covenant which God made with Israel and the New Covenant which God made with the New Testament church.  It discounts that the earliest Christians were Jews who operated on the foundation stones of the Jewish Scriptures.  It doesn’t take into account that the New Covenant was also made with the house of Israel.  There is thus not a separate covenant for Israel as a nation now.  Rather, gentiles who believe in Christ have been grafted into the house of Israel; while Jews who reject Jesus Christ as their Messiah are cut off from the New Covenant with the house of Israel (Romans chapter 11 so beautifully and clearly illustrates this).  This shows how the New Covenant God made with Israel is also the covenant which He made with the New Testament church.  Jesus and the Apostles referenced the moral principles of the Law of Moses, which are based upon the eternal moral law of God, as Christian righteousness.  Jesus and the Apostles illustrated salvation by grace through faith using Old Testament examples and people.  Dispensationalism then does not provide a faithful reference for righteous living since it removes the force of the moral principles of the Law of God as a definite reference for this.  It also, like Calvinism which it is influenced by, gives a potential distinction between saving faith in Christ and practical obedience to Christ which involves faithful living before Him- while the Bible does not make such a distinction.  Genuine saving faith in Christ is obedient to Him for who He is (the Lord and Savior- the Passover Lamb must be totally eaten for the Passover blood to deliver from God’s judgment).  The evil concept that Jesus can be your Savior while not really being honored and followed as Lord is fostered by Dispensational heresy.  Closely connected here is OSAS doctrine (once saved, always saved or unconditional eternal security doctrine) which the Bible repeatedly teaches contrary to.  OSAS is a logical outcome of Dispensationalism.  Dispensationalist influence has been strong in seminaries for about the past one hundred years.  Even many who have never read the Scofield Reference Bible (which promoted Dispensationalism on a large, widespread scale) have been influenced by its errors.  Support of modern Israel, treating it as God’s nation, is a key consequence of being influenced by Dispenationalism.  It is no coincidence that the birth of the modern Zionist movement, the Scofield Reference Bible, and the Federal Reserve Act whereby Jewry gained a stronghold on America all happened within less than two decades of each other.  In my other messages on Dispensationalism I discuss the strong likelihood of how Cyrus Scofield was supported and coached by ultra-rich Zionists in the production of the Scofield Reference Bible.  The widespread belief in the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine is another consequence of the vast influence of DIspensationalism.

Calvinism (which is a cornerstone of all Reformation theology): At the core of Calvinism is something called Monergism.  Monergism is the concept that spiritual regeneration (and spiritual maintenance and growth as well) is exclusively the work of God.  It is a rabbit hole that leads into dark, dark places where, if logically traveled to, make God out to be the author of sin and essentially leaves God to blame for all spiritual failures.  The Calvinist constantly contradicts himself as he implies in everything he says about Calvinism that we each have a decision to make about whether we will embrace Calvinism or not.  Taken logically, no one could believe in Calvinism unless God essentially forced them to.  If God’s sovereignty means that He Himself does everything that happens in the world, then it is God’s sovereignty which causes people to not acknowledge God’s sovereignty.  The only actual mystery about Calvinism is in how so many people can receive such a corrupt and illogical portrayal of God.  The depravity of man is actually illustrated and exemplified by man embracing doctrines which excuse and justify his cleaving to his own depravity (like Calvinism).  Calvinistic preachers typically have to be university trained because there aren’t many other ways for common sense to be so removed from anyone that they’d actually preach Calvinism with a straight face.  Calvinists and others who say things like: “If you think you have anything to do with your salvation, then you are lost” are practically saying that Jesus is a heretic and a deceiver- for Jesus commands us to repent, to endure to the end, and overcome; and He says that by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned, etc.  The Calvinist should be honest and admit that he works all the time to try to convince himself that he is among the elect.  It would be exceedingly better for him to repent, obey God, and work in line with God.  Romans chapter 9 is about dealing with why God has cut off many natural Jews from His covenant promises.  It is a lesson that no one is inherently more special to God than anyone else.  It is ironic then that the Bible chapter which the Calvinists most often resort to condemns the very mentality of Calvinism.  Calvinism teaches that there is a group of unconditionally elected ones who are more special to God than everyone else on the basis of absolutely nothing besides being chosen in a random divine lottery.  Label Calvinism then for what it essentially concludes: It makes God out to be the author of evil, it absolves man of responsibility, it justifies both the devil and rebellious mankind in their sins, it makes God out to be a villain by sending them to hell, and it makes God out to be a partial respecter of persons who unconditionally chooses to save some but not others.  

Pentecostalism (churches influenced by the Azusa Street Movement): Every instance of the gift of tongues from God being exercised in the Bible involved the speaking of a language on earth which could be verified as such by those who spoke that language naturally.  Likewise, the gift of interpreting tongues from God would involve translating a language of earth into another language of earth- all of which could be verified by natural speakers of the same languages.  So, what is all this babbling in unintelligible tongues among many in churches now and in private prayers?  It is deluding evidence that wrongly convinces people that they must have Christ’s Holy Spirit.  It is also a mockery of the real Holy Spirit and a massive waste of time.  The people who use the tongues in Acts to say that tongues are the evidence of the Holy Spirit don’t even speak in tongues like the people did in the Book of Acts (in the Book of Acts they spoke in actual languages- not nonsense- however speaking in nonsense tongues was already common among Pagans in the first century- and still is today).  The fact that Pentecostals, Charismatics, Word of Faith people, etc. (all influenced by the Azusa Street movement) typically believe in women pastors is a major red flag in itself.  They are guided by feeling and emotion; not by the Word of God.  Phony tongues produce a phony definition of righteousness.  An environment of Pentecostalism will easily cause a Christian to shift from security in Christ to security in nonsense tongues.  An irony of Pentecostalism is that no one needs the Holy Spirit to do what the Pentecostals do.  Pentecostalism is just a cheap imitation of the real work of the Holy Spirit.

Marcionism: This is common in the plain groups (i.e. Mennonite, Amish, Hutterite, etc).  They are influenced by a heresy which goes back to the 2nd century AD to a man named Marcion.  Marcion taught that the God of the Old Testament is a different god than the God of the New Testament.  Marcion had to eliminate large portions of the Bible to even sound convincing to some about this.  However, those influenced by Marcionism now, at least those who don’t blatantly claim to be Marcionites, arrive at Marcion’s conclusions without blatantly saying that the God of the Old Testament is not the Father of Jesus Christ.  They do this by claiming that Jesus taught a higher or better law than what God taught through Moses in the Old Testament.  This practically means that they teach unrighteous things like Pacifism as the Christian standard when Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels on non-resistance were actually a clarification and a vindication of Moses’ Law.  Jesus proved that the Law of Moses itself forbids vengeance on a personal level.  When Jesus said to turn the other cheek, He was not saying to not have a gun, to not shoot the guy who is trying to kill you, to not be a soldier or a law enforcement officer, to not protect your home from intruders, to not support appropriate judicial punishment for convicted criminals, or anything like that.  These are rather Pacifist concepts which badly misrepresent the righteous vengeance in God by denying the aspects of that vengeance which He has delegated to man and which reflect His own moral character (see especially Romans chapter 13).  That is just one example of many of the practical effects of the evil influence from Marcionite heresy.  

Judaizing: As a spurious overreaction to Marcionism in some cases perhaps, many now try to be Jews outwardly, not accounting that God through His Apostles released gentile Christians from the Jewish ceremonies and Jewish ritualistic customs through the council of the Apostles in Acts chapter 15.  He later released the Jewish Christians from the same by the practical means of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70.  The Temple has never been rebuilt.  Judaism cannot be practiced faithfully without this and without the Levitical Priesthood (which can’t be established even if the Temple were to be rebuilt because of the destruction of the Jewish genealogical records).  The Apostle Paul warned in the Book of Galatians about the damning error of practicing Judaism after God has told you not to do so anymore.  

Other notable common issues of great significance related to the theme of this message:

Not rebuking and fully separating from the Roman Catholic Church: The harlot church which was, and still is, the chief product of the compromise between Christian churches and Pagan society is often not called out as being such.  It is rather often emulated in its compromise to a significant degree.  Quite often it is justified and involved in interdenominational fellowship of some kind.  The Protestant churches never really broke from many significant corruptions of the Roman Catholic Church, but rather modified many of these and adapted these modifications to their worship- and this continues to this day.

Jezebel Spirit: The Bible truth that the wife ought to be subject to her husband is mocked while men who try to instill reasonable rules and order in their homes are labeled as harsh and unloving.  Women lecture men in and out of church, flaunt their bodies in immodest clothing, and wear make-up without confrontation concerning how wrong this is in God’s sight from the straightforward instructions of Scripture.  Men who do their duty and appropriately exercise their God-given strength in any form are labeled as harsh, unloving, un-christlike, and are lumped in the same category with men who are truly abusive.  

Independent Baptist Spirit/False Bravado: When someone is regularly screaming in church like an angry drill sergeant, or acting like a know-it-all professor who is evidently trying to portray themselves as an expert and seeking to impress their audience by their oratory tactics, that is really just pathetic showmanship.  Waving around a Bible and screaming things at a church which already believes what you’re saying is not courage.  That can rather easily be a cowardly attempt to get applause from people without actually displaying any courage at all.  And many IFB (Independent Fundamental Baptist) pastors, as well as many other preachers, will rebuke and shame people in their church from the pulpit when they know they will get amens and have the congregation on their side.  It would have been right though, and much more courageous, to just tell the person the rebuke in private if they were really in the wrong and the preacher really ought to rebuke them.  And it is obviously common in the IFB, but surely not limited to the IFB, to have a Pastor who has such ungodly control over his congregation that if he said that the sky is pink or green, it is quite possible no one would even challenge him.  That is not Biblical submission to authority.  Likewise, if a woman is subservient to her husband to the point where she would not tell him of a clear and present danger, or if she could not do so without being rebuked, that is not Biblical submission either.  That is abuse and manipulation.  Though most of the world has gone into the ditches of weak church leadership and feminism, there are ditches on the other side of Christ’s strait and narrow way involving pastors and husbands controlling and abusing people; and also involving church laity and wives enabling such by their compliance and silence.  Such abuse, and compliance and silence in the face of it, is going into the ditch on the side of the road.  Remember that Sapphira was judged along with her husband Ananias for going along with his wicked scheme and not rather contending with him and disassociating herself from him in his wicked endeavor.  There is no such thing as submission to authority in the Lord which follows someone in their sin or which requires someone to abandon common sense and shut their eyes to that which is just plain and obvious.

Fake Long Hair Hippie jesus: Even though many acknowledge that the image whereby Jesus is commonly portrayed in modern times must be false for obvious reasons, the modern churches seem to be the slowest to get this.  The modern jesus is an idol and a counterfeit of the real Jesus.  We are warned in Scripture to be aware of fake jesuses and not to bear with them (2 Corinthians 11:3-4).  Having a salvation that is real, and no counterfeit, comes by believing in and obediently following the true Jesus of the Bible who is “the true God, and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20b)  We are commanded in the Bible not to make a likeness (image) of God according to man’s corrupt understanding.  That is idolatry.  Scrap the “modern jesus” or the “media jesus” from your mind completely.  It is a shallow, cheap, pathetic counterfeit of the real Jesus. 

Any and all of these things mislead multitudes, misrepresent the true grace of God in Jesus Christ, are stumbling blocks to God’s people, often lead people into counterfeit Christianity, and mislead people in general regarding the nature of true Christianity.  Avoiding these errors is crucial in order to follow authentic Bible believing and obeying Christianity which alone leads to eternal life.  

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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