by Bill Etem
Old Protestant Lady - ‘You’re a F#$%ing Sh*t-head.’
Me - `Any sh*t-head can see I’m right! To begin with the basics, so often we have to choose between two choices. Jesus is either God, the Divine Son - Psalm 2, Isaiah 9. 6, Colossians 2. 8-10, 1 Timothy 3.16, John 1. 1-14, Matthew 1. 23 (Jesus = Immanuel = God with us) - or else Jesus isn't God.
`The Koran is either trustworthy or else it is untrustworthy. The Koran is very repetitious in stating that all those who reject Allah will burn in hell. If you will burn in hell if you continue to reject Allah, then you don't want to continue to reject Allah.
`If the Koran is untrustworthy, if the Koran is fiction, if Islam and the Koran lead people away from heaven and drag them down to perdition, then everyone would be wise to reject Islam and the Koran.
`The Christian scriptures tell us there is a True Faith and a True Church. Those of us who are Christians have some choices to contemplate: the Roman Catholic Church either upholds the True Faith or else Rome does not uphold the True Faith. Rome is either God's True Church or else Rome is not God's True Church. If Rome is God's True Church, if the Roman Catholic Church leads people to heaven, then everyone on earth should obey Rome. It makes no sense to risk hell by rebelling against Rome if Rome is God's True Church.
`If Rome isn't God's True Church, if Rome does not uphold the True Faith, if Rome leads people to perdition, then, obviously, no one should be a Roman Catholic.
`These options with Rome might seem rather mind-boggling and extreme, cataclysmic and shockingly contrary to the status quo, where, roughly estimated, a billion Cafeteria Catholics on earth have grown accustomed to neither obeying Rome nor renouncing Rome. Common sense tells us Rome is either good enough or else Rome isn't good enough. Romans 14. 12 tells us that everyone will eventually have to stand before the Creator of the Universe and give an account of himself / herself. There's a lot to remember: Romans 14. 12, John 15. 6, 2 Thess 1. 8, Revelation 20. 12-15, Luke 13. 3, Matthew 25. 31-46, Matthew 26. 28 (New Covenant = True Faith), Matthew 16. 13-19 (True Church) etc., etc. John 14. 23-26 tells us that those who love Christ keep His words. To look at some controversial words, Christ, in Revelation 2. 9, calls the Jews a synagogue of Satan. He didn't mean they prayed to the devil. He meant they are heretics, and heretics are people who, unwittingly, teach false doctrines which drag souls down to perdition. Though heretics don't mean to lead people away from heaven and to perdition, nevertheless, that's what they do. Protestantism has no reason to exist if either Rome or Eastern Orthodoxy is God's True Church, the Church Christ founded on a rock. But if neither Rome nor Eastern Orthodoxy uphold the True Faith, if neither is the Church Christ founded on a rock, if both drag souls down to perdition, then Protestantism has a reason to exist!
`Of course the Protestants under the cross don't pray to the devil, but if they have fallen away from the True Faith, if they preach heresies which drag souls down to perdition, then they are so theologically incompetent you might as well call them satanically incompetent. Protestants might be more receptive to my anti-crucifix logic than to my anti-cross logic - as the Protestants have a long tradition of rejecting the crucifix. The Roman Catholic crucifix is an image of a Roman Catholic Jesus, that is, a Roman Catholic version of Jesus. But if the True God / True Jesus says Rome is a heretical church which drags souls down to perdition, then a Roman Catholic god who says Rome leads people to heaven is a false god, and false gods are beastly because they pretend to lead souls to heaven but in actuality they drag souls down to perdition. If the True God / True Jesus says Rome is the True Church, then, of course, it is a blasphemy to say the Roman Catholic crucifix is an image of a beastly false god - and blasphemy to speculate that it is the 'image the beast' mentioned in Revelation 13 and 14. But if the True God says Rome is a heretical church which has fallen away from the True Faith, if the True God / True Jesus says Rome is a fallen church which drags souls down perdition, and is therefore satanically incompetent, then the True God is certainly not a Roman Catholic God, and therefore the Roman Catholic crucifix, which is an image of a Roman Catholic God, an image of a Roman Catholic version of Jesus, is the image of a false god, the image of a false version of Jesus, and, again, false gods are beastly because they drag souls down to perdition. Recall 2 Thess 1. 8 - hellfire for those who do not know God. Recall also Revelation 20. 15, John 15. 6. Luke 13.3-5, Matthew 25. 31-46...
`Rome and the Eastern Orthodox are ruled by their traditions, but then so are the Protestants. Many Muslims say it is a fine tradition to practice female circumcision / mutilation. St. Paul argued against circumcision, seeing it as one of those elements of the Mosaic Law which is not carried over into the New Law, rather as the blood sacrifice of animals for the atonement of sin, rather as the practice of shunning Gentiles while dining, rather as the execution of witches, homosexuals, rebellious children and Sabbath violators, are parts of the Law which Moses carried down from Sinai which are not carried over into the New Law. The Mosaic Law is an eternal law in the sense that it will be remembered for eternity, but parts of it are suspended, put into eternal abeyance, under the New Covenant.
`If neither the Roman Catholic Church nor the Eastern Orthodox Church is God's True Church, the Church which Christ founded on a rock - Matthew 16. 13-19 - if both Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy drag people down to perdition, if neither one upholds the True Faith / New Covenant, what about Protestantism? How well do the Protestants uphold the teachings of Christ and the apostles? The Protestant churches don't excommunicate Sabbath violators, don't excommunicate pro-choicers, don't excommunicate pro gay marriage people etc. Celebrating the Eucharist in an unworthy manner is a very serious sin - 1 Corinthians 11. 27. If a pastor gives the bread and the wine to someone he ought to know is unworthy to receive the Eucharist, then he celebrates the Eucharist in an unworthy manner.
Then a young white woman begins screaming at me. She has long greasy brown hair, with a fallen, tawdry and wholly unwashed aspect to her persona, giving every impression that she is either on welfare or is trying to get on welfare. Yes, she’s screaming at me. She’s repeating herself terribly too. She’s screaming over and over, with a sort of religious mania in her eyes, with a sort of zealous hysterical howl emanating from deep in her gut and escaping from her mouth and throat:
Young Woman - ‘You’re a smug f#&ker! You’re a smug f#&ker! You’re a smug f#&ker, You’re a….’
Me - ‘We’ll just have to agree to disagree, ma’am….But thank you for your outspoken and perhaps insightful comments…’
Young Woman - ‘Go to hell! Go straight to hell!’
Me - `On the subject of hell, 2 Thess 2 deals with the man of sin, the son of perdition. Presumably this is none other than the Antichrist mentioned in 1 John 2. 18, who is probably the beast mentioned in Revelation 19. 19. 2 Thess 2 deals with a falling away, presumably a falling away from the True Faith, and with people suffering from a strong delusion. If a church - and a church is a group of people - is convinced that it leads people to heaven, then that church will be convinced that it has no reason to change. But, if in fact that church has fallen away from the True Faith, and therefore it leads people to perdition, not to heaven, then it has a reason to change! But, unfortunately, the people in this church are too deluded to see that their church leads people to perdition. Somehow, you got to get them out of their delusion.
`I don't mean to imply there will never be mercy - never be admittance into the kingdom of heaven - given to anyone in an heretical church. Merely because there might be exceptions to the general rule that heretical sects drag souls down to perdition doesn't mean the general rule is invalid.
`Recall the economic collapse prophesied in Revelation 18. Recall also that Daniel 12. 1 prophesies a time of enormous unprecedented trouble on earth when the archangel Michael shows up to deliver the Jews. If Christianity is God's true religion - and those of us who are Christians say it is - then it stands to reason that Michael will deliver the Jews by converting the Jews to the true vers
ion of Christianity, not to some false fallen version of Christianity which leads people to perdition. Consider 5 cataclysmic events. There are the 3 proclamations of the 3 angels mentioned in Revelation 14. 6-11. There is the economic collapse prophesied in Revelation 18. There is the deliverance of the Jews during a time of huge unprecedented trouble on earth, prophesied in Daniel 12.1, when the archangel Michael shows up to deliver the Jews. These 5 cataclysmic events will help not only lost Jews but also lost Gentiles - anyone who needs help in finding the True Faith and the True Church.
`If one is divorced from the True Church and the True Faith one might get the Antichrist confused with the archangel Michael, should the Antichrist attempt an imposture, when he embarks on his plan to conquer the world. Of course the Antichrist wants to be worshipped as God - 2 Thess 2 - not be seen as a mere archangel. But he might find it expedient to masquerade as an archangel in order to attain power. Christ's Second Coming will be like a flash of lightning - Matthew 24. 27 -
