Separation: Two Camps
Being naive, people assume that going to church or belonging to a religion is the right thing to do. They assume that a church, synagogue, temple, mosque, or religion is the place to find God and know God. It isn’t. In reality you are choosing death.
By Jesus, God showed you
When Jesus was on earth in flesh (see Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), He never told people to go to the synagogues and learn from their leaders. As the Lord God of Israel, He also never told people to look into the religions and spiritual ideas of the Gentile world.
If you investigate the Bible in truth, you will discover that His message is the same today. From heaven by Spirit, the Lord is not telling people to go to churches or synagogues and listen to their leaders. He’s also not telling people to look into the religions and spiritual ideas of the rest of the world. Nowhere in Scripture does God ever say to go to a church, synagogue, or religion. Instead, what does He say?...
| Old Testament – Lord God of Israel | New Testament – Lord Jesus Christ |
| “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex 3:14) | “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am” (Jn 8:58) |
| “I am He” (Dt 32:39) | “I am He” (Jn 8:24) |
| “I am the first and I am the last” (Isa 44:6) | “I am the first and the last” (Rev 1:17) |
| “I am God, and there is no other.” (Isa 45:22) | “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30) “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9) |
| “I, the LORD, am the maker of all things” (Isa 44:24) | “I am the bread of life” (Jn 6:35) “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25) “I am the true vine” (Jn 15:1) |
| “I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.” (Isa 48:12) | “I am the Alpha and the Omega” (Rev 1:8) “the beginning and the end” (Rev 22:13) |
| “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.” (Isa 48:17) | “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6) “I am the light” (Jn 8:12) “I am the door” (Jn 10:9) “I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11) “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.” (Jn 13:13) |
| “come to Me” (Isa 55:3) “listen carefully to Me” (Isa 55:2) “call to Me” (Jer 33:3) “turn to Me” (Isa 45:22) “seek Me” (Amos 5:4) “search for Me” (Jer 29:13) “pay attention to Me” (Isa 51:4) “give ear to Me” (Isa 51:4) |
“come to Me” (Mt 11:28) “listen to Me” (Mk 7:14) “learn from Me” (Mt 11:29) “believe in Me” (Jn 16:9) “receive Me” (Mk 9:37) “come after Me” (Lk 14:27) “follow Me” (Mt 8:22) “abide in Me” (Jn 15:4) |
It should be obvious to people, because of His many statements throughout His Word: God is not calling people to any church or religion. God is calling people to Himself. And if you are involved in church or religion, He says to “come out from their midst and be separate.”1
You’re eating from the wrong “tree”
In God’s scriptural language, people are called trees and their words are called fruit (“the fruit of the lips”). In Genesis, the devil (the serpent) is called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”2 What does this mean? The devil speaks a mixture of good (truth about God) and evil (lies about God). That’s his fruit. God considers this mixture to be completely evil. He warned Adam that it would kill him (kill him spiritually).
Eve ate the mixture of good and evil and was cut off from God for it.3 In that day, she died, although she lived on in the flesh. She then shared the bad fruit (false teaching about God) with Adam, and he believed it and died spiritually as well. That’s what churches and religions are doing. It’s people hearing and believing lies about God, and then, like Eve, running out to share those lies with everyone else. Churches, religions, their leaders, and their people are the mixture tree that has kept many, many people spiritually dead all over the world, throughout man’s history. Their poison fruit is keeping people spiritually dead, and shutting off the kingdom of heaven from those who are trying to get to God.4
How do organized churches and religions mix good and evil, thereby keeping people spiritually dead? They speak highly of God (the good) with their lips, but then they urge you to go to them, listen to them, and believe them (the evil) rather than God alone. They take the Word of God (the good) and they mix in the things of man (the evil)…
- men’s ways
- men’s teachings
- men’s thoughts
- men’s doctrines
- men’s traditions
- men’s creeds and dogmas
- men’s dreams, visions, myths, and superstitions
- men’s commandments and judgments
- men’s writings considered “holy” or “sacred” rather than the Bible alone
- men’s interpretations of the Bible
- men’s politics, psychology, histories, and philosophy
- men’s books about God
- men’s opinions about God
- men’s versions of who God (Jesus) is
So, whether or not you realize it, God has warned you by His first commandment in His Word not to believe in men’s churches and religions – don’t eat from the mixture tree.5 And Jesus and His apostles forewarned of rampant false teaching and false teachers from within the church (i.e., church pastors, priests, televangelists, etc.). If you do not listen to the Lord and obey Him regarding mixture and false teaching, you WILL remain spiritually dead until you repent.
You can know with certainty that there’s something wrong with the church because of Jesus’ letters to the seven churches.6 He tells five of the churches to repent. With the other two, He puts the label, “synagogue of satan,” for those who are not totally following His commandments. And for all seven churches, He speaks of a blessing for “he who overcomes” – meaning, the person who overcomes the churches.
There are only two groups of people
In God’s judgment, there have always been two groups, two houses, two trees, two choices, and two ways – from the beginning. You’re either of God by His reckoning or you’re not. If God does not consider you His, you are spiritually dead. As soon as you believe lies about God:
- you’ve made the wrong choice
- you’ve gone the wrong way
- you’ve eaten from the wrong tree (the mixture tree)
- you’re captured into the devil’s huge house (which Scripture calls “the synagogue of satan”)
- you become extremely deluded
- you remain spiritually dead, and
- you risk dying ultimately unless you repent.
By believing lies about God, whether you wanted to or not, you became part of the devil’s body of people that has many factions but is still one group in God’s judgment.7
Extreme delusion. In the devil’s body (the huge, worldwide synagogue of Satan), people have no discernment of their horrible situation. This is because: when people do not truly go to God (the Creator) to know His truth, but instead look to man (the creature) for truth and wisdom about God, God sends delusion upon them.8 So people in churches and religions (the synagogue of Satan) think they are God’s people and think they know God. But they aren’t and don’t.
God is not playing around. He is a jealous God. From the beginning, He has made His judgment very clear and simple. If you choose church or religion (a mixture of truth and lies about God), you have not chosen Him, and you will die for it. You will be banned from Him, the Tree of Life, until you repent.
(1) 2 Corinthians 6:17 (2) Genesis 2:17 (3) Genesis 3:6 (4) Matthew 23:13 (5) Genesis 2:16-17 (6) Revelation 2 & 3 (7) one house - Matthew 7:26-27 (8) 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12
• If you go to a church, test your church here.
Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB), which this site would recommend, along with the King James Version (KJV).