Message 5

Matt. 13:33; Peter 2:1-3; 1 Tim. 4:1-3. In the third century Jewish and Pagan doctrines dominate the known world and have a great influence on Christianity. The name Ana-Baptist first shows up about A.D. 251 and means re-baptiser. The churches that stayed with the word of God began to make decrees of non-fellowship. The leaven in the meal grows and new and strange doctrines appear. Infant baptism began to be law in the fifth and sixth centuries and great persecution begins and the dark ages follow.

WHEN WE TEACH ABOUT FALSE DOCTRINE OR CHURCHES WE DO NOT MEAN TO CONVEY A MEAN OR UNKIND SPIRIT NOR ARE WE MAD AT ANYONE. WE SIMPLY WISH TO PRESENT SOME FACTS ON THESE ISSUES AND MANY OF THE THINGS ARE A MAT'ER OF HISTORY AND MAY BE CHECKED BY ANYONE WISHING TO DO SO. WE DO NOT HATE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE CATHOLIC OR PRTESTANT BUT DO NOT ACCEPT THEIR FALSE DOCTRINE AND BELIEVE THEY POISON THE SOULS OF MEN SPIRITUALLY. WE DO NOT BELIEVE THAT ONLY BAPTISTS ARE GOING TO HEAVEN. WE BELIEVE ANYONE WHO IS SAVED BY THE SHED BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST IS SAVED BY GRACE AND WILL GO TO HEAVEN WHEN THEY DIE. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT DOCTRINES, HISTORY, AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRUTH AND ERROR, AND RIGHTEOUSNES AND UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.

We try to present the truth to be the friend of all men because truth is the only thing that will set men free from error and blindness. It is possible to be true to God and the great truths of the bible and still be the friend of lost sinners, which is exactly what Jesus did in his ministry even though he did not agree with the religious leaders of his day, he was the friend of all who believed the truth or would listen to it. We are not fighting anyone by telling the great drama of the religious world. Expressing the truth in a very positive manner is not being angry or upset .

1. Humanity objected to Christ. Unregenerate humanity wanted a church that was governed by human beings and refused to submit to the authority of Jesus Christ. In Matt. 13:33, unregenerate man establishes his religious movement and has the nerve to claim it is of divine origin. Every church has to come from the lord's church or this counterfeit system.

Since the 6th century this false church has claimed to be the bride of Christ. In the 6th century she began to be a world power as well as a religious system.

About 251 A.D. strange doctrines began to show up and were advocated by certain preachers and churches who were becoming friendly with the pagan and Jewish world. Acts 20:28-31. The warning is that men will rise up among you. About A.D. 251 you began to have two sets of churches in existence, sane were remaining true to the lord and sane were departing from the faith. The divisiveness of Baptists (and the various other names they have been called) has been their preservation. The true churches could always withdraw from error without doing anything but stopping the fellowship with the erring churches.

The erring churches loved the pomp and ceremony in human palaces. They demanded the commanding position in the religious world, preferring human ideas to divine revelation. They were never willing to offer their doctrine and trust God to convince and add to their numbers. They were never willing to let free men chose their own convictions based on thus saith the Lord. We need to be cautious about doing things because we have always done them that way or simply saying "I could never do that." When we start out in life to have our own way no matter what the Lord says we begin and end in error. We are all biased, and should be in some matters, but our bias should be in the truth not tradition. The enforcement of religion always brings about bondage and despotism of the worst sort.

2. One of the first laws passed was the law decreeing infant baptism as the law of the land in 426 A.D. It became the law of the land just as any other civil law of the day. The group of people who did not believe the doctrine were soon known as Ana-Baptists or re-baptisers. The same ideas are expressed today by the terms alien immersion or scriptural baptism. Infant baptism is the bloodiest doctrine in the religious world, it has caused more bloodshed than any other doctrine. ,

Soon followed the doctrine of the worship of the Virgin Mary as an extra mediator. The bible says there is one mediator between man and God, the man Christ Jesus.

Next comes the doctrine of infant communion, this is consistent, if baptism brings grace, then the infant who is baptized should also be able to observe communion. This, of course, is false but consistent.

Most heresy can be traced today to baptism or the Lord's Supper, we believe both of them to be ordinances of the church, and most of the religious world believes they have something to do with salvation.

3. Around the eight-century formality begins to enter into the service. Religious services are designed to either reach the heart or the eye. In this congregation, which impresses you most, the oratory ability, the clothing and appearance, the personality, or the truth the man of God preaches? Formality and cold ceremony came from the pagan world to please the eye of the natural man. This is why we have image worship and so called pictures of Christ, it appeals to eye instead of the heart. This is why people who won't go to church, will go to gospel singings, it entertains.

In A.D. 476 the Roman Empire began to decay and barbarians from the north and east over ran this territory from 476 to 610 A.D. there was no formal, existing government in Rome. People turned to the bishop of Rome for advice and decisions. One of the descendants of the Caesars by the name of Phocas began to rule or at least try to re-establish the throne of the Caesars and found it impossible to stand against the bishop of Rome and abdicated in 610 A.D. Then the bishop of Rome was declared to be the spiritual and temporal ruler of Rome. This is how the Catholic Church came to be a world power.

In or around 69 A.D. the Greeks and Romans split over sprinkling for baptism. The Greeks also continue the practice of infant communion while the Roman Catholics do not. The Greeks also have their priests marry.

The doctrine of transubstantiation was introduced. We can see that more emphasis was put on the work of certain ordinances and ceremonies, as time goes on the scripture was ignored.

Rejection of anything but biblical teaching on baptism and the Lord's Supper has caused much blood shed and many of God's people take lightly the promise made in baptism and the true meaning of the Lord's Supper. You can't baptize without "much water" and you can't symbolize the purity of the shed blood and broken body of the lord Jesus Christ with contaminated or leavened elements. This is why all of the old confessions of faith have wine and unleavened bread explicitly stated in their declarations. The fruit of the vine is a scriptural expression, which is talking about the final product of the grape. Wine press, old and new wines are biblical expressions and fruit of the vine means the final product of the grape.

The Passover was observed with wine, according to Gill's commentaries, and no one ever considered changing the elements until about the time of the temperance movement in this country .The Corinthians who were abusing the Lord's Supper are corrected concerning the manner in which they were taking it but the ingredients were not called into question and the scripture says they were getting drunk

We are not drinking to be drinking a beverage when we observe the Lord's Supper we are memorialising the offering of the lord Jesus Christ for our sins. It is simply a memorial service to show what a perfect offering Christ was for our sins. It has no saving power but should be observed in a scriptural manner. See 1 Cor. 11:21.

The doctrine of celibacy arose around 1123 A.D. This doesn't need much explanation to show the error and problems that followed. This is one of the blackest and most immoral blots on the history of error in the religious world. This is one of the things that Martin Luther saw which brought on the reformation and the religious revolution that followed. We shall study more in the next message.

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