Right Church or Wrong Church. True Believer or False Believer

Some Teachings Lead You To The 2nd Death, Some Don't

Saturday 17^th September 2011, at about 3:00 p.m. I stopped by an Orang Asli durian stall to chit-chat and fellowship with the lady stall owner.  An Orang Asli man, whose his wife joined us stood nearby and watched us closely.  After a while, he motioned to me to go to him, which I did.  Then he spoke to me in Malay.  This was what he said.

The Orang Asli Stall Owner

“I am a policeman.  I had been a Christian more than 30 years ago, but today I no longer go to church.  I have no confidence in the church.  There are so many different types of churches.  Just along this road up to Ringlet town, there are no less than 6 types.  Each type says that it is the correct church, and other churches are teaching the wrong things.  Some churches even do not allow their members to visit other churches.  You people are no different from the Muslims, which have so many sects and they also says everybody else is wrong.

So I no longer go to church for many, many years.  I don’t know what is right and what is wrong anymore.”

Wow!  A seeker of the truth … lost but seeking.  I answered him in the best way that I could.  That short talk with him became the subject of my hour-long sermon on Sunday morning in another Orang Asli church. 

What Is The “Right Church” To Attend?

To be honest with you, I find it hard to attend any church in the city myself.  I am very consistent with attending my weekly home cell gathering.  There is warmth and closeness there.  We share testimonies, the word and pray for each other there.  Whereas, at the church, there is no fellowship except for that superficially hearty greeting from somebody you hardly know.  You hear the preacher, but do not get to ask questions – and he can murder the scriptures and get away with it.  Week in and week out, the service promotes books by this pastor and that author on the projector screen.  The church has become a book-reading club, not a bible-reading church.  It probably hopes to earn commission from the sales of book.  And on one day, a very senior church elder with the surname Wong even declared that he was preaching a Chinese sermon out of a book, and if the congregation has that book they wouldn’t even need to hear his sermon! They can read it at home and be blessed!  What utter nonsense from a church elder!

But then, people go to church for all kinds of reasons.  In my mind, many attend church as a weekly habit and obligation to present themselves before God, so that their conscience would not feel pricked.  As they worship God with their mouth, they would be thinking of where they will be going for lunch afterward, where to shop in the afternoon and about their worldly activities.  Many more also are in church to seek the gifts ( in the form of blessings, healing, joy, peace, money, promotion, etc., etc., )  of the Giver, fearing that if they do not present themselves there, the Giver will not give them their blessings. They are not there for God.  They are there, hoping that the preacher will reveal secrets of praying methods, how to do devotion and daily living that will tickle God to open the windows of heaven to them.  Others are there because of business opportunities ( come to think of it, that was the very reason why I first went to church in 2001 ).  How many are in church because they hunger for God’s word for its wisdom, warnings and life-giving truths?

Teachings That Lead To Death, And Teaching That Don’t

If you are not looking for the truth of God that can to lead you into holy living, to stay alert of the pitfalls that can lead you back to the lake of fire .. then it does not matter which church you go to.  Just go to any church that can tickle your ears the way you like it.  You are just being one of them that Paul describes in 2Ti 4:3  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

But if you are a seeker of the truth, then you need to know the difference between wrongful teachings that lead to death and wrongful teachings that don’t.  Stop going to  any church that have teachings can lead you down the path to the fiery lake, the second death.  And that is what I preached at the Sunday sermon.

Another Gospel, Another Spirit And Jesus!

Yes, Paul warns us of that.  And sure enough, today we have churches that are preaching another gospel, another Spirit and another Jesus.  ( 2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. )  The gospel of Jesus saves.  The other gospel leads you back to hell.  


The Jesus of the bible is God who came in human form, was born in a manger, performed His 1st miracle after His baptism at the age of 30, died on the cross, resurrected in the body  and went to heaven, and is coming again "after the tribulation of those days" . The other Jesus was born under a tree, performed miracle as a baby, did not die on the cross, or if he did, he then resurrected as a spirit,  is coming before the great tribulation and may have supposedly already come". 


The Holy Spirit of the bible is a person, a gentle comforter, a healing Spirit and a teacher of wisdom; not a kind of energy or force; the gospel of the bible says Jesus performed the complete sacrifice, no additional sacrifices, penance is needed. 

Paul warns us against going back under the law of Moses.  To be under the law of Moses is to be cursed, and James warns us that to break one law is to break all the laws ( See Gal 3:10; and James 2:10).  To be under the law again is to fall from the grace that is in Jesus Christ and  to profit nothing from Christ ( that means going back into hell ). Yet today, even many main-line churches, not just the cults continue to lead their members back under the law of Moses …. tithing being the most common law of Moses to be preached.  And so, there are still "churches" that teach that you must observe the Sabbath law from Friday night till Saturday night and the dietary laws of Moses ( the 7^th Day Adventist church, the True Jesus Church, The True True Jesus Church are among them ). That Judaizers that Paul warns the Galatians then are still here.


 There are "churches" that lead their congregation to pray to dead people, or through these dead people, to talk to them and ask them to talk to God ( for are not saints dead people?  ) … and that is necromancy, something condemned in the book of Deutoronomy.  The Roman Catholic church is guilty of this.  


Most insidious of all are the liberal grace teachings of “once-saved-forever-saved” type ……very popular and soothing to itching ears.  Most of them are posing as evangelical churches.  This type of teaching says that you can continue to indulge in sinful living, especially adultery ( Listen to this and be shocked - 
Hosted by:OpenDrive ) , free sex, homosexuality, drunkenness, pagan worship etc., etc, without repentance ( just confess and carry on doing it ) and you can still go to heaven.  That is not what is said in 1 Cor 6:9-10, and Rev 21:8.

These are teachings that lead you back to hell, however great they sound to your ears.  Yes, many “Christian” are going down that path to hell, for did not Jesus say in Mat 7:14  “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

Wrongful Teachings That Do Not Lead To Death

But the method of baptism whether full immersion or sprinkling, or infant baptism for that matter does not lead to death.  The criminal who was crucified next to Jesus was not baptized, yet Jesus tells him that He will see him in paradise.   

The fact that a Christian does not believe in or accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit, be it the laying of hands, speaking in unknown tongues or healing and so on does not lead to the 2^nd death.  If the Methodist or Lutheran do not want to receive those gifts, so be it .. for are those not gifts?  How many Pentecostal believers have asked for the gift of tongue, and yet were not granted it?  How many of us have asked for the gift of imparting healing, and the Lord has not granted?  But just be sure that, if you do not accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit, hold your tongue that you do not attribute those gifts to the power of the devil, for blasphemy of the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven in this life or hereafter.  Some main line church members are saying that things like the unknown tongue ( or “babbling” as they call it ) comes of the devil!

A person who does not accept that standard interpretation of what the Trinity is will not go to hell.  Is that not foolish theology when the bible says that salvation comes by confessing with the mouth, and accepting in the heart that Jesus Christ is Lord?  Does the bible say anywhere that being unable to understand the nature of God and the nature of Trinity will lead to the 2^nd death?

Is partaking in the Holy Communion in any particular manner or in any ritualistic form a pre-requisite for entering heaven? Of course not.  Is the practice of washing of feet necessary for going into heaven?

What is Most Important!

A Christian in the right church who lives an unholy and un-surrendered life is going to hell.  A holy and right-living Christian who happens to worship in a church which teaches nonsense is going into heaven.  And so, aside from receiving Jesus Christ as Savior, a Christian must live in obedience to God, repenting ( turning away from sin ) in sincerity when in error.  

And on the preceding sentence, rest-assured that many hell-driven pastors will immediately object and declare “What! Are you not saved by grace but by works?”.  Some of these pastors are the teachers of “extreme grace”, a form of unholy grace they invented. Of the remaining pastors are those who cannot get it into their thick heads that repentance is NOT works, neither is a believer’s efforts at holy living – which come by the grace of God. For without works, your faith is dead.

So, it is not being in the right church that counts ( though that does help in our spiritual growth ), but your holy living in obedience to the commandments of Jesus.  And not all wrong teachings lead you back to hell.  Learn to differentiate between them.

That Orang Asi policeman can do well to worry less about which church is right, but rather whether his personal walk is right before God.  Joh 4:21  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.  Joh 4:22  Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.  Now, what problem do you have understanding these verses by Jesus Himself?  It means, you can worship God anywhere you want ..... anywhere.  Not necessarily inside any particular church or place or mountain or temple.  It means also, you can worship God in any way and any form, as long as it is in spirit and in truth.  Simple.  Free and easy.

So, stop worrying yourself silly about what church you MUST be with.  Just make sure you are worshipping in spirit and in truth.  Anywhere will do.  Any gathering of any two or more believers is THE church of the LORD - no brand name, no denomination.

Jesus says in John 8:32 “For ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”.