The fundamental motive by which most people come to have faith is born out of weary lives, impoverished hearts, unsatisfying families, and failed lives. Among the countless believers who claim to have faith, the majority, in times when they are not facing crises, hardships, or despair, have trusted in their own bloodline, carnal desires, wealth, or possessions rather than in God. Except for a very few special cases, there are not many examples of people who genuinely believed and depended on God. Thus, for most, the purpose and reason for believing in God lies in trying to fulfill and satisfy their own wishes, ideals, hopes, and desires—be it a failed business, a lost job, a broken family, an unexpected family accident, or a diseased body.
Because their faith begins from a worldly life in pursuit of worldly desires and ideals, such faith inevitably starts from a place completely detached from the true fundamental reason why God created mankind. A faith that arises from psychological motives—wanting to find comfort and consolation in the midst of suffering, pain, and sorrow that fell short of one’s dreams and plans—ends up being opposed to and in conflict with the very reason God created humanity. What has now become the faith of Christianity’s churches, pastors, and believers is a faith that seeks to fulfill worldly desires, ideals, and ambitions before God, rather than the true faith that aligns with God’s original intent.
Faith born of worldly desires—seeking a way of escape or a substitute satisfaction in order to fulfill one’s worldly hopes and longings—resembles the desperation of a drowning man grasping even at a straw. It begins from a distorted center that yearns for worldly things. For the teachers, it becomes a link leading down the path of corruption and decay by serving both the world and material wealth together. For the learners, it is a faith entirely unrelated to salvation—a selfish faith shaped into “belief,” into “Word,” even into “God,” according to their own self-centered interests. Such faith cannot break free from sinful habits, and only arms itself with self-justifications and excuses. This is the faith that today’s Christianity teaches and learns.
Most who seek God do so in the wake of failure in business, family collapse, conflicts between husband and wife, between parents and children, between lovers or siblings, or through unexpected accidents, hardships, death, disasters, illness, and the grief or pain that afflicts themselves and their families. Of course, there are cases of people coming to believe through being born into a Christian family, or through chance relations of kinship or of the flesh. But regardless of who it is, the circumstances that lead someone to desperately seek God are most often like those described above. Yet because most churches, pastors, and believers neither teach nor learn with clarity why such grief, hardship, pain, disaster, despair, and discouragement come upon them, there are almost no churches or pastors today that clearly explain how one ought to live the true life of Christ, in line with God’s holy will, unto salvation.
Today’s churches and pastors simply induce believers to think that if they just believe in God, then all their worldly dreams, wishes, and desires will soon be fulfilled—as if handing out candy to a child. They offer nothing related to salvation, but only words of hope, inspiration, comfort, and lessons designed to make people chase their worldly desires, ideals, and ambitions even more.
Their teachings are nothing more than worldly hopes of success, comfort, and delayed gratification (sweetness after bitterness), using Scripture as a pretext. Such hope and consolation have nothing to do with the salvation found in the love of the cross. They are merely teachings of success and happiness for the sake of good living. Faith that arises from the desire to escape poverty, grief, pain, and hardship becomes a faith full of sighs, despair, and lamentation—a faith that always regrets, always reflects, yet still falls back into sin because the root cause is never removed. It is a faith that cannot escape evil habits: envying, being jealous, hating, quarreling, lying, and being greedy according to self-interest and gain.
Thus, believers repeatedly repent and awaken themselves hundreds and thousands of times, only to fall back into sin again. Such faith, driven by self-interest, produces nothing but a vicious cycle that reveals the limits of faith itself. It is the faith of the foolish, taught and learned in today’s churches. This is the limit of worldly and fleshly faith—a vain faith produced by pride and arrogance under the name “I believe.” By teaching and learning with words alone—answering with “Amen” as though it proved conviction and assurance—they remain trapped in the same cycle of regret and reflection, always falling back into sin according to their gain and interests. In doing so, they kill even their good conscience, and what remains is only more excuses and lies. This is the true condition of the faith taught and learned in countless churches today.
The pride of those who say, “I believe,” is neither the true faith of Christ nor true devotion, but something that has nothing to do with salvation. Rather, it is a pretext created to rationalize and excuse themselves, a faith that only enlarges sin and desire, and seeks to justify their own worldly hopes, ideals, and values. In other words, it is the pride of those who say, “I believe.” This pretext—made into “faith,” “the Word,” and even “God”—exists in order to use tithes and offerings, not for feeding, giving, and caring for the poor and needy sheep, nor for building the temple of the heart filled with the love of the cross, which is fitting to salvation, but instead as a means and excuse to satisfy their own selfish desires.
The shepherds who ought to be examples to the whole world through deeds of feeding, giving, and sharing with the poor and needy by means of tithes and offerings—through whom believers might learn to care for, cherish, and serve one another in the love of the cross—these very shepherds instead use the tithes and offerings as tools to satisfy their own selfish desires. They rationalize this with words, theories, interpretations, and excuses. Though their teachings seem to encourage believers and give them strength, in reality they only inflame the believers’ lusts and desires, stirring up greater greed, zeal, assurance, and pride. Thus, shepherds and believers alike, unable to escape the yoke of sin in which repentance and sin are repeated meaninglessly, mistake their own will, assurance, and pride for faith, for the Word, and for the true Christian example.
In other words, they have abandoned the deeds and practice of the true Christian life that follows the sacrificial love of the cross. Instead, they chase after worldly and fleshly happiness, success, hopes, ideals, and goals, enlarging their own will, pride, and determination, following words, theories, teachings, and inspirations that puff up the self. Such proud assurance, zeal, and confidence are treated as though they were the faith, attitude, and hope of a true Christian, when in reality they are false faiths.
Faith exists for the sake of love, and this love is not mere charity or service for show, such as the world itself also does. Faith exists so that we may become the children of God, and so that God may form in us His divine nature, which is the love of the cross—this alone is the foundation and standard of faith. But the faith of today’s Christianity is not united with the love of the cross. It is only a forced faith of pride and assurance, thinking that God will fulfill their worldly hopes, happiness, and ideals. Therefore, all are fruitless, dead faiths. Since they pursue their worldly and fleshly desires, they cannot escape the vicious cycle of sinning, regretting, and sinning again. And in order to stir up believers to chase their worldly hopes and ambitions even more, pastors produce teachings, inspirations, hopes, and comforts that are only worldly, using them as pretexts to make believers serve churches and pastors more zealously.
In doing so, they abandon the will of God who is love. Instead, under the cover of the names of God and Christ, and under the pretexts of “callings” and “talents,” they pursue only worldly and fleshly desires. Thus Christianity today produces and spreads only false faith—faith that is nothing more than pride disguised as faith, with “I believe” on the lips.
Instead of faith and hope in the love of the cross—faith that practices good works of feeding, giving, and caring for one another, following the greatest commandment—Christians today uphold a vain faith of words only: “I believe.” This is nothing but an excuse and pretext created by those who pursue their own worldly happiness, pleasure, and comfort, and who, according to their desires, repeat the vicious cycle of sin and repentance. To be convinced that God will fulfill one’s own ideals and desires, and to boast of such assurance, does not mean those ideals and desires will be fulfilled. From the beginning, the purpose of prayer was never for asking to live comfortably in this world or to remove difficulties. Rather, God answers only the prayers and supplications of those who center their hope in Christ and seek to live a true Christian life that follows the love of the cross and builds within them the character of God’s children.
To those who pray for nothing but worldly desires, ambitions, and lusts—which have nothing to do with salvation—there is no answer from God. Instead, the spirits of the world (Satan) are at work. This is why today’s churches are filled with false tongues and counterfeit gifts. Because people mistake the pride and zeal that come from human weakness—resolutions and determinations that change with circumstances—for true faith, their so-called “faith” is in reality opposed to the Word and against the love of the cross. Most churches, pastors, and believers have turned such excuses—rooted in false interpretations and explanations—into “faith,” into “the Word,” and into “God.”
We came to believe in God not through our own pride, awakening, or realization, but by grace alone. The suffering, sorrow, tears, and pain that come upon us are the result of our own sins and desires. Yet through these trials and sorrows, in God’s providence, we are led to seek Him. By grace, we sinners are permitted to call God “Father” and Christ “Lord.” But today, the assurance and pride of “I believe” profane that very grace. They regard that it is by their own assurance and pride that they seek God, as though they themselves had found Him, rather than acknowledging the grace that turned even their pain and sorrow into an opportunity to seek Him.
Faith never comes from human will or pride—it is only grace from the throne of God above. In other words, the prideful assurance of “I believe” is nothing but human arrogance and zeal. Therefore, such faith is either like that of an infant or child, or else it is a deceitful and abominable faith that seeks salvation without the love of the cross, or a faith that utters vain prayers for worldly desires and ambitions, or a self-centered arrogance disguised as faith—faith that in reality profanes the holy name of God and dishonors the love and blood of the cross, while pretending to believe in God and Christ. Such faith, which puts forward only the pride of saying “I believe,” is a faith destined for judgment.
If indeed the faith of “I believe” were a faith united with the hope of Christ and the love of the cross, then surely, as the Word says, with faith the size of a mustard seed mountains would be moved and seas divided. Such works would be seen throughout the world. But the faith of words only—“I believe”—has only produced heresies upon heresies under the pretext of being “centered on God” and “centered on the cross.” And thus it is a fact known to all that Christianity is one of the religions that has produced the greatest number of heresies in this world.
Just as the Word says that a good tree cannot bear evil fruit, and an evil thorn bush cannot bear good fruit, so the evidence that Christianity is not the true fruit of Christ nor His church is already made plain by the churches and pastors of Christianity who commit every kind of evil deed and have become objects of reproach before the world. A religion, church, pastor, or believer that cannot unite in the love of the cross—feeding, giving, caring, and serving one another in good works—is nothing but dead faith, an adversary, an enemy, and an antichrist.
The testimony of Christ is not in words but in glorious power. Therefore, where is the true testimony and truth of Christ to be found—when those who do not even have a faith as small as a grain of mustard seed that can raise the dead, move mountains, and part the sea, and those who have lost their first faith, their first love, dare to call themselves recipients of the Holy Spirit, the born-again, the saved, the gifted, and the anointed?
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.(John 6 : 44)
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.(John 15 : 16)
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;(2 Corinthians 3 : 5)
And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.(2 Thessalonians 3 : 2)
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.(Ephesians 2 : 8~9)
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:(Philippians 3 : 9)
Today, countless churches and pastors alike, under the pretext of “hope and vision” or under the guise of “calling and mission,” preach sermons that in reality only stir up worldly success, happiness, ideals, desires, and cravings—teachings and inspirations that drive people to produce more sin and greed. Of course, in the eyes of worldly people who live worldly lives, or in the standards of idol-worshiping pagans, such success, hope, desires, and happiness may appear to be noble values and ideals. Yet in truth, these are nothing but greed, arising from selfish cravings to fulfill their own pleasure and joy, openly betraying the holy will of God.
And greed gives birth to sin: envy, jealousy, hatred, strife, quarrels, lust, lies, and pride. Therefore, worldly believers and pastors who cling to vain faith cannot escape the vicious cycle and yoke of sin—sinning according to their gain and interests, regretting, then turning back to sin again. They repeat nothing but vain regret and meaningless reflection. Indeed, as their excuses to rationalize sin increase, their good conscience becomes ever more desolate. Thus their lives grow more weary and worn out by worldly living, and their hearts become increasingly impoverished and distressed as evidence of it.
Inside the church, people are always repenting and confessing, yet outside the church they continue in envy, jealousy, hatred, lies, pride, and quarrels, according to their self-interests and gain; thus the faith of most cannot escape this vicious cycle. In the habit of sinning, regretting, and then turning back to sin again, they end up justifying their own sinful lives with excuses and rationalizations, turning their own interpretations into faith, into Scripture, into God Himself—pastors and believers alike now teaching and learning according to their own tastes.
Within consciences that cannot escape the cycle of sin—repenting and regretting yet always returning to sin—anyone with a conscience may feel regret and reflection through it, but they teach and learn that this is the repentance of Christ. Yet in truth, Christ’s repentance is not the empty repetition preached by corrupt pastors today, who justify worldly visions, missions, talents, passions, and callings in order to pursue perishable desires, ideals, and ambitions. True repentance of Christ is born of sacrifice—of abandoning every worldly desire, ideal, and ambition that only give birth to greed and sin.
In other words, today’s so-called repentance, twisted by excuses and pretexts, interpreted with corruption upon corruption and falsehood upon falsehood, is a vain repentance that cannot help but lead to judgment through sin and greed. But the true repentance of Christ is this: to abandon all one’s worldly life, ideals, desires, and hopes; to take up one’s cross according to the Word; to serve the poor and needy brothers and neighbors as oneself; to make the hope of Christ, which follows the love of the cross, one’s life goal and vision. True repentance is to reflect on and turn away from every sin born of a life that once pursued worldly desires and ambitions, so that one may live by striving for good works, seeking God’s strength to overcome all weakness, and to form the character and heart worthy of being true children of God, who is the source of love.
Because today’s pastors and believers teach and learn through interpretations led by excuses that justify perishable creatures and worldly values, faith itself has been corrupted—becoming distorted, forced, and false—until it has been deified into “faith,” “Scripture,” and even “God.” Yet it only leads people to lose their conscience more and more. How can one be born again through vain repentance that only returns again and again to sin? And if this is Christ’s repentance, then what is the continual sin that arises even from those who claim to be born again? Scripture says, “He that commits sin is a servant of sin, and he that serves righteousness is proven by righteousness.” We must clearly recall that every tree and every faith that does not bear perfect fruit of righteousness will be burned up.
Do not boast that you are the descendants of Abraham, or that you are Jews (Christians). Remember again the Word that says, “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” Sin that cannot be stopped is the proof that there has been no true repentance and no evidence of rebirth. Therefore, in the last days, Revelation says once again, “Repent!” Yet because people have turned their shallow, cunning, deceitful, vain, rude, and proud claims into “faith,” and their self-serving interpretations into “Scripture,” they have become churches, pastors, and believers who dishonor the holy name of God and the love of the cross, rather than examples and models of faith.
1. Have you received the Holy Spirit? … Amen.
2. Do you believe you have received forgiveness of sins? … Amen.
3. Have you received forgiveness of sins? … Amen.
4. Do you believe you are children of salvation? … Amen.
5. Do you believe the Holy Spirit will fill you? … Amen.
6. Have you been born again in the name of the Holy Spirit? … Amen.
7. Do you believe your sickness has departed from your body? … Amen.
8. Do you believe all your worries and troubles will be solved? … Amen.
9. Do you believe God’s work will come upon your family? … Amen.
10. Do you believe all sickness of mind and body has been healed? … Amen.
11. Do you believe all your desires and prayers will be fulfilled? … Amen.
12. Do you believe great change will come to your unbelieving household? … Amen.
13. Do you believe everyone here has received forgiveness of sins? … Amen.
14. Do you believe all problems will be solved and all evil will disappear? … Amen.
15. Do you believe blessings of property, spirit, influence, grace, and power will come? … Amen.
16. Do you believe everyone who calls on God’s name will have all problems solved? … Amen.
17. Do you believe salvation will come to your unbelieving parents and siblings? … Amen.
18. Evil disease, in the name of Jesus Christ I command you, depart from this body! … Amen.
19. Satan and devil, in the name of Jesus Christ I command you, depart from this body! … Amen.
20. You have received God’s calling and risen by faith; do you believe you will trust God forever? … Amen.
For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.(Galatians 6 : 3)
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.(Deuteronomy 18 : 22)
Such desires as mentioned above are nothing more than the ideals and wishes of those who seek to serve God while clinging to the world and to material things. They are not the cross-bearing examples that embody the love of the cross and build the temple of the heart that grows to resemble God—examples that are worthy of salvation. Instead, they are the teachings and learning of those who seek to gain only with words and with the tongue. Thus, in reality, such things cannot be achieved by words or theories, nor can they ever bring them about. Most sermons of today’s pastors, which are structured to elicit the congregation’s “Amen,” end up provoking the passions of the people as though their worldly desires, satisfactions, and cravings might be fulfilled at once. Such sermons lead them to trust in their own pride, conviction, and zeal, and in doing so, they corrupt the true faith of Christ, which is supposed to be an example and model of love.
This is like dough swollen with leaven, making it appear as though the wishes and desires of the congregation will soon be fulfilled. But in reality, it is nothing more than the sweet temptation of the world—like candy given to children—using human lessons and inspiration that belong only to this world. These sermons replace salvation with worldly hopes and consolations, stirring up the desires and cravings of the people, inciting their pride, and thereby causing them to heap up even more sin and greed. They mislead believers into a foolish faith that constantly repeats the same vicious cycle: repenting and reflecting, yet always returning to sin according to self-interest and gain.
As a result, the faith of countless believers has become nothing but a stagnant faith—ever repeating the cycle of repentance and relapse, a weary and worn-out faith, a life where even the conscience itself slowly decays. Such are Christians only in word, filled with a false spirit born of greed, coercion, and lies, claiming to be the Holy Spirit, claiming to be the born again. Unaware that they are actually being led by the spirit of pride—trapped in their own arrogance, pride, and passion—they teach and learn by the standard of pride. And this, tragically, has become the faith of most today.
While completely ignoring and abandoning the true example and model of deeds and practice recorded in the Word, they teach as though they themselves were God, or as though if one only says “Amen” to their words without question, one will receive the Holy Spirit, gain salvation, and accomplish all things. In this way, they lead believers to hold the same faith as theirs—a faith that, rather than honoring, actually profanes God’s holy will, the Holy Spirit, grace, gifts, and the sacrifice of Christ’s cross, trampling underfoot the love that gave even His very life. These sermons and worship services exist only to satisfy the selfish desires of the pastors, leading believers into blind obedience and excessive loyalty by urging them to say “Amen” unconditionally to their sermons and teachings.
God is love; therefore, faith, hope, love, gifts, and prayer are all accomplished and received only within love. Yet today, most shepherds and believers have abandoned and rejected the sacrifice, practice, and deeds of following the love of the cross—which ought to be at the very center. Instead, they boast and teach that if one only says “Amen” unconditionally, then anything and everything will be fulfilled. For them, the Word, Christ, and even God are not needed at all, since they claim that simply by saying “Amen” according to their desires and cravings, they are all born again, all receive the Holy Spirit, all things are accomplished, and all are saved.
Thus their common feature is this: they take one or two verses as pretexts in their titles or introductions, and then exalt their own words and sermons—filled with worldly lessons and inspirations according to their own tastes—turning them into “the Word” and “God” Himself, thereby deceiving countless people and believers.
What is the true faith of Christ?
It is the faith that follows the hope of Christ, united with the love of the cross, feeding, giving, and caring according to the highest law, and cherishing and serving poor and needy brothers and neighbors as one’s own self. Therefore, it is by no means the faith that arises from worldly desires for happiness, success, and satisfaction. The kind of faith taught and spoken of in today’s Christianity—based on words and theories, born of human pride, conviction, and determination—is nothing but a vain, subjective faith that wavers according to circumstances and conditions. It is an empty religion that always betrays the Word, a vain claim that has nothing to do with the life of the cross.
The faith of Christ is only for those who possess the hope of Christ, who is united with the love of the cross, unwavering, sacrificing their whole life and even their very breath. Without taking up the cross and following the path of suffering, persecution, and sacrifice that the Lord Himself walked, but instead trying to serve God alongside the world and with material things, such “faith” inevitably becomes heresy upon heresy, falsehood upon falsehood, lawlessness upon lawlessness, corruption upon corruption. It becomes nothing more than a faith chasing worldly desires, satisfactions, and ambitions, a faith that cannot break free from the vicious cycle of repenting and reflecting, only to return again to sin according to self-interest and gain. Such is not faith, but pride and arrogance, always swayed by circumstances. Yet the sad reality is that most believers today mistake their pride and self-assurance for faith.
If the kind of preaching described above truly were the Word, the truth, and faith, then all the congregants who responded with “Amen” would, without fail, be healed of every disease, become wealthy, live well, succeed, and have godly households with no sickness among them. But in reality, churches that teach such things are filled with sick leaders, and among the believers who have responded with “Amen” all their lives, scarcely one in a thousand, or even one in ten thousand, has actually attained such worldly success. So where then are the fruits and evidence of Christ that they claim? Where are the fruits and evidence of success, satisfaction, and happiness that God supposedly gives to everyone who asks? They teach that “nothing shall be impossible to those who believe,” and yet they cannot heal the sicknesses of their own faithful leaders. They repeat the same phrase, “nothing shall be impossible to the one who believes,” while their churches are full of sick leaders, ruined servants, and believers struggling in suffering and pain. Is this not the false and vain teaching of those without even a shred of conscience, who disgrace the Word by turning it into a lie?
Is the inability to heal even their own close leaders’ sicknesses truly the faith of Christ, in whom nothing is impossible—the gift of God’s power, the anointing, the shepherd, the apostle, the Holy Spirit? Because they have twisted and exploited rebirth, repentance, the Holy Spirit, salvation, the Word, the gifts, and even the blood and love of Christ for their own ends, they have produced the very cause for doubting these things. By their actions, they have made the world regard the Bible itself as a falsified book, pointing fingers at it. And the ones responsible are none other than those who call themselves apostles of God, shepherds of Christ, and Christians of salvation.
God is power—not in word, not in theory. He is the might that tears down those who put forward only words and theories. He desires to build in us a heart that resembles Him, possessing the beautiful love of the cross, as we feed, give, and care in charity and service, cherishing and serving one another. But instead, through the theft of tithes and offerings, sermons have become mere rationalizations of ignorance and folly, crafted to justify their traditions, practices, and rituals, turning worship into a means of theft. From cunning schemes designed to make people believe in human pride, conviction, and determination rather than in God and His Word, have come sermons that, through “Amen,” only further imprint worldly desires and cravings.
Such sermons, meant to rationalize their misuse of tithes and offerings, have corrupted worship that was meant to establish the children of God—who are the source of love—through the temple of the heart united with the love of the cross, serving and caring for the poor and needy. These sermons, using “Amen” to induce blind and excessive loyalty, are nothing more than vain teachings. All the various sermons that endlessly arise, driven only by words and by human insistence, are nothing but dead faith, adversaries, enemies, and antichrists, for they cannot be united with the love of the cross.
Then there came out a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will entice him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the LORD said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail: go out, and do even so. Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against thee.(2 Chronicles 18 : 20~22)
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.(2 Corinthians 11 : 13~15)
Today’s churches and pastors within Christianity are led by mere talkers who put forward only words, without any example or path of practicing God’s holy will and the sacrificial love of the cross. With distorted interpretations crafted to suit their own tastes, they have fabricated a forced salvation, a detestable spirit, and vain interpretations, presenting them as though they were the Word of God, and exalting themselves as though they were God’s shepherds proclaiming His Word—deifying and absolutizing themselves. By turning their self-made interpretations, fashioned according to their own thoughts, tastes, and desires, into “the Word” and into “God,” they lead believers into a foolish faith that can only repeat the vicious cycle of sinning and regretting.
Because they attempt to serve God alongside the world and material things, they cannot escape from the futile cycle of sinning and regretting, always treading in place. Instead, by piling up excuses upon excuses through falsehood and corruption, they have produced a pitiful reality in which heresies, lies, and lawlessness spread through Christianity like leaven. Thus, whether learners or teachers, all alike have their consciences testifying that they are themselves the fruits and witnesses of corruption, depravity, decay, wickedness, and falsehood. Yet, because they treat their pride, assurance, zeal, and resolutions—driven by their own fleshly will—as “faith,” they are always tossed about in vain faith, never escaping from faith that merely treads in place.
Such is a faith like stagnant water, rotting with corruption; a hypocritical faith that holds a double mind, behaving one way inside the church and another outside; a faith that, while claiming to be born again, cannot escape from the vicious cycle of sinning, repenting, and then turning back to sin again according to circumstances. It is the faith of those who, without even the evidence or power of a mustard-seed faith, or without the substance of true faith to begin with, teach and learn that they have received the Holy Spirit. This is the true nature of vain preaching that has been produced.
Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith.(1 Timothy 5 : 12)
Though today’s false sermons and claims teach believers to admit, to be zealous, and to boast of assurance as though these were faith—yet even if one admits, assures, and engraves these things in the heart, the desired matters are by no means all fulfilled, nor are such purposes accomplished. One’s own conscience knows this by the evidence of one’s fruitless life, lacking the proof, fruit, and outcome of a true Christian. Those who lead believers to say “Amen” to things that do not come to pass, guiding them into ceaseless responses of lies, are just spirits of falsehood, spirits of Satan masquerading as God’s shepherds.
Can one who commits evil as daily bread receive the Holy Spirit, the source of love, simply by saying “Amen” to such sermons? Can those who commit sin as daily bread be healed of the curse of sickness? If responses and results were truly gained through saying “Amen” to such sermons, then it would be utterly reasonable that no pastors, officers, or believers in the church should remain poor or sick. But what, then, are the countless believers who, though in the church, remain sick, ruined, and burdened with anxieties and worries, spending their lives only treading in place?
To avoid the suffering and sacrifice that follow the love of the cross, and instead to seek salvation through words and theories alone—this is the shameless, deceitful, and shallow excuse and pretext of men. And the product of such excuses, putting words only to the forefront, is their “Amen.” Scripture commands us to obey with “Amen” before the Word and before God Himself—not to say “Amen” to lies and deceptions that never come to pass.
They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.(Psalms 17 : 10)
A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.(Proverbs 18 : 2)
Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.(Romans 14 : 22)
but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.(2 Corinthians 10 : 12)
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!(Isaiah 5 : 21)
Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath.(Proverbs 21 : 24)
For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.(Galatians 6 : 3)
Their “Amen” is the Amen of shameless people who do not keep nor practice God’s holy will, yet expect Him to fulfill all their desires, ideals, and cravings. It is the Amen of boasting in what they themselves cannot keep, an Amen that dishonors the faith of Christ. It is the Amen of those who deny and oppose the love and blood of the cross, praying only with words and theories, seeking to gain without sowing. To think that by awakening or realizing through saying “Amen” everything will be fulfilled according to the desires of believers, or to think that by confessing and boasting with “Amen” one can keep and practice it by human strength—if that were true, then man would no longer be man but God.
If change could come through human will, awakening, or the assurance of pride, then already countless believers would have been transformed, bearing fruit and evidence that would have become examples and models throughout the earth. Even the countless believers of false religions that emphasize awakening would have been changed by such an example. But human awakening and pride can, at most, produce changes in moral or ethical values. They cannot change the evil nature and essence of man that, by its very nature, cannot help but pursue lust and desire, and thus cannot escape the yoke of sin. This is the absolute limit from which no man who pursues the world and the flesh can ever escape.
Yet countless churches and pastors, under the guise of Christ’s faith, teach believers with lessons and inspirations that stir up awakening, awareness, zeal, and assurance, hoping that they might be transformed. In reality, however, countless believers change only in outward form and appearance, in moral and ethical values at best, while their evil inherent nature remains unchanged. Thus, most faiths and beliefs today are vain, repeating only steps in place, a faith that does not advance.
Let us look at one example! Consider that church and pastor who once made headlines, loudly advertising to the world that a famous thief and a notorious gangster had changed, been born again, and even received ordination as pastors. But had they truly believed in Christ and been transformed? In reality, it was nothing more than a means of boasting about themselves and their church. The so-called “notorious gangster” returned to his old ways and ended up in prison once again. The thief, who had supposedly been ordained as a pastor, returned to stealing and brought international disgrace. And the wife of that man, who had been a member of that same church, ended up becoming a shaman. This was the “born again” testimony that the church and pastor had boasted of; this was the so-called “power” of the ordination that pastor performed.
In other words, no amount of human awareness, willpower, zeal, conviction, determination, or the repeated cries of “Amen” and “I believe” can ever bring healing, rebirth, salvation, or deliverance from troubles and anxieties. And yet, even now, such false pastors continue to mislead countless believers by teaching that if only one responds “Amen” to such empty prayers and wishes, or simply believes and follows their preaching and words, or devotes themselves to their church and altar, then they are already born again, already saved, and already freed from all worries. This is what most pastors in today’s Christianity are doing—deceiving the flock.
As a result, countless believers alike remain trapped in the same vicious cycle: repenting and confessing, yet turning back again to sin, living in foolish faith without true change. Instead of transformation, they deceive even their own consciences, mistaking their own self-awareness, zeal, convicton, and pride—expressed in the words “Amen” and “I believe”—for the faith of Christ. Because of this, arrogance rooted in human pride has been elevated into “faith,” “the Word,” and even “God” Himself, while humility and love have disappeared. What remains is a corrupted religion where the highest law, the greatest commandment, and the love of the cross—expressed through example, sacrifice, and practice—are gone, replaced by churches that teach and learn only self-centered distortion, lies, and falsehoods, molded into a faith that conforms to their worldly, fleshly lives and judged according to their own thoughts and standards.
But a true shepherd is the one who leads people out of the path of sinners—who constantly repeat sins of envy, jealousy, hatred, lies, pride, and lust—turning them back from the yoke of sin to follow the love of the cross, to pursue goodness and righteousness, and to walk the path of forming the character of God that leads rightly unto salvation.
Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.(James 5 : 19~20)
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.(Jeremiah 23 : 17~22)
Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.(Lamentations 2 : 14)
If the pastor you believe in were truly the shepherd of Christ and of God, then you would never still be floundering under the yoke of sin, adding sin upon sin, trapped in a foolish faith that has neither first faith nor first love. Rather, you would have escaped the empty faith that hides behind superficial goodness and outward holiness—faith that only deepens poverty and weariness of heart—and you would instead bear the fruits of abundant liberality and overflowing thanksgiving that continually enrich the heart. But because your faith chases after perishable desires, ideals, and happiness, you are left only with meaningless repentance, repeated according to circumstances, always falling back into the same sins. Instead of being born again, your faith only increases in excuses and claims to rationalize your sins, becoming more distorted and twisted, filled with falsehood upon falsehood, lacking entirely the example and model of Christ who followed the love of the cross. These are the cunning ones who read and believe in the Word only as a tool to rationalize their self-made, word-centered faith.
To view the rebukes and admonitions recorded on this site—given on the basis of the Word, in order to lead you into true rebirth and repentance worthy of salvation—as mere criticism and condemnation, is itself a crooked standard. It reveals that your conscience has already been seared, no longer able to feel the pangs of good conscience. Rather than being ashamed of your faith that endlessly repents yet always repeats sin according to personal gain and interest, and turning back to examine yourself, you twist the Word according to your own tastes, interpreting it however you please, making your thoughts and claims into “the Word” and into “faith.” Because you have been accustomed to a selective, self-indulgent faith that hears and believes only what pleases you, your claims and standards have become your “Word” and your “faith.”
Thus, it is mere talkers who teach and learn in this way, exalting only their words. Blinded by such stubbornness and pride, they do not realize that they are distorting and corrupting the very essence of the Word. Before God they are the greatest enemies and adversaries, destined only for judgment. These are the blind churches, pastors, and believers who cannot see that this is what they have become.