Ceremony, Communion and the Sabbath

Gospel Tract #

Christ or Christianity

A revolution is coming. It is a revolt of followers of Jesus against the religious system called Christianity. Those who are doing the will of God sense its coming, but it will come as a surprise to those who are not. It will bring Christianity itself to an end, to the everlasting glory of the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and to the very great joy of all who truly love God.

Babylon

In Genesis 11, in a territory later called Babylon, man made his first united effort to reach heaven by his own power. Thereafter, the name Babylon was often used in connection with any place of vain religious activity. Later, Babylon became infamous as a place of captivity for God's people. Many Old Testament people of God were taken as captives to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. So, to combine these two meanings of Babylon, we see that Babylon is (1) the place where men labor to reach heaven by their own power, and (2) the place where God's people dwell in bondage. This is a perfect description of Christianity.

God's people are now scattered among the hundreds of sects which make up Christianity. Not one of those sects is of God. Yet, His saints have joined those sects because they have been persuaded to believe Satan's most successful lie in history; namely, that to belong to Christ means that one belongs to Christianity. Amid the labyrinth of doctrines and ceremonies that make up Christianity, God's children try hard, but in vain, to find a place because being "in Christ" has nothing to do with Church religion.

The vibrant faith depicted in the book of Acts is not the religion of Christianity. Christianity is that religion which developed later and quenched the spiritual life depicted in Acts. A few of the revealed truths found in New Testament books may be found in widely scattered bits within Christianity, but those bits of truth are always – yes, always – mixed with heresy, and they cannot satisfy hungry souls. The result of this is frustration and discouragement for those who hunger for the knowledge of God. The bewildering array of doctrines and traditions that make up the religion of Christianity has discouraged some believers to the point that they have given up hope of ever knowing the real truth about God until after death.

Never Pure

We err when we think of Christianity as something that was once pure but now is corrupt. The religious system of Christianity has never been of God. There is no such thing as restoring Christianity to its original purity because it was of Satan from the moment it appeared.

Christianity was officially established when believers blended with the Roman Empire, and it remains a mixture of faith in Jesus and worldliness. But Roman Emperors and Popes enforced their twisted version of the faith with military and political might. The simple truth of Jesus was outlawed in favor of a more fashionable and less charismatic faith, and those who opposed this Roman version of the gospel were persecuted to the death.

If

If Christianity is the way of Christ, how were the Popes and their Christian crusader armies of the Middle Ages "turning the other cheek" as they plundered their way across eastern Europe, raping and murdering defenseless people on their way to rescue the "Holy Land" from infidels? And how much more wretched a life could "infidels" have been living than were those "soldiers of the cross"? Remember, it was the Pope's worthless guarantee of heavenly bliss for any who died in this superstitious venture which spurred the crusaders to ever greater boldness in their grisly trek to Palestine.

Who really believes that the Lamb of God inspired Christian leaders to torture and murder multiplied thousands in Europe and in the New World who refused to submit to their doctrines? Who really believes that Jesus inspired the persecution and slaughter of righteous men and women through the centuries, those condemned as heretics by Christianity's money-loving, power-hungry clergy? It is impossible that Christianity's entanglement in politics can be justified, when Jesus plainly said that his kingdom is not of this world!

Coming Out

God's people do not belong in Christianity, and the harder they try to fit in, the less power and joy they have. Christianity allows only a small measure of freedom to those who are within its white-washed gates, and it is for that reason that the Father is calling for all who love Him to come out of it. If you obey this earnest call of God, you can be certain that God will be pleased and that Christians will persecute you. It is the Christian way of doing things to slander those who hear from Jesus and obey him.

The "charismatic" movement of a few years ago, so full of promise in the beginning, degenerated into a faith of catch-phrases because those involved tried to fit their liberating experience with the baptism of the holy Spirit into Christianity. The same thing happened with the revival of the Pentecostal baptism in the early twentieth century. In time, as Pentecostal sects grew in numbers, they became just something else for God's people to come out of. As saints of generations past endured persecution for coming out of the Catholic and Anglican sects and, later, out of the Baptist, Methodist, and other Christian sects, so today, those who hunger for God's righteousness are coming out of groups that boast nobler-sounding names, such as Assembly of God, Pentecostal Holiness, Church of God, and the like.

Mixing life in the Spirit with Christianity has never succeeded in leading believers to the knowledge of God, and it never will. To get it, you must come out! Christianity has put to death every revival of true holiness that God has ever sent us. And it accomplishes its poisoning of spiritual life by persuading God's children to "stay in the Church." Believing that, children of God quench the Spirit so they can fit into Christianity's deadened form, but when the Spirit is quenched, so is joy, wisdom, and power.

Child of God, awake to righteousness! Jesus did not die to bring about Christianity; rather, he died to free us from sin. Joining one of Christianity's sects is not a work of the Spirit; rather, it is something the flesh chooses to do, and it neither honors the Son nor pleases the Father. It is a deed done in the flesh by the will of man, and it has no place in God's kingdom. "Come out of her, My people!" Given enough time, Christianity would kill every ounce of true spiritual life on this planet. Christianity itself is antichrist, in its nature, its conflicting doctrines, and its ceremonial forms.

A Divine Commandment

God has been very merciful and patient with us, but how much longer will He endure the dishonor brought upon the name of Jesus by Christianity? In the final analysis, we must choose between being a faithful follower of Jesus Christ or being a faithful member of Christianity. The Spirit is pleading to God's family, as it has pleaded since God's saints began joining themselves to those without the Spirit, "Come out of her, my people, so that you do not participate in her sins, so that you do not receive of her plagues, for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her unrighteous deeds" (Rev. 18:4-5). God's cry for us to "come out of her" is a cry for us to "Come out of Christianity!" Christianity is a corrupt, thoroughly confused, and hopelessly divided religion which is of the flesh and opposes the power and truth of Jesus.

"Come out of her, my people!" That, my dear reader, is a divine commandment, not a carnal suggestion.

Differences Between the Holy Way of God
and the Unholy Ways of Christianity

1. Members of the body of Christ: people who receive God's Spirit (Rom. 8:9; 1Jn. 3:24).
   Members of Christian Churches: people who join.
2. Jesus' method of becoming a member of his body: baptism of the Spirit (1Cor. 12:13).
   Christianity's way of becoming a member: joining.
3. Jesus' family: those who do God's will (Mt. 12:48f).
   Christianity's family: those who join it.
4. Jesus' place of worship: in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:23-24).
   Christianity's places of worship: church buildings.
5. Jesus' Sabbath: the Spirit (Mt. 11:28; Isa. 28:11-12).
   Christianity's Sabbath: Sunday (some, Saturday).
6. Jesus' communion: fellowship with God and His saints in the Spirit (1Cor. 10:15-17).
   Christianity's communion: ceremonial consumption of dead earthly matter: wafers, wine, grape juice, etc.
7. Jesus' "Word of God": what God says (Mt. 4:4).
   Christianity's "Word of God": the Bible.
8. Jesus' garments for worship: righteousness (Rev. 19:8), praise (Isa. 61:3), and humility (1Pet. 5:5).
   Christianity's garments for worship: choir robes and ministerial vestments.
9. Jesus' weapons: faith, love, peace, joy, and other qualities of the Spirit (2Cor. 10:3-4).
   Christianity's weapons: money, political and social activism, and, at times, torture and military weapons.
10. Jesus' baptism: the holy Spirit and fire (Mt. 3:11).
    Christianity's baptisms: various ways, using water.
11. Jesus' cross: denying self and doing the will of God. (Mt. 10:38; 16:24; Gal. 6:12-14; Phip. 3:18-19).
    Christianity's cross: symbol of the Roman tool of torture.