This post gives general information concerning witnessing to cults.
MAKS I figured that this would be a good place to start. This tells what's going to be talked about, the manner of presentation, etc. This may answer or put to rest what many may think of the presentation. This seminar occurred back int 1976. It was several days and I have loaned several of the tapes out that never came back. The speaker is Michael Van Buskirk. He was about 30-40, and very well educated. He knows his Greek and Hebrew, and was good friends with several of the scholars that wrote books on things like "Rules for Greek Interpretation". I think I still have the tape where he talks about this. This is the edited version of postings that went out in February of 1992. I've cut some of the extra comments out, but you should be able to find the separations like "CARISx - xxxxxxxxxxx" telling where the breaking points are. Anytimes "I" am speaking, I'll try to have the familiar "MAKS" starting the comment.
Anyhow, on to our introduction of the seminar:
"As the pastor said, we're going to have a little shift on your spiritual diet this evening. And, he kind of likened the alternate meal to meatloaf. I might maybe even gear that down a little bit and it's kind of viewed quite often as maybe broccoli or spinach, because a lot of times we have to say what people don't want to hear, and I want to take that opportunity to thank the pastor and I think you ought to feel fortunate for having a pastor who isn't afraid to look at the other side of the coin or host a series of talks such as we have for you in the next 3 nights.
"... Because quite often people, you know, they like you to present the positive side of Christianity. You know, Jesus said, 'Suffer the children to come unto Me." and you know, "Come unto Me all ye who are heavy ladened and I will give you rest." and all they want to hear is the positive. And quite often they see, when we talk about other groups that confront the gospel of Christ, as being negative.
Let me say at the outset, that we're not looking at it in the negative light. How many of you did bring your "True Word". Remember what the pastor called it? The term, The true textbook for the Christians. Good.
Because if you're going to have any success what so ever dealing with the cultists or occultists it's going to have to be from the scriptures, quite obviously. :... info on other nights...:
The Apostle Paul tells us in I Tim 4:1 that "The Spirit speaks expressly that in the latter days some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and the teachings of the demons." And, this is what we are seeing in the latter days. The church is confronted with it, on our doorstep. We have, not only the hard-core occultists, the Black Masses, we actually have cultists coming to our door bringing the various different gospels.
So, if the Christian isn't prepared, and have good viable answers, and also, to know what he believes. and also why he believes what he believes, he's going to run into trouble at the doorstep. Because the average cultist or those who fall into the non-Christian cults category, they can use their Bible quite handily. And, if you are really aren't grounded in knowing why you believe, why you believe in the deity of Christ, why do you believe in the doctrine of the Trinity. You know, why is the Holy Spirit a person? If you don't really understand why you believe these, they're going to virtually steam roll you at the door. Because they're going to come up with a few "proof texts" which, as far as they're concerned, prove that, "Jesus was a creature", "He wasn't the eternal God.", or "He was merely one god among a pantheon of gods." or whatever the case may be. And, you're going to have a really rough time.
In dealing with the various non-Christian cults, one of the major problems that is facing the Christian, and they really don't realize it and it has to be mentioned, we have to spend a little bit of time on it, is the problem of semantics. Word games. Redefinition of terms. And if you don't understand it, or realize that there is a definite problem there, between the Christian and those who are involved in various non-Christian cults, you're going to have, virtually, hardly any success what so ever.
Because you can have a dialog with a Christian Scientist about how Jesus died for your sins and that He is the Son of God, etc. and they will agree with you, almost verbatim on the various different points. Yes, we believe that. We believe that, yes. But, it's always a redefinition of terms.
It's important for you to define your terms, so you know exactly, what you're speaking about, and they know exactly what you're talking about. Okay?"
CARIS2 - Introduction and background.
"Because you can talk to someone and you can say "Jesus is the Son of God." and they can say, "Well, I believe that." Then you have to take it a step further. "Do you believe that Jesus is God the Son, Second person of the Trinity, the Eternal Word, Incarnate?" And, without exception, the answer is always, "No!"
"No, We just believe He is God the Son." and then they'll expound upon their interpretation of who Jesus of Nazareth was.
So, if you don't define your terms, you're going to be talking about one thing, they're going to be talking about another thing, or interpreting what you have to say. And I think this can be best illustrated, very simply, from using, for example, the word "strike". You know, what does the word "strike" mean? Obviously it depends on the context.
You know it means one thing to a bowler, it's pretty good. Right? But, it has a complete opposite meaning to a baseball player. It's bad news for a baseball player. But yet for a truck driver walking a picket line, it's completely different too. He's going to walk the picket line and pound the concrete temporarily, but, in a month or whenever the strike's settled, he's going to get a substantial raise. So you can just see how the word "strike" has various different meanings, and unless you have the context, and know exactly what you're talking about, it can be mis-interpreted. So it's important for you to define your terms.
The 500 most common words in the English language have 10,000 dictionary definitions. So there is definitely a problem, and if you're not specific in what you're talking about, it's not going to be interpreted correctly.
For example, in the doctrine of the Trinity, also. Some people believe when you tell people you believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, it's interpreted quite often as, what's called a mode-a-lis-tic(?) concept of God. In other words, "Well, you believe Jesus was the Father." You know, there's 3 Gods, and there's 1, or there's 3 persons and there was 3 gods, or 1 god who was 1 person. Or, Jesus was the Father, Jesus was the Son, and He became the Holy Spirit. Or, maybe the Father was the Holy Spirit, and it's jumbled up, quite often, unless you define your terms.
And a brief, succinct definition of the Trinity is that "Within the nature of the One True God, there are three eternal persons, or distinctions. Namely, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Co-equal, Co-eternal." Okay?
When you talk to a JW for example, you have to be very definitive in this, because to a JW, God is the Father alone. Jehovah is God the Father, alone. And when you're trying to talk on the deity of Christ, you say, "Well, I believe Jesus is God." up here(JW's head), it's interpreted as "You're trying to tell me that Jesus is God the Father." See? There's no way around it. You have go into it, and elaborate. No, I don't believe that Jesus is the Father.
You know, take time. State it, and re-state it if it's necessary. Because this is how it's interpreted to a JW. "No. How could He be God the Father?" and right away they think John 17, Jesus prayed in the garden to His Father. So, who did He pray to, Himself? And they ask all sorts of questions like this. Because, this is how they interpret it. They have a definition of God, He alone is the Father. You're going to try and prove from the scriptures that Jesus is also called God, and to them you're trying to say Jesus is the Father, which the Bible doesn't teach nor does Christianity hold that position.
Why? Because the Bible doesn't teach that, quite obviously. But, they don't know that. And you have to tell them exactly what you believe because they have the misconception from the Watch Tower. The Watch Tower, quite often in it's publications, is very famous for this, will build a straw man. Okay? Christendom believes in this, and they'll wipe it out with some of the scriptures. For example, in the back of the Awake, they always have this little section in the Awake magazine which the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society puts out. You know how many they have to put out? 10 million per issue(1976), bi-monthly. That's just to put things in context, to give you a little bit of insight there as far as the challenge the church faces just from one group, numbering barely over 2 million.
They put out 10 million Awakes and Watch Towers also, per issue, bi-monthly, so we're talking about 40 million publications put out by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society monthly, not counting the new publications, the hard backed books, put out. Of course, obviously has one of the biggest printing presses going as far as the non-Christian cults. But, they're there and they put out a tremendous amount of literature.
In Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians, he tells us that there is another Jesus. How many are familiar that the Bible teaches that there is another Jesus. Anyone familiar with that?"
CARIS3 - Another Jesus
"I want you to make a note of this. This is a common denominator in all non-Christian cults, and it's a denial of the Lord Jesus Christ as God Incarnate, the One God Incarnate, the Eternal Word becoming man in time and space and dying for the sins of the world.
Let's take a look for a moment at that scripture in II Corinthians, Chapter 11. The Apostle Paul is quite clear and he writes in verse 3, "But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you have received another spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted you might well bear with him."
The Apostle Paul tells us that there is another Jesus being preached, and there is another gospel being preached and it's being propagated and pushed by another spirit. And this is the Jesus of all non-Christian cults, and the occult also, without exception. There is always the denial that the Lord Jesus Christ was Jehovah God in the flesh. Now, not the Father, but He was the Eternal Word, who in time and space became man. John 1:14, "The Word became flesh." and He tabernacled among His creation. Okay?
But this is without exception. If you ever want to know, as far as the various different groups.. They come out with so many different groups. We get calls at CARIS, long distance calls, local calls, letters. "Do you have anything on this group?" and they'll write it out, you know, and I'll go "Wow. I've never heard of it." Someone will call up, "Well, what about this?" and it really grieves me that they're being mass produced faster than we can even get information on them.
But the Lord Jesus, as we covered this morning, in Matthew 24 said that this is ultimate sign of the last days, that many false Christs will arise. So it's kind of paradoxical in a sense, and I have kind of mixed feelings. It grieves me that here's another group that's going to be ripping off people, propagating another gospel. But yet, on the other hand, I know it's another sign of the consummation of the age. We are, at that point where the Lord Jesus Christ is about to return.
But, if the Christian is confronted with these various different groups and you don't know "Well, is it Christian?" because they claim to be compatible with Christianity. You remember we mentioned this morning, there's basically 3 different kinds of groups that you run into."
CARIS4 - 3 Types of Groups
"There will be the ARISTOCENTURY GROUPS. Otherwise, they are the exclusive community of the saved. You know, for example, Jehovah Witnesses. They alone are God's organization. If you're not a Jehovah Witness, you're going to be destroyed at Armageddon. It's that simple. Make no bones about it. That's what they teach. That's what they believe. I don't care what they tell you on the doorstep like, "Well, maybe you'll make it, or what ever." The only way you'll make it is if you're a Jehovah Witness. Okay?
Mormonism. They're the restored church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints. You know there was a great apostocy, Joseph Smith went out into the woods to pray to find out which sect he should join, God the Father appeared to him, and the Lord Jesus Christ told him not to join any of them. They were all an abomination of their creeds or an abomination to Him. Okay. They follow the doctrine of men. And, he started you know, what's called the Mormon Church today.
Garner Ted Armstrong and Herbert W., the Radio Church of God. They're another aristocentury group. They are, well in the latest issue of their Good News Publication which is put out from Ambassador College in Pasadena. Herbert W was expounding isn't kind of neat that God the Father and His Son, it's a Father and Son routine or pair, governing the universe, and isn't it kind of neat that He has a father and son counterpart watching over the world also, which obviously is Herbert W and Garner Ted.
So these are what's called aristocentury groups. They alone are the exclusive community of the saved.
Then there's the OTHER ONES which fall into, you know, pretty much everyone else; Unitarians, Unity School of Christianity, the various different religious science groups, groups like this to where, you know, they're a Christian because everyone else is. You see, you're born in America. You're a Christian. You believe in Jesus. It doesn't matter that he's Michael the Archangel, but you believe in him. Doesn't matter that he's a creature, but you believe in him so you're a Christian. See?
Then the THIRD CATEGORY we have is those are obviously on another path to God, or Nirvana, or Samatti, or some of the Eastern thoughts or a different philosophy, but yet it's compatible with what Jesus taught.
You're going to run into groups that will fall into one of the three categories. And we don't expect you to be experts, nor are we trying to make you experts in all the cults and non-Christian cults because it would take forever. But we would like you to be experts on the Lord Jesus Christ. See? Because you can get so familiar with the original product that the Bible teaches on who Jesus is, that the instant a counterfeit comes in, you can spot it like that.
So this is a guideline, a touch stone, for you to ask when you come across a group or someone's passing out tracts at the local supermarket or the drive in, you don't know nothing about them, you look on the back, you don't know if it is a recognized gospel publishing house. You don't know nothing about them...
The acid test you can put them to is: "Who is Jesus of Nazareth?" They'll say, "Well, he's the son of god." "He was the Christ." or they'll give you what ever their position is.
And then take it a step further. "Well, was He God the Son, the second person of the Trinity?" Press them on it. Find out who their Jesus is, because there is, according to the Apostle Paul, another Jesus being preached, and it's not the Jesus of the Bible.
Because the Bible tells us He was the incarnate deity. He was God, manifested in flesh, in a given time, space and dimension, approximately 2,000 years ago. And He died for the sins of the world, and he bore the sins of the world in His own body on the tree. And FAITH ALONE IN HIM SAVES, not any works, any set of rules, doctrine, etc. that your church may set down, but FAITH ALONE IN CHRIST, apart from works, WILL SAVE.
Find out. Ask them, "Who is Jesus?" and then carry it out.
Now, we get up here and perhaps you might think, "How can we say these groups aren't Christian? We thought, you know, as long as you believe in Jesus, you are a Christian", etc. That is true. But it is important, imperative, to have the right Jesus. Isn't that true?"
CARIS5 - The Right Jesus, Mormons
"Jesus said, in John 8:24, you might want to write it down, "...that you will die in your sins, that unless you believe that 'I am' you WILL die in your sins." and He applies the divine name to Himself. Unless you believe who He is, incarnate deity, you will die in your sins.
Now all these other groups have a testimony of Jesus. They all believe in Him in one form or another.
Mormons, for example, who is their Jesus? Well, they believe He's the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Wow! You know, you talk to a Mormon missionary when he comes to your door on his 10 speed or something. You say, "Well, there's this guy who says you aren't a Christian or something because you don't believe in Jesus." "Oh, we believe in Jesus. We believe He's God. Yes, he's God, He's the Jehovah of the Old Testament." (You) "Wow! That's really right on. That's very Biblical. He IS the Jehovah of the Old Testament." That sounds good. Then what do you do?
But again, defining terms, Jesus is the Jehovah of the Old Testament, but Elohim was His father, and Jesus is merely one god among a pantheon of gods. That's all. There's nothing distinctly unique about the Lord Jesus as far as being God because the Mormon missionary has the opportunity become a god too. See? Just like the Lord Jesus.
And, Mormonism doesn't teach this doctrine today, but Brigham Young, in fact they say Brigham Young never even taught the doctrine, but Brigham Young who was the second president, or considered a Mormon prophet on par with Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, etc., taught that Jesus Christ came about from a sexual union between Adam, the first man in the garden, and the virgin Mary, and He is the offspring of that union. That is the Lord Jesus that Brigham Young taught.
Now let me empathize this. Mormonism does not teach this today. In fact, like I mentioned, they say that Brigham didn't even teach this, but it's well documented within Mormon publications, and they're trying, they're under pressure right now, there's a court case going on. (1976) Dr. Walter Martin, who is director of Christian Research Institute, and speaks quite extensively on Mormonism, he is a direct decedent of Brigham Young, he was speaking on Mormonism in West Minister in southern CA, and a Mormon elder got up and called him a liar, and he(Dr. Martin) was misrepresenting their literature, etc. and he slandered him. And, this happened about a year ago and Dr. Martin gave him an opportunity to apologize because "you're slandering me publicly", etc. and said he was misrepresenting the Mormon doctrine. And, the gentleman would not retract his statements, so Dr. Martin told him, that the Bible says not to take our brothers to court. But being that Mormons aren't our brothers in the Lord because they have a completely different God, that it doesn't apply to them.
So, right now(1976) the Mormon church is under liable suit and the trial will come up and will likely go to trial in July of next year. And the Mormons will have to get under oath and prove that Birgham didn't teach this doctrine, and believe me, they're hung, because they have tons of documentation and it's going to be brought out, under oath, and be given well documented testimony, and they're going to be having the Mormon church, under oath, expounding as far as their position they're going to have to back up. And, Dr. Martin's quite excited because he feels it's going to be quite an evangelistic tool for the Christian for evangelizing the Mormon Church, those who are involved in the Mormon Church, approximately 3.5 million people. Because it will finally come to light that Brigham did teach this, and this is totally a doctrine to be abhorred by Christians, because this certainly isn't Biblical.
What about the Jesus of the Jehovah Witnesses?:"
CARIS6 - The Right Jesus, Jehovah Witnesses
"They believe in the King Christ Jesus, in fact he took over... (Talks about JW talk the next night. I don't think I have this tape. I "loaned" it out.) ... But what is their position on the Lord Jesus Christ? Again, they believe in Jesus. He took over the kingdom invisibly in 1914. He cleansed the temple in 1918. And, they're just waiting now for his return. Invisibly because he was resurrected an immortal spirit creature. He died for the sins of the world, but He didn't rise bodily, He was resurrected an immortal spirit creature. Okay? And He, who is Jesus according to them? He's Michael the Archangel, first and direct creation of Jehovah God. The Father created, you know, the Logos, or Michael the Archangel, as His first and direct creation. Then, through Him, okay, through Jesus as the agency, or He was really Michael the Archangel in His pre-incarnate state, He created everything else. Okay?
A very interesting scripture, I think you may want to write down and look up, is Isaiah 44:24 dealing with creation. It says, "Thus saith the Lord," or Jehovah, " Thy Redeemer and He who formeth Thee from the womb. I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretched forth the heavens alone, and spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself." Jehovah God spread forth the heavens alone, and He did the earth by Himself. It doesn't say that He used a super angel named Michael. Now Jesus is either the Jehovah Who did it, or we have a Biblical contradiction.
But they teach that He is Michael the Archangel. And, He ceased existing as Michael the Archangel. He was annihilated. Okay? And then was put in the womb of the virgin Mary, was born a perfect man, lived a perfect life, was baptized at the age of 30 and "became" the Christ. He wasn't Christ at birth. He became the Christ when He was baptized. And then, He was crucified on a torture stake, was resurrected, became an immortal spirit creature. So the Jesus of Jehovah Witnesses is spirit, man, spirit, or angel, man, angel. That's who the Jesus of the Jehovah Witnesses is. Now He's Michael the Archangel again. And, one of the publications says, "Well, He merely retains the name Jesus Christ merely for identification in heaven, but He's again, Michael the Archangel.
Now, is that Christian? Is that what the Bible teaches? So you can see why, as Christians, we have to speak out against various doctrines like this. They're not the only ones. That's just the two main major ones, the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses are the most evangelistic of the non-Christian cults.
Now, I don't know how it is in this area but there's other groups getting more evangelistic as far as going from door to door. There's The Way International. We're heaing of them over in the Anaheim area where I live, in Orange County. They're going from door to door. The Way International is headed by Dr. Victor Paul Weirwool(?), and basically they're Unitarians with charismatic gifts, if you can believe that. They speak in tongues, and they, you know, deny the deity of Christ, also the personality of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is an "IT", and that Jesus wasn't God. In fact, in one of his books entitled if I'm not mistaken is "Jesus Christ is not God". I mean it's very simple and he's very clear in his position. Okay?
Again, what is He? If He's not God, He's what? He's a creature. If He's not Creator, He is creature. You have no other choice.
Also, in our area, Scientologists are even going door to door, which really amazes me.
CARIS7 - Witnessing Examples
"In fact, this weekend, (1976) we would have liked to track it, but they had a large convention in the Anaheim Convention Center, right across the street from Disneyland. And from what I understand, there was approximately 10,000 Scientoligists expected to attend. (...more on this item. Being old, I'll skip it...)
... and we just got through spending 3 weekends on Hollywood Park Race Track in Inglewood tracking the Watch Tower district assemblies this summer. They had 3 of them, 3 consecutive weekends in a row. And, we got Christians together, thousands of tracts, signs and posters, and went down and had a fantastic time evangelizing Jehovah Witnesses. Out people went in and believe me they were paranoid.
I mean, if you walked in and you didn't have, ah, the appearance of a Jehovah Witness, you know, shorter hair, mustache isn't going to come past the corners of your lips, you didn't carry the little "green phantom", the New World Translation. I mean if you were visibly, to perhaps you didn't look like a Jehovah Witness, first thing they said was, "Are you a born again Christian?" and then they said, "Now, you wouldn't lie would you?" And, when we said, "Yes." then "Out!" You weren't even allowed on the premises despite it was a public lecture. We even broke out a photostat of a May 15, 1976 Watch Tower that invited everyone publicly to the lecture. But, they wouldn't let you in. Why? Because they didn't want the "born again" Christians in there.
No one was carrying tracts. It wasn't as if we were going to go in there and pass out tracts. We were going to go in, and during the lunch hour, and share Jesus, because they have about 1 hour and 45 minute lunch hours. You know it takes a while to feed 30,000 people, which is approximately how many were at these assemblies. And, during that hour and 45 minutes, we were just going to share Jesus, from the scriptures. No tracts, no pushing our church, no pushing nothing. All we wanted to do was share Jesus. And, security was tight. It was as if they were paranoid. In fact, one of the questions they asked was "Where are you from? Do you go to Calvary Chapel or Melody Land?" If you said, "Yes." it was like the hex, you were possessed or what ever. They didn't want nothing to do with you. Okay?
But when they left, there we were. We were on all the major street corners with signs and thousands of tracts. And we passed out thousands of tracts and the Lord blessed, and we had a good time. And, it was well worth the trouble, the work, and the effort that was put into it. It was a lot of work, a lot of trouble, very tiring, very taxing. If you went to this Jesus 76 thing the other day, you know how physically it drains you. (Hey, I *DID* go to "this Jesus 76 thing"!) This was basically the same, but it was a blessing, and people are going to be in the kingdom of God because some Christians decided to drive. See we were coming from Orange County to Inglewood. We were driving an hour 1 way just to go down there and tract, and we were doing it 2 days a week. Because we tracted the convention on Sunday, but the Saturday before we were passing out these "Beware" tracts which we'll talk more about tomorrow. And we were passing around the neighborhood which warns people of the Watch Tower's method of sucking them into their book studies.
So we were passing them out on Saturdays to the neighborhood and we were evangelizing the Jehovah Witnesses on Sunday. A lot of work, but a lot of blessings, believe me. God blessed us, and we're blessed and we know for a fact because God's word does not go out void. That there will be people in the Kingdom of Heaven because some Christians decided to not watch the Sunday afternoon football game, and got in their car and drove an hour 1 way, and went down there and stood in the hot sun and smoldering asphalt, and tracted Jehovah Witnesses, and had a good old time. Despite the persecution which I think was really something as far as the Christians received.
You know, Jehovah Witnesses are very persecution oriented, you know. There's nothing better than a Jehovah Witness likes to be and that's persecuted. Because, you know, if you're persecuted, Jesus said, "Blessed are you for, you know, you'll receive many blessings," Matthew 5 "and great is your reward in the Kingdom of Heaven." And so, they are really Christians because they're the only ones who are being persecuted.
But, unfortunately, the average Jehovah Witness didn't know what was going on as far as with the security outside. They couldn't believe that they wouldn't even let us in. In fact, one sister, she was standing outside the gate and she would say, "Is this the public lecture?" and the people walking, "Well yes, come on in with us." "Well, I can't go in, he(the guard) wouldn't let me in." The security had to stand there and tell everyone who walked in who she talked to, why they wouldn't let her in, and they had to produce some type of explanation. See? But they were really, really paranoid.
But as I started to say, the Scientoligists...."
CARIS8 - The Right Jesus - Moonies, Unity, etc.
"... Scientoligists are going door to door, and with their large convention in Anaheim, we just couldn't tract it because we can only do so much. But, they are also going door to door. They, again, deny the deity of Christ.
How about the Unification Church of Reverend Sun Yung Moon? How many of you've heard about the Unification Church? There's been a lot of publicity in the paper, there have been Senate investigating committees, in fact, President Ford's (Told you it was an old tape) running mate, Senator Doyle from Kansas, was one of the Senators, which I was very pleased too, was heading an unofficial investigation into Unification Church. I've written him, sent him information, and we got back a lot of information from him dealing with the Unification Church. But, we have Reverend Sun Yung Moon who claims to be, Christianity. They came to the Los Angeles area in the end of 1974 on his New Hope Tour, and we were there with about 70 Christians and 10,000 tracts, and we had a glorious time evangelizing the Moonies.
But Moon's position on the Lord Jesus Christ? Again, He wasn't God. In fact, Jesus even failed in His mission. You know, Jesus attained spiritual salvation for mankind, but Moon's going to attain physical salvation. In fact, Jesus really blew it, he never got married and really didn't have an opportunity to attain physical salvation. Okay? And, Moon is going to provide it for the world, Reverend Sun Yung Moon, the third Adam. Or, he's the man of the hour as far as the Unification Church goes.
Christian Scientists, and the various different gnostic, or the religious scientists groups, you know, mind science, religious science, new thought, Unity, what's their position on the Lord Jesus Christ? It's all essentially the same, and they make the distinction between Jesus and the Christ. Okay, they believe in Jesus. They believe He's the son of god, but, who isn't? You see? And Christ is merely a principle or a state of conscienceness that we all attain, and Jesus just happened to attain it. That's why Jesus was the Christ. He wasn't Jesus, the Anointed of Jehovah, Jesus the Messiah, but He was Jesus Christ because He merely attained this particular status, and they make this division between Jesus and Christ.
The Apostle John, if you want to turn to his first epistle, he spoke out against a similar error back in his day. People, essentially Gnostics who have the same position, separated the Christ from the man Jesus, and they tried to make a division. And in I John 2:21 says "I have not written to you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth." Verse 22, "Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is anti-christ who denies the Father and the Son." Okay? Those who make a division between Jesus and Christ. They make Christ a state which is attainable for all, instead of Jesus being who? Messiah the King. They make that division.
This is common denominator in all the various mind science, religious science groups. There's various different shades of it, but essentially they're merely different expressions of the same thought.
How about some of the different groups, some of the more recent ones we're confronting with, you know, the various different eastern philosophies, transcendental meditation. You know this is being propagated quite widely now. You know, Maharishi(?). According to the October 13, '75 Time magazine says that 30,000 people a month are being initiated through transcendental meditation, because, you know, it's merely a science of creative intelligence, and it helps you release tension and anxiety, etc. and there's tons of information available. If you've ever been at a TM center and picked up some of their literature, like the Fundamentals of Progress or what ever. How things like graphs and charts and all these different lines and everything and all the different benefits and aspects that are beneficial for you in transcendental meditation.
In, Marharishi's theology, shall we say, Jesus is God, but everyone is god, shall we say"
CARIS9 - The Right Jesus - Eastern & TM.
"He teaches that man is 100% divine. And this is a common denominator in all eastern philosophies and occultic mystic beliefs. Man is God. All the various different yoga systems, I don't care whether it's the YWCA kind of Yoga, what ever it is. Yoga is basically from the word "yoking" which means union, and it's always union with God. The end result and the primary purpose is, your union with God. The total abolishment of self into the impersonal deity. This is a common denominator. There is the macro-cosm, which is the big universe out there, which is God. God is the impersonal universe. Man is merely the reflection of the impersonal universe. Man is the micro-cosm, or the small reflection of what's out there, the Macro-cosm. So, if the Macro-cosm is God, and man is merely a reflection of it, then man is what? God.
But, he just doesn't know it. And through the various different Yoga techniques, the various different meditations, man goes within and finds himself, finds the answer, and he finds out he is, according to Marharishi, 100% divine. So, the Lord Jesus is God, according to Marharishi and the Hindu philosophy, but He's God because so are you. You just really don't realize it. And, through transcendental deep meditation, after you find out that, or get into it, you find out it's really a religious practice, really Hinduism in disguise, being propagated as a sign of creative intelligence. And when it's really a religious practice. This is seen in the initiation ceremony.
You bring your fresh fruit, your flowers and your clean white handkerchief, and you bring it in, and your TM instructor lays it on the alter, and everything is offered up to guru dead, who is the Marharishi's dead and departed master. They go through this ceremony and they say everything in Sanskrit, which is this language, and you don't understand a single word they are saying.
And you say, "Well, what did you say?" "Well, it's merely tradition. We go through the tradition. This is what makes the Mantra work." After you're initiated, they say the Puja(?), you get your Mantra which you meditate upon. "But we have to be faithful to the tradition because this is what really makes TM work."
Well, we have the English translation of the Puja now. (MAKS They had the tracts back then, but money was tight and I didn't get the pack. If I can ever find the address, perhaps someone in CA can trace it down. Like I said, their "branch offices" were sometimes called "Help Jesus". Maybe they are in the phone book.<MAKS) ... and it lets you know what the TM instructor is really saying. And, yes it is tradition, but you're also participating in bowing down to Brahman, Vishnu, and Ceava, (MAKS What's the correct spelling on this?<MAKS) the Hindu Trinity, and the personification of Guru dead, but you don't know that. Why? Because it's not a religious practice.
Why can't it be a religious practice? Because when Marharishi first came here, he didn't understand the separation of church and state in the first amendment. And, when he first came it was a religion, when the Beatles made it popular, etc. And, it kind of faded a little bit, and Marharishi brought it back, not as a religion, but as a science of creative intelligence. And, right now that is also involved in a very important court case in New Jersey. (1976) You might be in prayer for because this will unmask it for what it really is, a religious practice and Marharishi will get it for consumer fraud, and then the IRS steps in, and pretty soon Marharishi will be eating rice again, instead of living high.
But all the various different eastern groups have the same common denominator, as far as man. Man is going to become God."
CARIS10 - Man becomes God? Hardly.
"The eastern thought, they aren't the only ones who teach this. You know, the Mormons, they teach that every man can become God. As Mormons are married in the temple as part of the Melchizedek priesthood, he has an opportunity to become a god, and, in the resurrection, go somewhere and have his own planet and procreate children and set up something like we're set up here, which is very, very palatable.
In fact, I got a letter from someone who used to attend my Cults class at Calvary Chapel a couple of weeks ago and they were saying they were witnessing to some Mormons. They just moved over to Phoenix, AZ and they said they were witnessing to a Mormon missionary. And, they were going through the scriptures with him. And he told them this, and this staggers my mind, he said that "I would rather follow Satan into Hell than to lose my opportunity to become a god." Isn't that tragic, that someone would actually take that position?
But this is what's promised to people. The promise of Divinity.
Garner Ted Armstrong, and the Radio Church of God, they have the same position, but basically they go a little bit further than even Mormonism. Mormons just promise that you're going to become a god. Radio Church says you're going to become GOD. See?
One scripture brings this into context, if you want to write it down. Isaiah 43:10: "You are my witnesses," says Jehovah, "and My servant in whom I have chosen: that you may KNOW, BELIEVE, and UNDERSTAND." Pretty clear, right? I want you to KNOW this, I want you to BELIEVE this, I want you to UNDERSTAND this. ... "That *I AM*: before Me was there was no God formed, and neither shall there be any formed after me." which is very Dis-Heartening to all those in the eastern thought, the various non-Christian cults that promise divinity to... fallen creatures.
Very palatable, to have divinity waiting for you in the hereafter, or further down the road. But, God said "It's not going to happen."
And there's an interesting verse in Jeremiah 10:11: "Thus you shall say to them, the Gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens." And you can ask all those who have aspirations of deity, "Did you help create the heavens and the earth?"
"Well, No. Never."
"Well then the Word of God says, '... the Gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish ..." That's you, if you have aspirations of deity. It's not going to happen.
So you see, there's a whole school of thoughts on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Satan will grant ANYTHING on the Lord Jesus Christ as far as His position. He'll say He was a prophet. You know Mohammadan, Muslims believe He was a great teacher, spiritist. He was a medium on the 7th astro projection. Or, He was a divine healer. He was God in the sense that He was a god among a pantheon of gods. Even the Radio Church of God grants that He's Jehovah of the Old Testament.
One form or another, Satan will grant on the position of the Lord Jesus Christ. Teacher, prophet, man of God, Rabbi, a god, etc. but there's always, always, always a denial of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only single One True God, in time and space, became flesh. Common denominator, don't forget it. It's a touchstone, it can be your yardstick, your ruler, that you can measure and gauge the other ones with.
Always ask the question, the all important one: "Jesus of Nazareth, Who is He?" That will be the question of the ages. They will stand or fall, they will stand before Him on judgement day, and their testimony of Him will decide their fate. If they hold any view less than what the scriptures teach, then they didn't believe in the Jesus of the Bible.
Yes, the Bible teaches that faith in the Lord Jesus saves, but which Jesus? Paul tells us that there is another one that's being preached, and it's just not the Jesus of the Bible. Any testimony that's less than that of what the Bible has to say is just not of God. If they speak not according to the law and the prophets, it is because there is no light in them.
CARIS11 - The Deity of Christ #1. John 1:1, John 20:28,
Now, some scriptures on the deity of Christ? Very briefly:
John 1:1, I think we're all very, very familiar with that. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." JW's mangle that in their New World Translation when they translate it "... and the word was a god." And you can argue all day long on the doorstep, well the word's god or a god. And they're going to break out their "Green Phantom" New World Translation and it's "a god" in the New World Translation and it was put out by some scholars who are not going to put their name on it due to humility, they don't want to be lifted up, they just want to lift up God's word, etc. And due to the absence of the article before the Greek word theos, so it's not "so god was the word" but it has to be "a god". And you can argue all day long with them on that.
I think John 1:1 is a very excellent outstanding scripture dealing with the deity of Christ and you don't even have to get to the third clause. "In the beginning *WAS* the Word..." and ask yourself "Where was the beginning?" or you can ask who ever your talking to. "Where was the beginning at?"
Hebrews 1:2 tells us that "The Father through the Son made the ages." So, if the Son made the ages, obviously He had to be *BEFORE* the ages.
So, we can take the beginning back BEFORE the ages even. No matter WHERE you place the beginning, no matter where on your system, or where it fits... In John 1:1, where ever the beginning was, The Word ALREADY WAS! You see that? It's brought out in the language. He was existing in the past tense. The Greek word "ang"(?) is the imperfect of "ammi"(?) (MAKS Sorry I'm not a Greek scholar, and I don't have a Greek bible for cross reference. If someone could supply the spelling. <MAKS)
The Word was in the past tense, already existing, in the "beginning". In the Beginning, He already *WAS*. So, no matter where they bring the beginning, the Word already existed in the past tense. It's very, very simple, the language brings it out.
Like A T Robertson in his "Word Pictures" says that "John couldn't have used a stronger word to bring out the eternalness the Logos there in John the first clause. Where ever the beginning was, He already existed, in the past tense. Then John goes on and says, "The Word was God." In fact, creation not even brought into the picture in the prologue of John until verse 3. Creation is not even spoken of. And yet, we have Jesus prior to creation, which means what? He's Creator. Very simple.
John 20:28. What do we have? We mentioned it this morning. Briefly, Thomas was doubting the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus appeared to him. And what did Thomas say? "My Lord and My God."
Now you have to take this in context. Just who was Thomas? He wasn't a converted Gentile believer, okay? Who was perhaps accustomed to many gods and many lords. He was a monotheistic Jew. And faced with the risen Christ, he could make no other confession other than Jesus was his Lord and his God. He says "(the Greek for the phrase)", "My Lord and my God." Monotheistic Thomas addressing Jesus as God. And, the Bible teaches quite clearly, that there is only what? One God. Okay?
MAKS This got long, so Titus 2:23 in the next posting....
CARIS12 - The Deity of Christ #2.
Titus 2:13, the explanation I was talking about.
In perhaps one more scripture dealing with the deity of Christ. Titus 2:13, "Looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our Great God and Savior." Now some people try to make a distinction between "the Great God" and "Savior" there, which is obviously Jesus Christ. Jehovah Witnesses do this. They grant that in Titus 2:13 "the Great God" is Jehovah, and the Lord Jesus Christ is obviously the "Savior" there, but speaking of 2 different persons there.
I remember I was in the Kingdom Hall one time. They were supposed to have a 4 week series on the Trinity, and I wanted to attend and hear what the latest "light" was. And, I was sitting way in the back and this guy was getting up there, talking on the Trinity, and he brought up Titus 2:13 as far as one of the "proof texts" Trinitarians always use that "Jesus is the Father", and they kind of slip that (Jesus is the Father) in there, see, because they build a straw man trying to show that Jesus wasn't the Father and it's very easy to prove that because He wasn't, the Bible doesn't teach that.
And, he reads from Titus 2:13, and he read from a couple of different translations, which any translation could have indicated very easily that there was 2 persons being spoken of there. And he says something very interesting:
"Well, so we can see that grammatically, Titus 2:13 can be translated 2 ways."
And I'm sitting in the back and BOING!!!!!!
I was taking Greek at the time and I was doing some heavy research obviously on scriptures that relate to the deity of Christ, and there was a Greek Rule which is called the Grandville Sharp Construction, which governs or is operable to Titus 2:13, which briefly states that "When you have 2 nouns of the same case ending, the first one has the article and the second one doesn't, the second is merely a further description of the first person mentioned." Which, obviously don't have to remember that, because you didn't get that or you didn't understand that, but that is the Grandville Sharp Rule. Okay? That's on page 147 of Dean and Mante's Greek Grammar in case you ever want to look it up and memorize it.
MAKS Can anyone check this, and make sure I have all the
spellings correct? Thanks.
CARIS13 - Witnessing for the Right Jesus #1...
Now, the various different non-Christian cults, and I call them non-Christian cults, because they are, and they are confronting the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's the church's position (the "body" of Christ), and it's you as Christians, to make a stand for the gospel.
You know the Apostle Paul said, what? "I am set for the defense of the gospel." You know a lot of times we can be standing around in a crowd like at work, or by the lunch truck, down in the cafeteria, talking to our neighbors, relatives or what ever, and we'll hear someone speaking on their Jesus as Michael the Archangel or what ever the case may be. And we know they're wrong.
By our silence, it's an affirmation of almost going along with them, because we're not speaking out against them. You see that? If we don't say nothing, they assume who ever is being spoken to... They figure, "Well, you're a Christian, and you're not speaking out against this or what ever, so obviously you must go along with it." And by our silence, quite often, you put a stamp of approval on what ever they're saying, if we don't speak out about it.
And unfortunately the church doesn't do it often enough because, "I don't want to be narrow-minded, or bigoted or people are going to label you that way. I just what to give them my 'Jesus loves you', etc. and my witness is through my life, and I'm going to go around smiling with everyone, one of these numbers you know.
Well, I have news for you, half of the non-Christian cults quite often could be set aside, or set aside our life, and they have perfectly good lives also. They do have a tremendous amount of works. They have a work program which is part of their salvation. But quite often, if we set as far as a good moral ethic as our shining light, we can be arranged along side of them and quite often they'll outshine us.
So merely by maintaining your witness with a big smile all the time, the cultists can maintain the same witness, and push the "other Jesus". And it's the church's position to make a stand, because believe me, if you don't make a stand, and speak out, who's going to? See, who's going to stand up in a crowd and say, "That's wrong!"?
And as Christians, we have to. It's the Jehovah Witnesses prerogative, the Mormon's prerogative, Gardner Ted Armstrong's prerogative, Marharishi, the rest of them. They can believe ANYTHING THEY WANT. Just like we have the privilege of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I'm not infringing on them and saying "Well, you're not allowed to believe this." That is not our position. They have the freedom to exercise their belief, just like we do. But it's not their privilege or their freedom to go around masquerading as Christians. Because, what they're saying is "THIS IS CHRISTIANITY." or "THIS IS COMPATIBLE WITH CHRISTIANITY." and unless *WE* speak out against it, no one else is going to.
And as the church, when "they" do say stuff like this, we have to, not just very mellowly or what ever stand up and say something, we have to jump up and say "HOLD ON! You can believe anything you want, but Christianity it is not." And we can not let them get away with pushing "another Jesus" and pushing it off as historic, orthodox Christianity.
And again, if the church doesn't take a stand, if the church doesn't speak out against the evil. Who's going to?
The Apostle Paul in Eph. 5:11 says "Have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose it." Quite often we come across that scripture and we can do 1 of 3 things. We can ignore the whole thing. Or we can take the first part, "Have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness." and at times we can do that quite easily. "Well, I'm not going to have anything to do with that, it's obviously evil."
But the third part is where we kind of start dragging our feet. "But rather expose it." Speak out against it. We're told to what, "Cleave tenaciously to that which is good." and to "Abhor that which is evil." We have no conflict what so ever with the cultist or occultist as individuals. We have to love them for Christ's sake, because they are dead in their sins. There's no difference between us and them, except we are sinners forgiven, saved by grace, and they're sinners still dead in their sins. That's the difference.
We are part of the church, saved, and they are what? What Jesus said in Matthew 7, "The broad road that leads to destruction..." and there is what, a whole bunch of people going down it.
We have to speak out against it. We have to love them for Christ's sake, speak out against their doctrine, not them as people.
And, if any of you had any misconceptions as far as what we do, or the methods. I'd like to clarify that. We have no opposition, no hard heartedness, no belligerence to the Jehovah Witnesses, the Mormons, the cultist, as individuals what so ever. But it's their system, their theology, that has to be abhorred by Christians, because it's what? Leading people to hell. Apart from fellowship with God.
There is no salvation what so ever, in believing Michael the Archangel died for your sins, because he just simply didn't. It's just that simple. And it's the church's position to "earnestly contend for the faith." Take a look at Jude 3 for a moment. I think it's an outstanding scripture, and you ought to write it down, and make mention of it.
"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful to write unto you, to exhort you, that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints." Otherwise, put up a stiff fight for the faith. Earnestly contend for it. As Christians we have to speak out and what, give reasons and answers of the hope that lies within us. Contend for the faith, because that is your position as a Christian.
I Peter 3:15 tells us to what?
CARIS14 - Witnessing for the Right Jesus #2...
I Peter 3:15 tells us to what? "To have for every man an answer of the hope that lies within you with meekness and reverence." That's not an option play that you get to run at your own will. Like in the service, I was in the Marine Corp and everyone has a basic job, and you're always infantry. No matter what you are, no matter what job you have in the Marines, you're infantry. Then you have what your job is, whether you're in supplies, whether you're a jet mech, whether you're a general, whether you're in communications, what ever the case is. You're basically an infantry man, THEN you have your job.
And it's almost the same thing in the body of Christ. We all have a basic function in the body of Christ. There's the shepherd, the pastor, but then there's arms, there's wings, there's kidneys, esophagus, parts of the body that are not comely that we never see or hear about, but yet the body can't really function very well with out them. We all have a specific function in the church and we all do that.
But yet, we all have a common job and that is what? To preach the gospel. And we're told in I Peter it's not an option, it's a commandment, to have for every man an answer of the hope that lies within you. And this is what the Christian Church should be doing, giving answers, defending the faith. Because we find the New Testament, approximately 41% of it is an apologetic document. We find the Lord Jesus and the disciples giving answers and reasons for their position and their faith. Speaking out against the evil and giving reasons of why they believe what they believe. Speaking out against those who would be perverting the Word of God, and leading them to eternal destruction.
You know people say, "Well that's not very Christian like, you know to kind of speak out and stuff like that." Obviously, there's a Christian way of doing it. I don't mean necessarily to jump on their chest or kick down a door and say "You're a weirdo and you're going to hell." See what I mean? I mean there are ways of doing it. You can do it in love.
The Apostle Peter in I Cor. 13 tells us what? That unless your motive is in love, you become like sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. In other words, forget it! Your motive HAS to be love when you minster to these people. Because occultist can detect this genuine sincerity in your witness to them. They really know when you're really concerned for their eternal welfare, or you just out trying to make notches on your King James. They can sense it in your witness. They understand the sincerity.
And if you're sincere, they may not agree with you right then. But the Holy Spirit will use your witness, and the Word of God which you've given them, He will not, what? Not let go out void.
Would like you for a moment to turn to Acts 17, and we find the Apostle Paul over looking Athens. And we see his position. In verse 16 says, "Now while Paul waited for him at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry, therefore disputed he in the synagog with Jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with them that had met with him."
We see the Apostle Paul looking over Athens and he saw the whole city totally given to what? Idolatry. The worship of pagan deities. And his spirit, the King James said stirred, literally in the Greek it is provoked. He got mad, because he saw the total abomination in the worship of false gods. And he went down and he what? He disputed in the synagogs and then in the market place with who ever would meet with him. Because why? They were worshipping gods that was other than the True and Living God, which obviously there is no eternal life in the end. None what so ever.
A lot of times we don't see fruit from our ministry and you know as carnal individuals stuck here in our human bodies, we're like everyday people, we're anxious. We want to witness to someone, and we just don't want to witness to them and leave it, and let the Holy Spirit take over, we want to witness to them and say the sinner's prayer. Which, Praise the Lord, is good, but it's not always going to happen.
CARIS15 - Witnessing for the Right Jesus #3...
You have to remember the scriptures, and remember your position. We're called to plant, feed, water seeds. Right? plant, water, plant, water, and that's the extent of it. The Lord, Acts chapter 2, "The Lord adds to the church daily such as should be saved." See it's not our job to play Holy Spirit and I praise God for it.
I tremble at the thought that someone's salvation depends on how nifty I can page through my King James and page through my 66 books and quote the scriptures, etc. etc. because I am not always successful. I always don't see people come to the Lord. It just doesn't work out that way. And I'm glad that their salvation is depended upon how good I am, how knowledgeable I am of the Bible. That's not where it's at.
We're called to plant and water, plant and water, and *GOD* brings forth the increase. That's His job.
If some of you have had an opportunity to hear Chuck Smith when he's been in the area speaking, he uses this saying on occasion when he ministers at Home Church, and that is, "Do your best, and commit the rest." And that's the extent of it.
"Do your best." Know why you believe what you believe. Then "commit the rest." to God, because the rest is His. You plant and you water. But let me tell you this. I Corr. 15:58, I want you to write it down, and remember it. I want you to look it up.
It says, "Therefore, brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing this," I want you to know this, "that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." Did you hear that? Did you understand that? Do you believe that?
See, the same Holy Spirit that inspired Paul to write that also inspired the other writers of the New Testament to tell us what? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ saves. And we're saved by grace, Paul wrote. If we can believe the nifty scriptures that tell us we're saved by grace, we have to believe this one too. Because it comes from the same eternal author.
And, I want to pass it on to you, and I want to share with you, that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. You always will not see fruit come from your witness, but God's word says "You weren't just wasting your time." "You do your job, you plant, you water, and I'll take over from there."
And when we all get to heaven, and we see like in Revelations chapter 4, we're gathered around the throne of Jehovah, and the great multitudes there, we're going to look across, and there's going to be people standing in the crowd waving saying, "HEY! Remember me? You witnessed to me down on the bus stop, over at the Jehovah Witness convention. You took time to pass out a tract to me. You took time to love me for Christ's sake. I thought you were a weirdo then, but I went home and read the information. I checked it out. I found what you said was true, and I had this really odd feeling of conviction, which was the Holy Spirit."
And there's going to be people in the Kingdom of God because Christians, in the last 3 weeks, there's going to be Jehovah Witnesses in the Kingdom of God, because Christians went down, and took time to evangelize. There'll be Mormons in the Kingdom of God because Christians are dedicated in groups. For example, in Illinois there's a group called "Ex-Mormons for Jesus" which the title itself tells you what they're doing. Their ministry is witnessing for Mormons. There'll be Mormons in the Kingdom of God because why, Christians took time and they believed it wasn't in vain.
And there will be Christian Scientists, and cultists, and occultists, and if the Marharishi ever falls down on his knees and accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as his one God and Savior, he'll be in the Kingdom of God, too. Because "whosoever believes... has eternal life." in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's pray and we'll have a period of questions and answers.