Christianity: The Distinction
By Dr. Ken Matto
And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch.
And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the
church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first
in Antioch. (Acts 11:26)
There are many today who believe and teach that
Christianity is a religion. Nothing
could be further from the truth because I will present to you the great gulf
between Christianity and religion.
One of the main reasons that people believe Christianity is a religion is
because they equate churches with Christianity.
The reality is that Christianity has been confiscated and held captive by
churchianity and that is why people equate Christianity with the local church.
Here is the definition and description of true Christianity:
“True Christianity equates to salvation.
One cannot be a Christian if they are not saved.”
Salvation is all the work of the Lord owing to the condition of man who
is spiritually dead and must be resurrected in their soul so they can believe.
Salvation in its entirety is the work of the Lord.
How One
becomes a Christian
1. God named you before the foundation of the world
(Revelation 13:8 & 17:8)
2. God then elects you to salvation (Romans 11:5 & 1
Thessalonians 1:4)
3. Now that you have been elected, your life is now
predestined (Ephesians 1:11)
4. Now that you have been named, elected, and
predestined, sometime during your life according to the determinate counsel of
God you will become saved. (Acts
22:6-11)
5. Once you have become saved you will now have faith
placed inside you by the indwelling Holy Spirit
(Galatians 5:22)
6. Once you have faith, you will have the ability to
believe (2 Corinthians 4:13)
7. When you start believing, you can live the Christian
life (Titus 3:8)
In these seven principles of salvation, we do not find
one scrap of work by anyone who became saved.
Looking unto Jesus the author and
finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of
God. (Hebrews 12:2)
Jesus was the author and finisher of our faith, not us.
Religion
Every religion in the world is wrong because they
discard the biblical truth about the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s salvation
program and have created their own methods which only lead to hell.
The Roman Catholic church has also bastardized the teaching of the true
Jesus by creating him in their own image.
The salvation program of all religions is based upon what a person can do
to earn their salvation and completely rejects the truth of Scripture concerning
how a person is truly saved. If you
disbelieve what I am saying then please name me one world religion that teaches
salvation by grace in Christ alone.
Roman Catholicism has a set of rules a good Catholic must keep and even then no
assurance of salvation is ever given.
So the major difference between True Christianity and
religion is that in Christianity God has done everything for us since we are
unable to attain salvation because of our spiritual deadness.
In religion, a person attempts to do certain works and keep the rules of
the religion they are members of which only ends in eternal damnation.
Churchianity
Above I mentioned something called churchianity which is
mainly attributed to Protestant churches.
It is the false notion that if you are a member of a church then you are
saved and also if you have made some kind of verbal “acceptance of Christ” then
you are saved. The majority of
churches have rejected God’s biblical salvation plan and created their own based
upon pride and the belief that man has the understanding to turn away from their
sins and “accept Christ.” In God’s
biblical salvation plan, did we find anywhere that a person has to accept to be
saved? The answer is no because
that concept does not exist anywhere in Scripture.
Recently I heard a preacher on the radio make the absurd
claim that when Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians when the
Lord had appeared to him on the road that Saul
made him his Lord.
Read the account in Acts 9 & 22 and you will see this is such a
ridiculous statement because Saul called Jesus “Lord.”
Why? Because Saul became
saved on the road at that moment through Christ.
Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have
crucified, both Lord and Christ.
(Acts 2:36) Man who thinks they
can make Jesus anything have rejected the straight teaching of Acts 2:36 that
God was the one who made him Lord and Christ.
How could sinful man make Christ anything?
It is just another example of the false religion of churchianity.
Listening to the Moody Hour I heard Erwin Lutzer
bastardize a scripture verse to the glory of man’s pride.
This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)
He retold this verse as follows “Christ
came to save those who trust in him.”
Always feeding the pride of man by a continuation of the belief that man
has the ability to manipulate God the way he wants plus it keeps the donations
flowing in. Churchianity does not
equate to Christianity which equates to true salvation.
People do get saved in churches but that is because of God’s salvation
plan and not something the person has done.
I got saved after a night of drinking and there was no church around.
The Lord started opening my spiritual eyes in August of 1980.
The majority of churches are walking with the world as we see many of
them in Gay pride parades, sponsoring bingo, Las Vegas nights, creating their
own salvation plans, private denominational theologies, accepting false
teachings, Emergent Church new age techniques being offered, yoga being offered
in churches, etc. Just as the
Christian bookstore is a very dangerous place for Christians, now the church has
become a very dangerous place for Christians.
Hebrews 10:24-25 does not equate to mainline, compromised churches but
requires the Christians to meet among themselves so they can grow and not have
to accept sodomy and new age under the authority of one man who is normally
unqualified to be pastor.
The bottom line is that you would be hard pressed to find true Christianity in a church setting since the teachings have been suppressed by erroneous theological systems which exalt man and attempt to make God their employee. Do not place faith in the modern church because they will lead you astray. Place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and study your King James Bible with other true believers and leave the games to the organized church. If there is elect among them, then God will save them when it is their time. That you can be sure of!