Pastor John,
The “Remember this” statements from the Slander book are so good! This particular one jumped off the page at me: “False doctrine and lifeless ceremonies are slander against the right way of the Lord.” After reading some of your chapters on slander, I am seeing that true statement more clearly than ever!
I’ve been thinking about institutionalized slander since we talked this morning. I can not think of one thing I was taught growing up in Christianity that was the truth. Not one! I can state with full confidence that Christianity itself is a lie!
But I had the thought today, “What if I had believed those lies? What if I had believed that drinking that wine and eating those wafers was my only way of having communion with Jesus? Or what if I had believed that having some water sprinkled on my head as a baby while my parents repeated some scriptures was the baptism that mattered? What if I never heard about the New Birth? What if I had sat in that dead religion for all these years?” I know without a doubt the answer to those questions. I would be dead. Even if my physical body was alive, I’d be a dead man walking.
But then I felt tears of thankfulness and relief welling up because Jesus didn’t leave me there to die. He showed me the right way! He gave me His life! Jesus did that for every one of us and He will do it for any sincere heart that cries out to Him!
I love that this book is full of light; exposing the truth about institutionalized slander!
Lee Ann