Sunday Message- "Religious experts"

The problem with today's religious experts is that they are "religious", but not experts.  This week, what should have been a joyous occasion- the dedication of the new US Embassy in Jerusalem- was marred by evil in every direction.  Most of which you can find on mainstream media- and if you do a little digging, you can get past that and make an informed judgment.  I'll leave that to you and your own sense of what's right and wrong.  What I want to address specifically is how several "religious experts" attacked one aspect of this story- that President Trump made the wise selection of Pastor Robert Jeffress to dedicate the building.  Jeffress is a man I have listened to many times and respect for his no-holds-barred preaching of what is actually in the Word of God.  Now, I am going to bring in two experts- and later, a third- and show you why "religious expert" is an oxymoron.

Robert Jeffress says “you can’t be saved by being a Jew,“ and “Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell.”  He’s said the same about Islam. Such a religious bigot should not be giving the prayer that opens the United States Embassy in Jerusalem.- Mitt Romney.

A clergyman (or clergy-woman) is expected to be a servant of the Most High God, delivering messages of love, tolerance and peace.  Yesterday’s dedication of the American embassy in Jerusalem, an historic event in our historic capital city, was tainted by the presence of a Baptist preacher, a man who hates all non-Christians, who delivered the opening prayer.- Esor Ben-Sorek, retired professor of Hebrew, Biblical literature & history of Israel. 

Mitt Romney speaks from the perspective of Mormonism.  The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints tries to pass as a Christian church, but it is nothing of the kind.  In the early 1800's, Joseph Smith claimed to have a visit from an angel who dictated to him the Book of Mormon from Golden tablets that no one has ever seen again.  Now, I am not going to waste time refuting Mormonism.  Paul destroyed it in one blow 1,800 years before it began:

Gal 1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.


Revelation to the Church ceased with the Apostles.  That is why they (not the Pope) are the rock upon which Christ built the Church.  It, therefore by the words of Paul- whom Peter himself said is as inspired as Scripture- a "heresy from the pit of hell."  Strike one, Mitt.  And the same goes for Islam- and again, not trying to spend a lot of time on refutation. BUT, where we believe that God showed the only way to erase the sin in man and make him righteous was for His Own Son to die and take the punishment for those sins Himself, Islam believes that at the last second, God did the "ol' bait and switch"- took Jesus off the cross and into heaven, and put in a stand-in (maybe Barabbas), who couldn't POSSIBLY have been an acceptable sacrifice.  If you believe in God at all and think that's feasible, I cannot help you.  Strike two, Mitt.

And "you can't be saved by being a Jew"?  That is dead on as well.  Hear it from John the Baptist, whom Jesus called the greatest of men born to women:


Matt 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

One thing I have learned from my recent Bible studies is the Jewish concept of being made righteous by just being a Jew.  But it doesn't work that way.  600,000 corpses littered the Sinai in Moses' time because being a Jew isn't enough.  Two Temples have been levelled because it isn't enough.  And Jesus died because it isn't enough.  Now perhaps Mitt, reading his agenda into things, thought Jeffress was saying Jews can't go to heaven.  But even if he did, he's still wrong.  Strike three, Mitt... you are out.


Now, to Mr.  Ben-Sorek.  First, "delivering messages of love, tolerance, and peace".  Is that how YOU define a preacher of the Most High God?  Name one in your OWN Scriptures who did that.  Let me name one in the New Testament who did not- Jesus:

Matt 10:34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Mr. Ben-Sorek, I think I know which kind of preacher you want.  Maybe like this one:

2 Tim 4:4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 


Sounds like perhaps you- and many around you- have "wandered off into myths" on this one.  Strike one.

"...a man who hates all non-Christians..."  Let me do a parable of my own for this one.  There were two men standing at the side of the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago.  One man said, "I am going to cross the highway on foot."  The other said, "No, you mustn't do that; you will be killed."  The first said, "Oh, you just hate me.  You want to tie me down to your concept of the world.  I believe any man can cross the 14 lanes of packed 80 MPH traffic if he is sincere in his belief."  So the man came out onto the highway, and was soon splattered across a windshield like a big dumb bug.  A third man then comes up and says to the one that's left, "It's a shame that you ruined his last minutes with your hate."   He who has ears, let him hear.  Strike two, Ben-Sorek.


"...was tainted by the presence of a Baptist preacher..."  Funny how tolerance is such a one-way street.  Strike three.


Now, I am going to attempt to give you the base problem here, by bringing in our third "expert"- the Pope.  Here is a quote from him that I found  in trying to REFUTE that he said it...


There are those who believe they can maintain a personal, direct and immediate relationship with Jesus Christ outside the communion and the mediation of the Church. These are dangerous and harmful temptations. 


"The mediation of the church?"  Meaning that you are not allowed to think for yourselves; it is dangerous for you to, say, go to the Son of God who died for you, without doing it through the church fathers and the Pope and the priest.   Or Mary, or some saint, or any of the million other layers that the Catholic Church thinks must be put between you and Christ.  But what did Jesus say?

John 14:1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? 

Does that really sound like someone who wants you to go through the hierarchies of man to come to Him?  THINK ABOUT IT.

Unfortunately, they are the voices being held up as "religious experts" by those who have not given in to the "dangerous and harmful temptation" of surrendering their life to their Savior.  They are the ones who are leading the world down the merry road to the Antichrist, while naming believers as "religious bigots".  Do not be fooled, not even by me.  LOOK into it for yourselves.  You have a mind, and a soul designed to seek the truth if not so weighed down by "heresies from the pit of hell."  Put some logical thought together:

- If God made the world, would He not give you the "instruction manual?"
-If He COULD make the world, don't you think He'd be able to get that Word to you down through the years, despite the best efforts of man and demon?
-If the first two are right, don't you think you should pick it up and read it on your own?