Are religious traditions and denominational doctrines pushing people further away from God's presence?

What we all know now as the church is so different from the Church of Christ.

People using the pulpit for self gratification and as cows as opposed to glorifying God and serving Him in truth and in Spirit.

In a true gospel preaching denomination that isn't true. The problem is all of the major 7 sister denominations have been taken over by secular ministers there in order to get access to the money. Gary North wrote a book called "Crossed Fingers" documenting the take over of Presbyterian USA by 1932. That's when the last Christian minister in charge of a pot of money was defrocked to get access to that mission money. He stated all of the major denominations were taken over at the same time starting in the 1880s. Go to a Presbyterian USA church and see if you hear the gospel message. See if they even mention the work of Christ. With almost half of the population of the United States attending church only a splinter attending sub denominations ever hear the gospel message. This country has turned its back on God after being formed from Christian colonies into a Christian nation. God knowing the end from the beginning set the orbit of the moon to create eclipses crossing a country to condemn the country. In the past when this happened to a country it became very much diminished from what it was. The USA was crossed east to west with an eclipse and in 2024 an eclipse will cross the USA from northeast to southwest crossing 7 cities named Salem. Thus condemning the United States.

I believe most of them are for self gratification, especially the prosperity preachers.
I think that is why the Lord will soon again shake the earth, and heaven as well, in order to shake out all the phonies (Hebrews 12:26-27).

Hebrews 12:26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

I would say that the separation of people from God's presence has more to do with the expansion of the universe than the belief in an omnipresent God, but then again you can't rule out global warming....

Donald Trump can rule it out but then that's for another Forum

Dont mind me for asking but i will: Is that you in the avatar? Wow

Cool outfit.

You speak swahili? Nakutakia siku njema!

Yes and no.

Luke 17:1
Jesus said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come, but woe to the one through whom they come!

1 Corinthians 11:19
For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

what happened to the Netherlands in 1996?

or to the US in 1994? wow that pair of eclipses made its X pretty close to DC !

But WHY is it inevitable that stumbling blocks will come?

I've always wondered that.

We are told to be of ONE MIND. But how when not two christians on the planet agree? Holy Spirit is supposed to lead us into all truth, everyone claims to have the Holy Spirit and believes different things Fun fun fun

SOMEBODY IS WRONG, how to know who?

We wouldnt be in this mess if everyone just agreed with me

??????
Are you crazy!!

YES!

Mark 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

2 Peter 2:9
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

"The CHURCH" is a misnomer........each BODY is autonomous of each other with equal right and power before the throne of God....and to say THE CHURCH is to lump ALL under the same banner.....a grevious error in my view!

Naw, don't think so.

Christians need to have a proper perspective about this, and not paint all churches with the same brush. So here are some spiritual truths which should always be kept in mind.

1. The parables of the Kingdom were given to us by Christ so that we would understand at the outset that within Christendom (the outward manifestation of the Kingdom) there would be wheat and tares, sheep and goats, good fish and bad fish, leaven to contaminate the whole lump, etc.

2. The letters to the seven churches were written in the first century to illustrate the truths of the parables. There were genuine Christians, and faithful Christians, side by side with apostates, false teachers, false prophets and prophetesses. That has not changed.

3. The Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24 etc) was given by Christ to warn us as to what we would see today -- apostasy within Christendom.

4. Paul in his epistles also prophesied about the future Great Apostasy, and it is all around us today.

This does not mean that there are no genuine and faithful Christians around. What it does mean is that we are to be constantly aware of what is happening within Christianity at this time and avoid being deceived, while doing what is right and righteous. Not merely finger-pointing.

Just a review of all the threads on CC and other Christian forums will show that false doctrines are growing at an alarming rate, and Christians must be diligent in studying the Word and then applying it.

Correct. The proper term is *Christendom*, which includes all the churches, good and bad. However *the Church* (as revealed in Scripture) is limited to those who are children of God by grace through faith, and washed in the blood of the Lamb. And every local church will not consist of all true believers. There will be wheat and tares in every local assembly. Only God knows the hearts.

The problem we face today is the big protestant denominations are secular. They don't preach the gospel message. Only the sub denominations preach it. Presbyterian USA is secular but Presbyterian PCA is a sub denomination still preaching the gospel message. It is much smaller than the USA one. The other protestant denominations have the same issue. There are independent churches that preach the gospel message as well. While almost half of the people in the US attend church only a fraction of them hear the gospel message.

In the Greek original of the New Testament, there are only 2 words whose sum of the letters is 666. Both of these words refer to the two beasts of the 13th chapter of the book of Revelation.

tradition —

παράδοσιν
παράδοσις
π = 80
α = 1
ρ = 100
α = 1
δ = 4
ο = 70
σ = 200
ι = 10
ς = 200
______________
παράδοσις = 666

Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,

Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

(Matthew 15:1,2)

This is the second beast, it is similar to the Lamb, but persuades everyone to serve this world, that is, he persuades Christians to serve the first beast. This beast is a Christian religion in general.

The name of the first beast, according to the New Testament, is prosperity or wealth.

ευπορια (5 + 400 + 80 + 70 + 100 +10 + 1) = 666

prosperity (NASB) —

... these he gathered together with the workmen of similar trades, and said, "Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business. (Acts 19:25)

wealth (KJV) —

Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. (Acts 19:25)

Hearing this word, the crowd of artisans who made idols, became furious, people became beasts:

If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus <...> (1 Corinthians 15:32)

Of course, many denominations do not preach prosperity. Some denominations may even be prosecuted in some countries.

But the fact that instead of a single Church today we have denominations, testifies to the violation of the main commandment of God and Jesus Christ:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD (Deuteronomy 6: 4)

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21 )

As you can see, the main obstacles that prevent people from believing in Jesus Christ are the denominations of the Christian religion.

Wow! Such cynicism! What I have found that works with regards to a church, is listen to if the message is Scriptural. But then, try to discern if the church has love. No matter how pure the doctrine, if it is not lived, practised, then it is no good at all.

But most important, examine your heart to see if you are walking close to God. Because we are the church, and the church can only function as well as each one of us walks with Christ.

So all of you pointing your fingers at the church, better realize the church is only as good as each one of us, and your pointing is pointing at you.