These are three YouTube videos done by a former Pentecostal in Australia. He is not a Christian and there were a couple things I didn't like, but overall he did a nice job with these.

He also goes over some of the points made in the book, "The Subtle Power Of Spiritual Abuse."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5efYlPLKMg




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2whznvArJ18




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pROvFTmthP4

Lois

"I swear on my soul, that if these men are speaking for God, I would rather spend eternity in hell than serve him. How are you supposed to love the God they represent? Unconditional Love? yet contradicted... Grace? yet contradicted..."

"Because all of that junk had completely clouded my view of Jesus, and I didn't even know who he was anymore. Was he the harsh judge that was just waiting for me to show I wasn't "holy" enough so he could smite me? Was he the one that demanded absolute perfection? The one for whom nothing was ever enough?"

These are the feelings of two people who left their separate churches. Some find it hard to break from the erroneous view of God that they encountered while in an unhealthy church. Every time they see someone from their former group write about the group's beliefs or they read Bible passages that were distorted in their church, they wrestle with trying to break away from the harsh taskmaster they came to know. But this isn't the same Jesus portrayed in the Bible, but rather a false view of Jesus that arises from erroneous teachings and how these are taught and applied.

Erroneous teachings can indeed cloud your view of God. They can give one a very different and distorted view of God. The tragic aspect of this, and one I have seen all too often, are people who can see the error of at least some of the teachings and yet have not yet been able to break from this distorted view of God.

This is what happens in a performance based church and while things vary from one unhealthy church to another, the teachings lead to performance based religion. While many will not say, for instance, that following outward standards is salvational, they will believe one is lost or at the least backslid if they don't adhere. So this actually makes them matters of salvation, whether or not it is specifically stated as such.

This is an excerpt of an email I received from a visitor to the spiritualabuse.org website. They are UPC and wrote: "WE strive to live Christ. Do we error? YES! But we try. There are some Pastor's who goes over board, but for the majority, it is just about trying to make heaven our home. Yes, some things seem extreme, but in comparison to eternity, it is the least we can do. Our dress and appearance is simple a safety protocol we take to assure our success in making heaven our home. I hope you give this some thought."

Take note of what was actually said. It's about trying to make it to heaven. It's about safety measures. It is not at all about trusting in the finished work at Calvary. I don't know how many posts I've read through the years where someone has written something like, "I'd rather be safe than sorry" concerning a teaching. And remember hearing church testimonies that said something like, "Pray for me that I will make it in?"...

Lois

Faith without works is dead. That is true. But does this Bible passage mean what unhealthy churches say it does, in equating works with their list of things a Christian must do to be saved?

We are saved because of what Jesus did for us by dying in our place. If works could have saved people, then the law that God put into place for the Jews would have accomplished this. The Bible is very vocal in that it did not.

Works, as mentioned in the book of James, are our actions. Faith without works is dead- not because works are essential to our salvation- but because if one has faith in God it will be evidenced by their actions. You can't have real faith with nothing to show for it. However, in those actions, there is no salvation made, kept or bought. They are simply a natural result of our faith in God.

Back in the early church, people wanted to add rules to be saved. This thought is nothing new. People seem to have a hard time accepting by faith that Jesus paid the price completely for their salvation. He said it was finished. People keep wanting to add conditions to our salvation. So let's look at the early church....

The second chapter of Galatians continues with Paul telling about his past. This is where he starts to show the Galatians the problem that false brothers caused with their false teachings.

Chapter 15 of Acts tells in more detail about what Paul shares happened in Jerusalem. I encourage you to take the time to read Acts 15. The men who came to Antioch from Judea, who were teaching that the Gentiles must be circumcised in order to be saved, had caused a sharp division. This division caused the believers to send a delegation of people, including Paul & Barnabas, to Jerusalem in order to consult with the apostles and other elders.

At the meeting, some proclaimed that the Gentiles must be circumcised and made to obey the law of Moses. There is lots of discussion and then Peter addresses them all, reminding them that God made no distinction between the Jews and Gentiles and purified the Gentile's hearts by faith. He then asks why they are trying to test God by making the Gentiles do what even the Jews could not follow? He states that they are saved through the grace of God.

James later shares similar thoughts and they decide to write a letter to the believers in Antioch, Syria & Cilicia that states they will not burden the Gentiles with anything more than four requirements. These are listed in verse 29 of Acts 15.

So things haven't changed and adding lists of things to do in order to be saved is hundreds upon hundreds of years old. The problem now is that Christianity has split itself into so many different groups that there is now no longer one place for people to go in order to sort out what isn't proper teaching. We can't send a delegation to Jerusalem to consult with the...

Lois

Lois

Lois