Introduction
Paul’s last words about the time that would come have indeed developed into the condition of the church today, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables [mythos 3454]” (2Ti 4:3-4). The Greek noun mythos is where our English “myths” is derived. The teaching of Protestant churches that God is a Trinity of persons, man is an eternal spirit being, and salvation is by faith are simply myths. But because such doctrines have been taught for hundreds of years, people have become grounded in them that they now turn their ears away from the truth when it comes.
This current plight is no accident. The devil is deceiving, confusing, and distracting with false doctrines to keep people from the truth so that they will perish. The Protestant Reformation wasn’t an initiative to return to the beliefs of the early church as it has been acclaimed. It was a calculated and formulated deception by the enemy to infiltrate myths to the multitudes under a façade of the truth.
The Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a split from the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) about 500 years ago that was hailed as the point where Christians finally returned to “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jde 1:3). However, it wasn’t so much a reforming as it was a rebranding. A reform is an improvement upon what is wrong to something better. And this would have been the case had the Reformation gotten a wrong gospel message right. But the errors of the RCC were far deeper and more pervasive—it had a wrong view of God, a wrong view of man, and a wrong gospel message. But rather than discarding the entire mess and truly reforming, the Reformation kept the same wrong view of God and man, then simply formulated another wrong gospel message from out of it. Protestant churches today are essentially the RCC rebranded under a new name and image with a new message. It’s the same “product” but in new packaging—a subtle and devious marketing strategy.
Furthermore, not only was the Protestant Reformation not a reformation, it also wasn’t a protest—it was by the agency and design of the RCC. Its own Martin Luther appeared to lead a dissent from the mother church after having come to the “enlightenment” that justification is by faith. The true intent of this event, however, was that in the course of diverting everyone’s attention to the noble endeavor of getting the gospel message right, it was covertly reinforcing the Trinitarian view of God as right! In other words, it was a deflection from the main underlying issue while also buttressing it in the process. Though both sides have been hotly debating for hundreds of years whether salvation is by faith plus works or by faith alone, hardly a peep has been uttered about the correct view of God. This was never in question. Fighting passionately against the lesser things that were wrong left the false impression that the greater things were right.
There’s nothing more important than our view of God. Worship a wrong god and nothing else ultimately matters. There’s no possibility that Martin Luther could have begun with the same wrong god as the RCC, and along with the same wrong view of man, yet somehow reached the correct gospel message of salvation. It simply can’t happen. And even if it did happen—if he truly did discover the correct gospel—it’s still worshipping a false god that doesn’t save.
The mother of harlots
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:3-6)
Many have recognized and maintain that this woman is the RCC. She is decked in the pomp and pageantry of her popes and cardinals attired in purple and scarlet, gold and precious stones. She established the doctrine of the Trinity by anathematizing and putting to death any that stood for the truth taught by Jesus Christ. And she is “THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS” by virtue of having given birth to thousands of Protestant Trinitarian churches all over the world committing fornication with a Trinity of persons rather than knowing “the only true God” (Jhn 17:3), and His Son Jesus Christ.
The seven heads of the beast carrying the woman might very well be the seven largest Trinitarian organizations: the RCC, Reformed, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, Pentecostal, and Baptist. We were told earlier, “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy” (Rev 13:1). If this is the true identity of the seven heads, then “the name of blasphemy” on its heads is “Trinity.” Since the number within the name “Trinity” is tri- or three, then this is “the number of his name” (Rev 13:17).
Now the Spirit [breath] speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. (1 Timothy 4:1-3)
Paul accurately described the coming RCC. They forbid their priests from marrying and require abstinance from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays during Lent. And this is what God’s breath spoke expressly or specifically would happen in the latter times.
In the very end times, however, God’s people will come out from this woman, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev 18:4). Within the RCC and Protestant churches are many that embrace the Trinitarian view of God in sincere ignorance because it was taught to them. But the day will come when they’ll no longer be ignorant of the truth and will be given a final opportunity to escape.
Jesus Christ was sent by God. He taught that He is the Son of God and His Father is God, and even His God. The doctrine of a Triune God didn’t come from Him. Then where did it come from? What’s its source? Paul said that doctrines of devils come from those forbidding marriage and requiring abstinence from meats. The doctrine of the Trinity came from the organization that fits his description.
Vain babblings
The Protestant Reformation wasn’t a return to the true gospel message but a continuance of the false Trinitarian view of God. It gave people seeking the narrow road that leads to life another option. And although it might have seemed more appealing than the RCC, it’s still not the narrow road.
The subtlety behind the Reformation is that it continued the spread of the RCC false view of God and man primarily through diversion tactics. Its first and main diversion was that salvation isn’t by “faith plus works” as taught by the RCC but by “faith alone” or the Latin sola fide. But Martin Luther was wrong in this understanding of “The just shall live by faith” (Rom 1:17), because Habakkuk wasn’t talking about faith but faithfulness, “because of his faithfulness” (Hab 2:4 NET) “by his faithfulness” (Hab 2:4 NIV). Paul even clarified this later in Romans, “This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness” (Rom 3:26 NET). The just live—have eternal life—by Jesus Christ’s faithfulness to His Father in giving Himself as the sacrifice for our sins.
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith [faithfulness] which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed [trusted] not. (Jude 1:3-5)
Protestant Trinitarianism claims that “the faith [faithfulness] which was once delivered unto the saints” is a body of doctrinal beliefs that was delivered to the early church by the apostles. And this body of beliefs, of course, is the Protestant Trinitarian system of theology! But Jude wasn’t talking about a belief system but the faithfulness God delivered to His people at the time of the Exodus, “the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt” (v. 5). God taught them faithfulness and trust in Him—the same way we’re saved today. Jesus Christ taught us to be faithful servants to Him as Lord: “No man can serve two masters” (Mat 6:24); “Who then is a faithful and wise servant” (Mat 24:45); “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Mat 25:21); “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luk 6:46).
The Protestant doctrine of justification by “faith alone” is just as false and damning as the RCC doctrine of “faith plus works.” It only sounds more appealing because it supposedly glorifies the finished work of Christ on the cross by excluding any of our own works. But this isn’t what it does. It’s just another false gospel message founded upon the RCC false view of God intended to keep people from the truth. By inventing the dilemma of “faith alone” versus “faith plus works” then making such a racket about it, it underhandedly sold us the bill of goods that the RCC Trinitarian view of God was correct since that issue was never even questioned.
The devil is a master distractor. Sola Fide, Calvinism, the rapture, Once Saved Always Saved, speaking with tongues, and many other popular mainstream doctrines are simply smokescreens intended to confuse, deceive, waste precious time and resources, and divert people’s attention away from the greatest issue of the false Trinitarian view of God. Much of what’s being taught in Protestant Trinitarian churches today is simply vain babblings intended to distract and divert people away from the narrow road that leads to eternal life. Paul warned Timothy several times about those spreading vain babblings or words to no profit: “From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling” (1Ti 1:5-6); “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called” (1Ti 6:20); “Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers” (2Ti 2:14); “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness” (2Ti 2:16).
Calvinism has proven to be a huge distraction that has wasted unfathomable amounts of time and resources over hundreds of years. It’s simply a cloak to divert people’s attention away from the true gospel message. Trinitarian theologians don’t want us to learn the truth that becoming God’s child is by being joined to His chosen people in Christ Jesus, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Eph 1:4-5), “Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.” (Deu 14:1-2).
The entire Calvinist and Arminian debate about whether “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4) means God chooses which individuals will be saved, is simply a grand diversion to keep people from learning the truth that it’s really about God’s chosen people. They don’t want people to learn that we’re saved by being joined to God’s people and faithfully serving their Lord and Messiah.
It’s an utter shock to come to the realization that Calvinists and Arminians are actually on the same side! They’re not trying to find the truth but fight against the truth. They’re working together to keep people distracted from finding the truth for themselves. In the process of endless debates endeavoring to debunk each other, they’re deliberately confusing us and robbing our precious time from learning what Paul so earnestly wanted us to understand, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened” (Eph 1:18). The entire Calvinism and Arminianism debate is a sinister ruse to keep us blinded from the truth. It’s a deluge of questions, debates, controversies, and disputes about the meaning of words, “doting about questions and strifes of words” (1Ti 6:4). Does God choose who will be saved? Do we have a free will? What’s the meaning of foreknowledge, predestination, and election? Are you supralapsarian or infralapsarian? It’s wasting people’s time and damning them in the process.
Another shrewd distraction from the truth is the doctrine of the rapture. The intent is to detour people’s hope away from the Lord’s return and the resurrection by inventing an independent rapture event. Rather than the living being caught up with the dead at the Lord’s return, it’s now about escaping the Tribulation period by a rapture up to heaven. It’s simply a digression from our true hope to a false one.
Probably the most nefarious divergence of all is the detouring of honest seekers away from striving to keep the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus told us to teach new converts obedience to everything He commanded, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Mat 28:19-20). But this isn’t what’s happening today.
As an unscrupulous substitute, Protestant leaders devised “discipleship” programs where new converts are taught to memorize Bible verses on index cards, stick to a daily Bible reading plan, and participate in small group Bible discussions, but to get their understanding of the Bible from their sermons, books, and commentaries. This isn’t simply an oversight or misunderstanding about what Jesus told us to do. Theologians and scholars are highly intelligent men with no problem understanding Christ’s simple commandment. Rather, it’s deliberately misleading honest seekers to the path of destruction. By diverting them to a lifestyle of such religious practices, they’re effectively keeping them from a life of faithful obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord. They’re actually hindering not helping their salvation.
Jesus taught that we’re to not only hear but also do the commandments He delivered in His Sermon on the Mount, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock … And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand” (Mat 7:24, 26). He said that if we’re not doing His commandments, He will banish us from His presence and we’ll perish, “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Mat 7:23). This is the true and only gospel message that saves.
Conclusion
Protestant churches are steeped in myths about God, man, and salvation purposely intended to keep its multitudes deceived, confused, and diverted away from the truth taught by Jesus Christ. The pastors of these churches teach and preach anything other than what will get people on the narrow road that leads to life, “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Mat 7:14). They teach topically and verse-by-verse, they teach on marriage and family, they teach apologetics, they teach theology, they teach against sin, they teach on faith, they even teach through the entire Bible, but they won’t teach the commandments of Jesus Christ and they won’t agree with what He declared about God and about Himself.
Jesus said, “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil” (Mat 5:37). If someone doesn’t answer a simple Yes/No polar question with simply “Yes” or “No,” then according to Christ Himself, they have evil motives. If you feel so inclined, ask your Trinitarian pastor this simple question, “Is God the Father, Jesus Christ’s God?” If he answers “Yes,” then he’s not a Trinitarian and needs make it known publicly. If he answers “No,” then he’s disagreeing with the Lord Jesus Christ because He called His Father “My God” before His death (Mat 27:46), after His resurrection (Jhn 20:17), and after His ascension to His Father’s right hand (Rev 3:12). On the other hand, if he answers neither “Yes” or “No,” then there’s evil in his motives. Not answering a polar question is dodging the question to keep from being identified with either side. But why wouldn’t a “Christian” pastor want to be on Christ’s side?
Understanding Scripture 