Christians’ Lies: A Humanities Text and a Doctrinal Guide for the Social Sciences

By Tito Serrano

Christians Lies investigates and resolves specific false doctrines that are shared by Christians. Among these lies, we will investigate false Sabbaths, false beliefs about death, false ideas about the manner of Jesus return to Earth, wrong suppositions about the debates on Creationism and evolution, the gift of tongues misinterpretations, what Jesus is doing in heaven, and where we are all going. As interesting doctrines have sprouted from misconceptions and misinterpretations, it is Christians Lies goal to offer simple but powerful solutions to correct our lies by replacing our lies with Gods truth. You will be blessed with understanding.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781490806884

Tito Serrano

Tito Serrano was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. Tito learned marine engineering and naval architecture from 1963 to 1967. He was also a professional baseball pitcher in 1967. After pitching a no-hitter on his first game as a professional, and with a record of nine wins and zero lost, Serrano found himself in Vietnam by December 1967. He was hurt a few times during his three tours in Vietnam. Tito completed medical school after returning from Vietnam. After deciding that he did not want to work in a depressing environment, while surrounded by sick and injured people, Tito returned to graduate school to complete dual PhD degrees in marine engineering and naval architecture. Not done yet with being an eternal student, Tito’s third PhD was in philosophy. In the large field of philosophy, Tito concentrated on the narrower field of ethics. Now, Tito is an old, retired man. He taught professional ethics for more than forty years and served in the navy. Tito is a science-fiction writer and a writer of religious essays. He is very proud of his Puerto Rican heritage.

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Contents

Dedication

Preface

LIE #1

LIE #2

LIE #3

LIE #4

LIE #5

LIE #6

LIE #7

About the Author

Pastors and bible teacher with low discernment misinform their church members. We are expected to study our bibles to avoid misinformation. This is a study about correcting misinformation.

By Professor Tito Serrano, Ethicist

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there’s no help in the truth—Sophocles (495 BC-405 BC). From John 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free—Jesus Christ (4 BC-31 AD).

BY:

Tito Serrano

Dedication

This book is dedicated to every Christian. To every Christian who has changed denominations. To all the Christians that thought of changing denominations. This book is dedicated to the Christians disagreeing with misguided pastors who insist in accepting lies as truth. To every Christian who has measured the teachings of his or her pastor or priest and found them wanting. From Saul of Tarsus who in the year 34 AD abandoned Pharisaical Judaism, becoming Paul the Apostle and a Christian, to Martin Luther who in 1517 thought to correct Catholicism but found himself expelled from the Roman Catholic Church and unwillingly fathering Christian Protestantism… and to you, the present day Christian that after careful study of the bible, was chastised at church and was forced to seek refuge elsewhere. To all sincere students and seekers of the love of God in Christian doctrine, is this work dedicated.

Preface

Christian theologians are contradicting each other about the meaning of many biblical passages and about the doctrines that sprout from differing biblical understandings. That fact has caused Christianity to break apart into hundreds of denominations. Each unshared belief is proof of, at least, one lie. No maliciousness is being assigned to Christians who truly believe the lies that they tell to themselves and to their followers. The problem is ignorance. At times… arrogance is added to the ignorance.

If you believe that God can really influence men (through the Holy Spirit) then you cannot deny that Satan should be able to do as much. Better yet, those influenced by Satan are going to fight like the devil to claim that they are being used by the Holy Spirit and that they are God’s instruments. Furthermore, the zealot will often seek occasion for humiliating anyone who points him out.

Following is a group of essays, (seven in total). These seven points are a small sample. There are more lies told by Christians than these seven, which supposedly are biblically supported. Well, the Bible does not shore-up any of these lies but those who believe these lies tend to think that their misinformed beliefs are well founded on the bible. Not true. The principal reason for choosing these seven points is that six of these seven lies are widespread throughout Christianity. There is one exception. Evolution (our lie #5) is a lie shared by an influential, albeit small, number of Christians. The late Pope John Paul II confessed to believing in evolution and it is probably safe to expect him not to be the only religious leader following such beliefs. Recently, Pope Benedict XVI has agreed with the previous Pope by also believing in evolution.

Inside the essay on evolution you will find three parts. I only wrote the middle part and that… with much help. The first part and the last part are quotes.

If I tried to find who wrote something and after considerable effort I could not find the name of the source, I just wrote for you how the pieces got to me and began hoping (and pleading) for your mercy. Obviously, I learned the points being raised here somewhere, but not always can I recall who my teacher was.

Assuming a bias is (unbelievably) healthy. My personal bias is going to be that the Bible is truth. That is the same bias taken by the Christian liars. While facing them, I will dare assume their assumptions. This is not an easy assumption to make. But if we assumed otherwise, we would have to spend too much time explaining how each archeologically-and-biblically related find of the past has served to increase the trustworthiness of the biblical writ and to ridicule those great-thinkers and philosophers who scoffed at the biblical stories, histories, and claims. For example, before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947-48, there were philosophical accusations against biblical scribes under the incorrect assumption that biblical scriveners would cheat or modify the writings being copied or that the writings were written far latter than claimed by the bible books. After all, Socrates’ writings were not the writings of Socrates at all, but his disciple Plato wrote them, while using Socrates’ name to ensure acceptance. ¿Why, the critics argued, should we expect anything different from the biblical writers? Today we know better; the biblical writers did NOT cheat. Often, Christian preachers remind us that there was a double guard watching Jesus’ tomb. The Roman guard was ordered by the governor, Pontius Pilate, and the temple guard was ordered by Caiaphas, the High Priest. Both guards observed that the body of Jesus was not stolen by His disciples, but that an angel rolled the door-stone and Jesus walked out of the tomb alive. Had the body been stolen, the thieves would have been followed and exposed. Furthermore, if the resurrection had been a false claim, the Apostles would have confessed and recanted at their moments of death. Nobody is willing to die for a lie. Only John died of old age. (True: John was poisoned as a death sentence, but Jesus disallowed John’s death by poisoning.) All the other apostles died horrible deaths because they preached the resurrection of Jesus. All the evidence at hand seems to support that the bible is true including the resurrection story. Even very hard to swallow stories, like the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, have been corroborated archeologically, long after centuries of disbelief. The disciples of Jesus and His Apostles could NOT afford to write Gospels with incorrect self-aggrandizing information because of the abundance of living eyewitnesses, during the first century AD. The large company of witnesses to the miracles of Jesus (some witnesses were mere children) between 27 AD and 31 AD, still living while the letters of the New Testament were being written, kept the Apostles humble and truthful. The smallest exaggeration or embellishment would have been met with hordes of truth-telling first-hand observers offering correction. However, the same group of witnesses would have caused Christianity to grow like a wildfire on dry straw if the Apostles kept to the truth. ¿Which event does history support? Christianity spread like savory food among hungry people.

It is my wish that I could limit my words (and the words of those quoted here) to just demonstrating from the bible how Christians’ lies are pushing aside important biblical truths. Indeed, the biblical point of view which contradicts each lie will be advanced and supported by Scripture. But that is insufficient. Telling the history of the birth, growth, and expansion of a lie is necessary at times. Exposing the historical contortions that have taken place (to make some of these lies believable) aid us in at least two ways: we can see (if we choose to believe in evil) the evil influence of the people who made many Christians believe these lies and we can appreciate the fulfillment of prophecies (if we choose to believe in prophets) by seeing that the bible foretold the travesties. Yes, we were forewarned. Some of the blame for our deception falls on the shoulders of others, but we should accept our own lack of Christian discipline while bearing some of the blame. We Christians (and by assuming that the Bible is true I must include myself inside this group), as a whole, tend to suffer from insufficient prayer, disregard for daily bible study, and not treating our own bodies as holy temples (known as intemperance). Praise God for letting us depend on Jesus even for our own lack of submission to His Lordship! Nonetheless, let us go forward abandoning our incorrect past. Happy Reading!

LIE #1

Sunday is the Lord’s Day The Lord’s Day of the New Testament Preamble

I visited a website where I found this claim: Ours is a Church that sticks with the Bible and doesn’t observe heathen holidays and sinful traditions. This seems to be a very good idea. The Lord says,

If you turn away your [trampling] foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable… then shall you delight yourself in the Lord Isaiah 58:13, 14.

God’s promise to provide us with a life that is full with delight and happiness is conditional. The condition is acceptance or rejection of His Sabbath day and careful handling of His day. The Lord’s Day should be honored and kept holy while having fun… for that is the meaning of the word delight, not while having restrictive impositions. Just like when God said, You shall not steal He was giving us permission and freedom to earn income selling, trading, building, servicing, and in a thousand other ways, we see that this is not a restriction. This is the shortest way to express a multiplicity of freedoms. There is only one restriction, stealing, on how to get money and goods. The limitation on prohibitions opens an enormous wealth of freedoms. The same is true with the Sabbath. Preparing ahead so that you can have a freedom day every week is pure genius. Being saved by grace through faith ahead of time is pursuit of happiness for a planned lifestyle so that we do not spend the Sabbath attempting to save ourselves but displaying the fruits and the joys of having received salvation. This is a prescription for bliss.

¿Why are the most public supporters of Sabbath observance badmouthed as Pharisees instead of praised for showing the fruits of their saved Spirit? ¿Why are so many people saying bad things about the day Jesus claimed to be His Lord’s Day?

. . . The Sabbath of the Lord Exodus 20:10. . . . The seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the Lord your God Deuteronomy 5:14. Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath Mark 2:28.

You yourself must try or test the prophets, preachers, and teachers by the Scriptures.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know you the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ [God] is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesses not that [God] Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God 1st John 4:1-3.

The biblical instruction is to try or test every spirit. Some churches are so firm against some biblical instructions that they will not allow their church members to read or study anything of a religious nature published outside their own church. ¿How are you going to test or try the spirits according the biblical directive if your church will not allow you to do so? Peter would have never accepted Paul as another apostle of Christ under such harsh rules. Peter tested Paul and found him true to Jesus. Glory to God!

Over 30 years ago I listened to a preacher telling his people that Seventh-day Adventists believed in salvation by works. Therefore, I visited a Seventh-day Adventist church to ask questions. They declared, Absolutely not! Salvation is a gift obtained by grace through faith. We humans can do nothing to earn our salvation. Those who are truly saved, however, will not continue in sin. Jesus’ instruction after saving us is to ‘go and sin no more.’ If we continue telling falsehoods, breaking the Sabbath, murdering, and/or committing adultery we have proven NOT to have been saved regardless of any claims to the contrary. A saved saint has no permission to sin. Saved saints only sin by mistake, and when they become aware of their sin, saints run to repentance.

The preacher misinforming us, his church members, expects you and me to check not on him. Our preacher expects us not to check what he tells us. Please, do not let your church leaders do the prophet and spirit testing and trying for you or on your behalf and report back to you. Surely they will lie to you if they are already forbidding you from following the simple words of the bible: try the spirits. If the leaders of our denomination arrogantly keep us from observing this direct instruction from the Word of God, ¿what else could they be keeping from us?

Jeremiah 14:14 The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke to them: they prophesy to you a false vision and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of their heart.

Lamentations 2:14 Your prophets have seen vain and foolish things for you: and they have not discovered your iniquity, to turn away your captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

Matthew 24:24 For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Mark 13:22 For false christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if [it were] possible, even the elect.

2nd Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

1st John 4:1 "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but verify the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Correct and proper information, even when spoken by God through His true prophets, will not matter to some people. Allow it to matter to you.

Some false prophets find an easy but misguided way to pseudo-qualify themselves as true prophets.

1st John 4:2 says, Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. The incarnation of God into a human being must be claimed.

Every false prophet simply verbally confesses that God, Jesus Christ, came in the flesh; God Himself took human form. This is a cheap way out. Confessing in this context does not mean a simple verbal expression. To confess is to demonstrate by the obedience fruits (works of living faith) of the indwelling Spirit that our lives reveal the will of God. Our only safety is in preserving the ancient landmarks. The first witness is the Old Testament where Isaiah says to the LAW and to the TESTIMONY (Isaiah 8:20). The second witness is the New Testament where the Apostle John also says to the COMMANDMENTS OF GOD and the TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST (Revelation 12:17). When God’s true two witnesses testify the righteous will be found lovingly obeying.

Aside: The Two Witnesses

God speaks about His two witnesses, the Old Testament and the New Testament, as suffering in prophecy along with His church (Christ’s woman or bride). While the two witnesses are deprived of good standing (hidden from the faithful) the Remnant Church is hiding in the wilderness to escape persecution. Satan’s representative, while impersonating the powers of Christ will wear out the saints with martyrdom and will attempt to change the Ten Commandments where the commandments deal with times These prophecies are usually misinterpreted or ignored by many preachers.

And I will give [power] unto my two witnesses [Old Testament and New Testament], and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred [and] threescore [prophetic] days [1260 literal years], clothed in sackcloth Revelation 11:3. And the woman [the Remnant Church] fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred [and] threescore [prophetic] days [1260 literal years] Revelation 12:6. And he [the Dragon] shall speak [great] words against the most High (Jesus), and shall wear out the saints of the most High [the Remnant Church], and think to change times [7th-day Sabbath to the 1st day] and laws [the Ten Commandments]: and they [the saints] shall be given into his hand until a time [a prophetic year of 360 days] and times [two prophetic years or 720 days] and the dividing of time [180 prophetic days or half of a year] [360 + 720 + 180 = 1260 literal years or prophetic days] Daniel 7:25. . . . for a time, times, and a half [360 + 720 + 180 = 1260 years]; and when he [the dragon] shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people Daniel 12:7. And to the woman [to the church] were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time [360 + 720 + 180 = 1260 years], from the face of the serpent Revelation 12:14.

Recognizing False Prophets

If a preacher claims to receive spiritual inspiration while rejecting at least one of the Ten Commandments, we should know that the Holy Spirit is NOT the source of his or her inspiration regardless of any claims and miracles before an enchanted audience. If the pseudo-teacher of Christ attacks those who keep the commandments that he insists in violating and gives complicated rationalizations blaming the grace of Christ for his disobedience (as by claiming that by being under grace and not under the law he has permission to violate the Ten Commandments or that he has permission to violate at least one of the ten), then you should walk away from his teachings. A true prophet cannot contradict or pre-empt any of the Scriptures that preceded him or her. Jesus cannot contradict Moses and be true; luckily he did not. Mohammed cannot contradict Moses and Jesus and be true.

The other side of the coin can be true also. Sometimes blasphemers find flimsy excuses to accuse true prophets of being false prophets. A simple writing error does not make a disqualifying test for a true prophet. This very text has misspellings and syntax failures. Yet, I mean well. We cannot set our own prophet testing kit away from biblical instruction. Example: the strict verbalist has a problem with Matthew’s mistakes. Look at Zechariah 11:12, 13 where the prophet poses a prophecy stating that the cost of betraying the Messiah will be 30 pieces of silver. Jeremiah speaks nowhere about this same prophecy. In Matthew 27:9, 10 Matthew mistakenly credits Jeremiah with this Messianic prophecy. Oops! ¿Did God make an error dictating to Matthew? ¿Did Matthew, the prophet, make an error in writing? ¿Does this error makes God a false God or Matthew a false prophet? No. The verbal view of inspiration is left indefensible. Verbal inspiration is wrong.

Plenary-thought-historical inspiration has no problem with this slip of the pen. Honest people make literal mistakes. What fails is the test that we attempted to impose on the prophet.

What God the Father said at Jesus’ baptism has many versions too (God said it once, but different Biblical writers recorded it differently); the inscription above Jesus on the cross has different versions (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John seem to disagree). ¿Are the Gospel writers false prophet because they could not agree on what God said at the baptism of Jesus or on what was written above the cross? No. You would think that they would agree about something that was so important and life changing! They didn’t. The bible is full of these insignificances. Inspiration of prophets is not verbal. Prophetic inspiration is given in plenary historical thought. That is why John wrote Revelation displaying little formal education and Paul wrote Hebrews displaying the equivalent of a PhD at Gamaliel’s feet. Paul studying at the feet of Gamaliel is the equivalent of Aristotle studying at the feet of Plato or Plato studying at the feet of Socrates.

As described in the parable of the talents, a good servant with two talents cannot produce as well as one with five talents. Yet, both were good. John could not write at Paul’s level. The same Holy Spirit inspired the two writers. Personal talents constrained the two writers to different outcomes.

If you are an honest person who has made mistakes and who is not afraid (or forbidden) from looking at opposing points of view, then you can follow the biblical instruction to test or verify the prophets. Find refuge where this biblical freedom (to try the spirits) is safe to be used. Sometimes the freewill granted by God is stolen by Satan in counterfeit churches. Satan is in the business of establishing his own counterfeit churches and congregations to keep mankind from learning about the true God. Don’t let your preacher test the prophets for you. I hope that I repeated that point as many times as you needed to hear and read that in Christ you are free. Free to obey God; not free to become disobedient. Go and sin no more.

Heathen holiday Vs. The Lord’s Day:

Allow a quote from a Sunday keeper Later the day of worship was changed from Saturday, the last day of the week, to Sunday, the first day of the week. Jesus had risen on the first day of the week. Sunday was the day of Resurrection. The early Christians, therefore, began meeting on Sunday to commemorate the Lord’s Resurrection. Sunday became known as the ‘Lord’s Day’ Copyright © 1999 J. David Hoke, from his sermon How to Avoid Burnout.

Pastor J. David Hoke presented an eloquent defense of the fourth commandment in his sermon. Yet, without any biblical support he claimed that early Christians began meeting on Sunday. The statement is, not false but, misleading because the ‘early Christians’ that began meeting on Sunday did not appear until all the apostles had died. Christ and the apostles, who were Jews, kept only Saturday as the Lord’s 7th-Day Sabbath. Every time the term ‘Lord’s Day’ appears in the New Testament it refers to Saturday. It is true that early in the fourth century (321 AD) Sunday became officially known as the Lord’s Day, but Pastor Hoke should have given us the 4th Century date. Otherwise the unsuspecting listener will assume that calling Sunday the Lord’s Day happened while Paul was still preaching to the Gentiles, or while John was still writing the book of Revelation on the isle of Patmos. Pastor Hoke was impotent in presenting biblical evidence for why the day of worship was changed from Saturday, the 7th-day of the week, to Sunday, the first day of the week because those changes happened after the Bible canon had been completed (although not yet compiled) and all the New Testament writers had died.

Among the problems that are self-apparent at the end of any discussion concerning politics or religion we find the flying accusations about extremism. You can start with any two parties that might be near the center of a stream. If no agreement takes place by discussion’s end,