Are you teaching that we are going to return to Heaven with Jesus so we can live in a mansion? Why will you keep on teaching that which is not remotely found in the Scriptures and then state you believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of the ScripturesùScriptures you are not teaching?

Why are we emphasizing that the purpose of salvation is to bring us from Hell to Heaven when the Bible states the purpose of salvation is to bring us from death to life? God did not threaten Adam and Eve with Hell but with death. Is there a Hell? There must be because Jesus said Lazarus was in it. But the emphasis in the New Testament is not on escape from Hell but conversion to godly, righteous living so we may attain life. The Apostle Paul did not use the term Hell even one time, and he certainly would have if escape from Hell were an important doctrine.

Why don't we preach what the Bible teaches? It is because we are more intent on continuing in our sins and finding a way by which we can escape punishment than we are on laying hold on eternal life that we may live in the Presence of God and Christ.

We do not love God. We just want to escape the fire and have fun. This is why we have made up all these myths.

The wicked always will be in Hell. The wicked never will be permitted to enter the new Jerusalem, not by grace, mercy, love, or any other means. The new Jerusalem is the holy city. There are no wicked there.

Are you going to search the Scriptures to see if what we are saying is true? And then are you going to stand for the truth even though it makes you unpopular?

One old preacher, when faced with the possibility that the "pre-tribulation rapture" he had been preaching for so many years was not found in the Scriptures, said something to the effect, "Why don't you let an old man die in peace?"

That's about it. Don't rock the boat. Don't say or do anything that will disturb our comfortable church, our happy denomination.

Where are the lovers of truth? Where are those who place truth above their ego, their comfort, their money, their popularity, their retirement income?

If you cannot find in the Scriptures the messages you are preaching, are you still going to preach them anyway? Do you think God will bless you for departing from His Word?

Why did God command Joshua to closely observe the Scriptures? It was so Joshua would be successful in leading Israel against the Canaanites. The Jews did not attend strictly to the Law of Moses and so they lost their glory to the Babylonians. So will we in America if we do not discard these traditions and obey the Scriptures whether anyone follows us or not.

We state that the Great Commission is to go forth and save souls. Everyone nods in agreement. No one reads Matthew, Twenty-eight to see if this is what the Great Commission says. We suppose it says that.

But Matthew has Jesus commanding us to make disciples of the nations and to exhort them to keep Christ's commandments.

It makes a big difference when you approach a person whether you have in mind to "save his soul from Hell" (an unscriptural expression, an unscriptural emphasis) or whether you intend to make him or her a disciple and exhort him to keep Christ's commandments.

We have churches full of people who think they have been saved from Hell by believing in Christ. Yet they never have become disciples and they do not keep Christ's commandments. They suppose they can continue in sin and yet go to Heaven and live in a mansion when they die.

Thus we are not fulfilling the Great Commission.

Joshua was commanded to strictly follow the written Word, which at that time consisted only of the first five books of the Bible. Now we have sixty-six books and we are not following them. We are following our traditions.

We are saying that God sees us only through Christ. This is not a scriptural expression, we just imagine it is scriptural. Then we say it is a good thing when we repent of our sins. How can we repent of our sins when God sees us only through Christ? This is not only unscriptural but totally illogical.

I hope I am not disturbing your nap.

To be continued.