Those who are true believers in God’s one and only Gospel are often confronted with the argument, ‘Its just a doctrinal thing’, when upholding the biblical standard that no one is saved who does not hold to the doctrine of Christ, which is His glorious Gospel. What exactly do people mean when they say, ‘Its just a doctrinal thing’? Are they implying that it is not doctrine which matters, that all that is required for a person to be saved is to simply love God out of a sincere heart? One so-called pastor has said, ‘Don’t tell me how much knowledge you have, just tell me you love Jesus’. But the question begs to be asked, ‘Is not doctrine the very means by which a man identifies and distinguishes the God/god he worships?’ How is it possible that two people are believing in the same God when they have differing views about Him and hold to different descriptions of Him, particularly when their definitions of Who God is and what God has done are diametrically opposed? Granted, there are doctrines which are not salvation issues. In other words, whilst it is always important to hold to the right doctrine concerning a matter to do with God, some doctrines (teachings), such as whether the Lord will return in our generation or the next, tithing or what the apostle Paul’s thorn in the flesh was all about, do not affect our salvation. But when it comes to the matter of Christ Jesus the Lord—Who He is and what He has done—doctrine is of immeasurable importance. It is a life and death issue that a person believes what GOD has testified of His Son and not some man-made tradition, an imagination of man’s mind concerning the Person and Work of Christ. This booklet will examine the statement, ‘Its just a doctrinal thing’ and explain why it is an assertion which is made in utter ignorance of the fact that when it comes to Who God is and which God/god one is believing and trusting in, doctrine can never be just a matter of opinion among equally saved people, or some irrelevant and inconsequential ‘thing’.

It is always a cause of great sadness when a person who professes to be a Christian separates themselves from a believer in the Gospel because of a disagreement over doctrine. The sadness is not due, primarily, to their disagreement, but the fact that the one who departs insists on holding on to false doctrine and is blind to the Truth, sometimes wilfully. It must be made clear at the outset that any disagreement over doctrine which has to do with salvation, is a disagreement about Who God is and what God has done. The situation is made worse when one party refuses to discuss the matter openly and in a civil and adult way, reasoning from the Word of God, deciding rather to end the relationship before any reasonable discussion is entered into. They make their statement, which to their minds is scripturally based, yet when one provides, or in some cases, is just beginning to provide a proper biblical response, one is cut off in mid-sentence and usually abandoned without any further contact. The initial problem here is not doctrine itself. Doctrine indeed separates. Doctrine is divisive, having the inherent quality to distinguish. It is discriminatory in that it identifies, being capable of making fine distinctions. It separates and divides those who are in deadly error from those who hold to the right doctrine taught of God. The problem lies with the person who is unwilling to calmly, objectively and carefully consider the doctrine he disagrees with. People are happy to read and study something by a favorite author which confirms what they believe, but seldom does one find a person happy and eager to read and study that which may point out that what they believe is deadly error. They fail to heed the seriousness of the biblical exhortation to "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in THE Faith..." (2 Cor. 13:5). In contrast, the true believer fears nothing from the truth. He does not want to close his ears to any part of the truth, for it is his friend revealed to him by God. A true believer does know what he believes and why he believes it. No examination of it, and no challenge to it, poses any threat to him or degree of apprehension for him. The reality of the situation is that a person who refuses to examine what he believes to see whether he is in the Faith by studying something he does not believe, is often restrained by fear, a fear of the truth, which involves a fear of change. You cannot look the other way when it comes to doctrine. For many who hear the Gospel for the first time and are challenged by it and it’s claim that none are saved without it, realise quickly what it would mean to their lives if the gospel they have been believing were proven to be false and that what they have now heard is in reality the only Gospel that saves. They would have to judge all their friends and family as lost. They would have to leave their ‘church’. They would lose all prestige and position they might have had. They would be ostracised from their social circle and perhaps even ridiculed. But for most, the great concern would be what their friends would say and also potential family conflict over the change. And for so-called pastors, it would mean the end of their meal ticket (see Lk. 14:26-35). And so those who fear such changes, who fear man rather than God and love the praise of men more than the praise of God (see Jn. 12:39-43) immediately set up a barrier between themselves and the truth and adopt this ‘all-wise’ sounding philosophy in which they seek refuge, that though two people are in disagreement over some doctrines—even doctrines concerning God and His way to salvation—‘The two are basically believing in the same God. It’s just a doctrinal thing. It’s just a difference of opinion, a theological disagreement which even scholars and theologians have not agreed upon, but it does not mean that they are not both saved’. Any debate or disagreement over doctrine is even seen in some circles as humorous, something to be laughed at by those who have ‘overcome’ such puerility and have adopted a ‘mature’ attitude to such things and see tolerance as the ‘loving thing to do’. People come up with the most extraordinary arguments to reason away reality. In many areas of life, including the spiritual, man has created for himself a false reality through which the river of denial flows freely. It is the wilfully ignorant man who finds refuge in another reality, which is nothing but delusion and illusion. True reality is a place where the truth is present. Delusion, or the unreal, is where the truth is absent or where only selected elements of the truth exist. In which do you reside?

Man can convince himself of almost anything. The world’s way of thinking is that we must have unity at any cost. In ever increasing levels, the world’s religions are thinking the same way. No matter how much disagreement there is present, they say two people can still walk together, ‘If they would only concentrate on the positives,’ those things upon which they are agreed. Though there is some merit in such an attitude, for instance a husband and wife do not agree on everything but they would be fools to concentrate on those things when there is so much they do agree upon, this however can never be applied to the things of God. With matters spiritual, particularly the life and death issue of the Gospel, God’s Word on the matter is as simple as this, "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3). It is not our willingness to agree to disagree and walk together, regardless of our beliefs about Christ, that unite us with God. What shows we are united with God—walking together with Him—is the fact that we AGREE WITH HIM about Who HE says Christ is and what HE says Christ has done. This shows we are true children of God, when we believe His Word and no other’s. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, THEY are the sons of God" (Rom. 8:14), the Spirit of God being the Spirit of Truth (Jn. 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 Jn. 5:6). In other words, those who believe the Truth are the true and only sons of God. Here is true fellowship. Here is true grounds for brotherhood and sonship within God’s family. What God says about His Son identifies and distinguishes His Son from all others. It also identifies and distinguishes Who the true God is. What God says is what matters, for what God says is True. What man believes, however sincerely, does not mean it is true, even if there are millions who believe it. Sincerity is certainly an evidence of conviction but not necessarily one based on Truth. It is vital for all to realise that GODLY SINCERITY IS ALWAYS ACCOMPANIED BY GOD’S TRUTH. A true believer is sincere but he has the dual foundation of sincerity AND Truth. Joshua 24:14 says: "Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in SINCERITY and in TRUTH: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord" (see also 1 Cor. 5:8; 2 Cor.1:12; 2:17). It does a man no good at all if he sincerely believes that 2 + 2 = 5. It doesn’t help him in any way if he is the most upright and model citizen around. If what the man believes is wrong, then no amount of accompanying sincerity and life of good works is going to make him right. If he believes a false gospel he is lost, and DOUBLY so if he believes it with sincerity. Sincerity, a genuineness of belief, if it is without correct doctrine, will condemn a man and is evidence that such sincerity is towards a counterfeit christ. Sincerity and TRUTH is what comes from God. God must be worshipped in spirit AND in TRUTH. Christ said: "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the TRUE worshippers shall worship the Father in SPIRIT and in TRUTH; for the Father SEEKETH SUCH to worship Him" (Jn. 4:23). The only ones whom God seeks are they who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, and according to Ezekiel 34:11,12, those true worshippers are referred to as His sheep, His people. The only ones who will hear His voice and who will be given eternal life are His sheep (see Jn.10:27,28). SINCERITY WITHOUT TRUTH ALWAYS LEADS TO FALSE GODS AND FALSE RELIGIONS. In the matter of doctrine, God’s Gospel no less, it is as serious as this: "...what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?..." (2 Cor. 6:14-16).

Doctrine is a word that is dreaded by many. It is something which the majority of church-going folk tend to steer away from, and in most cases is considered something that is to be avoided at all costs lest there be division among the ranks. The last thing most of them want is to have to face their doctrinal beliefs head-on, have them challenged by the Word of God and to explain what they believe and why. Join in any conversation over a cup of tea after any church service and the last thing you will hear being discussed is doctrine. No one wants their Sunday lunch upset by an argument over—of all things—doctrine, ‘after all, we are all Christians’. This author knows of one so-called pastor, who though aware of the fact that some members of his congregation held to several extreme teachings of the Faith movement, he dared not say one word against their beliefs for fear it would cause division and he would eventually lose his job. And this is the kind of man people are listening to and trusting in to tell them the truth! It is so ironic that just as those in the secular world who avoid such topics as religion and politics, even professing christians have become conditioned to light and frivolous conversation, to only talk of the weather or sport or silly trivial things and never that which has to do with doctrine. Oh, they talk about God with their closer friends in their little cliques, but with those they meet with only once a week, doctrine is hardly, if ever, mentioned. Far be it from any of these people to discuss that morning’s sermon and test what was preached with open Bibles. For the most part people are comfortable in their ‘churches’. They feel unthreatened in the familiar surroundings and by the friendly people they know who seem to be doing quite well and, to their minds, could not possibly be anything but Christian. No one makes them feel uncomfortable or does anything unsavory like question the doctrines they believe. Everyone feels warm and fuzzy in this safe environment where just about everything and everyone is accepted at face value, and where doctrine is never an issue. Doctrine is hated because it is considered to be that which divides Christians. It is perceived to be that which causes strife and arguments, preventing unity among the brethren. ‘Doctrine divides’, they say. ‘We need unity. We need to lay doctrine, and all it’s divisive qualities, aside and concentrate on our mutual love for God.’ A popular catch-cry among such thinkers is, ‘It doesn’t matter what you believe, but who you believe’. But does not what you believe identify who you believe in? Isn’t doctrine, which shows what we believe, the key to revealing who we believe in?

How important then is doctrine? Far more important and consequential than what religious leaders would prefer us to believe. One so-called pastor informed this author that though he believes I correctly and accurately teach God’s Gospel, he does not believe that all are lost who do not believe this Gospel. He claims that, though all those who hold to the Arminian doctrines do have a false profession, he does not believe they are all lost! How can anyone be saved whilst holding to false doctrine about Who God is and what He has done? How could a false profession of God have brought, or eventually lead one to, the True God? How can belief in false doctrines—which constitutes a false profession and which identifies a false god—save anyone? Jesus commanded His people to "...preach THE Gospel to every creature" (Mk. 16:15). Jesus commanded that HIS Gospel be preached, for only belief in HIS Gospel would save. He did not command that any gospel be preached, but His alone. Therefore if Christ’s people must only preach His Gospel it is of a surety that it is only belief in His Gospel that will save. Belief in any other, constituting a false profession, will only damn a person to Hell. If one who holds to a false profession is just as saved as the person who has a true profession, holding to the true Gospel, what does it matter which gospel is preached, true or false, for belief in either one will save a person!

Can the reader begin to see the significance of believing the doctrine which makes up God’s Gospel and not the false doctrines which form false gospels? Many contend that, ‘We’re only human and subject to error. We are all wrong in some area of doctrine but we are all sincere in our love for God, so let us put doctrine aside and allow our simple love for, and child-like faith in, God, and His love for us, unite us and cause us to be as one.’ This all sounds so nice and fluffy and is so readily accepted as the ‘christian’ thing to do, that it pleases God so much to see people casting aside their differences—even doctrinal differences over who Christ is and what He has done—respecting each other’s point of view—no matter if that view dishonors Almighty God—endeavouring to live in an ignorance laced ecumenical bliss. One man even went so far as to say, ‘Nobody knows the Gospel anyway’! I wonder what he does in answer to Jesus’ command for His people to preach the Gospel? ‘Nobody knows the Gospel’, he says, yet he calls the evening services at his church ‘the gospel service’! If the Gospel is such a mystery that none can know it, God’s people would never have been commanded to preach the Gospel of Christ. For one cannot preach what one does not know. Fellowship between Charismatics and Baptists and whoever, is all o.k. according to such people because the bottom line is, ‘We all believe in God and Jesus’. Even mainstream conservative Calvinist groups are joining with Arminians and other such overt dealers in doctrinal deception such as Roman Catholicism and the Charismatic movement. The question that needs addressing is, ‘Where does the doctrinal line begin and the ‘unity at all costs’ attitude end that divides believers in the true God from those who follow false gods? In other words, ‘How wrong does one have to be to be lost, and how right does one have to be to be saved?’ The immediate answer that comes to mind is Jesus’ own words: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mk. 16:16). Believe the Gospel and you are saved, believe it not and you are lost (see 2 Thess. 2:12). This is God’s Standard by which saved and lost are judged so all that needs to be done is to find out what the Gospel is and what it is to believe the Gospel of God. It must be pointed out that this is no mere test of one’s intellect, but rather a matter of whether or not it is the true God Who has been revealed to a person. More about that later.

The Gospel is the dividing line between saved and lost. What God has declared about Who His Son is and what His Son has done is the Truth. It is the dividing line between saved and lost. ANYONE WHO DOES NOT CONCUR WITH WHAT GOD SAYS IS SIMPLY NOT SAVED, FOR THEY BELIEVE IN AND PROMOTE SOMETHING OTHER THAN WHAT GOD HAS SAID! If the reader does not believe what God has said about His Son then it is another christ whom they have placed their trust in. The reader might say to this, ‘What you say God says is just your opinion’. But my friend, such a thing can also be said of what you say God has said and with such an attitude or approach, we would be left with nothing but what we both consider to be just an opinion. But this is not the state God wants His people to be in, for He has given us His truth. A person truly born again has been brought out of darkness into God’s marvellous Light. This light is said to be "...the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ..." (2 Cor. 4:4 cf. Jn. 1:4). As light and darkness are distinct, so too, there is contrast between God’s Gospel and all false gospels. The true Christian is no longer blind but can see. He is no longer ignorant of Who God is because God has revealed Himself to that person and opened their understanding. The apostle John, speaking to believers, said, "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath GIVEN US AN UNDERSTANDING, THAT WE MAY KNOW HIM that is true..." (1 Jn. 5:20; cf. Lk. 24:45; Jn. 17:3). Speaking to believers, Peter said, "But ye are a chosen generation...that ye should show forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous Light" (1 Pet. 2:9); "Ye are all the children of Light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness" (1 Thess. 5:5); "For God Who commanded the Light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the LIGHT OF THE KNOWLEDGE of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). It is what God’s Word says God says, that a saved person believes. The true believer believes what GOD has said. The false believer believes what THEY believe God has said, hence their belief in false doctrines. Scripture is not just the best interpreter of Scripture, it is the ONLY TRUE interpreter of Scripture! The Scriptures never conflict with the only Gospel that gives ALL the glory to God for salvation and leaves no room for man to boast. No gospel which is propped up by human emotion or experience, or some all-inclusive doctrinal nonsense, has, or will ever, save anyone. No person ever got to heaven because they believed that what they believed was God’s Word. You must believe what God believes, what God has declared. Only belief in what God has said, not what you believe God has said, will save you. For example, you can believe you are travelling to Sydney and have the right directions, however if the directions are wrong, you can believe all you like that you are on your way to Sydney, you’ll never get there! Your believing in false directions, however sincerely convinced you are that they are the right directions, will never get you to where you want to go. In the end when the Lord shall have His sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left, it will be the Gospel that stands between them, no one will be doing any doctrinal fence-sitting. No one will claim to be in any ‘undecided’ or ‘still working it out’ group. It will be revealed that one was either among the Gospel believing sheep of God, or with the Gospel-denying goats of the Devil. Either one believes the truth, or one denies the truth by whatever else it is they believe.

In this age of tolerance, populated by the weak-kneed and mealy-mouthed, unity and friendship has bypassed the need for truth, which is no longer a priority but often seen as a hindrance to sincere loving do-gooders who love to get together for the purposes of mutual back slapping. Many consider tolerance to be a sure sign of ‘maturity in the faith’. The attitude is, ‘Do not be so uncompromising in matters of doctrine as our stiff-necked fore-fathers were, but take a more open and tolerant approach towards those who have been taught, and who think, differently to us. This is true love and the way we should go’. In multicultural settings such thinking takes root quickly. Democracy and it’s ‘there are no absolutes’ axiom (except the absolute which says there are no absolutes!) has run rampant and swallowed up religion, leaving religious man nothing but a ‘love everybody’ attitude and a ‘don’t try and convert anyone’ policy. ‘Our business is not to convert but to love’, they say. Doctrine has fallen victim to an all embracing satanic love which cares nothing for the truth. ‘No one is right and no one is wrong, just follow your heart and love your god and we’ll all be in heaven before we know it.’ In reality there could be nothing deadlier, more subtle and more poisonous to our thinking, than such notions. A study of Scripture will reveal that this attitude of unity, based not on doctrine but on mutual acceptance and tolerance, is not a Godly thing for it leaves out the very thing that glorifies and exalts God: the only Doctrine that comes from Him and gives glory only to Him, the doctrine that excludes everyone who does not believe it from a place in heaven, other than at the Judgement Bar of God. The apostle Paul taught that those who perish do so "...because they received not the love of the Truth THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED" (2 Thess. 2:10), and "That they all might be DAMNED WHO BELIEVED NOT the Truth..." (2 Thess. 2:12). Those who want unity at the cost of doctrine may not realise it, but their unity is not without doctrine, it is without the doctrine of God. You cannot deny the doctrine of God without believing in some other doctrine. People are getting together over what they are agreed upon and that is a doctrinal unity, albeit a unity based on counterfeit doctrine. Unity/friendship without true doctrine sets aside and discards what God has said and replaces it with what man believes God has said or what He should be saying. God says that true love "Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth" (1 Cor. 13:6). Man has perverted Christianity and fashioned his own image of it into something which is unrecognizable from the Christian Faith taught in God’s Holy Word.

The word ‘doctrine’ is mentioned 51 times in the Bible: 6 times in the Old Testament and 45 times in the New Testament. The word ‘doctrines’ appears 5 times, all in the New Testament. The word ‘doctrine’ in the Old Testament can mean: ‘Something received, ie., mentally; instruction. Chastisement, reproof, warning; chastening, check, correction, discipline, rebuke. Something heard, an announcement, report, tidings.’ In The New Testament the word doctrine can mean: ‘Instruction (the act or the matter). Learning, teaching, something said, communication, preaching, reason.’ So we see from a brief study of the meaning of the word ‘doctrine’, that the Christian has nothing to fear from it, no reason to stand aloof from it and absolutely no reason to despise it. It is a word and a thing that God loves. In fact, "The law (doctrine) of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul..." (Psa. 19:7 cf. 2 Tim. 3:15). God’s doctrine, His Word, His teachings, His Gospel, are all synonymous and anyone who claims to be a Christian who does not love God’s Word, His teachings, His doctrine and His glorious Gospel and does not live and judge by it, is currently in a lost state. God has chosen to communicate His Gospel message by means of preaching, the preaching of doctrine, by which He defines and distinguishes His Message from all others: "But hath in due times manifested His Word through preaching..." (Titus 1:3); "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (1 Cor. 1:21). Doctrine, which is simply teaching, is a wonderful thing, if it is God’s doctrine. The doctrine of Jesus Christ the Lord is given to men in order that they might know the True Christ, the True God and what He has said and what He wants His people to know, learn and love with all their hearts. It is by Christ’s doctrine that a Christian lives and breathes and he will never abandon it and follow another’s doctrines (see Jn. 10:2-5). God sent His prophets to speak His words, not their own words, their own ideas about Him, and in these last days has spoken to us through His Son, Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1,2 cf. Jn. 3:34). Doctrine DOES divide; it does separate. It divides God’s children from the children of wrath; it separates God’s sheep from the cursed goats and it differentiates between God’s wheat and the Devil’s tares. It distinguishes the true Christ from the false christs. Ironically, the very thing that is frowned upon in many circles and looked on as secondary to one’s love for God, is the very thing that identifies the God/god we worship. Our love for a higher being is not that which identifies him or distinguishes him from all others. It is by revealed doctrine alone that one can know God, for it is God’s doctrine which declares Who He is and what He has done. It is through doctrine, HIS doctrine, that God reveals Himself. God’s whole salvation plan, His Good News, His Gospel is made up of several doctrines. God has only one Gospel and no other can save: "...I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for IT is the power of God unto salvation..." (Rom. 1:16). If one believes in something other than God’s Gospel then one cannot be saved, for one would be believing in something other than God’s Good News, His Word. How can anything except God’s Gospel possibly be called ‘Good News’?

Writing to the brethren, the apostle John stated: "We are of God: he that knoweth God, heareth us; he that is not of God, heareth not us. HEREBY KNOW WE THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND THE SPIRIT OF ERROR" (1 Jn. 4:6). "We can distinguish those who embrace the truth from those who do not. Whatever pretensions they might set up for piety, it was clear (in John’s day) that if they did not embrace the doctrines taught by the true apostles of God, they could not be regarded as his friends; that is, as true Christians. It may be added that the same test is applicable now. They who do not receive the plain doctrines laid down in the Word of God, whatever pretensions they may make to piety, or whatever zeal they may evince in the cause which they have espoused, can have no well-founded claims to the name Christian.. One of the clearest evidences of true piety is a readiness to receive all that God has taught." Only those who listen to and believe the Gospel of God, with its defining doctrine, may rightly lay claim to the name ‘Christian’. Those who reject it, whether knowingly or unknowingly through belief in false doctrines about God and how He saves, are lost and qualify only as false christians. The Truth is what matters. And the truth is what God says it is, not what a man thinks or believes it to be.

There are thousands of religions in this world, all with their different gods which are defined by their different doctrines. For the most part, religious people are very sincere in their beliefs about their gods. However, it must be pointed out that sincerity does not mean security. Sincerity is not the key to heaven, but belief of the truth is the evidence one has the true God. Of God’s chosen people it is written, "...God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and BELIEF OF THE TRUTH whereunto He CALLED YOU BY OUR GOSPEL..." (2 Thess. 2:13, 14). And Christ prays to the Father for those He has given Him: "Sanctify them through THY TRUTH: THY WORD IS TRUTH" (Jn. 17:17). There is no sanctification—separation unto God—no setting apart, no distinction made, without the Spirit of God bringing the Truth of God, which is the Gospel of God. "This sanctification is God’s will for the believer (1 Thess. 4:3), and His purpose in calling him by the Gospel, v. 7...must be learned from God v. 4, as He teaches it by His Word..." Many take the doctrines of their god very seriously. Others take a more subjective approach, relying on their own personal experiences with their god, what he does for them, how he blesses them etc., to convince themselves that they have the true God. For most people this is what really persuades them that they have the true God. For others, simply the fact that they have believed a certain way for many years, or that what they believe was taught to them by their parents, is enough assurance for them to believe that they have the true God. Many say that the only way to know God is to experience Him. They say that one cannot experience God simply by learning and believing what He teaches and that doctrine is the dead letter. They accuse those who stress the necessity of doctrine as intellectuals who are out of touch with what God is doing today. Whatever ‘christian’ religious group you may be involved with, you may rest assured that they are teaching you doctrines, for each group teaches something about what God is like and how He saves. Each group refers to the Bible, when teaching what they believe, and if they can’t find it there will simply refer to their experiences for proof that what they are saying is true. So whichever group you belong to and however much you take a subjective approach to things spiritual, you are believing doctrines of some kind. Your experiences are compatible with your doctrines and vice versa. Those who say they hate doctrine fail to realise that every time they hear a sermon they are hearing doctrine, whether good or bad. Everyone believes doctrine. Everyone who attends a church service or reads a book or listens to a taped message, is being fed some sort of doctrine. Even the man who says ‘don’t listen to doctrine’, is teaching doctrine when he says that! In many cases it is because of doctrine that people choose their particular denomination and are drawn to their particular god. What is taught about what the Bible says, is what attracts people to a particular group. Though the lives of many professing christians run on experience, it is because of certain doctrines that they arrived at their present state. They may first have had an experience, but it was what they were taught about that experience that led them to a particular group. They fail to realise that when they read their Bibles they read nothing but doctrine, the doctrine of God. In fact, the Bible could more properly be called ‘THE DOCTRINES (ie. the teachings) OF GOD’.

One thing which cannot be denied is the fact that the thing which identifies and separates one god from another is what is taught about that god. Two parties cannot have the same god, even if both parties are calling that god by the same name, if you have two conflicting doctrines about the same attribute. For instance, you have not the same god if you say he is absolutely sovereign and another person says he is not. One of you is right about this attribute, the other is wrong. You cannot both be right and you cannot both be wrong. Belief in one doctrine is to automatically disbelieve the other, it is a denial of the other. You have both just begun to identify your god by what your individual beliefs concerning the doctrine of sovereignty are. Not one of the gods of Hinduism can be confused with the True God of the Bible. This is realised by finding out what is taught about the Hindu gods and what the True God says. To begin with, the True God states:"...I am God, and THERE IS NONE ELSE; I am God, and THERE IS NONE LIKE ME" (Isa. 46:9). This really rules out any and every other perceived deity, for the only True Deity says that there is no other Deity but Him. Interestingly, God says that there are none LIKE Him. If there are none like God then what you say about God, what you believe about Him, is very important for if you are in error about what God is like you cannot possibly be describing the true God. Nothing distinguishes the true God from the false gods more appropriately than the doctrine which identifies Him: what He is like and what He is not like. He alone is God and therefore what He has said is the truth. The Lord, He is God, and there is none else. God goes on to describe Himself: "...there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth My counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it" (Isa. 46:9-11). What is God doing here? He is defining, thereby identifying, Himself—Who He is—by telling you what He is like and what He is like by what He does. In doing this, He has distinguished Himself from all others, He has set Himself apart from all others and simultaneously ruled out Who He is not and what He is not like by what He does not do. How can anyone in their wildest imagination think that to not believe the above Scriptures about God is to still believe in the One Who spoke these words!

Say we have a Mormon and a so-called Jehovah’s Witness in the same room. Both declare their undying love for god. Our goal is to find out whether or not they are speaking about the same god. For all intents and purposes it appears that they are. To the uninformed bystander, how could they not be. One says, ‘I love god forever for he is so lovely and kind’. The other states that he loves god passionately and would even die for him. To an ignorant onlooker it would appear that these two men follow the same god, for they both speak so highly of him and love him so much, and they are both obviously referring to some higher being. This higher being is sincerely thought of as God by both, so how could they not be speaking about the same one? The love and sincerity expressed by these two men is not that which is being questioned. What we are asking is how can we be sure these two men are talking about the same god when they express their love for him and speak so highly of him. There is no other way to find this out apart from asking them to describe their god, to tell us who he is and what he is like by what he has done. In other words, to reveal to us the doctrines which identify their god. As they begin to identify, and thereby distinguish, their gods by the doctrines they believe, we begin to get a clear picture that they are in fact not talking about the same god but two entirely different gods. The Mormon says of his god, ‘He was once a man just like us and later became god’. The JW refutes/denies this by saying, ‘god was always god and never man’. Now there is no point in these two going off and agreeing to disagree about this one point of doctrine and saying that they believe in the same god based on the fact that they have many other things in common which they can agree over, for one is speaking heresy and the other truth. It is important to note here that these two men cannot actually be believing in the same god and that this is just a case of one of them needing a little correction concerning these doctrines, for what each man says about his god is an undeniable, fundamental and official teaching of the group he belongs to. Both teachings are a denial of the other, they cancel each other out. This is what the Mormon church and the JW organization say about their gods. This is how they describe their gods, how they identify them and how each group is identified, and most importantly, how they recognize a fellow Mormon or JW! You’ll never see a JW worshipping the god of the Mormons and vice versa. WHY? Because each one recognizes instantly by the doctrine of the other that he is not describing the same god, but another god which he does not believe in. And, friend, that is exactly what you are doing if you do not believe in the only God of the only Gospel that saves, and which is taught at the end of this booklet. If you deny the doctrines the Mormon man is telling you about his god, then he will see clearly that you are not a Mormon and do not follow his god. So too, if you deny the doctrine of the Gospel, you are denying the God of that Gospel and so it cannot be that He has visited you with salvation. For if He had, you would no doubt be sanctified by His Holy Spirit knowing, and believing in and loving the doctrine that comes from Him, instead of denying it and abiding in another. The point to all this is, that what a person believes shows whether or not it is the true God Who has revealed Himself to that person. This, as we have seen, may be clearly established by hearing the doctrines of a person. Our illustration shows clearly that the Mormon god has been revealed to one man and the JW god has been revealed to the other. How do you think all the different cults and religions got their start? It was because new doctrines about ‘new gods’, and perverted doctrines of the true God, were being made up or ‘mystically’ revealed. People were not saying they had the same god, but a different god and that their god was the true God. The proof of this was to be found in what they had to say about their gods, in their doctrines. Today we have the situation that people are saying they have the same god, the true God, even though their doctrines about their god contrast sharply! How wrong must one be in order to be lost and how right must one be in order to be saved, may be answered in the following way: Tell me what you believe and Scripture will show whether you are saved or not, by confirming or denying that it is the true God you are believing in! God has revealed Himself to His chosen ones and given them an understanding of Who He is and what He has done, through the doctrine He teaches, and He does not reveal Himself to the rest (see Matt. 13:10,11). God has revealed Himself in the Gospel. Those who believe it will be saved and those who do not believe what God has said will be eternally lost.

Seeing then that it is doctrine which identifies, and therefore distinguishes, the god a man worships from all others, one would be guilty of spiritual buffoonery to ever again hold doctrine to be only a minor thing, something which believers can disagree on and yet still walk in agreement about Who God is and what He has done. It is a fool who does not take doctrine seriously enough to see that WHAT A PERSON BELIEVES REVEALS WHO THAT PERSON BELIEVES IN. Of parallel importance is the fact that what a person does not believe shows who they do not believe in. During this author’s lost days, I was aware of some differences in what people believed about God, even among those who attended the same Baptist group I did. But in the absence of any true doctrinal discernment, there was never any question that they were not saved. Everyone, it was thought, was at varying stages of developing their theology, but whatever anyone believed it did not affect, in our minds, their salvation. How wrong and dangerous this way of thinking is. To not judge objectively by the doctrinal stand a person took, or didn’t take, and put it down to ‘theological development’, was the height of ignorance. It was like saying the person who believed 2 + 2 = 7 was just as correct as the person who said 2 + 2 = 4, but just had a little more learning to do. How ridiculous! The person who believes the answer is 7 negates every other answer by the one he has given. And as long as he believes this he denies, he does not believe, any number other than 7 to be the correct answer. Now, whilst believing 7 to be the answer, he may not be absolutely certain that it is correct, but that so far in his mathematical studies the answer he has arrived at is 7, yet he is open to further study, or teaching, on the matter. But it must be realised that even though the person is open to further study and teaching on the matter—which is commendable—this can never deny the fact that the answer he believes to be the right one is WRONG, and that whilst holding to it he is denying the true and correct answer! Whether he is totally ignorant of it or whether he is aware of it but does not believe it to be the right answer, he nullifies it by what he believes to be true. The person who holds to false doctrine in the matter of salvation may well be open to further study and teaching on the issue, but this does not mean that their teachableness is in any way a sign that they are saved, for the gospel they currently hold to is a false one. What we were doing in that Baptist Church and what millions today are doing is judging a person saved simply because they say they love God, are church goers, sing hymns with a passion and are such ‘lovely people’. ‘We like them, they fit in with our social expectations and standards’ etc, etc. ‘What they believe might be a little different to what I believe but after all, we are all subject to error and open to correction.’ As long as the veneer is there, then all is well. Seemingly, there doesn’t appear to be all that much interest in what a person believes and even less in self-examination. So many people judge themselves to be o.k.—saved—because they know their own hearts and how sincere they are ‘for God’. People say, ‘I know that I am a Christian’, but does God know it? Does He recognize you as His child despite the fact that you do not believe His Gospel, abide not in His doctrine? Simply because a person says they love God, or is convinced in themselves that they love God, is no evidence that they do, or even that they know the true God (see Matt.7:21-23). But people aren’t into details today, they’re not into specifics. As long as one fits into the general idea of what a Christian is perceived should believe and how they should act, then all is fine. Those who look more intently at things are considered to be fanatics and know-it-alls.

The Gospel of salvation is not something which is of any private interpretation. That is, Who God is and what God has done, in particular what God the Son has done in and by His death, is not something which is open to speculation. It is not something which two people can be in disagreement over and yet rightly believe that they hold to the same God. The Gospel is not of any private interpretation. For if each man went off believing what they believed God’s Word was saying, rather than what the Scriptures affirm, then it would no longer be God’s Word they were believing but their own. It would not be God’s saving Gospel that was believed in but merely a man’s idea of what the gospel is, which has never, and can never, save anyone. This is one of the greatest causes of confusion when it comes to the things of God: people reading His Word and coming away with a wrong interpretation of what God is saying, and subsequently believing and spreading lies about God. They think that, simply because they came to believe what they believe after reading the Bible, or hearing some ‘minister’ from a pulpit, what they believe is the very truth of God. How far would any minister get if he did not appear and sound sincere? However, it is important to realise that while a ‘minister’ may look and sound sincere, we are not to judge his words as true based merely on this evidence, after all, sincerity is used by fraudsters as the cornerstone of deception. Notions about God are not automatically true simply because a person believes them. One does not have the true God merely because one is sincere in whatever one believes about God. A sincere love for one’s fellow man is also no evidence that one believes in the true God. The Gospel, far from being simply a matter of opinion—just a doctrinal thing—that we can agree to disagree over, is in reality an issue of WHAT GOD HAS SAID. The Gospel reveals what God teaches about man and about His Son Whom He has sent. If it is not what GOD has said, then it is simply not GOD’S Gospel which you are believing in. The true Christian Faith is not determined by it’s popularity. Nor is a belief verified as the truth of God by the number of people who believe it. What God is like is not substantiated by one’s opinion, or one’s interpretation of what the Scriptures say about God. What the Christian Faith is, what the Truth of God is and what God is like, is ABSOLUTELY RULED AND DETERMINED by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God. His word is final and it is by His word, His doctrine, that we judge whether or not a person is following the true God or one of the many counterfeits. It is by God’s doctrine that a man can rightly judge himself and others saved or lost.

Surely no one is under the impression that two people are believing in the same Jesus when one says He was virgin born and the other says He was not, that He was conceived as the result of natural human relations. We immediately recognize by this that though the person who believes Christ was not virgin born is sincere in his belief and ‘loves God’ and is deeply devoted, and a committed church attendee, charitable etc., his belief, or faith, is not in the true Christ for the true Jesus WAS virgin born. It is not simply a case of the man believing in the true Jesus but needing some correction on the matter of His birth. He is believing in a false jesus and cannot be in a saved state whilst believing this lie. Otherwise it would not matter what anyone believed about God! Everyone would be saved regardless of what they believed and would only be lacking in some advanced teaching that would set things right. But can’t you see that God HAS set things right, He HAS made things clear by telling us His Gospel, and God’s Gospel is what a man ought to believe and what the saved man DOES believe!! The reason the virgin birth is so vital to a saving knowledge of Christ the Person is seen when the consequences of Him not being virgin born are made clear. The ramifications of what a person believes go very deep and are always present and real, even though a person may be ignorant of them. This is why belief in a particular doctrine either evidences a person’s salvation or disqualifies him from being a believer in the true God. The reason why the virgin birth is so important to a saving knowledge of Who Christ is, is this: if Jesus was born of the seed of man then He was born with the sin nature of man and could never have been the sinless, perfect Savior the Scriptures say He is. His death would have been the equivalent of any other man’s: meaningless and worthless, in terms of atoning for anyone’s sins. All doctrine, be it true or false, has its ramifications and consequential effects on other doctrines concerning Who God is and what He has done.

A person may believe some truths about the True God but it is what they do not believe which, unbeknownst to them, cancels out, or nullifies, their claim of believing in the true God. For example, a person cannot believe that God accepted Christ’s Sacrifice for sin if that person does not believe in the virgin birth, a doctrine which states the sinlessness of Christ. If Christ was not completely sin free, then God could never have accepted His sacrifice. They cannot be a Christian, even though they are convinced by their limited knowledge that they are. It is essential to a right knowledge of Christ as a Person and as the Saviour to believe what God has said about Him, that He was virgin born and therefore free of the sin nature found in every other man, thus proving Him to be the very Savior prophesied in Scripture. A man speaks volumes by the doctrine he believes and the doctrine he denies by that which he believes. The true teachings of God never contradict themselves but flow freely into and out of one another. What a person believes about election will affect what they believe about man’s spiritual state after the Fall and the sovereignty of God etc. And what a person believes concerning the death of Christ, who He died for, will affect what they believe Christ accomplished in that death. They will show what their doctrine is concerning Christ’s atoning death. This will in turn affect what they believe about God’s absolute sovereignty and invincible salvation plan for all whom He chose to save.

To be a true Christian, a true believer in God, one cannot simply assume such a thing, assuring oneself by saying ‘I love God’, and not know anything about that God. Many would argue, ‘But isn’t it enough to believe in God?’ Yes, my friend, but that is my very point: What is it to believe in God? One man asked the apostle Paul and Silas, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved..." (Acts 16:30,31). But what did Paul and Silas mean by this? What is it to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Surely it is not merely to believe that He existed and that ‘Jesus’ was His name. Paul and Silas did not leave their enquirer with this one statement, but immediately "...spake unto him THE WORD OF THE LORD..." (Acts 16:32). THEY TOLD HIM WHAT TO DO AND THEN THEY TOLD HIM WHAT TO BELIEVE! To be saved one must believe the truth as it is in Jesus. Remember, what they told him to believe was pivotal to that man’s salvation. What they taught, and what that man was to believe, about the Lord was no mere opinion of Paul’s or Silas, but was the very Gospel of God (see Acts 16:10). Whatever they taught that man was what he HAD to believe in order to be saved. That was what Paul and Silas answered in relation to the question ‘What must I do to be saved?’, and it is the answer they would still give to you today! If the man changed any part of what he’d been told to believe and decided to believe differently, adding to or taking away from, what Paul and Silas had told him, he could not rightly lay claim to being one who believed in the Jesus of Paul and Silas and therefore could not rightly claim to be a Christian! Surely one can see that to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ one must believe the truth about Him: that which identifies Him and Him alone as Savior, distinguishing Him from every false savior. Are we wrong? Is a man just required to believe there is a higher being and therefore belief in His existence is enough to show we know Him and are saved? If so, what of the demons who know there is one true God? "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble" (Jas. 2:19). Is that what believing in God amounts to? If so, then just about every person on earth is saved, including the devils, for most people believe in a higher being. Since this is patently not the case, to believe in God, the true God, requires far more than just a mere acknowledgement of His existence and that He created all things. The requirement is a knowledge of who He is and what He has done; of who His Son is and what He has done. And that knowledge can only come by God revealing Himself BY DOCTRINE THROUGH HIS GOSPEL.

One man, a Presbyterian pastor no less, became extremely angry with this author several years ago, not so much over the Gospel I promote, but his anger centred on the ramification that none are saved before hearing and believing this Gospel and rejecting all others. The real reason for his outrage became obvious when he claimed that he was born again when he knelt down repentantly and ‘cried out to God for mercy’. This may be all that many, if not most, people need to be convinced that such a person is crying out to the true God and that they will subsequently be saved. But who was this man actually crying out to in the privacy of his own home? No doubt if there had been a Roman Catholic present and a Mormon and a Seventh-Day Adventist all three would have claimed that he was crying out to their god! What we need to find out is what, if anything, did this man know about the true God? What had he been taught about God? Did his knowledge of God come from one who knew the true God or from one who merely professed to be a christian? Had the man simply heard about the existence of God in his childhood and that our sins are offensive to Him? Did he just have some ideas of his own about what God was like and that God would accept him merely because he was sincere in his crying out to Him? What, if anything, did he know and believe about the atoning death of Christ? We shall never know, for this man did not give me the chance to ask him any of these questions and he certainly did not volunteer such information. He just grumbled his angry response and hung up! Some might say, ‘What if all the man knew about God and His Son was right, even if his knowledge was limited. Wouldn’t this qualify him as one who cried out to the true God?’ Well, frankly no. Firstly because of what was stated above, that a person may believe some truths about the True God but it is what they do not believe, which, unbeknownst to them, cancels out, or nullifies, their claim of believing in the true God. There is knowledge about God and then there is saving knowledge of God. All false gospels contain within them some truths, some facts about God, but none of them contain the whole truth, all the doctrines which rightly teach His Person and His Work. One can know about God as Creator and that His Son was sent to the earth to die on a cross, and even that God forgives sin. But if that is all one knows one cannot be said to have saving knowledge, for these things, in and of themselves, do not reveal the Righteousness of Christ; they do not reveal Who He is by what He has done. They do not reveal all that must be believed in, in order for one to be saved. Now, those things just mentioned about God are included in what one must believe in order to be saved, but on their own they are merely facts about God. They do not reveal His Character, what He is like, who He is and how He saves. One thing is certain, no man can come to God unless God has come to the man first and revealed Himself to him! God says, "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God" (Rom. 3:11). If there are none that understand, how can they claim to believe? And if there are none that seek God, how can any claim to have found God and called out to Him? How can you be addressing the true God when you know next to nothing about Him? I know that despite a lack of true knowledge of God, everyone’s intention is to speak to the true God. But everyone has some idea of what God is like, some image in their minds of Him and it is precisely to that image that a man is speaking and which he believes to be the true God. So when you hear a man calling out to God do not automatically think that he is calling out to your god, or the true God, for you know nothing of what this man thinks about God and who he thinks God is. If you suppose this is simply my opinion based on my reasoning, then listen to what God’s Word declares, the first sentence of which I am sure even the Presbyterian pastor would agree with, but what would he say about the rest?: "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. HOW THEN shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Rom. 10:13,14). What is being spoken about here which must be preached and believed is "...the Gospel of peace..." (v. 15). To call on the name of the Lord is to knowingly call on the Lord who came to save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). Calling out to anyone but the True God and the real Jesus is just a cry in the wilderness. To those who are under the impression that they ‘found God’, Jesus says: "No man CAN come to Me, unless the Father which hath sent Me draw him..." (Jn. 6:44) and the Father draws a person to His Son by the doctrine which testifies of His Son: "...Every man therefore that hath HEARD, AND HATH LEARNED of the Father, cometh unto Me" (Jn. 6:45). A man does not come to God by his seeking, but only by God’s drawing. Also, Christ shows in this next verse the utter impossibility of any man coming to Him, for they cannot know Him, unless He has first revealed Himself: "...no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him" (Lk. 10:22). Coming to God is a fallacy, a nonsense invented by the prideful, deceitful and wicked heart of man. IT IS GOD THAT COMES TO A MAN, reveals Himself and opens the man’s eyes, ears, heart and understanding to receive Him. It is God the Great Shepherd who seeks His sheep and not the other way round. In fact, the sheep do not even know they are lost until God finds them! It is true that God’s people love Him, BUT it is of greater significance that this is only because God loved them first: "We love Him, BECAUSE He first loved us" (1 Jn. 4:19). The plethora of false religions and false gods is testament to man’s futile and inadequate ‘search for God’.

Accuse me of being pedantic if you will, but I am simply not going to believe that you and I both know my friend John if all that you tell me about him—hair color, height, occupation etc., differs from the John I know. I would not doubt that you know a man named John, but from what you tell me about him—which will either identify him as the same person or by definition distinguish him—he is not the John I know, even though he has the same name and is male! So too, it would be the height of foolishness for anyone to believe a person is a Christian if what that person says about God does not match what God says about Himself. What of the many sports men and women who ‘thank God’ after winning an event. Many rock stars even ‘give praise to God’ on receiving an award. Are they all talking about the true God? Are they even talking about the same god? We cannot tell unless we hear of the doctrines they believe about their god. How foolish would a person be, after hearing some sportsman or musician or actor mention God, to automatically believe that the god they’re talking about is the same one they believe in, and that the person is a Christian! It is important to note that when you call someone a Christian you are saying that what they believe about God is what God has taught and revealed to them. You are saying that the one whom that person believes in and worships is the true God. But if they believe error about God you are saying that God has revealed Himself to them by teaching them lies about Himself. You are also saying that no god could be the True God other than the one that person believes in. When the JW talks about his ‘god’, the true Christian knows he is not talking about the true God for the JW denies that Jesus is God. It is not a case of the JW having the same God and being just as much saved as the true Christian, but one of the JW having a different god. This conclusion is reached by judging the man’s doctrine and not by the flawed method of how much the man might ‘look and act’ like a ‘christian’. The Lord Jesus said as much about the Pharisees, who were the most religious people of His day, and the scribes: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (Matt. 23:27,28). The JW says he believes in Jesus but his jesus, he insists, is not God. Instantly we can recognize that though this ‘higher being’ which the JW worships does have a son named Jesus, they cannot be the true God and true Son. One cannot deny the essentials about God and rightly claim to be a true Christian believing in the true God.

The problem with many so-called Christian theologians and scholars and professors etc., is that despite so much disagreement through the centuries between men they consider to be Christian (because they led exemplary lives punctuated by good deeds, selflessness and modesty, went to church, spoke kindly about God, wrote the most marvellous hymns, taught people to do good and not evil etc.), they say these men were Christians, even those who believed in some heresies. They judge those who believed in false gospels and those who claimed that such men were saved regardless of their doctrine, as equally saved. They judge them, not by the doctrine of Christ, but according to appearance and reputation. They judge by man’s standard and not God’s. Such is the case today. Paul the apostle warned people not to judge according to reputation or appearance. This is evident in his warning to those in Galatia not to believe any other gospel if it differed from the Gospel he had already taught them, not even if he was the one teaching it, or even if it was an angel from heaven: "...but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach ANY OTHER GOSPEL unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:7,8). When one preaches or believes any other gospel than the one Paul preached, one has a perverted gospel which cannot save. The appearance and reputation of a person does not ensure that what is being spoken is the Truth. A testament to man’s deplorable and ever decaying state of spiritual blindness, is that he sees doctrine—the very thing that identifies a god as either false or the true and only God—as that which keeps man from reaching new heights of understanding, tolerance and love. This, to say the least, is such madness as to be beyond words. The highly respected Charles Haddon Spurgeon called himself a Calvinist and yet insisted that John Wesley, a man who detested the Calvinist doctrines and called the Calvinist god ‘my devil’, was just as saved as he was. Spurgeon even called Wesley’s Arminian doctrines another gospel, yet insisted Wesley was a saved man! Spurgeon taught that after a person becomes a christian, they can go down one of two roads: the Calvinist or the Arminian road, but that both are believing in the same God even though the doctrines identifying the Calvinist ‘god’ and the Arminian ‘god’ differ greatly and in many instances are diametrically opposed. Now how can Spurgeon have been preaching Paul’s Gospel? How could Spurgeon sound the same warning as Paul did in Galatians 1 when he believed that an Arminian who has been taught a gospel OTHER THAN the one Paul advocated and preached, was just as saved as one who believed Paul’s Gospel!! In light of all this, one can begin to see why so many do not take doctrinal differences seriously but base their own, and the salvation of others, purely on appearance or face value and one’s ‘love for God’. The reasoning of many is, ‘If the great leaders of the past couldn’t get to the bottom of all these doctrinal discrepancies and didn’t think right doctrine meant the difference between saved and lost anyway, why should we?’ How convenient it is for many to think like this and not have to bother about being accurate when it comes to doctrine. In most cases, there is hardly any thought about the matter. In fact, as with the secular world, there is hardly any thought attached to what one is believing. It’s just good enough for most that they ‘believe’. People are far too busy to argue about doctrine. But we ask not that they sit with us to argue over doctrine, but to hear the Gospel and then examine their own beliefs, in the light of this Gospel, and see whether or not they match with what God says (see Acts 17:11)..

What is it to love God? What is it to truly believe and trust in Him? To begin with, one cannot be truly loving God if one does not believe God. And what of God the Son? Is it essential to know Who He is and what He has done through His death to truly believe in Him? Is it honoring to God to believe error about Him and His Son’s atoning work? Do you think it matters to God what you believe about Him—what you think about what He has said, what He is like and what you attribute to Him—when you talk to others about God? Remember, if you do not believe THE Gospel, you are denying that what God has said is the Truth, being convinced that what another has said is the truth. Does the reader think God receives glory when people speak lies about Him, which is precisely what they are doing when they espouse false doctrines? Is it merely a matter of opinion among equally saved people as to what exactly Christ accomplished in His death and indeed who that death was for? Isn’t what Christ did on the cross and who He did it for the very essence of rightly and savingly believing in Him? Is God’s Character—what He is like and what He has done by His great plan of salvation—something which must be revealed by God, for He it is Who is Truth and He reveals it/Himself to whomsoever He wills, or is it man’s prerogative to choose what he wants to believe, however erroneous it may be? The following pages will show conclusively that such issues are of vital importance, not only to a right understanding of the Savior and Who it is that one must believe in to be saved, but also that such matters are essential to salvation. One cannot have eternal life unless one is in possession of the correct and revealed knowledge about the Savior: Who He is, what He has done and who He has done it for. The Lord Himself says: "And this is life eternal, that they might KNOW Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent" (Jn. 17:3 cf. Jer. 9:23,24). How could one possibly have eternal life, which the Lord only gives to those whom He has revealed Himself to, whilst in possession of false teachings which reveal only a false god and do not contribute in any way to knowing Him? There is no salvation without truth, for without truth there is only darkness and ignorance about God and the way He saves, and none have ever been saved through these means. By man’s false interpretation of Scripture Jesus says "...ye have taken away the KEY OF KNOWLEDGE..." (Lk. 11:52). "A key is made to open or lock a door. If there be any sin of peculiar magnitude, it is that of keeping the people in ignorance. And few men are so guilty as they who, by false instructions, prevent them from coming to a knowledge of the truth, and embracing it as it is in Jesus" (not as it is in a man’s mind—what he believes it to be).

For reasons of space we will assume that the reader is familiar with, and has a fundamental grasp of, the facts concerning the Savior such as His virgin birth, that He is the Son of God, that He died and rose again after three days and three nights and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, that He is God the Son the Second Person of the Trinity and is as much God as the Father and Holy Spirit are. None can be saved without believing these fundamental teachings about the Person of Christ and what happened to Him in His thirty-three years on the earth. We shall, in the ensuing pages, concentrate on Who Christ is, His identity, which will be made apparent by what this Christ has done. But firstly, it is important to note that a statement such as ‘Its all just a doctrinal thing’ is not the most intelligent or informed comment to come from the mind of man. It is strange that those who subscribe to such a notion are often the ones who separate themselves from those who understand the significance and ramifications of doctrine and who seek to gently and meekly share this understanding. They just don’t want to know anything different to what they believe, as they do not want their boat rocked by some ‘new’ wave of doctrine which they have not heard before and which no one they know believes. There are many things a man has never heard but this does not automatically mean that they are new or wrong. There are many things which multitudes do not believe but this doesn’t mean it could not possibly be the truth. Remember those who perished in the Flood? They may have had varying ideas about God but they were as one when it came to judging Noah to be a crackpot who could not possibly have the truth, for no one other than Noah and his family believed it! Simply because a person has held to the same beliefs for 50 years and knows of many others who hold the same convictions, is no evidence that what they have is the Truth. How many of us know people who believed nothing but rubbish all their lives and who died in such a state? Does their faithfulness to what they believed make what they believed true? Of course not. The true believers in God’s only Gospel are often accused of being in a cult, yet it is these very accusers who turn and run as soon as reasonable and civil discussion of what the Gospel is, and is not, is proposed. The turning of a blind eye to that which threatens ones belief system, is the action of one who is in a cult—not of those who are willing to sit down and discuss things in a reasonable and civil manner. These accusers, many of whom have been sitting in church pews for decades, either abuse, or turn and run from, those who know what they believe and why they believe it, and who genuinely seek a response. Just because you have been sitting in the same pew, in the same building, listening to the same preaching for years, does not guarantee you have the truth. Nor does it guarantee that YOU are not the one involved in a cult! Now one can understand someone not wanting to enter into any discussion with someone who is pugilistic in their attitude, arrogant and rude etc., but when all one shows is love and gentleness and a humble spirit and they still abuse or run, then one can see that that person has a severe problem. People, even family members, can turn very nasty indeed when the issue of Truth is brought up, and oh how offended they become when their precious lies and religious comfort zones are threatened by the invincible Truth of God.

As we have explained, doctrine is that which identifies who one is believing and trusting in. Doctrine differentiates, it distinguishes, it discriminates, it divides and separates. It singles out the particular person it is describing. Doctrine, which is the Word of God, is sharper than any two-edged sword: "For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). One can know who and what a person believes in their heart by the doctrine they speak. Doctrine draws the line between the true and the false, between the true God and all false gods. True doctrine will never reveal a false god and false doctrine will never, and has never, revealed the True God. What you say about God defines the god you believe in and if he is not the true God, then the doctrine you have is false doctrine and you are not saved. Doctrine, and not one’s alleged love for God, is that which gives us concrete evidence as to which god we are believing in. No one can differentiate between a Roman Catholic, a Mormon and a JW simply by looking at them or listening to their statements about their love for god or by tallying up the good deeds of such people or listening to how many ‘wonderful works’ their particular religious institutions are responsible for. The Roman Catholic Church has built many hospitals and orphanages and schools, etc., which benefits society but is this the kind of evidence by which we are to judge it to be telling of the true God? Sadly, for many it is. Freemasonry also has it’s hospitals and charitable outreaches as does the Salvation Army, which perhaps is unsurpassed in charitable deeds which clothe the poor and feed the hungry. Is this the type of evidence we should be looking for which will identify the True God and His true followers? Hardly! Why? Because anyone can be charitable and hospitable and kind and loving etc., but this is no evidence that they have the true God or that they have any god at all. Only true believers abiding in the true doctrine have the true God.

The only thing that will positively identify a Mormon is what he says about his god. Not even a person’s attendance at a Mormon temple is concrete proof that he is a Mormon, for he is not one if he denies the Mormon doctrine which tells only of the Mormon god. This is also true of the JW and Roman Catholic. No one who foolishly says that even though two people who differ over what Christ has done by His glorious death are nonetheless believing in the same Jesus, would ever say that though the Mormon says this and the JW says that and the Roman Catholic says something altogether different about god, they are believers in the same god! One never hears of anyone saying, ‘The Mormon believes the same god as the JW , who believes in the same god as the Roman Catholic’. Yet why do professing christians believe that one person can believe in the death of Christ for His people and another can believe in the death of Christ for every individual ever born, and yet contend that they are both believing in the same God and proclaiming the same Christ? Of course they know that both beliefs cannot be right but nevertheless, though one of these people is believing in a false doctrine about what Christ has actually done, what He came to this earth to do, they insist that one is just as saved as the other! Upon what can such a ridiculous premise be based? Certainly not on doctrine, the very doctrine that identifies and distinguishes the true Christ from the false. Some would try to brush all this off by saying, ‘Well, it really doesn’t matter who’s right and who’s wrong as long as we all believe that Christ died and that He died for sinners. The details aren’t important, it’s the big picture that counts’. The details, or particulars, of God’s Gospel Message, far from being insignificant or unnecessary, are what identifies it as HIS Message and distinguishes it from false gospels and are essential to knowing the true Christ and believing in what HE actually did. I am sure the reader will agree that a big picture is formed by the details which give it its individual identity and so forth. After all, details are our points of identification. If it were not for details and specifics, the Mona Lisa might look like Fred Flintstone! We recognize each other by the points of detail on our faces which are peculiar to ourselves. Sometimes even a person’s name is not enough information to verify that we are speaking about the same person and so further detail is required. Details are how we identify which movie a person has seen, or what type of shirt a person has bought or what type of dog a person owns etc. How silly would a person be if, when told by someone they have just finished viewing a movie, they respond by saying that they have also seen that movie without knowing any details about the movie. Some movies have the same titles or are remakes of older movies but with different actors etc. ‘I’ve just seen a movie.’ ‘Yes, I’ve seen that movie, too.’ ‘How can you say that when I haven’t told you any details about the movie I’ve seen?’ — ‘I’ve just bought a shirt.’ ‘Yes, I’ve bought the same shirt.’ ‘How can you say that when I haven’t given you any details about the shirt I’ve bought?’ — ‘I own a beautiful dog.’ ‘Yes, I’ve got the exact same dog.’ ‘How do you know that when I haven’t told you what breed my dog is, what he looks like and what his characteristics are?’ The foolishness involved is quite obvious. So too, how can anyone rightly claim they are believing in the same Christ by believing He did something which He did not? How can you be identifying—singling out—the true Christ by providing details which belong to another christ? How can anyone say they believe in the true Christ when the doctrinal details they hold to are not characteristic of Him? How can one routinely say that a person is a Christian when they do not know the details of what the person believes about Who Christ is and what He has done? One might just as well call a person a Christian who believes Christ did not die on any cross, but lived a long and full life till He was 97!! Could such a person be believing in the true Christ? Of course not. So too, the person who believes Christ died for all is believing in another jesus who is revealed in a gospel which does not come from God. Again, the apostle Paul warned the believers in Galatia that if anyone should come and preach to them any other gospel than the one he had preached to them, they were not to listen to that person, for anything other than the Gospel Paul preached was to be recognized as a perversion of the Gospel and the person proclaiming it as accursed. Imagine the flack Paul must have received from the religious majority of his day. What arrogance he must have been charged with to say such a thing. Yet Paul was not being arrogant in the least, he was merely upholding the Gospel of God as the ONLY Gospel a person can believe and be saved. Paul was protective of his brethren and told them, in no uncertain terms, to not believe anyone who came with doctrines that differed from what his Gospel proclaimed about Christ. Paul did not say they could identify false ministers by their dress, their kind and gentle manner, or lack of it, or by any other means of outward appearance—the right ones would do good and the wrong ones would do bad—he said exactly what this booklet has been saying, that it is the doctrine that a man espouses which will identify him to either be speaking God’s truth or not. It is the doctrinal detail that will, WITHOUT FAIL, show that they either preach a false god or the one and only True God of the Gospel.

Paul the apostle stated in 1 Corinthians 1:23 that he preached Christ. He clarified this by saying that He preached not only the Person of Christ but also the Work of Christ: Him crucified (see also 1 Cor. 1:17 & 1 Cor 2:2). You are not preaching and believing the true Christ unless you are preaching the true Person and the true work of Christ—that which God sent Him specifically to do—which God’s Word teaches. Many, when answering the question ‘What is the Gospel?’, quote 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 which tells of Christ’s having died for our sins, being buried, and rising again on the third day. But the vital element they fail to draw attention to is the fact that these things must be believed "according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3,4), according to the definite and specific details about these matters which God has laid out in His Word, to be believed. God’s Gospel is not to be ignored. Nothing is to be taken away from it or added to it (see Prov. 30:5,6). It is not to be perverted. It is not to be ‘improved’ or modified as to make it more acceptable, or more palatable. It is to be preached and believed as HE has commanded it to be! False gods and false gospels, and those who promote them, are to be shunned and avoided and the True God and HIS Gospel believed if one is to truly serve the Lord. Those who teach contrary to the doctrine of Christ are to be avoided: "For they that are such SERVE NOT OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple" (Rom. 16:18). Such men are described as "...the ENEMIES OF THE CROSS of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things" (Phil. 3:18,19).

It is not enough to teach or to know about the Person of Christ and what happened to Him, but one must actually know Him—Who He is and what He has done: "...THIS is life eternal, that they might KNOW Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ..." (Jn. 17:3). Now, of course, how can one know without knowledge? Any false group can teach about Christ but as they do not teach the truth about what Christ has done and who He has done it for, one can never truly and savingly know Him by following such false teachers. Those who teach false gospels promote false christs. They attribute many truths about Christ to their christ, they state many facts about what happened to Him that are also true, but none of them teach the true Christ because they do not rightly teach His Person and His Work, which obviously has everything in the world to do with what knowing Him is all about. Many who teach false gospels such as Romanism, the Seventh-Day Adventist movement or the Charismatic movement, all know what happened to the true Christ but they do not know Him according to the Scriptures because they do not believe the truth about what Christ has done. Which is why, in all their preaching about ‘christ’, they never truly reveal THE Christ, for they do not know Him. And no one can know Him by listening to false gospels. The right preaching of the true Christ, and subsequently the believing of Who Christ is and what He has done, is vital if any are to be saved for to preach the cross of Christ is to preach the Gospel of Christ (1 Cor. 1:17,18). Without right saving knowledge of the Person and Work of Christ none can be saved, for ignorance of right saving knowledge is evidence that the true God has NOT revealed Himself! Scripture states clearly that "...if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost" (2 Cor. 4:3). One can just as rightly say, ‘If the true God be hid, He is hid to them that are lost’. They are ignorant of Him for they have no saving knowledge of Him. The Gospel is not revealed to them. If the truth is hidden and not revealed, there can be no salvation. Zeal and eagerness for God is interpreted by most to be evidence that one truly is a child of God. But the Word of God tells us clearly that it is not enough to have a zeal for God, but that zeal MUST be according to right knowledge of God: Who He is and what He has done ie., how He saves. Paul the apostle shows this plainly in his following testimony concerning the Jews: "Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but NOT ACCORDING TO KNOWLEDGE. For they being ignorant of God’s Righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God" (Rom. 10:1-3). Why were these people lost? BECAUSE THEY DID NOT KNOW! They were ignorant of how God saves and therefore what has been done by His Son to save His people from their sins. Do you think that if they were not ignorant of how God saves, of what His Son has done to save, they would be referred to as ignorant and lost? If one’s zeal for God is not according to right saving knowledge of God, then one is lost. If one is ignorant of something, one cannot be submitted to it. So too, if one is ignorant of the Truth concerning Who Christ is and what Christ has done and therefore who He has done it for, one cannot possibly be submitted to the truth and therefore cannot be in a saved state. To be submitted to God’s way of salvation one must have knowledge, for without knowledge all that one has is ignorance, through which God has never saved anyone. Thought by many to be grounds for mercy, ignorance—when it comes to the matter of salvation—is the evidence of lostness. If the Gospel be hid, there can be no saving knowledge of the God of the Gospel. Zeal for God without knowledge, just as sincerity without truth, has never saved anyone. The reason why error, when it comes to God’s plan of salvation, is not just some simple mistake which does not deny the salvation of a person, is that the true God is known only by revelation and He is always, and only, revealed by His Holy Spirit of Truth. He can only be known by His Gospel for therein has He revealed Himself. Any error spoken about God cannot be identifying the true God and therefore cannot be of Him. It certainly did not come by the Holy Spirit, for He only brings the Truth of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of TRUTH because He guides all of God’s chosen into TRUTH: "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth..." (Jn. 16:13). The Holy Spirit is referred to three times in the Gospel of John as the Spirit of Truth (Jn. 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). The Holy Spirit does not guide people into error, He guides them into Truth. He guides them to the True Christ and never a false christ. He does not guide anyone down a path unless it is the narrow track of Truth. He guides God’s chosen to the True Gospel and not a false gospel, for God CALLS His people BY His Gospel and never through a false gospel. Heaven is for those who have had the TRUTH revealed to them and who have been given a love for it and the faith to believe it, not for those who remain ignorant of it. God calls His people by His Gospel, His Truth, and not a lie. The Work of the Holy Spirit of God is inseparably connected with belief of God’s Truth. One cannot have one without the other. One cannot have sanctification without truth and one cannot have truth without the Word of God: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom. 8:14). Writing to believers, Paul the apostle states: "...God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through SANCTIFICATION OF THE SPIRIT AND BELIEF OF THE TRUTH: Whereunto HE CALLED YOU BY OUR GOSPEL, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 2:13,14; cf. Jn.17:17). Notice here that the chosen of God are said to be called by God’s Gospel. The Gospel is not some mystical, intangible thing but is made up of several specific doctrines, which are the teachings of God concerning His plan of salvation, which must be believed in. No other gospel could possibly fit in with this statement of Paul’s. However, it is said of those who perish, which includes professing christians—those who have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge—that they do so "...because they RECEIVED NOT THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH, that they might be saved...that they all might be DAMNED WHO BELIEVED NOT THE TRUTH..." (2 Thess. 2:10,12). Not damned principally because of any immorality but damned because THEY DID NOT BELIEVE, they HAD NOT THE LOVE FOR, the Gospel! Everyone believes they believe the truth or they would not believe it. But most who believe they have the truth, do not have the love of THE Truth which comes from God and have instead embraced a lie masquerading as truth: "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 16:25).

To follow false doctrine about God is to be guilty of mistaken identity! False doctrine can only take you on the broad road that leads to destruction. It is taught by blind guides and believed in by their equally blind followers and if both should continue on that path, they will fall into the ditch (Matt. 15:14). Many accuse us of being narrow-minded because we say that none are saved before hearing and believing the true Gospel of God. No doubt this, among other things, was what the detractors of Paul the apostle said of him when he warned that any who brought a gospel that differed from his was a sure sign those persons were in an accursed state and their gospels were not of God. The accusation of narrow-mindedness makes as much sense as saying that one is narrow-minded because one believes that 4 is the only answer to the equation 2 + 2! Narrow-mindedness is not the issue, the issue is: what is the truth! If a person cannot live with the fact that there is only one answer, only one Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, then I am afraid the problem lies with them and not with the answer/Gospel or the one who believes that answer/Gospel. There cannot be a hundred different and conflicting truths about the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, yet whichever one of them is believed in, people are believing in the same and True Christ! How ridiculous would it be to say that simply because one answers 2 + 2 with a number, one has the correct answer but just requires a little more teaching on the matter!! How can one who has the wrong answer be right? How can one who has a false profession of Christ know the True Christ? "...narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it" (Matt. 7:14) are the words of the Lord Jesus just before He warned, in the very next verse, of FALSE PROPHETS who came with false doctrines, and dressed in sheep’s clothing but inwardly were ravening wolves. The Gospel is what Jesus Christ says it is and it is to be preached to every creature. It is this very Gospel, the one and only Gospel, which God recognizes and testifies to as His Truth and puts His name to, and no other, which saves. Belief in any other gospel, which is identified by erroneous doctrine, will not, cannot, and never has, saved anybody. Scripture says that if this Gospel, the right and only Gospel of God, the Gospel whose doctrine alone reveals Who the true Christ is and what He did to save His people, is hid, that is, not revealed but concealed or covered up, it is hidden to those that are lost (2 Cor. 4:3). It is not hid to those that are saved, for they see it and believe it. God is saying here that a man destitute of this Gospel knowledge is destitute of eternal life, for the God of salvation has not revealed Himself to him. Where the truth is not revealed, how can it be submitted to? How can one believe in and entrust oneself to God if they are not submitted, in obedience, to Him? (see 1 Jn. 3:23). Some would say, ‘But isn’t God Love?’ Yes, indeed God is Love, but where is that Love? God’s love is only found in Christ His Son, Who is nowhere else revealed but in God’s Only Gospel! A person can either be an atheist or a professing christian, but without the saving knowledge God has revealed through His Gospel, both are equally lost. No, we are not saying that salvation is conditioned on knowledge, for the Gospel teaches that all of salvation, from beginning to final glory, is conditioned on Christ Jesus the Savior. Knowledge is not a condition but an evidence of salvation. It is not something which man attains to but that which is given by God. What we are saying is that if one is ignorant of what the Gospel teaches about Christ, His Person and His Work, there can be no salvation, for how could it be that God has revealed Himself to a person and yet that person remain in ignorance and darkness concerning His Son? The reason that knowledge plays such a huge and integral part in salvation is that God reveals Himself through doctrine and ignorance of that doctrine means the absence of the knowledge of God. Absence of the truth means the presence of error. An absence of salvation knowledge, which is revealed by God through His Gospel, means the presence of ignorance concerning His Truth. False gospels can only tell you some facts about Christ. God’s Gospel provides saving knowledge OF Christ. It is not the knowledge of error which saves, but salvation comes with a knowledge of the Truth. None are saved who are in ignorance about Jesus Christ. On the contrary, ignorance of the true Christ is what a person is called out of when they are called by the Gospel of God (see 1 Pet. 2:9 & Acts 26:18).

The heart, soul and purpose of the Gospel is to dispel ignorance by revealing Christ. Christ is the nucleus, the crux, of the Gospel message. If one is in ignorance or in error, which go hand in hand, about the Person of Christ and what He has done to gain the salvation of His people, then it is undeniable and incontrovertible evidence that one does not know the true Gospel, that the True God has not revealed Himself to that person. Without revelation from God, there can be no right knowledge of God (Gal. 1:11,12). And all those whom God reveals Himself to, love and believe the Truth about Him and His Son. It is God’s record of His Son to which they bear testament. It is Christ Who is the central Character in God’s plan of salvation and if God has not revealed His Son to us, we cannot say that we know Him, believe in Him or trust in Him. To believe what God has said of His Son is to truly believe in Him. And if one does not know the True Christ, one cannot believe that it is His Righteousness alone which saves and maintains a state of salvation, and not our own efforts at obedience. If one is ignorant of the Gospel then one is ignorant of, and cannot be submitted to, the Righteousness of Christ and is therefore, whether knowingly or not, seeking to establish a righteousness of their own (see Rom. 10:1-4). This is the antithesis of God’s plan of salvation. Seeking to establish a righteousness of one’s own is something a true believer can never be guilty of, for his faith and hope is solely in the Righteousness, the obedience and blood, of Christ (Col. 2:10) and he has abandoned any and all hope that he could ever recommend himself to God by his own personal obedience, or that he would even need to. So we see that only belief in God’s Gospel, His way to save, reveals a right knowledge of the Person and Work of Christ. Any and all false doctrine concerning Christ does not reveal God’s Way to eternal life. No one can properly and rightly lay claim to knowing God if they are ignorant of the Gospel, which alone reveals His Son as complete Savior (Col. 2:10). No one can be in agreement with God and walk with Him if they do not know His Son. God does not bind Himself to anyone who does not assent to what HE says about Who His Son is and what He has accomplished through His death upon the Tree, for what Christ accomplished on the Tree was exactly what God sent Him to the earth to do in order to save His chosen ones (1 Jn. 3:5). It was exactly and precisely, no more and no less, what had to be done in order to save, in order for God’s will to be perfectly fulfilled. A man is only fooling himself if he denies that this is exactly and precisely, no more and no less, what HAS TO BE BELIEVED in order for one to show evidence that God’s Gospel has been revealed and that they are saved. And for anyone to say that belief of the Doctrine of Christ—His Gospel—is not vital, that this is not essential to a saving knowledge of Him, reveals a current state of complete lostness. Either one is in agreement with God about what He says about His Son and so walks with Him, abiding in His doctrine, or one is in disagreement with what God says about His Son, and consequently cannot be walking with Him or be aligned with His Truth. Such a person cannot have eternal life, for they do not abide in the doctrine of Christ (2 Jn. 9). According to Jesus, it is He Who has been given "...power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou (the Father) hast given Him" (Jn. 17:2). In light of this, can you imagine Jesus granting eternal life to any who do not abide in HIS Doctrine?

The doctrine of atonement, of the redemptive work of Christ to save His people, will not be gone into in any great detail in this publication. If the reader would like to study further this most vital of doctrines, we refer them to the booklet entitled ‘Atonement for Whom?’ by this author and available for free. The Gospel of God will be explained in some detail at the end of this booklet. If you would like a more detailed definition ask for the booklet ‘God’s Only Gospel’. Suffice it to say, the Scriptures teach of only one true Savior and warns of many false christs which cannot save (Matt. 24:24). These false christs may be identified by the doctrine that is taught about them. The one true Savior tells us that He and He alone is the only way to the Father and that none can come to the Father but by Him: ""Jesus saith.., I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (Jn. 14:6) and "I am the Door: by ME if any man enter in, he shall be saved..." (Jn. 10:9). Therefore it is vital that we believe in the true Christ and not in one of the many false christs of man-made religions. The apostle Paul spoke of "...another jesus, whom we have not preached...another spirit...another gospel..." (2 Cor. 11:4). He said that these counterfeits would be preached by men who are "...false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ" (2 Cor. 11:13 see also vv.14,15). There is no other way apart from doctrine, or teaching, by which the true Christ may be recognized and distinguished from the false. The doctrine which comes from God, contained in His Gospel, will identify the true Christ, and the teachings which do not find their origin in God will only reveal false saviors which cannot, and never have, saved anybody. Note that these false saviors often go by the name ‘jesus’ and have had attributed to them many things which are only true about the real Jesus. This is a satanic ploy, serving the purpose of confusion, TO CONVINCE PEOPLE WHO HOLD TO DIFFERING DOCTRINES ABOUT JESUS, THAT THEY ARE BELIEVING IN THE SAME PERSON. But God is not the author of confusion and there will be no confusion if one believes what God has said and revealed in His Gospel about His Son. Surely it can be seen by all who read this booklet that God teaches only one truth concerning His Son and that He does not present a person with a multiple choice list of what they are permitted to believe about ‘jesus’ and still be believing in HIS Jesus. Yet, for the multitudes it is simply a matter of pick and choose the doctrines you are happy with, and are taught by a man you have confidence in, and which fit with your image of what God is like, and as long as you call your god ‘jesus’ all will be fine. But all will be far from fine for error just does not figure in God’s plan of salvation for His people. There is no contingency plan of salvation for those who believe error about His Son. There is no likelihood that any of God’s chosen will not believe God’s Gospel in its entirety. One pastor told this author that he does not know how much error God is willing to put up with in His people. The answer is, no error which contributes to the perversion of the Gospel of Christ thereby revealing another gospel which God has not declared and another christ which God does not claim to be HIS Son, will be tolerated. Error is the spoiler. Error is the leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. Error is that which changes truth into a lie and THE Gospel into another gospel. No one ever got saved by acknowledging error! Heaven is for lovers of the truth, not those who are enamoured with a lie. Those who believe a lie, ie. another gospel, far from being saved, are under strong delusion (2 Thess. 2:11). There are no allowances made in God’s plan of salvation for those who believe error, for the whole idea of that Great Plan is that it be believed in order that people can be saved. Knowledge of God’s Truth is the fulfilment of God’s Plan for the salvation of His people.

The very name ‘JESUS’ means "He will save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). It does not mean ‘He hopes to save everybody from their sins’ or ‘He will attempt to save everybody from their sins’, or a combination of these three, but the very definite HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE from THEIR sins. If you do not believe this and everything that conforms with this bottom line statement of what the Savior would do, you do not believe on His name. "This is His commandment, That we should believe ON THE NAME of His Son Jesus Christ..." (1 Jn. 3:23 cf. Jn. 1:12). To believe on the name of Jesus is to acknowledge Him to be the Savior Who would save His people from their sins, and not the potential savior who would attempt to save every individual from their sins. You cannot separate Who He is from what He has done, for His very name declares that He is the Savior Who would die for His people in order to save them from their sins. Paul wrote to Titus of the Savior "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people..." (Titus 2:14). Those who are redeemed and purified are those for whom He gave Himself. Christ came to secure the salvation of all His people, not merely make salvation possible for all without exception. God gave Him a people to die for and die for them He did and in doing so, saved them from their sins. Why the doctrine of Christ is so vital and essential to saving faith is that if one believes wrongly about who Christ has died for on the cross, one cannot be in agreement with what God says Christ has done to save those for whom He died. Therefore, one cannot be believing in the Person Whose death alone successfully atoned for the sins of, and accomplished the eternal redemption for, all those for whom He died. Surely there are none who believe that one can be saved regardless of the fact that they do not believe what God says about His Son. What God says identifies His Son. And what His Son has done identifies Him, AND HIM ALONE, as God’s one and only Son!! Who else but this ONE must a person believe in order to be saved? God says His Son died for His own elect. Men have said that He died for everyone. Who is right? GOD IS RIGHT! If you do not believe this, you do not believe Him. God said what His Son would do; Jesus His Son came and did exactly what the Father said He would do; and all those whom God saves believe exactly what He said His Son would do, for they believe in the Gospel of God. How can believing anything different get you saved? How can you be in opposition to what God has said and simultaneously be His ally? Who will be your advocate at the Great Judgement if you believe something different? Do you think Christ will defend you? Do you think He will be your advocate and defend what you have believed about Him? Do you mean to tell me that Christ did what God said He would do, but you were saved not believing that, or were saved before you believed that, and that you believe at least some are saved who do not believe God’s testimony? If you do not believe what God says about Jesus, then you do not believe in HIS Son. You might believe in a jesus, but not THE Jesus Whom God testifies to. If you do not believe what God’s Son has done, then you deny that what He has done was ordered by the only God and that it is essential to saving faith. Far from believing God’s Gospel, you oppose it. You neither have the Son or the Father.

All of Scripture would need to be changed if it makes no difference whether one believes Christ died for all or exclusively for the elect. Many say, ‘Whether Christ died for all or only for the elect is not what matters. All that matters is whether or not you believe that He died for you’. Such ‘reasoning’ is not consistent with what God’s Word teaches. Christ did something specific on that cross and if what you believe does not concur with, or bear record to, what He did, then you are not saved. Remember, what you believe about Christ must be what He says about Himself. Do you honestly believe that Christ Jesus the Lord would, in a court case designed to establish Who He is and what He has done, call a person as a witness to provide testimony to Who He is and what He has done, who did not believe rightly about His Person and His Work? Their testimony would deny Him and His work. How stupid would you be if you were to call someone who did not know you to give evidence on your behalf in a court of law, in order to establish your identity? God has specifically taught what it is that Christ accomplished on the cross and it is precisely that which we need to specifically believe. God is a God of detail, He is specific in what He says. So how less specific must a person be in believing unto salvation? This is the essence, the heart and soul, of what believing in Christ is all about. If it wasn’t, then why has God bothered to identify His Son by doctrine and distinguish Him from all others? Why would He have warned about false christs if it did not matter what we believed about the True Christ? What is it about false christs that is so dangerous and perilous to our spiritual state? Nothing but the doctrine taught about those christs, which denies the True Christ!

What Christ did on the cross can only be determined by whether He died for all or for the elect. One cannot separate who He died for, from what He did. If He died for all, then it cannot be said that His blood made atonement for all the sins of all for whom He died. Conversely, if Christ died for the elect, and only if He died for the elect, can it be said that His death alone accomplished eternal redemption for every single person He laid down His life for and that there was no element or degree of failure in it, or any need to depend upon anything or anyone outside of itself, and Himself, to secure that salvation. The Old Testament is filled with references and teaching concerning the Messiah and what He would do to ensure the salvation of all those for whom He would lay down His life. The Book of Isaiah for instance clearly talks of it being God’s people whom Christ would lay down His life for: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all....FOR THE TRANSGRESSION OF MY PEOPLE was He stricken....He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant JUSTIFY many; FOR He SHALL bear THEIR iniquities" (Isa. 53:6,8,11 cf. Rom. 8:30). All who will be justified have had their sins borne by Christ, and all whose sins have been borne by Christ will be justified. The New Testament also states clearly who it is that Christ has died for, thus teaching exactly what it was that Christ did, nay, accomplished, by His death: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also LOVED THE CHURCH, and GAVE HIMSELF FOR IT; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word" (Eph. 5:25,26 cf. Acts 20:28); "I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd GIVETH HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP" (Jn. 10:11). Those who believe the Truth know that there is no co-existence possible, no dual occupancy conceivable, in God’s House, between the doctrine that teaches Christ died for all, and who the Bible teaches His death was for and what would accomplished by that death. The two doctrines are poles apart and as distinct as reality and imagination. Therefore, to believe in His death for all is to not believe according to the Scriptures. It is to believe a false doctrine which denies the reality, the truth, of His death and replaces it with a lie, the belief of which is an out and out denial of God’s truth concerning who His Son died for, what His Son did, and therefore Who His Son is—and evidences a state of lostness.

The Old Testament is where we learn about what the Messiah would do, the purpose of His death and what He would accomplish by that death. These things were foreshadowed in what are called the Old Testament types. "A type is something emblematic or symbolic, used to express, embody, represent or forecast, some person, truth or event. It is an image or similitude of something else, sustaining to doctrinal teaching some such relation as a picture does to a precept or promise, representing to the eye or imagination a concept addressed to the ear or understanding. It is one of the most frequent forms of figurative teaching in Scripture..." "The Old Testament types were a mode of instruction of the way in which God was to be approached..." You cannot approach Him believing in a savior who died for all. You cannot approach Him, and not be consumed, unless you are washed in the blood that cleansed all for whom it was shed (see Heb. 10:16-22). The blood of a counterfeit jesus has never cleansed anyone from their sin. A type is also a prophetic symbol. "God has graciously adapted a series of types, historical and ceremonial, to the illustration of His wondrous plan (of redemption as revealed in the Gospel), and especially to portray the various aspects of the office and work of Christ...By the typical system, God was not only educating His people for the ‘good things to come,’ but was also preparing human language to be a fit medium for the revelation of His grace in Christ. It is to the types we must turn if we would define aright the sacrificial terms of the New Testament....the doctrinal statements of the Epistles are frequently couched in the language of the types, and can only be rightly interpreted in the light which they furnish."

"The substitution of Christ in the sinner’s place was most distinctly shown in the types, particularly in the sin offering. Before the animal was slaughtered, the sacrificing priest laid his hand upon its head (Lev.4:3,4). That act represented THE TRANSFERRING OF SIN FROM THE TRANSGRESSOR TO THE VICTIM (Lev.16:21): it identified the one with the other. It showed the substitution of the victim for the offender, and declared by a visible sign that it bare his sins and endured his death-penalty." "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor.5:21). There was a specific transgressor whose sins were transferred to a specific victim. The ‘us’ spoken of in the above Scripture can only be referring to those for whom Jesus has endured the death penalty, and in time are made the righteousness of God in Him. "In this way was the solemn yet blessed truth of imputation foreshadowed. It was because God transferred to Christ the guilt of His elect, constituting Him "sin for us," (sin-bearer) that the sword of Divine justice smote Him as He bare our sins in His own body on (or "to") the tree." By this we see clearly that Christ’s atoning death cannot be separated from His act of Substitution, nor can it be separated from the act of transferring to Him the sins of those for whom He was a Substitute, for whom He suffered God’s wrath, and transferring His perfect Righteousness to them. All this hinged, not on man’s acceptance, but on God accepting what Christ had done. What Christ has done is no mere trifle which awaits man’s consent in order for it to be ratified, given value and significance. It is His blood upon which the success of His salvation plan hinged and not man’s fictional ‘free will decision’ for Him: "And for this cause He is the Mediator of the New Testament, that BY MEANS OF DEATH, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, THEY WHICH ARE CALLED MIGHT RECEIVE the promise of eternal inheritance" (Heb. 9:15 cf. Rom. :30).

"We call attention to one other deeply important value of the types and the use to which they may be put: they furnish an infallible rule by which can be tested any man’s (our own included) interpretation of the New Testament Scriptures concerning the Atonement! He who denies the penal and vicarious nature of Christ’s death, repudiates the clear testimony of the types; he who sets aside the efficacy of His sacrifice by reducing it to a merely ‘making possible’ the salvation does likewise, FOR THE TYPES KNOW NOTHING OF AN INEFFECTUAL SACRIFICE. Teaching anything contrary to this is to pervert what the Old Testament teaches, through the sacrifices performed by the high priest, about what the coming great High Priest would do. The New Testament teaches that Jesus Christ is the great High Priest of His people (Heb. 4:14). Many say that the Old Testament sacrifices were for Israel but the sacrifice of Jesus was for all, despite the fact that this ‘for all’ sacrifice in no way resembles what the Old Testament high priest did. His sacrifice benefited all those for whom it was performed. This fictional sacrifice for every individual doesn’t do that! It is totally unrecognizable from the Old Testament sacrifice and therefore is not a true reflection or realisation of the Old Testament type.

The types are what pointed to and foretold what the Messiah Jesus would do. "So too in them we see plainly the limitation of God’s love to His elect people, for no lamb was provided for the Egyptians, nor did Aaron make any atonement for the sins of the Midianites and Ammonites!" Does that sound anything like the ‘sacrifice’ of universal atonement? Of course not. The Old Testament sacrifice, which foretold what Christ would do, was an exclusive sacrifice. There was nothing general about it! Christ’s substitutionary death was not on the behalf of the non-elect. It was not for those who were not among God’s chosen ones whom He had given to Christ to die for, but only and exclusively for those elected by God to be His sheep, His children and the sole benefactors of Christ’s work of salvation. After all, God saves only those whom He has called and predestinated to be justified by Christ’s death (see Rom. 8:30 & Isa. 53:11). The result of Christ’s sacrifice did not hinge on those who would choose Him but was a forgone conclusion, because it was made, it was performed, it was done, for the benefit of all those whom God pre-chose Christ should die for. As with the Old Testament sacrifice, so too, Christ’s sacrifice was not for any other people apart from God’s chosen people, which is the strongest evidence yet that there was a single specific purpose in His death and belief in any other purpose for His sacrifice amounts to not believing in HIS death according to the Scriptures and therefore not believing in HIM. The Sacrifice of Christ was for the purpose of benefiting all those for whom it was made and none other. The Pelagian, semi-Pelagian or Arminian doctrines of universal atonement are utterly indefensible, for they can never be matched or aligned with these clear and unmistakeable teachings and Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

When one says that Christ died for those whom God had chosen before the foundation of the world, one is saying 1) By His death, Christ has redeemed ALL those for whom He died; 2) His death was wholly triumphant, in that it fully accomplished what Christ set out to do and that was to save His people from their sins; and 3) Not one person for whom His precious blood was shed will fail to be saved and end up in the confines of Hell. The Arminian doctrines refute all this. The doctrine of universal atonement is a massive lie which denies the true Savior and replaces Him with an impotent counterfeit who can do nothing but watch powerlessly as the majority of people he died for fall hopelessly into Hell. His death accomplished nothing and the blood in this false savior’s veins was no more capable of saving a person than any sinful man’s blood is. Far from being ‘just a doctrinal thing’, ‘a matter of opinion’, ‘an issue of particular theological persuasion’, which has no bearing on a person’s spiritual state, such teachings are a corruption of God’s truth and those who adhere to such rot stand in denial of the Gospel, and are at this moment, in an accursed state. The Arminian doctrines insist that Christ’s death did not save everyone for whom He died but that many, if not most, would, despite allegedly having their sins atoned for on the cross, still end up in Hell. In other words, even what God the Son Himself has done under the direction of the Father, was not enough to secure the salvation of all, or in fact any, if they do not, of their own accord, of their own free will, choose Him and accept what He has done. Yes, that’s right! The Arminian doctrine of universal atonement teaches that Christ’s death for all was potentially completely in vain if no one accepted what had been done for them. Can you imagine such a scenario? Christ dying for the sins of man, this being the very centre point of history and the great centrepiece of God’s salvation plan, and then just sitting there hoping that someone would accept what He had done lest it all be done in vain! Please do not scoff at this, for this is precisely what the doctrine of universal atonement holds to have been a very real possibility, for it says that Christ has made atonement for all without exception but unless we accept it, the whole thin