The Bible promises that Scripture is all we need. It’s our counselor, our guide, our protector and our shield against evil.

When we study the Word, we study God Himself and get to know Him more personally, not to mention learning His incredible plan for the future.

There’s no substitute for the biblical armor we need to fend against our foe—Satan. Studying God’s Word also allows God’s Holy Spirit to convict us, giving us the opportunity to mature in our Christian walk. After all, the Word IS God.

In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.  John 1:1

So it’s not surprising that one of Satan’s most effective tools is to challenge the  authenticity of God’s Words, replace God’s Words or add to God’s Words.

From the very beginning, Satan attacked God’s Word. Speaking to Eve in the Garden of Eden, he challenged God’s exact words.

Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’? Gen 3:1

God warns never to add anything to His written Word.

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book. Rev. 22:18

Undeterred by that warning, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have their own Bible translation, The New World Translation. They’ve rewritten several passages to line up with their cultish beliefs.

For instance they changed John 1:1 to read,  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God.”

They changed was God. to was a God.”No credible linguist or Bible scholar agrees with that translation.

In Genesis 1:2 they changed Spirit to active force. They made this change because they don’t believe in the Trinity.

The JWs simply got tired of trying to defend their flawed beliefs against the written Word, so they rewrote their own version of the Bible, changing at least 10 key passages to line up with their cult’s teachings. Heaven help them on judgment day!

More recently, Satan seems to be working overtime to discredit the Bible through books and cinema. Here is an example:

Jesus (Is Not) Calling

Jesus Calling has been a best-seller, a 365-day devotional study written by Sarah Young. She claims Jesus spoke to her and she wrote down the words compiling a book. And an unsuspecting Christian community is buying it hook, line and sinker.

It’s sold over three million copies, and the publisher has released Jesus Calling for Kids, Jesus Calling for Teens and a Jesus Calling Devotional Bible.

I suspect there will eventually be a Jesus Calling Poodles and Jesus Calling Left-Handed Arab Polo Players. But why stop there?

The attraction to Christians seems mostly due to the dramatic and emotional wording  by using Jesus said in the first person. Young ropes in her readers by claiming she is passing along Jesus’ words to her. But they can’t be equated with Jesus’ words.

Nothing can be added to the Bible.

If they ARE Jesus’ words, they violate Scripture that says don’t add to the Bible. If they’re NOT Jesus’ words, then Young is either deluded or listening to a false spirit—called a demon.

Young said when she was a missionary with her husband in Japan, she desired more than just the Bible. And she got her wish in the form of a spirit Jesus communicating with her.

She describes her initial experience this way:

One morning as I prayed, I visualized God protecting each of us. I pictured first our daughter, then our son, and then Steve encircled by God’s protective Presence, which looked like golden light. When I prayed for myself, I was suddenly enveloped in brilliant light and profound peace…

She puts all her stock on experience. And of course, visualization is a New Age practice.

The Bible warns that Satan can look awfully attractive.

…Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 2 Cor. 11:14

There are many Christians who believe they have benefited from using her book as a devotion. But Young’s own words convict her that what they’re reading is not what they think!

In the Introduction of Jesus Calling she talks about dealing with her “darkness,” “encountering” this “spirit Jesus,” “experiencing the Presence of Jesus,” being under “intense spiritual warfare,” “walking in the darkness,” “receiving personal messages from God,” and her “spiritual disciplines.”

All of those phrases are red flags, deceptive words used by Emergent and New Age teachers. So it’s not a stretch to wonder if Young was channeling a demon’s words, not the real Jesus of Nazareth, Creator God of the Universe.

And to make matters worse, in the introduction to her book she even admits that she often interjected her own words into the messages she received and passed off as coming from God!

this kind of book, Young had to ignore the biblical warning that we are not to trust in visions (Col. 2:18) .

But she did ignore the warning and used her encounters with this “spirit Jesus” to pen her book.

Young, on one hand, correctly admits only the Bible is God’s Word:

“I knew these writings were not inspired as Scripture is, but they were helping me grow closer to God.”

Later she said, “The Bible is, of course, the only inerrant Word of God; my writings must be consistent with that unchanging standard.”

My writings? So sometimes she thinks she’s making up things for Jesus to say?

Regardless, she then turns right around and assumes everything the “spirit” told her were Jesus’ actual words, negating the disclaimer.

Young is correct that the Bible—God’s infallible Word—is to be our anchor and our strength. Yet this truth is lost in her book as she takes the reader on an emotional journey channeling this spirit Jesus and/or her own words on every page.

Instead of imploring people to “diligently study to show ourselves approved” (2 Tim. 2:15), she instead says Jesus wants us to listen to a spirit?

Really?

Several people have written extensively on the specific biblical errors found in Young’s book (s), But just to mention a few (in addition to adding to the words of the Bible)…

Contemplative prayer (God is in everything) is, in essence, what Young is advocating. It’s also disguised as “Spiritual Formation,” “Spiritual Disciplines,” “Contemplative Spirituality,” etc. And it’s all from the pit of hell. It is, unfortunately, now being embraced by mainline denominations.

The purpose of contemplative prayer is to enter into an altered state of consciousness in order to find one’s true self. The Bible, of course, never tells us to do that. We’re instead scripturally taught:

“… we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Col. 2:8).

Young un-scripturally calls her readers to “Whisper His Name” (a New Age practice not found in the Bible).

Young uses the word “presence” 365 times in the book, a word heavily used by New Agers. She says that experiencing his presence will unlock secret teachings. I have no doubt that doing that might unlock “secret teachings.” But who is actually teaching her—is NOT Jesus!

Instead of armoring up biblically, she says Jesus just wants us to “listen to His voice.” And “His voice” is a spirit. Do you see a problem here?

Young continuously refers to Jesus as a spirit when He has, in fact, a flesh body.

“For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col. 2:9).

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:2-3).

In fact, if Sarah Young actually believes Jesus is speaking through her, she is basically claiming to be a prophetess, channeling Jesus’ messages, which is downright blasphemy, even if they’re not demonic.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1).

Sarah Young is badly deceived, totally duped about from whom she is receiving these messages.

If you want a really good “Bible study book,” get out your Bible! It’s all you need!

 

Our nation has been on a spiritually adrift path. Without a specific direction, who knows where we are headed. Someone once said, in effect, “If you don’t have a goal, you’re sure to reach it.” In the not-too-distant past, America’s goal was to be governed by biblical constraints. Our laws and constitution are full of biblical references. Our schools taught biblical principles.

What is a cult?

A “cult” is a religious group or organization founded by, and built upon, the teachings of a religious leader that contradict or undermine major doctrines of the Bible.  Here is an example:

The Mormon doctrine (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints/LDS) is DIRECTLY OPPOSED to the Bible. Not even close. Not even in the ballpark. Despite Mormon’s pro-family and clean-living image, here’s why they are a cult:

Mormons believe those that follow Mormon doctrines are Christians, and only Mormons go to heaven. Mormons believe Satan and Jesus were brothers (the highest degree of blasphemy!). Those that followed Jesus are Mormons and those that followed Satan  are everyone else.

There is also a third group, according to early Mormon doctrine, designating those that couldn’t make up their mind to follow Jesus or Satan. Because of their indecision, God painted their faces black! Remarkably, this was taught up until 1978 when the modern-day Mormon prophet Spencer Kimball received a “divine revelation” that blacks were now ok to be Mormons. Their original teaching on polygamy was “updated” in much the same way.

Mormons believe Jesus was the literal and PHYSICAL son of God, and that the “Father” sent Jesus to redeem the earth. Most Mormon pictures of God the Father and Jesus that I have seen show an old guy standing next to a younger man.

They teach that if you are a good Mormon, you too, can, like Jesus, receive your own planet one day, populated by you and your wife (originally wives). They teach that a man can “call up” his wife, if she was good enough on this earth, to join him on their planet and have eternal celestial sex. I promise I’m not making this up!

As directed by the LDS hierachy, good Mormons, as an act of faith, wear special underwear officially referred to as “garments,” unofficially referred to as “garmies” or “magic underwear.”

Somehow it is supposed to “promote modesty,” but not sure how since it must always be covered up. But they mainly wear it for “spiritual protection.” I could not find out how this is supposed to protect you spiritually.

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes” (Proverbs 12:15).

Mormons receive this underwear in a special service at their Temple where they promise to wear it for the rest of their lives. You do get to decide what to choose: cotton, poly or nylon.

This spiritually protecting underwear must touch the skin so women must wear their bras on top of their underwear. LDS leaders say, “… wear the garments always, except for activities that don’t permit it (such as swimming), and not to look for excuses to take them off.”

Mormons believe you are saved by your good works. Only those who don’t drink coffee, tea, alcohol (some of the big “keep you out of heaven” sins), and pay 10 percent of their gross income to the Mormon Church, go to heaven. The LDS church can check your income tax records for verification you are paying a full 10 percent to LDS.

The Book of Mormon says a Jewish man left Israel in 600 BC in a ship and landed in America. Two nations grew from those on the ship, the Nephites and the Lamanites. The Lamanites eventually defeated the Nephites and grew into the American Indians.  

These and other just as ridiculous stories in the Book of Mormon have been widely discredited. Joseph Smith, founder of LDS, was literally killed for teaching this unbiblical garbage in Illinois. After Smith’s death, Brigham Young led a group of Mormons to Salt Lake City where they could teach their heresy without getting killed.  Not one trace of evidence has ever been found to validate the cities, culture and money written about in the Book of Mormon. It is a TOTAL and complete fraud.

There are many more doctrinal inconsistencies…too many to include in this short overview. But we have to realize we are not up against flesh and blood, but rather, Satan’s lies. And this is one of his all-time best. It’s hard to believe that anyone would embrace this doctrine, especially in contrast to the truth found in God’s Holy Word. If I didn’t know how clever Satan was, I would think that Joseph Smith was two short of a coaster set.

It’s hard to believe that anyone would embrace this doctrine, especially in contrast to the truth found in God’s Holy Word. If I didn’t know how clever Satan was, I would think that Joseph Smith was two short of a coaster set. The bottom line is—whoever is part of the Mormon  cult is tremendously deceived by Satan. 

It’s hard to believe that anyone would embrace this doctrine, especially in contrast to the truth found in God’s Holy Word. If  I didn’t know how clever Satan was, I would think that Joseph Smith was two short of a coaster set.

Bottom line is whoever is part of the Mormon cult is tremendously deceived by Satan. Do we want someone who is THAT deceived running our country and making life-impacting decisions for us? We’ve had non-believers before as President, but never one from a bona fide cult!

Endnotes

Understandingmormonism.org

Watchman Fellowship / LDS Profile