The Litmus Test

Even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! (Galatians 1: 8)

My Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ our Lord,

We are living so close to the end of the world that it is frightening. We are seeing the emergence of the one-world church. We have seen in the UN a major meeting of the world faiths. In this clip from YouTube, we see clearly the major faiths of the world signing a document of unity. There is no mention of the Bible or the word of God. This document has been signed purely for the purpose of world peace.

So we can see now the emergence of the apostasy church. There are preachers around the world who are now saying that there are many ways to Almighty God. Those of us who know the Bible and what Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14: 6), can clearly state that no matter what the Pope or religious leaders say in Christendom or other faiths, there is only one way by which we can be saved. Peter said at Pentecost, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2: 38) and later, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4: 12). It is so clear to me and those of us who are true believers that the antichrist has infiltrated many megachurches and large ministries.

Just recently, John Hagee said there is no such thing as hell. Jesus spoke more about hell than He did heaven. If you read the gospels, you will see how many times He spoke about Hades and Gehenna. Do your own study.

The Bible also says we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. If you get to heaven, you will not be asked what denomination you were from, what ‘pastor’ you listened to, but you will be judged by your own works, your own walk and whether you listened to the voice of Jesus. Jesus said that He needed to go so that God the Holy Spirit could come and teach us all things appertaining to Jesus. We have compromised in the church. We have exchanged Jesus for Santa Claus and the Christmas tree in many parts of the world. We have exchanged the cross for a chocolate egg and an Easter bunny. The nativity of Jesus Christ has been driven out of our schools and much of our culture. We have pastors and leaders who are so compromised they cannot discipline their own people because of their own condition.

You may have a very good pastor or leader, but I suggest you use this litmus test and see whether your pastor or your church teaches these things as follows:

  • The deity of Christ – Jesus is very God and very man
  • Jesus is the way, the truth and the life – there is no other way to God, only through Jesus Christ
  • Repentance, righteous living and a consequence for sin – a non-compromised life
  • Holiness/sanctification – this does not mean a religious spirit but a holy nature
  • The second coming – will Jesus find faith on the earth when He returns?
  • The infallibility of the Bible – either you believe the whole Bible or you do not

If your pastor or leader does not stand this test my suggestion is to do what the Bible says, get out from amongst them. If you stay with these kinds of ministry, the chances are you will be deceived and the consequences could affect your eternal destiny.

If you wish to comment on this post, please do so below.

If you wish to contact me I always reply to all those who take the trouble.

I love a debate and if you believe this article is not correct, please tell me why. I challenge you.

Rev Ross Rennie

Where Has the Holiness of the Church Gone?

On Saturday 11 August 2018, I found myself in one of the major cities in the United Kingdom. I did not know why God had sent me there but out of obedience to the Holy Spirit I obeyed God. I saw a scene which I never dreamed I would ever see in my lifetime. They call it gay pride. Notice the emphasis on the word ‘pride’. Was this not the thing that brought Satan himself down? I personally would not call it gay pride. I would call it gay shame as a friend of mine said.

The word of God is very clear on this subject. In the Old Testament, if you were a Jew, it was unacceptable behaviour. In the New Testament in Romans 1, the apostle Paul calls it an abomination. So as readers of this column, can you tell me why much of the church of Jesus Christ in the United Kingdom has capitulated on this subject? There is only one conclusion I can come to. They have moved from the true gospel of Jesus Christ to a false gospel. Where have all the true men and women of God gone? Are they living in a state of fear? I thank God for people such as the McArthurs who refused to bake a cake even though it could have cost them their livelihood.

I was appalled to see only a handful of Christians who have faithfully served the Lord and have stood outside St Peter’s Church for more than 40 years. I also know there is a pastor David Carr who has faithfully preached the gospel for many years in Chester and has been threatened with imprisonment many times. May God bless this man. Another preacher who is faithful and many would have seen him, his name is Themba. But this small witness is more or less all that is left in the great city of Chester. The church leaders are more like social workers. I believe personally, as I lived in this city, they have compromised the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. My prayer is that they get on their knees and repent and turn back to the true gospel.

But this is not just Chester, this is many cities across the United Kingdom. The church of Jesus Christ has either compromised, liberalised or become entertainment centres. I hear cries of revival, but when I see the revivals of the past I see men and women who were passionate for Christ. When I read of the revivals of old such as John Wesley the founder of the Methodist movement, I see passionate Christians. Today, much of what I see resembles business and circus. God is warning the church, but like in the past the church is deaf.

If this article offends you then I for one am glad, as many of you are sitting in dead, fossilised entertainment centres and it is time as individuals you got on your knees and asked God what you should be doing. I believe there is a revolution coming in the church and I do not believe the leaders of the church today will like it or even understand it. They could turn into the Pharisees and Sadducees of old. When I read the history of the pentecostal movement I see that the established church were not friends with the pentecostal movement. So I for one pray to our heavenly Father that He will shake the church out of their complacency with their radio stations, TV stations that are more like the BBC, ITV and the normal media with a little bit of Christianity on top.

It is time, church, we sought our God. Jesus said, Will I find faith on the earth when I return? He was not talking about the prosperity gospel. He was not talking about the American charlatans, such as Andrew Wommack, Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Morris Cerullo, Joyce Meyer or Joel Osteen, and the list goes on. And He was not talking about a candy-coated gospel. I believe that Lucifer himself has neutralised the church as it now does not preach repentance. Most churches in the United Kingdom and the western world preach ‘come to Jesus and everything will be OK,’ but when I look at what happened to Jesus on that cross, after 30-odd years I still look at my sin with tears in my eyes and I see my fallen state. I thank God for the grace that saved my soul.

My brothers and sisters, I am not looking at the speck of dust in your eyes as I probably have a plank in mine, but I weep and cry over what the church has become. If it was not for the symbolism and the cross on the wall we would not even know that these places represent the Man of Sorrows who died upon the cross. I once asked a church of which I was a pastor, would you take a bullet for Jesus, and I was saddened at the result. I remember when I was in Bible college a godly man called George Canty, whom some of you may remember, told the college if they wanted to see true healing they would have to weep as Jesus did over the sick and the dying before they saw such miracles. This dear, godly man asked for a vote and only two students out of 120 agreed with him. I will put out a challenge to you pastors and leaders of so-called churches: when was the last time you saw anybody saved, baptised in the Holy Spirit or healed, or miracles operating in your buildings? I again would like to challenge you under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and plead with you to get outside your buildings and outside your comfort zones, and I believe we shall see revival and restoration of our nation. When you stop preaching a message of compromise and saying anything goes, I believe God the Holy Spirit will pour out a blessing that the church will not be able to contain. Jesus Himself said He did not come for the 99 that were in the flock; He came for the one that was lost. While the church is asleep and playing in the shallows, the devil is busy at work destroying mankind. The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are so few.

I hope and pray that this article does offend you (as the gospel is an offence to those who are perishing) and some of you pastors and leaders will stop acting as managing directors and CEOs of companies. Get out into the streets and the towns and the cities and challenge evil. That is the work of the body of Christ.

Please do not shoot me. I am just the messenger. In 2015 I died and by the grace of God He brought me back again. Much of what I am telling you is the message He gave me to give to the body of Christ. As He said Himself, there will be those who are ever listening but never hearing and those ever looking but never seeing. There will always be a remnant of those on this earth who truly believe, but judgment day is coming and then it will be too late.

Rev Ross Rennie

Jesus Weeps Over His Church

We are living in very strange times. Jesus warned us in the last days there would be many false prophets. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and there is no deviance in Him.

My Christian background was brethren. I was in the brethren church for seven years of my Christian life. I received the finest teaching from the finest teachers and I was privileged to sit under great men of God like Lance Pibworth the 20th century John Bunyan, Professor Verna Wright of Leeds University, Dr Knight from Wrexham, Roger Carswell from Leeds, my own pastor, who is now very elderly, Pastor Paul Brown from Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, but I thank God for these godly people whose instruction has kept me for many years, but even with after being taught by these people I still walked into error and spent between seven and eight years in false doctrine listening to false prophets.

One of my pastors once told me there is an element of truth in everything. The problem is we need to be aware of the error which leads us down the wide path to destruction. My dear old mum once said, all that glitters is not gold. As a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ I am saddened by what I see in the west: men and women chasing after power and adoration and some of them absolutely dishonest; these snake oil salesmen from America; TV evangelists; people denying the Godhead, teaching that Jesus was just a man like any other man and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the Jordan; others saying that Jesus went into hell, took on demonic properties, suffered as we would suffer in hell, then was raised on the third day, when we know He said on the cross, “τετέλεσται—tetelestai—it is finished!”

My brothers and sisters, whether you believe this or not it matters not to me. Jesus suffered hell on the cross when there was darkness over the earth from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. God punished His own Son for you and for me. No human being saw the pain that my Saviour suffered on the cross, so how these charlatans can say these awful things I do not understand. If Jesus was not very God and He was not very man then we are all condemned to hell and there is no heaven; there is just hell waiting for all of us.

Why have we become so selfish? It is not about you. It is not about what you can get, a bigger house, bigger car, a better education; it is about the countless souls that will be cast into the lake of fire because the church does not care. Where has the holiness gone? Our godly women go to church dressed as harlots. What is wrong with beauty? The church looks no different from the world we live in. it has lost its godliness. We cry for revival but much of it is self-centred. Our Christian TV and radio stations pump out more and more lies.

I believe the Lord is calling the nation to repentance or we shall get what we deserve. David wrote the wonderful psalm: “Search me, O God, and see if there is any wickedness in me.” We have ministers denying the truth, accepting gay marriage, allowing our young to fornicate. I am not into religion, I am into holiness and I write this with tears in my eyes. Jesus weeps over His church. We have leaders who deny that Jesus rose from the dead bodily. We have selfish people in the church who only look after their own interests and not the interests of others. We have accepted a false gospel. We have ministers visualising cars and houses, which is no more than Buddhism, new-age teaching, predictions which is nothing more than witchcraft in the church.

Where are the spiritual fathers who will call the church back to what it should be? I thank God for people like Gino Jennings in the USA, Charles Lawson and many of our great leaders such as David Wilkerson who have gone. We have young, puffed-up ministers such as Todd White, Todd Bentley and Steve Chalke to name a few, who are nothing more than false prophets. Where are the spiritual fathers who will speak up for the truth, I wonder. Are we a nation of orphans and as Jesus said, “Will I faith on the earth?” Not word and faith, name-it, claim-it, grab-it ministries, but holy, humble, righteous men of God? Where are you? Are you like Adam, hiding?

If you feel the same as I do, broken-hearted, today, share it with others as the church was never meant to serve itself, it was called to serve others. I know there are many out there like me who feel as I do that it is time we challenged those who are not following the true and living gospel as the apostle Paul did, as the apostles did, and as many in foreign countries who are under persecution are. I plead for my nation. We are at the time, my brothers and sisters, that we got back in the battle. Forgive me if I am speaking to those who are already in the battle. You know who you are. But now is the time to pray as we have never prayed before, or billions of souls will be lost.

God bless you.

Rev Ross Rennie

Warning Before He Comes – Get Your House in Order

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Matthew 7: 15.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 2 Timothy 4: 3-4.

Dear Readers,

I have been a Christian for over 36 years. I was saved in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, in a free evangelical church. I went from there to Leek in Staffordshire, to an old Baptist Union church. I believe that in those formative years as a Christian I received the finest teaching from the word of God that a young Christian could ever receive. I was grounded in the word of God for my first seven years as a Christian. But there was a problem. I did not know about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I became very legalistic and sadly I was a hypocrite. I was, as CS Lewis once said, a Sunday angel but a Monday devil. I faced many conflicts in those years as I wanted to serve the Lord with all my heart but I could not. My pastor, who was a very godly man, when he baptised me gave me these verses:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12: 1-3.

What a wise man. He saw this tramp that came off the street. He brought me to the foot of the cross by using a wonderful little book, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. He and many others grounded me in the word of God, which has kept me through many years. But sadly as Jesus said, even the elect can be led astray (Mark 13:22). I was led astray. Though my own pride and my besetting sins I lost my first marriage by allowing a man I met to introduce me to the doctrine of demons. During that period of time I was filled with the Holy Ghost through pentecostal Christians who knew the word of God and the power of God. But he devil himself is very subtle and as the word says comes to us an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11: 14). This resulted in my being in the wilderness for approximately seven years. I still loved God, I still loved my Lord Jesus, but my life was a mess. I went to Bible college. I graduated. I pioneered a few churches. But I was led astray by false doctrine. I listened to such teachers as Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Morris Cerullo, Joyce Meyer and Creflo Dollar. In short, I became a prosperity preacher. I was part of a large ministry in the West Midlands, but unfortunately, my brothers and sisters, I was chasing after wealth, power, position and adoration from my fellow brothers and sisters. But our Father is so gracious; I did not get what I deserved. It was a time of tremendous growth and in spite of my disobedience and at times complete rebellion God blessed me mightily. I believed at the time that what I was doing was pleasing to God, but sadly it was not.

So I urge you my brothers and sisters to check the word of God, read it for yourself and make up your mind about these megachurches and prosperity preachers, as I have learned that there is only one true gospel and it does not say you or I should be rich or powerful; it does not promise us a new house, cars or lands; it tells us to go and to make disciples of all nations.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28: 18-20.

The message is to go, preach, teach and make disciples. This is the purpose of the church of Jesus Christ. No matter what denomination or grouping you belong to, go, preach, teach and make disciples of all people.

I believe with what is happening around the world and the fulfilment of much prophetic scripture that the Lord is very close. Most churches today sadly have become entertainment centres and people seem to be spending more time looking after the needs of those inside the church than what Jesus commanded them to do, to go and reach the lost. It is almost as if the leaders in the church have forgotten that the reason we exist is to reach as many as we can and bring them to the foot of the cross. When was the last time you saw anybody saved, healed or filled with the Spirit or your pastor teach on the second coming of Christ, which many of us believe is imminent? The upshot of this is you will not be judged on how many times you went to a church meeting, Bible study, conference or Christian concert; you will be judged on your fruit. So what fruit will you take with you when the trumpet is sounded and Jesus calls us?

Rev Ross Rennie

This Must Be Read: Beware of the False ‘Gospel’

I am writing today with a heavy heart as there is a heresy that is finding its way around the world and it is the prosperity ‘gospel’. I am saddened to find out that someone who has been very important to my own theology is being mixed up with the doctrine of demons, which we are warned in many parts of Paul’s writings to stamp out whenever we see it.

You may have been exposed to such people as Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Creflo Dollar, TD Jaques, Larry Lea, Trimble, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Trinity Broadcasting Network and this bunch of greedy TV evangelists who I would be bold enough to say are a satanic group. The Bible says out of a good tree comes good fruit and out of a bad tree comes bad fruit.

If you check the origin and the root of this you will find it goes back to a man called Robert Schuller, who is connected with the author of The Power of Positive Thinking. Such men as Kenneth Hagin took their original teaching from a man called Kemp. A famous book that I have on my bookshelf The Invisible Man was where Kenneth Hagin was influenced with the whole faith movement.

I was mixed up with this movement for several years and at one time I idolised and followed a man who taught these erroneous doctrines, not the Man Christ Jesus. By the way, these faith teachers say that when Jesus was born on the earth He was just a man and when He was in the River Jordan He was filled with the Holy Spirit. This is blasphemy, as if Jesus was not very man and very God He could not have died for us. He had to be the spotless Lamb of God.

Over the Christmas period and New Year the Holy Spirit has challenged me. He even took me to a book that I have always had problems with written by Rick Warren and is used by most megachurches around the world. To say the body of Christ in the west is in trouble would be an understatement, as many of our leaders are barricaded behind their church doors or are part of this insidious megachurch movement. Jesus said very clearly we can only serve one master, God or mammon. I hope like me you choose God. I have also been looking at the scripture recently Matthew 7: 13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” I am disturbed when I hear people preaching that the wide road is just another road and that it is up to you which road you want to go through, when scripture is clear: God’s way is the tough way. John Bunyan knew this and many of the reformers in Great Britain centuries ago.

I am glad that even though I rose to great heights and fell to the ground financially, I will never accept this garbage as it is another gospel, and as it tells us in Galatians 1: 8, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!” Also 2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these.”

The Bible says in the last days (Matthew 24: 24) “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.” I am just ashamed that for many years I believed this rubbish, but now the Lord has opened my eyes and has shown me there is only one wayHis wayto seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Rev Ross Rennie