I'm confused now. Probably not important, so I am moving on. Oh yes! I remember. You said that you received teaching only from the Bible and nowhere else. The question I asked was: "So you don't listen to your pastor's sermons then?"
I grew up in the Baptist church. I decided to read the bible and came across this:
Matthew 19:
16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “ ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony,
19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
And the baptist church was not teaching this. The baptist church taught, basically, believe Jesus died for your sins, ask for forgiveness and you are saved. Every once in a while thy would say you have to repent first.
I read the new testament and saw where Jesus taught we must try to follow the commandments and love our neighbors as ourselves to the best of our ability and ask forgiveness when we can not.
I kept searching for a church that actually taught this and I have come across a couple ministers who taught this, but the majority did not.
I studied the bible to see where the church went wrong and I found the concept of dispensation, basically saying Jesus wasn't talking to me. So they believe God came down as a man, spent 30+ years then taught a message that would only be good until he died in, what, two years? It was rediculous on the face of it. I studied many religions and it is hard to find any that teach what Jesus taught.
People go on about dispensationalism, which is just not true. They need to do this because they can not comprehend that following the ten commandments is not works, it is simply repentance, trying not to sin, turning from sin. So because they can not understand this they get confused when Paul says we are not saved by works, even though in the next chapter Paul says we must love our neighbors as ourselves and live in the spirit. So they have to invent dispensationalism, which is their religion and dogma.
They run across Paul saying he's elect and believe everyone saved is elect concluding in the errors of Calvanism. I see that God shortens the days or not *even* the elect are saved, so we need to ask ourselves then who besides the elect are saved? Paul even says I'm elect and you are saved because you hear and believe the word.
If any religion, which is most, has to throw away the words of Jesus our Lord and Savior, I want no part of the falsehoods.
I have been going to a non denominational church and while some non-denominational churches teach the word, this one teaches baptist dogma.
It pains my soul when I sit in a congregation and hear a pastor spew falsehoods. I have found that it is no use trying to teach the actual word of God, people always say, "but my pastor says this" and I explain from the scripture whete their pastor has erred and I get, "you should talk to the pastor, he'll explain it to you.". Argh!
