“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)
This verse in 1 Timothy chapter 2 is so clearly in opposition to what I was taught and believed for most of my life. I grew up Roman Catholic and was ‘converted’ into the First Apostolic Lutheran Church (FALC) when I was a junior in high school. Both of these false religious systems teach that to be freed from the condemnation of sin you must have your sins forgiven through the mediation of a mortal man.
I had a great childhood growing up in a family of three boys with a loving mom and dad. Most Sundays we would go to church and often on ‘holy days of obligation.’ We had religion class on Wednesday and I had a few friends that also attended our church.
During my childhood and into my high school years I would have said I believed in Jesus, but my life did not reflect it. I was living for myself.
My main concerns were:
having fun
being liked
my own pleasure
lusting after girls
making money
fitting in
being good at sports
various other worldly passions
In other words, I was dead in my sin (Ephesians 2:1-3). When you truly believe something, it affects how you act. If you believe rat poison will kill you, you won’t eat it. If you truly believe in Jesus, you will follow Him and seek to obey His commands.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
Growing up in Calumet, Michigan, there was a high concentration of my classmates who attended the FALC. They were mostly kind and I found we had a lot in common. Their culture and way of life was appealing to me. I envied the way they seemed to have so much ‘clean’ fun and had so many friends and family members. I had a few good friends who weren’t FALC members, but eventually I was drawn into becoming a part of the FALC which my other friends didn’t seem so interested in.
The biggest contributing factor to me being ‘converted’ into the FALC was the fact that my first real girlfriend was a part of the group. After we had been dating for a while, her family was adamant that I must go to their church. This should have been a red flag to me. A foundational teaching of the FALC is that they are the ‘Kingdom of God’ and the ‘one true church.’ While some of the FALC ministers and even many congregants would never flat out say that they believe everyone who doesn’t attend the FALC is going to hell (even if these non-attenders go to other Christian denominations and believe the Bible), the way they act shows what they believe. For example, members of the FALC greet each other with the term ‘God’s peace.’ When you leave their church they no longer greet you in that way. Later on, I will detail some more examples of the eye-opening interactions which happened when I left the group.
I started hanging out with some guys who were a part of the FALC and then I started going to KYDS (which is a gathering every weekend of unmarried people from their church around age 15 to 20 something). It was a lot of fun and good times when I started hanging out with them, although it included behavior which is described in the Bible as fruit of someone who is destined for an eternity in hell. We participated in a lot of idolatry, lying, sexual immorality, and essentially following our various lusts and compulsions.
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
“But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8)
It’s incredible to remember that I called myself a Christian and yet my friends and I could often be found laughing about sexual immorality with girlfriends, and porn. Sexual immorality should not be laughed at but should be repented of. Christian men should be encouraging one another to turn away from sin, truly repenting, and not laughing about it. This is the sin that God hates. This is the sin that nailed Jesus to the cross. It is not something to laugh about.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Matthew 5:27-30)
Eventually I started going to church at the FALC and one evening asked my girlfriend at the time for a blessing which sealed my ‘conversion.’ The blessing at the FALC is when one person says to another person or group of people ‘believe all sins forgiven in Jesus’ name and precious blood.’ This phrase is the golden calf of their group which is put in the place of Christ Himself. They say the blessing over and over during their sermons, and it is said to those receiving communion when the bread and the juice are given. They say the name of Jesus so many times, but do not teach about who He is. After many years of attending this false religion, I was not taught the basic Christian fact and cornerstone that Jesus Himself is God.
There are many Laestadian churches which incorporate the words of the blessing into their religion. Sadly, there have been many splits and factions which have upset countless families. Many of the various factions hold to the belief that they are the one true church which leads to such discord.
Over the following few years while visiting with various people from the FALC I would be asked about my story of being ‘converted.’ I never had much to say, and certainly never mentioned anything about Jesus. Mostly I would say that it ‘felt right.’ Most of my life at that time was based on feelings and trying to fit in. I genuinely had a deep apathy to the things of God and the fear of the Lord was never a thought to me. I certainly wanted to go to heaven. Perhaps it was more of just not wanting to go to hell. I would have said I believed my sins were forgiven in Jesus’ name and precious blood and mistakenly thought that’s what made me heaven acceptable. I asked for ‘blessings’ from time to time because it felt right and that’s what everyone else did.
“There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
When I was in my last year of college, I started dating the love of my life (now I love the Lord more). Amanda grew up in the FALC and both of her parents came from prominent families in the religious group. She has over 250 first cousins. Amanda was one of the first of them (including her aunts and uncles) to openly leave the group.
Amanda and I hit it off right away. Sadly, most of our relationship was driven by lust and we were behaving in sexually promiscuous ways which we now know are evidence of someone on the broad path which leads to destruction. We thought that since she didn’t get pregnant, and we kept going to church and looking clean on the outside everything was fine. Getting married right away was never a thought of mine.
At the same time, I was a slave to pornography which started at a young age. Many of my FALC friends would joke around about porn and even share various magazines and videos. All the while I would claim that I ‘believed my sins forgiven in Jesus’ name and precious blood.’ I was falsely comforted all the time that I was a Christian, going to heaven. While going to church I would pay attention for maybe 5% of the sermon, but their melodic tones and peculiar preaching does not make paying attention an easy task. I don’t recall a time during any sermon from the FALC that I was convicted of my sin. Quite the opposite, I was comforted in my rebellion toward God and felt like there was no hope or need for getting help with my addiction. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgement. Their sermons don’t even explain what sin is, and how God feels about it. Their sermons are not convicting. They seem to seek to comfort everyone in the pews, no matter if they are saved or not. The judgement of God is a real truth, and the ministers there must try very hard to dance around it. They pick the sermons essentially at random and do not go through any book of the Bible thoroughly.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)
“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3)
Amanda and I got married about three years after I graduated from college. We certainly loved each other and still had many good times, but our ability to love purely was hindered by our sinful fallen nature. We would have numerous fights about all kinds of things, and it kept getting worse. All the while we were still attending the FALC and doing all of the rituals. Amanda started a business and it began to take up more of her time and energy after our first child was born. It was also taking up all of our savings and then some.
The typical FALC mom is a stay-at-home mom who takes care of the kids and ‘runs’ the household. This is not inherently bad, and I am grateful that to this day Amanda is able to take care of our home and our children without needing to work outside the home. At the time however, Amanda was not content with being a stay-at-home mom. She wanted to have more sense of purpose and meaning in her life. She wasn’t taught that one of her greatest purposes would be training our children in the ways of God & serving her husband. Amanda started a health coaching business with good intentions. She simply wanted to help people be healthier, and thought it was a way she could help earn more money for our family while giving her a sense of fulfillment.
As Amanda got into health coaching, she started learning and doing new age practices. She had no discernment or knowledge of the Bible, so she did not know that this is demonic. She was desperate for meaning, depth, and purpose in life, and got into yoga, meditation, self-love, self-help, crystals, chakras, energy work, feel-good motivational quotes, and more (2 Timothy 3:6-7). She was desperate for purpose beyond dishes, laundry, cooking, changing diapers, and small talk & gossip with friends, knowing that there is more to life. She was not taught that she was made for the glory of God, and she has great purpose in serving her family in the home. She was not taught that God highly values the home, and being a homemaker is a great honor. She was not taught to do her work as for the Lord, and that He sees and cares for her (Colossians 3:23).
Without any godly help or teaching from the FALC, our marriage went from okay to terrible. We would have raging fights about money, and the direction of our lives. Amanda had taken out a credit card for her business without telling me. One day I saw the statement come in the mail and that catapulted us into quite the argument. Children are a great blessing, but without the Holy Spirit I was not equipped to help my wife as I should. She was also not equipped to have a quiet, gentle, submissive spirit as the Bible commands. Things got so bad between us that there were many times where Amanda would threaten to take her own life, and I would often drive off to smoke a cigarette or several to numb the pain.
By God’s grace, it wasn’t too long that we were spiraling down that path. I got home one day after work and Amanda told me she was all done with the new age. She was crying tears of joy, talking about God’s love for her and I could tell that there was definitely a change in her. I didn’t take too much stock in the things she was saying about the Lord, but I sure was glad she was going to quit health coaching and racking up large debts to pay for her coaching mentors.
Things around the home changed drastically. I went from hearing about coaching calls or mentoring calls to hearing her listen to sermons and worship music. I was pretty hesitant about Amanda listening to other preachers since I had been so spiritually abused to believe that the FALC was the only one true church. This ended up causing friction between us, and I would always ask her to turn it off whenever I heard it.
She also gained a couple new friends who were ex members of the FALC and these relationships were quite disconcerting to me. It was often preached at the FALC that people who left the church had lost their faith. Men, women, and children in the church would frequently gossip about people who left and they would often slander them. I was told by one of Amanda’s family members that I should command her not to talk to these new friends. Nothing much for a basis as to why she shouldn’t, but just that they were dangerous. Nevertheless, I was so glad Amanda was done with the health coaching and she was certainly more committed to our family.
As Amanda continued in her walk with the Lord, it became obvious to her that she had grown up in a false religion. She had told her family what had happened to her and that she had experienced God’s love for her for the first time. They were not interested in talking about it and several times when she would bring up the things of God it seemed to land on deaf ears. Talking about the Lord for Christian’s should be an aroma of life to life (2 Corinthians 2:16).
One day Amanda told me she went to a different church service. I was quite upset, but I didn’t have any real reasoning to justify my feelings. Her parents took it a lot worse than I did even. She had a long talk with her mom and tried to explain the true gospel, but after that talk her mom had told me (outside of Amanda’s hearing) that Amanda had gone crazy. I was still part of the FALC at that time, so I agreed with her to some degree, but still couldn’t justify it logically or biblically.
There was once again a rift between Amanda and I. She started attending other churches more regularly and I was left bringing our daughter to the FALC services. At home Amanda would try to bring up parts of the Bible that were contradictory to the teachings at the FALC, and this would cause many arguments. I would get emotional and upset, but I was never willing to say that the Bible was wrong.
During this time of attending the FALC without Amanda, there were a handful of kind people there who had shown support to me and talked about how sad it was that Amanda had lost her faith. They had never talked to her about what she believed, but only heard gossip from family. It is clear now that they thought she lost her faith because she didn’t attend their church anymore. Looking back now, this is another very red flag. At the time, I was just comforted by their support. I wasn’t ready to lose my life for Jesus.
One of Amanda’s family members advised me to make her as busy as possible. Just to come home from work for lunch and demand hot food and time-consuming meals all the time. Everyone just wanted her to not look into the truth and just keep following the status quo. It was thought that if she were to be busy, she wouldn’t have time to read the Bible and talk to her friends who were crazy about Jesus.
I desperately wanted the beliefs that I held to be true. At the same time, I was unwilling to question them in the light God’s word. Our marriage continued to struggle. Amanda kept on bringing up Bible verses that were contrary to the teachings at the FALC, and I kept hardening my heart. I didn’t want to lose my life. I loved my sin. I liked my friends in the church, and was pretty sure that leaving the FALC would result in me being outcast from the circle.
I was driving around the back roads of Howell on a dreary day feeling sorry for myself, and I was at the end of my rope. I called my mom and broke the news to her how Amanda was going to different churches and our relationship was being majorly strained. It felt more real to start telling people and opening up about the struggle. After that call I stopped at a railroad crossing and started walking down the tracks. I began to feel the weight of my sin and accountability for the sad shape my marriage was in. As I kept walking, I noticed an old telephone pole that resembled a cross. I broke down and got on my knees in the gravel crying and laying my troubles before the Lord. A great sense of peace came over me and everything seemed to get still. I knew things were going to get better.
The experience at the railroad tracks may or may not have been the moment of my conversion, but it absolutely was a turning point. There was still a struggle for a time of wanting Amanda to come back to the FALC, and getting frustrated at Paul Washer preaching from the speaker of Amanda’s phone when I would get home from work. The next step in terms of walking by faith was to attend a marriage conference Amanda had been imploring me to attend with her. It is called ‘A Weekend to Remember.’ I had known there was some religious aspect to it, and was a little hesitant due to the spiritual bondage from the FALC teaching. At the same time, I knew things had to change between Amanda and I.
The Weekend to Remember was great. They laid out a program for helping marriages which was filled with biblical truth. The true gospel was shared there and I got a true sense of how applicable God’s word is to our daily life. Amanda and I connected on a deep level, even though I still had a few times of digging in my heels. On the drive home from the conference Amanda and I got in another large argument. She had thought I would be convinced to finally leave the FALC and attend a different church. I was still not open to that and it upset her greatly. However, I did agree to have us both stay home on Sundays and read the Bible together as a family.
Reading the Bible more frequently and with humility really helped open my eyes to the true and glorious gospel. The attributes of God had never before interested me. The Bible is clear that God is holy. He is not like us. God is just. Every sin must be dealt with and cannot be swept under the rug.
I had never had a deep understanding of my sin and just how much it separates man from God. Nothing of our own works or religious ceremonies can atone for our sin. The good news of the gospel is Jesus. God came down to earth to dwell among men. He performed countless miracles and fulfilled numerous prophecies which showed He is God. In the greatest ever act of love, Jesus went to the cross and laid down His life for guilty sinners. He died for His enemies, that they would be reconciled to a holy God through His blood. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice once for all time. He is seated at the right hand of God and will be coming again to judge the living and the dead. The only way to be saved is through repentance and faith in Jesus.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
After several months of reading the Bible as a family on Sundays, I was ready to attend a different church as a family. The Lord had really opened my eyes to see that it’s not about a particular church. God’s grace and my faith in Jesus had liberated me from the bondage and spiritual abuse that is the FALC. It felt very freeing to be able to go to church as a family and not worry about what people thought of me. To hear the word of God explained in a logical way was so different than what I was used to, but it was so good. The FALC ministers would often warn people about knowing too much of the Bible, and that it can lead to self-righteousness. Little do they know that God commands us to know Him through the Word that He has inspired for us.
“Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness.” (2 Timothy 2:14-16)
One particular thing that the Lord really showed me which helped me realize that I had to leave the FALC is that if there was something so necessary for salvation that it would be explicitly explained in the Bible. The blessing is nowhere to be found in the Bible, yet the ministers and those entrenched in the FALC assert that it is everywhere. This is twisting the Scriptures and adding to them. The words of the blessing are true for those who have been born again by the grace of God, but to use the phrase as a cornerstone of their faith is dangerous and has led many astray.
As I am writing this now it has been about three years that I have been walking with the Lord. God has been so good to Amanda and I as we have been walking in this newness of life. We have not had any raging fights like we used to have because we are both seeking to do God’s will and walk by the Spirit. Don’t get me wrong, we disagree from time to time but our resolution now is to take it to the Lord in prayer. The love that we have for each other grows stronger and stronger and we encourage each other to walk in the light. We’re now able to humble ourselves and put each other first; to act as a team rather than trying to get our own way and do what is right in our own eyes.
When you truly believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is given as a pledge of the inheritance and we are called to walk by the Spirit. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is the conviction of sin. Since walking with the Lord, there are several areas where the He has shown me that I have needed to repent of such as: eating junk food behind Amanda’s back while lying by omission, spending money behind Amanda’s back, and inappropriate thoughts (lust). Before I was saved, I was not convicted of my sin. I loved it and tried to hide it. I never confessed it to Amanda. Our marriage was not close because we had so much between us that we would not confess, but we would just bless each other and thought that was enough. After being saved, I was convicted of my sin. I stopped looking at porn all together. I confessed it to Amanda. I started looking away from immodestly dressed girls instead of indulging in lusting after them. I started praying for Amanda and our marriage. I started reading the Bible daily.
Amanda and I love to talk about the Lord now. We will go on a road trip up north and much of this time is spent worshipping God, reading the Bible, praying together, and talking about living our lives for God’s glory. He is our life. We rarely ever talked about God before and didn’t even know that the reason He made us was to glorify Him.
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Now, as the spiritual leader of my household, I know that I have a very high calling. In order for me to love and serve my family well I need time in God’s Word every day. Prayer is something that was very rote for me in the Catholic Church and was virtually non-existent while attending the FALC. Biblical prayer is such a powerful and wonderful way to commune with the living God and make our requests known to Him. Amanda and I have seen so many answered prayers and it’s incredible to know that we serve a living God, who hears us and loves us.
“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
Jesus’ great commission to evangelize the world and share the gospel is something that was entirely absent from the teachings at the FALC and Catholic Church. It is abundantly clear in God’s Word that His people are to be His witnesses and proclaim the gospel.
Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” (Mark 16:14-17)
Amanda and I have been incredibly blessed to be a part of a biblical fellowship. It is wonderful to be a part of a local body of Christ that desires to walk in the ways that the Lord has commanded us to in His Word. The sound doctrine that is preached there has helped us so much in our understanding of who God is, and the glory of the gospel. Jesus saved us by His grace, so we in turn are called to exalt Him. Our brothers and sisters in Christ have been such a support and encouragement to us along the way. We study God’s Word together, pray with and for each other, share what the Lord has done in our lives, and have great fellowship. It is also so refreshing to have friends that go to different churches, but believe the same gospel.
I have had the privilege and great blessing to meet with my Pastor one on one for a Bible study weekly. It has been almost three years that we have been meeting, and I have read the entire Bible two times since we have started. I have been able to ask questions as they come up in my reading, and we have discussed so many amazing gospel truths that the Lord has laid out in His Word. My Pastor is a great example of humility and will be honest when a passage is unclear. If there are differing views on a particular passage, he will often discuss what others believe and why he holds to his particular understanding. He is adamant about knowing God’s Word for ourselves and testing everything against the Scriptures.
As I mentioned earlier, there were many eye-opening things that I have heard since leaving the false religion of the FALC. We were told that their greeting of ‘God’s peace’ doesn’t mean God’s peace. They say it means ‘I acknowledge that you and I are of the same faith.’ They stop saying this to people after they leave their group. What they are saying is that the people who leave their group and go to a different church are going to hell. They also claim that their religious group is the Kingdom of God.
One time we were at a gathering at Amanda’s mom and dad’s house. Amanda’s grandma approached me in front of several of her family members and asked if I still have the faith I was converted into. I responded that my faith is in Jesus and it gets stronger every day. She seemed concerned by this and said that there is only one way, one church, and she mentioned about how a split happened in their religion many years ago and they prayed and prayed to know which church was right and claimed to know that their church was the only way. I responded by saying that Jesus is the way, and the conversation seemed to be cut off at that.
In another conversation about faith Amanda’s dad told me that it was arrogant to say that we now have a relationship with Jesus. Having a relationship with Jesus is literally the only way to be saved, and it is the epitome of what it means to be a Christian.
“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” (Matthew 7:22-23)
The reason I am sharing this is because I fear there are a great number of people just like Amanda and I who are being lied to about how to be forgiven by God. False religious systems like the First Apostolic Lutheran Church and Roman Catholic Church are so dangerous because they distort the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I genuinely want to treat others as I would have them treat me. I wish someone would have told me the true gospel when I was a slave to sin. While I believed that my sins were forgiven, I was in fact on the broad path that leads to destruction. As a follower of the risen Lord, I am now commanded to warn people of the wrath that they are under if they don’t repent and trust in Christ alone for their salvation.
If you are reading this and are living without a genuine hope and true knowledge of your salvation I urge you to be reconciled to God through Christ.
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20)
Please reach out to me if you have any questions about what I have shared or if you share my concerns about the false teaching and fruit coming from the FALC or Roman Catholic Church. I do not have all the answers but God’s Word is perfect and complete. I would love to search the Scriptures with you to help you see the truth.
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