Free at last to truly love!
Testimony of Andrew G.
I would like to share something with all of you. Until last December (year 2000) I was a staunch Calvinist. Roman Catholicism was public enemy number one, and my entire thoughts were on her destruction. I would loudly proclaim justification by faith, and would delight to exposing Rome's false gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Yet I was in bondage to fear, for I believed that only a few would be saved and I wasn't sure if I was one of them because I am such an evil and desperately wicked depraved sinner. So I have tried and tried for two years to achieve "saving faith" - a so-called absolute assurance and confidence in Christ. Yet I simply couldn't. I tried and tried and tried and used all of my effort, but I couldn't.
I was so unhappy and so unloving. Though I professed to love Roman Catholics but hate Roman Catholicism, yet the truth deep inside me was that I considered Roman Catholics to be the enemy. I was just like the god of Calvinism - loving to a very few.
Well, one night I was on the Internet to look for an article I could use to help me achieve full assurance of faith. I discovered an article entitled "ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE IN JESUS CHRIST - Four Views of the Salvation of Our God" by Charles Slagle (which can be found at http://www.tentmaker.org/books/Absolute-Assurance-in-Jesus-Christ.html)
It was almost as if the article was written just for me! As I read the article, the Holy Spirit brought great conviction to me that what was written in the article was truth. Charles Slagle's article showed me the truth of the love of God! I became so happy!
Today, I am no longer a Protestant, but a Christian. The Babylonian religion established by Nimrod has polluted more of the Temple of God than I first thought. The Roman Catholic Church is the harlot of Babylon (see Revelation 17). Yet she has daughters -she is the mother of harlots, i.e. other false churches!
I've now realized that all temporal churches are false! The Holy Scriptures mentions only one 'church' and that is the ecclesia. Indeed, all temporal institutions which claim to be a church are false by definition, for the only true church is the ecclesia, and that does not exist in brick and mortar. The kingdom of God is not of this world. The 1st century church was not a building, but the body of believers, either locally or universally. The only true Church is the Church of God (the ecclesia), and that is invisible! The Protestant Reformation cleaned up a lot of the Babylonian pollution of the Temple of God, but there is still pollution in the Temple.
Though Protestant Churches preach the Gospel (albeit a partial one), and many saved people are in the Protestant church, yet the Protestant church hinders people's growth with their man-made Armianism and Calvinism. I'm now free! It is finished! God loves me and everyone! The article I read by Charles Slagle has changed my life - no longer am I overwhelmed with fear, hate, and sin; the love of God is flowing through me! I have absolute assurance and peace.