I realize that most Amish people don't
have computers, but many of the
"New Order" Amish certainly
do. I want to expose the Amish
heresy concerning salvation by works.
Here what the Bible says concerning the
Amish and anyone who teaches another
Gospel other the the simple Gospel of
Jesus Christ…
"As
we said before, so say I now again,
If any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that ye have received,
let him be accursed."
-Galatians 1:19
For those
who may not know, the Amish are actually
a cult. Assuming that you believe
that faith in the atoning blood of Jesus
is the only thing that can be counted on
for salvation, the Amish are not
possibly believers. They count on
works and adherence to laws (mostly
manmade ordinances) and traditions for
salvation. Any slight deviation
brings shunning and excommunication,
until the bishop determines that enough
repentance and humbling has occurred for
the person to be reinstated. Amish
is a form of cultism and mind control.
There is nothing "Christian"
about the Amish way of salvation.
Most people return after Rumspringa,
not out of true belief, but out of guilt
(since they believe that there is no
salvation for them outside the Amish
church). They also know that they
will never see their family or friends
again if they leave.
Salvation
by Works Heresy
The Amish need to be reached with the
good news of the gospel of Christ, and
the knowledge that God does not require
adherence to long list of manmade
traditions and laws. In fact,
Jesus condemns that very thing…
"Howbeit
in vain do they worship me, teaching
for doctrines the commandments of men.
For laying aside the commandment of
God, ye hold the tradition of men, as
the washing of pots and cups: and many
other such like things ye do.
And he said unto them, Full well ye
reject the commandment of God, that ye
may keep your own tradition."
-Mark 7:7-9
The
following information (in
green type) is taken from Susan
Rensberger's, "Understanding the
Amish," Alpha Books, (2003).
Read
reviews or order this book…
For
Evangelicals and other conservative
Protestants, salvation is an
unmistakable experience which happens
when one trusts Jesus. Amish are
different. They don't believe that
anyone is guaranteed salvation as a
result of a conversion experience,
baptism, joining the church, etc.
"…they would consider it
arrogant or prideful to claim
certainty of salvation."
The
Amish believe that God carefully
weighs the individual's total lifetime
record of obedience to the church and
then decides whether the person's
eternal destiny will be the reward of
Heaven or the punishment in Hell. As a
result, an Amish believer lives their
life and dies not knowing if they are
saved and will attain Heaven. This
lack of certainty has made the Amish
church susceptible to raiding from
other Christian evangelists at various
times in its history.
The Word of
God clearly proclaims that we can KNOW
that we are saved…
"These
things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have
eternal life, and that ye may
believe on the name of the Son of
God." -1st John 5:13
The ONLY
Way to heaven is through Jesus Christ…
"Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way, the
truth, and the life: no man cometh
unto the Father, but by me."
-John 14:6
Jesus never
told anyone to go get baptized.
Jesus never told anyone to give up their
sins, He saved them and afterwards told
them to "go and sin no more."
No one has a license to sin, but
salvation is a gift…
"For
the wages of sin is death; but the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord." -Romans 6:23
Jesus paid
a debt He did not owe, because we owed a
debt we could not pay. Salvation
is a FREE gift of God, paid for by the
precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Salvation CANNOT be earned, it cannot be
merited. We ALL deserve to burn in
hell for our sins which we have
committed (Romans 3:10,23). But
thanks be to God, Jesus loved us and
paid for our sins (Romans 5:8).
All we need to do to be saved is to
simply believe upon the Lord Jesus
Christ (Acts 16:31). Salvation is
all about getting our sins forgiven.
It's that simple: we are sinners, Jesus
is the Saviour. The very moment
you make that decision to rely upon
Christ to forgive your sins, you are
forever saved.
The Amish
religion is a a grievous religion, hard
to be borne…a religion of bondage and
imprisonment. Jesus came to
deliver us from such heavy burdens made
by men…
"Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you,
and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find
rest unto your souls. For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is
light." -Matthew 11:28-30
False
religions place heavy burdens upon men's
shoulders, grievous to be carried…
"For
they bind heavy burdens and
grievous to be borne, and lay
them on men's shoulders…"
-Matthew 23:4
Jesus never
expected us to earn our way into heaven,
or to make a lifetime effort to impress
Him. That's the whole reason why
Jesus came to atone for our
sins…because we couldn't. God is
not impressed with our righteousness
(Isaiah 64:6). God is impressed
when we look to Christ's righteousness,
the imputedrighteousness which He
provides to all those who believe upon
His name. We cannot be saved by
good works…
"For
by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God: Not of works,
lest any man should boast."
-Ephesians 2:8-9
If you
can't do good works to get saved, then
how can you do bad works to lose it?
You can't. Salvation is of God, we
have nothing to do with it except to
BELIEVE upon the Lord Jesus Christ…
"For
whosoever shall call upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved." -Romans
10:13
The Amish
religion is a false religion which
requires their followers to live up to a
certain standard to get into heaven.
No such teaching is found in the Bible.
Such heresy is kin to "Lordship
Salvation" which teaches that a
person must make a commitment to Christ
at the time of salvation. Of
course, such teachings are lies of the
devil…nowhere taught in the Word of
God. Salvation is of God, not man.
We have no part in our own salvation
except to believe upon Jesus Christ to
forgive our sins and save us from hell,
God does the rest…
"Jesus
said unto her, I am the
resurrection, and the life: he
that believeth in me, though he
were dead, yet shall he
live:" -John 11:25
Baptismal
Regeneration Heresy
Baptism is
NOT necessary to go to heaven.
Baptism is an ordinance, but not a
sacrament (just as the Lord's supper as
an ordinance, and not a sacrament).
A "sacrament" is something
which the church mandates to get to
heaven. The church has NO RIGHT to
make such claims. The Word of God
supercedes what ANY church says.
What we need to do is to stop fiddling
with religion and bring this lost world
to Christ for salvation. The
Apostle Paul clearly stated in 1st
Corinthians 1:17 that Christ sent him to
preach the Gospel, NOT to baptize.
Now why would Paul say such a thing if
baptism were required for salvation?
The thief on the cross wasn't baptized.
No one in the Old Testament was ever
baptized. Jesus never told one
person to get baptized when He saved
them. We must accept the
Scriptures at face value and not make
the horrible mistake of reading into
them what they do not say. Here is
a more in-depth look at Baptismal
Regeneration by the Great preacher,
Charles H. Spurgeon.
No
Eternal Security for the Amish
According
to God's Word, we can indeed have
eternal security, but the Amish say no.
I once witnessed to an Islamic Muslim.
I asked him, "Do you know that you
are going to heaven?" He
reply with disdain, "How arrogant!
How could you or anyone be so proud as
to say that they KNOW they are going to
heaven?" I explained to him
that Biblical salvation is based upon
God's love, not merit or good works.
The Muslims believe that Allah (the name
of their god) is capricious
(unpredictable). They basically
believe that they are to do their best
and hope they are acceptable to Allah
when they die. I thought about
this when I learned that the Amish have
the same attitude towards salvation and
God. Folks, salvation is of God,
not man. The Bible proclaims in
1st John 5:13 that every person can KNOW
beyond any shadow of a doubt that they
are saved. As born again
Christians, we believe that salvation is
God's gift to undeserving mankind.
This is what the Word of God proclaims.
We can know we are saved because
salvation is of God, our part is to
simply believe upon Jesus as out
personal Saviour. Amish and
Muslims foolishly believe that their
salvation rests upon their own works and
efforts; therefore, they live in
constant uncertainty and anguish of
soul. I am truly amazed at just
how many people fail to fully understand
the SIMPLICITY of the gospel.
Also, the Seventh-Day Adventists (a false religion) are guilty of
teaching the same damnable heresy…that
our works throughout life are all taken
into consideration for salvation.
Adventists believe that Jesus will
decide if we are "worthy" or
not after we die. I can answer
that question right now…NO ONE is
worthy for salvation, we all deserve to
burn in hell-fire and brimstone for our
sins.
Wrong
to Drive a Car?
I mean no
unkindness to the Amish people, but the
Bible is the Final Authority.
According to the Bible we can be saved
instantly, and KNOW that we are going to
heaven. As far as Amish primitive
living goes, I'd say they come closer to
right than the average materialistic
selfish spoiled rotten American does.
Surely, using electricity is not a sin
in any way. We should receive with
thanksgiving the blessings which God has
provided for us, but it's not wrong to
decline them either. The Amish
people do no wrong by choosing to live
primitive. However, it is wrong to
teach that utilizing modern convenience
displeases God. Old Order Amish
are prohibited from driving cars,
listening to radios, or using phones.
Truthfully, a person will not go to hell
for driving a car or using electricity.
Amish people will "shun" their
own for driving a car, etc. This
is wrong. Ironically, they can be
driven in a car, but cannot drive it
themselves. There is truly a fine
line between faith and foolishness.
The Word of God will keep us out of
trouble if we take it at face value.
Though the Amish people claim to adhere
to the Bible, many of their beliefs are
ludicrous to say the least.
I will say
this though…modern day society is far
worse than the Amish culture. We
spend billions of dollars trying to warn
kids about the dangers of illegal drugs,
while simultaneously hypocritically
glorifying legal booze (a drug) all
across the country. Cigarette
smoking is one of the number one killers
in America, but nothing is done to stop
it. The billions spent to warn
people about smoking risks are chump
change compared to the trillions which
have been made on cigarette sales.
We are a crazy society in America.
We've got Amish folks who won't even
drive a car, and then we've got millions
of Americans driving away from bars
after having a drink or two (with big
signs everywhere reading…don't drink
and drive!). You know as well as I
do that 90% of the people who drink a
beer head straight for their car when
they leave.
As
believers, we are to separate from the
sinful world, but technology is not
sinful. I definitely think it's a
great idea not to have a TV, but no one
can say it is sinful to own a TV.
Personally, I think it would great if we
could get rid of every TV in America.
The TV has been used by Satan to
desensitize the masses concerning the
sinfulness of sin. However, it is
the wickedness in the hearts of the
people that have made the TV such an
evil invention, not the TV itself.
The Amish try to protect their way of
life as the Muslims do, by banning the
heathen American culture in their
communities (and for this I don't blame
them). However, people are still
sinners. Before electricity was
ever invented, mankind was just as
sinful. Technology has simply
allowed men to go further down the road
they were already on. True
righteousness is of the heart and cannot
be obtained by abstaining from worldly
amusements or inventions. Only
through the precious blood of Jesus
Christ can anyone truly be saved and
have their sins forgiven. Won't
you trust Christ now.
