Those of you who’ve been following this blog for a while know I have posted some Church Rot Updates over the last few months. While researching the topic, it would often take me weeks to come across enough material to fill a post with at least ten examples of shameful activities... some beyond belief. Sadly, since the first of this year (2023), I have collected well over 100 instances of such decidedly unbiblical activities, behaviors, and sermons by many so-called Church pastors and elders.
The question is this, dear reader... When should you consider leaving your church and going somewhere else? It’s a tough decision and one that should never be taken lightly. In some cases, it would mean leaving friends and family members behind.
With that in mind, here are ten questions to ask yourself before you decide:
Is there unconditional acceptance and celebration of aberrant sexual behaviors and lifestyles that are clearly contrary to Scripture? Today, in place of pulpits occupied by men who faithfully preach the Word of God, we see drag shows for children and altars decorated with LGTBQ+ symbols. An increasing number of churches are going soft on the LGBTQ+ worldview, rather than teaching how such behavior will be judged against the absolute authority of the Word of God.
Is your church retaining people in positions of leadership and service who continue to live in open and unrepentant sexual sin, including heterosexual adultery?
Does your church endorse transgenderism and/or abortion as somehow acceptable in the eyes of a “loving God”?
Does your church teach that the Bible is wrong on certain subjects or doesn’t apply to others? Many pastors reject the Old Testament, the sufficiency and inerrancy of scripture, and embrace extra-Biblical teachings. Practicing discernment and calling out false teachers is not “casting stones”, but is to be done in keeping with Ephesians 5:11... “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”
Does your church teach the woke Gospel of Social Justice or the Prosperity Gospel as fact? Personal experiences, feelings, and opinions should never be valued above Biblical truth. The Social Gospel message rejects the reality of sin and redemption and shifts it to social justice, racism, and environmental concerns instead. The Prosperity Gospel teaches that God wants you to be prosperous in all aspects of your life. Prosperity preachers falsely assert that by having faith and following specific principles, you can achieve material wealth, excellent health, and overall success… while they often live opulent lifestyles financed by church members’ seed-sowing donations.
Does your church ordain or support women pastors who preach to both men and women? This is a clear violation of 1 Timothy 2:11–12.
Does your church regularly and knowingly expose the congregation to false teachers? Many churches today are hosting or promoting conferences featuring known false teachers. Pastors are to protect their flocks from prowling wolves in sheep’s clothing. Examples of this include faith healers, grave-sucking, and how-to-prophesy classes. See our 2023 guide to Christian Conferences to see if your church is one of them.
Does your church ever teach about the need for sincere repentance? One common misconception in many churches today is that if a person simply repeats “the sinner’s prayer” or responds to an altar call, they are “saved.” Nothing in scripture supports saying a few words once ensures one’s salvation. While this approach helps identify those who want to give their life to Christ... It is not the same as salvation. It must be followed up with true repentance and turning away from one’s sins or it means nothing. One cannot willfully continue in sin and think they are saved... There must be a sincere attempt to change despite obstacles and momentary failures. There must be classes or church leaders available to minister to those who do make a decision for Christ to help them grow in their faith. Otherwise, it’s no more than numbers on a puffed-up weekly report.
Has your church engaged in the blasphemy of Christ or the Holy Spirit? This past Easter, a church in Canada live-streamed a parody of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, including the mock crucifixion and resurrection of Princess Belle in place of Jesus. Another “church” put a nearly naked man on a cross during the Easter season in a vomit-in-your-mouth-worthy display of sensuality. Recently in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an associate “pastor” compared Jesus to a “naked prostitute on a stripper pole as a way for him to put “bread in my pocket.” (No words for the last one…). These are not isolated examples... They are sadly representative of what is happening in many North American churches today. None of it has anything at all to do with Christ’s atonement for our sins.
Is the worship in your church more like concert entertainment with repetitive lyrics and melodies designed to create an “awesome” experience? Raising hands while watching others perform loud rock music with laser lights is not worship. True worship involves willingly bowing before the lordship of Jesus Christ, hearing the Word, praying, reading God’s Word, participating in communion, and being grateful for God’s provision… It is not limited to the simple act of singing on Sunday.
What to do before leaving your church...
Identifying these signs can be subtle and not always so obvious. Often they can be mixed with some truth to hide the deceit. Do ask questions of church leadership to get clarity before deciding to leave. At the same time...
“Do not be deceived, for God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)
If you would like to support my efforts in writing posts that you have come to enjoy, I would be wholly grateful if you could “buy me a coffee" as a small way to help cover the expenses of maintaining this blog. Thank you in advance!
American Faith & Freedom is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell American Faith & Freedom that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.
Anthony of the Desert – Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say that if they had lived in our day, Faith would be simple and easy. But in their day, they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and made meaningful to the day’s problems. When the Church and the World are one, then those days are at hand. Because our Divine Master placed a barrier between His things and the things of the world.
The Didache (90 A.D.) – In the last days false prophets shall be multiplied, and such as corrupt the word, and the sheep shall be changed into wolves, and love into hatred: for through the abounding of iniquity [injustice] the love of many shall wax cold. For men shall hate, and persecute, and betray one another.
Saint Hildegard (12th Century) “The time is coming when princes and peoples will reject the authority of the Pope. Some countries will prefer their own Church rulers to the Pope. The German Empire will be divided.
St. Senanus (560) – Impart to me, O Senanus, information concerning the latter ages of the world. What shall be the condition of the race of people who will not observe rectitude in their judgments, who will entertain false and treacherous intentions; shall any individual of them be admitted into the regal mansions of heaven? Falsehood will characterize that class of men who will sit in judgment to pass sentence according to the law: _between the father and his own son, litigations will subsist. The clergy of the Holy Church will be addicted to pride and injustice; the advantages they will aim at shall be the possession of worldly substance. Women will abandon feelings of delicacy, and cohabit with men out of wedlock; they will follow those practices without secrecy, and such habits will become almost un-suppressible. All will rush into iniquity against the will of the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The earth will not produce its fruits for the race of people to whom I allude; full mansions will be deserted, and unpleasant will be the tidings concerning them. Dreadful plagues will come upon all the race of Adam.
Bishop Christianos Ageda (12th Century) “In the 20th century there will be wars and fury that will last a long time; whole provinces shall be emptied of their inhabitants, and kingdoms shall be thrown into confusion. In many places the land shall be left untilled, and there shall be great slaughters of the upper class. The right hand of the world shall fear the left, and the north shall prevail over the south.
Blessed Johannes de Sylva (d. 1482) In the latter days there shall be great wars and bloodshed. The fury of the wars shall last a long time. Whole provinces shall be left naked and uninhabited, many cities forsaken of people, the nobility slaughtered, principal persons ruined, great changes of kings, commonwealths, and rulers.
Maria Laach Monastery (16th Century) “The twentieth century will bring death and destruction, apostasy from the Church, discord in families, cities and governments; it will be the century of three great wars with intervals of a few decades. They will become ever more devastating and bloody and will lay in ruins not only Germany, but finally all countries of East and West.
“After (a terrible defeat of Germany) will follow the next great war. There will be no bread for people anymore and no fodder for animals. Poisonous clouds, manufactured by human hands, will sink down and exterminate everything. The human mind will be seized by insanity.”
The Great Chastisement
Akita, Japan (20th Century) “In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. … the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the shy and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.
REPORT THIS AD
“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres … churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.
“The demons will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. …”
John of the Cleft Rock (14th Century) “Towards the end of the world, tyrants and hostile mobs will rob the Church and the clergy of all their possessions and will afflict and martyr them. Those who heap the most abuse upon them will be held in high esteem. At that time, the Pope with his cardinals will have to flee Rome in tragic circumstances to a place where they will be unknown. The Pope will die a cruel death in his exile. The sufferings of the Church will be much greater than at any previous time in her history. But God will raise a holy Pope, and the Angels will rejoice. Enlightened by God, this man will rebuild almost the whole world through his holiness. He will lead everyone to the true Faith.
Old German Prophecy – Near the birch-tree [Westphalia] the army of the west will fight a terrible battle against the army of the east. The soldiers of the east will retreat over the Haar.”
Prophecy of Mayence – Woe to the people of the east, thou shalt spread afar the cries of affliction and innocent blood. Never shall such an army be seen.
Venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser (17th Century) “The fifth period of the Church, which began circa 1520, will end with the arrival of the holy Pope and of the powerful Monarch who is called “Help from God” because he will restore everything. The fifth period is one of affliction, desolation, humiliation, and poverty for the Church. Jesus Christ will purify His people through cruel wars, famines, plagues, epidemics, and other horrible calamities. He will also afflict and weaken the Latin Church with many heresies. It is a period of defections, calamities and exterminations. Those Christians, who survive the sword, plague and famines will be few on earth.
“During this period, many men will abuse of the freedom of conscience conceded to them. It is of such men that Jude the Apostle spoke when he said, “These men blaspheme whatever they do not understand; and they corrupt whatever they know naturally as irrational animals do.” They will ridicule Christian simplicity; they will call it folly and nonsense, but they will have the highest regard for advanced knowledge, and for the skill by which the axioms of law, the precepts of morality, the Holy Canons and religious dogmas are clouded by senseless questions and elaborate arguments.
REPORT THIS AD
“These are the evil times, a century full of dangers and calamities. Heresy is everywhere, and the followers of heresy are in power almost everywhere, but God will permit a great evil against His Church: Heretics and tyrants will come suddenly and unexpectedly; they will break into the Church. They will enter Italy and lay Romewaste; they will burn down churches and destroy everything.”
John of the Cleft Rock (1340) – At that time the Pope, with the cardinals will have to flee Rome under trying circumstances to a place where he will be unknown. He will die a cruel death in exile. The sufferings of the Church will be greater than at any previous time in her history.
Abbot Werdin D’Orante (12th Century) “The great monarch and the great Pope will precede Antichrist. The nations will be at war for four years and a great part of the world will be destroyed. The Pope will go over the sea carrying the sign of Redemption on his forehead. The great Monarch will come to restore peace and the Pope will share in the victory.
Merlin, the Berd (England) “Before the comet comes, many nations, the good excepted, will be scourged by want and famine. The great nation in the ocean that is inhabited by people of different tribes and descent will be devastated by earthquake, storm, and tidal wave. It will be divided and, in great part, submerged. That nation will also have many misfortunes at sea and lose its colonies.
“[After the] great Comet, the great nation will be devastated by earthquakes, storms, and great waves of water, causing much want and plagues. The ocean will also flood many other countries, so that all coastal cities will live in fear, with many destroyed.
“All sea coast cities will be fearful, and many of them will be destroyed by tidal waves, and most living creatures will be killed, and even those who escape will die from a horrible disease. For in none of those cities does a person live according to the Laws of God.
“A powerful wind will rise in the North, carrying heavy fog and the densest dust, and it will fill their throats and eyes so that they will cease their butchery and be stricken with a great fear.”
The Ecstatic of Tours (19th Century) “Before the war breaks out again, food will be scarce and expensive. There will be little work for the workers, and fathers will hear their children crying for food. There will be earthquakes and signs in the sun. Toward the end, darkness will cover the Earth. When everyone believes that peace is ensured, when everyone least expects it, the great happening will begin. Revolution will break out in Italy almost at the same time as in France. For some time the Church will be without a Pope.REPORT THIS AD
Johannes Friede (1204-1257) “When the great time will come, in which mankind will face its last, hard trial, it will be foreshadowed by striking changes in nature. The alteration between cold and heat will become more intensive, storms will have more catastrophic effects, earthquakes will destroy great regions, and the seas will overflow many lowlands. Not all of it will be the result of natural causes, but mankind will penetrate into the bowels of the earth and will reach into the clouds, gambling with its own existence. Before the powers of destruction will succeed in their design, the universe will be thrown into disorder, and the age of iron will plunge into nothingness.
“When nights will be filled with more intensive cold and days with heat, a new life will begin in nature. The heat means radiation from the earth, the cold the waning light of the sun. Only a few years more and you will become aware that sunlight has grown perceptibly weaker. When even your artificial light will cease to give service, the great event in the heavens will be near.”
Prophecy of Mayence – Three days the sun shall rise upwards on the heads of the combatants without being seen through the clouds of smoke.
Blessed Caspar del Bufalo (d. 1847) – He foretold “the destruction of impenitent persecutors of the Church during the three days darkness. He who outlives the darkness and fear of the three days _ it will seem to him as if he were alone on earth because of the fact that the world will be covered everywhere with carcasses.”
St. Anna Maria Taigi (d. 1837) – There shall come over all the earth an intense darkness lasting three days and three nights.Nothing will be visible and the earth will be laden with pestilence, which will claim principally but not exclusively the enemies of religion. During this darkness artificial light will be impossible. Only blessed candles can be lighted and will afford illumination. He who out of curiosity opens his window to look out or leaves his house will fall dead on the spot. During these three days the people should remain in their homes, pray the Rosary and beg God for mercy.
On this terrible occasion so many of these wicked men, enemies of His Church, and of God, shall be killed by this divine scourge, that their corpses round Rome will be as numerous as the fish, which a recent inundation of the Tiber had carries into the city. All the enemies of the Church, secret as well as known, will perish over the earth during that universal darkness, with the exception of a few, whom God will soon convert. The air shall be infected by demons, who will appear under all sorts of visible forms.
REPORT THIS AD
Pope Pius IX (1878) “Since the whole world is against God and His Church, it is evident that He has reserved the victory over His enemies to Himself. This will be more obvious when it is considered that the root of all our present evils is to be found in the fact that those with talents and vigor crave earthly pleasures, and not only desert God but repudiate Him altogether. Thus it appears they cannot be brought back in any other way except through an act that cannot be ascribed to any secondary agency, and thus all will be forced to look to the supernatural… There will come a great wonder, which will fill the world with astonishment. This wonder will be preceded by the triumph of revolution. The church will suffer exceedingly. Her servants and her chieftain will be mocked, scourged, and martyred.”
Pope St. Pius X (d.1914) – I saw one of my successors by name fleeing over the corpses of his brethren. He will flee to a place where he is unknown, but he himself will die a cruel death.
Posts
