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The title of my sermon tonight is the false doctrines of the Amish, the false doctrines of the Amish. Now, Amish are people that we're all familiar with. Pretty much everybody in America knows what it means to be an Amish person, and they're pretty much known for their lack of technology. They're living in a primitive way from hundreds of years ago. They're riding in a wagon that's being pulled by horses. They don't have any electricity. They don't use the phone or the internet or things like that. So that's what people think of when they think of the Amish, but what you have to understand is that this isn't just a community or an ethnicity or a lifestyle, but this is actually a religion, right? And so they have doctrine. And I dare say that many people have no idea what the Amish believe or what religion are they. What type of Christianity are they? In fact, I heard a guy say he didn't even know that they were Christian when he grew up in their area with them living around them. He didn't even know that they claimed to be a Christian. They were just people who are living in this community and they just live differently than everyone else. They certainly don't do any evangelism or go around trying to preach to other people to become Amish. So a lot of people have no idea what they believe. So tonight I'm going to go through 10 false doctrines of the Amish to show you that unfortunately these people believe some serious false doctrine. They need to get saved. They need somebody to evangelize them. Thank God they don't do any evangelizing. Someone needs to evangelize them. Now I have some friends that were former Amish brother Charlie and I met a young married couple when we were in Kansas and they were former Amish that have gotten saved. They've left that religion and they listened to my preaching and so they were able to fill us in on what it was like growing up Amish because they were born and raised and went up through the whole thing. So I was able to kind of get the inside view from them in addition to doing some of my own research but it was good to be able to talk to some people that have actually been in it and also in the past I've talked to a few other people. So I'm going to give you 10 false doctrines of the Amish. If you would go to Romans chapter number 11, I'm going to start out with the most important wrong doctrine that the Amish have is that they have the wrong salvation. They do not believe in salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Their idea of salvation is faith plus works plus grace. These are the three elements that they see as necessary for salvation. Well here's the problem with that. The Bible says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. So it's not just that the Bible tells us that salvation is by faith. The Bible also tells us that it's not of works. Now look down at your Bible there in Romans 11.6, if by grace then is it no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work. Folks you cannot mix works and grace, they don't mix. If it's grace it can't have anything to do with our works and if it's works then don't call it grace. So you can't sit there and say oh faith plus works plus grace. These things aren't compatible. It's like oil and water, they don't mix and in fact they will speak against salvation by faith alone and here's what they'll tell the young people, they'll say hey you know what salvation by faith alone is? That's the devil's religion because they'll say well the devil's believe in tremble. So that's the devil's religion if you believe in salvation by faith alone. Now here's the thing, they're taking that out of context because obviously the Lord wants us to do works, the Lord God wants us to have faith and works but guess what? Salvation is 100% by faith alone and if it's of works then don't say it's grace because if it's by grace then it's no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace and if it's of works great but don't call it grace then and good luck trying to work your way to heaven because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So I don't want to spend too much time on that, I've preached plenty of sermons on why salvation is by faith alone but number two they have the wrong baptism. You're there in Romans, flip back to chapter 6 of Romans and while you're turning there I'll read for you from Colossians chapter 2 the Bible says buried with him in baptism wherein also you're risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead. Where's your Easter tie in those of you who weren't here this morning? So you got your Easter service in. All right so basically the Bible says we're buried with him in baptism that's why when we baptize someone we actually dunk them underwater right we actually baptize by immersion whereas the Amish will baptize just by pouring or sprinkling so they'll just pour a little water on your head and call that baptism. Well you know what I've never seen anyone be buried like that you just kind of sprinkle a little dirt on their head and move on that's not a burial right I mean if somebody's buried they better be completely surrounded by dirt or you didn't do a very good job okay I think the police are going to catch you no I'm just kidding but anyway the point is you know talk about being buried in a shallow grave a little sprinkle of water on your head no no we're buried with him in baptism the whole point of baptism is that it pictures the death burial and resurrection of Christ that like as Christ was raised up from the dead even so we also should walk in newness of life that's why when we baptize somebody we'll often say buried in the likeness of his death raised to walk in newness of life straight out of Romans 6 verse 4 it says in Romans 6 4 therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life and of course the Bible tells in Matthew 3 16 that Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water okay he was down in the water when Philip baptized the eunuch they went down both of them into the water and he baptized him why did John baptize an anon near to Salem because there was much water there it doesn't take a lot of water I mean this would be enough right it's like all right who needs to go to anon near Salem I got everything I need right here but they went a place where there was a lot of water because they wanted it to be deep enough to be able to dunk someone underwater of course if you've seen beyond Jordan you saw that parts of the Jordan River are a little bit shallow so therefore you can see why he wanted to go to a certain part of the Jordan River where there's much water there where there was enough to actually dunk someone and it wasn't just a little trickle so number one they have the wrong salvation because they're adding works to salvation there's no question about that number two they have the wrong baptism because they're doing it by pouring or sprinkling they're not doing an actual immersion number three they have no evangelism now notice I didn't say the wrong evangelism you know wrong gospel wrong baptism wrong evangelism they have no evangelism they do not evangelize whatsoever they only believe in evangelizing their own children that's it no evangelism well what does the Bible say the Bible says of the early Christians that daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ the Bible says go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature go ye therefore and teach all nations why do the Amish feel like that doesn't apply to them why do they think that they don't have to go preach the gospel or teach all nations about Christ or do any evangelism they're ignoring that scripture but of course they don't even have the gospel anyway but they're not doing any evangelism at all in fact since 1950 you know how many people have joined the Amish since 1950 about 75 so in the last 69 years they've had about 75 converts and some of them just went from like Mennonite to Amish so it wasn't like a big they didn't convert from Buddhism or Islam or being an atheist or you know what I mean they just went from almost Amish to all the way Amish that's probably what most of those conversions were going from Mennonite which is sometimes Mennonite can be like a Amish light in some ways but again I don't want to go into all the intricacies of different types of Mennonites and different styles of Amish or whatever obviously there are differences but the stuff I'm going over is relevant to all the Amish they all have the wrong salvation they all have the wrong baptism they all do no evangelism but number four and if you would go to first Corinthians 14 number four is that the Bible that they use is in a foreign language to them it is in a foreign language now a lot of people don't understand this because when I was in school growing up I was taught that the Amish speak a language called Pennsylvania Dutch and I was told that Pennsylvania Dutch is not really Dutch but that it's actually German who was taught that Pennsylvania Dutch equals German or a dialect of German well here's the thing about that I speak German and I've walked up to Amish people or former Amish people and said many sentences in German and they look at me and they have no clue what I'm saying I walk up to them and say a bunch of just perfect German sentences and they're like huh and then they say a whole bunch of sentences to me and I'm like huh because guess what they're not speaking German that's not German and they'll say well it's not high German but they say it's it's plot Deutsch it's not Hochdeutsch it's plot Deutsch it's low German that's not low German okay you can go to Germany and there are places in Germany where they speak other dialects of German where they speak plot Deutsch or Schwabisch or other spin-offs of German but what they speak has has become so different that to call it German anymore is a misnomer because if they actually run into somebody who speaks the actual language German they can't communicate with each other okay it's not the same language but when they go to church the Bible that they read is in German and in many cases the preaching is even in German now some Amish will have the preaching in their local dialect Pennsylvania Dutch or whatever you want to call it and you know obviously it's not just Pennsylvania because we talk to people from Canada they have a totally different Pennsylvania Dutch and we talk to Amish from Kansas they had an even different Pennsylvania Dutch so these people they have their dialects and vernacular they're calling it a dialect of German no that's not German that's like saying English is a dialect of German okay it's not it's different so therefore what ends up happening is when they hear the Bible in church it's in a language that's a foreign language to them it's not the tongue that they normally speak and sometimes even the preaching will be in in high German and they don't understand it this is a problem you say well pastor Anderson I find it hard to believe that they would read the Bible or have preaching in a language that is foreign to them well why would that seem strange to you when for hundreds and hundreds of years that's what the Roman Catholics did you know the the vernacular was Spanish or Italian or French or Portuguese and hey that's a spin-off of Latin this is a dialect of Latin right but guess what can Spanish people understand Latin no they can't can French people understand Latin no can Italians understand Latin no now of course they could pick up bits and pieces because obviously Italian is a form of Latin a spin-off of Latin but it became two different folks if we hand Virgil's Aeneid to a Spanish speaker an Italian a French speaker they can't read the thing folks and so therefore it's in another language well that's how it has become with the Amish their German quote unquote is so different they can't understand the high German anymore it's a foreign language folks Hindus go to their temples and place of worship and it's in Sanskrit and they don't speak Spanish they don't speak Sanskrit because they speak Hindi or English or whatever and yeah Hindi is derived from Sanskrit but it's a different language so they listen to the Rig Vedas being sung in Sanskrit and they can't understand them okay the Catholics listen to a liturgy in Latin they can't understand it the Greek Orthodox go to a Greek Orthodox Church it's all Greek to them they can't understand it folks and then uh uh the Muslims who live in say Pakistan or India or Bangladesh or Indonesia which by the way are the four largest Muslim countries in the world that I just listed and guess what they don't speak Arabic but how do they get the Quran in Arabic they don't know what it means folks false religions constantly have scriptures and preaching and hymn singing in a foreign language it's wrong we need to have preaching singing and Bible in our own language amen in English I mean how would you like to come to church and it's all in Greek are you going to get anything out of that no but you know what if your Bible's in a foreign language it'd be pretty easy to trick you and tell you whatever I want you to think's in there these people they're not reading the Bible in their native tongue they're not reading in English or in Pennsylvania Dutch whatever that crazy language is okay they don't read it in that they're reading no offense to people who speak that whatever that language is pig Latin German mix I mean I'm like I'm starting to think it's more Dutch than German I mean I'm starting to think somebody was right about that because it certainly isn't German I can tell you that much but they're doing it in a foreign language what does the Bible say first Corinthians 14 18 I thank my God I speak with tongues more than ye all so the apostle Paul's saying hey I love speaking foreign languages I speak foreign languages more than any of you guys do but does that mean I'm going to come to church and speak a foreign language he said no in the church I'd rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue so you'd be better off to get up and speak five words in English how about these five words you must be born again right I mean that you're going to get more out of that than to come to church and say you know whatever and are he you know logos get anything out of that folks I could do that for 10,000 words and you're not going to get anything out of it it's not going to mean anything to you okay we're supposed to come to church and have it in our language and if you want to do something in another language let's say there's a visitor or something and we really want to hear what they have to say then we have to have what a translator interpreter right and then you interpret that to them because if it's in a foreign language what does it profit right we'd rather speak in a language that people can understand unless you're trying to conceal knowledge unless you're trying to conceal the truth unless you want people to think hey you don't need to understand this or think yourself just trust us trust the preacher trust the leader right so point one is the wrong salvation point two is the wrong baptism point three no evangelism point four is bible and and even sometimes church service in a foreign language sometimes they'll have the bible in high german and the preaching in pennsylvania dutch but sometimes both are in high german okay depending on which particular congregation but number five and this is a really wild doctrine that the amish have is what they call room spring now who's ever heard of this thing room spring yeah all over the building they get to a certain age and it's typically like 16 okay could be different in different areas but the ones that we talked to said 16 and what they do is they allow their children to go out and experience a life of sin or a life of worldliness to basically just see what it's like to make sure that they really want to be amish because they don't want anybody there who doesn't want to be there so they're like okay go out try the drinking try the drugs try the fornication smoke some pot party do whatever and then if you still want to come back you know then you're welcome to be here or if they if they just want to go to the world then you know what that's their problem and if they end up going to the world then basically they just have nothing to do with them ever again they just cut off all contact with them but why would you encourage young people 16 to go experiment with the world and see what it's like out in the world that's wicked friend what does the bible say let me just i mean we could go through scores of verses or even hundreds of verses to debunk the stupidity of this philosophy but how about the verse in first corinthians 6 18 this says flee fornication flee fornication every sin that a man doeth is without the body but he that commiteth fornication sinneth against his own body but yeah go ahead and try fornication go out and try the women and sleep around and and make sure you really want to be amish buddy that's wicked that's pervert if you love your children you wouldn't just tell hey go sin against your own body go ruin your life go be an idiot go out and test out sin the bible says in proverbs 23 31 look not thou upon the wine when it is red when it giveth its color in the cup when it moveth itself aright why because it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder you don't have to well let me go test that though i mean why go yeah go play with a poisonous snake go play with the serpent go play with the adder and then see it'll bite you now you know it's gonna bite you right do you have to be a bit by a serpent to know that the serpent's gonna bite you or could somebody just tell you hey don't touch that stove plate it's hot here son go touch that stove plate and you're gonna learn a very valuable lesson you're probably gonna need this once hot hey you just learned a new word toddler hot that's hot don't touch is that what a loving parent does hey play with fire play with sin play with a poisonous snake you know what that's what sin is friend it's dangerous you get burned you get hurt you get poisoned you get bit you get injured you do damage and so why would you want your teenager to go out and experiment with sin wouldn't you rather say look son the bible told us don't do it and you know what we can listen to other people who've made the mistakes and get their advice or we can listen to other people who did it right and get their advice or we can just take the advice from the bible we don't have to get it ourselves it has been said that experience is the best teacher well you know what's an even better teacher than experience somebody else's experience you know i'd rather that somebody else get burned somebody else make the mistakes and then tell me hey here are the pitfalls here are the land mines i don't want to step on the land mine blow my legs off and i want to make my own map of the minefield i want to make my own map no i want someone else to make a map of the minefield and deliver that map to me and i want to trust that map not like well i'm going to go find the mines myself you know i'm going to go out with a stick like a blind person try to find the mines myself that's pretty dangerous so this philosophy that says go experiment with it go to roman 16 if you would you know go ahead and experiment with it we want to make sure that you really want to be here and keep in mind folks these people believe that if they're young people end up leaving and going off and being worldly that they're damned because they believe in a workspace salvation so basically well we just want to make sure that you really want to be here otherwise be damned folks i don't want to just leave that up to my children i want to pull them out of the fire you know what i mean i i want to compel people to be saved right i want to go out and and persuade people you know uh the bible says knowing therefore the terror of the lord we persuade men we don't just say hey only if you really want to be here buddy all 75 of you over the last 69 years we're glad you guys joined and by the way our own children let's make it real easy for them to leave and in fact let's even let them taste blood let's let them go out and experience the party life because if they want to go party and drink and fornicate and do drugs well that's on them sorry folks i want to make sure that my kids turn out right i want to point them in the right direction i don't want to encourage them to experiment with sin to see if they really like the amish life this room spring is super weird anybody who hears about it thinks it's weird that's why so many of you have heard about it because people bring it up all the time as being so weird because it is just that okay uh roman 16 verse 19 says this for your obedience has come abroad unto all men i am glad therefore on your behalf but yet i would have you wise under that which is good and simple concerning evil does god wants to be an expert on sin an expert on worldliness an expert on ungodliness no he said he wants us wise concerning the good and simple concerning the evil hey if you don't know what it's like to be drunk praise god you know it's like to do drugs great you don't know what it's like to fornicate great you shouldn't why would you want to know all these things it's better to be simple concerning the evil i like what he said in revelation when he said unto you i say and under the rest in thyatira which have not this doctrine and which have not known the depths of satan as they speak i'll put upon you another burden hey he said it's great that you you haven't known the depths of satan you're simple concerning evil you're innocent that's good you don't have to just get educated on worldliness so you can know how to avoid it how about if mom and dad just tell you hey don't drink don't take drugs don't fornicate don't do these things don't party number six so we talked about the first five number six is this they have an unwilling clergy that is chosen by casting lots okay so if you would go to first peter five first peter five they have an unwilling clergy that is chosen by casting lots so if we want to decide who's the pastor who's the pastor of the church who's preaching nobody wants to do it so basically they have to cast lots and here's an exact quote from the people that we talked to that were former amish they grew up they were raised amish in kansas here's what they said it's a grievous position to be put in always a sad occasion so when you get picked to be the pastor when you get picked to be clergy when you draw the short straw it's always a sad occasion it's something that's grievous you're like oh no it's like you don't want to be the pastor in these churches it's like oh no i demand a recount or you know that's what they said it's a grievous position to be put in always a sad occasion nobody's like yes it's just like oh you may not have to learn german i mean that's hard work right they don't want to do it folks it's an unwilling clergy that is chosen by casting lots what does the bible say look at first peter chapter five verse two this is spoken to pastors from one elder to another from one bishop to another one pastor to another he says this feed the flock of god which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not because you have to that's what constraint means not because you have to but willingly what is willingly means it means you want to what is your will what are you willing to do it means what do you want to do voluntary if it says willingly another word for that would be voluntarily not by constraint but voluntarily willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind the bible says in first timothy 3 you don't have to turn there this is a true saying if a man desire the office of a bishop he desireth a good work so the bible tells us that being a bishop which is another word for overseer being a bishop is something that you should want to do you should have that desire don't do it by constraint don't get pressured into it or forced to do it well somebody's got to do it all right let's cast lots let's figure out who has to do it oh man are you serious i have to be the preacher i have to be the pastor i i gotta you know raise a barn and deal with my crops and you know whatever make furniture or whatever else amish people do you don't want to do that folks that's not a biblical doctor these people aren't following the bible they've got the wrong salvation they've got the wrong baptism they've got no evangelism they've got the bible and often even the church service in a foreign language they're they're sending their kids out to the wolves to go through this room spring process when they're 16 years old they've got an unwilling clergy chosen by casting lots you say well you know they don't they don't have the technology folks that's the least of their problems who cares if they don't have technology i i don't blame them sometimes technology can be a little bit of a pain some days we all dream of living a simpler life amen no not really though i i actually like all the technology but no sometimes there's a side of me there's a part of me that longs for a simpler life but i was raised in the city so i don't think i could ever go that route but folks if they just wanted to live out in the countryside and you know exempt from social security sounds great you know go out do a lot of physical labor it's a healthy life living off the land traditional family values it all sounds great folks but that's not what it is it's a religion it's a false religion that is against the bible that's the problem okay now let's go to the seventh point uh philippians chapter number one i gotta hurry up here but philippians chapter number one the seventh false doctrine of the amish is they believe in a soul sleep doctrine so they don't believe that you go to heaven when you die like if you die they don't believe the soul departs to go to be with christ they just believe that you just sleep in the earth and you're just going to be buried and and just in a soul sleep unconscious until the resurrection well the bible teaches the opposite look at philippians 1 21 for to me to live is christ and to die is gain but if i live in the flesh this is the fruit of my labor yet what i shall choose i want not for i'm in a straight betwixt two having desire to depart and to be with christ which is far better nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you paul's saying look i would love to depart and be with christ i would love to go die and be with the lord for me to live is christ and to die is gain but he says to abide in the flesh is more needful for you he's saying basically the only reason i'm staying here is for your benefit because as far as i'm concerned take me to heaven now lord i'm ready to go to heaven right now but i'm staying for your sake and of course this is reiterated in second corinthians chapter five when he said to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord right go to psalm 150 psalm 150 so number seven is soul sleep number eight they believe in having no musical instruments no musical instruments you say well how is this a doctrine you know isn't this just a preference like they don't use the computer they don't have electricity i mean maybe this is just a preference or something like that but no they actually believe it's wrong to use musical instruments and let me tell you something there are other christian religions that do this too like how about the church of christ they don't do musical instruments i just learned that recently in fact there's a whole branch of the presbyterians who don't do musical instruments uh meninites amish isn't there another one is there something i'm missing quakers you got something victor tay yeah bozo but anyway yeah yeah the the church that tarries long at the punch bowl but anyway here's the thing about that this is doctrine okay the bible has a lot to say about music folks it's not like music isn't a thing in the bible i mean look at the book of psalms it's the longest book in the bible and it's a song book but not only is psalms the longest book in the bible it's something that we in the new testament are supposed to be singing the new testament tells us speaking to yourselves in psalms hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the lord so we're supposed to be singing what psalms now we're supposed to also sing other songs but part of our music should be the psalms now i believe that god wants us to sing a new song unto the lord that's what says in in psalm 40 sing a new song unto the lord so i do believe that we as christians should write new songs and and and praise the lord in our own words right god wants us to use our creativity we're made in the image of god we have the creativity that god has obviously on a lesser scale but god wants us to write our own songs to praise the lord not to just only sing back his word to him but doesn't he want us to sing this also because he said do psalms and hymns and spiritual songs we're supposed to do all three okay so therefore if we are supposed to be singing the psalms and the psalms tell us over and over again to use musical instruments how could you come up with this crazy doctrine that says no musical instruments in the new testament really what verse is that where's that verse that says don't use musical instruments where's that verse that says thou shalt sing acapella that's teaching for doctrines the commandments of men there is nothing like that anywhere now what their argument is would be that well in the new testament we don't see any examples of them singing with musical instruments or there's no command to sing with musical instruments but here's my answer to that is that number one god does not reiterate everything in the new testament that he already taught in the old testament otherwise the new testament would have to be three times as long as it is all right let's go back and reiterate everything again it's there in the old testament friend we don't only believe the new testament will believe the whole bible okay number one but number two the reason for that is that is that the new testament does not emphasize the worship of the apostles because when we're reading the acts of the apostles it's not called the music of the apostles it's called the acts of the apostles okay so it's not about music what's the emphasis in the book of acts it's about soul winning it's about missions it's about evangelism it's about preaching and god is not trying to just give a manual for how to do music in the new testament he talks a lot about music in the old testament and that should be enough the new testament is giving us the changes here are the things that are new with the new covenant here's the story of jesus christ here's his death barrel and resurrection i mean the only example we could really point to is they sang a hymn and went out to the mount of olives i mean we don't have a lot of examples of hey let's go through the singing that paul had and barnabas and then it's like well paul and barnabas sang in jail i don't see any musical instruments they're in jail what do you expect a jailhouse rock or something i mean what do you expect i mean the only there's only one musical instrument even allowed in federal prison it's a harmonica and i don't even think the harmonica had been invented back then let alone did the romans allow harmonicas necessarily for them to play the blues on the blues harp folks the point is when you're in jail when you're in the dungeon when you're thrust into the lowest dungeon you don't whip out the accordion and the trumpet and the piano and and and start playing music down there you're going to sing acapella at that point okay so these are silly reasons to when you have hundreds hundreds literally hundreds of scriptures in the old testament about musical instruments and nothing in the new testament that says don't use them and then you have a scripture that says sing psalms eph 5 sing psalms colossians 3 okay how about let's sing this psalm psalm 150. praise he the lord praise god in his sanctuary praise him in the firm moment of his power praise him for his mighty acts praise him according to his excellent greatness sorry i messed that up a little bit praise him with the sound of the trumpet praise him with the sultry and harp but don't you dare actually use any of these instruments just sing about them sing about music instruments but don't ever use them because if you use them you are super worldly don't drink don't drive cars or use electricity wear all black and dress really plain praise ye the lord folks why would you sing a psalm about using musical instruments we're commanded to sing these and you're going to sit there and sing about praising him with the sound of a trumpet oh trumpets are worldly don't use a trumpet it's a command praise him with the trumpet that's a commandment and by the way have you noticed that if the new testament is ever paired up with one old testament book what's it paired up with yesterday i was out soul winning and i had a new testament and psalms that's what i use for soul winning right it's the new testament with psalms why because it's common practice it's common knowledge that the most relevant old testament book to us is the book of psalms so if we're going to carry just the new testament but we just want to tag on one extra book what are we going to tag on is it genesis we tag on malachi hey let's be sure to tag on ecclesiastes let's tag on isaiah i mean isaiah is a big one folks deuteronomy i mean jesus quoted deuteronomy quite a bit no it's psalms new testament and psalms why because the new testament commands us to do what sing psalms so this is the most relevant book in most people's opinion that's why they put it in a binding but forget opinion colossians 3 and eph 5 command us to sing the songs why would you sing about using music instruments and not use them because you're crazy that's why because you're not making any sense folks because you don't believe the bible maybe it's the same reason why you have an unwilling clergy that's that's chosen by casting lots maybe it's the same reason why you send your 16 year old to go out and smoke pot and fornicate and drink to see what it's like maybe it's the same exact reason why you think baptism is dumping water on someone's head like some kind of a dunk tank okay maybe it's because you have your bible in a foreign language instead of having the bible in the tongue wherein you were born in your actual vernacular maybe it's because you're not saved and the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of god their foolishness on them neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned that's why you're having trouble understanding the bible okay because of the fact that you're not saved and the holy spirit guides us into all truth okay so number one wrong salvation and you know what we could just close in prayer and go home at that point because if you're wrong on salvation you're done at that point number two wrong baptism number three no evangelism number four foreign language bible language that they don't folks i walk up to them i speak german to them i talk to them from canada kansas pennsylvania speak german to them they don't know what you're saying and folks my it's not that my german is that bad folks because german people understand me no problem but i speak german to them they don't understand and then they give me their language and i'm like wait is that dutch what are you speaking there no no this is you know this is uh platt deutsch yeah sure that may be platt deutsch a few hundred years ago in a certain valley somewhere in germany that we've never been okay uh number five room spring where they go out and experiment with the world parents encourage them to go out and test it out number six unwilling clergy chosen by casting lots number seven soul sleep doctrine number eight no musical instruments but number nine a teaching of having a strange appearance a strange appearance what and this there's a lot under this category how about this long beard no mustache no mustache friend now look jacob amman the guy who gives his name to the amish jacob amman he had a mustache by the way fun fact the founder had a mustache but most of them today don't allow a mustache it's not that they just oh whoa you don't like having a mustache me neither whoa we all just happen to have a beard with no mustache folks they have a beer with no mustache because that's a rule have a beard but no mustache they can't trim their beard and they have to shave their mustache okay you know and and that's not the only rule they have the head coverings on women uh other strict made-up rules that are not in the bible of course the bible teaches that long hair is the covering and the proof for that is that in the old testament men were commanded to pray and prophesy with hats on if they were the priests the priests had to wear a mitre or a bonnet on his head so obviously the bible is not telling you don't pray with a hat have you ever seen people where they feel like they have to take their hat off to pray men like oh you know guess what that's not biblical you can pray with your hat on no problem the high priest did it every day the levites did it every day they had to wear a hat now i look i'm not saying hey put on a hat to pray you're missing the point the bible is saying in first corinthians 11 men have short hair women have long hair that's what the bible teaches okay this head covering on women is an extra biblical doctrine it's just another misunderstanding of first corinthians 11 brought to you by the same people who think that musical instruments are sinful okay uh also the the clothing now i'm all for women wearing modest apparel but you know what modest means modest means humble and not drawing attention to yourself well have you ever noticed that when amish women go out in public they sort of draw attention to themselves you ever see amish women out in public they kind of stand out don't they so how is that modest apparel when you stand out like a sore thumb it looks like you're saying hey everybody look at me i'm dressing different than everybody else and they have certain rules like they can only have certain patterns uh certain floral patterns you know it's not like one of these amish women could say well i'm gonna wear a prairie dress but i want to put hibiscus flowers all over it you know i want to go hawaiian style hibiscus that's not going to work it has to be that certain little flower pattern that they allow it has to be really boring and drab it can't be anything that exotic right it can't be exotic flowers it has to be a certain kind of flower these are man-made rules the bible says but in vain they do worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men he said how be it in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men say some of them allow buttons on their coat and some of them don't i mean what kind of a rule is it no buttons on your coat i mean that folks that doesn't make any sense that's just some man-made rule of just trying to teach them to obey and follow the rules and they have these meetings where they explain the rules for the year i believe they do it twice a year i don't have this part of my notes but they do it like once or twice a year where they set the rules and the rules will change from year to year so what used to be okay is no longer okay and vice versa it's just at the caprice of the people that are running that particular town or that particular church or parish or however they think of it so these are man-made rules that cause them to have their distinct appearance and if you ever notice how false religions not only do false religions like to have their scriptures in a foreign language hindus muslims catholics greek orthodox have you ever noticed how false religions also like to make you dress up every false religion makes you dress funny think about it i mean the muslims have a weird way that they dress hindus will dress funny sometimes although typically they dress pretty normal but uh we'll give the hindus a break on that but you know the the hasidic jews dress they dress up funny the orthodox priest boy he really dresses up funny right big flavor flave cross around his neck long black flowing dress and then you got the uh the catholics they dress funny the nuns what's that out what's that penguin outfit that nuns wear that doesn't make any sense but you know what it is hey everybody look at me i'm a nun hey everybody i'm a priest you know when i go on a flight somewhere to go preach i don't have some giant cross around my neck collar turned backwards excuse me i'm clergy here you know yes my son thank you you know you know why they do that the bible talks about it they love the greetings in the marketplace they love to be called of men rabbi they love to wear the long flowing garments to be seen of men so false religions they want you to dress up a certain way do some kind of weird like you know no mustache but beard just to have a distinct appearance i mean look and i know there are some guys who have a full beard with no mustache and they're not almesh like for example abraham lincoln i don't think he was almesh you know he's from illinois and and uh but yet he had that that thing going on didn't he but when you see somebody with that beard is it your first thought like is this guy almesh or was this guy right who kind of thinks that when you first see the full beard no mustache that's kind of the first thought like is this guy almesh and whoever wondered at some point in your childhood was abraham lincoln almesh you know i mean you wonder right but wait a minute did he fly in air force one just kidding folks i'm not serious all right that was way before air force one the point is you know abraham lincoln had that other people have that and look i've seen it i'm not saying you're a heretic if you if you do that but you might be i'm looking at you adam fannin all right but anyway he had that going for a while but anyway so the point is you know when religions are kind of imposing a strange appearance on you what they're trying to do is kind of get you in their club get you it's a little bit like a cult or something you know when everybody's got to have some weird physical conformity you know we all have to wear a certain hairstyle or a certain beard or a certain clothing you know that's outside of what the bible teaches long beard no mustache really what verse is that in what chapter and verse is that it doesn't make any sense and lastly this go to john 17 here's the final point john 17 is that they basically teach what amounts to a total withdrawal from the world the world now when they say the world they basically mean anybody who's not amish so to them we're the world bible believing saved christians are the world to them because they're not amish because they have a mustache you know this makes me the world right here this makes us the world you know that makes us the world that saxophone that's not gonna fly folks with the amish okay not happening so this makes us the world they just consider anybody who's not them the world and they've totally withdrawn from the world meaning that they live in their own community and they keep to themselves and they don't evangelize okay now look what the bible says in john 17 14 i have given them thy word so he's talking about christians here and jesus is saying to the father i've given christians i've given them thy word and the world hath hated excuse me the world hath hated them because they are not of the world even as i'm not of the world i pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil they are not of the world even as i am not of the world sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth as thou has sent me into the world even so have i also sent them into the world so are we supposed to be out of this world or are we supposed to go into the world we are supposed to go in to the world we are sent to the world you say well you know phoenix is too wicked we need to go live somewhere out in the middle of nowhere no folks we need to go right into phoenix we need to go right into the world you go right into mesa we need to go right into scotsdale right smack dab into peoria and glendale we are sent into this world and god wants us to be kept from the evil he doesn't want us to participate in the sin of this world but he wants us to be the salt and light in this world not like all right everybody we're going to get a big plot of land we're going to build our own compound our own town we're going to live on our own to hell with everybody else and we're going to do our own thing that's not what the bible teaches okay the bible is telling us to go into the world to get people saved that's why we're here i mean otherwise what are we just here to build barns and plant crops and make furniture that we sell online well you know somebody else sells it online for us somebody else that you know and by the way you know what the amish are known for saving up huge amounts of money there are amish that have hundreds of thousands of dollars saved up millions of dollars saved up okay and you say oh that's so virtuous that's so great well i thought the bible said lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth i thought it said to lay up treasures in heaven but i guess you do that by going out and serving the lord and actually winning people to christ these people i guess i think i guess they just serve their own bellies because they go out and they they plow the earth so they can do what feed themselves and their family well great but is that why you're here to just eat and live and die like an animal are you actually here to do something spiritual with your life like win people to christ and not just well i evangelize my own kids some of them except the ones that you know really liked the party life that i sent them to go do folks we're here to evangelize i mean look if you're never going to preach the gospel to anybody if you're not going to be in the world reaching people with the gospel if you're not going to open your bible and show someone how to be saved then why don't you ask yourself what are you even doing here and i don't mean what are you doing in this church i'm saying what are you even doing in this world why are you even alive why do you even exist what is the purpose of your life it's to be a light in the darkness it's to preach the gospel of jesus christ it's to pull people out of the fire it's to win people to christ it's not to just eat and build a house build a barn make some furniture save up a bunch of money and half my kids will do the same thing i did and the other half will go out and get drunk and party and like it too much folks that's not the meaning of life and so the amish today are a false religion you can admire the lifestyle but you know what it's a false religion at the end of the day it's not about the lifestyle i now didn't we sleep on a mattress that was made by amish people is that true what's that yeah our mattresses were made by amish or mennonites i'm not saying not to buy the mattress folks because it was like the only mattress we could find that didn't have any flame retardant so we didn't want the chemicals you know we didn't want sudden infant death syndrome to happen okay so you know i'm not saying to hate the amish or you know boycott amish that's not what i'm saying folks what i'm saying is that they're not saved so what's the answer get them saved if you ever interact with the amish what are you going to do hey why don't you try to give them the gospel because guess what they're not saved and you know i thank god that i know some people that are former amish that have gotten saved and now they're safe and you know what if you can catch them on room spring while they're experimenting let's get them to experiment with the roman's road man hey you want a real party sunday night's a faithful word 6 30 come on down we'll show you a party you're gonna hear the bible priest in your own language so this is not a sermon that's you know angry at the amish i'm not mad at the amish thanks for mad at the amish thanks for making those mattresses i appreciate it i'm not mad at the folks i i love the amish and you know what i'm hoping i'm hoping that this sermon will help some people who are kind of half in half out on the amish because i know the hardcore amish are not going to hear this sermon because they don't have electricity but you know what there are a lot of liberal amish watered down amish former amish they could hear this sermon and it could help them but i'm preaching it to you so that you understand that the amish is a false religion so that you won't think to yourself hey that's really a nice lifestyle maybe we could pattern some things that maybe we need to get rid of the musical instruments maybe i maybe i should try shaving my mustache and growing the beard super long i'm just saying it's a false religion we need to know that we need to understand that so that we could then when we run into these people see them as a mission field and they stand out you know but don't be afraid to just walk up to that amish person that you see and i've seen amish looking people at the airport you know so some of them have varying uses of technology because that's pretty high tech but i've seen amish people at the airport i've seen amish people at a drug store you know if you get a chance to run into these people you know what witness to them give them the gospel and understand these 10 false doctrines why because we don't want to fall into any of these 10 doctrines either we want to make sure we got the right salvation the right baptism evangelism everything's in english you know we we shield our kids from the sin we put people behind the pulpit who want to preach who want to be a pastor hey i want to be here amen soul sleep is a false doctrine you know let's get the musical instruments cranking let's grow a mustache and let's go into the world amen all right let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word lord and thank you that we could understand the truth tonight and lord i pray that we would be able to shine the light and win some amish to christ and i pray that some former amish who could run across this sermon somehow on the internet or somewhere would get the gospel would get the truth that salvation is by faith alone not of works and that some some more former amish could be saved than the ones that we've already run into that have been a blessing we pray that more amish would would leave that false religion and would get saved lord help us also to pray for the amish that they would be reached with the gospel that they would be saved and in jesus name we pray now amen