(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The title of my sermon tonight is Scientology in Light of the Bible, Scientology in Light of the Bible. Now, this is a false religion that people have been asking me to preach against for a long time, and so finally I decided to break down and preach this sermon. And honestly, a lot of the things that are preached in this sermon will cross over to a lot of other false religions, because frankly, there's no new thing under the sun. The devil operates in the same ways over and over again and just keeps repackaging the same false doctrines, and so there's going to be some crossover, especially with Mormonism, with Catholicism, with Hinduism, because they have a lot of the same beliefs as this false religion of the Church of Scientology. You say, well, isn't that just people in Hollywood? Well actually, six miles from here, there's the Church of Scientology right up off of 44th Street and Indian School Road, and this religion is primarily associated with Hollywood because the founder of this religion actually purposely sought out Hollywood stars. He made a list of Hollywood stars that he wanted to recruit to the religion because he had this idea, if I could get the Hollywood actors on board with it, then other people want to be cool like them. There are a lot of people who do follow these Hollywood stars as role models, and what people don't understand is that these actors are not really the people that they're pretending to be in the movies. I know that sounds real basic, but honestly, they see these actors portraying these really cool characters, and maybe they're some kind of an action hero or a spy or some kind of a super intelligent person. They don't realize that these actors in real life, many of them are some of the stupidest people that you'd ever meet, and if you actually watch an interview with these people, they're not as cool as they are in these movies. The big poster child of Scientology is Tom Cruise, and if you actually listen to an interview where Tom Cruise talks about Scientology, you're going to walk away saying, this guy is an imbecile. Now he looks real cool in the movies and everything, but he's an idiot. Same thing goes for Brad Pitt or the rest of these people. Same thing goes for the female stars that everybody oohs and aahs over. There's a writer that's writing the script that these people are performing. That's not really their words. That's not really who they are when they're acting in the movies. It's all an illusion, but let's just start out with some of the basic teachings of Scientology, and I just went to their website, Scientology.org, go straight to the source, and right away when I clicked on their beliefs, one of the very first things that they come out with is that Scientology holds man to be basically good. Man is basically good. Now right away, that flies in the face of biblical doctrine. That's the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches. Remember there in Romans 3, I'll get to that in a moment, but the Bible says in Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? What does the Bible mean by the heart? It means that which is inside of us, who we are on the inside, that they think is basically good. The Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all things. It's deceitful more than it's anything, and it says it's desperately wicked. Ecclesiastes 7, 20 says, for there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Look at Romans 3, 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh out to God. They're all gone out of the way. They're together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they've used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. This is a description of mankind. This is what people are like. Man is not basically good. Man is a sinner. Now why is man a sinner? We'll go to Romans chapter 5, and the Bible explains why men are sinful, why man is not basically good or inherently good. The Bible says in Romans 5, 12, Wherefore, as by one man, talking about Adam, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Look at verse 15. But not as the offense, so also as the free gift. For if through the offense of one, many be dead, do you see that? Through the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. Look at verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Talking about Jesus. So the Bible's clear here, isn't it? That by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Death passed upon all men. Now we're not punished for Adam's sin. We're not suffering for his sin, but because he passed on to us the sin nature, we sin. And as a result of our own sin, we pay the punishment for that, which is death, unless we receive salvation through Jesus Christ, and we get that free gift that we just read about in verse 15. So the Bible teaches very clearly that man is sinful by nature because of the fact that Adam's sin and death has passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Ephesians 2-3, you don't have to turn there, says, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. So we have a nature that is a sinful nature that comes from Adam. We are not basically inherently good. No, we're basically inherently a sinner. Now if we look around at the world, we see that to be true. If we look at Scientology's website and it tells us that man's basically good, it doesn't take long to look around the world and figure out that that's not true, because the world's a wicked place. The world is filled with suffering and misery, and the world is filled with violence and horrible things. Now maybe not if you're living in Hollywood in a little bubble, you think everything's wonderful, actually Hollywood's a filthy place by God's standards, but they might think it's wonderful in their sick kind of way. But the bottom line is though, this world is full of destruction and misery as the Bible said it would be. It's amazing to me how someone can say, well I've seen too many horrible things in the world to believe the Bible anymore. You know, if you see horrible things in this world, that should just make you believe the Bible more, because the Bible told you that man is deceitful and desperately wicked, and that the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. That's what the Bible said would happen. Why are you surprised when you see that? But in Hollywood, that's where the big Scientology church is, you know, we went to the hospital at the Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital there, and just walking distance right there was that big giant blue building, the Church of Scientology, and it has this cross on it as its emblem, and I'm just asking myself, why would the Church of Scientology have a cross on it when it denies the Lord Jesus Christ? The Church of Scientology has nothing to do with Jesus, but yet they want to ride on his coattails by using that symbol of the cross. No, that cross represents Jesus dying on that cross for the sins of mankind and providing salvation, but the first point on the statement of faith on Scientology's website is that man's basically good and that his spiritual salvation depends upon himself. That's the exact quote. Man is basically good and his salvation depends upon himself. Well that cross represents depending on Jesus, not depending on yourself. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So you say, well how can Scientology look around the world and see all the destruction and misery that the Bible describes and then walk away saying that man's inherently good? What is their explanation for why the world is so messed up? What is their explanation for all of people's problems? Well, the reason that they're messed up, according to Scientology, is because they have these other spirits living inside of them. These parasite alien spirits living inside them. Now in order to understand what that means I'm going to have to, you know, explain to you some of the doctrine of Scientology, okay? Now here's the thing about Scientology. It's a lot like Mormonism in the sense that they don't just walk up to you and start coming out with all the really weird stuff. They start out with a lot of stuff that sounds good, that makes sense, that sounds really reasonable and they slowly draw you in and it gets weirder and weirder and it's like the frog in the hot water. You don't notice how weird it's getting because it's a gradual progression and you get so emotionally vested in it that at that point it's kind of too late for you to back out psychologically. So they don't come out with this really weird stuff right away, but this is what they believe. I listened to actual audio of the founder of L. Ron Hubbard himself explain what I'm about to explain to you. From his own mouth, he's just standing there explaining it. And this is common knowledge, but this is what they tell their members, hey don't look at this stuff, don't, you know. Because here's what L. Ron Hubbard said. He said if people are exposed to these advanced teachings too soon, it could actually cause them physical pain or death. So you know, just a disclaimer here, I hope nobody falls over dead when I explain these teachings because, you know, he said that some people could suffer a pulmonary embolism for example if they hear these teachings too early, you know, before they're ready. So he talked about people could literally fall over dead from hearing these things. And when I give you these teachings, you'll understand why. But anyway, here's the source of the trouble folks, according to the Church of Scientology. About 75 million years ago, okay, there was this tyrannical king named Zemu, okay. And this tyrannical king Zemu was actually the king over a whole galactic federation. There were a lot of planets involved in this federation, and in fact each of these planets had about 178 billion inhabitants each, which is pretty substantial, okay. Well he was voted out of office as being the leader, but before his term of leadership ended, he had this scheme to imprison a lot of these various creatures, these aliens, you know, from these other planets that he presided over. He wanted to get rid of a lot of these beings. So he devised a plan whereby they could be captured and frozen, okay, and then transported to planet Earth, okay. Now planet Earth in those days was not known as planet Earth. It was, it was, it started with a T, I don't remember what he called it. But anyway, they were transported in air, these spaceships, but they looked a lot like 1950s airplanes, because remember L. Ron Hubbard's coming up with all this in the 50s. So basically, oh, by the way, the way that they lived on these other planets, it was a lot like the United States in the 50s, 75 million years ago, but the streets, the house and everything was similar to 1950s LA, okay. And the planes, he literally said, he literally said that these spaceships literally looked like and were shaped like, and he named the aircraft of the 50s, you know, of a commercial airliner. So these commercial airliners came to Earth with all these alien beings that were frozen in cryostasis, okay. I feel bad for people who just walked into this sermon and have no idea what I'm talking about. That's what you get for showing up late. So you know, he brings all these beings, right, and he takes them to these volcanoes around Hawaii and basically thaws them out and he sets off these nuclear bombs, which kills them, you know, of course. So he blows them all up with nuclear explosions, but obviously that's not going to get rid of their souls, though. You know, all these billions of alien beings that he brought over, the scum of the galactic universe that he wanted to get rid of. So he brings them over. He blows them all to smithereens with an atomic blast in Hawaii, alright, and then their souls are released up into the air, but he was ready for that. Obviously he knew that just destroying the body doesn't get rid of the soul, okay. So he had these giant magnetic devices that would basically act as like a soul vacuum and suck up all the souls of these creatures. So he sucked up all these billions of refractory spirits, okay. And he basically brainwashed them. He put them in a reeducation program where they're brainwashed and then they're released again into the earth, okay. Now 75 million years ago, of course, you know, there were no human beings on this planet. But over the course of time, through evolution, you know, mankind developed and here's what happened. When mankind developed all of these spirits floating around, what he calls thetans, these thetans began to attach themselves to human beings, okay. But it's not on a one-to-one ratio. It's not like one of these things attached itself to one human being, oh no. People can be teeming with these things. And in fact, people are. All of us are, according to Scientology. You know, we all have all these alien spirit parasites living inside of us. And the goal of Scientology, one of the goals is to get these things out of you, you know. And they call this being clear. You know, so you go through stages of Scientology where you're pre-clear, then you're clear, and then you get to where you're an OT. Not an OG. I said an OT. Which is an operating thetan, where you're like your own thetan, you know what I mean. And you're controlling your own destiny. You don't have all these other thetans in you messing with you and creating all these problems in you, okay. So what does the Bible say about this? Well, nothing. But anyway, let's see what the Bible says. Go to Mark chapter 7, all right, Mark chapter 7. Because remember, man's basically good. I mean, man's inherently good. It's just, you know, it's that evil King Zemu and all these messed up brainwashed thetans that he released that are causing us all the trouble. But see, according to the Bible, what causes us the trouble is us. We're the problem. We're sinners. We have a sinful nature. We can't blame some outer being. Now when you think of these thetans, according to Scientology, you can't help but think of demon possession in the Bible. You know, where there are, you know, evil spirits, demons, okay. But here's the difference, okay. Yes the Bible does teach that there are evil spirits, nothing to do with Zemu and his giant space aircraft. But the Bible does talk about evil spirits and demons. But here's the difference though. Yes there are people that are possessed in the Bible, but sin is not blamed on the demons. All the demons made me do it. There used to be a popular pin that said the devil made me do it, that people would wear. And in fact this reminds me of the Pentecostal movement where every sin is blamed on demons. And they say, we need to cast out the demon of alcoholism and the demon of pornography and the demon of cursing and you know all these different demons. But look what the Bible actually says in Mark chapter 7 verse 20. And he said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man. Go to James chapter 1. According to the Bible it's our heart that's the source of evil thoughts. It's our heart that gives rise to all of these sinful things because we're not inherently good. We are inherently a sinner. That's why we need Jesus Christ to save us. That way we can be forgiven of our sins and also he will create us a new creature. And then we have that new creature in Christ and through Christ we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. And we can have the victory over sin in our lives. We still have the flesh to deal with but we can have the victory through Jesus. Blaming sin on the devil is not biblical. Yes the devil does have an influence in this world. Yes there are people who are possessed and you know I believe that I've run into people that have been possessed but when people are possessed it's a very extreme case where the Bible talks about people being possessed as you know throwing themselves in the fire and throwing themselves in the water cutting themselves with stones and you know this isn't just your everyday sin. Where does everyday sin come from? James chapter 1 verse 13 tells us, Let no man say when he is tempted I'm tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Sin when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. Over and over again the Bible is blaming man. We can't push the blame off onto some other spirit, okay? Obviously this story of Scientology is just bizarre, ridiculous, psychotic rantings of a lunatic, okay? There's no question about that. But when anybody just tries to blame all the problems in the world and all the sins on demons, that's false too. Even if it's under the guise of Christianity, there's no demon of drunkenness in the Bible. You're the demon of drunkenness if you're drunk. It's you, you're the problem. All the demon of pornography. No, it's the lust of your heart. It's the lust of your flesh that gives rise to sin in your life. Now here's something else that I read on their homepage of their website. They said, Scientology is not a dogmatic religion in which one is asked to accept anything on faith alone. On the contrary, one discovers for itself that the principles of Scientology are true by applying its principles and observing or experiencing the results. So it's not about faith for them. It's about trying it and experimenting and seeing the results for yourself. This is why it's called Scientology because they're basically trying to say that it's a scientific method where it's based on trial and error. Observe the results. We don't expect you to believe it. Well, thank you for not expecting me to believe that Zemu story because I can't. But they say, hey, it's not based on faith. Hey, that's exactly the opposite of biblical Christianity because biblical Christianity is based on faith. What does the Bible say in Hebrews 11, 6? That without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. The Bible says in Romans 10, 17, so that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, not by observation, trial and error, doing experiments. No, it's faith. In fact, that's what makes it a religion, faith. But you say, well then why is Scientology a religion? Well here's why it's a religion, because they basically were getting sued for practicing psychiatry without a license and practicing medicine without a license. So they switched to being a religion basically for legal reasons. See this is how the whole thing started. And I'm not going 75 million years back to Zemu, but I'm going back just to the 1950s with this guy L. Ron Hubbard. Who was this guy L. Ron Hubbard? He's a science fiction writer. In fact, listen to this now, he was the most prolific science fiction writer in the history of mankind. And what I mean by that is that he holds the record, the world record for writing more books than anyone else has ever written. This guy wrote what was called pulp fiction. He basically was tasked to just crank out just a bunch of kind of junk fiction science, just sci-fi weirdo stuff, and he was paid a penny a word. Penny a word. Okay, so basically he's just feverishly typing at his typewriter, just whatever weird thing he can come up with, he's doing that for years. Maybe that's what made him go crazy and come up with this stuff. But he's literally a sci-fi writer, you know, before he came out with Scientology. He's just writing science fiction to the tune of just hundreds and thousands and millions and millions of words of just junk literature, okay, cranking this stuff out. So then he writes this book called Dianetics. Now I don't know about you, but I grew up in California and I remember seeing the TV commercials for this as a kid. Almost every day, you know, you need to order Dianetics and all this stuff, it was on TV all the time. But he wrote this book and what it was, was like an alternative to psychiatry, it's like a new kind of, he said, you know, psychiatry, psychology's bad, this is a better way to fix these issues. But what happened was he was starting to get in trouble with the law because it was being considered quackery. He had this weird little instrument where he'd hook these electrodes up and basically ask you questions and the little meter would move and he'd say, oh, you know, well here's the thing. You're not allowed in the United States to basically just set up shop as a psychiatrist or a doctor and use these kind of quackery methods that have no basis in reality. It's illegal to be a charlatan like that. So basically they were coming down on him and suing him, shutting him down, fining him because he's operating as a psychiatrist without a license or as a doctor without a license. He's claiming to be able to cure these mental disorders through Scientology, which wasn't called Scientology back then, through Dianetics is what it was called back then. So this Dianetics, you know, it's not about Zemu because that's one where you get real deep into it before you start learning about Zemu. So it starts out what they tell you when you first get into it is they talk about the fact that basically you've had these traumatic experiences in the past in your life that have damaged your psyche and, you know, we need to go in and repair that stuff through like a counseling session, you know, similar to what a psychiatrist would do except you're hooked up to this machine and they're taking notes on everything and yada, yada, yada. It's called auditing, you know. They audit you. Except it's not the IRS, they're auditing your brain, okay. So basically because of these legalities, he ended up around 1953 turning this into a religion instead. That way he could get the tax exempt, you know, 501C3 status and that way he could be protected from this kind of, you know, scrutiny of the medical community or anything because they just start putting labels on that electronic device that they use and just say, hey, this is a religious artifact. Like a cross would be or a rosary bead or whatever, you know, it's this device. So that's why it's known as a religion. And then that's when he just started kind of just taking it down the religion route and kind of coming out with all the real weird beliefs and stuff and turning it more and more into a religion over time. So they're saying, hey, don't have faith in it, don't believe in it, try it. So they offer, you know, you go on their website, free personality test and, you know, they want you to try it and kind of get into it and see how it goes and they want you to come tour the facility and then have a free readout with the, you know, free auditing session or whatever to get you in the door. The first one's free. But then it starts costing money, okay. Now here's the thing about this. Oh, just try it for yourself. Don't believe us. Yeah, should we just try all drugs too? Just try it. Don't research what's in the drugs. Don't research what it's done to other people. Don't read all the scuttlebutt, all the people who've been damaged by it. No, no, no, just try heroin for yourself. Then make a judgment. I mean, this is a stupid philosophy of just, oh, just try it. Don't look into it and research it. Just try, you know, let yourself be the judge. But here's the problem with that kind of logic is that a lot of things are great in the beginning and then in the long run they're bad. Like for example when you die and go to hell because you believe in Scientology and reject Jesus. But there are a lot of things that might work good in the beginning or, you know, I'm sure that a lot of people the first time that they tried drugs, enjoyed it or had a good experience but then the bad experiences came later. Their life being destroyed came later. And I'm just using that as an illustration of this whole, oh try it, it's free, you know, what can it hurt? But they lure you in with this mild stuff and then they get you to start paying for it and then slowly after you've already paid a bunch of money, after you're already locked into it, then they start rolling out the really strange doctrine. Now look what the Bible says in Matthew chapter 10. Go to Matthew chapter 10. Because there are no secrets with Bible believing Christianity. Isn't it interesting how cults like Mormonism and cults like Scientology, they always hide their beliefs and roll them out later? Because it's the same thing with the Mormons. They come to you, they don't want to talk about the star based collab. They don't want to tell you, and listen, the Mormons believe, and if you want to know what Mormons believe, let me tell you, there's a cartoon on YouTube. Just search for banned Mormon cartoon, B-A-N-N-E-D. And let me tell you something. I have books in my office that were purchased at the Deseret Bookstore, okay. I have done research with Mormon Church approved materials and let me tell you something, everything in that cartoon is factual. I have personally fact checked everything, because the cartoon when you watch it you're like, there's no way they can really believe this. But I systematically fact checked everything in that cartoon with stuff from their own bookstore and it all checks out, it's all true. That cartoon where it talks about how there are billions of gods ruling their own planets and how our god came down from a planet near the star collab and all this stuff, it's all there. Banned Mormon cartoon, search that, it tells you what they believe, it's accurate. I fact checked it, I don't just believe everything I hear, I fact checked it with their own books. See I always like to go to the horse's mouth, you know, and the truth is stranger than fiction, you know, when you go and fact check this stuff. It's all true. And in fact I've knocked on the doors of how many hundreds of Mormons and when you mention to them, you know, the Mormon Church believes that there's multiple gods and that's not true, we only believe in one god and everything. And then this is what I do to get them, because they won't admit it, they'll just lie to you, they'll just look right in your face and just lie to you and say I have no idea what you're talking about, I have no idea what you're talking about other gods, other planets, here's how I get them. They say, have you ever sung a song in your church called If You Could High to Kolob? Because they have a hymn that they sing, if you could high to kolob, because kolob is the planet, the other planet in the Mormon cartoon that they deny, I don't know what you're talking about man, I've never heard of kolob man, I don't know what, you know, it's always awesome. And every Mormon that I've ever asked, if they were an English speaking Mormon, the Latino Mormons, I think they sing different songs, but the English speaking Mormons, I ask them, have you ever sung the song If You Could High to Kolob? Every single one of them said yes, oh yeah, I know that song, even if they'd only been a Mormon for a few months, they said yeah, we have sung that song. I said the song talks about multiple gods in the song and it's talking about the planet Kolob in the song. And I start singing them the lyrics and they're like, yeah, okay, and then they'll start admitting it, well, okay, yeah, we do believe in that. It's like, well, then why have you been lying to me for several minutes? Anybody who's been soul winning knows that they've had an experience like that with Mormon, if they do it in a Mormon area. But let me ask you this, are there any secrets with the Baptist? Are there any secrets with Bible believing Christianity? Is there anything where you come to church for a couple years and then all of a sudden, whoa, I didn't know you guys believed that. No, it's all out there in the open. All of it. Always has been, always will be. You know why it's always out in the open? Look down at your Bible there in Matthew, did I have you turn to 10 or five? Look at Matthew 10 27, this is what Jesus said, what I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light and what you hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. See, Jesus didn't whisper in their ear and say, hey, don't tell anybody unless they, you know, unless they reach this level and you know, once they've been saved for 10 years, roll that out. But isn't it funny how these false religions have that in common? Mormonism's like that, Scientology's like that. What's that other book that they tell you? It's slipping my mind right now. I want to say Hinduism, where they teach you that you have to be 40 years old to start reading one of their scriptures. I forget which one it is. I don't know why I'm drawing a blank on that. But they tell you, wait till you're four, oh no, I'm sorry. It's Judaism. Judaism tells you, wait till you're 40 to start studying the Kabbalah. You know, you're not ready for the Kabbalah until age 40. You know, wait till you're 40. And so, what? I mean, what, do we have anything like that in Bible-believing Christianity? No, it's just all out in the open. We don't hide anything. You say, well, why do you put all the sermons online, you know, aren't you afraid that somebody's going to use your words against you? No, the reason that all the sermons are online that I preach here at Faith Forward Baptist Church, unedited, uncensored, put out for the world is because Jesus said to preach it from the housetops. He said, nothing covered that should not be revealed and hid that should not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak you in light. Preach it upon the housetops. There's nothing that I believe that I'm ashamed of where it's like, oh man, let's not put this sermon on the internet. Too hot for the internet. You know, CD only or whatever. Or, hey, you know, let's not put that in the statement of faith. Let's make, no, everything that we as Christians, everything that we as Bible-believing Baptists teach is all open because the truth doesn't have anything to hide like the Kabbalah and the Mormonism, the Scientology. Look at chapter five and we'll see the same thing taught by Jesus in chapter five, verse 14. Ye are the light of the world, a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and give it a light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. You don't have to turn there, but Philippians 2 15, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I've not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Holding forth the word of life, hide it under a bushel, no, I'm going to let it shine, but yet these false religions, they want to hide in the darkness. They love darkness more than light because their deeds are evil. We don't have anything in the Bible that we're ashamed of. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, it's the power of God unto salvation. And there's nothing in this book that I'm ashamed of. I'll stand up and read any verse in this book publicly and say this is true, this is right, I believe in it. But you know, it's a little embarrassing to get up and start talking about Zemu putting a bunch of billions of aliens in cryostasis, bringing them over on 1950's style airplane spaceships, thawing them out in the volcanoes of Hawaii and then nuking them all and catching all their souls in a big soul catcher and then brainwashing them, re-educating them and releasing them into the planet. I don't care, yeah but Tom Cruise is cool. He's not that cool, okay, look, okay, Tom Cruise is cool, okay, I get it, but he's not that cool. You'd have to be pretty cool to make me believe in that and you're not that cool, Tom Cruise. And John Travolta's definitely not that cool, he's not even close to being cool enough to get me to believe that. You know, by the way, John Travolta is a laughing stock and by the way, did you know that John Travolta's a sodomite too? Did you know that? Yeah, he came out a few years ago that he's a sodomite. Oh, I'm shocked, Hollywood actors are sodomite, say it as is so. But you know, John Travolta, he made this film based on one of L. Ron Hubbard's books because L. Ron Hubbard, after he'd done the Scientology gig for a while, he had the itch to get back into science fiction writing. So in the early 80s he put out a new science fiction book, right? And then basically he pressured all of his church organization, all the cult members, all the brainwashed followers. He pressured them all to go out and buy the book. There were people who bought 800 copies of the book, branches of the church, literally. Somebody bought 800 copies and then where they're buying them and then shipping them out and selling them again and then all the churches are buying them and stockpiling them in order to get it on like a bestseller list. And by the way, another preacher recently was busted doing that, I think it was Mark Driscoll, put out his book and then buys a bunch of copies of his own book to get it on the bestseller list to build the hype and so forth. So he comes out with this book, gets all of his followers to buy 800 copies of it or whatever, pumps it up, gets everybody into it and John Travolta gets real excited about this book. He goes, oh, this is the greatest sci-fi book ever. It's like the stupidest book ever. But anyway, this weirdo sci-fi book that makes no sense, he comes out with this in the early 80s. So John Travolta spends the next 16 years trying to get this thing turned into a movie. I mean he spends from like the early 80s all the way to the late 90s trying to get this thing turned into a movie and everybody's like, no, it sucks. But anyway, he's trying to get them to turn into a movie. So then finally, he gets some shady, dishonest, corrupt movie studio to turn this thing into a movie by lying to the investors and telling them it had a real big budget when in reality they were cooking the books and it was a fraud. It was actually a lower budget production and they're trying to say it had a bigger budget and eventually they ended up getting sued and going out of business because it came out the fraud. It was a fraud. But anyway, he finally gets them to make this movie, Battlefield Earth. Okay, it came out in the year 2000. I've never seen it, thank God, but it's considered by many people to be the worst movie of all time. I'm not kidding. Many lists, it received an award. You know how there's like the best picture? There's another award that goes to the worst movie. It's not the Oscars, but it's some other group that puts these out and it won it for that year like worst movie. But many people to this day consider it the worst movie of all time. Even Tom Cruise was just like, what are you doing with this movie? John Travolta, are you insane? It's considered the biggest flop in history as being just the mockery of the century of movies. Okay? So he created this bizarre, foolish sci-fi film. I don't know what that has to do with the sermon, but don't watch it. Anyway, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. By the way, there's so much to talk about Scientology. I'm kind of trying to focus on the beliefs of Scientology in my sermon Scientology in Light of the Bible, but honestly, there are all kinds of stories from the eyewitnesses and people who've been involved in it about how they were stalked. They try to leave Scientology and they're being stalked and harassed. There are all kinds of stories out there and it's hard to know what's true and what's exaggeration, but what I'm preaching tonight is everything I'm preaching tonight is directly from their website or it's from the mouth of the man himself, L. Ron Hubbard himself. I mean, all this is emu and it's all out of his mouth. This isn't hearsay. This isn't a rumor, but you want to talk about rumors, there's a lot about Scientology. There are plenty of people who've been burned that will tell you all the crazy things and the weird things, but here's another thing that's on the record, okay? They have these servants of Scientology who sign this contract to become like a servant of Scientology and they sign the contract. Guess how long the contract is for? One billion years. So children, seven year olds, eleven year olds, will sign a contract that they're going to be servants of the religion for the next one billion years. And basically they teach, well, you know, you live forever, so, you know, a billion years. What's a billion years in the scheme of eternity? This is considered a small sacrifice by many people just to, just to, you know, just give us a, give us a billion years, you know, and then after that we'll reevaluate. They look, I mean, how weird is that to sign up and say, I'm going to be the servant of Scientology for the next billion years, okay? But here's the thing about it. In Scientology, you know, I'm running out of time, I just want to hit some key points here. In Scientology you pay for these teachings, okay? That's another thing about this. You pay for the auditing sessions and then in order to get into the real deep teachings you pay for it and they get more and more expensive as you go up the level. And there are eight levels at the OT stage, you know, the operating thetan stage. There are eight levels of teaching. To get the eighth teaching you can only get it aboard this certain boat. You have to be aboard this cruise ship called the Free Winds and you have to be out in the middle of the ocean with these people for them to teach you the final stage, level eight. And it's real expensive obviously, but it's like, you know, they get you out in the middle of the ocean to tell you about it. It's that weird, okay? But you pay all along the way. Now here's how it works though. When he first came out with it, okay, one of the things was you buy, when you sign into it, you buy 24 hours worth, okay? You pay, you know, 500 bucks or whatever and you get 24 hours worth, okay? Well, I think the best way to illustrate this is it's sort of like a gym membership, okay? January 1st rolls around and you're like, you know, New Year's resolution, I'm going to get in shape, I'm going to lose weight, you know, pump some iron. So you buy that gym membership, right? And people then feel like they have to go to the gym because they've already paid for it. It's like, well, I paid for it, I need to get some use out of this. So that's why some people get a gym membership because they feel like it's going to force me to work out because, you know, I feel like I paid for it. So I think the psychology is kind of the same here where you buy a bunch of these sessions and then you feel like, well, I already paid for it so I'm at least going to do what I paid for. You know, I paid for 24 hours of this stuff and so I'm going to go ahead and do it. And then as you get into it, you're putting more money into it, they're finding more issues that need to be fixed and you kind of just get sucked into it. And then it's sort of like a gambler. You start throwing good money after bad, you know, and they get into it and you pay and you pay. And where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So by getting you to pay for it, you're kind of now not just emotionally invested in it but now you're actually financially invested in it. People don't like to feel like they're an idiot. So when people spend $500 on something, they don't want to admit like, wow, that was a stupid waste of $500. So they've spent $500 and it's like, well, you know, maybe they're going to try to justify that it was a good investment. It did help me. Yeah, it helped. You know, and then they get deeper and deeper into it. But see, paying for the truth, you know, the Bible says buy the truth and sell it not. And the fact that you have to pay for these teachings is not biblical. Okay. Now, I don't know about you but I've never been to a Baptist church that charged me money to walk in the door and hear preaching. Now the closest thing to that is sometimes they'll have these conferences where there's like a charge to go to the conference. I just refuse to pay. I called an independent fundamental Baptist church across town one time and said, hey, I just want to come and listen to the preaching tonight but I'm not going to pay. I don't want to pay to go to church, you know, because it's like a conference and there's a registration fee or whatever. I'm like, I'm not going to pay though. And the lady literally, I'm not kidding. She said to me, it's fine but just sit in the back. That's literally what she said. That's stupid. And you know, if Baptists are doing it, they're wrong to do it. Buy the truth and sell it not. You shouldn't have to pay to go to church, pay to listen to preaching. Hey, and then think about how shady that is. It's like these videos that you see on an infomercial. Oh man, I'm going to give you all the secrets to success in business, you know, and I'm going to spend a half hour without giving you any of those secrets but I'm going to spend a half hour telling you how great they are but if you pay the $200 I'll send you all the materials. You get all the CDs, the DVDs, the books and everything. Look here's the thing, if you really wanted people to know the truth, you just put it out there. Just put it out, tell everybody the truth, let everybody know but to have to buy the teachings and pay for it, you have to pay. Now when Scientologists have been attacked for this, here's what they'll point to. Well other religions you donate to, like for example tithing, they'll point to and they'll say, you know, this is just like tithing except here's the difference with tithing. Tithing is not enforced. Tithing is not mandatory where the church is like, have you paid your tithe? Have you tithed? Did you tithe? What are you doing here then? Huh? Don't you know these lights cost money? Don't you know this building, the rent costs money? The chair you're sitting on costs money, did you tithe? My salary costs money! Look, when have you ever heard a Baptist church enforce the tithe and make it mandatory? Now a lot of people that hate the doctrine of tithing, they'll try to act like it's mandatory or something. Like we're forcing you to tithe. But you know the honest truth is, I've never been in a Baptist church that forced you to tithe. I've never been in a church that enforced tithing or said tithing's mandatory to come here. No tithe, no sermon. You don't pay me, you know, it's never happened, okay? And if it is, you're in a bad church, get out of that church. That's weird. Now look, I do believe, and this is a whole other sermon, and I've preached sermons on this, you can search my sermons if you want to know, you know, I do believe in tithing, okay? I do believe that tithing is a commandment of God. And here's the thing, it's not something that's enforced by man, it's something that's done willingly of your own free will. Look, it's just like we don't force you to come to church. Is it a command of God to go to church? Yeah. But are we going to force you? No. Let me ask this, are you commanded by God to read the Bible? Does God command you to read the Bible? Should I preach, should I preach that it's a command of God to read the Bible? Yeah, I should preach that, right? Okay, but should I force people to read the Bible? No. See, that's the difference, so nobody's being forced, you can never read the Bible and still come here and listen to the preaching and be a part of our church. You can be a church member and never read your Bible, you're not right with God. You're going to get dumber and dumber, but you can do that. You're free to do that. What does the Bible say in 2 Corinthians 9, 7? Every man according as he purposed in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver, right? Not, you know, give me the tithe, right? But again, it is a command of God. It's not optional, just like reading your Bible's not optional, just like prayer is not optional, just like, you know, anything that God commands is not optional, but that's different than them saying, alright, pay and we'll give you the teachings. Totally different philosophy. Now some people, you know, well, I don't want to go off on that too much, but, you know, another cult, and it seems like the Mormons just keep coming up in the Scientology sermon, but you know what, that's another one that enforces tithing. If you're going to get married in the temple, which to them, that's their way into heaven. I mean, that's the way to the celestial kingdom. In order to participate in those rituals, you have to tithe, and they do monitor the tithing, and you have to prove to them that you tithe in order to take part in those rituals, the endowment, you know, the married in the temple, etc. It isn't enforced tithing. Is it, do Bible believe in Christians enforce tithing? Baptists? I mean, who's ever been, have you ever been in a Baptist church where they enforce the tithing? Can you put up your hand if anybody, yeah, nobody, right? Because it's cultic, it's cult-like at that point, okay? Another thing, flip over to Matthew chapter 5. They have this doctrine called the fair game doctrine, Scientology. Now this is what they get a bad reputation for, one of the many things. Fair game. Basically L. Ron Hubbard taught that certain people are fair game, meaning, hey, these are bad people, and we can do whatever to them. We can attack them in any way, we can harm them, because they're fair game, because they're, you know, these enemies of humanity or whatever. And guess what? Critics of Scientology fall into that category, you know, disgruntled members, they're fair game. So that's why they've been known for mistreating former members and mistreating their critics. They are also the most sue-happy religion in the history of mankind. They are the most litigious religion. They sue people at the drop-back. You know, and I just laugh at the thought of them suing me for this sermon. I don't think they're going to, but it's just so funny because I don't own anything, and our church doesn't own anything. We don't have any money, so it's like, come sue us. And here, you want my coat? Here's my cloak also, because that's all I got. But the bottom line is that, you know, they teach that enemies of Scientology are fair game. To do whatever to them, persecute them, harm them, whatever, you know, whatever they decide to do. What does the Bible say about our enemies? Matthew 5 44, but I say unto you, love your enemies. He doesn't say, your enemies are fair game. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. That's totally different than what they're teaching. Now these auditing sessions, and I'm just wrapping things up, but these auditing sessions, they write down everything that you tell them, and in these auditing sessions, they ask you very personal questions. So the people who are being audited in these sessions are giving a lot of personal information to the auditor. A lot of sensitive information too. And when I heard about this, I couldn't help but think of the Catholic confessional booth. Where you're given all this real personal information over to the priest. You know, every sin that you've done, oh forgive me Father, I've sinned. But instead of telling you to say a bunch of Hail Marys, they're taking notes and writing down all the stuff that you've done. So then there's the issue of blackmail. You know, when you have a bunch of dirt on somebody that they've been giving you, and again it reminds me of the Catholic Church, but they also teach reincarnation. You know, which I kind of alluded to when I talked about the billion year contract. So how can you sign on for a billion years? Because they're going to keep coming back in different reincarnations, okay. And the, you know, I don't have time to go into it, but the similarities with Hinduism are unbelievable. Because if you, in the Hindu Upanishads, where it talks about, you know, our true soul inside of us is so good and perfect and one with the universe, and it needs to be released. It's a lot of the same language, it's just kind of the same rehashed Eastern mysticism of the reincarnation, and you know, this type of thing. And so, it started out with the Dianetics of like, oh, traumatic events in your past, that's what's causing you mental problems today. That sounds like just basic psychiatry, right? Tell me about your mother, or whatever. And just this basic, you know, oh, you were traumatized as a kid, that's why you're messed up now. I mean, that's just pretty basic stuff that any Psychology 101 student is going to learn about, right? But see, where it diverged into this bizarre religion is where it's not just traumatic stuff that happened to you earlier in life, it's traumatic stuff that happened to you in the last life. It's traumatic stuff that happened to you hundreds of years ago, and their little meter is telling, you know, you start telling them weird dreams and stuff, and their little meter is like, no, this is a true story. You know, because this is like a past life, past experience, and a lot of it goes back to that nuclear explosion 75 million years ago. I mean, that's where a lot of these issues are coming from, that haven't been dealt with, you know. I mean, we're not talking about going back to your childhood. We're talking about going back, way back, okay. So this Scientology, bottom line, is that it's a total quack religion started by a lunatic science fiction writer, there's nothing scientific about it, don't let that cross fool you, nothing to do with Jesus whatsoever, nothing to do with the Bible, and its teachings are contrary to the word of God, because man is basically a sinner, okay. His salvation comes only through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all by faith, it's not by science. If you're looking for a religion based on the scientific method, you're in the wrong place. It's faith-based salvation. And it's free, according to the Bible, it's a free gift, you don't have to pay for it. You have your enemies, they're not fair game, and there's no reincarnation. The Bible says it's appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. So what's the moral of the story here? Well, very few people, thank God, in Phoenix, Arizona are mixed up in this, but there is a church full of this quackery. We need to understand that the world is not full of all these religions and I just don't know which one to choose. No, the true story is that the only book that makes any sense whatsoever as far as religious teachings is the Holy Bible. And to try to compare this to Mormonism, Islam, Scientology is ludicrous. We have the perfect word of God, we have the powerful word, we're going to hold it up and tell everybody what we believe, because there's nothing to be ashamed of in this book. Scientology has to go hide out because it's a bunch of crazy junk. Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for the gospel of Jesus Christ and we thank you for the truth, Lord, and I pray for these misguided souls that have been sucked in to Scientology, Lord, to thousands and thousands of people that buy into this stuff, Lord, because they're just lured in by the Hollywood lifestyle and they're lured in by the Tom Cruises and the John Travoltas and Chrystiales and whoever else, Lord. Please help these people, Lord, that they would see the light of the gospel and get out of this cult, Lord. And Father, all those that are mixed up in the cult of Mormonism, just several miles from here in Mesa, Lord, I pray that they would also see the light of the gospel through the efforts of our church, knocking their door and preaching the gospel, Lord. Please help people to wake up to these deceptions and find the truth of your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.