The transition of the church is marked with many changes as God tears down the Jericho’s of the kingdom of darkness. I want to talk to you some more about the stronghold of substitutionism.

The teaching that Jesus is our substitute is the foundation of the false religious system. Under this umbrella believers are taught to approach God with ideas they found in the Bible. They learned to substitute an idea for the reality of Christ. For example,

The problems with substitutionism are many. For starters, the ideas about having a relationship with God, being fruitful in His kingdom, partaking of His love and care, and operating in His spiritual gifts have been aligned to the carnal mind of the natural man, rather than the heart of God. Now all you have are truisms.

So then, the false doctrine, which states that Jesus is our substitute, leaves believers with no divine substance—they’re empty of virtue and empty of power. How do we know this to be true? Ministers wouldn’t really say that, would they? Yes, they would, and they have.

Listen to the language ministers use when they begin to tire of the spiritual platitudes they created for your faith to follow. You’ll find that ministers often talk about “realigning” their faith.

The word “realign” is another seemingly magical word ministers use these days to sidestep God’s plan to transition the church back to the covenant of Jesus. As they talk about realigning relationships, realigning assignments, realigning their vision, realigning their identity, then all of these things they’re trying to realign with God have been out of alignment with God all along.

That’s the meaning of the word realign: “To put something into a new or correct position: to change or restore to a different or former position or state. (dictionary.cambridge.org; oxforddictionaries.com)

The attempt to “realign” is simply another admission, another confession, another telltale sign that ministers do not have faith right in the first place, they were wrong all along. While God gave apostles as a gift to the church to set the knowledge of Christ in order, ministers are improvising faith. They are not using what God is giving to the church through apostolic governance, but trying to piece together something they feel will be competent, and they’re using the word realign to pretend obedience, which is hypocrisy.

Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden where Satan used God’s word to bless Adam’s ignorance and to crown him with darkness, and believers quote the scripture to bless their ignorance, which in so doing, profanes the name of the Lord.

Satan is hiding in the shadows of substitution, and now God is pulling back the curtains to remove the deception. You need the stewardship to make these distinctions. You cannot discern apart from God’s sanctified apostolic stewardship and you can see that in how a minister’s doctrine is constantly being realigned.

The spirit of antichrist is seen in this destructive pattern, which wants to maintain its position of authority, replacing Christ. It does not allow the work of Christ to take place within his soul and does not want it to take place in you.

You might be thinking that all this realigning is actually grace for growth, whereby God continually addresses the soul for healing, but it isn’t. How do we know? The process of regeneration is missing in their realignment projections. The regeneration of the soul with the divine nature of Christ is a fruit bearing process, and you can hear in the minister’s language that he’s not part of that process. He’ll say something like, “If something in your ministry is not bearing fruit, it’s time to move on.”

God’s work in the soul to heal the scars inflicted by Satan is a life-long process of regeneration and the purpose of His daily dose of grace. But figuring out how to apply truth to ministry is not a life-long process, rather it is delivered to you by Jesus’ true apostles. Truth never changes, never grows old, never becomes obsolete, and never needs to be realigned as it is already working in perfect synergy with God.

If your ministry is not fruitful it is because truth is not your compass. Without stewardship instructing in the foundation of truth, it’s like you’re out in the middle of the ocean, panicking because you’ve lost sight of land and have no clue as to which direction to go.

God’s plan is to align you with Him through the knowledge, stewardship, and priesthood of the second covenant. We can see what the anointing does as it works through God’s apostolic steward: it takes away the veil of ignorance. Satan tried to prevail against the church through many truisms. It’s the stewardship that stops this foolishness, not the text.

Jesus said to Peter, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18). Jesus was not speaking to the text, saying that He placed the Bible in the hands of people, but the stewardship. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the stewardship. It’s the text that ministers use to navigate around stewardship and the foundation.

God gave us a covenant in Jesus Christ and provided apostolic stewardship to teach the one doctrine of Christ, whereby He perfectly aligns your faith to Jesus Christ, and a divine exchange takes place. These things become the reality you live every day.

When not in covenant with God, and therefore not having received the doctrine of Christ, which apostles teach, you will find that ministers will fabricate faith from the truisms they collected from the Bible because they’re reaching for promises.

When the promise is out of reach—that’s substitution.

The reality of the blessing of Christ is now—that’s propitiation. Eternal life is sealed to us as we partake of the living Christ now.

The teaching of substitutionism is the most dangerous and toxic doctrine, whereby believers learned to substitute an idea for salvation, and when those ideas don’t pan out, they approach God with more ideas they want Him to act upon.

The apostles of the first century church never taught substitution, but the translators inserted their doctrinal understanding into the translation. They couldn’t discern the difference between substitution and propitiation.

They are closely related, yet from two different mothers, as Isaac and Ishmael. Substitution is the carnal interpretation of the scripture to represent one’s self, offering to God one’s thinking, while propitiation is the gift from God, which we reciprocate. Here again, God’s gifts are put within the frame of Christ.

Always remember: Jesus never sinned, for He is the Lamb of God without spot. At no time did Jesus confirm Satan or become demonized, nor take upon Himself our punishment, as some preach. God was not punishing Jesus on the cross for our sins, in our place. No, but rather, God was establishing a covenant by blood to remove Adam’s transgression, setting the terms whereby He would take ownership of our soul to bring us into His heavenly kingdom. Jesus died for our benefit, not in our place.

If Jesus became “Sin” then by whom did God redeem our Lord? Substitution is the abomination that makes desolate the soul of true virtue.