Who are the Samaritans?
Part 1
John
4:3-27 And He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.
And He must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city
of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground
that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there.
Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on
the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman
of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which
am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans.
Three days ago (in late November 2005) as I awoke, the Lord spoke
to me in clear words drawing my attention to something in this
passage that quite frankly I have never heard preached or taught
before from this text, or for that fact from any other text
in the bible.
What the Lord said to me was: “The Samaritans, who are they?”
Normally I would have been inclined to answer the question of: Who
are the Samaritans? With the Roman Catholics, the Lutherans,
and / or some of the other non-believing denomination that are
Christian In Name Only.
But when The Lord asked the question, He made me at that same instant
to understand that it was not the Catholic’s, the Lutherans
or the other blind denominations, What He said to me was that
the Mormons are the Samaritans of this hour, The Jehovah’s witnesses
are the Samaritans of this hour and the Muslims are the Samaritans
of this hour.
While many will have some initial disagreement with this I will attempt
in this study to demonstrate with the scripture that God opened
up to me on the Samaritans as to who the Samaritans were at
the time of Christ and trace through scripture how they came
to be the reviled people that they in that day.
I have
had quite some difficulty in writing this article. The core
of this article took me several weeks to put together and as
I finished the last few pages I knew that the composition of
what I had written was all wrong, and failed to adequately communicate
what I had been shown. Originally I was going to post the article
“as is” with an apology for my lack of ability to be able to
express what I had heard from the Lord, but that morning when
I awake the Lord spoke to me and showed me how to reorder this
article so it would read as He intended it to read. So this
article will begin with what the Lord hard originally shown
me first before he spoke to me about who the Samaritans are.
Several weeks prior to all of this I was led to a website that contained
literally hundreds of old Newspaper articles from 1795 to the
1830’s meticulously tracing the origins of Joseph Smith and
his conspirators and early days of Mormonism.
http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/miscNYSg.htm
I was searching for something else when this was more or less thrown
into my lap. It occurs to me now that the Lord sometimes
gives us something without speaking, or without prompting us
as to what it is or what it is for as He did with Adam in the
Garden; to see what we shall say.
There was so much to read on this website that one could easily spend
months, if not years poring over these reading and drawing analysis
from the thousands of newspaper articles, and the hundreds of
documents containing the writings the early Mormons, and their
Leaders. I do not want
to give the impression that I have any inclination to spend
a whole lot of time and attention to something like this, at
the expense of my time in prayer and studying the word of God,
I am just trying to describe the vastness of what this website
contains.
Through the blessed guidance of the Spirit I was led immediately
without index or a key word search directly to what the Lord
wanted me to read. It took me two days, approximately 12-16
hours to get through all of it.
Let me now confess up front that initially while I read this stuff
I became so upset, and horrified over the initial meaning of
what I read I had to push it away. And I did not want to look
at it or even think about it.
I immediately went to prayer and took to Him all that I had seen
and heard from these pages, and my concerns from my initial
read. A few weeks passed, and the Lord gradually brought me
back to look some more at these pages and re-read other parts
over to be sure I understood the story that was told through
hundreds of reporters and eye witnesses completely independent
of each other.
In my article on communion I spoke of an experience where the Lord
opened up a passage in 1 Corinthians and the following day when
I went back the passage disappeared and became completely invisible
both to me and my Pharisee of Pharisees that was with me and
try as we might we could not find the verse I described using
our scriptural knowledge, online concordances, and Strong’s
exhaustive concordance as well. In that the Lord demonstrated
so powerfully “Seeing they see not and hearing they hear not.”
This has occurred time and again in relation to these articles and
it happened here again once the Lord had opened my eyes to the
significance of all this a month or so later. When I began to
write this, many of the things that I had initially read and
had so shocked and disturbed me had faded back into the sea
of writing in this mega-website. And this caused me to spend
another week searching in vain for specific articles. – Then
all at one in the Lords time in one evening he brought the bulk
of them back so I could see them once more. And this was in
the exact Newspapers and dates I had pored over time and again
for a week but could not find a single one of them.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s I had read a number of cult books on
Mormonism, “Chaos of the Cults.” “Every Wind of Doctrine.” To
name a few, I had a 3” three ring binder filled with articles
on this subject and I had attended a semester of “Cults Class”
in bible school nothing from these prepared me for what I read
and saw in these articles.
Concerning those books and articles the information that was published
in them was generally all the same – because no doubt the authors
all read the same books, all read the same notes, and probably
all went from the same evangelical and fundamentalist bible
schools. Probably none of them had ever attended a single Mormon
meeting or any of the other so called cults that they were opposed
to (for fear of that a demon, or a spirit of deception from
these contaminated people would take them over. – Time and again
over the last three decades I have heard this kind of talk with
my own ears.) None of these supposed scholars ever went through
the trouble to read source materials early writings of Mormons
or the writings of those who witnessed their acts in the early
days (For fear of those writings getting into their mind and
thoughts and making them unclean.) And none of these experts
have read any of the modern exposes’ by unsaved reporters and
those who escaped Mormonism’s clutches and then become a “Saved
hireling” who travels to and fro profiteering on their testimony
and the Gospel. (Because the unsaved are “unclean” and therefore
their words have no value to those who hold so lofty a perch
above such. So we arrogantly stick our heads in the sand and
ignore all that these witnesses have to say to our own detriment
and the detriment of our flocks and when these Mormon’s come
knocking we instead of being able to talk to them intelligently
and bring some to the Lord, we cross ourselves and pray for
protection and hope that they will simply go away.)
One of the dirty little secrets (This information comes directly
from my Pharisee of Pharisees that is now attending his second
year in a 4 year Baptist bible school) is that Baptists in particular
are terrified of Mormonism. And He tells me it was reported
to the students of that school in Okalahoma that 80% of the
Mormon’s new converts back at the time of its founding were
bible believing, bible reading, church attending Baptists. And
he further stated that this trend has persisted for almost 175
years, so that in this day 80% of the converts of Mormonism
are bible believing, bible reading, Church attending Baptists.
My friend told me that the Baptists are afraid that this
will bring an end to the independent Baptist churches all together.
For 175 years they have tried everything to inoculate their followers
against Mormonism and for 100 years they have thrown everything
they had against Pentecostals hating and treating both the same
way. And in so doing they have drawn lines through verse after
verse and chapter after chapter in the bible saying that this
verse is not true, or this was all done away with in the past,
that God can no longer heal, God can no longer speak, God can
no longer visit men either by himself or send an angel. When
any one with a third grade education reading from Genesis to
Revelation can see all these things clearly demonstrated as
God’s will and desire over and over and at times even in the
lives of corrupt and vile individuals. What these men and churches
are really preaching is their own spiritual lack, they are preaching
their own backslidden and blind condition, there are preaching
their own faithlessness and corruption, as the Pharisees did
so do they. So they attempt to lock up the key of knowledge
– that is revelation by the Holy Spirit that is promised to
all believers. And then with all their soul might and strength
these same preachers of darkness attempt to prevent all their
sheep from going in unto the Lord and receiving of His hand.
In the days of Christ the Pharisees could not prevent believers from
coming to Christ and so to today these cold dead Calvanistic
Pharisees can not prevent their starving and sickly flocks from
seeking spiritual sustenance. Where there is no green grass
the sheep will eat garbage in order to survive. So much so that
when anyone waves around a bible and says: You too can hear
from God, you too can be healed, you too can prophesy, and bammo!
These sheep are out the door cult or true, and it is highly
likely that they will never return to such preaching.
This identical thing is going on with Islam. Over in Europe Islam
is literally eating up the denominational churches before our
eyes, for the last two years article after article has stated
that the churches of Europe are empty and the young and old
are going over in droves to Islam. Why because the old time
denominations of Europe preach humanism instead of Christ, they
preach exclusiveness instead of community, they preach submission
to a host of elders, preachers, and denominations as opposed
to the priesthood of all believers. They do not teach faith,
consecration to God, they do not teach healing, or deliverance
except by world means ie doctors and psychiatrists – and on
the other hand here you have a group of people that unflinchingly
believe every word in their “Holy Books”
And they believe in a devotion to Allah unto death. –
And so these starving sheep true or cult are beating
a path to these people’s door.
All these sheep know is that where they go to church
or where their parents went to church is cold, dry, and empty,
and where these others go that is where all the action is. And
so they pick what is most likely to feed them and take care
of them.
This is also the identical thing that happened in the second and
third century with the Gnostic Church they too wrote their own
bible and shrouded themselves in revival and the manifestations
of the Spirit that the early church had by enlarge lost by that
time. And the apostolic fathers came to deny the very manifestations
and the gifts of the spirit that they themselves had been founded
upon in their battle to push back Gnosticism. I believe that they utterly failed in that.
For when I look at some of the cultic notions of Gnosticism
I find some of these same things in the Roman catholic Church
regarding the worship of Mary, the Sacrifice of the Mass, and
the mystical things that their wannabe Levites do to absolve
themselves and their hearers of sin.. But that is a separate issue and I do not want to cloud what already
will appear to be very murky to some.
I want to return to Mormonism and give you a brief run down of how
this cult came into being.
First at the time there were great revivals and stirrings
of the Spirit with many manifestations and this can not be discounted.
Historically this period is called the second great awakening.
So here we have an illiterate child named Joseph Smith born
in Vermont and as while he is a young child His family moves
to upstate New York, His father is caught up in treasure seeking
craze of the time. The son has some interest in his father’s
dream of finding the big one and apparently becomes disillusioned
with the hard work of digging and he then separates himself
from his father’s endeavors. His father plies his trade with
a “seeing stone” with which he tries unsuccessfully to locate
treasures. So it is from his father that young Joseph Smith
becomes acquainted with seeing stones and their use,
the papers indicate that the Joseph Smith spent some
time searching the woods until he found his own seeing stone.
Once he had the stone be began a con which is described in court
documents in detail he would place the stone over one eye and
literally “Pull the wool of his hat over his eyes” and
begin prognosticating by “Talking through his hat” to
his highly suggestible audience of treasure seekers. -- it appears
evident that young Smith could not keep a straight face and
hide his glee while he was doing his act so he used this hat
to cover his complete face before beginning his act.
Somewhere during this time smith acquires a second seeing stone that
it was reported that he stole from two neighbor’s children –
the author of the website notes that this charge greatly upset
the Mormon elders. and they paid a great expense to investigate
and “clear up the matter” – whatever that might mean. But they
absolved Smith of stealing the second seeing stone. So when
the got two seeing stones he had them mounted in a heavy silver
frame like a pair of old time spectacles. It is important to
note that this occurred years before the became the Prophet
Joseph Smith – So here we have clear testimony from court proceedings
of Smith using his seeing stones to falsely prophesy the location
of earthly treasure to paying soft brained customers and we
also see in the testimony that he had mounted these stones together
as a set of spectacles – and both of these were done long before
he began to do the same exact at as the Prophet of the fictitious
angel Moroni.
Also during this time period the Author of the website notes that
the Mother in her memoirs writes that that young Joseph Smith
would stand and recite for hours at a time for entertainment
to her and their guests of an imagined society of Indians how
they dressed, what their buildings looked like their laws their
offerings and the intricacies of their daily lives in that society
– according to the mother’s memoirs this was not an isolated
incident this was a regular event that she and their guests
loved to hear as he would add new tales and nuances to this
act of his. -- So here we have a clear admission that the
Indian society of Smith’s Childhood pretends and tall tales
became the core of the Book of Mormon and the lies and tall
tales he later told when he identified these Indians as the
lost ten tribes of Israel
Anyway the kid was so good at his act that he became known far and
wide for his “gift” and he had hundreds lining up to pay him
cash to tell them where a treasure could be dug up. News articles
even mention some notorious gangs of treasure seekers that sought
out Smith’s aide and he almost ends up being killed by them.
So the kid eventually runs afoul of the law and is arrested for stealing,
lying and committing fraud. In court under sworn testimony it
comes out about his use of seeing stones and their origin, and
their being mounted in a frame like a pair of spectacles and
perhaps the most damning is sworn testimony is given by Smith’s
best friend who the kid confided in and told him that could
see nothing with these seeing stones, he only was saying that
he was seeing things so that he could make a living.
Anyway in court Joseph Smith the evidence against Smith is overwhelming
and he is found guilty of lying, committing perjury, multiple
counts of stealing, and multiple counts of fraud and the kid
is to be sentenced to go to the big house for the thousands
he has bilked from people for a hundred or more mile radius
around his hometown. But inexplicably the judge decides to have mercy on this lad and
because of “the tenderness of his youth” and because of this,
this youthful and hardened incorrigible criminal is excused
from any jail time and released out into society where he can
again prey upon the highly suggestible..
Busted and having become a byword, and a joke on the lips of everyone
that ever heard of him Smith was laughed at “For pulling the
wool over peoples eyes.” Smith was laughed at “For talking through
his hat” and Smith was laughed at for viewing things “Through
his now infamous rose colored glasses”
– Joseph Smith having now become a laughing stock, was
no longer ply his trade. And within him he was seething over
this and wanted nothing better than to find some way to prove
all those who mocked him wrong.
This is where the story takes a sharp turn for two years or three
years later two men come and seek Joseph Smith’s aid. A former Judge Solomon Spaulding who also
is a Lawyer, and Oliver Cowdery a prolific writer
and newspaper editor of a half-dozen upstate New York Newspapers.
The
presence of these two men alone who shortly there after become
Joseph Smith’s two witnesses, and his two prophets alone should
raise one’s eyebrows.
Judge Spaulding a lawyer appears to be the mastermind
of the entire scam, and had spent quite some thine combing federal
and state law to see how for he could go with a religious con
without he or his prophet being able to be arrested.
And Cowdery was not only the scribe that was needed to pen the book of Mormon
but this man was a publicist. he was the Madison Avenue machine
of his day to see to it that 1) their prophet got all the good
press he could get with his connections. 2) he was also the
man that dreamed up many of Smith’s early photo-ops
What does
a prophet of God need with a lawyer and a publicist?
These men were seeking to create a huge con and Judge Spaulding apparently
privy to all the court documents that were recoded in Smith’s
childhood trial, was completely taken by the power of Joseph
Smith a mere child and that by himself had deceived hundreds
into handing their money over to him.
Oliver Cowdery as it turns out lived near Smith’s home
town in Vermont and after the Smith family left Vermont there
arose in the area a false prophet, a Canadian named Isaac Bullard who had 600 -800 hundreds of followers called “The Pilgrims” Their leader was also called by his
followers, the Prophet Elijah. This prophet then called for his followers to go on a journey with
him, and all of his followers sold all they had and they went
on this southern trek sharing all their had in common with the
prophet presumably holding the bag. – This man and his followers
actually stopped in upstate New York
And preached in the town that Joseph Smith resided in before heading
south. Where the prophet promptly died
Of these Pilgrims it was written:
"They profess to be the only
true followers of Jesus Christ and his Gospel, and are in a
special manner called of God to go forth into the world to do,
and that continually, his will: for which purpose they have
forsaken their houses and lands, relatives and friends, and
all this world's enjoyments, and after the manner of the apostles,
are traveling from place to place, doing good to the children
of men.”
The Salem Register –Salem Mass, September 15, 1817
LINK
TO ARTICLE ON THE_PILGRIMS
Mormonism that Judge Spaulding initially envisioned was a scam to
ensnare and fleece the Prophet-less “Pilgrims” that no longer
had a prophet. But when
Spaulding and Cowdery sit down with the kid that has “the gift”
they find he has a bunch of baggage so much so that Smith insists
that he has to find a Golden Bible – with he alone as part of
his con could translate. And he not only tells them that but
then hw outlines his imaginary Indian culture and tells them
that is to be a large part of the book.
With the sudden death of the prophet and his disciples up for grabs
and presumably the purse with all the money from these peoples
houses and lands still intact Judge Solomon Spaulding is forced
to act immediately for the timing to beable to cash in on this
is now of the essence. Because if they take too long the Pilgrims
an their money would disburse. This goes a long way to explaining
why Spaulding would put up Joseph Smith’s childish demands that
he would not play the part of Spaulding’s prophet unless the
Judge allowed Smith to discover a Golden Bible in order that
Smith receive some vindication in front of his former treasure
hunting peers. Having no time to look for another would be prophet
the judge knuckled under to the child that he would later have
to do again and again until his puppet had wrestled away all
power from Judge Spaulding and Oliver Cowdery had no time
to look for any other and so they had to pay off the child’s
demands by shelling out the time and money to pay to make Smith’s
petty demands of his finding the Golden Bible and then in creating
the entire book itself. And let me reiterate here that Smith had further
demanded that the book contain a compilation of his fantasy
of a lost race of white skinned Indians that were the lost tribes
of Israel that he had recited for several years before his mother
and close friends. The idea Smith pitched was that this golden
bible would seem to be torn out of the pages of the newspapers
of their day. Parts
of the book would be based on the most recent science and archeological
digs. And in this Judge Spaulding then advanced the idea that
the could also use materials from and unpublished Romance novel
(Adventure Novel) on
a lost civilization that had been written by a dead preacher
that was a relative of Judge Spaulding.
So from the writings it appears that they go into overdrive first
producing two sample gold plates with the symbols on it that
were found in a book that no man could read in another recent
dig – they select a wealthy farmer with a soft brain who believes
in anything and everything – like the Art bell fans today and
upon here smith ‘s story and these plates he instantly believes
and agrees to fund the publishing of the book and he apparently
insists that they are to take the plates to the man in New York
City that authenticated the other book. And Smith presumably
agreed to all of this.
However Spaulding and Cowdery know the plates will be seen as complete
forgeries and their presence constitutes their complete undoing
so they copy down on a sheet of paper a bunch of these symbols
and them claim the plates are now spiritual and they have disappeared
and will only reappear for smith to translate. So they get the
farmer to send instead of the plates a copy of some writing
that was on them. And
upon their arrival in New York the university professor does
not authenticate the piece of paper, as the Judge wants. The
articles in the website indicate that this man refused to do
so apparently suspecting a scam. So that the symbols that were
written down did not read like they should have because they
were either randomly written or they were a direct copy of what
the man had seen before. But the Judge of himself to keep the
scam going declares the writings to have been authenticated.
So that when he returns with the news the farmer gives them
the green light to print this new great revelation
And within weeks of this they hastily publish this book of Mormon
that is to be their GOLDEN BIBLE from which they will claim
to have received their power and authority.
Smith now armed with his false visions and false angel and the tales
published far and wide of his finding a Golden Bible now sits
in the hot seat having to ply his “gift” to gain enough token
followers and in so doing adjust and refine his tale enough
so that they can deceive this Pilgrims to follow Smith and hand
over to him Spaulding and Cowdery their dead prophet’s purse
filled with gold.
This is where this tale takes another massive twist. Almost immediately
Smith starts having converts, not from among his “Lost” treasure
hunting peers, but as unlikely as it would from among evangelicals
and fundamentalists. I would suggest that the first to come
over where not the best and the brightest but they didn’t need
to be it only meant that Spaulding and Cowdery had built a far
better mouse trap then they suspected. See between the three Judge Spaulding, Oliver
Cowdery and Joseph Smith none of them had an expertise in Fundamentalist
Evangelicalism or Pentecostalism Even
though Joseph Smith was their Priest/Prophet wearing their GOLDEN
EPHOD they needed a real Priest and Levite a man of letters
and Doctrine to really be able to make this things fly – and
lo and behold along with the first few reprobates that they
“Converted” almost immediately Smith somehow nailed a few preachers
like Parley Pratt and the 11 other original Apostles of Smith.
And of these men I want to suggest that no sooner than they
would have spoke with Joseph Smith they would have realized
he was almost illiterate and completely ignorant of scripture
and doctrine – so these preachers had to have been Ravening
Wolves as much as Smith, Spaulding, and Cowdery.
And these false priests and false Levites for a share
in the con lent their expertise help Smith, Spaulding and Cowdery
to hone and refine his message so that it become better tailored
to their prey.
ORLEANS AMERICAN.
Vol. II.
Albion, December 25, 1833.
No. 10.
Mormonism Exploded -- The Book of Mormon it has been ascertained by
Doctor Hurlbert, of Kirtland, Ohio, was written some thirty
years since, by a respectable clergyman, now deceased, designed
to be published as a romance. The religious character of the
work is supposed to have been superadded by the notorious Rigdon.
– this is rumor about Rigdon is proved false – it was Spaulding
and Cowdery that wrote the different books that comprise the
book of Mormon.
Of the three original players in this con of all cons neither the
kid Joseph Smith, Nor Judge Spaulding the apparent mastermind
of this whole thing, nor Oliver Cowdery the publicist and writer
none of them possessed any level of expertise in the area of
religion. Not at least to past muster with the faithful. –
As soon as anyone was able to speak to the prophet and
ask him about a scripture or doctrinal point the game would
be over. They needed someone who understood the followers of
this the prophet of the Pilgrims, who understood what these
people yearned to hear that they were currently not hearing.
They knew there were many evangelicals and fundamentalists that
yearned and were actively seeking a full restoration of the
gifts and operations of the Spirit and a restoration of the
five-fold ministry.
And so they crafted a message that was irresistible, a cohesive doctrine
that was wholly scriptural – I am not talking about the writing
of the Book of Mormon. I am talk about their denomination’s
doctrine that was preached to gain bible believing, truth seeking
converts.
Parley Pratt was a man of extremely low education due in large part
to economic circumstances, but he was of a quick mind and when
he spoke he appeared far more educated than he was. Parley became a member of the Reformed Baptist Society a Campbellite
through the preaching of Sidney Rigdon. Pratt soon decided
to take up the Cambellite ministry as a profession, and sold
his property and sought to build a church.
While traveling on the Erie Canal in western New York, Parley
came in contact with a Baptist deacon named Hamblin and was
shown a copy of the book of Mormon and was converted.
Parley Pratt became one of Joseph Smith’s original twelve
Apostles,
Sidney Rigdon the Pastor of 1st Baptist Church in Pittsburgh.
A man of some renown, a student of Pentecostal revivals of the
era mid 1700’s – 1830’s and the man was a Campbellite to boot. This is the man that put together a blend of
teachings and doctrines based on Isaac Bullard’s Pilgrims, the
French prophets, the Cainridge and Kentucky revivals and “Restoration
Teachings.” Upon his conversion he became one of Smith’s
presidential men. It appears that he was one of the movement’s
scholars
LINK
TO A SERMON BY ORSON HYDE
LINK TO A TRACT WRITTEN
BY PARLEY PRATT
While the con was only supposed to net a few hundred the pilgrims
the mouse trap that these reprobates preachers designed and
built worked so well that in 5 years they reportedly had over
200,000 converts and 600 Mormon preachers. – This was avarice
beyond any of their wildest dreams. For all their converts like The Dead Prophet
Issac Bullards sold all and deposited the money at Smith’s feet.
And as I stated in the beginning: One of the dirty little secrets
(This information comes directly from my Pharisee of Pharisees
that is now attending his second year in a 4 year Baptist bible
school) is that the Baptists in particular are terrified of
Mormonism and it was reported to the students of that school
in Okalahoma that 80% of Mormonisms new converts back at the
time of its founding were bible believing, bible reading church
attending Baptists. And I was further told that this trend has
persisted, that in this day 80% of the converts of Mormonism
are bible believing, bible reading church attending Baptists.
I was told that they are afraid that this will bring an end
to the independent Baptist churches all together.
But there was more that happened in that all these converts were
joining the one church that professed – though it was utter
lies that this was one church where one could now meet with
God in visitation, get saved filled with the spirit and speak
in tongues prophesy heal the sick raise the dead and cast out
devils
I want to state
here very clearly: Despite Joseph Smith, despite Solomon Spaulding, despite Oliver Cowdery,
despite Parley Pratt and his fellow 11 other Apostles, Sidney
Rigdon and their array of paid for lying witnesses, God came and met the sincere that sought him with their whole heart,
as is promised in Scripture and he was found of them and He
manifested the tokens of His gifts and operations among these
people. Despite that they had had been
deceived into placing themselves in the pit called the Mormon
Church.
We have had a funny view that a church or denominations corruption
– make it so that God can not meet any of the individuals in
it. That God can not speak to them as long as they are in that
church or denomination, Or that God can not save them or deliver
them while they are in that group or denomination. How then
did God call Abram out of Ur of Chaldees? Did he not have to
speak to Abram while he was amidst the sin and corruption of
that people when God first spoke to him. And did there not have
to be some growth and fellowship that Abram would have risen
up from among his nation and people to follow after the Lord?
How then did God call unto the child Samuel while he was in the corrupt
house of Eli? The truth is that God’s visitations do not in
and of themselves connote spiritual purity or righteousness
as is currently preached. The visitations of God are the Lord
striving with men – so that some might indeed be saved and follow
after him. This is why the Charismatic outpouring in the Roman
Catholic place is possible. This is why God’s spirit falling
upon King Saul is possible. This is why God speaking to Balaam
is possible. Not because these men were walking in some state
of perfection but because the Lord visits men in order to strive
with men and in that striving, He reproves of sin, He chastises
and He brings men to repentance.
In this He calls out to many -- but few hear and few experience true
conversion of heart. And while most of the Church would not
agree whole heartedly with the statement that God rains upon
the just and the unjust meaning that he reaches out and strives
with all men so that some might be saved in regards to the Samaritan
Mormons, Samaritan Jehovah witnesses and especially Samaritan
Muslims. – When speak of their own churches or denominations
they boldly state that not only are all their “Brethren” saved
as but that they all are walking in the “full Gospel” They all
are walking in the Light as he is in the light. But in truth
this is not at all the case for these men and these churches
walk as the twelve Apostles before they were converted that
is that their light is darkness, they walk as did the Pharisees
and Priests at the time of Christ in utter contempt of the Christ
and the Gospel. – And yet what did the Lord say to Nicodemus
– depart from me ye cursed or Ye must be born again. To the
Samaritan woman Jesus said salvation is of the Jews But to Nicodemus
and the twelve Apostles this salvation was not automatic. There
was not a point of time during Christ’s three and a half years
of ministry that any of these men could claim there were saved
and eternally secure. Both
Nicodemous and the Twelve Apostles had to follow on and
continue to talk in the ways of the Lord – and those like the
un-named number of disciples that in John 6:66 says they departed
from the Lord and no longer walked with Him – these all were
not eternally secure. Even though they had sat where he sat
for a time they followed and they heard His preaching and teaching.
None of these were saved by any of those acts and all of them
are burning in hell to night awaiting their final judgment of
being cast into the eternal lake of fire.
Despite the darken order and church of darkness that Nicodemus belonged
to namel the Pharisees – Christ did not demand that Nicodemus
immediately leave his church or the order to which he belonged. But we would demand such and state this Nicodemus
could not be saved unless he forsook all of this. We preach
you can’t be saved and be a Catholic, You can’t be saved and
be a Mormon. If everyone bails as is preached, who then is going
to let their lights shine in the darkness of these places? Who
is going to work within these hell-holes that others might be
saved?
One of the things in these articles that I found most disturbing
was the notion that the Mormons had had any kind of revival
in their midst. This is what upset me the lost because the implications
at least to me were greatly disturbing. For I saw in the minds eye of Baptists fundamentalists and evangelicals that all who speak in
tongues and move in the gifts of the spirit are Mormons. That all revivals with any of these manifestations
are in
their mind’s eye all
of the devil. And that was very disturbing and stung deeply
in my sprit, on the other hand it disturbed my sensibilities
that my experience in God could at all have been experienced
by any of these corrupt and sinful Samaritans. So what I am saying is that when God spoke
these things to me -- the truth cut both ways and I felt extremely
uncomfortable, I felt a stab of fear in my spirit as I came
to realize what these things meant. But it ripped open and laid
bare my own smugness and unrighteousness in how I thought of
these people in relation to what I thought about my self and
“those who believe lie me.”
So in writing what I am writing here as in my other articles
as well there is no room for any boasting here. No special privilege
and no special revelation because I had reached some higher
realm. And incidentally my first thought when I pushed away
the computer screen from me and shut down the computer was that
I could just walk away from this and never make mention of it
to anyone. – In this
case I will say that this is one of the RARE cases that I believe
that though was injected into my mind by the devil or one of
his minions – but as I went into prayer I told the Lord I could
not walk away from this and ignore it -- that if it was the truth I would have to
proclaim it despite who it might offend or cause to disfellowship
me. And from that point the Lord opened up in conformation to
this the lengthy bible study portion of this article.
LINK
to articles on speaking in tongues and other mainfestations
in early Mormon meetings
So we see that the Mormon con became “The Mormon Revival” despite
the worst that man could do. For it appears that despite the
efforts of Joseph Smith, Solomon Spaulding and Oliver Cowdery
the Lord came in visitation to the have-nots of this world that
love Him. We have more
or less the identical situation happening today with the healing
evangelists that exploit the poorest and weakest elements of
the church. Men and women from whom the Spirit of God has departed
yet by virtue of the fact that they lay their hands and pray
for so great a number of believers – someone despite the corruption
and unbelief of the evangelist, maybe its only one in a thousand
or one in ten thousand is able to reach out and touch the Lord
– and when that occurs the corrupt evangelist chalks up another
healing to the power of their ministry.
One of these articles I read was about a fundamentalist preacher
going to a Mormon meeting and after hearing a Mormon preacher
speak about the restoration of the gifts of the Spirit he requested
that this Mormon would come and pray for a crippled woman that
she might be healed – I was fascinated that the Mormon Preachers
response he went into a speech that it was not his faith but
the faith of those that he prayed for that determines whether
they shall be healed or not. (This is the blame and abuse the
sheep for all failures approach that is used in the church at
large) So the fundamentalist agrees with this corrupt notion
and they go and pray and nothing happens and the Mormon actually
gets angry and raises sand about the sheep’s unbelief. And boldly
declares it is the sheep’s fault that no healings are taking
place. It is their faulty faith not mine!
I am astonished to find that in these writings it was the Mormons
that declared the gift of tongues is the evidence of the baptism
of the Spirit first Not the Pentecostals.
I am astonished to read also that the bread and butter doctrine of
the entire faith healing movement that it is the sheep’s lack
of faith and not my lack of faith that blocks the blessings
of God healing deliverance and what have you was not a Hagan
doctrine, it was not a Wigglesworth or Bosworth doctrine, it
was not a Dowie doctrine. This doctrine was declared first by
the powerless and corrupt preachers of the Mormon Church in
order to turn their followers gaze from their powerless priests
and prophets and on the laity. So that the Mormon Church became
like the churches of today filled with the “faithless” poor,
the “faithless” afflicted, the “faithless” sick, and the “faithless”
elderly who have nobody to blame themselves for their condition
but themselves because they just won’t believe hard enough or
deeply enough.
Link
to Articles on early Mormon deaths and sickness
Mark 6:4-6
But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without
honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in
his own house. And he could there do no mighty work,
save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about
the villages, teaching.
The reason Christ could do no mighty works is not because he possessed
not the faith or the power – for he then went and laid his hands
on some of these same people that were filled with unbelief
and healed them instantly.
The reason he could do no mighty works is they would not believe
that God was doing these works through him – they would have
ascribed the works to the devil or having been done by some
mystic power – Their unbelief was in God as being the source
of these mighty works. It is not that God needed simple minds
so he could power up His magic faith ring and save the day. It is not that Christ needed or need the faith
of little Johnny and little Suzy to empower Him like in small
children’s cartoons.
Jesus said: “All power has been given unto
me.”
Jesus also said: “Cast not your pearls before
swine.”
And mighty works are pearls not to be wasted on people that
will not despite what they see and hear give the glory to God
alone.
A prime example of this is Pharaoh in Egypt with Moses and Aaron.
The man was filled with unbelief. Does Scripture say Moses could
do no mighty works because of Pharaoh’s unbelief? Or Moses was
powerless because of Pharaoh’s wizards’ unbelief? No God through
Moses and that little stick in his hand was going to make a
believer out of Pharoah And Scripture speaks of not only the
Israelites coming out of Egypt but a vast number called the
mixt multitude – those were Egyptians and others that saw and
believed and wanted to serve this God of Israel. Pharaoh could
have joined them, but as we know he did not.
Another example is Elijah the Prophet in 1 Kings 18. When Elijah set up the altar did king Ahab believe and empower Elijah to call
down fire from heaven? – No. Did the 450 prophets of Baal and
the 400 prophets of the groves faith empower Elijah to call
down fire from heaven? – No. Did all of Israel being there filled
with sin iniquity and unbelief affect in one way or another
what God was about to do? No!
I Kings 18:36-39
And it came to pass at the time of
the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet
came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it
be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am
thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. (These commands Elijah received came
not from the written word, they came from the word that proceedeth
from the mouth of the Father as they did also with Christ.)
Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know
that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their
heart back again.
Luke
1:16-17 And
many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their
God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias,
to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient
to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for
the Lord.
The Lord has spoken to my Spirit on this passage. For
decades I have had dreams about this passage, which I shall
not speak of at this time. Suffice to say before the Lord comes
again Elijah shall once more appear and shall turn the hearts
of the children to their fathers once more. And in that day
it shall come to pass and all the false priests and prophets
that are in the church shall gathered together and shall be
forced to destruction. John the Baptist baptized with water
and this one that shall come in the Spirit of Elijah shall baptize
with fire, And from
his ministry shall come forth the 144,000 that shall not love
their lives unto death but shall all be as sheep before the
slaughter and these shall indeed preach the gospel of Christ
unto every nation an tongue. And they shall be reviled of men,
they shall be cursed beat burned with fire tortured and torn
asunder. But these shall give forth the testimony of Jesus Christ.
And before the last of their number shall fail from the earth
Christ shall return.
Then the
fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and
the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water
that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they
fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God;
the LORD, he is the God.
This is faith in action! – This is not the faith that was taught
by the Mormons, carried on by John Alexander Dowie, carried
on by the Pentecostals, carried on by the Latter Rain revivalists,
and carried on now by Kenneth Hagan and his Word of Faith People.
Who I declare before the God of Heaven know not the Lord and
have not His truth in them.
I am also aware and have heard all about false anointings false healings
and all that and in times past I have preached some of those
words myself -- Yet
Christ said can the devil cast out devils by the power of the devil – if so his
house would be divided and could not stand – and to be quite frank that scripture always bothered
me when those things were being preached and said. Because you have Christ clearly saying these
things are not so, and then men in their preaching say these
things are so. So who are we to believe Christ or our pastor
or our evangelist?
What the Lord spoke to me concerning the tongues, the prophecy, the
falling out under the power of God which are spoken of in a
number of these early Mormon newspaper articles, and the Lord even spoke concerning signs and wonders which we see no evidence of
having happened those in these newspaper accounts; the Lord
said that all these things can be from God. But that when a
vessel regardless of church affiliation or their denomination
of choice uses these things to build up His ministry, His Church,
or His denomination, as has been the pernicious practice of
every church and denomination that have been endued with revival
over my last 25 years, or what I have read of Revival
in books and articles dating back to Luther, Calvin,
and Menno Simons and the birth of Protestantism as opposed to
these people in revival using it to lift up and exalt Christ
and the Father alone. – These tokens of God, the signs and the
wonders in the case ofthese self-serving vessels then become
lying signs and lying wonders and their teachers
and preachers and prophets and evangelists become false because they no longer preach
the truth – that is not to say that the words that they speak
are not scriptural and founded in truth – and it is precisely
because they use these signs and wonders in deceit, to ensnare,
to rob and to destroy – they become false. Therefore whatsoever
works they do whether they be gifts and operations of the Spirit,
whether they be a sign a wonders or a diverse miracle – these
works though they be have originated from God because they are
used by men they in deceit, to ensnare, to rob and to destroy
– and there for they become false and lead men away from God
and into darkness.
Deuteronomy
13:1-3 If there arise among you a prophet,
or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth
thee a sign or a wonder, And
the sign or the wonder come to pass, (My job is to prepare whosoever
has ear to hear for the coming onslaught of false prophets and
false apostles – and for the anti-Christ and false prophet that
shall be given all manner of signs and wonders and if possible
deceive even the very elect) whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other
gods, which thou hast not known, (Let us follow after a preacher, a ministry or a denomination and
come under their covering) and let us serve them;
Thou shalt not hearken unto the words
of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD
your God proveth you, (This passage promises the coming of false prophets,
for the express purpose of sifting the people of God – separating
wheat from chaff, separating the children of light from the
children of darkness and the name of that separation is APOSTASY
or the GREAT FALLING AWAY.) to know whether
ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul. (Or that you delight in the gifts
miracles signs and wonders.)
Moses here is prophesying of the coming of great false prophets
coming like unto him with all manner of signs and
wonders – these appeared in Israel, and in Judah and they have
also appeared in the church over the centuries in certain places
and at certain times. And they will have their culmination in
the Antichrist and the false prophet of the book of revelation
Elsewhere
Moses prophesies also of another true prophet coming like unto him – we see this in several of the old testament prophets particularly
in Elijah Isaiah and Daniel and the culmination of this in the
coming of Jesus Christ --
however we know from scripture that Elijah is to return before
the great and terrible day of the Lord – in Zechariah Zerubbabel
and Two olive trees are prophesied of and in Revelation the
two Olive trees are identified as two prophets. And Paul the
Apostle prophetically is that last apostle to come one with
a plumb line in his hand and “one out of due season.” And when
this one comes forth he shall be given all the signs of Apostleship
he shall be given all reproof and all rebuke to turn the hearts
of the children once more to their fathers (Christ and the Apostles)
and there shall be a turning unto the Lord such has never been
seen from the foundations of the earth – and after that shall
come the sifting with the antichrist and the false prophet –
and then when the full measure of sin is reached and the blood
of the righteous is spilled in the streets over the whole earth
Christ will come in vengeance and judgment.
Matthew 24:22-26 And except those
days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if
any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe
it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false
prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. (This should be translated: See I have foretold
you – Christ is prophesying) Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold,
he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret
chambers; believe it not.
What
Christ is prophesying of here is prophets with all
manner of lying signs and wonders, prophets, with sound scripture – such has never been seen for the
express purpose to sift out all that can and will be drawn away
by the lusts of their hearts And for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion, that they (That love not the Lord with all their heart with
all their soul and all their strength – that is those that do
not delight in the Lord) should believe a lie: That they
all might be damned
1 kings 22:19-23 And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the
LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing
by him on his right hand and on his left. And the LORD said,
Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one said on this manner, and another
said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood
before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. And the LORD
said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the
mouth of all his prophets. And He said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
And
I perceive by the Spirit that in the time of the fullness of
the gentiles when the measure of sin that is in the church shall
be as the sins of Israel were when they were cut off and taken
away from before the Lord – In that day the Lord shall sit upon
His throne and say: Who shall persuade the church that hath
corrupted itself even those who have stained their garments
who call themselves my elect that they might go out and follow
the Antichrist and his false prophet that they might with him
be cast into the eternal lake of fire – that they may ever be
taken away from my presence? And one said
on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came
forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will
persuade him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he
said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth
of all their prophets. And He said, Thou shalt persuade Then,
and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the
mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil
concerning thee.
This
is what is termed in Scripture God given them up and over. This
is what is termed in Scripture as the people of God being overthrown.
Or cast out from His sight – and the corrupt church of this
hour is flirting with this very thing.
As
I have said elsewhere there are serious matters. This is not
some game we are playing, the church right now is in a fight
for its very existence. The gates have been breached and lying
preachers lying teachers lying prophets and lying evangelists
have entered into the habitation of the Lord and they come bearing
gifts of corruption and the world goodly wedges of gold, goodly
Babylonish garments, all manner of idols and images and other
abominations that have no place in the people of God.
The
cry has rung out in the Spirit to separate yourselves from all
these unclean things, wash yourselves, and make yourselves clean
for the Lord cometh.
So here we have a known thief, liar, and con man, in Joseph Smith
who with the aid of his mother (who I have not spoken of her
involvement in all of this) and two men Judge Spaulding and
the Publicist Cowdery and they create the tale of a “Golden
Bible.” And they name
Smith the con with his seeing stone to act as the high priest
and prophet of this unseen Golden bible for the express purpose
of snagging the 500 – 800 disciples of another false prophet
that had just died. These are not able to produce any signs
and wonders, there appears that no one in their midst was
healed of anything and no one was ever raised from the dead
– And they wannabe prophet Joseph Smith was not
able to name a single sign that came to pass. So the Mormon
scam does not begin to approach the words of Moses or Christ
or the Prophecy of Miciah the Prophet in 1 kings 22 cited above.
What w have here is a complete con job manufactured completely of
the flesh – with the doctrinal help of reprobates Baptist and
Methodist Preachers like Sidney Rigdon, Parley Pratt, and Orson
Hyde they build a better mouse trap, that is only second to
the prosperity gospel that is preached in our day. The gospel
that these men built succeeded because like the message of all
of fundamentalism, the gospel of Mormonism it is done on a
man’s say so in other words both Gospels are is driven
on the bible and what men say it means. There is no demonstration
and power of the Spirit, there is no healing or deliverance.
There is no fire from heaven or signs and wonders to establish
what is true or false. Both Mormonism, Fundamentalism, and
Evangelicalism are is based on men’s say so as to what the scripture
says and means. And Paul in 1 Corinthians tell us flat out
that the natural unregenerate corrupt spirit that is in men
and in the members of the Corinthian Church could not spiritually
discern the deep things of God that are hid in scripture. And
Paul further states that it takes an operation of the Holy Ghost
something more than salvation, something more than water baptism,
something more than even the laying on of hands of the Apostles
and receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost to be able to partake
of that. Understand also that I am NOT exempting Pentecostals and Charismatics
from this empty corrupt say so of men Gospel it is just that
they were not around as such in 1830.
So if we are to be really truthful at the time of Joseph Smith the
fundamentalist and evangelical movement though in revival, though
in the second great awakening were still ruled by sinful and
corrupt men who’s words were on par with scripture. And Rigdon,
Pratt and Hyde are able to in spades not only match but blow
past all their peers because they promised to deliver what the
Baptists Methodists and Presbyterians could not and could not
– Smith and his false priests and Levites promised they could
deliver into the hands of their hearers the full gospel – and
the restoration of the gifts and operations of the Spirit and
the five–fold ministry.
And in poker my friend a royal flush always trumps the empty poker
hand of a man’s say so gospel.
See the early converts of Mormonism were bible reading and church
going Baptists Methodists and Calvinists and regardless of what
dispensational hoodoo they came with to try to explain away
why the baptism of the Spirit and the gift of tongues, and all
the other gifts were only for the Apostles – The words of Peter
in Acts clearly state that this gift of the Spirit with the
manifestation of tongues and Prophecy is: For
them that are afar off and to as many as shall receive him. And in the Gospel of Mark it is likewise clearly stated for all
to read that: these signs shall follow them that
believe – in my name they shall
. . .
And for any true believer the words of Christ trump the words of
any pastor. Teacher. or denomination. as they rightly should.
And in the case of Baptist’s having forsaken their Ana-Baptist past
with tongues prophesy and signs and wonders for the staunch
cold unfeeling say-so Gospel of
John Calvin and Martin Luther and most particularly their most damnable
heresy that came from the lips of the Roman Catholic theologian
St. Augustine namely: “Eternal Security.” – Once these people
are “saved” regardless of where they are, or what they do, they
can simply walk away from the Baptists into any church or fellowship
or cult without fear. – For they were taught from being knee
high that nothing not even they themselves can take them out
of God’s hand. And for these the enticement of being
able to walk in “a greater light” or “a fuller gospel” comes
at no price and cost and that is exactly why the Baptists of
all denominations has the place of honor as being the people
of Mormon’s past and Mormon’s present that comprise 80% of this
cult’s new converts.
And I repeat that what the Mormon’s preach is also a say-so gospel in that these corrupt and blind
preachers are not able to produce any signs and wonders. Not
now, and not in the days of their inception. In the written
testimonies it also appears that no one in their midst was healed
of anything, and no one was ever raised from the dead, though
they repeatedly tried to do both in their own power and strength.
As the powerless members of the Word of Faith Moment also attempt
in this day. And the
Mormon’sr wannabe prophet Joseph Smith was also not able to
name a single sign that came to pass. And we have this same
dearth in the current Pentecostal Movement, in the Current Charismatic
Movement and in the Current Word of Faith Movement – all of
which the Lord has departed from because of sin and corruption.
At least the Pentecostals had true signs and wonders and this is
attested to by hundreds if not thousands completely independent
of each other around the world but that was from 1906 –1930
and at least the latter rain revival had signs and wonders that
has been attested by hundreds if not thousands the world over
and there is film available of some of these works but that
only lasted 1948 –1954 and after that the leaders of the movement
fell into grievous sin and were struck down one after another.
But despite the fact that they could not deliver any of the goods
they promised probably their own astonishment they were able
to net tens of thousands of converts from Baptist, Methodist,
and Presbyterian churches. Even some well-known preachers of
that day were sucked into Mormonism making all of this scam
of theirs all the more damnable in my eyes.
John
4:3-27 And He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.
And He must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city
of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground
that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there.
Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on
the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman
of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which
am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans.
When God speaks, the voice of the Lord brings light, and revelation
of Him and His purposes, His voice breaks the yolks that religious
men have created to impair believers from coming into all that
God has for them as individuals, His voice sets people free
from darkness and bondage. And when He speaks the very Scriptures
leap into place and take on new meaning that the natural man
can not see nor understand regardless of the amount of time
one would spend reading and studying scripture – that is not
to deny or diminish the need of believers to: Study and show one’s self approved.
It
is to declare that there is a spiritual element to understanding
the word of God that is woefully missing in the church of this
hour. This lack of a spiritual understanding could be defined
as a lack of hearing of
the word that proceedeth from the Father, and this is ultimately why there is a lack of
impartation in our day of the light and life of Christ that
is demonstrated in the Gospels and the lives of the Apostles
in the book of Acts.
Matthew
7:28-30 And it came to pass,
when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished
at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority,
and not as the scribes.
Hearing the word that proceedeth
from the mouth of the father and speaking it, gives one great
spiritual authority. Reading the letter and expounding the doctrines
and teachings of men as the scribes and Pharisees did make for
hollow and empty teaching that carries no spiritual weight with
it.
1
Corinthians 2:9-10 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him. But God hath
revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God.
Paul is speaking
here of the word that proceedeth from the mouth of the Father.
And in the context of this passage Paul bluntly tells the Corinthians
who were born again, baptized in water, baptized in the Holy
Spirit by the laying on of hands of the Apostles, they were
a church that excelled in all the gifts and operations of the
Spirit, these were a people that well acquainted with the visitations
of God. And Paul states that with all they had and all that
they saw relative to the Gospel that they were yet carnal. In
other words they have not been converted for they yet have hearts
of stone and are yet a stiff-necked people and because of this they were yet unable to
hear the word that proceedeth from the Father.
And this parallels
exactly with the lives of the 12 and the 70 during the life
and ministry of Christ. Christ continually rebuked His disciples
over their carnality.
And I might add that
this is exactly the charge Christ makes in the book of Revelation
to the Laodiceans – And in their case we see that this is a
sin unto death as it was to the Israelites in the wilderness.
And we see that Christ was speaking of this very thing
when He spoke these following words to the scribes, to the Pharisees,
to the disciples of John and to His disciples.
John
5:38-40 And ye have not His word abiding in you: for whom he hath
sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think
ye have eternal life: (but) they are they which
testify of Me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
What Paul is saying to the Corinthians
when he wrote: Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the
heart of man? He is saying that
in all their searching and meditating upon the scriptures,
the Corinthians had discerned little or nothing. In hearing
the preachings and teachings of even men like Paul, Peter, and
Apollos they had received little or nothing. And that even when
they carnally prayed and carnally waited upon the Lord the Corinthians
had received precious little.
And if we can be honest with ourselves we can see ourselves
being in this same boat.
Paul is saying here that revelation,
understanding, and enlightenment, comes from God alone, and
by His Spirit -- Yet it has been made out since the days
of John Calvin and Martin Luther that by study and the possession
of doctorates and degrees that men of learning are God’s chosen
vessels to disseminate truth. If you look at the Protestant
denominations of today and in particular recipients of “recent
revival” in particular the Methodists, the Baptists, the Pentecostals,
the Latter Rain Pentecostals and even the Charismatics that
ALL have forsaken the requirement of one being “Called of God”
and replaced it with the requirement of people with degrees
and letters as the standard for their preachers and religious
hierarchy.
Even in Pinecrest back in the late
1970’s when it was called “The School of the Spirit” in Wade
Taylor’s own words every year on the first day of the new school
year Pinecrest had a 93% failure rate. In other words those
that had come to Pinecrest, arrived deaf, blind, and naked before
God as the Corinthians and that in his estimation 93% those
that left Pinecrest left in the same if not worse condition,
as they had learned only an empty spiritual sounding vocabulary
and some empty forms of worship and prayer.
We can say the same thing of all other
bible schools across the nation, that the disciple-graduates
of these schools are only able to articulate the doctrines and
traditions of the men and women that they devote themselves
to. And in most cases they become a very degraded copy of the
original. They become
a wannabe IQ Spenser, a wannabe John Wright Follette, a wannabe
Walter H. Beuttler, a wannabe Kenneth E. Hagan etc. But in actuality
by their training they are not able to much more than to consult
and access the vast libraries of the commentaries, study notes,
and writings of these dead men and dead women whom they so seek
to emulate. And from all of that; that would be reading their
books, listening to their tapes, using their study notes, and
having attending their bible schools for 2 –4 year they end
up with only an infinitesimal portion of what they believe to
be these dead men and women’s mantles.
At least the Corinthians had sure teachers
founded in truth and righteousness, but not one bible school
in this day has a man that has come into the light and walks
in the light as Paul the Apostle, Peter the Apostle, or even
Apollos, and I include myself in this list as falling woefully
short. Regardless of what I write as God illuminates, I am constantly
aware of my blindness, my deafness, and my nakedness before
the Lord I do not feel
I am the man for the job to speak any of the things that I write
here, as I have attained at this late date nothing. My writing
does not denote any expertise in these areas. I have to seek
God and pray continually that I can enter in these very things
myself. And the more
God shows me the greater my lack becomes. And this in itself
is frightening and daunting but I press on to the mark of the
high calling that the word that proceedeth reveals.
It is NOT my desire that you come into
a “higher realm” or come into a “deeper walk ”as I now see it
is not enough to go from one shade of walking in darkness to
another. It is my desire that your eyes be opened and
that you see the hope of your calling in Christ and that
you strive to walk in the light as He is in the light. And that
means some fundamental changes are going to have to occur in
your life, and my life as well. It means that we cannot continue
in the sloppy carefree way we have walked in up to now. Where
we can pick and choose what we want to obey and do according
to what pleases our flesh.
My greatest fear is when people read
these things that they will say: “heard truth equals truth conquered.”
This was the maxim in Charismatic movement when I first got
saved. And people ordered their lives by what we later called:
“the truth of the month club. This being a hearer only lifestyle
created a never-ending series of fad spiritual diet plans, each
of which promised to make one into an overcomer in 4-6 weeks,
four easy steps to becoming a prophet of God, How to see visions
and dream dreams etc. My fear is that in hearing these things
it will just become part of one’s spiritual vocabulary like
the Corinthians who were rich in words and teaching but utterly
poor in Spirit. If the words in the website do not drive you
to Christ, and Christ alone. If they do not make you fall on
your face before God and cry out to open your eyes and cleanse
you until you can see real physical measurable change in your
life you’re your relationship with Christ, and with those around
you who are created in the image and likeness of God – then
these words have done nothing for you.
And it would be better for you to never have heard or
read these things.
Christ in this passage cited above
(John 5:38-40) is speaking to the Scribes, Pharisees,
Sadducees, the disciples of John, and His own disciples
who at that time numbered in the hundreds.
Consider now His words to even His own: Ye have not His Word abiding
in you – This was a stinging rebuke
specifically to the groups of men in his day that claimed they
were the guardians of truth.
The notion by Fundamentalists
and Word of Faith people; that having memorized a handful of
scriptures means you have God’s word abiding in you is utterly
false. It is no more true of a Hassidic Jew mumbling memorized
bits of the Torah while wearing a verse on his forehead and
as frontlets before his eyes, that this person has God’s word
abiding in him. The
word “Abiding” is an act of God, it is the impartation and indwelling
of His Spirit that the word may become flesh. That is that it may be enacted in word and
deed. And if this is indeed done, it then is our becoming one with Him.
So to the religionists
of His day, and to the disciples of John and even to His own
disciples Christ said: Ye have not His Word abiding in you. Now if Christ said that to his own disciples and
the disciples of John who had heard the truth under “optimum
conditions” -- that is they heard the Gospel from His own
lips and John the Baptist’s lips, how much more do you think
He is saying the same thing if not more to the church of this
hour? A church that today arrogantly boasts that they possess
all truth and light.
But Christ did not stop with his rebuke there. I want you to consider
that it had become “hip” to follow this young mysterious Messiah
out of Galilee. We need to know that Christ would have no part
of being treated as a celebrity then, and that He will not have
any part of that now. Since the mid 80’s with the rise of Christian
Rock, and the entire Christian Pop- Culture believers have tried
to cast of any semblance of humility and separation from the
world. The Gospel that is now preached is an arrogant, in your
face Gospel in which following Christ is Kewl. It is a Gospel
in which believers openly call non-believers losers, and taunt
non-believers and those who they deem to believe less than them.
They credo has become: “God wants all of His Kidz to be Kingdom
Kidz” that is that they as believers are all to be wealthy and
all to be successful in all the ways of the world.. – So much
so that the theory that is driving the prosperity gospel goes
like this: god enriches us with the things of the world so that
world would become astonished to see our “great earthly wealth”
and our “great earthly success” and then they will fall on their
faces before us and say I want that god that gives you all this
wealth and success. Friends, I know only one god that grants his
riches and wealth to men and it is for the purpose of corrupting
their souls and he is the god of this world.
We are told that the devil can at times transform himself into an
angel of light in order to tempt and deceive. And as satan tempted
Christ offering him all the wealth and power of the kingdoms
of the earth, so through the ages he has tempted the church
time and again with the same offer and many have willing accepted
his offers of the riches of this world and the kingdoms thereof
(supposedly that they might be better able to preach the
Gospel, and to be able to reach more for Christ) while others
have been seduced or outright deceived. The devil revels
in how cheaply he can buy out his victims.
And with what little bits of dirt he can offer to the
heirs of salvation are all too willing to trade their birthright
for.
The temptations of Christ in the wilderness bring up another proof
against the message of the Prosperity Gospel for the bible says
Christ was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he fasted
for 40 days and 40 nights to be tempted of the devil and when
He returned from this Christ came out in the power of the Spirit.
If ever Christ lived in poverty, if Christ ever hungered and
was thirsty, if ever he lived with one garment and one garment
alone it was here --
and from this separation, from this level of commitment, from
this denial of self in every way Christ came out with the power
of the Spirit. If the Prosperity Gospel were
the Gospel of Jesus Christ we would read that Christ entered
into Jerusalem, he proclaimed that he was the messiah and took
the throne of King David and everyone lavished him with money
and gifts of houses and lands and as he rode his chariot proudly
through the streets of Jerusalem having fully entered into what
the Father had for him the power of the Spirit came down upon
him.
I am fortunate to be just old enough and to have been saved just
long enough, and went to a large enough variety of meetings
in different denominations in my youth to remember what the
church was like before the first message of the Prosperity Gospel
was ever preached. I remember a day when wealth and riches were preached as sin. I
remember a day when we were told that a love of the world and
the things of the world would lead one to eternal death.
I remember a day when it was preached that the God of
this world had created all these bright and glittery things
like technology, and so called science to ensnare people and
take them away from the feet of Christ. – Never have truer
words been spoken.
I remember 35 years ago when many of these technological wonders
were purposely kept without the church. But today, they are
not only within the church, but they are spoken of in glowing
terms as being vital parts of our worship and salvation.
I ask you with all sincerity when the mark of the beast comes, how
many of these corrupt churches and denominations shall ask their
members to take the mark in order that they might continue to
receive their coveted tithes and offerings?
Let us return now to the words of Christ: where to this same audience
of Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, disciples of John and His own
disciples. Christ next says:
Search the
scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: (but) they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.
Christ is telling them flat out that the Pharisees Sadducees the
Scribes and the Disciples of John and His disciples beyond the
12 and the 70, that they were all being diverted. As the prophet
spoke in the last days men shall have itching ears and shall HEAP unto
themselves teachers. This is the same behavior Christ denounced of their spending endless
time searching the scriptures presumably to argue the pro or
con of some of the “finer”
doctrinal points. Christ is categorically stating that this
though cited as “commendable” behavior in the Bereans in the
book of Acts, that this behavior could not and would not in
and of itself produce eternal life in any of its adherents.
Not in the Pharisee, not in the Sadducee, not in the Scribe,
not in the Disciple of John, and not in the disciple of Christ.
From this passage we perceive that power of the Spirit cannot be
gained from the dead letter of the word.
Christ was telling the his hearers of that day and unto
us that salvation, the power in the Spirit, spiritual understanding,
revelation, all come from Him alone and in particular our coming
to Him alone comes at the price of forsaking all our rabbis,
all our teachers, all our wannabe prophets and their doctrines
and their traditions. All of which the Pharisees Sadducees and
Disciples of John, and the even Disciples of Christ at that
time had all this in spades.
I further perceive by the Spirit that many of Christ’s disciples
(Not the 12 or the 70) but this vast un-numbered multitude of
disciples were actually fad followers of Christ, and
that these fair-weather followers were coming to Him
and trying to impress Him with their knowledge and skill in
Scripture. A practice which we know that the 12 and 70 could
not do for they were unlearned men. But the day that a gaggle of professional polished Disciples that
attempted to outshine all the rest with their worldly wisdom
and carnal grasp of scripture had come and infested “the church.”And
in this passage we see that Jesus was not at all impressed,
with their cunning craftiness with scripture and their natural
ability to splice verses together. Instead He points out that
these professed disciples had no right to even claim their were
His disciples, For unlike the 12 and the 70 this
mixt multitude of men and women that had NEVER actually come
unto Him.
And what is written of this unnumbered great mass of disciples that
are spoken of in John Chapters 5-6? What great works or signs
and wonders did these perform?
What great deeds of faith did they perform?
What selfless acts did they perform as in selling their
houses and lands and giving all to the poor? Are not the Gospels
are strangely silent on these men and women? The reason in being
is that there was nothing to say about them other than that
they had made themselves disciples of Him and followed
Him and then they quickly forsook Him, just as Christ prophesied
of them in the Parable of the Sower.
For with the 12 and the 70 Christ saw qualities in these men that
He desired. And God the Father himself also bore witness of
these men as they went out two by two preaching the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. And God bore them witness with signs,
wonders, and diverse miracles. But of this unnumbered crowd
of wannabe disciples Christ saw only emptiness, and vanity and
the bible says Christ knew that regardless of their words and
their purported deeds that THESE MEN BELIEVED NOT.
Today the church is filled with this type of hollow, dysfunctional
disciples of Christ, many of which boast of their carnal knowledge
of Scripture, in a transparent attempt to gain standing over
their peers and exalt themselves. This is the Say-so Gospel
that led to the rise of the Mormons. And in response to these
words some will preach that they do not have a say-so Gospel
but a know-so Gospel to which their disciples will applaud wildly.
But their know-so Gospel is not more the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and the Apostles than the Say-so Gospel of the fundamentalists
and the evangelicals because it lacks demonstration and power,
it lack the Father bearing it witness with signs and wonders
and diverse miracles. The
Corinthians had tongues and prophecy up to their arm pits as
did the 70 elders in the wilderness but neither entered into
the promise. And among the Corinthians there was not a Joshua
or a Caleb among them as it is in those who proclaim they are
the spiritual vanguard of this hour that are going to lead the
church the fullness of the Spirit and the full restoration of
the gifts and the five fold ministry – I am not speaking about
the Mormons here, but those who profess their very words and
call it end time truth. These shall also die in their sins and
their bones shall bleach in the wilderness as a testament against
them as the bones of their fathers before them.
But these in fact like the
“other disciples” these too do not know Him, nor believe
in Him and will not come unto Him forsaking all else and
regardless of their affiliation of denomination, fellowship
or church the Father has not and will not bare these witness
either.
I perceive by the Spirit that these “other disciples” in fact did
not sell all to follow Him. That they did not travel on foot
extensively following Christ, and that they did not sleep in
the rain and under the stars at night. Instead at night each
one went to their own homes. While Christ said: Foxes have holes and birds have nests but the son
of man hath nowhere to lay his head. And we know that the 12 and the 70 were with him day and night until
the very end.
I perceive that these other disciples were camp followers. And that
the real reason that they were there was if Christ was indeed
the Messiah and that He did indeed take the earthly throne of
David, that if they had somehow wormed their way in to became
one of “His Disciples” they reasoned that they would have first
dibs at all the positions that would be available in the earthly
kingdom of the Messiah. Positions that the “dimwitted” 12 and
70 in their estimation fell far short of receiving.
John 5:38-40 And ye have not His word abiding in you: for whom he hath
sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think
ye have eternal life: (but) they are they which
testify of Me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
These verses also serve as a sound guide for us, to lead us towards
sound doctrine. For from this passage we perceive that all
good doctrine, like all good prophecy leads us to Christ and
Christ alone, for it is He alone that has the power to heal,
to save, and to redeem us.
All false doctrine like all false prophecy guides us to follow men,
their doctrines, their traditions, their ministries, their churches,
and their denominations. This
passage ought to send warning bells off in your spirit, for
if Christ could tell His “disciples” that 1) they had not the
word abiding in them 2) that their searching of scriptures to
find eternal life was in vain 3) that they will not come unto
Him that they have life. And His “disciples” had indeed heard
the word of truth preached to them under the most optimum of
conditions that is by His mouth and by demonstration with the
witness of His heavenly Father – then what will He say to the
corrupt church of our day who has lost its way, but boasts that
we have all truth, and we have no need that Christ or the Spirit
should guide us to all truth seeing a we have heaped unto ourselves
earthly teachers both living and dead?
Paul in I Corinthians
2:9-10 affirms Christ’s claim of salvation and spiritual knowledge
is gained only by coming unto Him by saying:
But God hath revealed
them unto us by His Spirit acknowledging that
spiritual enlightenment comes from God alone.
But
Christ did not stop with His sharp rebuke there, He continues
in:
John 5:42 But I know
you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
I will let you meditate upon
this verse on your own and see what God speaks to you concerning
this in a day when we are told that Christ only speaks in love,
that He never rebukes, or judges anyone., that is only the devil
that judges and condemns you and the church.
This message in culminated in the next chapter
in the Gospel of John
John 6:63-66 It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are
life. But there are some
of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed
not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I
unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my
Father. From that time many
of his disciples went back, and
walked no more with him.
Jesus said and ye
shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. But
in order to get us to know
the truth Christ has some hard things to say unto us
as He STRIVES WITH FLESH in order that we might clean up our
act and repent. And if when you hear His voice of chastisement
and correction if you do as what is popularly taught in this
hour that is to say: “Be gone!
I rebuke you devil.”
How are you ever going to repent and be changed from
glory to glory into His image and His likeness? .
The central issue is, are we willing to humble
ourselves and repent so that He can set us free.
Or do we want instead, to let the good times roll, and
follow in the long-held sacred traditions of the fad-followers
of Christ?
The measureship
(I just made that word up) of discipleship is measured
by whether we follow Him to personal loss, or to personal gain.
On one hand the world and CINO’s (Christians
In Name Only) are willing to follow Him only for personal gain
That is: Fire insurance, earthly riches, fame, ministry etc.
and only under the most extreme of circumstances; like their
being faced with death or a crippling disease do they become
unsure where they really stand with God. And then, and only
then do they hand over their earthly riches and possessions
that they held in a white knuckle grip not to the poor but to
some church, ministry, or denomination, in a last second attempt
to bribe God, for their salvation or their deliverance. Which
an increasingly corrupt priesthood is all to willing to accept
their 30 pieces of silver in the name of Christ and then keep
it for themselves.
While on the other
hand Christ measures His true disciples by their willingness
to suffer personal loss. This is in areas of earthly possessions; of
house(s) of land(s) and all the toys we tend to amass to ourselves,
the boats, the cars, the snow machines if you live in Alaska
etc. Christ also probes us in areas of our earthly
livelihood, in areas of our earthly family, and in our earthly
friends to see if we value these above Him.
And interestingly
enough we are told by the purveyors of the Prosperity Gospel
that this heaping unto ourselves of material wealth, our bejeweled
earthly families, our worldly friends fawning over our wealth
are all part of the American Dream and are thus to be coveted
above all. And so in
the earthly and sensual church of our day this is what is palmed
off to believers as our being complete in Christ, this is what
is preached as the sign of our entering into true spirituality,
and this is what we are to receive for our entering into the
promises of God.
So that if you can
check off all or most of the above “personal gain list”
we are told by the Word of Faith People that we are blessed.
But if on the other hand, you can check off all or most of the
above “personal loss list” These same people strongly
suggest that you are not blessed by God, and therefore you must
not be living right or believing right.
Who is right? How can we know which is true? If we cannot understand Christ’s words or the
Apostles words we can at least see in the Gospels and the book
of Acts look at how Christ and the Apostles lived, and what
their deeds were. Where do Christ and the Apostles live like
kings dining on only the best? Where do Christ and the Apostles
receive 100 fold earthly houses and earthly lands and heap them
unto themselves? Where do Christ and the Apostles ride on chariots
to get them to and from meetings. Where di Christ and the Apostles
and rent out stadiums to preach the word in? Did you know that
Jerusalem had a stadium at the time of Christ. It was called
the Hippodrome in it they had sporting events, chariot races,
and Olympic events. There were hippodromes in all the major
cities that the Roman conquered when Paul is speaking of Athletes
he is speaking of those who participated in events in Hippodromes
–Yet neither Christ nor the Apostles nor Paul ever used these
– why? Did you know that there was a forum in Jerusalem that
philosophers and actors spoke and performed in. Paul refers
in several places to the actors of these forums and yet neither
Christ, nor the Apostles not Paul went and spoke in any of these.
One might ask themselves why would it not have been “Wisdom”
for them to speak from a safe neutral place rather then going
to the temple or synagogues or meeting on Solomon’s porch? Consider
where do we meet and preach today? In our own synagogues and
in our own temples. Consider where our evangelists hold meetings
today in stadiums forums and other safe places. If Christ would
not and could not, If the Apostles would not and could not,
and if Paul would not and could not do what we do how can we
pretend it is all good and continue meeting in this way of sin
and corruption?
How then can one believe that they are indeed
a disciple of Christ when their lifestyle in no way matches
Christ’s lifestyle or the lifestyle of the Apostles? How is
it then that you are His disciple? Is it by your word and your word alone? Is
it by your confession alone or by the “profession” of faith
that you made long ago that you were His? Do you spend hours
regularly at His feet delighting in fellowshipping with Him?
Do you spend hours reading and delighting in His word and meditating
on it? Do you desire above all that anything in your life that
is unlike Him and unlike how He lived be removed from you?
Paul said that when he peers in a glass (Greek:
a mirror) he sees though darkly, Christ in himself -- I confess
that when I look in the mirror I do not see Christ, I see a
sinner that needs to be saved by God’s grace. I see a poor disciple,
with empty hands, that has nothing that he can say or boast
of to Christ.
Matthew 16:24-26 Then
said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save
his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for
my sake shall find it. For what is
a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
When Christ
spoke these words to His disciples, not one of them was unfamiliar
with the idea of crosses or crucifixions. As it turns out, crucifixions
were first conducted by the Persians and then the custom was
adopted by Alexander the Great’s in his conquest of Asia Minor,
Israel, and Palestine. Then later when the Romans came into
power they adopted the custom of crucifixion as well. Originally
crucifixion was a punishment only worthy of the lowest slaves,
and barbarians, but during the Roman occupation it became the
strongest means of maintaining order and security with Roman
governors regularly imposed this punishment on any of those
who questioned Rome’s rulership.
Josephus records numerous crucifixions, one of them occurred
during the Maccabean period when there arose a rebellion in
thee Jewish city of Bethome, in quelling the uprising some 800
Jewish rebels were captured by the Romans and taken to Jerusalem
where they were crucified in a mass execution. The Roman public was so horrified by the humiliation,
the torture, and the suffering during Crucifixion that the Roman
Senate was forced to enact a law that no Roman citizen could
be subjected to the cruelties of crucifixion.
The Jews
according to the law of Moses were obligated to stone to death
all those who committed heinous acts, and after their death
they would them hang their dead corpse on a tree signifying
to all who passed that this man was cursed of God. So when the
Romans took over the Sanhedrin probably under pressure of Rome
passed an ordinance that said that anyone who was hung on a
Roman Cross was also cursed of God thereby naming all
Jews that were crucified
not as patriots or as freedom fighters but as cursed
of God. By the time
of Christ the Romans in and around Jerusalem had crucified and
thereby cursed thousands.
So realizing
this when Christ spoke these words If any man will come
after me, (be
my disciple) let him deny
himself, (humble themselves, make themselves of no reputation, and divest themselves
of their holdings in their world) and take up his cross, (to
open themselves up to being humiliated, scourged, and to even
be made partakers of my bodily death) and (then you can be
me disciple and) follow me.
For whosoever will save his life (by not opening themselves
up to being humiliated, scourged and being made partakers in
my death) shall lose it (Depart
from me ye that work iniquity for I never knew you): and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
(For
I will also confess that I know him before the Father)
This passage of: “Whosoever will save his
life” was considered so important by the Apostles that it was
included in each of the four Gospels, and in the Gospel of Luke
these words were repeated twice.
Luke 9:24 For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will
lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
Luke
17:33 Whosoever
shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall
lose his life shall preserve it.
And Even Paul
the Apostles repeats this message from Christ in his epistles.
Philippians
3:7 But what things were
gain to me, those I (now) count (as) loss for Christ.
Philippians
3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Understand that Paul is telling us that once upon a time he lived
“The American Dream.” He is telling us that had everything on
the checklist, but when he came to Christ in order to serve
him fully he had to give up all those things. And he
tells us that he gladly did so.
If Paul the Apostle lived the life you now live, what kind of Epistles
if any do you suppose he might have wrote? Paul knew he had been bought with a price. Paul knew that he was
no longer his own. And so accordingly he walked away from The
American Dream and traversed the Middle East and Asia Minor
on foot preaching the Gospel. He slept out in the rain and the
cold and under the stars of the night, for he no longer had
a house of his own that he could rest his head. And we know from the Gospel’s that this is
exactly what Christ and the 12 and the 70 did. And we know from
the Old Testament that by enlarge this is how Abram lived, how
David lived before he became king, and how the prophets lived.
Isaiah 40:9 O
Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high
mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest
good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be
not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
Here the
Prophet Isaiah declares that Preaching “good tidings” (the Gospel)
to Jerusalem, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the earth is to proclaim with loud voice “Behold
your God!” Not to proclaim
one’s self, or one’s ministry, one’s church, one’s denomination
or some company of believers that one might be led to believe
that they belong to. But to boldly proclaim “Behold your God!”
Isaiah
59:15-17 Yea,
truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself
a prey and the LORD saw it, and it
displeased him that there was no judgment. 16And
he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no
intercessor: therefore His arm brought salvation unto him; (the
sheep who were made a prey)
and His righteousness, it sustained him. For he (the
sheep)
put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation
upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,
and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
And in this light of verses 16-17 this is the passage Paul instructs
believers to put on the whole armor of God – is not intended to protect us from the world,
but to protect us from the wolves, the false teachers, the false
shepherds, the false evangelists, the false prophets and the
coming onslaught of false apostles in the church of this hour
This equipping of the saints is for the express purpose that His people might no longer be
a prey to preachers churches, ministries, and denominations.