John 5:37-40, “And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 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: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”
I think it is safe to say that nearly everyone has heard about the creepy Heaven's Gate Cult in California that claimed the lives of 39 people from mass-suicide in 1997. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the cult...
Heaven's Gate was an American new religious movement (often described as a cult), founded in 1974 and led by Bonnie Nettles (1927–1985) and Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997), known within the movement as Ti and Do, respectively. Nettles and Applewhite first met in 1972 and went on a journey of spiritual discovery, identifying themselves as the two witnesses of Revelation, attracting a following of several hundred people in the mid-1970s. In 1976, the group stopped recruiting and instituted a monastic lifestyle.
Scholars have described the theology of Heaven's Gate as a mixture of Christian millenarianism, New Age, and ufology, and as such it has been characterized as a UFO religion. The central belief of the group was that followers could transform themselves into immortal extraterrestrial beings by rejecting their human nature, and they would ascend to heaven, referred to as the "Next Level" or "The Evolutionary Level Above Human". The death of Nettles from cancer in 1985 challenged the group's views on ascension, where they originally believed that they would ascend to heaven while alive aboard a UFO, they later came to believe that the body was merely a "container" or "vehicle" for the soul, and that their consciousness would be transferred to new "Next Level bodies" upon death.
On March 26, 1997, deputies of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department discovered the bodies of the 39 active members of the group, including that of Applewhite, in a house in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe. They had participated in a mass suicide, a coordinated series of ritual suicides, coinciding with the closest approach of Comet Hale–Bopp. Just before the mass suicide, the group's website was updated with the message: "Hale–Bopp brings closure to Heaven's Gate ...our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth is finally coming to conclusion—'graduation' from the Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave 'this world' and go with Ti's crew."
The name "Heaven's Gate" was only used for the final few years of the group's existence, and they had previously been known under the names Human Individual Metamorphosis and Total Overcomers Anonymous.
“Truth is stranger than fiction,” as it has often been said. I encourage you to read the rest of the story on Wikipedia, which is bizarre to say the least. You might want to sit down for some of this, because it is so crazy that it might make you feel weak. I did read it myself and my hair is standing up (what's left of it...lol). I took my time researching this subject, to try to find out how 38 intelligent thinking people allowed themselves to become victims of a psychotic religious madman!!!
As it turns out, the cult's leader and founder Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997) was the son of a Presbyterian pastor. Go figure! The famous soulwinning evangelist, Billy Sunday (1862-1935), was also a Presbyterian minister. But like Marshall Applewhite, Billy Sunday's three sons caused him and their mother, Helen Sunday, much grief. Sunday's oldest son, George Sunday (1892-1933), was arrested for public drunkenness and for steaking a vehicle. He commit suicide in 1933, which broke his parent's heart.
Sadly, the Sunday's three sons were pampered and largely reared by strangers, because of Billy Sunday's busy lifestyle, embarrassed their parents with their errant lifestyles. George was arrested for drunkenness and auto theft before he committed suicide in 1932. Billy, Jr. died in an automobile accident in 1938; and Paul, a test pilot, died in an airplane crash in 1944. Furthermore, their oldest child, Helen Haines, though happily married, developed a degenerative disease and died of pneumonia in 1932.
The boys' ex-wives remained a continuing dilemma for the Sundays. Some blackmailed the evangelist to keep quiet about their son's infidelities. Others used gentler techniques to extract money, and Nell often provided friendly advice to the women when she responded with financial assistance. from Wikipedia on Hellen's bio Marshall was fired from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas after being exposed for having a homosexual relationship with a male student. The story gets a lot more bizarre...
Applewhite and Nettles pondered the life of St. Francis of Assisi and read works by Helena Blavatsky, R. D. Laing, and Richard Bach. They kept a King James Bible and studied passages from the New Testament focusing on Christology, asceticism, and eschatology. Applewhite also read science fiction, including works by Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. By June 19, Applewhite and Nettles's beliefs had solidified. They concluded that they had been chosen to fulfill biblical prophecies, and that they had been given higher-level minds than other people. They wrote a pamphlet that described Jesus' reincarnation as a Texan, a veiled reference to Applewhite. Furthermore, they concluded that they were the two witnesses described in the Book of Revelation and occasionally visited churches or other spiritual groups to speak of their identities, often referring to themselves as "The Two", or "The UFO Two". They believed they would be killed and then resurrected and, in view of others, transported onto a spaceship. This event, which they referred to as "the Demonstration", was to prove their claims. To their dismay, these ideas were poorly received by other religious groups.
The Two would gain their first follower, Sharon Morgan, in May 1974, abandoning her children to join them. A month later Sharon left The Two and returned to her family. Nettles and Applewhite were arrested and charged with credit card fraud for using Morgan's cards, despite the fact that she had consented to their use. The charges were later dropped. However a routine check brought up that Applewhite had stolen a rental car from St. Louis nine months earlier, which he still possessed. Applewhite then spent six months in jail primarily in Missouri, and was released in early 1975, subsequently rejoining Nettles.
I'll let you read the rest of the crazy story if you want, but I have shared enough of the ungodly lives of Marshall Applewhite and his wife to make my point. Why did 37 people end up following these cult leaders? Sadly, I see this same deception in many Baptist churches today. Case in point is the Independent Baptist Church in Ocala, Florida. Their cult leader is named Sam Adams, who preaches hardcore Lordship Salvation (i.e., Calvinism). You can find his damnable videos on YouTube on false repentance, in which he requires people to forsake a sinful lifestyle to get to Heaven. Pastor Adams insists that no one can go to Heaven who hasn't surrendered to the absolute Lordship of Christ in every area of your life. That is WORKS!!! I agree 100% with Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995) that Lordship Salvation is a PERVERSION OF GOD'S GRACE!!!
So, the SAME reason why Pastor Sam Adam's church members are following him into the fires of Hell, is the SAME reason why Marshall Applewhite led his followers into the fires of Hell. There is no difference! So how do people get sucked into a damnable cult? The answer is found in our text Scripture passage...
John 5:37-40, “And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 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: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”
Jesus said to SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!!! Dear reader, if you always SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES you won't be led astray into a cult. Carefully notice in the preceding quotes from Wikipedia about Marshall Applewhite that he carried a KING JAMES BIBLE everywhere he went. Unfortunately, he also studied the occult writings of Satanist Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891). As we read earlier, scholars have described the perverse theology of Heaven's Gate cult as a mixture of Christian millenarianism, New Age and ufology, and as such it has been characterized as a UFO religion. In other words, Marshall Applewhite was once messed up puppy! Dear reader, only a fool adds to what God has said in His Word. Proverbs 30:5-6, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”
An idle mind is the Devil's workshop! Or as a popular 1990 country song by Aaron Tippin says: "You've Got To Stand For Something, Or You'll Fall For Anything." If you SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES, and do not add men's words to what God has said, then you won't be misled and deceived to follow a cult. It saddens me to hear Pastor Sam Adams brainwash these people in his cult, wickedly bidding Godspeed to Pastor John MacArthur (2nd John 1:10-11). Lordship Salvation is NOT the Gospel of free grace. Lordship Salvation says that salvation is a trade, or an exchange. John MacArthur even uses those terms!!!
You may be sucked into a deadly religious cult, and end up burning in the Lake of Fire forever, if you place more weight upon the words of some man, instead of the inspired Word of God. Please use only the King James Bible, because ALL modern Bible revisions have been corrupted by Satan. Also, I encourage you to read the helpful book by Michael P. Bowen titled: 'I NEVER KNEW YOU.' Thank you for reading. Remember, eternal life is a free gift from God, that you can only obtain through FAITH ALONE in the GOOD NEWS of Jesus Christ crucified, buried and risen for YOUR SINS and MINE...
Proverbs 30:14, “There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.”
The only other thing that can bring revival to America is truth-telling, uncompromising, people-loving, Holy Spirit filled, freely-given, Bible preaching across the pulpits of our nation...
“Old-fashioned, Spirit-filled, Christ-honoring, sin-hating, soul-winning, Bible preaching! It is the hope of the church! It is the hope of the nation! It is the hope of the world!” —Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
I've been hearing a lot in the mainstream media lately about the coming Great Reset (which is just a cute name for the Devil's sinister New World Order). I do not claim to know the future of America, apart from what anyone can read for them self in the inspired Word of God. I have been doing my best to keep up with the news and trends of our country, and in my humble opinion the handwriting is on the wall (a reference to Daniel 5:5, when king Nebuchadnezzar's son Belshazzar read the mysterious handwriting upon his wall).
Having said that, in my humble opinion, guns will be banned in the United States soon (within the next 20 years if not this year). Liberal Democrat, President Joe Biden, vowed this Thanksgiving week to do everything in his power to make it illegal to own, sell or trade “Assault Weapons.” I wasn't familiar with that term, since I am not a gun person (i.e., I don't own any guns and never have, except a Crossman BB gun as a teenager that my Dad got for me to kill rats. I haven't even owned a BB gun for the past 35 years). I personally am afraid of guns, so I refuse to own one. You literally couldn't pay me to own one! But I am all for the 2nd Amendment, without which U.S. citizens are vulnerable to government tyranny (which we are seeing everywhere today. A perfect example is the massive censorship of free speech by big tech companies on social media, which the U.S. government sanctions and empowers by use of the courts. The USA is as bad as Communist China today!).
I learned today that the term “Assault Weapons” is a fabricated phrase by the ungodly Democrats, Marxists, Communists and liberals who want to remove guns entirely from society. That is, they want to completely DISARM every American citizen!!! If you don't believe what I say dear reader, then you need to WAKE UP! I say that kindly. The first thing that every monstrous dictator throughout history did, when they invaded a sovereign country, was to disarm the people. If guns are outlawed for U.S. citizens, then only criminals and our oppressive government will have them! What our wicked city, state and federal government requires U.S. citizens to pay in total tax revenues annually is OPPRESSION!!!
I was 100% correct back in 2002 (the year I started my website ministry), when I humbly predicted that homosexuality would eventually become legal at the federal level. That prediction came true in June of 2015, when the ungodly U.S. Supreme Court legalized Same Sex Marriage (perversion) in all 50 states. In October of 2022, Canada banned guns in their country, because of what is going on across the United States. So far in 2022, the U.S. has seen 600 mass-shootings!!! I couldn't believe that number at first, but it is accurate. What will likely happen is the same tactic that the government used to legalize abortion in 1972 and homosexuality's in 2015, through incremental steps.
We will likely see some individual states outlaw gun ownership first, and then when a majority of the states have piled on the bandwagon, the U.S. Supreme Court will bans guns at the federal level for all 50 states. This is how they always get away with taking away citizen's God-given rights. The problem is not guns, it is broken people. We need to bring the inspired Holy Bible back into the school system. Better yet, I agree with President Donald Trump that we need to get rid of the public school system, and allow local cities and states to run their own schools. That would eliminate the real threat of government indoctrination of impressionable children with blatant Marxist fraud of evolution, which is intended to remove God from every child's life. Your not going to indoctrinate a child for 50 hours a week (including school and homework time) without doing major damage to that child's soul. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, which is the goal of the Public Fool System, to ruin your child and recruit them to be another pawn in the game for the coming Great Reset (aka, the diabolical New World Order).
It is tragic what happened to Billy Sunday's children, but dear friend, it is happening to tens of millions of children today in America. I implore you to get your children out of that damnable public school system as fast as you can!!! You might as well say, “Here Devil is my child, you can have him (or her).” Those teachers DON'T care about your child, they care about their paycheck. Sadly, in ungodly tyrannical states like California, it is against the law now to homeschool your child. We have lost our way in America! Greed is everywhere.
The True Cause Of Homelessness Across America
I watched a documentary today on YouTube about the housing crisis across the United States. One man was frustrated because he bought a mobile home in a community owned by a private contractor. So he has to pay HOA fees. HOA means “Homeowners Association.” That man owns his house outright. It is totally paid for. Yet he has to pay a fee every month to the HOA to have a pet in his own paid house. That should be illegal. I hate HOA's and it will be a cold day in Hell before buy a house in one. No one is going to nickel and dime me to death!
Anyway, getting back to my predictions. I humbly think that homelessness will get MUCH worse across the country. How can it not get much worse, when that wicked fool President Joe Biden allowed 5,000,000 more illegal (criminal) aliens to flood into our country since he took office in 2020? The main reason for massive homelessness nationwide is an ongoing lack of affordable housing. California alone has over 100,000 homeless people right now. ...
Los Angeles Homeless Skid row - February 11, 2022 (This poverty is caused by the Federal Reserve System)
Dear reader, you will hear the dumbed-down, Zionist-controlled, newsmedia blame everything for the homelessness crisis except the true culprit, which is THE FEDERAL RESERVE ACT passed in 1913. It is a classic Ponzi Scheme, where there is no actual intrinsic wealth involved. President Richard Nixon took all U.S. currency off of the Gold Standard on August 15th, 1971. The measure was allegedly supposed to only be temporary, but like all criminals who lie to steal and deceive people, it was a permanent change. Yes dear friend, your money is TOTALLY WORTHLESS!!!
Since there is no true value, all our corrupt U.S. government can do to pay their bills is either take more wealth away from WE THE PEOPLE, or print more money out of thin air. Every Ponzi Scheme in history has ultimately FAILED (and so will the fraudulent Federal Reserve System). The more trillions of dollars that our federal government keeps BORROWING in OUR name, it causes prices TO INCREASE. Inflation is a tax. INFLATION IS A TAX!!! Don't forget that. Every time that our irresponsible government borrows more money, the private criminal banking families (who own and control the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks) use the U.S. treasury to print more money out of nothing (which is called “FIAT money,” or as Dr. Ron Paul rightly calls it, “Funny Money”).
Now you know why housing is so insanely priced across America. It is simple Supply & Demand economics. The more of something that exists, the less it is worth. Each time that our rotten government borrows and prints more money into circulation in society, the value of the U.S. dollar decreases, which forces prices up (i.e., inflation increases across the board for everything—food, housing, utilities, water, insurance, rental cars, dining out, prescription drugs, construction, et cetera). As with all Ponzi Schemes, the perpetrators at the top who run the scam profit handsomely, living large at the expense of the unfortunate people at the bottom of the pyramid (i.e., tens of millions of financially struggling Americans, many of whom are one paycheck away from living in their car).
Dear reader, as long as the Ponzi Scheme of the Federal Reserve System still exists, economic hardship in the United States can only continue to get MUCH worse in the future. I read a few months ago that our corrupt U.S. federal government insanely BORROWED $40,000,000,000 from China and then gave that money to Ukraine to help fight THEIR WAR! Rule number one of sound government is that you don't borrow money when you're in debt to give to other countries! In case you didn't know, the United States is over $31,000,000,000,000 in debt!!! Something is VERY wrong when our corrupt U.S. government will borrow $40 billion from China to give to Ukraine, while millions of hurting Americans are homeless, suffer from rotting teeth and cannot make ends meet financially. I truly cannot blame Americans for leaving the U.S. by the droves in recent years.
If you want to learn more about the diabolical Federal Reserve Hoax, I highly recommend that you read Professor G. Edward Griffin's prolific book titled: "THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND." Here is a lecture of the preceding great book by Professor G. Edward Griffin...
The Creature From Jekyll Island (by G. Edward Griffin)
Freedom is NOT free dear reader. All it requires for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Our nation's third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) said that. Jefferson was so right!!! It saddens and frustrates me that less than .001% of pastors today ever expose the evils of the Federal Reserve scam. Besides myself, I only know of TWO pastors who expose the Federal Reserve hoax. One was Dr. Texe Marrs (1944-2019) and the other is Pastor Steven Anderson. I'm sure that there are some others, but I am not aware of any.
When Americans turn on the television to catch the news, we are told that poverty and the housing crisis in America are the result of anything and everything except the real causes, which include:
The treasonous fraudulent Federal Reserve System since 1913
The criminal flood of 50,000,000 illegal aliens into the country since the 1970's
Deindustrialization (American companies exploiting cheap foreign labor at the expense of American manufacturing jobs),
Technology replacing humans in the workplace
Misappropriation of tens of billions of dollars designated to help house the homeless.
Covetoeusness and indifference among the HAVES toward the HAVE NOTS
In the preceding eye-opening documentary, Professor G. Edward Griffin gives seven reasons why the Federal Reserve needs to be abolished, not audited:
It is incapable of accomplishing its stated objectives
It is a cartel operating against the public interest
It is the supreme instrument of usury
It generates are most unfair tax
It encourages war
It destabilizes the economy
It is an instrument of totalitarianism
The Federal Reserve System is truly THE CREATURE from Jekyll Island, Georgia, where it was wickedly devised in 1913 by an ungodly group of thieves, liars and shady con artists. Ecclesiastes 7:29, “Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Our nation was far better off when our money was 100% backed by gold. The original intent of paper currency was to remove the burden of carrying around bags of heavy gold coins. But evil men abused this new convenience, concocting a clever scam called: The Fractional Reserve Banking System.
This new scam started in 1913 (aka, The Federal Reserve Act) allowed the U.S. government to spend ten times more money than they had gold in reserve. Hence, the "fractional reserve" banking system. This enabled the banking elite to instigate World War I, making themselves a financial fortune from supplying BOTH SIDES of the war with tanks, uniforms, gas masks, guns, ammunition, et cetera. It was called: "The War To End All Wars," which claimed the lives of over 20,000,000 human beings. Sadly, it was not the end of all wars, it was the beginning of the deadliest kind of warfare that the planet has ever known. War is a racket!
Proverbs 29:15, “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” Ephesians 6:4, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
One of the most famous revival preachers of the 20th century was Evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935). Yet, tragically, Billy Sunday himself pained in his soul to admit publicly that his three adult sons were all Christ-rejecting, hellbound, heathens...
Billy Sunday was the most famous and successful evangelist of the early 1900’s. He was a flamboyant professional baseball player who met Christ at Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. Within a few years he had formed a very successful crusade team which captured media attention all over the country. He is remembered as a colorful preacher who not only led multitudes to Christ, but also led the fight against ending prohibition.
Billy Sunday would be considered a success by almost any standard. Yet he lamented, “The great tragedy of my life is that though I have led thousands to Christ, my own sons are not saved.” Indeed his sons mocked their father’s ministry and were drunks with horrible family lives, one of whom ended his life by suicide.
It was the practice of the Sundays to leave their children in the care of a nanny while they pursued their ministry. Maybe we should note that fact as we discern what truly is redeeming the time.
I do not judge Billy and Helen Sunday, because every human being has their own freewill to choose and decide. In the Old Testament, Josiah grew up in a wicked home, having wicked Amon for his father, and wicked Manasseh for his grandfather. Yet, Josiah chose to serve the Lord.
The inspired Word of God is very clear that God will not hold children accountable for the sins of their parents, nor hold parents accountable for the sins of their children. Ezekiel 18:20, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.” We all have nobody to blame but ourselves. But that doesn't mean God won't hold parents accountable for their failure as parents to raise up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We will all be judged according to our works, even Christians (Revelation 14:13; 2nd Corinthians 5:10-11). The unsaved will be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).
Billy and Nell Sunday had four children. Nell often traveled with her husband, later becoming his business manager, and the couple hired a full-time governess to take care of their children. Both parents were closest to their oldest child, Helen E. Sunday (1890-1932). She married Mark P. Harris in 1913, and they lived in Michigan. The Sundays’ three sons, George M. Sunday (1892-1933), William A. Sunday Jr. (1901-1938), and Paul T. Sunday (1907-1944), worked on their father’s campaigns at various times. All three men had unstable lives, including multiple marriages and financial troubles.
The Sunday's troubled oldest child, George Sunday (1892-1933) commit suicide at age 40. George had been arrested for public drunkenness and stealing a vehicle. The Sunday's only daughter, Helen Haines (1890-1932), died in 1932 at age 42 of what is commonly believed today to have been Multiple Sclerosis. I feel so sorry for Billy and his wife Nell, who suffered so much heartache in so little time:
The Sunday's daughter Helen Haines dies of Multiple Sclerosis in 1932 at age 40
George Sunday is arrested for stealing a vehicle and public intoxication
George then commits suicide on September 11th, 1933
Some of the ex-wives of Sunday's three sons tried to blackmail their in-laws to pay money for their silence about their son's debauchery
Prohibition ends on December 5th, 1933, undoing nearly everything that Billy Sunday worked so hard to fight against most of his adult life as a Bible preacher
Billy Sunday himself dies in 1935 at age 72, leaving his wife Helen (whom Billy often called “Nell” or “Ma” Sunday”) all alone. She went to Heaven in 1957 at age 88.
Billy Sunday Jr. (1901-1938) died of Pneumonia in 1938 at age 37
Paul Sunday, a test pilot, died in an airplane crash in 1944 (Helen Sunday outlived ALL of her four children and her beloved husband)
Those are just the tragedies that I am aware of, I am sure that there were many more on top of all that. My heart goes out to Helen Sunday, whom Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) met years later. She suffered so many heartaches during her life, but as God's redeemed saints we know it will be worth it all when we see Jesus.
Sadly, Billy Sunday's three sons caused him and their mother Helen Sunday much grief. The Sunday's three sons werepampered and largely reared by strangers, because of Billy Sunday's busy lifestyle. The sons embarrassed their parents with their errant sordid lifestyles. As I mentioned earlier, George was arrested for drunkenness and auto theft before he committed suicide in 1932; Billy Jr., died from Pneumonia after an automobile accident in 1938 at age 37; and Paul, a test pilot, died in an airplane crash in 1944. Furthermore, their oldest child, Helen Haines, though happily married, developed a degenerative disease and died of pneumonia in 1932. No parent should have to outlive their children and bear that pain of soul.
The boys' ex-wives remained a continuing dilemma for the Sundays. Some blackmailed the evangelist to keep quiet about their son's infidelities. Others used gentler techniques to extract money, and Nell often provided friendly advice to the women when she responded with financial assistance.
I would never condemn any parent for the sins, mistakes, crimes or failures of their children. Albeit, I think we can learn a lesson from all this. It is obvious to me that Billy and Helen Sunday made an unwise decision when they hired a nanny to raise their children. The Proverbs 31 woman was a mother to her own children. She didn't outsource the job to some paid stranger. It is Biblical for women to stay home to rear their own children. 1st Timothy 5:14-15, “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some are already turned aside after Satan.”
I heard Pastor Jack Hyles in person, when I was a member of the great soulwinning First Baptist Church of Hammond in Indiana, crying through tears from his pulpit, blaming himself for the sins and failures of his adult children, particular his son. Dr. Hyles said that while he was so busy trying to save America, he lost his own children. That is tragic!
Yet, I do not condemn Pastor Jack Hyles nor Evangelist Billy Sunday. They did what they believed was right at the time to save a nation for imminent destruction if we don't see great revivals across the nation. Sadly, we've never needed those type of citywide revivals any more than today in 2022. 2023 is just around the corner. Only one of two things will bring America to our knees. One is massive tragedy; such as, a nuclear holocaust nationwide. I sincerely and humbly think that is exactly what Revelation chapter 18 is about, the coming destruction of the United States. I triple-dog dare you to read Revelation 18, and then tell me what other country fits that vivid description any better than The United States of America.
2nd Corinthians 5:1-3, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.”
When Jesus died, I believe Biblically that He went to the Paradise side of Hell to bring the Old Testament saints to Heaven. It is my humble opinion, based on Luke 16:19-31 and 2nd Corinthians 5:1-11, that when a saint dies, we will be escorted by our guardian angels to Heaven. Matthew 18:10, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” Dying, I think, will be a startling experience. I do not think we will notice a break in conscience when we die. When that moment of death comes, when our soul separates from our physical body, I expect to see my dead body from my departed spirit. I cannot imagine God leaving us to panic, not knowing what is going on when we graduate from this life to the next. Death is not truly death for the believe in Christ, it the the beginning of a new life in Heaven. Death is only true death for the unbeliever (Revelation 21:8). So I think, as Lazarus saw himself, at least two angels will be there to greet us at death, and they will kindly explain to us what has happened to comfort us. That is speculation mind you, I do not know. But we do know that at least two angels met Lazarus when he died in Luke 16:9-31.
In sharp contrast, the unsaved rich man died in his sleep and woke up directly in Hell. There were no angels to greet him, nor comfort him, he just laid his head down on his expensive comfortable pillow, and then woke up burning in the torments of Hell beneath. What a horrifying thing to happen to anyone! But dear friend, this will also be YOUR FATE if you die in your sins without Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. John 8:24, “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
Ah, but if you have been born-again dear reader, by simply believing the Gospel (Good News) of Jesus Christ crucified, buried and risen the third day (1st Corinthians 15:1-6), then you will die in the Lord instead. Revelation 14:13, “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” So which will it be for you dear friend? Will you DIE IN YOUR SINS and spend eternity suffering in Hell with the former rich man; OR, will you DIE IN THE LORD with me and others who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:30-31), without works (Romans 4:4-7), so we can spend eternity with Jesus in glory?
I humbly think we will be taken directly to Heaven when we die as saints. I also think that God gives us some type of temporary body in Heaven. Abraham had a body in Paradise. I agree with Pastor Max D. Younce that Hell (Hades in Greek is compartmentalized. We see this truth in Luke 16:19-31. Abraham was on the Paradise side (also called "Abraham's Bosom"). The place of Torment is on the other side, and there is a Great Gulf the Bible says between them, so that no one can pass over. The rich man (now poorer than poor) begged for a single drop of water, but was denied. That is horrifying! He was conscious, and feeling pain in his body. He did have a body. How else could he find a single drop of water refreshing to quench his dire thirst? How else could he feel pain in the fire?
I highly recommend that you read the book by Dr. Max Younce titled: "A BIBLICAL EXAMINATION OF HELL." You can either purchase a hardcopy of the book, or read and/or download the free .pdf version at the preceding link to the Heritage Baptist Bible Church. Dr. Younce expounds the reader about the topic of Hell in the inspired Word of God.
When Jesus ascended to leave the earth, He physically departed, escorted by angels, SEEN by the disciples:
Acts 1:9-11, “And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”
So Jesus left in a physical body. And the angels said that Jesus is coming back in a physical body. Revelation 1:7 says that every eye shall see him. Some flat earth nuts like Pastor David Hoffman, use this passage to prove that the earth is flat. That is crazy. We can see via cameras what is going on all around the world today. But the Bible says even people in Hell, those who crucified the Lord, shall also see Him. I am not sure how God will make this happen, but there is nothing too hard for God to do. But I can say without a doubt that the earth is definitely NOT flat, it is a sphere (not perfectly round, kind of egg shaped scientists tell us, but a sphere nonetheless). Even the book of Isaiah says that the Lord sitteth upon “the circle of the earth” (Isaiah 40:22).
I think that Heaven is a physical place, with physical thrones upon which God the Father and God the Son sit. Colossians 3:1, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”
By the way, this Scripture passage refutes the diabolical heresy of Modalism (the Devil's lie that Jesus is not a physically separate person from God the Father). As Christians we are what in theology is called “TRINITARIAN” in our beliefs. That is, we believe that God is triune in nature (3-in-1). There is only one God, but He has manifest Himself to humanity in the three persons of; namely, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20; Colossians 2:2, 9; 1st John 5:7 - only King James Bible, all modern Bible revisions are corrupt). I think the departed saints have physical bodies in Heaven, but not their glorified bodies yet. This is mere speculation, I cannot prove this. But our text passage from 2nd Corinthians 5:1-3 seems to indicate that believers in Heaven have a body of some sort, as did Abraham in Paradise. In the book of Revelation, a saint appeared to John in physical body. When John bowed down to worship him, he rebuked John, because he was a like brother, a saint in the Lord.
I also do not believe in “Soul Sleep,” a popular false teaching taught among Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventists, which says that the spirit and soul of a deceased person also stays asleep with the body until a future resurrection. Jesus said that the Sadducees erred in their doctrine, knowing not that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. This is further evidence against the idea of soul sleep. Our bodies mortal dead bodies will remain asleep until the Rapture, at which time every saint will receive our immortal eternal bodies...
1st Corinthians 15:51-58, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
Amen and amen! Whatever happens to us as saints, we have the blessed Scriptural hope that our future will be bright, cheerful and rewarding in the Lord; versus the eternal damnation, undoable rot, bitter regret, immense tears and inexplicable suffering for all unbelievers. I am so thankful to God for His free gift of eternal life, through simple faith in Jesus Christ...
1st Thessalonians 4:14-15, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
Psalms 145:9, “The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.”
Today is Thanksgiving 2022. I watched a heartbreaking FRONTLINE documentary today called “Being Mortal”...
Being Mortal (full documentary) | FRONTLINE
I remember when my own biological mother was dying in 2001. She suffered a crippling stroke in 1989 which paralyzed the entire left side of her body. I learned that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and vise versa,. She had suffered a stoke in the right lobe of her brain. My mother never walked again. Sadly, she was a chronic cigarette smoker. She once told me that she began smoking a half cigarette per day at age 15, which escalated over her life to 3 packs per day in wheel chair. No doubt the smoking ruined her health and contributed to her having a paralyzing stroke at age 53. Our family sadly watched her suffer year after year.
My mother (Barbara Jean Stewart, 1935-2001) was a wonderful piano player. She started playing piano at age 4 in Sweden. After my grandfather died, my grandmother and Mom at age 13 came to the United States. We had an old upright piano in our home, which probably weighed about 500 pounds at least. I recorded my Mom playing her music in the 1980's with a small push button tape recorded, which is what you will here in this video. I made these YouTube videos to share her precious piano playing.There are three videos total...
My Mom Playing Gospel Hymns - Video 1
My Mom Playing Gospel Hymns - Video 2
My Mom Playing Gospel Hymns - Video 3
If you'd like, you can convert and download these videos as MP3 files. I never heard her play anything but Gospel hymns. Her beautiful piano playing reminds me of Rudy Atwood (1912-1992), a famous Christian pianist.
As I watched the preceding FRONTLINE documentary of Being Mortal, it brought back memories of when my mother was dying in 2001. I learned a new term called “Quality of Life.” My mother's lungs were failing. Both of her legs had been amputated below the knee, at different times years apart, due to diabetic complications. Her health was a mess! The whole family felt sorry for her suffering, but there was nothing that we could do to remedy her pain. I remember seeing my mother cry after her first leg had been amputated. She was in so much pain, and I saw the bloody stump that remained of her leg. It hurts one's soul to see the woman who brought you into the world suffer like that.
The doctors wanted to put my mother onto a Lung Machine, to help her breath to keep her alive. My Mom and Dad had to face some serious questions. Ultimately, after about a month of heart searching and talking with friends, doctors and the family, decided that God never intended for someone to be kept artificially alive on a machine. When your quality of life is so far gone, that you have to be kept alive by a machine, many people choose rather to die. That would certainly be my choice. Also, I would never want to be kept alive as a quadriplegic. That is me, others may feel differently. No one has a right to judge and condemn other people, who are having to cope with such a difficult situation.
Having said that, I don't believe in assisted suicide. But when the body is naturally unable to sustain life anymore, it is up to the individual alone what choice they make. What will one's quality of life be going forward? This is a delicate and controversial topic. I do not judge anyone for their choices in this matter, because I have seen how difficult it is for families to face such heart-breaking circumstances.
Of course, it is a lot different (being much better) for Christians to face the future, knowing that death for a saint is merely a graduation from this life to the next with Jesus Christ in Heaven. 2nd Corinthians 5:8-9, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.” The unbeliever in Jesus Christ as their Savior has no hope according to the Scriptures:
1st Thessalonians 4:13, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
Please notice 1st Thessalonians 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” That is the Gospel! Anyone who comes to God as a needy sinner—receiving Christ's sacrifice on the cross as payment for their sins, believing that Jesus was buried and bodily resurrected from the dead three days later—is immediately, irrevocably and forever saved.
Dear reader, we don't know what a day may bring. Proverbs 27:1, “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” Dear friend, you and I could already have cancer lurking in our bodies, and not know it yet. If you and I were to find out today that we only have a few months to live, it would turning our world upside down. Yet, we know for certain that we will die within the next 100 years, much sooner no doubt. God willing, I will be 56 years old (or young, depending on how you look at it) on March 5th, 2023. If I am fortunate and blessed to live to THREESCORE AND TEN (70 years old; which is the Bible's average projected lifespan for a human being), then I only have a little over 14 years remaining. My dear biological mother went to Heaven at age 65. My biological father went to Heaven at age 76 in 2010. So at most I MIGHT have 20 years left to live on earth. I still feel like I am 18 years old in my mind and soul.
I was saddened earlier this year when singer Oliva Newton John (1948-2022) died. I love her 1980 song, “Suddenly,” sang with Cliff Richard. Although Olivia claimed to be a Christian, I am doubtful because most people who profess to be Christians are deceived by the Devil. All of the following religions claims to be Christians, but they are not; namely, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Seventh-Day Adventist, Lutheran, United Methodist, Church of England (Anglican), Unitarian Universalist and Church of Christ (to name but a few major pseudo-Christian cults). Most of those cults add and require water baptism to faith, in order to get to Heaven, thus corrupting God's grace. Biblically, you just need to realize that you are a guilty sinner in the sight of a holy God, and accept His free gift of eternal life through faith alone in the GOOD NEWS of His only begotten Son crucified, buried and risen (1st Corinthians 15:1-4).
I couldn't find anything online where Olivia Newton John gives a clear testimony of her faith. This doesn't mean that she didn't go to Heaven. We simply do not know. Like so many celebrities, who fear career suicide if they refuse to support the heathen world, Olivia was openly supportive of homosexual rights. The preceding link to Hollowverse states that Olivia praised Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as the Jewish religion (i.e., Judaism).
That is the same mumbo-jumbo testimony of The Beatles' Paul McCartney. They are afraid to make any bold claims, lest they alienate themselves from millions of fans of a different religion. So we see Paul at different times in his life professing to be agnostic. In his song, “Let It Be,” he praises Mother Mary in Roman Catholicism. Early in Paul's music career he embraced fellow band member George Harrison's eastern religion of Hara Krishna, a demonic pagan cult. I do not say that to be unkind, but truthful according to the inspired Holy Bible. We are living in wicked times in 2022, almost 2023. In Timothy 3:1-2 that Word of God calls these “perilous times,” and they sure are. I watched another creepy documentary today called: Growing Up Trans...
Growing Up Trans (full documentary) - FRONTLINE
Young people are confused nowadays. It doesn't help that society caters to their gender-bending confusion by promoting such wickedness. Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” No matter how much a biological boy may feel like a female, or desire to become a female, or be told be liberal friends and society that he is a girl, if he had male genitalia at birth, he will always be a male. God doesn't make mistakes. Search online and you will discover that due to manmade toxins and industrial waste (pollutions), environmentalists are finding six-legged frogs, male frogs with female sex organs and other bizarre mutations in nature. Who knows what all these contaminants are doing to humans! We are now living in the PERILOUS TIMES foretold in the inspired Holy Scripture!!!
I have resolved in my soul to dedicate the rest of my life to serving God. I get frustrated often, but that is a part of life. There are people that you know dear reader, whom only you can reach with the Gospel to get saved. You are the only Jesus that someone knows! It is tragic how pathetic the churches have become. The love of money has overtaken 99% of today's Bible colleges and churches, so that individual people don't matter to them. The system always comes first, and making more money to pay their bills. It is apostasy! I am talking about ungodly cesspools of heresy like Pensacola Christian College (PCC) in Florida, who wickedly bid Godspeed to damnable false prophet Ken Ham. Here is a list of apostate religious colleges that wickedly bid Godspeed to Ken Ham.
Colleges Suggested by Ken Ham's wicked Answers in Genesis:
1) Cedarville Christian College, Box 601, Cedarville, OH
2) Clearwater Christian College, 3400 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd., Clearwater, FL
3) Pensacola Christian College, 5409 Rawson Rd., Pensacola, FL
4) Masters College, 21726 West Pacerita Canyon Rd., Newhall, CA
5) Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, 2810 Curry Rd. ,Schenectady, NY
6) Masters Seminary, 13248 Roscoe Blvd., Sun Valley, CA
7) Appalachian Bible College, 100 N. Sandbranch Rd., Bradley, WV
8) Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, 4801 Allen Road, Allen Park, MI
9) Southeastern Bible College, 3001 Highway 280 East, Birmingham, AL
10) Bahnsen Theological Seminary, P.O. Box 328, Placentia, CA
11) Word of Life Bible Institute, Pottersville, NY
12) Jackson Hole Bible College, P.O. Box 6490, Jackson, WY
13) Seattle Bible College, 2363 N.W. 80th Street, Seattle, WA
14) Christian Heritage College, 2100 Greenfield Drive, El Cajon, CA
Sadly, Pensacola Christian College appears in the list. Ken Ham is recommending these apostate institutions, where your child will be indoctrinated with false repentance, and the lies of a Young Earth Creation fallacy. We are living in woeful times of deception. SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES Jesus said in John 5:39, so that you won't be misled and deceived by Satan.
Revelation 3:15-18,“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”
People are weird! I mean that. People are really weird. I have suffered from stenosis and radiculitus in my neck since 1992, which has become intolerable since 2004 after an accident at work. A related affliction is burning nerves throughout my upper body, both arms feeling inflated with air, the entire side of my right body feeling asleep all the time, and chronic tension in my neck continually. These ailments really get me down daily, and make it difficult to do anything, including going to church. Consequently, I am fortunate of I make it to church 50% of the time.
Having said that, I have had two people within the last month condemn me for missing church. One professed Christian woman asked me if I came to church on Sunday morning. I kindly replied: “No, I didn't feel well.” She put out her forefinger and started stroking it downward with her other forefinger, signifying: “Shame! Shame!” I looked at her like she was crazy and asked: “What shame is there in missing church because I didn't feel well?” She was very wrong to try to shame me for missing church because I didn't feel well. People can be so cruel. It just compels me to stay home from church even more, where at least I know I won't be condemned by jerk hypocrites in ungodly churches.
And then another horrible professed Christian woman scolded me for saying that I cannot always attend church. I explained to her that I suffer from stenosis and radiculitis. She rudely remarked: “That's just an excuse!” She is so WRONG!!! She has no right to talk to anyone that way. It just shows how far away from God that she really is. I wrote this article because these two women are devoutly religious. They always attend church.
So they THINK they are right with God and spiritual, when in reality they are naked, blind and wretched (Revelation 3:15-18). We always hear about the Laodicean “church,” but may I point out to you dear reader that the Laodicean church was full of Laodicean “saints.” Our lukewarm churches today, like Campus Church at Pensacola Christian College (PCC), are full of lukewarm believers. They are deadbeats! They are religious hypocrites! No one has any right to berate and scold someone for missing church, especially someone who has legitimate health problems. The second woman who scolded me for missing church abandoned her husband, quitting her marriage vows, leaving her husband for dead. What a wicked person! Yet she condemns me for missing church when I feel overwhelmed because of my burning nerves and bodily afflictions.
I am writing this blog to educate other believers in this important matter. Please don't allow anyone to make you feel inferior, or that you are not right with God, just because you aren't always at church when THEY think you should be there. I go when I can on Wednesday nights for the mid-week Bible study. The first woman who tried to shame me has NEVER one time (not that I have seen) attending our Wednesday night Bible study. I could have shamed her back. I could have said: “No, shame on you for never coming to church on Wednesday night!” I already know what she would have said... “But I can't find a ride to church.” I could have been a total jerk like her and the second woman, by saying: “That's just an excuse!”
In 2018 while attending the Lighthouse Baptist Church on Guam, a different woman asked me if I was coming to church next Sunday. I honestly replied: “It depends on how I am feeling at the time. My medications affect me, so I have to wait and see.” Her rotten cruel response was: “Well, we have another man in the church with a heart condition who takes the same medications as you. If he can make it to church, so can you!” I wanted to call her some choice adjectives, one being a name for a female dog. I kindly replied: “First, I don't take the same medications as the man with a heart condition, I don't have a heart condition. Secondly, I'll be here if I can, Lord willing.” I was nice toward her, but she deserved a much harsher response. Do you see how rotten church people can be?
Dear friend, the three true stories I have just shared with you are WICKEDNESS!!! No one has a right to pressure other people to attend church. I think what it is, is that the people who attend church in most cases don't really want to be there. It is a chore to them. So they resent when I show up infrequently. It pisses them off! When I don't feel well, I don't want to drive, and I don't want to be around people; so I stay home where I can relax in the safety of my dwelling place. There is NOTHING wrong with that! Any pastor or church member who tries to put the guilt trip on you for missing church, you go ahead and skip church whenever you need to, and tell them it is none of their damn business!
People are weird and hypocritical. The church that I have been attending is a mess spiritually. The pastor is a young fella who does a terrible job of presenting the truth of the Gospel. He keeps telling everyone that they must have a “relationship” with Jesus to get to Heaven someday. The big problem is that you won't find the word “relationship” anywhere in the inspired King James Bible, and it confuses people of what God expects from them to get to Heaven. I also heard our pastor tell the congregation that to be saved you must “turn away from your past life.” Sadly, my pastor is a damnable heretic, and I am about to leave the church in February. My landlord just evicted me, telling me to get out by the end of February. Since I very likely won't be renting in this area anymore, there won't be any need to attend this particular church in Pensacola.
I've already got some well-meaning web visitors, advising me that I should move to an area with a good church. Unfortunately, it is not that easy for me to do. I need to find a doctor who will accept my not so popular insurance carrier, which is not easy in a smaller town. I also need to find a place that is affordable. There is a housing crisis right now nationwide. Rent prices have skyrocketed.
So anyway, I will likely be leaving this corrupt church where I've been attending for the past year. I kindly handed a hard copy of Michael P. Bowen's helpful book titled: “I Never Knew You,” to the pastor, which he evidently either didn't read or disregarded, because he is still teaching damnable heresy concerning how to be saved. I love the pastor of the church I am attending, but I love Jesus first and foremost, which means I must love THE TRUTH. When a pastor tells people to “turn away from your past life” to be saved, he has been inspired by demons!!!
In the local Baptist church I have been attending for the past year, the associate pastor promotes Lordship Salvation preaching Calvinists: Billy Graham and Adrian Rogers. The church is also buddies with PCC, who wickedly bid Godspeed and promote Calvinist heretics: Ken Ham, and Steve Pettit at Bob Jones University (BJU). Right doctrine doesn't matter to all these money-making preachers. Getting along for the sake of business as usual is all that matters to them. RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS!!!
From being badgered, mistreated and put down by church people, I have clearly see firsthand that just because someone is faithful to attend a church, DOESN'T make them right with God or spiritual. There is a man in our church who has been there faithfully for the past six years, who thinks you must be water baptized to get to Heaven! He's not even saved, still on his way to Hell. That is the pastor's fault for not feeding God's flock, and it is God's flock of sheep (Acts 20:28). What can they expect, when their pastor continues to vaguely teach everybody to have a “relationship” with Christ to get to Heaven. May I remind you dear reader that Judas also had a “relationship” with Jesus, being one of His very apostles, but Judas is burning in the fires and torments of Hell forever and ever without rest nor hope.
God knows that I work on my website ministry day and night, because there is a cause. 1st Samuel 7:29, “And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?” Yes David, there is a cause! David said this because his elder brothers were mocking him, as he went out to fight the giant Goliath. Dear friend, I am also fighting against the giant of Calvinism! I am fighting against the giants of apostasy at PCC, and the hellhole of wickedness at the BJU cult. I am fighting against the giant of the Devil's Bible revisions, and the two-headed monster of Lordship Salvation and Wrong Repentance. Somebody's got to care!!!
Many carnally-minded shallow churchgoers would condemn me for not attending church half the time; but God sees my heart, that I am laboring night and day online for the eternal Kingdom of God. I labor for free, without expectation of anything in compensation from any human being. God alone will reward me (1st Corinthians 3:7-8; Matthew 6:19-20). Carnally-minded immature Christians condemn me for staying home frequently from church, while they don't lift a finger to preach the Gospel to rescue the perishing from the depths of Hell. In their foolish estimation, you are only as good a Christian as you attend a local church. I triple-dog dare you to show me that teaching in the inspired Holy Bible. You cannot!
All across America there are churchgoers who are devoutly religious. They dot their i's, and cross their t's, while they sit there supporting damnable heresy spoken from the church pulpit. Meanwhile, I am at home doing all that I can to fight against these deadly false doctrines, which have crept into 90% of today's shallow churches. I warned the local pastors. They didn't heed my warning. I have prayed for God to open their eyes, but those stiff-necked pastors refuse to budge. They are set in their own corrupt ways! Lordship Salvation is NOT the Gospel, it is a perversion of God's grace!
Here is a helpful sermon defending a free grace Gospel by Pastor Dennis Rokser from Duluth, Minnesota. As Pastor Rokser rightly says, all false gospels include faith in Jesus Christ (but they also ADD something else to faith)...
GETTING THE GOSPEL RIGHT & WRONG (Pastor Dennis Rokser, Guest Speaker; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
Dear reader, God knows your heart! God knows if you love Him. God sees if you are down and depressed, like I am often. Yes, even preachers get depressed. It is a part of life. My landlord just told me to get out, and I have no clue where to go. But I rejoice that my name is written in Heaven, and I have a home up above, with rewards coming that no thief can steal. Some rotten thieves stole my car in 2004. It wasn't insured. Those thieves cost me $10,000 in damages! God will hold them accountable (Romans 12:19-21; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Hebrews 4:13).
Some of the worst Christians are faithful to attend church. I learned long ago that the easiest place in the world to backslide is Bible college, because you hear Bible preaching every day of the week and you get used to it. Pastor Jack Hyles said that some of the worst Christians do the most for God. Dr. Hyles is absolutely correct! Brother Hyles said that the people in his church congregation who had been members for 20, 30 and 40 years did the least to serve God; but the new people in the church did 90% of the work! That is interesting. Dr. Hyles said that the secret to growing a church is to always be on a Honeymoon with new church members. I like that truth!
Please don't misunderstand my blog's intent. I am not encouraging missing church. The church is our spiritual family in the Lord. Unfortunately, it is now very difficult to find a doctrinally-sound, unconditional people-loving, old-fashioned, Bible-believing, public soulwinning, inspired King James Bible only, free grace Gospel only, local church!
Sadly, what you will likely find are neo-evangelical churches with worldly contemporary Christian music (CCM), women wearing pants, the Devil's corrupt Bible revisions, a denial of Bible inspiration in any modern Bible, Lordship Salvation (another gospel), misunderstood repentance (another gospel), promotion of false teachers (e.g., Ken Ham, Ray Comfort, Paul Washer, Pat Robertson, Adrian Rogers, Billy Graham, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur), et cetera.
You're not a good Christian just because you sit in a building three times a week playing church, because you sing some religious songs and pray and read your Bible. Yes, we should go to church. We should pray and read the Holy Bible. But I contend that you are better to stay home, and attend no church, than to attend a bad church because of some misguided sense of religious guilty (i.e., religious scrupulosity). A bad church WILL corrupt you! One healthy person plus one infected sick person equals two infected sick people. That is why God commands us to COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM and be ye separate (2nd Corinthians 6:14-17). God knows that neither you nor myself, can change a corrupted institution. Nothing I say will improve the apostate condition of Pensacola Christian College (PCC).
Perhaps God is working in my life now to get me out of this bad church that I have been attending (because I have nowhere else to go). I am willing to relocate ANYWHERE in the United States, if the Lord will please just show me WHERE to move. Of course, I have to find a doctor or pain specialist who accepts my medical insurance, because I need my pain medications each month. I may stay in Pensacola, but housing is expensive here. I was looking at the Cleveland, Ohio area all day yesterday. The Great Lakes city of Cleveland has 367,000 residents. I've also been considering Aberdeen, South Dakota (28,000 residents). Please pray for me, that God will give me knowledge and wisdom to make a decision. One day at a time. God is so good. God is so good to me.
So yes, we should attend a local Bible-believing New Testament church if we can find one. But we ought to be very careful about attending a corrupt one, lest we also become corrupted. A little leaven leaventh the whole lump. As an example, a little mold will spread to mold all of a loaf of bread.
Satan's progression to spiritually corrupt and destroy a Bible college or church:
The Devil begins by convincing people that we don't have an infallible, perfect, innerant, inspired Holy Bible in these modern times.
The preceding horrifying progression is exactly what has happened to Bob Jones University, who are at step FOUR. Pensacola Christian College is already at step TWO. Where is your Bible college or church? Tragically, the Devil fully knows that if he can corrupt a Bible college, then he has successfully also corrupted THOUSANDS of churches that hire their graduates. Sadly, 95% of Bible colleges are at step TWO, refusing to expose the Devil's Bible perversions. It is tragic that truth-tellers like me are at war today with the churches!!! RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS!!!
Dear reader, how good of a Christian you are can only be measured by how much you are obeying the two greatest commandments in all the Bible:
Matthew 22:35-40, “Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
I agree with Evangelist Lester Roloff (1914-1982) who said that the two greatest commandments in the Bible are really just one—TO LOVE! Amen.
Jesus rebuked the LUKEWARM believers at Laodicea. The dear Savior called them miserable, naked, wretched and blind. Sadly, this same shameful review can be said of 95% of America's churches and church members today...
Revelation 3:15-18, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”
Dear reader, if you are a regular churchgoer (a religious person), are you miserable, naked, wretched and blind? Remember, Jesus is saying this about carnal CHURCH MEMBERS!!! Revelation 3:17, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:” The Bible practically gives the address of Pensacola Christian College (PCC). Sadly, PCC leadership is as carnal as can be. Their response to my Christ-honoring website ministry was to laugh in my face! Their ungodly Campus Church pastors at PCC wickedly accused me of "finding weaknesses in preachers," when in reality I am faithfully contending for the Christian faith as Jude 1:3, Ephesians 5:11 and Titus 1:9-14 commands. SHAME on PCC!!!
Yet, if you go visit PCC and their Laodicean Campus Church, you'll hear them saying that they “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing...” When in reality PCC is “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:” They are not good Christians merely because they know how to PLAY CHURCH really good at PCC!!! They sing their religious songs. They have their stupid college skits. They play their intercollege sports, allowing their female students to dress like the sinful world. I heard Professor Gail Riplinger rightly say in an interview years ago that the Devil's crowd are trying to SECULARIZE THE BIBLE!!! She is so right! Likewise, Satan has successfully SECULARIZED THE BIBLE COLLEGES along with the Word of God!!! Dear parents, you simply cannot trust 97% of today's so-called Bible colleges. Going to Bible college has become a big money-making scam!!!
I learned a long time ago that going to church has very little to do with how good of a Christian someone is or isn't. Some of the biggest jerks, hypocrites and rotten people I've known throughout my life were faithful to attend a church somewhere. I encourage you dear friend to walk with God on your own, and not foolishly rely on some pastor to feed you from week to week. If our physical health were dependent upon the nutrition coming from America's church pulpits today, we'd all be dead!
It shouldn't come as a surprise that 99% of churchgoers nowadays are as carnal as can be, in view of the shallow sermonettes which today's cowardly Caspar Milquetoast pastors are delivering. I DON'T rely on local churches to feed me spiritually. If I did I'd be a mess! I listen to hard preaching throughout the week. I listen to Alexander Scourby read the inspired King James Bible throughout the week. I walk with God at home and in my private life. I just go to church to meet with other believers, who sadly are in pathetic condition because they rely on their pastor to feed them. Many church members don't even know that they're saved.
Sadly, 99% of churches today are merely PLAYING CHURCH. Most churches are nothing more than glorified social clubs. The particular Baptist church that I have been attending for the past year is a closed knit group, unwelcoming of some people. The pastor has never once initiated a conversation with me. Not once! He has never once asked me if I would like to join their church. They've never invited me to go anywhere with them. I could stop coming tomorrow and they wouldn't miss me. No one has ever asked for my contact information. They just don't care about me. That is pathetic!
Thankfully, I care about them, but there is little I can do except pray for them, share the truth and be there if they need me. Unfortunately, since I am being evicted from my residence soon, I will likely move to a different part of Pensacola. I have no clue yet. One day at a time. Faith is like film, it develops in the dark! Amen! Unshakable faith comes from having our faith shaken. This is a dark time in my life, a time of uncertainty and loneliness. I was reminded of this precious Scripture today from the Old Testament...
Psalms 23:1-4, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
God is with me! By the Lord's grace I plan to keep going full speed ahead in my ministry online. The fields are white unto harvest the Lord said, but the labourers are FEW. Matthew 9:37, “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;” Thank you for reading dear friend.