“This book has shocked me to the core. No wonder the writer warns that ‘if you are not willing to have your Christianity seriously examined do not read this book. Spare yourself the trouble of having your Christian life turned upside down!’ Wow. I think this book just took my Christianity to a whole new level of understanding! I am shell shocked that I did not know any of this. Every Christian should read this book. If they dare.” Karen Cochran
Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna
“The Christian faith was born in believer’s homes, yet every Sunday morning, scores of Christians sit in a building with pagan origins that is based upon Pagan Philosophy”.
“We somehow have been taught to feel holier when we are in ‘the house of God’ and have inherited a pathological dependency upon edifice to carry out our worship to God”.
“We are doing great damage to the message of the New testament by calling man made buildings ‘churches’.
“The order of worship includes threefold structure: (1) singing, (2) the sermon, and (3) closing prayer or song. This order of worship is viewed as sacrosanct in the eyes of many present-day Christians. But why? Again, it is due simply to the titanic power of tradition. And that tradition has set the Sunday morning order of worship in concrete … never to be moved”.
“As Will Durant, author of The Story of Civilization put it, Pagan isles remained in the spreading Christian sea. This was a tragic shift from the primitive simplicity that the church of Jesus Christ first knew”.
“We so easily forget that the early Christians turned the world upside down without them”.
“Our study of the liturgical history of the Lutheran (sixteenth century), Reformed (sixteenth century), Puritans (sixteenth century), Methodists (eighteenth century), Frontier-Revivalists (eighteenth to nineteenth centuries), and Pentecostals (twentieth century) uncovers one inescapable point: For the last five hundred years, the Protestant order of worship has undergone minimal change”. Pg.73 .
“As one author put it, ‘The Reformers accepted in substance the ancient Catholic pattern of worship…the basic structures of their services were almost universally taken from the late medieval orders of various sorts'”. pg 74
“In the end, then, the Reformers reformed the Catholic liturgy only slightly. Their main contribution was in changing the central focus. In the words of one scholar, ‘Catholicism increasingly followed the path of the (pagan) cults in making a rite the center of its activities, and Protestantism followed the path of the synagogue in placing the book at the center of it’s services’. Unfortunately, neither Catholics nor Protestants were successful in allowing Jesus Christ to be the center and head of their gatherings. Nor were they successful at liberating and unleashing the body of Christ to minister one to another in the gathering, as the New Testament envisions”. pg 74
“Because of the Reformation the Bible replaced the Eucharist and the Pastor replaced the priest. But there is still a directing of God’s people, rendering them as silent spectators. The centrality of the Author of the book was never restored. Hence, the Reformers dramatically failed to put their finger on the nerve of the original problem: a clergy-led worship service attended by a passive laity. It is not surprising, then, that the Reformers viewed themselves as reformed Catholics”. pg. 74
“Not only is the traditional order of service unscriptural and heavily influenced by paganism (which runs contrary to what is often preached from the pulpit), it does not lead to the spiritual growth God intended”. pg 75
“The Protestant order of worship represses mutual participation and growth of Christian community. It puts a choke hold on the functioning of the body of Christ by silencing its members. There is absolutely no room for anyone to give a word of exhortation, share an insight, start or introduce a song, or spontaneously lead a prayer. You are forced to be a muted, staid pew holder! You are prevented from being enriched by the other members of the body as well as being able to enrich them yourself”. pg 75
The Protestant order of worship strangles the headship of Jesus Christ. The entire service is directed by one person. You are limited to the knowledge, gifting, and experience of one member of the body- the Pastor. Where is the freedom for our Lord Jesus to speak through his body at will? Where in the liturgy may God give a brother or sister a word to share with the whole congregation? The order of worship allows for no such thing. Jesus Christ has no freedom to express Himself through His body at his discretion. He too is rendered a passive spectator”. pg 76
“Every Sunday you attend the service to be bandaged and recharged like all the other wounded soldiers. Far to often, however, the bandaging and the recharging never takes place. The reason is quite simple. The New Testament never links sitting through an ossified ritual that we mislabel “church” as having anything to do with spiritual transformation. We grow by functioning, not by passively watching and listening”. pg 77
“Let’s face it. The Protestant order of worship is largely unscriptural, impractical, and unspiritual. It has no analog in the New Testament. Rather, it finds its roots in the culture of fallen man. It rips at the heart of primitive Christianity, which was informal and free of ritual. Five centuries after the Reformation, the Protestant order of worship still varies little from Catholic Mass-a Religious ritual that is a fusion of pagan and Judaistic elements” pg. 77
“In fact, when the church functions as she should, she is the greatest evangelism known to humankind. When God’s people are living in authentic community, their lives together are a sign to the world of God’s coming reign”. pg. 82
“Remove the sermon and you have eliminated the most important source of spiritual nourishment for countless numbers of believers (so it is thought). Yet the stunning reality is that today’s sermon has no root in Scripture. Rather, it was borrowed from pagan culture, nursed and adopted into the Christian faith”. pg. 86
“The New Testament letters show that ministry of God’s Word came from the entire church in their regular gatherings. From Romans 12: 6-8, 15: 14, 1 Corinthians 14:26, and Colossians 3:16, we see that it included teaching, exhortation, prophecy, singing, and admonishment. This “every-member” functioning was also conversational (1 Corinthians 14:29) and marked by interruptions (1 14:30). Equally so, the exhortation of the local elders were normally impromptu.
In Short, the contemporary sermon delivered for Christians consumption is foreign to both Old and New Testaments. There is nothing in Scripture to indicate it’s existence in the early Christian gatherings”. pg. 88
“The Christian sermon was borrowed from the pagan pool of Greek culture”! pg. 89
“The sermon was conceived in the womb of Greek rhetoric. It was born into the Christian community when pagans-turned-Christians began to bring their oratorical styles of speaking into the church. By the third century, it became common for Christian leaders to deliver a sermon. By the fourth century it became the norm”. pg.101
“Nevertheless, despite the fact that the contemporary sermon does not have a shred of biblical merit to support it’s existence, it continues to be uncritically admired in the eyes of most present-day Christians. It has become so entrenched in the Christian mind that most Bible-believing pastors and Laymen fail to see that they are affirming and perpetuating an unscriptural practice out of sheer tradition. The sermon has become permanently embedded in a complex organizational structure that is far removed from the first-century church life”. pg. 102
“The first-century church planters had a deep and profound revelation(or insight) of Jesus Christ. They knew him, and they knew him well. He was their life, their breath, and their reason for living. They, in turn, imparted that same revelation to the churches they planted. John 1: 1-3 is a good example of this dynamic .
Paul of Tarsus preached a message of Christ that was so profound that it caused immoral, blood-drinking pagans to become full-fledged Christians in love with Jesus Christ in just a few short months. (These new believers made up the churches of Pisidian, Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea (Acts13-17). Paul shared the depths of Christ with them in such a way that they knew that they were holy in His eyes and that they could know Him internally, for Christ indwelt them. This profound, personal understanding of the indwelling Christ affected how they gathered together and what they did in those gatherings.
Furthermore, Paul typically spent several months with these new converts then left them on their own for long periods of time, sometimes years. And when he returned, they were still gathering together, still loving one another, and still following their Lord.
What kind of gospel did he preach to cause this kind of remarkable effect? He called it “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8) To put it another way, he submerged them in a revelation of Jesus Christ”. pg.103
“THE PASTOR. He is the fundamental figure of the Protestant faith. So prevailing is the pastor in the minds of most Christians that he is often better known, more highly praised, and more heavily relied upon than Jesus Christ himself!
Remove the pastor and most Protestant churches would be thrown into a panic. Remove the pastor, and Protestantism as we know it would die. The pastor is the dominating focal point, mainstay, and centerpiece of the contemporary church. He is the embodiment of Protestant Christianity”. pg. 106
“With the fall came an implicit desire in people to have a physical leader to bring them to God. For this reason, human societies throughout history have consistently created a special caste of revered Religious leaders. The medicine man, the shaman, the rhapsodist, the miracle worker, the witch doctor, the soothsayer, the wise man, and the priest have all been with us since Adam’s blunder. And this person is always marked by special training, special garb, a special vocabulary, and special way of life”. pg.108
“Up until the second century, the church has no official leadership. That it had leaders is without dispute. But leadership was unofficial in the sense that there were no religious “offices” or sociological slots to fill. New Testament scholarship makes this abundantly clear.
In this regard, the first-century churches were an oddity indeed. They were religious groups without priests, temple, or sacrifice. The Christians themselves led the church under Christ’s direct headship. Leaders were organic, untitled, and were recognized by their service and spiritual maturity rather than by a title or an office.
Among the flock were the elders(shepherds or overseers). These men all had equal standing. There was no hierarchy among them. Also present were extra-local workers who planted churches. These were called the “sent ones” or apostles. But they did not take up residency in the churches for which they cared. Nor did they control them. The vocabulary of the New Testament leadership allows no pyramidal structures. It is rather a language of horizontal relationships that includes exemplary action”. pg.110
“Because the presbyters were the ones administering the Lord’s Supper, they began to be called priests. More startling, the bishop came to be regarded as the high priest who could forgive sins! All of these trends obscured the New Testament reality that all believers are priests unto God.
By the fourth century, this graded hierarchy dominated the Christian faith. The clergy caste was now cemented. At the head of the church stood the bishop. Under him was the college of presbyters. Under them stood the deacons. And under all of them were the Laymen. One-bishop rule became the accepted form of church government throughout the Roman Empire. (During this time, certain churches began to exercise authority over other churches-thus broadening the hierarchical structure)”. pg.115
“Strikingly, only three passages in the New Testament tell us that elders were publicly recognized. Elders were acknowledged in the churches in Galatia (Acts 14: 23). Paul had Timothy acknowledge elders in Ephesus (1 Timothy 3:1ff). He also told Titus to recognize them in the churches in Crete (Titus 1:5ff).
The word ordain (KJV) in these passages does not mean to place into office. It rather carries the idea of endorsing, affirming, and showing forth what has already been happening. It also conveys the thought of blessing. Public recognition of elders and ministries was typically accompanied by the laying on of hands by apostolic workers. (In the case of workers being sent out, this was done by the church or the elders).
In the first century, the laying on of hands merely meant the endorsement or affirmation of function, not the installment into an office or the giving of special status. Regrettably, it came to mean the latter in the late second and early third centuries.
During the third century, ordination took on an entirely different meaning. It was a formalized Christian rite. By the fourth century, the ceremony of ordination was embellished by the symbolic garments and solemn ritual. Ordination produced an ecclesiastical caste that usurped the believing priesthood.
From where did Christians get their pattern of ordination? They patterned their ordination ceremony after the Roman custom of appointing men to civil office. The entire process, down to the very words, came straight from the Roman civic world”. pgs.124-125
“The contemporary practice of ordination creates a special caste of Christian. Whether it be the priest in Catholicism or the pastor in the Protestantism, the result is still the same: The most important ministry is restricted to a few”special” believers.
Such an idea is as damaging as it is nonscriptural. The New Testament nowhere limits preaching, baptizing, or distributing the Lord’s Supper to the “ordained”. Eminent scholar James D. G. Dunn put it best when he said that the clergy-laity tradition has done more to undermine New Testament authority than most heresies.
Since church office could only be hold through the rite of ordination, the power to ordain became the crucial issue in holding religious authority. The biblical content was lost. And proof-texting methods were used to justify the clergy/laity hierarchy. Perhaps the best-known example is the early Catholics’ use of Matthew 16 to justify the creation of a papal system and the doctrine of apostolic succession. The result: Ordinary believers, generally uneducated and ignorant, were at the mercy of a professional clergy”. pg.127
“The New Testament word for minister is diakonos. It means ‘servant’. But this word has been distorted because men have professionalized the ministry. We have taken the word minister and equated it with the pastor, with no scriptural justification whatsoever. In like manner, we have mistakenly equated preaching and ministry with pulpit, sermon, again without biblical justification”. pg.136
“The unscriptural clergy/laity distinction has done untold harm to the body of Christ. It has divided the believing community into first and second-class Christians. The clergy/laity dichotomy perpetuates an awful falsehood-namley, that some Christians are more privileged than others to serve the Lord.
The one-man ministry is entirely foreign to the New Testament, yet we embrace it while it suffocates our functioning. We are living stones, not dead ones. However, the pastoral office has transformed us into stones that do not breathe.
Permit us to get personal. We believe the pastoral office has stolen your right to function as a full member of Christ’s body. It has distorted the reality of the body, making the pastor a giant mouth and transforming you into a tiny ear. It has rendered you a mute spectator who is proficient at taking sermon notes and passing an offering plate.
But that is not all. The modern-day pastoral office has overthrown the main thrust of the letter to the Hebrews-the ending of old priesthood. It has made ineffectual the teaching of 1 Corinthians 12-14, that every member has both the right and the privilege to minister in a church meeting. It has voided the message of 1 Peter 2 that every brother and sister is a functioning priest”. pg. 136
“But there is something more. The contemporary pastorate rivals the functioning headship of Christ in his church. It illegitimately holds the unique place of centrality and headship among God’s people, a place that is reserved for only one Person-the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ is the only head over a church and the final word to it. By his office, the pastor displaces and supplants Christ’s headship by setting himself up as the church’s human head”. pg. 137
“The contemporary pastor is the most unquestioned fixture in the twenty-first century Christianity. Yet not a strand of Scripture supports the existence of this office.
Rather, the present-day pastor was born out of the single-bishop rule first spawned by the Ignatius and Cyprian. The bishop evolved into the local presbyter. In the Middle Ages, the presbyter grew into the the Catholic priest. During the Reformation, he was transformed into the “preacher”, “the minister”, and finally “the pastor”-the person upon whom all of the Protestantism hangs. To boil it down to one sentence: The Protestant pastor is nothing more than a slightly reformed Catholic priest. (Again, we are speaking of the office and not the individual.)
Catholic priests had seven duties at the time of the Reformation: preaching; the sacraments; prayers for the flock; a disciplined, godly life; church rites; supporting the poor; and visiting the sick. The Protestant pastor takes upon himself all of these responsibilities-plus he sometimes blesses civic events.
The famed poet John Milton put it best when he said, “New presbyter is but old priest writ large!” In other words, the contemporary pastor is but an old priest written in large letters! ” pg. 141
“Leading up to the sermon, those who “lead worship” select the songs that are to be sung. They begin those songs. They decide how those songs are to be sung. And they decide when those songs are over. Those sitting in the audience in no way, shape, or form lead the singing. They are led by someone else who is often part of the clerical staff-or who has similar stature.
This is in stark contrast to the first-century way. In the early church, worship and singing were in the hands of all of God’s people. The church herself led her own songs. Singing and leading songs was a corporate affair, not a professional event led by specialists”. pg. 158
“In 1962, a group of dissatisfied British church musicians in Dunblane, Scotland, tried to revitalize traditional Christian songs. Led by Congregational minister Erik Routley, these artists were influenced by Bob Dylan and Sydney Carter. George Shorney Jr.of Hope Publishing Company brought their new style to the United States. These new Christian hymns were a reform, but not a revolution. The revolution came when rock and roll was adapted into Christian music with the coming of the Jesus movement. This reform set the stage for the revolutionary musical changes to take root in the Christian church through Calvay Chapel and the Vineyard.
The origin of the worship team goes back to the founding Calvary Chapel in 1965. Chuck Smith, the founder of the denomination, started a ministry for hippies and surfers. Smith welcomed the newly converted hippies to retune their guitars and play their now redeemed music in church. He gave the counterculture a stage for their music in church .He gave the counterculture a stage for their music-allowing them to play Sunday night performances and concerts. The new musical forms began to be called “praise and worship”. As the Jesus movement began to flourish, Smith founded the record company Maranatha Music in the early 1970s. It’s goal was to distribute the songs of these young artists.
In due time, the guitar replaced the organ as the central instrument that led worship in the Protestant church. Although patterned after the rock concert of secular culture, the worship team has become as common as the pulpit”. pg. 166
“I (Frank) am no theoretician. For almost twenty years I have gathered with churches where every member has been trained to start a song spontaneously. Imagine: Every brother and sister free to lead songs under the headship of Jesus Christ-even to write his or her own songs and bring them to the meeting for all to learn. I have met with numerous churches that have experienced this glorious dynamic. Someone starts a song and everyone joins in. Then someone else begins another song, and so worship continues without long pauses and with no visible leader present.
This is exactly how the first-century Christians worshipped, by the way. Yet it is a rare experience in the modern-day institutional church. The good news is that it is possible and available for all who wish to experience Christ’s headship through song in a church meeting. The singing in such churches is intensely corporate rather than individualistic and subjective”. pg 167
“Tithing is mentioned only four times in the New Testament. But none of these instances apply to Christians. Tithing belonged to the Old Testament era where a taxation system was needed to support the poor and a special priesthood that had been set apart to minister to the Lord. With the coming of Jesus Christ, there has been a “change of the law”-the old has been “set aside” and rendered obsolete by the new (Hebrews 7:12-18, 8:13
We are all priests now-free to function in God’s house. The law, the old priesthood, and the tithe have all been crucified. There is now no Temple curtain, no Temple tax and no special priesthood that stands between God and man. You have been set free from the bondage of tithing and from the obligation to support the umbilical clergy system. May you, like the first-century Macedonian Christians, give freely, out of a cheerful heart, without guilt, religious obligation, or manipulation… generously helping those in need (2 Corinthians 8:1-4; 9:6-7)”. pg. 183
“In the early church, converts were baptized immediately upon believing. One scholar says of baptism and conversion, “They belong together. Those who repented and believed the Word were baptized. That was the invariable pattern, so far as we know.” Another writes “At the birth of the church, converts were baptized with little or no delay.”
In the first century, water baptism was the outward confession of a person’s faith. But more than that, it was the way someone came to the Lord. For this reason, the confession of baptism is vitally linked to the exercise of saving faith. So much so that the New Testament writers often use baptism in place of the word faith and link it to being “saved”. This is because baptism was the early Christian’s initial confession of faith in Christ.
Baptism accompanied the acceptance of the gospel. For example, when Lydia heard Paul preach the gospel, she believed and was immediately baptized with her household (Acts 16:14-15). In the same way, when Paul led the Philippian jailor and his household to the Lord, they were immediately baptized (Acts 16:30-33). This was the New Testament pattern (see Acts 2:41, 8:12, 35-37). Baptism marked a complete break with the past and full entrance into Christ and His church. Baptism was simultaneously an act of faith as well as an expression of faith.” pgs. 188-189.
“Through our tradition, we have evacuated the true meaning and power behind water baptism. Properly conceived and practiced, water baptism is the believer’s initial confession of faith before men, demons, angels, and God. Baptism is a visible sign that depicts our separation from the world, our death with Christ, the burial of our old man, the death of the old creation, and the washing of the Word of God.
Water baptism is the New Testament form of conversion-initiation. It is God’s idea. To replace it with the human-invented sinners prayer is to deplete baptism of its God-given testimony.
In the same vein , the Lord’s Supper, when separated from its proper context of full meal, turns into a strange, pagan-like rite.The supper has become an empty ritual officiated by a clergyman, rather than a shared-life experience enjoyed by the church. It has become a morbid religious exercise, rather than a joyous festival-a stale individualistic ceremony, rather than a meaningful cooperate event.
As one scholar put it, “It is not in doubt that the Lord’s Supper began as a family meal or meal of friends in a private house… the Lord’s Supper moved from being a real meal into being a symbolic meal…the Lord’s Supper moved from bare simplicity to elaborate slender…the celebration of the Lord’s Supper moved from being a lay function to a priestly function. In the New Testament itself, there is no indication that it was the special privilege or duty of anyone to lead the worshipping fellowship in the Lord’s Supper”. pgs 196-197
“In the minds of most Christians, formal Christians education qualifies a person to do the Lord’s work. Unless a Christian has graduated from Bible College or seminary, he or she is viewed as being a “para”-minister. A pseudo Christian worker. Such a person cannot preach, teach, baptize, or administer the Lord’s Supper since he or she has not been formally trained to do such things…right?
The idea that a Christian worker must attend Bible college or seminary to be legitimate is deeply ingrained-so much so that when people feel a “call” of God on their lives, they are conditioned to begin hunting for a Bible College or seminary to attend
Such thinking fits poorly with the early Christian mind-set. Bible colleges, seminaries, and even Sunday Schools were utterly absent from the early church. All are human innovations that came hundreds of years after the Apostles’ death.
How, then, were Christian workers trained in the first century if they did not go to a religious school? Unlike today’s ministerial training, first-century training was hands-on, rather than academic. It was a matter of apprenticeship, rather than of intellectual learning. It was aimed primarily at the spirit, rather than at the frontal lobe.
In the first century, those called to the Lord’s work were trained in two ways:(1) They learned the essentials lessons of Christian ministry by living a shared life with a group of Christians. In other words, they were trained by experiencing body life as nonleaders. (2) They learned the Lord’s work under the tutelage of an older, seasoned worker.” pgs.199-200
“The teaching of the New Testament is that God is Spirit, and as such, He is known by revelation ( spiritual insight) to one’s human spirit. Reason and intellect can cause us to know about God. And they help us to communicate what we know. But they fall short in giving us spiritual revelation. The intellect is not the gateway for knowing the Lord deeply. Neither are emotions. In the words of A.W.Tozer: “Divine truth is of the nature of the spirit and for that reason can be only by spiritual revelation…God’s thoughts belong to the world of spirit, man’s to the world of intellect, and while spirit can embrace intellect, the human intellect can never comprehend spirit.
…Man by reason cannot know God; he can only know about God.
… Man’s reason is a fine instrument and useful within its field. It was not given as an organ by which to know God.” pg. 206
“Instead of offering the cure to the ills of the church, our theological schools worsen them by assuming ( and even defending) all of the unscriptural practices that produce them.
The words of one pastor sum up the problem nicely: “I came through the whole system with the best education that evangelicalism had to offer-yet I really didn’t receive the training that I needed… seven years years of higher education in top-rated evangelical schools didn’t prepare me to (1) do ministry and (2) be a leader. I began to analyze why I could preach a great sermon and people afterwards would shake my hand and say, ‘Great Sermon, Pastor.’ But these were the very people who were struggling with self-esteem, beating their spouses, struggling as workaholics, succumbing to their addictions. Their lives weren’t changing. I had to ask myself why this great knowledge I was presenting didn’t move from their
heads to their hearts and their lives. And I began to realize that breakdown in the church was actually based on what we learned in seminary. We were taught that if you just give people information, that’s enough!” pg. 218
“WHY IS IT THAT WE CHRISTIANS can follow the same rituals every Sunday without ever noticing that they are at odds with the New Testament? The incredible power of tradition has something to do with it As we have seen, the church has often been influenced by the surrounding culture, seemingly unaware of it’s negative effects. At other times, it has, quite properly, recognized overt threats- such as heretical teachings about the person and divinity of Jesus Christ. But in an effort to combat those threats, it has moved away from the organic structure that God wrote into the church’s DNA .
But there is something else- something more fundamental that most Christians are completely unaware of. It concerns our New Testament. The problem is not in what the New Testament says. The problem is in how we approach it.
The approach most commonly used among contemporary Christians when studying the Bible is called “proof texting”. The origin of proof texting goes back to the 1590s. A group of men called Protestant scholastics took the teachings of the Reformers and systematized them according to the rules of Aristotelian logic.
The Protestant scholastics held that not only is the Scripture the Word of God, but every part of it is the Word of God in and of itself-irrespective of context. This set the stage for the idea that if we lift a verse out of the bible, it is true in it’s own right and can be used to prove a doctrine or a practice.
When John Darby emerged in the mid-1800s, he built a theology based on this approach. Darby raised proof texting to an art form. In fact, it was Darby who gave fundamentalist and evangelical Christians a good deal of their presently accepted teachings. All of them are built on the proof-texting method. Proof texting, then, became the common way that we contemporary Christians approach the Bible.
As a result, we Christians rarely, if ever, get to see the New Testament as a whole. Rather, we are served up a dish of fragmented thoughts that are drawn together by means of fallen human logic. The fruit of this approach is that we have strayed far afield from the practice of the New Testament church. Yet we still believe we are being biblical”. pgs 222-223
“Seminaries and Bible college students alike are rarely if ever given a panoramic view of the free-flowing story of the early church with the New Testament books arranged in chronological order. As a result, most Christians are completely out of touch with the social and historical events that lay behind each of the New Testament letters Instead, they have turned the New Testament into a manual that can be wielded to prove any point. Chopping the Bible up into fragments makes this relatively easy to pull off.
.We Christians have been taught to approach the Bible in one of eight ways. See how many that apply to you, you can tick off with a pencil:
.You look for verses that inspire you. Upon finding such verses, you either highlight, memorize, meditate upon, or put them on your refrigerator door.
.You look for verses that tell you what God has promised so that you can confess it in faith and thereby obligate the Lord to do what you want.
.You look for verses that tell you what God commands you to do
.You look for verses that you can quote to scare the devil out of his wits or resist him in the hour of temptation..
.You look for verses that will prove your particular doctrine so that you can slice and dice your theological sparring partner into biblical ribbons. (Because of the proof-texting method, a vast wasteland of Christianity behaves as if the mere citation of some random, decontextualized verses of Scripture ends all discussion on virtually any subject).
.You look for verses in the bible to control and /or correct others.
. You look for verses that “preach” well and make good sermon material. (This is an ongoing addiction for many who preach and teach).
.You somethimes close your eyes, flip open the bible randomly, stick your finger on a page, read what the text says, and then take what you have read as a personal “word” from the Lord.
Now look at the list again.Which of these approaches have you used? Look again: Notice how each is highly individualistic. All of them put you, the individual Christian, at the center. Each approach ignores the fact that most of the New Testament was written to corporate bodies of people (churches), not to individuals.
But that’s not all. Each of those approaches is built on isolated proof texting. Each treats the New Testament like a manual and blinds us to its real message. It is no wonder that we can approvingly nod our heads at paid pastors, the Sunday morning order of worship, sermons, church buildings, religious dress, choirs, worship teams, seminaries, and a passive priesthood all without wincing.
We have been taught to approach the Bible like a jigsaw puzzle. Most of us have never been told the entire story that lies behind the letters that Paul, Peter, James, John, and Jude wrote. We have been taught chapters and verses, not the historical context.
For instance, have you ever been given the story behind Paul’s letter to the Galatians? Before nodding, see if you can answer these questions off the top of your head: Who were the Galatians? What were their issues? When and why did Paul write to them? What happened just before Paul penned his Galatian treatise? Where was he when he wrote it? What provoked him to write the letter? And where in Acts do you find the historical context for his letter? All of these background matters are indispensable for understanding what our New Testament is about. Without them, we simply cannot understand the Bible clearly or properly”. pgs. 229-231
“What do we mean by first-century styled church? It is group of people who know how to experience Jesus Christ and express Him in a meeting without any human officiation. Such a group of people can function organically together as a body when they are left on their own after the church planter leaves them. ( This does not mean that church planters never return. There are many times when they are needed to help the church. But after planting a church, church planters should be absent more than they are present.)
The one who plants a first-century styled church leaves that church without a pastor, elders, a music leader, a Bible facilitator, or a Bible teacher. If that church is planted well, those believers will know how to sense and follow the living, breathing headship of Jesus Christ in a meeting. They will know how to let Him invisibly lead their gatherings. They will bring their own songs, they will write their own songs, they minister out of what Christ has shown them-with no human leader present! What is described here is not an armchair philosophy. I (Frank) have worked with churches that fit this bill.
To equip people to do that takes a lot more than opening up your house and saying, “Come, let’s have Bible study”. pg. 234
“Unlike Christians today, the early Christians did not share Christ out of guilt, command, or duty. They shared Him because He was pouring out of them, and they could not help it! It was a spontaneous, organic thing-born out of life, not guilt.” pg.237
“We do well to pay attention to the way that churches were raised up in the first century. I believe that scripture holds for us enduring principles on this score. If you count all the churches mentioned in the New Testament, you’ll find about thirty-five. Everyone of them was planted or aided by a traveling church planter who preached only Christ. There were no exceptions. The church was raised up as a result of the apostolic presentation of Jesus Christ.” pg. 238
“Jesus was never a rabble-rouser nor a ranting rebel (Matthew 12:19-20). Yet He constantly defied the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees. And He did not do so by accident, but with great deliberation. The Pharisees were those who, for the sake of the “truth” as they saw I, tried to extinguish the truth they could not see. This explains why there was always a blizzard of controversy between the ‘tradition of the elders’ and the acts of Jesus.
Someone once said that ‘a rebel attempts to change the past; a revolutionary attempts to change the future’. Jesus Christ brought drastic change to the world. Change to man’s view of God …. Change to men’s view of women. Our Lord came to bring radical change to the old order of things, replacing it with a new order. He came to bring forth a new covenant – a new Kingdom – a new birth – a new race – a new species – a new new culture – and a new civilization.
As you read through the Gospels, behold your Lord, the Revolutionary. Watch him throw the Pharisees into a panic by intentionally flaunting their conventions. Numerous times Jesus healed on the Sabbath day, flatly breaking their cherished traditions. If the Lord wanted to placate His enemies, He could have waited until Sunday or Monday to heal some of these people. Instead, he deliberately healed on the Sabbath, knowing full well it would make His opponents livid.
This pattern runs deep. In one instance, Jesus healed a blind man by mixing clay with spittle and putting it in the man’s eyes. Such an act was in direct defiance of the Jewish ordinance that prohibited healing on the Sabbath by mixing mud with Spittle! Yet your Lord intentionally shattered this tradition publicly and with absolute resolve .Watch Him eat food with unwashed hands under the judgmental gaze of the Pharisees, again intentionally defying their fossilized tradition.
In Jesus we have a man who refused to bow to the pressures of religious conformity. A man who preached a revolution. A man who would not tolerate hypocrisy. A man who was not afraid to provoke those who suppressed the liberating gospel He brought to set men free. A man who did not mind evoking anger in His enemies, causing them to gird their thighs for battle”. pgs 244- 246
“For most Christians, this is a side of Jesus Christ they have never known before. Yet we believe it explains why exposing what is wrong with the contemporary church so that Christ’s body can fulfill God’s ultimate intention is so critical. It is simply an expression of our Lord’s revolutionary nature. The dominating aim of the nature is to put you and me at the center of the beating heart of God. To put you and me in the core of His eternal purpose – a purpose for which everything was created.
The early church understood that purpose. They not only understood God’s passion for His Church, they lived it out. And what did such body life look like?
- The early Christians were intensely Christ-centered. Jesus Christ was their pulse beat. He was their life, their breath, and their central point of reference. He was the object of their worship, the subject of their songs, and the content of their discussion and vocabulary. The New Testament church made the Lord Jesus Christ Central and supreme in all things.
- The New Testament church had no fixed order of worship. The early Christians gathered in open-participatory meetings where all believers shared their experience of Christ, exercised their gifts, and sought to edify one another. No one was a spectator. All were given the privilege and the responsibility to participate. The purpose of these church meetings was twofold. It was for the mutual edification of the body. It was also to make visible the Lord Jesus Christ through the every-member functioning of His body. The early church meetings were not religious “services”. They were informal gatherings that were permeated with an atmosphere of freedom, spontaneity, and joy. The meetings belonged to Jesus Christ and to the church; they did not serve as platform for any particular ministry or gifted person.
- The New Testament church lived as a face-to-face community. While the early Christians gathered for corporate worship and mutual edification, the church did not exist to merely meet once or twice a week. The New Testament believers lived a shared life. They cared for one another outside of scheduled meetings. They were, in the very real sense of the word, family.
- Christianity was the first and only religion the world has ever known that was void of ritual, clergy, and sacred buildings. For the first 300 years of the Church’s existence, Christians gathered in homes. On special occasions, Christian workers would sometimes make use of larger facilities (like Solomon’s Porch) {John 10:23, Acts 3:11} and the Hall of Tyrannus {Acts 19:9}. But they had no concept of a scared edifice nor of a spending large amounts of money on buildings. Nor would they ever call a building a “church” or the “house of God.” The only sacred building the early Christians knew was the one not made with human hands.
- The New Testament church did not have a clergy. The Catholic priest and the Protestant pastor were completely unknown. The church had traveling apostolic workers who planted and nurtured churches. But these workers were not viewed as being part of the a special clergy caste. They were part of the body of Christ, and they served the churches (not the other way around). Every Christian possessed different gifts and different functions, but only Jesus Christ had the exclusive right to exercise authority over his people. No man had that right. Eldering and Shepherding were just two of those gifts. Elders and Shepherds were ordinary Christians with certain gifts. They were not special offices. And they did not monopolize the ministry of the church meetings. They were simply seasoned Christians who naturally cared for the members of the church during times of crisis and provided oversight for the whole assembly.
- Decision making in the New Testament church fell upon the shoulders of the whole assembly. Traveling church planters would sometimes give input and direction. But ultimately, the whole church made decisions under the lordship of Jesus Christ. It was the church’s responsibility to find the Lord’s mind together and act accordingly.
- The New Testament church was organic, not organizational. It was not welded together by putting people into offices, creating programs, constructing rituals, and developing a top-down hierarchy or chain-of-command structure. The church was a living, breathing organism. It was born, it would grow, and it naturally produced all of what was in its DNA. That would include all the gifts, ministries, and functions of the body of Christ. In the eyes of God, the church is a beautiful woman. The bride of Christ. She was a colony from heaven, not a man-made organization from earth.
- Tithing was not a practice of the New Testament church. The early Christians used their funds to support the poor among them, as well as the poor in the world. They also supported traveling itinerant church planters so that the gospel could be spread and churches could be raised up in other lands. They gave according to their ability, not out of guilt, duty, or compulsion. Pastor/clergy salaries were unheard of. Every Christian in the church was a priest, a minister, and a functioning member of the body. (elders who labour in the word and doctrine to feed and equip Christ’s sheep are to be thought worthy of “double honour” which means sufficient financial compensation – 1 Timothy 5:17-18; 1 Corinthians 9:1-14, etc.)
- Baptism was the outward expression of Christian conversion. When the early Christians led people to the Lord, they immediately baptized them in water as a testimony to their new position. The Lord’s Supper was an ongoing expression whereby the early Christians reaffirmed their faith in Jesus Christ and their oneness with His body. The Supper was a full meal which the church enjoyed together in the spirit and atmosphere of joy and celebration. It was fellowship of the body of Christ, not a token ritual or a religious rite. And it was never officiated by a clergy or special priesthood.
- The early Christians did not build Bible schools or seminars to train young workers. Christians workers were educated and trained by older workers in the context of church life. They learned “on the job.” Jesus provided the initial model for this “on-the-job” training when He mentioned the Twelve. Paul duplicated it when he trained young Gentile workers Ephesus.
- The early Christians did not divide themselves into various denominations. They understood their oneness in Christ and expressed it visibly in every city. To their minds, there was only one church per city ( even though it may have met in many different homes throughout the locale). If you were a Christian in the first century, you belonged to that one Church. The unity of the spirit was well guarded. Denominating themselves ( “I am of Paul,” ‘I am of Peter,’ ‘I am of Apollos’) was regarded as sectarian and divisive (see 1 Corinthians 1:12).
We believe this is God’s vision for every church. In fact, we have written this book for one reason: to make room for the absolute centrality, supremacy, and headship of Christ in His church. Fortunately, more and more Revolutionaries today are catching that vision. They recognize that what is needed is a revolution within the Christian faith-a complete upheaval of those Christian practices that are contrary to biblical principles. We must begun all over again, on the right foundation. Anything less will prove defective.
And so our hope as you finish this book is threefold. First, we hope that you will begin asking questions about the church as you presently know it. How much of it is truly biblical? How much of it expresses the absolute headship of Jesus Christ? How much of it allows the members of His body the freedom to function? Second, we hope you will share this book with ever Christian you know so they too can be challenged by its message. And third, we hope you will pray seriously about what your response should be to that message.
If you are a disciple of the Revolutionary from Nazareth… the radical Messiah who lays His axe to the root…you must eventually ask a specific question. It is the same question that was asked of our Lord’s disciples while He walked the earth. That question is: “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?” (Matt 15:2)”. pgs 246-250
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Apostasy
BEWARE of the Wolf Defenders [podcast]
A DANGEROUS BREED OF HYPOCRITE!
Truth-Despising, Wolf-Worshiping,
Devil-Defending Agents of Satan who Think they are Saved (think again!)
Walking in God’s love can never be separated from walking in God’s truth! They are divinely, eternally married! Don’t you dare claim to be walking in God’s love if you are not speaking God’s truth (Ephesians 4:15; Proverbs 27:5-6).
The true man of God fears God and therefore fears no man. He will speak the truth no matter what the cost.
“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.” Thomas Sowell
MORAL cowards are self-serving and deceitful. When THEY want something to be true, they ignore God’s Word and want to argue to defend their position instead of dying to self and believing and living by the WORD of God. Repent sinner. “Let God be true and EVERY man a liar” (Romans 3:4).
Jesus says, “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).
If you seek to justify sinners against the counsel of God’s Word, you are not a man of truth but rather a self-serving moral coward who seeks to justify sinners instead of loving them enough to give them the truth so they can be saved. Repent sinner.
“He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.” Proverbs 17:15
Judge not those who “judge righteous judgment”! (John 7:24)
“Today’s church cannot remain faithful if it tolerates false teachers and leaves their teachings uncorrected and unconfronted.” Albert Mohler
The JUDGE has spoken in a book called THE BIBLE. He’s calling us to pay attention when we read it. His written WORD records for us HIS judgments – the judgments of the Judge. So, the lame misuse of the “judge not” scripture is a cover up from novices to justify their worship of wolves who feed their flesh nature instead of telling them God requires them to live the crucified life (Matthew 7:1-5; Philippians 3:18-19; 2 Timothy 4:2-4; 2 Peter 2:1-3; 2 John 10-11, etc.).
Jesus says “Judge righteous judgment” and the only way to do that is call the shots like He does in His written Word – beginning with our own lives and out from there (John 7:24). YES GOD is the Judge and THE JUDGE HAS SPOKEN His judgments in the 66 glorious books in the canon of His Word. So there are no excuses. We shall be judged by His Word, the Bible (John 12:48; Romans 2:16; Revelation 20:10-15).
“The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” John 12:48
YES, God is the Judge and THE JUDGE HAS SPOKEN – it’s called the BIBLE. We have HIS judgments on record in the Bible. Now let’s repent and cease the smokescreens to evade truly repenting! See John 3:19-21.
ATTENTION: The LORD calls His people to mark and to expose His enemies and not defend or support them! Those who prop up, support, follow, and defend the obvious wolves operating among the professing church only do so due to their own refusal to study to show themselves approved before a holy God (2 Timothy 2:15). It’s time to get immersed in the Word!
WARNING: YOU’D BETTER MAKE SURE YOU AREN’T COVERING FOR AND DEFENDING ONE OF THE “MANY FALSE PROPHETS” JESUS REPEATEDLY WARNED US TO “BEWARE OF” (Matthew 7:15; 24:11, 24, etc.). IF YOU DO, YOU WILL GO TO HELL WITH THEM!
Isn’t it so hypocritically interesting how those who misuse Jesus’ word “Judge not” and how they don’t think twice to condemn you for supposedly condemning others? So, they are telling you not to judge (out of context) while they openly judge you. SMH at these blinded hypocrites. In Matthew 7:1-5 Jesus was speaking of hypocritical judgment, not all judgment! Stop taking Jesus’ words out of context!
The kingdom of God is not dictated by any mere human’s emotions or notions. Let’s live by God’s Word saints.
LIKE IT OR NOT, it is the divine mandate and duty of the members of Christ’s body to “earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints” against “ungodly men” who are false teachers. Read Jude 3-4. The divine mandate to mark false teachers is none of your business or mine! God didn’t ask you before He spoke and commanded that these things be done. This kingdom of God is not relegated to you or me, nor our flimsy musings. We live by God’s Word and not someone’s emotions or un-sanctified whims (Colossians 2:8). Do we not understand that God wants to protect His sheep? The kingdom of God is about KING JESUS, not you! It’s time to die to self!
SUPPORTING WOLVES (Christ’s very subverting enemies) will land you in hell with them according to God’s Word.
Those who try to shut down warnings are simply afraid they are the next ones to be exposed! Repent! John 3:19-21
Counterfeits defend their wolves while true remnant disciples of Jesus are “set for the defence of the gospel” as was Paul the apostle (Philippians 1:17).
Tina McGovern writes:
“It is astounding and amazes me every time people defend these actions and condemn the actions of the righteous who hold to the truth clearly brought forward in Scriptures. But…as we know…it takes false followers to follow false teachers and false prophets…all in hopes of being extravagantly rich to spend it on their lusts. It’s like manipulating the mind to feel free to lust guiltlessly. Dear Lord, You alone know who are Yours. In your great mercy make a way where there appears to be no way, to deliver those who are deceived and fallen captive to the deceiver. Deliver them to the uttermost.”
JOIN THE CHORUS with the remnant of Christ’s elect … by openly shining the light of truth on the false teachings and teachers of our day who are being used of Satan to lead millions to eternal damnation (Isaiah 9:16; Matthew 15:14). This is not a game! The apostle Paul said he was “set for the defence of the gospel” and Jude mandated that we “earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints” against “ungodly men” (Philippians 1:17; Jude 3-4). When we look at what the whole of Scripture tells us about wolves among us and their mission (steal, kill, destroy), we may see a different picture. We will see them as the very agents of Satan we are told they are (2 Corinthians 11:12-15). The books Deceivers and False Prophets Among Us and Predators in Our Pulpits were written to showcase a myriad of shunned and purposely neglected Bible verses about wolves and their characteristics and methods.
The “Great Shepherd of the sheep” (Heb. 13:20) fully intends to protect the sheep He died for and part of that protection comes from His body/watchmen’s warnings. “Warn them from me” (Ezekiel 3:7).
THE LORD’S WATCHMEN are on their posts and doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing – warning. “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.” (Ezekiel 33:7)
In fact, if the watchman doesn’t sound the alarm, warning of danger, he is guilty before God.
“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” Ezekiel 33:6
Ernie Collins writes:
“WOE UNTO THE FOOLISH WHO CONTINUE TO BE DECEIVED WITH GREAT DECEPTION OF FALSE TEACHERS AND PREACHERS; FOR THEY WILL SURELY FACE THE GREAT JUDGMENT AND WRATH WITH THE LAKE OF FIRE FOR THEIR FOOLISHNESS. A DIRE WARNING WITH GREAT CONSEQUENCES FOR ALL FALSE TEACHERS AND PREACHERS: JEREMIAH 23:1-2 (KJV) AUTHORIZED EDITION BIBLE:
1: WOE BE UNTO THE PASTORS THAT DESTROY AND SCATTER THE SHEEP OF MY PASTURE! SAITH THE LORD.
2: THEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL AGAINST THE PASTORS THAT FEED MY PEOPLE; YE HAVE SCATTERED MY FLOCK, AND DRIVEN THEM AWAY, AND HAVE NOT VISITED THEM: BEHOLD, I WILL VISIT UPON YOU THE EVIL OF YOUR DOINGS, SAITH THE LORD.” ERNIE COLLINS
The LORD told us that He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Yet, He will not save any person who freely chooses to give ear to, to support, to fund, and/or defend His enemies (2 Chronicles 19:2; 2 John 7-11, etc.). Such is high treason.
Does Satan have agents? Yes (2 Cor. 11:12-15). And, who would want to defend those emissaries except those who are also Satan’s agents? JUST WHO would want Satan’s emissaries to continue to mislead people? Who? Who other than those who are also Satan’s property due to their unrepentant hearts? Do you recall how Satan entered into one of Jesus’ own twelve? See John 13:27.
So who can prove by Scripture or even common sense that protection via warning is a sin? Who can show that it’s God’s mandate and His will for His body to do?
“Judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24). When you attack someone for judging, you are judging them. If there is no judgment/discernment, why are you judging someone for judging? You are doing exactly what you are accusing them of doing (Romans 2:1-3). Jesus says: “Ye shall know (Gr. discern) them BY THEIR FRUITS” (Matthew 7:16, 20).
Charles Kennon writes:
“‘Judge Not’…One of the most misunderstood and improperly applied verses in the Bible. Few read the entirety of this portion of Scripture thus understanding that Jesus was not condemning righteous judgment but rather rebuking men for hypocritical judgment.
Be not deceived my friend, WE ALL JUDGE…The question is this; By what STANDARD do we Judge? By God’s Word or by what seems right to US. Here is a touchstone by which you can examine yourself. Those who are of God employ the phrase ‘Judge not’ in a DIDACTIC manner to properly instruct others in the way (Matthew 7:1-5). Those who are not of God employ ‘Judge not’ in a DEFENSIVE manner to evade the truth and justify themselves when the light of God’s Word uncovers or confronts them in their sin (Genesis 19:9).”
Jesus says “Judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24). Paul wrote “do not ye judge them that are within?” (1 Corinthians 5:12).
MESSAGE RECEIVED:
“God is the only one can judge everyone. He will judge you also guys. Be careful of what you are saying. Anyway your judgment isn’t going to change anything. It conveys hatred and not Christian love. We will be judged with the same measure.”
RESPONSE:
1. Is God the Judge? Yes or no? 2. Did God, the Judge, speak? Do you know about the Book called the Holy Bible? THAT is God’s judgments and He, the Judge, told us that all idolaters are going to hell (Rev 21:8). All who reject Christ for their religion, like Teresa, are not forgiven and going to hell. The Judge has spoken – from Genesis to Revelation. It’s time to repent, fast and pray, until you fear no one except the LORD. At that point He will grant you a fearlessness to preach His Word, regardless of how mere sinful men respond (Is. 51:7, 12; Gal. 1:10). This person you are defending is a sinful woman who refused to repent and be saved by the grace of God through Christ alone. She promoted an antichrist, works-based religion her whole life. The Bible assures us that every false teacher will have eternal “damnation” (2 Peter 2:1-3.) You have no clue what love is. You going to call JESUS CHRIST unloving for openly lambasting the false leaders of His day and telling them they were going to hell? Read Matt 23. Repent. “Open rebuke is better than secret love. 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Proverbs 27:5-6). You are in direct disobedience to the LORD by not earnestly contending against His enemies and marking and exposing them (Rom. 16:17-18; Ephesians 5:11; Jude 3-4, etc.). Repent and follow Jesus by exposing false leaders! (Matt, 23, etc.). While feigning to love Jesus, you are defending one of the false prophets He repeatedly warned us about who spent her life leading precious souls away from Him and into eternal hell. Repent.
Since when is warning Christ’s sheep of the devouring wolves hateful? Since when is such judgmental? It’s only wrong in the eyes of those who are biblically illiterate. They have time to watch TV, listen to clowns like Osteen, etc. and no time to diligently study God’s Word. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). DO YOU warn your children when they are young to stay away from the street? Yes. Why? TO PROTECT THEM. How hateful would you be NOT to teach them to stay clear of danger?
So, are you saying the apostle Paul was being unloving and judgmental when he said this to a false prophet? – “And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10).
You are attempting to selfishly protect and defend those who have told you everything’s okay without repenting (tickled your ears while flattering your flesh). They make you feel good now but you will hurt forever unless you truly repent and lay down your life and truly follow Christ – become HIS disciple. When you do, you will forsake the false Christs and idols.
As the Holy Ghost foretold, false prophets in this late hour are very popular because most would rather listen to feel good, tell-me-what-I-want-to-hear stories than “endure (hold themselves accountable to) sound doctrine.” But rather are “turned unto fables” which are feel-good, it’s all about ME stories (2 Timothy 4:2-4).
“WHO HATH BEWITCHED YOU? THE LORD SAYS COME LET US REASON TOGETHER.CHOOSE THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE. TRUTH CUTS AWAY AT THE FLESH, YES THE FLESH AND GUESS WHAT? IT HURTS NOW DOESN’T IT? BUT SHALL WE PLEASE MAN?(GOD FORBID) OR GOD? THIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH ALL THESE APOSTATES, THEY DELIVER A SELF SERVING, GOOD FEELING, EAR TICKING, DOCTRINE OF DEVILS! JESUS CHRIST SAID TO DENY OURSELVES AND PICK UP OUR CROSSES AND FOLLOW HIM.NOT MAN! BUT THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT THEY PREACH, NOT TO READ THE WORD AND NOT REPENTANCE AND NOT BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST. O GOD, FORGIVE THEM THAT REFUSE YOUR TRUTH, WE KNOW YOU WARN US OF THE STRONG DELUSION SENT FORTH BY YOU, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE, BUT FATHER, FOR THE GLORY OF JESUS CHRIST, AND THE LOVE HE HAS FOR HIS BRIDE, GIVE THEM EARS LORD! GIVE THEM EYES!IN YOUR PRECIOUS AND MIGHTY NAME – THE NAME OF JESUS – WE PRAY! AMEN! I SAID AMEN!” SHANNON COOK
If you are defending wolves, you have no clue of true, New Testament Christianity because you have not truly laid down your life (repented, which is essential to salvation) and have therefore followed the voice of the enemy of all souls who is speaking through his false prophets (2 Corinthians 11:12-15). And, what we are seeing in this very post is God’s merciful attempt to get you to see that you are not following Christ and are in need of true repentance.
Those who defend Christ’s wolves are quite hypocritical actually. Isn’t it amazing how some people who come out of the woodwork to judge me/us for obeying God by identifying His enemies, are telling me/us we’re being judgmental? So, let’s get this straight – they freely judge and condemn those who warn the flock of God while saying we’re wrongly judging others by exposing those others to be Satan’s wolves. Wow! Can anyone spell “h-y-p-o-s-c-i-s-y”? Oh and not one of those who condemn and who are judging us have ever once said anything good about a post. Wow. No edification or agreement with truth, only condemnation for exposing their favorite wolf they have formed a soul-tie with instead of forming an intimate, abiding relationship with the One they claim to be serving (John 15:1-6).
“Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. 2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.” Romans 2:1-2
You want to see vicious hatred? Just watch when wolves are uncovered by divine truth via Christ’s true, obedient remnant. Oh yes, you are going to see some of the vilest hatred you have ever seen from the defenders and supporters of those enemies of Christ. On this note, Shannon Cook writes:
“BELOVED BRIDE OF CHRIST, DEVILS COME BACK IN FULL FORCE TO DEFEND THEIR WOLF, THIS IS TO BE EXPECTED. THEY DESPISE TRUTH AND EXPOSURE OF LIES.”
Mark Herridge writes:
“The whole ‘judge not’ philosophy that has entered into the modern church has served to take the church further down the road of apostasy. It is a dangerous thing when we are told that we cannot use the Bible to judge matters concerning the church, the leadership of the church, or even those that claim to be a part of the church. It is certainly a fallacy to believe that we cannot compare people to the Word of God to determine what type of person they are. No sane person would allow a stranger to babysit their children without a background check and references, or in other words they are going to judge that person by some type of standard before placing their children’s lives in their hands. Everything should be judged by the Word of God, and it is absolutely biblical for us to do so.”
Those who aren’t warning the flock are not protecting the flock and are exposed as wolves themselves (Colossians 1:28).
Hell hath seen not fury like the scorn of a gullible follower of a wolf. They will lash out with pure hatred and malice while condemning you for daring to expose the wolf who is tickling their ear (2 Timothy 4:3). I make no apology for this “controversy.” Actually, this is exactly what we are told will happen when we discern –
“And they (true pastoral watchmen) shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to DISCERN (distinguish) between the unclean and the clean. 24 And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths.” Ezekiel 44:23-24
“BUT YOU’RE NOT THE JUDGE” CRIES THE NOW EXPOSED WOLF-SUPPORTER. YES, THE LORD IS THE ULTIMATE JUDGE. AND GOD WILL JUDGE FOR SURE AND HE WILL JUDGE US FOR OBEYING OR NOT OBEYING HIS WORD WHICH INSTRUCTS US TO EXPOSE HIS ENEMIES IN ORDER TO PROTECT HIS SHEEP. YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT?
It’s called discernment and judging righteous judgment (Ezekiel 44:23-24; John 7:24; 1 Corinthians 5:11-13, etc.). This doesn’t mean recklessly condemning anyone but it does mean discerning and pointing out false teachers whom Paul says are “accursed” (Galatians 1:6-9).
Saints, this whole thing of counterfeits balking about their favorite wolves being exposed for who they really are simply underscores the need to obey God by “earnestly contending for faith,” the original Gospel, revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures (Jude 3-4).
It seems like those who don’t want false prophets exposed (and so they defend them) are the ones who love the lies they have been told by those wolves. Isn’t this exactly what the LORD is saying through His prophet Jeremiah when he had him write that “My people LOVE to have it so” (Jeremiah 5:31; 2 Timothy 4:3). This would be biblical actually. Look at what the people who had once served God were saying to their leaders in Isaiah’s day:
“That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: 10 Which say to the seers (leaders), See not; and to the prophets (leaders), Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: 11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” Isaiah 30:9-11
As it was in the prophet Isaiah’s day so it is today. It is “a rebellious people” who love lies and despise the law/Word of God and so by their attitudes and actions say “Don’t go overboard with all this Christian stuff. Going to church is good enough. Give us smooth, deceitful things! Continue to be enemies of the cross of Christ (Philippians 3:18-19)! We don’t want to be part of dying to self so Christ can reign in our daily lives! We just want Heaven but refuse to be bothered and inconvenienced with obedience to what Jesus instructed! We ‘love’ Him only inasmuch as we believe He’s going to get us out of hell!”
Wolves are identified as those who oblige this self-loving, self-serving, pleasure-loving last day generation of those who do have a “form (outward appearance) of godliness” and yet deny the power or authority of Christ’s reign in their daily lives (2 Timothy 3:1-7).
WHY WOULD ANY TRUE DISCIPLE OF JESUS WANT TO PROTECT THE WOLVES WHO ARE POISONING THE CHILDREN OF THE ONE THEY CLAIM TO BE SAVED BY? WHY WOULD ANY GENUINE SERVANT OF CHRIST WANT TO BID GOD SPEED (ENDORSE, DEFEND, SUPPORT) TO A FALSE TEACHER? WHO PROFITS WHEN WOLVES ARE LEFT COVERED? AND WHO SUFFERS WHEN DECEIVERS ARE LEFT UNIDENTIFIED, UNDETECTED, UNLABELED, AND UNMARKED? WHO IS BENEFITED BY CHRISTIANS WHO KEEP THOSE RAVENOUS WOLVES HIDDEN FROM OTHER SHEEP?
These and other questions must be asked and sorted out by Holy Scripture which gives us “ALL things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3-4). Firstly, you will note that our brother Lee Ebbs did not mention any specific wolf (although that’s biblical to do also) … he is speaking the truth in order to “mark” (identify) false teachers and to warn Christ’s sheep so they can be safe (Romans 16:17-18).
Is it Biblical to Mark False Teachers?
Millions are being taught by the wolves who have deceived them not to expose them. I was personally taught by the wolves who deceived me not to ever speak a word against them. They were covering their tracks by using Scripture out of context to their own self-serving advantage (Philippians 3:18-19).
ACTS 20:27-32 IS TRULY KEY TO SEEING THE APOSTOLIC FAITH AND HOW IT AND THOSE SAVED BY THAT ORIGINAL GOSPEL ARE TO BE SAFEGUARDED AGAINST THE ENEMY’S WOLVES. ALSO PHILIPPIANS 1:17 AND JUDE 3-4. IF YOU NAME THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, PLEASE STUDY THESE PASSAGES PRAYERFULLY AND CAREFULLY.
Identifying the Source
Firstly, let’s establish exactly who “false apostles” and all false “ministers” are from. Are they of God or Satan himself?
“But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. 13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11:12-15
Any person who is not discerning all leaders and teachings against the Holy Word of God is in blatant disobedience to the LORD who says, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
We are commanded to never endorse or help in any way those who do not preach strictly God’s Word, which is “the doctrine of Christ”:
“For MANY DECEIVERS are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves (take personal responsibility to earnestly contend for the truth), that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. 9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth (remains) not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth (continues) in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. 10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: 11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” 2 John 7-11
BE CAREFUL: IF you dare defend or promote or in any way condone the enemies of Christ, you are going to hell with them (2 John 10-11). Repent sinner.
BIDDING GOD SPEED TO DECEIVERS (FALSE TEACHERS, FALSE RELIGIONS, ETC.) MAKES ONE THE ENEMY OF CHRIST AND UNDER THE SAME DIVINE CONDEMNATION AS THE WOLF THEY ARE CONDONING (2 JOHN 7-11; 2 CHRON. 19:2).
ANY PERSON WHO BIDS GODSPEED (CONDONES OR DEFENDS IN ANY WAY) TO ANY OF THESE “MANY DECEIVERS,” WILL BE JUDGED WITH THOSE WOLVES.
THE DISCIPLE OF CHRIST MUST NEVER DO ANYTHING TO FURTHER THE CAUSE OF THAT WHICH GOD CONDEMNS. TO HELP SOMEONE WHO IS TEACHING “ANOTHER GOSPEL” – ANY MESSAGE DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL GOSPEL – IS TO FURTHER THE CAUSE OF THE ENEMY OF THE ALMIGHTY AND THE EVIL HE PERPETRATES ON PRECIOUS SOULS (GALATIANS 1:6-9).
Are you the enemy of God? Is His holy wrath upon you? We should repent of helping wolves before the LORD judges us for participating in this betrayal of Him.
I DO UNDERSTAND THAT WE ALL WISH TO BE CIVIL. YET, GOD’S VERY WORD CALLS/LABELS EVILDOERS AS DEVILS/CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL. IF YOU CHOOSE TO SUPPORT A FALSE PROPHET (ENEMY OF CHRIST) AND DO NOT REPENT BEFORE YOU DIE, THEN YOU WILL RECEIVE THE SAME ETERNAL “DAMNATION” AS HE WILL (2 PETER 2:1-3). IF YOU AGREE WITH, VOTE FOR, HELP, ENDORSE, OR IN ANY WAY BID “GOD SPEED” TO THE WICKED, YOU ARE PARTAKER IN THEIR JUDGMENT (2 CHRONICLES 19:2; 2 JOHN 10-11). GOD MADE UP THE RULES IF YOU WILL, NOT US. HIS MESSAGE IS CLEAR. HE WILL JUDGE YOU AND ME IF WE CHOOSE TO SIDE WITH HIS ENEMIES WHICH INCLUDE ANYONE WHO ESPOUSES DOCTRINE OR LEGISLATION THAT VIOLATES HIM/HIS WORD.
To an evil man who withstood the LORD, His servant, and His blessed Gospel message, Paul said:
“AND SAID, O FULL OF ALL SUBTILTY AND ALL MISCHIEF, THOU CHILD OF THE DEVIL, THOU ENEMY OF ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS, WILT THOU NOT CEASE TO PERVERT THE RIGHT WAYS OF THE LORD?” ACTS 13:10
“Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD.” 2 Chronicles 19:2
ANY person who helps the ungodly is equally as guilty as those devouring wolves in the eyes of a holy God who says “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4). If you in any way “bid … God speed” to or in any way help or defend a wolf, you yourself are just as guilty as they are in the eyes of God.
“The Bible gives us no liberty to tolerate the incursion of evil into the church. We are not to be passive; we are not to be neutral. Proverbs 8:13 says, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. It is sinful to compromise with evil. It is sinful to be neutral toward evil. In John 10:10 Jesus spoke about the thief, the devil, who comes: to steal, to kill and to destroy. We always need to remember, whether it is in an individual life or in a congregation, the devil only comes with three objectives: to steal, to kill and to destroy.” Derek Prince
Making determinations about false leaders – “BY THEIR FRUIT” is not sin, it is obedience to Christ and the message of His holy apostles (Matthew 7:15-23). In order to keep themselves hidden – not seen for who they really are – spineless wolves have taught their audiences well.
These wolf defending counterfeits have nothing good to say of the many good, scriptural things about God’s truth put out by the LORD’s watchmen and yet hypocritically claim the watchmen are being judgmental WHILE they simultaneously judge and condemn those watchmen! Go figure folks! Deceitful haters of truth.
When your system of theology or the wolf propagating it trumps the very Word of God, you are lost and without the Savior just exactly as were the evil-hearted religious devils Jesus rebuked when He said
“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men (you let your tradition trump God’s Word), as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” (Mark 7:6-9)
Who is “of God” and who is “NOT of God”? – “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God” (John 8:47).
No person can serve religion or any religious leader and Christ simultaneously. Jesus said “He that is not with me IS against me” and “NO man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24; 12:30). Paul wrote “Ye cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils” (1 Corinthians 10:21). One may vainly think they are serving Christ but if that person doesn’t walk with God according to His Word and only His Word, that person is not right with God.
TO EXPOSE A WOLF IS TO EXPOSE THE UNREPENTANT HEARTS OF THOSE WHO PATRONIZE, SUPPORT, GIVE EAR TO, AND DEFEND THOSE WOLVES. WHAT’S AT STAKE? THE THIN VENEER OF THEIR OWN LITTLE PAPER FORTRESS THEY HIDE BEHIND IS BEING DISMANTLED. THAT’S WHAT’S AT STAKE.
“Let God be true and EVERY man a liar.” Romans 3:4
WHAT do Jude 3-4; Romans 16:17-18 and Ephesians 5:11 tell us? If you don’t personally have a foundational knowledge of the doctrines of Holy Scripture, you have no clue and have no business commenting with your useless opinion (mine is useless too – all that matters is what God’s written Word says!). If you don’t know God’s Word, you are still unlearned and a babe in Christ at best (Hebrews 5:11-14). You should open your King James Bible and read and begin learning every single Bible verse given in this important article. Only His holy truth will make you free from ignorance (John 8:31-32; 17:17). So, if you truly fear and love the LORD Jesus Christ, it’s time to begin this moment to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
THOSE WHO FACILITATE THE WORK OF SATAN’S WOLVES, THE VERY ENEMIES OF JESUS CHRIST, ARE SAYING THAT THESE EVILDOERS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO OPERATE – TO DESTROY ETERNAL SOULS – UNHINDERED.
If you are defending wolves, no matter what your iniquitous, demonic excuse, you are of Satan and against Christ. “He that is not with me IS IS IS against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” ~ The Son of God, Matthew 12:30. You are scattering abroad which means you are endorsing and facilitating the separation of souls from Christ, the only Savior. It’s time for you to repent and be truly saved.
Defending wolves enables them to continue to devour the sheep for whom Jesus bled on that cross to save!
YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE FLACK WE SOMETIMES RECEIVE FROM CHRIST-DESPISING, WOLF-PROTECTING, DEVIL-DEFENDING PEOPLE WHO COME AGAINST US FOR SHINING THE LORD’S LIGHT ON THE DARKNESS OF SATAN’S WOLVES (EPHESIANS 5:11; ROMANS 16:17-18; 2 CORINTHIANS 11:12-15). IN TRUE HYPOCRITICAL FORM, WHILE SAYING WE ARE WRONGLY CONDEMNING OTHERS, THEY SIMULTANEOUSLY HARSHLY CONDEMN US WITH NO SECOND THOUGHT. WOW! UTTER HYPOCRISY! … GOD BE PRAISED – WE ARE NOT WORTHY TO RECEIVE PERSECUTION FOR OUR LORD JESUS’ NAME! SEE EZEKIEL 44:23-24 VERY CLOSELY. OKAY, HERE IT IS:
“And they (true under shepherds) shall teach my people THE DIFFERENCE between the holy and profane, and cause them to DISCERN (distinguish) between the unclean and the clean. 24 And in CONTROVERSY they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments (written Word): and they shall keep (uphold) my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies…” Ezekiel 44:23-24
According to the above passage, “controversy” will come to those who teach Christ’s people to “discern” between light and darkness, truth and error. It will usually come from those who claim to be saved but do not love the truth (John 8:47); 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).
AMAZINGLY, THESE WOLF-DEFENDING COUNTERFEITS HAVE NOTHING GOOD TO SAY OF THE MANY GOOD THINGS ABOUT GOD’S TRUTH PUT OUT BY THE LORD’S WATCHMEN AND YET HYPOCRITICALLY CLAIM THE WATCHMEN ARE BEING JUDGMENTAL WHILE THEY SIMULTANEOUSLY JUDGE AND CONDEMN THOSE WATCHMEN! GO FIGURE FOLKS! DECEITFUL HATERS OF TRUTH.
Your Prayer of Repentance: Holy Father, thank You for sending Your only begotten Son to pay the full price for my sins and the sins of the whole world. Through His precious blood I come to You this moment, asking You to please forgive me for any way I have bid God speed to Your enemies who deceitfully and clandestinely pose as Your representatives. Open my eyes through Your Holy Word and Holy Spirit so that I am able to see the wolves You so often warned us about and to withstand and expose and mark them as you mandated for Your people to do. In Jesus’ holy Name, amen!
Naming Names: Is it Biblical? | Angry Man in Hell
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Note: WHO’s THE REAL BAD GUY? ARE YOU Being Exploited by a Pulpit Pimp? – “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” ~Apostle Paul, Galatians 4:16… WHO’s the real “bad guy”? SO, God’s watchmen who are warning you so you can be safe and secure from the fires of eternal damnation are the mean spirited ones, right? So, ask yourself: When you are in hell, burning, suffering and fully conscious, in excruciating pain without end, WHO then will be the bad guy? If you die having followed these prophesied false prophets, you will have no one to blame but yourself – for being so gullible and foolish and not getting before the LORD in a real way. No, instead of loving the LORD and His truth/Word, you chose to follow the self-serving, thrill-seeking, greed-crazed crowd who made a circus out of “church.” What does 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 say? Why hasn’t the wolf you are following shown you this passage? JUST WHAT is he/she trying to hide from you? Once you are in hell, burning, how wonderful will you think these wolves are then and for eternity when it’s too late?
Typical Hypocritical Judgment Coming from those who Yell “Don’t Judge My Favorite Wolf!”
Personal attacks from people who hide their own shortcomings while judging yours are going to happen folks. It’s interesting how hypocritical it is that while judging and personally condemning you for supposedly wrongly judging others … it’s okay for them to condemn you while telling/condemning you not to condemn others. Unreal. Ever heard the term “chasing your own tail”? We, as Christ’s body are called to sound the alarm on those misleading His sheep with false teachings. That’s God’s judgment, not man’s. The men and women who sound the alarm do so in obedience to the command of the LORD (Romans 16:17-18; Jude 3-4; etc.). So, since we all have shortcomings in this or that area, does that mean we should cease to serve God? No, we just work out our own salvation with fear and trembling as the LORD works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13). So, if you have shortcomings – if you are not sinless perfection – does that mean you are a hypocrite for teaching your children to stay away from the street so they don’t get killed? Think about it …
From Shannon Cook:
“They reveal the proof in their rotten to the core fruit. NEVER dares Joel utter the biblical word repentance. Why? BECAUSE HE’S A MESSENGER OF SATAN! It’s really NOT that difficult to see, if you’re God’s elect people. But without God’s Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you, we can show you Scripture after Scripture that PROVES this and you will not believe! You want a “feel good” doctrine of devils, follow Joel and Victoria and the many like them, to the bowels of hell. But read your Bibles, every apostle in the Bible dies BAD! And they preached the truth! Boiled in oil, stoned to death, crucified upside down. And they did it all for the glory of our King! Best life now can go back to hell where it came from! Satan we rebuke you from this thread, and the people you’re trying to come in through, in Jesus Name! Amen. One thing we cannot do is sugar coat the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’re accountable to Him alone. The blind not only lead the blind, but the blind defend the blind. Beloved, it isn’t judging, when we expose the lie, with the truth of the gospel, for the sake of Jesus Christ and his bride. Amen.” Shannon Cook
Dialogues / Feedback
Message Received for Exposing Osteen’s False Teachings:
“What part of LOVE one another don’t YOU get!!!”
Reply:
What part of “earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints” do you not get? Jude 3-4 … how loving is it to allow people to continue to be deceived?
This is a clear product of clueless people who refuse to diligently and daily study God’s Word for themselves and so they relegate their learning and understanding to a spineless moral coward who is nothing but a story teller who refuses to “preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2). What we are seeing is an exact, to the “T” fulfillment of this prophecy:
“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables (stories).” 2 Timothy 4:2-4
You are defending “ungodly men” who pose as Christ’s representatives but are seen not to be by their false teaching and practices …
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude 3-4
“Wow this hits it on the head, some people need to pay attention to what God says in his word about people causing division. God’s not happy with it at all. And on top of that they need to obey God and quit being under subjection to people, but being subjection only to God. Amen.” Paula
Of those who defend wolves, Stephen Michels notes:
“You are living in sin and need a justifier for it. THAT’s WHY you defend wolves!”
“Been running into a lot of these “wolf defenders” as of late … These people have a great spirit of pride, and they tend to fear men rather than God. Also they have no clue about what salvation is and don’t know what Bible to read.” Aaron Paul Johnson
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TO A WOMAN WHOSE IDOL WOLF (or wolves) has been exposed, by the ministry, …. and who accused myself and others of hate for exposing these enemies of the LORD, and came strongly to his/their defense, I wrote:
You are the one with hate …. you are defending the very wolves who are leading millions to hell … you care more for your idol wolves than you do the millions they are misleading to hell ….. apparently you still love this world and the things in it (fleeting riches) and therefore the lust you have not repented of is causing you to worship and defend these mere sinful men and women … 2 Tim 4:3-4 … This is the epitome for delusionment saints. …. here she is boldly posting pictures of her idols (Ez. 14:3) who have taught her to covet the riches of this fleeting world and thereby she has forfeited her eternal riches, which is Christ and eternity with Him.
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To a person that insisted that they were not going to partake with the expose’ of wolves, the following reply was sent:
Yes and LOVE and TRUTH cannot be separated. In fact, those who truly walk in God’s love, tell God’s truth (Ephesians 4:15; Proverbs 16:6). It’s not God’s love if it’s not accompanied with a sincere love for God’s truth.
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Message Received:
“I will await the judgment of God Mighty, The True Author and Finisher of My Faith…because He also States Do Not Argue and Quibble over My Words…do only what will Edify and When Souls….that’s why He said Judging is His Job, and His Alone…I will Never Be Arrogant Enough To Presume To Do God’s Job For Him… I trust Him and the Holy Spirit Alone….gracias for your words though…i have taking them to my Father God In Prayer….be well mí amigo…”
Reply:
Interestingly, you seem to be boasting about not wrongly judging others while you condemn me. If you wait for the Judgment Day without taking close heed to what the JUDGE has told us in His Word/Judgments, it will be too late. It’s an open book test and you WILL fail the judgment if you don’t study and know what pleases and what displeases the Judge of your eternal soul. See Prov. 28:9, 13. You seem to be under the notion that it is loving to not speak the truth directly and not to uncover the very enemies of the LORD (2 Corinthians 11:12-15). It’s actually displaying hatred to not expose Satan’s agents who pose as Christ’s representatives so that precious, eternal souls can be protected and spared (Matthew 7:15-21, etc.).
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Message Received:
“Brother your bitterness is plain for all to see. Pray for those you might think are missing it but to publicly bash them is certainly not Christ like at all. Just stick to preaching Christ.”
Reply:
You gullibility is clearly manifesting. The Bible never specifically says pray for wolves – but it does say to “mark them” so that others can be warned. No offense but you are a novice as far as Bible knowledge, otherwise you would know this. What THREE things did the apostle Paul do to prepare Christ’s body to meet Him? Colossians 1:28 – PWT – Preach, WARN, Teach.
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To a person who objected to the expose’ of wolves (false prophets) who are destroying souls and calling them at times “devils,” a reply was given this way:
Hi. How are you? Hope all is well. One thing’s for certain, this is not a salvation issue (essential). God’s LOVE can only be defined by God’s WORD and not by emotions. ACTUALLY, strong rebuke is what God uses to get to an otherwise hopeless, hell bound conscience – that’s love and mercy, not hate. Was it hate or love for God to demand that the believers at Corinth turn that unrepentant fornicator over to SATAN? (1 Cor. 5) Well, it led to that man repenting so he wouldn’t go to hell for eternity (2 Cor. 2). Was that love or hate? Are we wiser than the Almighty? Have we been swept away in the apostate, false “love” that is defined by the sinful whims of mere men? … Was the great apostle Paul hating when he told a man “And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, THOU CHILD OF THE DEVIL, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10) Paul called this guy a “child of the devil.” Was the apostle of Jesus walking in hate? Was the Son of God being mean and hateful when He lambasted the evil leaders of His day who were leading millions to hell? Was Jesus Christ being hateful or loving when He told those wolves they were going to hell 3 times in Matthew 23? “Open REBUKE is better than secret love. 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” (Proverbs 27:5-6) Is rebuke (with the truth) hateful or a manifestation of God’s mercy? Titus 1 says “For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. 12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. 13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith … They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” Titus 1:10-16 Is Truth Negative or Positive?
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Pandemic of False Prophets and those who Defend them [videos]
Apostasy
White and Clean: Garments of the KING’s Bride [podcast]
“Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” Luke 12:40
Was recently asked to be the care giver for a family friend the last week. Saw daystar TV preachers by the dozen…. and heard not even 1 of them speaking of and preaching to warn the body of Christ to be “ready” for Christ’s return. Unreal. Apostasy. I hadn’t watched “Christian” TV for many years and found it to be just as apostate as before. Not one of those wolves was preparing Christ’s body for His soon return which means at least many of them will not be ready as Jesus says you must be to be with Him (Luke 12:40). Paul preached, warned, and taught the body of Christ in preparation of Christ’s return (Colossians 1:28).
Any and every preacher not warning you constantly to be “ready” for Christ’s soon return is an agent of Satan.
In discerning true and false leaders, it’s at least as important to judge what they are NOT preaching as to judge what they ARE preaching. What they are purposely leaving out is deadly. And, you don’t know what they are leaving out if you don’t have a growing and working knowledge of Holy Scripture which can only come by way of diligent, daily study (2 Timothy 2:15).
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. 35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Luke 21:34
Repentance is Essential
NOTHING in God happens until we surrender in repentance …. Refreshing awaits ….
“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” Revelation 19:7-8
JESUS CHRIST, THE ONE WHO BLED FOR OUR SINS ON THAT CROSS, ISSUED CLEAR CONDITIONS FOR ENTERING HIS ETERNAL KINGDOM.
PLEASE show us all where the words “once saved always saved” or “eternal security” or anything similar appear anywhere in Scripture. They don’t. IF God wanted us to believe this heresy, 1. He’d be contradicting Himself, and 2. He, the Almighty sure forgot to tell us so….. now repent and denounce the lie of the evil one and preach the truth.
The remnant body of Christ is identified by their love for and preparation to meet their soon coming KING, Jesus (1 John 2:28-3:3).
TODAY, each of us is proving manifestly exactly WHO we are serving – Christ or self. Matthew 22:37-39; Romans 6:16; Galatians 6:7-8; Revelation 1:3; 22:14, etc.
“But IF (denotes the conditional nature of this divine promise) we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 1 John 1:7-10
The fact that this passage says that we must admit that we have sinned does not give excuse to live in sin. No, we are told in verse 7 to “walk in the light” in order to be continually washed by the blood of Jesus and verse 9 tells us we must confess all sin to be forgiven of sin.
—– We must let Him wash us … initially and perpetually … “Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. 9 Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. 10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.” John 13:8-10
Notice the “IF” here … “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 …
Christ is the One who saves us and we know from the full counsel of His Word that all who are presently in Him are set apart to Him/sanctified/holy (Ephesians 5:25-27; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Hebrews 12:14-17, etc.). Sanctification is a work done by God in those who are born again and currently abiding in Him (John 15). These alone are ready for the soon return of Jesus (Luke 21:34-36).
THIS SUNDAY, many will sit under a wolf who instead of preaching Scripture like 2 Corinthians 7:1 and 1 Peter 1:15-16, will make excuse for sin. SMH You know you are listening to an apostate when there’s no call to true repentance and the crucified life in light of the soon return of Christ! RUN or you are going to hell with them!
From sister Debbie Lord this morning, for Christ’s body:
“May we stand cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ
and full to overflowing with the presence/work of the Holy Spirit and God’s holy Word, in Jesus’ Name, amen. P.S. — Lord, we really want to see Your perfect will accomplished in our lives. Thank You Lord for your great mercies and faithfulness. This verse has been on my mind: Romans 11:33.”
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Abiding
What Did Paul Mean by “I Keep Under My Body”? [podcast]
In spite of all the evil that is me, dear LORD You have been so gracious (Genesis 6:5, 12; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 7; Titus 3:5-7). Thank You Jesus. Please bless this life to be crucified with Thee!
If OSAS/eternal security is true, WHY did Paul say he himself that he could be “castaway” from God in the end if he didn’t endure to the end, perpetually keep under his body (the cross life)?
“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 1 Corinthians 9:27
Here Paul speaks of his own need for the crucified life – to keep under his body, the flesh – in light of the sins that kept God’s people out of their promised land and his own jeopardy of soul if he were to neglect the cross in his own personal life (1 Corinthians 9:27-10-13).
Why O why would this apostle of Christ have uttered these words if he believed he was “once saved always saved”/”eternally secure” or that he was automatically going to be in Heaven no matter how he lived his life after being genuinely saved? Why would he ever had said that he would be cast away from the LORD in the end if he didn’t keep under his body if such were not possible? Paul follow Jesus and knew he was responsible to “endure to the end” of his earthly life to be saved into eternal glory (Matthew 10:22; 24:13; Colossians 1:22-23; Hebrews 3:6, 12-14; 10:26-39, etc.).
Most evangelicals have been sold on the lie that initial salvation means a saved person will automatically be in Heaven, no matter what he does after being saved. Not. Jesus and His holy apostles taught initial and final salvation.
Though the vast majority of those who pretend to represent Christ today do not preach His original Gospel, Jesus says that to follow Him, one must deny self and take up the cross daily (Luke 9:23-24). These are what Paul calls “enemies of the CROSS of Christ” who are building a ministry busine$$ and know that the golden calf heresy of eternal security $ell$ (Philippians 3:18-19; 2 Peter 2:1-3).
The idol of self is the enemy, the antichrist we deal head on with everyday with the cross which slays the god of self!
We therefore can safely conclude that this daily denial of self, this cross, this crucified life, is exactly what the apostle is speaking of when speaking of keeping under his body, his flesh. When Paul penned these words, he was speaking of what he so often spoke about – the cross.
What is there to crucify, to “keep under”, to subdue?
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. … O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:18, 24
Believing we can live sanctified, abiding in Christ without the cross He prescribed is self-deception and only further confirms our need to be truly crucified with Christ, buried, and raised up daily by Jesus (Galatians 2:20).
“I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection” = the cross, the crucified life.
Some who are hell bent of corrupting the plain words of Christ would say that this is not speaking of eternal glory, of one’s salvation being in jeopardy. Better think again.
Of this passage, Donald Stamps, in the Life in the Spirit Study Bible notes:
“9:24-27 RUN, THAT YE MAY OBTAIN. Paul illustrates the principle that if one fails to exercise self-control, self-denial, and love with regard to others, he himself will be rejected by God, even if he is a gospel preacher.”
“9:27 I MYSELF SHOULD BE A CASTAWAY. ‘Be a castaway’ (Gk. adokimos) conveys the idea of ‘failing the test,’ ‘being rejected.’ Paul uses this same term in 2 Cor. 13:5, where he states that Christ does not dwell in any who are ‘reprobates’ (Gr. adokimoi). Paul is not referring merely to the loss of ministerial reward. What he recognizes is the possibility that he may fail to obtain the prize (i.e., the inheritance of final salvation (vv24-25) if he should cease living a holy life, exercising self-control, and enduring hardships for Christ (vv 25-27).”
The correct preaching of the full counsel of God’s WORD creates in us the desire to be set apart to our LORD (holy) and to cease the things, the sins that defile such purity necessary to abide in vital union with our Maker who is our Savior!
Notice below how Jesus knits the denial of self, the daily cross, the putting off the deeds of the body, of keeping under the body – the iniquitous fallen nature – with the destiny of the eternal soul.
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” Luke 9:23-25
Jesus made it clear here that the cross is an original Gospel essential, an absolute imperative to eternal glory with Him! The cross is essential to eternal glory. In other words, following Jesus on His stated terms – living the crucified life! (Luke 9:23-24)
Each of us proves exactly who we love the most by the way we are living! – God or self!
Everything that is happening in your life now is being allowed by God in order to get you down low into the death and burial with Christ. Read 2 Corinthians 4.
There’s no such thing as a Heaven-bound person who does not love God enough to offer their life to Him a living sacrifice and thereby overcome sin. Read this passage closely.
“What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death (separation); but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:15-23
Notice in verse 22 that those having been born again and now truly abiding in Christ of the fruit of holiness, not sin. And to them alone will end up with everlasting glory!
Jesus made it clear here that the cross is an original Gospel essential, an absolute imperative to eternal glory with Him! The cross is essential to eternal glory. In other words, following Jesus on His stated terms.
The deeds of the body must be kept under the power of the Holy Ghost and such is only possible by way of adhering to the cross Jesus mandated!
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Romans 8:13
The cross is the condition for overcoming the ensuing 5 sins that Paul then teaches kept some of the children of Israel out of their promised land. Our promised land is Heaven and just as some of the God’s people didn’t make it, didn’t “endure to the end”, were like the 5 foolish virgins, some of those Jesus had saved will not “endure to the end” and be in glory with Him (Matthew 10:22; 24:13; 25:1-3, etc.).
Here are the ensuing words, the text immediately following 1 Corinthians 9:27. It’s a contiguous theme, warning from the apostle. Let’s read the whole passage, the context. He made no chapter divisions when he penned this divinely-inspired letter. Paul speaks of the personally responsibility and necessity of the crucified life in light of the 5 sins we all face which if we live in, will disqualify us from eternal glory. Here’s our main Bible verse, truth again and what follows:
“27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea (represents salvation);
2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also LUSTED.
7 Neither be ye IDOLATERS, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
8 Neither let us commit FORNICATION, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
9 Neither let us TEMPT CHRIST, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
10 Neither MURMUR ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
1 Corinthians 9:27-10:12
Clearly in this passage we see that the cross is a prerequisite for overcoming the 5 disqualifying sins. | The 5 Sins that Kept God’s People from their Promised Land
Life in the Spirit Study Bible on 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
10:1 I WOULD NOT THAT YE SHOULD BE IGNORANT. The fact that one may be redeemed, partake of divine grace, and yet later be rejected by God, a “castaway” (see 9:27), because of unbelief and evil conduct is now verified by examples from the experience of Israel (vv. 1-12).
10:5 THEY WERE OVERTHROWN IN THE WILDERNESS. The Israelites had experienced the grace of God in the exodus. They had been delivered from bondage (v. 1), baptized (v. 2), and divinely sustained in the wilderness, experiencing close fellowship with Christ (vv. 3-4). Yet in spite of these spiritual blessings, they failed to please God and were destroyed by Him in the wilderness; they forfeited their election and hence, failed to reach the promised land (cf. Num. 14:30. Paul’s point is that, as God did not tolerate Israel’s idolatry, sin, and immorality, so He will not tolerate the sin of believers under the new covenant.
10:6 THESE THINGS WERE OUR ESAMPLES. The terrible judgment of God upon the disobedient Israelites serves as an example and a warning for those under the new covenant not to desire evil things. Paul warns the Corinthians that if they repeat Israel’s unfaithfulness to God (vv. 7-10), they too will receive His judgment and fail to enter the promised heavenly country.
10:11 WRITTEN FOR OUR ADMONITION. The history of God’s judgment of His people in the O.T. was written down in the Scriptures to provide those in the N.T. with ample warnings against sinning and falling from grace (v. 12; see Num. 14:29).7
10:12 TAKE HEED LEST HE FALL. The Israelites, as God’s elect, thought they could safely dabble in the sins of idolatry, and immorality; yet they met with God’s judgments. Those who believe they can securely live without turning away from unrighteous conduct and worldly passions should take notice of the warning of God in this passage.
10:13 GOD IS FAITHFUL. A professing believer may not justify sinning with excuses that he is simply human and thus imperfect, or that in this life all born-again believers continue sinning in word, thought, and deed (cf. Rom. 6:1). At the same times, Paul assures the Corinthians that no true believer need fall from the grace and mercy of God. (1) The Holy Spirit explicitly affirms that God provides His children with adequate grace to overcome every temptation and thus to resist sinning (cf. Rev. 2:7,17,26). God’s faithfulness expresses itself in two ways: (a) He will not allow us to be tempted above that which we can bear, and (b) He will with each temptation provide a way by which we can endure the temptation and overcome sin (cf. 2 Thes. 3:3).
(2) The grace of God (Eph. 2:8-10; Tit. 2:11-14), the blood of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:13; 1 Pet. 2:24), the Word of God (Eph 6:17; 2 Tim. 3:16-17), the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit (Tit. 3:5-6; 1 Pet. 1:5), and the heavenly intercession of Christ bring sufficient power for the believer to be victorious over the poser of sin and demonic influences (Eph. 6:10-18; Heb 7:25).
(3) If the Christian yields to sin, it is not because Christ’s provision of grace is inadequate, but because the believer fails to resist his own sinful desires by the power of the Spirit (Rom 8:13-14; 2 Pet. 1:3).”
Was Paul involved in a relationship with Christ? Was Paul required to participate or was he a robot? Was it “all God,” “all grace” as the calvinist would claim?
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have FOUGHT a good fight, I have FINISHED my course, I have KEPT the faith: 8 Henceforth (therefore) there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8
If a person whose has been saved in the past is not fighting the good fight, finished what God began in him and called him to do – finishing his course, and keeping the faith, how can he possibly say with Paul “there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness”?
The kingdom of Heaven is to be pressed into and not taken casually.
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” Matthew 11:12;
“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Romans 13:14
Colossians 3:1-10
1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
“The old man” must go down before “the new man” can be raised out of that grave – death and burial.
Ephesians 4:20-24
20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Prayer of Returning: Holy Father, You gave all when You gave Your only begotten Son who came and died for our sins. You’ve also called me to lay down my life, to lose my life in this fleeting world. I have not done well at giving over my life to You … You alone who are worthy of my full, unreserved worship. Right this moment I ask You to forgive my sin of having another god before You which is self idolatry and spiritual adultery. I have alienated the affections of my heart away from You LORD and onto myself. For this I ask You to forgive me and I right here and now turn to You Jesus. Right this moment I lay my life in Your holy hands LORD. Into Your hands I submit my spirit – my whole being. Not my will but Thine be done LORD Jesus! I am no longer my own. I am Yours. I am dead and my life is hid with Christ in God. I love You Jesus and am ceaselessly grateful that You bought me with the price of Your own blood! You must increase but I must decrease. I ask You to unite my heart to fear Thy holy name! Teach me daily to lay myself aside and to give the reins over to You! In Jesus’ Name, amen.
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