A Study on Homosexuals

Is a practicing homosexual person unable to be saved without repenting of their lifestyle?

    None of the four gospels mentions the subject. This means that, so far as we know, Jesus never spoke about homosexuality, and we simply have no way of determining what his attitude toward it might have been. Moreover, there is nothing about homosexuality in the Book of Acts, in Hebrews, in Revelation, or in the letters attributed to James, Peter, John, and Jude. Further, homosexuality is not mentioned in ten of the thirteen letters attributed to Paul. It is only in Romans 1:26–27, 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, and 1st Timothy 1:8–11 that there may be references to homosexuality. The paucity of references to homosexuality in the New Testament suggests that it was not a matter of major concern either for Jesus or for the early Christian movement.

The strong language in Leviticus 20:13 combined with Romans 1:26-27 was directed towards especially the ancient gentile people who had no laws or knowledge of God and were worshippers of various types of idols. Then the Law arrived through Moses to warn the Israelites not to engage in those activities with the surrounding gentile nations who practiced all kinds of wicked and immoral acts. The same stands true for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah who were very wicked in their activities which also existed before they were aware of the Laws of God.

Most homosexuals do not argue with Lev. 20:13:


"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."


They concede that this verse is speaking of homosexuality-sex between members of the same gender. Their argument is that it no longer applies to them as Believers in Christ under the New Covenant, stating that they are no longer under the Law of Moses.


How about other Mosaic Laws that condemn certain things that are an abomination also? Should we continue to see them in the same manner as Leviticus 20:13?


Exodus 21:17 Anyone that curses their Father and Mother shall be put to death.


Exodus 31:15 Anyone that does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.


Leviticus 20:10 Anyone that commits adultery shall be put to death.


Leviticus 20:27 Anyone that is a sorcerer or magician or performs witchcraft shall be put to death.


That just names a few things that carry the same penalty in the Mosaic Law. Are any of these things more or less egregious than practicing homosexuality? If a person cannot be saved for any of these other practices, then is practicing homosexual behavior worse? Are all of these things sins? Do they have anything to do with having faith in the Lord? The answer is No..No..No..No.to all of them.


New Testament references to this subject are as follows:

Rom 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due.

It appears that this passage speaks of idol worshippers in the past i.e. Lev 18:22…God gave up on them, the gentile nations. These people had no law to follow and didn’t know God and lived their lives in a manner where few if any morals existed.

1 Cor 6:9 Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such *were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Paul is speaking to those of the Gentile Nations who lived in Corinth and had become believers in the Gospel. Where Paul says: “and such were some of you” in the original texts could have been saying: and such are some of you. Paul could have been saying that these new believers were still engaged in these objectionable behaviors. Then Paul follows up with the statement saying to them that “they are judged to be justified” and will not be held accountable for these acts. The scripture in Acts 13:39 states that those who are believers are justified from all things.

Acts 13:39 “And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.”


Paul goes on speaking about being justified by his faith saying because he is justified “All things are lawful unto me,” meaning that he will not be held accountable for anything.

1 Tim 9:9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Justification is an act that a sinner is freed through faith from the penalty of his sin and is accepted by God as being righteous. Nothing is inferred by this gift of justification that a person must have repented from anything to be justified and free from a penalty that would normally be inflicted upon a transgressor of any infraction.

After repenting of your sin of unbelief and being converted from an unbeliever to a believer in the gospel, all acts, no matter what they are, are justified by the blood shed by Jesus Christ. The only sin that will keep a person from being saved and inheriting eternal life is to disbelieve the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Discussion on Same Sex Marriages, click here

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The Creation Story

                                               Genesis

                                          The True Story

                                          Of the Creation

                                    According to Scripture

The purpose of this article is to make clear what God is telling us about the creation of man and woman, their purpose in creation and why they each have certain attributes which make them different and/or make them alike in certain respects.

Because of the different interpretations that have been developed by a number of people, according to how they understand these scriptures, confusion exists.

If one would just allow the scriptures to speak to us and not be influenced by the erroneous teaching of many others, the understanding of God's message to us would be clear.

Lets start first with Genesis 1:26

Gen 1:26 And God said; Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

Note first that the scripture quotes God as saying: let us make man, in our image and after our likeness. Who do you think God was speaking to when He used the words us and our?

First of all, the translators erred in translating the Hebrew word "elohiym" into God.

The word "elohiym" which they translated into "God" is the plural form of the Hebrew word "elowahh" which has the meaning of God, in singular form, "one God". The Hebrew word "elohiym", being the plural form, means not "God", but "gods".

The translators of the Bible, knowing very well that the word "elohiym" was plural, meaning more than one "god", continued on and added the words "us" and "our" in the scripture. Why they left the word God instead of using the word gods, only they know. Yes, the words "us" and "our" were added to the scripture by the translators and did not exist in the original Hebrew writing.

If the translators really believed that one God, by Himself, spoke these words in this passage, they would have translated this scripture as follows:

Gen 1:26 And God said: Let me make man in my image, after my likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

The point I am trying to make here is that you cannot literally accept every word that the translators of the Bible used. Not in the first chapter of Genesis, nor throughout the scriptures to the end of Revelations. If God had actually spoken all of the words in the scriptures, then we could literally accept them all, but because some man mis-translated and added words to the scriptures, we should prove their words by comparing them with the original writings.

Now if this has brought some confusion to your understanding about using the word "God" and "gods" and I'm certain it has, you should at this time read another article I have written about "Yehovah and the elohiym".

To make it clear that the one true and only God created man, we need only to look at what is stated in Genesis 2:7.

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Here it states that the Lord God formed man. What is the difference between this verse and the god of Genesis 1:26? Here the words "Lord God" were translated from the Hebrew words "Yehovah elohiym." Yehovah is the name of our God as I pointed out in the other article I wrote about Yehovah of the elohiym. In that article I showed that the elohiym were a group of heavenly beings just as Yehovah was. These heavenly beings called the "elohiym" were created by God (Yehovah) and are referred to in scripture as "the sons of God" and "the angels".

Now we should continue with the scriptures and the point being made concerning man and woman.

Verse 27 of Genesis chapter one states as follows:

Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Since we have shown that God (Yehovah) actually created man as was stated in Genesis 2:7, we again note here that "elohiym" is used just as it was in Genesis 1:26. Note in this 27th verse, the translators used the singular designation about what God did, i.e. "his" and "he", instead of using "us" and "our" as they did in Genesis 1:26.

The translators couldn't make up their minds as to what words to add to this word for word translation. In one case they caused it to say that God created "man", so they added the word "him", meaning one man. Then after they translated the Hebrew words "zakar" and "neqebah" to "male" and "female", they added the word "them". So did God create "him" or "them"?

To answer that, we again look at Genesis 2:7 and see that God (Yehovah) created one man.

Now I'll throw you a curve and state that this verse (Gen 1:27) is saying that God created one man and that one man was "male and female". That one man had all of the genetic makeup in his DNA of both male and female.

In a way, the translators did get it right when they translated the passage to say "male and female created He them", because the one man that God created was male and female in one body.

Some would say that verse (Gen 1:27) was speaking about Adam and Eve being the male and female being spoken of and not Adam, the man that was created, being both male and female in one body, because of what verse 28 says.

Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, ..............

I can somewhat agree with that assumption, but I can also see that verse being applied to two different situations, which will become clear as we proceed.

Now as we continue with Genesis 2:7 and go onward, we again see the one man that God created and placed him in the garden to take care of it.

Gen 2:7-8 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

At this time only the man existed, not man and woman, just the man who was both male and female as God had created him, which I will soon explain.

Genesis 2:15 goes on to explain that God put the man (Adam) into the garden to take care of it, but a problem soon developed.

God realized that Adam was lonely and needed another living being to keep him company and stated that He would make him a helper. Let’s examine the verse that says this:

Gen 2:18 And the LORD God said: It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

The two Hebrew words that were translated "help meet" require quite a stretch of the understanding to comprehend. Everyone that I have heard teaching on this passage has accepted this as being a "help mate" for that is what Eve was considered to be. How in the world they ever translated the Hebrew word "neged" into the English word "meet" I cannot comprehend, because it doesn’t even come close to meaning "meet" or "mate".

Eve, the woman, was not God's first choice for the help or company for Adam. For God began to create and form out of the ground all manner of animals and birds to fill the need that Adam had.

I can't help but using this to make a point in deference to what many people have been taught and believe, that God knows everything. If it is true then shouldn’t the all knowing God have known that what He provided for Adam would not have provided the need that Adam had?

Gen 2:20  And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

Another point to be made here is that the Hebrew word in this verse "ezer" was translated into the English word "meet", just as the Hebrew word "neged" was in the 18th verse and neither one of them come close to meaning "meet or mate". God did not have in mind at this time to provide Adam with a "meet" or a "mate", just a helper of some kind to keep him from being alone.

Since the animals that God created, His first choice, did not meet Adam's needs, He proceeded to provide Adam with a helper in another way.

The scripture states that God removed one of Adam's ribs and with it made a woman. Now one would wonder why God would make the woman in this manner, instead of making her the same way He made the man, by forming her from the dust of the ground. Could it be that if God formed another person from the dust of the ground, as He did Adam, this other person would have been another man instead of a woman? Or was there a significant reason for the way in which God made the woman?

Since according to the Bible, this first man and woman, Adam and Eve, were the only human persons that God ever created, one would wonder if there was a reason for God to do it in this manner. Why would it be necessary for God to remove one of Adam's ribs in order to make the woman? Would any part of Adam's body have served as well as one of his ribs? What is there about Adam's rib that had such significance and quality about it for God to choose that part to make a woman?

The Hebrew word that was translated into the English word "rib" actually meant "curve'. So when the translators encountered this word, not able to think of anything else and knowing that a persons rib is curved, translated it as a rib.

Modern day geneticists, with the discovery and understanding of DNA, have found that the DNA in a man is different than that in a woman. The DNA chromosomes in a man was found to consist of what they call "X" and "Y" chromosomes and those in a woman consist of only "Y" chromosomes. Women do not have "X" chromosomes in their DNA makeup.

Since the "X" chromosomes contain the characteristics that makeup the male and the "Y" chromosomes have the characteristics that makeup the female, then a man's DNA has the DNA makeup of both a male and a female, but the woman's DNA with only "Y" chromosomes and no "X' chromosomes are what makes the woman pure female.

Now with this understanding available in modern times, which the Bible translators knew nothing about, the importance of God using Adam's rib, if it was a rib, could explain why God had to remove something from the man to make a woman, instead of just creating her from the dust as HE did man.

It turns out that the Hebrew word "tsela" that was translated into the word "rib", does not mean "rib" at all. The true meaning of the word "tsela" means "curve". So God did not remove a rib from Adam to make the woman, He removed some of Adam's DNA, which is called today the "helix curve" which contained only the "Y" chromosomes that had those characteristics needed to make a pure female body.

I heard the question being asked at one time: "Why do men have nipples since they don’t have babies?" The answer to this must be, because the male body has both types of chromosomes in its DNA makeup, the nipples are a result of the "Y" chromosomes present which cause that female attribute to show up in a man.

If we again look at the scripture of Genesis 1:27, we see that God created man in His own image, "male and female created HE him". Yes, I know it was translated to say: "male and female created He them", but the translators realizing nothing about DNA characteristics, added the only word that made sense to them at the time and used the word "them" instead of "him". God created the first man Adam, both male and female, having the DNA attributes of both male and female, then after creating Adam, He made the woman Eve, using the DNA helix curve from Adam. Adam was created, and then Eve was made from that first creation.

The Bible makes it very clear that the man "Adam" was the end of God's creation and rested on the seventh day.

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The Seventy Weeks of Daniel Prophecy

The Seventy weeks of Daniel study is based upon some scriptures in the book of Daniel the ninth chapter. During this time Daniel and the Israelites had been held captive in Babylon. Because of the transgression of Israel’s kings, God allowed Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon to invade the land of Israel and carry off to Babylon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the surrounding cities. After the Israelites had left Egypt and had been settled in their promised land for some 880 years, Nebuchadnezzar in the year of 605 bc came and took them captive.

While Daniel was in Babylon the angel Gabriel appeared to him and informed him about what was to become of his people in the following years up until the time after Christ. In this message the angel spoke of seventy weeks and what would occur during those weeks. The description of the events that were to occur was of such a nature that it was obvious that it covered more time than seventy weeks. As all bible teachers in the past have concurred with me included, these seventy weeks had to mean seventy weeks of years. That is, one week referred to seven years, so seventy weeks meant 490 years.

In summary, the scriptures of Daniel 9:24 thru 27 say the following. Starting from the commandment to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the city up until the Messiah would be sixty nine weeks, meaning 483 years. The prophecy also said that after sixty two weeks, from the time the walls of Jerusalem were restored or 434 years, the Messiah would be cut off, or killed.

The Israelites were in captivity in Babylon for 70 years. This period ended in the 1st year of Cyrus, king of Persia in 535Bc, when he released them to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.

Daniel 9:25 says; From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem  unto the Messiah the Prince shall be 7 weeks, and 62 weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

So it says from the time of the commandment to the time of Jesus will be 69 weeks or 483 bible years or 476 Julian years. The commandment to rebuild the city was given by Artaxerxes to Nehemiah in 445BC. Cyrus' commandment was to restore the temple and not the city.

The commandment to rebuild the city was given by Artaxerxes in 445 BC. From 445 BC to 32 AD is exactly 476 Julian years or 483 bible years. Jesus entered Jerusalem for his crucifixion in 32 AD.

Then it says after this, the city and the temple will be destroyed again. This must be pointing to the destruction of the city by Titus in 70AD.

Then it says that he shall confirm the covenant with many for 1 week, and in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.

I believe this means that after the crucifixion, and after the destruction of the city, the Lord will confirm the covenant with many people for 1 week being 7 years.

Daniel 8:11 tells of a ruler that caused the daily sacrifice to be taken away and the sanctuary was cast down. This must be talking of the time when Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.

The Prophet Daniel, while he was still in captivity in Babylon, and in the third year of the reign of Cyrus, King of Persia, had a vision from the Lord that informed him about the fate of his people. The Lord told Daniel about a number of things that would happen to his people, the Israelites, from the present time, which was about 533 BC, until the time of their redemption.

Some of what Daniel was told was when they would return to Jerusalem and set up the Temple again; when the Messiah could be expected to be in Jerusalem, when the Messiah would be killed, that in the future Jerusalem would again be destroyed and the amount of time that God was going to spend trying to get his people to obey Him.

The main point of Daniel's prophecy was the time element of seventy weeks. Of course this was not literally seventy weeks, but was seventy weeks of years, where each one of the weeks represented seven years of time.

The Lord told Daniel that from the commandment to go forth and rebuild the City of Jerusalem, to the day when the Messiah would be killed, would be sixty-nine weeks, which represented 483 years. These 483 years of course represented Bible years, which are 360 days long. But in secular years, which are what we use in our calendar, it would be 476 years. Since the commandment was given in the year of 445 BC to go and rebuild Jerusalem, 476 years later, when the Messiah would be killed would have been in the year of 32 AD. So this period of time consumed the first sixty-nine weeks of years of Daniel's prophecy of seventy weeks of years.

What we are going to cover here is what the Bible says will happen in Daniel's 70th prophetic week, which is the last seven years of God's dealing with the Israelites. But what is different about this 70th week is that it is far removed in the future from the first sixty-nine weeks. Where the first sixty-nine weeks, or 476 years, were successive years, there will be a lapse of about three thousand years before Daniel's 70th week comes into play. The first sixty-nine weeks of Daniel's prophecy ended in the year of 32 AD, but the 70th week will not begin until about the year of three thousand AD.

The book of Daniel briefly mentions this last seven years of Daniel's prophecy, but the most of it is described in the book of Revelations. The verse that follows is what Daniel had to say about this last seven years.

Dan 9:27 (KJV)  And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

So this verse of Daniel tells us that God is going to confirm His covenant with the Nation of Israel for one more week, the last seven years of Daniel's prophecy, but in the middle of that week, after three and one-half years, the daily sacrifice and the offerings will cease. One additional thing that Daniel tells us is that during this last seven years an army will invade the land of Israel ( Dan 11:40-45 ).

So now let’s take a look into the future and watch how these events unfold. To do this we must now go to the book of Revelations and first see if we can tell about when this last seven years for the Israelites begins. The first thing we will look at is in the 20th chapter of Revelations. In verse two, it says that the Devil is to be bound and shut up in a pit for one thousand years and in verse three it says that when the thousand years are over, he will be released. This one thousand year period is the Millennium, the same one thousand year period that those who are in Christ will spend with Him after the rapture and first resurrection. So we see that the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy does not take place until after the rapture of the body of Christ, and after the Millennium.

Two distinct things occur right when the Millennium is over. First Satan is released from his prison (Rev 20:7), and the two Prophets of Revelations chapter eleven start their preaching to the Jews in Jerusalem. These two Prophets preach for the first three and one-half years of the last seven years of Daniel's prophecy (Rev 11:3). Because of the plagues that these Prophets bring upon the people of the World (Rev 11:6), Satan is able to cause the Nations to assemble together to invade Jerusalem, in an attempt to put an end to the torment these Prophets are bringing on them (Rev 20:8, 11:10).

The first armies that arrive at Jerusalem are from the nations north and south of the country (Dan 11:40-45). These first armies are the ones responsible for killing the two Prophets at the end of the first three and one-half years (Rev 11:7). But before the Prophets are killed, they are effective in converting 144,000 of the Jews over to believing in Christ. After the Prophets are killed, and their bodies have lain in the street for three days, God resurrects them and takes them up into Heaven (Rev 11:11-12). Then God causes a great earthquake to occur which kills many of the invading soldiers and causes the leaders of the armies to flee the city and set up their camp between Jerusalem and the Sea (Dan 11:45), (Rev 11:13).

For the first half of this seven year period, while the Prophets are preaching to the Jews, they are able to perform their daily sacrifices and offer their gifts in the Temple, but when the Nations invade the city, the sacrifices and oblations are stopped (Dan 9:27). Then news is delivered that a large army is coming into the area from the East (Rev 16:12). This great military force which comes from the East surrounds the city of Jerusalem and prepares to attack and destroy it (Rev 20:9).

Then the events covered by the opening of the sixth seal of Revelations 6:12-17 occur, when the Lord prepares to return to the Earth to bring His judgment on the ungodly. The first thing that God does is to destroy the armies which have encompassed Jerusalem (Rev 20:9). Then before the final tribulations are released, the 144,000 Jews are sealed with the Holy Spirit and Christ returns to take them out of the way before judgment is started on the ungodly inhabitants of the Earth (Rev 14:1-5).

There we have the picture of what occurs during Daniel's 70th week, the last seven years of God's plan for the Nation of Israel.

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Have we set the bar too high?

Sometimes I wonder if we ministers have set the bar too high for our people to get over it. There are so many things that we put the “sin” tag on that the people just can’t seem to measure up to what they are taught that, they have to do to please God. I know that the word “sin” is used many times in the bible, but is everything that is labeled sin, really a sin? Some of us ministers teach that it is a sin to drink, or smoke or to swear with words that are unacceptable to society. We preach about women wearing pants or shorts or cutting their hair and call these things sins. We say it is a sin to discriminate against certain groups of people. Some because of their color or living together habits when they are not married and those who have been married several times and we call these things sins. But are they really sins that God recognizes as sin?

Back in the early days when mankind began their walk through time. The time between when Adam first appeared to the time when God gave Moses the Law on Mount Sinai, they all were living under sin and death from sin and didn’t know it. Why? Because there was no written Law and no one to tell them the difference between right and wrong. Everyone just did those things that were right in their own eyes. If they committed sin, there was no atonement for sin as we have today.

Then when Moses came down off the mountain and brought the Laws which God had given them, they first learned what sin was. God had spelled it out in words they could understand and informed them about the consequence of disobeying those Laws.

Those laws were so strict and rigid that those early Israelites could not adhere to them. Because of that it was necessary for them to make yearly sacrifices for the sins they had committed. These Mosaic Laws were in effect up until the time of Jesus when God sent him to be the one and only sacrifice and atonement for the sin of the people. For those who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah and the atonement for their sin, those Laws are being followed to this day.

Now here we are in modern times and in place of those Laws which pointed out what sins were, even after accepting Jesus as our atonement for our sin, we still continue to teach our people about many things being sins when it is not required by God.

Just as God set the bar too high for the Israelites, that they couldn’t measure up to His requirements, we are doing the same thing in our churches today by putting our people under bondage with our man made doctrines. With the way the World has changed, it is near impossible for the people to measure up to what they are being taught.

But you see it is not necessary. All of these things we teach as being sin are not true according to what God looks for. There is but one sin. The sin that Adam committed, the sin of disbelief in God’s word being true has been passed down through the generations to all of us. When we are born, we are guilty of that one sin of unbelief that stays with us until we accept Jesus as our atonement for that sin.

The sin of unbelief is the only thing that can keep us from being saved and not able to inherit eternal life with God. All these other offences that we call sins mean absolutely nothing. All God requires of us is to believe His word that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ and those who will believe in Him will inherit eternal life.

The sermon that Jesus came and preached is to believe the gospel message and be baptized and we will be saved.

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The Unity of the Faith

When Jesus walked this Earth, everything that He spoke was the true Word of God.

From that time, even to this day, the devil has been fighting that truth for the sole purpose of preventing God's people from coming together into the unity of the faith.

He (the devil) knows that he has but a short time before God puts him into his future home where he can no longer deceive anyone, so he has pulled out all the stops to achieve his purpose.

Churches today contend that they are in the unity of the faith because they all believe in Jesus being the Son of God and that He provided us with the way to inherit eternal life. Well we probably are unified in that respect, but there is much more to it than that.

If we were in the unity of the faith, we wouldn’t have a Methodist church, or a Baptist church, or a Pentecostal church, etc. We would have one large church, all teaching the same thing and just meeting in different buildings. It is an abomination when a certain preacher can’t go to another church and preach, without having to be careful about teaching something that is not according to that church’s doctrine.

The early Church, founded by the Lord's Apostles, was in the unity of the faith because they believed and lived by every word that Jesus spoke. But down through the years, that true word has been distorted and misconstrued to a point that it has caused such a division in God's people that they are not sure what to believe.

And those outside of the Church see this division and disputing going on and want no part of belonging to the faith. This also is the plan of satan, to keep the sinners from converting to the faith.

Jesus asked the question, which is recorded in Luke 18:8: "when the Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?"

What is going to be the answer to that question?

If we continue the way we are going, the answer will be no!

Loyalty to the Church assembly where you belong is fine; loyalty to your Church leaders is great also. These things are commendable, but loyalty to God and the truth of His Word and believing that word and the unity of the faith is what should be our most important objective. This could be what determines where our future home will be.

We all can do what we are doing now and say we are unified in the faith, but we are just fooling ourselves. We cannot be in the unity of the faith unless we all believe the same thing, the same doctrines just as the early first century Church did.

The Bible tells us that God has designated certain Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers to be in the Church. The purpose was for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: to bring us all  into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: to the end that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

That was God’s plan and intention for the Church, but it has not arrived at that point. We are not in the unity of the faith. Also, we are continually tossed about from Church to Church because of all the differences in doctrines, never coming to the knowledge of the truth of His word.

The problem we have is in the Bible we use and the teachers we have who have always been unprepared in the scriptures. There is only one true Bible and that is the one that was written by those who received the Word directly from God.

My friends, the time is very near when this dispensation will be over and the Lord returns to gather in the harvest. It's time to get serious and standup for what His perfect will is and hold to His perfect Word that will unite us in the unity of the faith.

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Speaking in Tongues

The phenomenon of speaking in tongues, as being the evidence of having received the Holy Spir­it needs to be discussed at this time. Speaking in tongues, or glossolalia, as some of the church world calls it today is very controversial among many churches. Some of the churches believe that God inspires it and some do not. Some churches believe that it is the sign or evidence that a person has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and God has bestowed this gift upon them.

In conjunction with the gift of speaking in tongues there also is a gift given to some mem­bers of the church called the interpretation of tongues. Paul the Apostle said in his letter to the Corinthians, if there is no interpreter of tongues in the church, the person having the gift of speaking in tongues should keep silent, for it would not benefit the church to speak without it being interpreted for everyone to understand. But in many churches today, people engage in speaking in tongues, as they call it, as a regular part of their worship service.

The phenomenon of speaking in tongues first originated on the day of Pentecost, and was bestowed upon the apostles as they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is recorded in Acts 2:4. While reading about this event it becomes very obvious that these tongues being spoken were actually other languages and visitors to the city, from other countries, recognized what was being spoken. In Acts 2:6-8; these visitors said that every one of them heard the apostles speak in their own language, in their own tongue, where­in they were born. So, these visitors were very much amazed be­cause these men being from that region could speak all those different lan­g­uages.

But other Jews being present, not knowing that these apostles were speaking in other languages and not knowing these for­eign languages themselves, thought these apostles were drunk on wine and were just uttering crazy sounds.

Later on as the church was growing, the apostles visited some other disciples of the Lord who lived in other areas and as they preached the gospel to them, those people also began praising God and speaking in tongues, which were the languages of their native countries. The apostles witnessing this testified that these people also had received the Holy Spirit the same as they did in the begin­ning. Thus, the phenomenon of a person speaking in another tongue or language became the evidence of that person having received the Holy Spirit and was accepted by the apostles because of the experience they had.

There is a spiritual gift of speaking in other tongues or languages and a spiritual gift of interpreting other tongues or languages and it is bestowed upon someone when God needs to speak to a person of a foreign country or language through someone else. But God uses this gift for this purpose and not for the purpose of providing evidence that a person has received the Holy Spirit.

Paul the Apostle had trouble with the people of Corinth. Every time they gathered together every one of them proceeded to speak in another tongue and these languages were not being inter­preted for the whole church to understand what was being said. So, Paul in his first letter to them had to instill some order in their church to keep down the confusion it was causing.

He told them, as is recorded in 1st Corinthians 14:33, “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” This church was apparently the only one that Paul had this problem with, as no reference was made to this in his other letters.

Many make reference to the words of the Lord in Mark 16:17 where He said “And these signs shall follow them that believe; they shall speak with new tongues”. This is very true, when there are needs for another language to be spoken for someone listening to receive the message from God, only then will God speak through someone, in that language, for the person to hear. So, speaking in other tongues is a gift of the Spirit endowing a disciple to speak in a foreign language. It has nothing to do with the unintelligible ecstatic utterances used by some as a manifestation of a deep religious experience.

But those apostles spoke in other languages for a reason, as a sign to those people from other countries that the apostles had received something from God. Remember that God always uses a sign to get people’s attention so they will listen to the Word. The only problem with what happened on the day of Pentecost was that the apostles, in error, also looked at speaking in tongues or other languages by other foreign converts as being the evidence of them having received the Holy Spirit.

Later on, when the apostles heard that some of the people of Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John to verify it (Acts 8:14). Peter and John determined that the Samar­itans had not received the Holy Spirit, even though they had been baptized in Jesus’ name and laid hands on them with prayer for the Holy Spirit to come upon them (Acts 8:15-17). Now how could they have determined that these people had not received the Holy Spirit? They, without a doubt, asked the Samaritans if they had experienced the same phenomenon that the apostles had on the day of Pentecost, including the speaking in tongues. But you see, the Samaritans had already received the Holy Spirit if they had re­pented and been baptized in Jesus’ name, just like Peter had said on the day of Pentecost. But already Peter was looking for that external evidence of speaking in tongues.

Then again, when Peter went to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea, and as he spoke to those seeking the Lord there, he testified that the Holy Spirit fell on them (Acts 10:44). He certainly was telling them about his own experience on the day of Pentecost and they became so thrilled that they began to speak in another language that was not familiar to Peter After this had happened Peter stated that since they had received the Holy Spirit, they should now be baptized (Acts 10:47).

But you see, Peter should have known something was wrong. He had stated the formula on the day of Pentecost as being: first repent, second then be baptized, then third you would receive the Holy Spirit. But here he assumed they had already received the Holy Spirit because they spoke in tongues, even before they had been baptized. Again the speaking in tongues as evidence of having received the Holy Spirit had been misleading to those present.

When Paul asked the believers in Ephesus if they had re­ceived the Holy Spirit since they had believed, they said no. (Acts 19:2) When Paul had determined that the formula had not been followed, and that they had not been baptized in Jesus’ name, he baptized them again (Acts 19:4-5). But then Paul, thinking that they had not received the Holy Spirit since they had not spoke in tong­ues, laid hands on them for them to receive it (Acts 19:6).

Some of the church world today says that speaking in tongues is an unknown language and not one that is in existence today.

They get this term of “an unknown tongue” from the statement of Paul the Apostle in the 14th chapter of First Corinthians. But the original scriptures only speak of an unknown tongue as a foreign language that a person has not learned. Be­sides, in this 14th chapter the original scriptures did not have the word “un­known” in it. The translators of the Bi­ble added the word “unknown.”

So, the doctrine of speaking in tongues had spread like wild­fire. It wasn’t enough to accept the promise of God and the pro­phetic statement that Peter made on the day of Pentecost. They had to have some outward evidence.

The doctrines of man have developed and have been accepted down through the years and have resulted in blinding the people from the truth of God’s Word. But God is still looking for us to ac­cept His promises and His Word, just as He gave it in the begin­ning, and it is unchanging.

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