I had formally published this article and felt a need to add something to it just recently. Just an explanation about why I have taken the stand on everything I have written. I do not consider myself to be a preacher or a teacher of the Bible. Instead, I consider myself to just be a person who has been ordained to bring a message to believers in these last days. Now I ask the question, why in the World would God chose me for the task that was set before me, but the answer did not come to me except that God does whatever He chooses to do and uses whoever He wills. There are certainly better men than I am who are more qualified, more lovable and have more of a humble caring spirit for others than I do, but my love for God’s Word and devotion for doing His work cannot be questioned because of the sacrifice I have made to accomplish what He has given me to do.
If there was absolutely any doubt in my mind that what I write is without question the truth of what I have written, I would never write another word. If there was any doubt whatsoever in my heart that I was jeopardizing my chances for obtaining eternal life, I would immediately stop publishing my articles and destroy everything I have ever written. So there is no doubt in my heart. I have begged God to show me if I am in error and stop me from doing any damage to His church, and He hasn’t. Just the opposite has occurred. On several occasions God has demonstrated to me that I am doing His work and no matter what the cost might be, I should continue for His glory.
One of the most difficult things I have ever encountered was when God first ordained me and sent me to write a weekly column for a local newspaper. During the course of preparing some articles to be published in the paper, I discovered that some of what I had accepted from previous preachers to be true was not according to the bible. Even worse than that, it was revealed to me than a preacher which I loved and had utmost respect for because of his devotion to God’s work and unquestionable successful ministry had erred in some of his teaching. I immediately balked at accepting what I had seen and on my knees, I begged God to not show me what was before me. I didn’t want at all to accept what God had revealed to me. So, what choice did I have, but to accept what God had shown me and proceed to do the work that had been given me.
The cost of service has been great and caused me to suffer much persecution. My friends and family who have known of my less than perfect life believe that I not only am wrong in what I am doing, but have allowed myself to be a pawn of satan. I have been faced with a choice of putting my family first or continuing to do what I am certain that God has given me to accomplish. With much heartache and tears for those I have lost, I must push on for the High calling of God, believing that what I have lost on this Earth will be replaced with rewards waiting for me in Heaven.
The above part was added to this article, but please reread the following which I have written because it contains important information about what God has revealed to me.
The World is full of Ministers of the Gospel, who most of which have been called by God to preach His Word, but error in their preaching of the truth of the Bible because of their own interpretation of what it tells us, or their acceptance of another person’s interpretation of what it says.
Because of the errors of the teaching by these ministers, God does not vindicate their ministries with supernatural signs and wonders, similar to those signs and wonders that were present during the ministry of Jesus Christ and those who came after Him as are described in the Book of Acts.
The ministers of today teach that the greatest miracle is one of the conversion of a new convert accepting Christ as their Saviour. This concept is taught from the pulpits of most of the Churches because God’s vindication of their teaching with signs and wonders is not manifested through them. Many even go so far as to say that God does not need to do miracles today since we have His Word in the Bible. That could be no farther from the truth, because if miracles were necessary during the ministry of Jesus and His Apostles, to prove that their teaching was from God, how much more are they needed today with all of the different teaching that we have in our churches?
I don’t accuse today’s ministers of intentionally teaching in error, I believe most of them are teaching what they believe in their hearts is true. The one to put most of the blame on is satan. Satan has been a liar and a deceiver from the beginning and is responsible for what is happening today.
Satan doesn’t bother with the non-believers in the World; he already has them where he wants them. Instead, he attacks those who can do him the most harm, those who are attempting to teach the people the way of God and the truth of the Bible. A good example is the difference in the teaching between the different churches in the World. Just having a difference in the beliefs between the churches is a result of the deception of satan, causing those ministers to believe that what they are teaching the people is the truth of what the Bible is saying. Some defend their position by saying that as long as they all believe the basic doctrine, that Jesus was the Son of God and paid the price for our sin, the other differences don’t matter. But that is just another lie of the devil, for the Bible tells us that we have ministers appointed by God to bring us all into the unity of the one faith. Look around, do you see unity between the churches?
Paul the apostle says to us in the tenth chapter of the Book of Romans: “How shall they preach, unless they are sent?” That’s one of the major problems we have today, keeping us from being in the unity of the faith, most of our preachers have not been sent by God. If they all have been sent by God, they all would be preaching the same thing and there would be no differences between the churches.
There are three stages for a person to go through before becoming a preacher or teacher of God’s Word. A person must first be called of God to do a specific work, prepared by God to successfully do that work and finally sent by God to accomplish that work.
Using the Lord’s apostles for a biblical example, we see that each of the apostles was first called to be disciples and follow Him. During the Earthly ministry of Jesus, the apostles were prepared for the task by watching and listening to what Jesus taught them. Finally, on the day of Pentecost, they all received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and were completely prepared to be sent out on the ministry field. Even the apostle Paul went through these three stages. He was called on the road to Damascus
In this day, many persons are called by God into the ministry, but fail in the preparation stage and are never sent. Many feel as though they are prepared to preach by attending a theological seminary or bible school, or are prepared by a period of sitting under another preacher, but all they learn is someone else’s interpretation of scripture and consequently are never really sent by God to preach. When God sends a person out to preach, He baptizes them with the Holy Spirit, just as He did the apostles, and supernatural signs and wonders will then be prevalent in their ministry. We must use the examples in the scripture as the pattern of what God will do because His ways are constant. There are no cases in scripture where God sent someone to preach without vindicating their ministry with supernatural signs.
Man began to introduce translation errors into the sacred writings as early as when Jerome translated the writings into Latin about 404AD. Some of the non-scriptural wording contained in his translation even made it into the Authorized King James version. But in the year of 1550, a man by the name of Robert Stephens published the “Textus Receptus”, a word for word transition of the original Greek scriptures into English, which clearly pointed out the words which had been added to the scriptures. This Textus Receptus, also know as the “received text” was the basis of which the Authorized King James translation was based upon.
When the Authorized King James translation was developed, the translators and the editors added words to the text necessary to improve the readability of the work. During this process was when some of the non-scriptural wording was added from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate.
Every person who is called by God to preach must be aware of these wording additions, as some of them changed the meaning of the text as it was meant to be understood by the original authors as they were inspired by God. So many of our preachers hold up the Bible and announce that “this is the Word of God” not taking into account that man has added words to it and it should be considered to only contain the Word of God. Any person that does not prepare themselves to preach by studying the Bible from this perspective, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to them, will never be sent by God with the necessary vindication of their ministry.
There are very stubborn men, who in defense of the Bible being the complete Word of God who will say that God would never allow His Word to be polluted. How can you possibly believe this knowing that it is God’s way to give man a free will to do right or wrong. God does not micro manage everything man does. If He controlled man in that manner, we would be no better than robots. God does not want robots that do everything as He directs them, He wants men and women who with their free will choose to do what’s right.
So far we have covered two things that are the most important to consider when a person has received a call from God to preach the gospel. First, a person must be called by God, secondly, prepared to preach by learning just exactly what the scriptures are saying and thirdly, the person must accept the fact that the Bible contains not only God’s Word, but it contains errors that were introduced by the translators.
The final thing that is necessary is that the person must be sent by God to preach. When God sends a person out to preach, that person must receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, just as the apostles did before they were ready to be sent. Without the baptism of the Holy Spirit, a person’s ministry will not be vindicated by God with supernatural signs and wonders being present.
One important thing that must be avoided by preachers of God’s Word is putting their own, or someone else’s interpretation to the scriptures. We are told that the scriptures are of no private interpretation. A preacher should just say what the original scriptures say and not add anything to it.
One example that I will give is the scripture that says: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.” This scripture from Hebrews 10:25 simply exhorts believers to gather together and not separate ourselves from other believers. It does not say how often this should be done, but certain preachers teach their congregations that this exhortation means that a believer should attend church every time the doors are open. If services are scheduled three times in a week, they say that it is the obligation of members to attend every service. See how some go beyond what the scripture actually says.
The scripture gives us an example that the early church gathered together one time, on the first day of the week. Almost all of our churches schedule services on Sunday morning, Sunday evening and on Wednesday evening. This is man’s tradition and not supported by scripture. I sometimes wonder if all the churches follow this same schedule of services so their members, who feel obligated to be at their regular church, cannot attend services at another church.
Then there is the matter of taking communion, known by some as the Lord’s Supper. A few churches restrict the taking of communion to their members only, excluding this part of the worship service from other believers who may be visiting during their services. Most churches open this celebration of communion to all believers regardless of membership in a certain church.
There are no scriptures in the bible that addresses any qualification of membership in order to take communion. As I inquired of one pastor as to why only their church members were permitted to take communion, his response was: “I can make a case for this from the scripture”. What he was saying was, I can interpret the scripture in this manner. Continuing with his position on this he said: “holding this celebration for members only allows me the opportunity to restrict members from taking communion as a matter of discipline if a member gets out of line.”
The scriptures tell us that communion was a part of the worship service every time the early church gathered together and it was up to each individual to judge themselves as to whether they should participate, not the pastor of a church.
Now let’s address the practice of tithes and offerings. Tithes were historically a part of the Mosaic Law setup for the tribes of Israel in the Old Testament to provide sustenance for the tribe of Levi which was part of the nation of Israel
Nowhere in the New Testament, under the new covenant of God is anything said about the obligation of anyone to pay tithes to anyone else. Offerings are mentioned in the New Testament to provide for the needy and those engaged in the work of the ministry.
I have witnessed one pastor who told the people that the giving of tithes was an obligation of all church members and by giving regular tithes you prove that you are not a thief. Saying, if you don’t tithe, according to Malachi 3:8, then you have robbed God and you are a thief. What a pressure tactic to persuade the people to give their money to the church. Then this pastor went on to say that your offerings, over and above your tithes, prove how much you love God. Here is what he is saying: if you don’t give offerings to the church, on top of your tithes, you don’t love God. Shame on any minister using these kinds of tactics to get money out of the people. They will certainly get their reward on the Day of Judgment.
Now you have my testimony, showing what God has revealed to me over the years. How do I know that it was God? I know because of the fire that burns inside of me that drives me on to learn the truth of God’s Word and continues to drive me on to publish it for others to see the truth and stop believing those false teachers that have not studied the Bible to show themselves approved of God.
With my past experiences in attending many churches and listening to preaching on radio and television or reading their books, I can truthfully say that:
Everyone else is wrong but me
How do I know?
Because God told me so.
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