INTRODUCTION
These messages were written to clear up a number of misunderstandings about some of the doctrines of the Bible. I truly believe God has revealed these truths to me in order to point His people back to His Word, so they can receive the revelation of the meaning of the Holy Scriptures.
I am convinced He has led me into this work due to many signs and revelations I have been given and accepted as vindication of His calling. The scriptures have pointed out several different ways God has communicated His will to man in the past. Some of those ways were: by audible voice, by signs, by angels, by a still small voice and by revelation. I believe this work is a calling from Him because of my experience with some of these methods of communications that I am sure came from Him.
As I started this work, I had some very strong convictions about the meaning of the scriptures which were almost all based upon what I had been taught throughout the years. But, as I began this work, it was revealed to me, that some of the understanding that I had was not based upon God’s Word, but was instead based upon man’s interpretation of the scriptures, which, in fact, did not agree with those scriptures. Three very important scriptures stand out as the basis for my disagreement with man’s teaching and form the foundation on which this work was done. These scriptures are:
Romans 3:4, “Let God be true but every man a liar;”
2 Peter 1:20, “The scriptures are of no private interpretation,” and,
Revelations 5:5: “Only the Lamb of God can open the book and reveal the contents.”
Because of what Romans 3:4 states, we must compare every word that man teaches with what the Bible actually says. Second Peter 1:20 tells us no person has a right to put their interpretation to the scriptures. We should take our understanding literally from what the Bible says, unless it is obvious that a literal understanding was not meant to be taken. And Revelations 5:5 makes it clear that only the Lamb of God can reveal the meaning of the scriptures to us. Since the Lamb of God is Jesus, who was the expressed Word of God, this means only the Word of God itself, which is contained in our Bible, can reveal the true meaning of what it says.
As I put this work in writing, I regret knowing it is in disagreement with the teaching of many men that I have the utmost respect for and am very sure these men had a calling from God to do a certain work and did glorify God in that work. But when faced with a dilemma about what to believe to be the truth of God’s Word, the interpretation of man; or the written Word of God, I must yield to God’s Word having the preeminence over everything else.
I can truthfully say, just as Paul said to the Galatians; I did not receive this understanding of God’s Word from man, neither was I taught it, except by the revelation that I received from the Holy Spirit. I conferred with no man, nor used any man’s teaching to come to the understanding of the scriptures that I have received. I separated myself from man’s teaching to be certain that what I received was only from God.
The Bible, or the Word of God, as it is called by many, is quoted many times each day and is used to teach others—not only what God’s will is concerning certain situations, but is also used to justify and judge the deeds and actions of many people in their daily living. The Bible was set forth as a historical book relating how God dealt with His people in the beginning of time and as a guide for His people in the end of time; to instruct them in the way to live and coexist with our fellow man. The Bible was written by selected men, whom God chose to pass on to us His rules for daily living and serve as a means for His people to get to know Him by learning more about His ways.
For the Bible to have any meaning to us, and to be effective as a guide for living our lives, we must first believe that there is a real living God and that the Bible actually contains His inspired Word. This is a difficult undertaking in this day and time because of the everyday diversions and distractions that we encounter. Everyone is so pre-occupied in the affairs of everyday living and coexisting with the natural elements of our world, it becomes very difficult to center our minds on the spiritual part of our existence and embrace those things that cannot be seen with the natural eye.
If we would only look around us and see those complex things that are in our lives, such as the immensity and perfect order of the heavenly bodies, the balance of life on this earth with the thousands of different types of living things around us, and the intricate complexity of our human bodies. We should never doubt that a form of intelligence has created everything and is in control on a constant basis. How could we be so foolish as to think this world just happened to come together in such an orderly fashion and that the complex body we have, happened to evolve from some simple one celled organism over a period of time just as conditions happened?
So, now it is time to get on to the most important part of this work, reflecting on the Bible, and the Word of God, and what it should mean to us today. For it is not my intent to convince anyone that God is real and Jesus Christ was actually His Son. If you have not already accepted that fact, these messages will have little meaning to you. Instead, it is my intent to help you to see those mysteries that have been hidden from man for hundreds of years; with the hope that God’s Word will be revealed to you as He intended it to be. Only the truth is important, for the truth leads the way to eternal life with God.
Pilate asked Jesus a question: “What is truth?” Jesus answered this question when He was praying after eating the last Passover meal with His disciples, saying to the Father in Heaven: (John 17:17) “Thy Word is truth.”
Nothing has changed to this day—God’s Word is still truth and man is a liar if he says the truth is something other than what God said, or if man changes the true meaning of God’s Word by using his own interpretation of it.
To man’s misfortune, he was created with a mind of his own and given a free will to follow the path of his choice. I say this is to his misfortune, only if he chooses the wrong path. By the same token it is to his good fortune that God gave him this choice and with his own free will, he is able to accept God’s Word as being the only truth and to the end, obtain eternal life.
From the beginning of time, because of the influences of this world, the physical distractions of life and the vanity of one’s own personal character; man, too often, has chosen to ignore God’s Word and select the path that satisfied his own fleshly desires.
The first man Adam, who received instructions directly from the mouth of God, chose not to believe God’s Word as being the truth, and by listening to the reasoning of another person, made a choice that condemned the entire human race. Even from that day until now, God has labored to persuade man to believe Him, and time and time again, man has chosen to make his own decisions and seal his own destiny. Throughout the centuries, from the beginning of time until this day, great men who were called of God to lead His people and teach the people of the way of God, failed in the task set before them, because of the vanity of their own personal lives, which caused them to accept something other than the truth of God’s Word.
For example, Moses who after hearing the voice of God, performed many great works in Egypt and on the wilderness journey, then failed to believe God’s Word and struck the rock to provide water for the people instead of just speaking to it as God had commanded. Moses, a great prophet, was called and used by God for many years. But he failed to believe that God’s Word was enough to get the job done and because of deviating from it only one time, was prevented from completing the journey with his people.
Consider also the prophet Balaam, the son of Beor. After being established and confirmed
as a prophet by God, he chose to disobey God’s Word and followed his own will because of the influences of others. Not only did he suffer because of it, but also caused those who followed him to be led astray because of not obeying God’s Word, and many were destroyed because of it.
Many more examples could be given about established prophets who deviated from God’s Word and caused their people to pay a price for it; and many examples could be given of prophets who stayed with the Word of God and profited for it.
The important point I am attempting to make by these examples is that no man is infallible, be he a prophet, an apostle, a king, or a common man. Only those who stay with the Word of God should be believed, for only God’s Word, as He spoke it in the beginning, remains until this day, the truth.
From the beginning of time, when on that day in the Garden of Eden, satan caused Adam and Eve to choose to disbelieve God’s Word. Until even this day; satan is continuing to do the same thing. In most cases man does not willingly, by his own reasoning, choose to deviate from the truth of God’s Word, but he is deceived, just as Eve was deceived in the beginning. Satan does not personally approach a person today in order to persuade them to disbelieve God’s Word; he is more subtle than that. Instead, he uses man to do the work for him. In this sense when I speak of man, I am referring to mankind, be it male or female; Satan uses men as well as women to accomplish his deceptive act.
As we look at this world of ours, we see so many different varieties of religions and sometimes wonder how they all came to be. Even in the realm of Christianity there are hundreds of different denominations and independent church groups, each with their own doctrines and interpretations of what the Bible says to them. As we look, we wonder; can they all be wrong in their teaching? Are any of them right in their understanding and teaching of God’s Word? Does it really make any difference to God as long as the worship is based upon the acceptance of God as the Creator and Jesus Christ His Son as the foundation of our belief? There are some ministers that say, no matter what church you attend, even though there are some differences in doctrine, they all lead to an acceptance by God and all who follow those beliefs will end up at the same place—Heaven. Then there are those who teach, that only those who believe as they do, will go to Heaven. So, how can we be certain that we are on the right path, following the correct doctrine, adhering to the Word of God?
Since the beginning of time, God has repeatedly said to His people: There is one God, I change not, obey my commandments, worship me in spirit and in truth, hear my Word, and many other things to inspire His people to look to Him and Him only for all their needs. In the beginning, God spoke to His people face to face, such as Adam and Abraham and Moses. Then during the time of the wilderness journey, the people became so afraid of God that they requested Moses to talk to God for them and they would obey whatever Moses said that God told him. From that time forward God continued to speak to His people through selected prophets. Then, God spoke to the people in the form of His Son Jesus Christ. Now in these last days God is speaking to us through His written Word, as it is recorded in the Bible. But, even today satan is deceiving God’s people, by convincing them that God’s written Word doesn’t really mean what it says; just as he convinced Eve that God’s spoken Word did not literally mean what He said in the beginning.
We must accept the fact that there is only one way to please God and that way is to believe and adhere to His Word. If there was more than one way to get to Heaven and inherit eternal life, then Jesus would not have said: “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.”(Matt 7:14) There is only one way and it is a very narrow, well-defined way.
Jesus said He was the way. Now what does that mean? The Apostle John said in the beginning of his gospel that Jesus was the manifested Word of God made flesh. Once again we see that the acceptance of the true Word of God is necessary, whether it is the spoken Word, directly from the mouth of God, the manifested Word in the form of His Son Jesus Christ or the written Word of God as is recorded in the Bible. In every case it is the acceptance of the true Word of God that is important. If we allow anyone or anything to cause us to deviate from, or believe anything other than the true Word of God, we could be jeopardizing our chance to obtain eternal life.
If we take another look at the number of different churches and religions there are in the world; and all the differences in their doctrines; and once again ask if it makes any difference which one we believe, the answer must be an astounding, “YES IT DOES!” For there is only one true Word of God, and only one way to obtain eternal life: (“Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way”). Then how can we be sure which one is the right one and which is teaching the true Word of God?
Since we cannot go back and personally hear what God had to say in the beginning, nor can we be personal witnesses to the words Jesus spoke when He was on earth; we must depend upon the written Word as it was given to select men whom God chose to pass it on to us. Down through the ages there were certain scribes assigned to make copies of the various books of the Bible. These men were very meticulous and precise with the copies they made, insuring that the integrity and correctness of the copies was identical to the original. And without a doubt, I am sure we can depend on the copies they produced to be God’s original Word.
Then the time came to transfer these original writings into other languages, so other nations and people could read God’s Word for themselves. But for the most part, most of the men that produced these new translations had a very poor understanding of the original languages that the Bible was written in, consequently the translations contained many errors.
In the late 1500’s and early 1600’s, King James of England
These men after working on the translation for several years produced an English version of the Bible that was the most accurate translation of the original writings as has ever been developed to this day.
But unfortunately, because of the religious background of some of these men, some of their own theology was introduced into the new translation and consequently these men either changed the meaning of some of the passages, or presented the passages in such a way, that a different meaning other than that which was intended in the original writings could be assumed. These deviations from the meaning of the original scriptures have been instrumental in causing most of the divisions of the various churches. So, we see that even in the beginning, when man put his hand to do something good for future mankind, even as unintentional as it was, some of God’s Word was misrepresented. Fortunately for us, the integrity of most of the original scriptures was maintained. This was the first opportunity satan had to pollute God’s written Word as it made its way to us and he took advantage of it.
But, this does not present us with the most serious problem we have in understanding the true meaning of God’s Word. The most serious problem we have is in the interpretation of God’s Word that certain men have introduced as gospel, who if they were called of God to teach His Word, failed to rely upon the Holy Spirit to put forth the true understanding and they (Matt 15:9) “leaned unto their own understanding; teaching for doctrine, the commandments of men.” Men, who with the best of intentions, have failed to adhere to the truth of the gospel, by not waiting upon God to reveal Himself to them, or were misled by another’s teaching.
The Apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Spirit and anointing of God, said: “no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” Also, John quoted Jesus as having said, about the Holy Spirit, “He shall teach you all things.” Those who are in the body of Christ today should rely upon the Holy Spirit to reveal to them the true meaning of the Word of God, especially those who have been placed in a position of teaching His Word. Unless the true understanding of the Word has been revealed to any person, and it is confirmed by the words of scripture, no man, whoever he may be, has the right to put his own interpretation on it and teach others as if it were the truth. For this is the means by which satan distorts the truth of God’s Word for us today and in doing so, biases us towards this false teaching and could prevent us from ever seeing the real truth.
Jesus made this very important statement, which is recorded in John 8:31-32; “If you continue in my word, ye shall know the truth.” To continue in His Word means to stay with His Word and not take any man’s interpretation of it, or make any assumptions from it, other than what it says. Jesus said we must do this in order to know the truth.
If we deviate from exactly what His Word says, because some man has convinced us of his own interpretation, or because we impatiently reached for, or accepted, some kind of an understanding without waiting for the Holy Spirit to teach us; then we have willingly left ourselves open to believing a lie, and have probably closed our eyes to ever seeing the truth.
This is just exactly what is causing a tremendous problem in our church community today. This is why there are so many different beliefs, doctrines, denominations, and religions in this world today. This is just exactly why there are so many unchurched and unsaved and disbelieving people in the world today. Unbelievers stand back and see all of the confusion in the churches, and bickering between the churches, and say to themselves, “Something is wrong,” and they do not want to take part in it. All of this exists because we are not obeying the commandment that Jesus gave to us: “CONTINUE IN MY WORD, AND YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH.” (John 8:31-32)
Why is this overwhelming condition in the world today? The answer is—because satan is continuing to deceive God’s people today, just like he did in the beginning. Not only are we contributing to this deception, helping satan destroy lives, but we are allowing ourselves to be misled, accepting those doctrines being taught by false teachers, instead of doing what Jesus told us to do; stay in His Word.
Down through the ages, since the church first started, there have been many men that came upon the scene saying they have been called to preach the Gospel of Christ. Many of these men took up the task of preaching for various reasons—some because they had a strong desire to serve Christ; others because some important man convinced them that they were suited to do it; some because a certain church body invited them to preach; and some because they thought they could make a good living at it. But besides these, there were some that were actually called by God and anointed by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel of Christ.
I do not intend to spend any additional time on those who were not called by God to do His work, for their works and the lack of God’s vindication in their ministry will seal their fate and be made apparent to God’s people. Instead, I want to touch on those men who were, without doubt, called by God into the ministry and were vindicated by the signs and wonders that followed their ministries. For these are the ones that satan works the hardest to use for his own cause; those ministers who have proven their call from God and who have gained the confidence of God’s people because of the vindication of their ministry by God.
No names will be used here since the intent of this discussion is not to point the finger at any certain person, but to only point out that God uses man in His work only as long as man relinquishes his will to God. When any man reaches a point when he thinks that he can reason out all the mysteries of God and God has not revealed certain things to him, by His Word, he has then gotten out of the will of God.
God has historically called certain men to do a certain work, but after being successfully vindicated in that work, man has many times made the mistake of thinking that God has given them all knowledge about all things. Then they proceed on their own to advance their ministry beyond where God intended for them to go.
Remember back when we discussed the prophets; Moses and Balaam? There were many more, but these are only being used for an example just to make the point. These two men were, without a doubt, called, anointed and vindicated prophets of God and were great men in their times. I would not attempt to take anything away from them; because great works of God were wrought by their hands and I am sure God has a special reward for them. But, in the end of their respective ministries, they got out of the will of God because of not staying with God’s Word.
The same thing has happened to many other great men of God down through the centuries. After performing great works for the ministry of Christ and having their respective ministries proven and vindicated as being God’s will, satan deceived or misled them in a subtle way, to proceed on where God did not intend for them to go.
In closing this introduction, I just want to stress that only God’s Word is the truth and no matter what any man teaches or prophesies, if it doesn’t line up with the Word of God, leave it alone. Great men in history are only great because God used them. Respect those men for what they did for God, but do not idolize or worship them; worship only God our Heavenly Father and the Creator and stay with His Word, for only His Word is eternal.
The following messages will deal with certain doctrinal subjects that have been taught in various churches and show how they are presented in the Bible. One of the first chapters will cover the revelation of translation errors in the King James Version of the Bible; what the Bible actually says about certain Christian doctrines; the signs pointing to the closeout of the Gentile age; and some revelations about the Millennium; all according to God’s written Word.
But before proceeding to the first message, I would urge you to once again read this entire introduction and be sure you understand the importance of staying with the Word of God and not let the teaching you have had in the past, blind you to having the truth of God’s Word enlighten your heart.
For, thus saith the Lord to the end of the Gentile church age; “You are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and naked, and blind.” (Rev 3:17) Remove the scales of false teaching from your eyes that have blinded you for so long and let God, through His written Word, reveal the truth to you.
Each person has the responsibility for keeping God’s Word. You will not be able to blame someone else in the Day of Judgment for deviating from His Word. Your fate is in your own hands. Remember, Adam tried to blame Eve, and Eve tried to blame the serpent, but they all paid a price for what they did.
~ The Author
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