What is the message of Christianity? Some would say it is be good or you're going to hell. Some would say it is only that Jesus was the Messiah. Some would say it is this, some would say that. That's the problem. Everybody says it is something different, but very few say what the bible says it is. As a Christian I have heard lots of different opinions of just what the message we Christians are suppose to bring to the whole world is. Yes, we are suppose to bring the message of Jesus to the world, but sadly it doesn't seem many Christians know what that message is or exactly what Jesus did for the world.

I was brought up in a Christian home but was never forced to go to Church. I believe that was a blessing because so many times when people are forced to do something they don't want to it makes them react irrationally to it. My family trusted God to do His work in me and He did. I went to Church when I was little, but as soon as I was able to, I quit going. Sound familiar? I grew up and did my own thing. I always believed in God, I think, but God was something or someone very far away. It wasn't until March of 1995 that I received the New Birth. I remember watching some teaching on television regarding the verse in the bible, "God is no respecter of persons.." and found out what that meant. When I found out that it meant God treats everyone exactly the same, I was intrigued. I knew God did wonderful things for some people and now it seemed like the bible was saying He would do those things for anyone. Shortly after that I read a testimony of a man named John G. Lake, a healing evangelist of the early 1900's. In his testimony He asked God for the filling of the Holy Spirit and the Spiritual gift of praying in the Spirit, and received them. Since I had just learned that God would do for me what He did for others, I asked for those gifts also. Guess what? I got them. Right after that, I received the teaching that God Himself would teach me the bible. Not some anointed teacher, although there are lots out there, but God Himself would teach me His Word! Well that got me excited! I had tried to read the bible before with not much success and a lot of confusion. Well, I claimed that for myself and asked God to teach me His Word and help me hear His voice. All I can say is WOW!!

I didn't get more than 18 verses before I received my first revelation from the Holy Spirit. I remember so clearly what it was. Some reading this may think, "Well duh", but I didn't know that the Spirit that hovered over the great deep in Genesis was the same Spirit that dwelled in a human body named Jesus. If you didn't know that either, well now you do. The first revelation I received was that the Ancient of Days that sits on the throne of Heaven has holes in His hands. I suppose some theologians just hit the roof, but , as they say, "You ain't heard nothin yet." After that God told me to read the whole bible and as I did, He personally taught me His Word because, you see, it is His Word and no one else's. God used men like we use pencils and wrote the bible, so really the only one who truly knows what the bible means is God. It wasn't long before I realized that most Christians don't approach the bible this way, so it isn't much wonder why we have so many different opinions. If you try to find out about God and His Word without going through God, I'll tell you right now, don't expect to receive much revelation because you are bypassing the Revealer. It's almost like trying to get a library book without going to the library, it just doesn't work. The purpose of this writing I am now doing is to wake up the Church. To tell it what God told me, only because God told me to do it. To tell you the truth, it is quite overwhelming to me and if I didn't know of a surety that God was going to back me up in this I wouldn't even dream of doing it. So hold onto your hats, and watch your feet because I am probably going to step on a few toes.

To get a few things out of the way I will briefly go over some of the things I believe. I believe that the bible is the Word of God. Not the word of Moses, or Joseph, or Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Matthew, or Luke, or John, or Paul, or Peter or anyone else. God used these men and others to write His words, not their words. I believe that the bible does NOT contradict itself in any way, anywhere. After reading the bible, with God teaching me, I have never found a contradiction in what it teaches. The only contradictions you get are when un-anointed people start giving you their personal interpretations that they came up with on their own. Other beliefs I have will come out in the following pages.

Like I said, the first revelation I received was that Jesus and the Father were one. After that God told me to read the whole bible, front to back. It was then that I began to see just what God was doing in the earth. I realized that God wasn't planning this thing as He went along but had a plan right from the beginning. God made this earth for Man (when I say Man I mean mankind, both male and female. It is like referring to Horses, both mares and stallions. "Man" is NOT gender specific!) and God made Man for Himself. God knew Adam and Eve would eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and that started His plan in action. The end result of this plan was the total reconciliation of the world back to God.

God didn't want robots, He wanted people to come to Him of their own free will. Think of it this way. What would you prefer, you having to tell your children to come and say hello or having them, of their own free will, of their own desire, come and say, "Hi Daddy!" and throw their arms around you? Of course the latter. Well in the Garden of Eden, God had to tell Adam and Eve what to do. Oh yes, they obeyed Him, without hesitation, but it was not their own will, it was God's. They had no free will because they knew nothing else. The had to know something else before they could make a choice. We see that after they had knowledge their first choice was to hide. They chose to be separate from God. That started Man's sojourn on this earth. The plan was now in motion. What had to happen now was to get man to chose to come to God. As Man grew in the earth, they became more and more evil, following the one they had given their authority to, satan, the devil, the serpent. He was the ruler of the earth, the prince of the power of the air. Everything looked pretty bleak for Man and if a earthly man was God, he probably would have given up. However, God knew something we didn't. He had a plan. After the flood Man continued on their course of death. This was to prove that, without God, Man is nothing. Once this fact was clearly established, God made the next move. He looked down on the earth and saw that not one person on earth knew Him, or sought after Him. They had all turned their backs on God and followed their own ways. As the bible says,

"None is good, no not ONE." (Psa 14:3) So, what to do?

Well, God decided, beforehand of course, to make His own nation. God's decision, not Man's. God called to a man by the name of Abram, who He had chosen. He told this man to leave his family and his land and travel to a land that He would show him. So Abram and his wife Sari, both well advanced in age, traveled to the land of Cannan. God told Abram that his name would now be Abraham, which means Father of a Multitude, and his wife's name would now be Sarah, which means princess because God was going to make a nation come from them and bless the whole earth by their descendants. So God gave Abraham and Sarah a child. This child did not come in the way common to the earth, or in the way Ishmael was born, seeing that Sarah was 90 years old and had been barren her whole life. Their (Abraham's and Sarah's) child was a symbol of the fact that this was God's doing and not Man's because in the natural world 90 year old women do not have children. So at the age of 90, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, the child of promise. Even his name, which means laughter, showed how supernatural his birth was. He was so named because both Abraham and Sarah laughed when God first told them they would have a child. God made a covenant with Abraham which was passed down to his children. He told them that their descendants would dwell in the land He showed them and become a mighty nation. God did this for one reason and one reason only.

You see, by choosing to become separate from God, Man fell into a pit. Adam and Eve sinned against God by disobeying Him and were banished to the earth. The bible says,

" Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"(Romans 5:12) In other words the end of Man is death. No one can escape that final end. So if everyone is in the pit, how do you get out? Well, the only one who can get you out is God since He is the only one not in the pit. He is the only one outside the pit so He is the only one who can lower down a rope to get to those in the pit. Make sense? Well, the reason God made the nation of Israel was to be that rope which He would climb down.

God told the nation of Israel, through His prophets, that He would send a man, a man anointed of God, to get them and the rest of the world out of the pit by a resurrection from the dead, which they all were (Matt 8:22). The Messiah. That's Hebrew for "Anointed One". In Greek the word "Anointed" is Christos. So through all of Israel's history they were looking for the Messiah, or the Christ, that was going to come and redeem Man from the pit. That is what made Israel special and unique among all nations on earth. God chose them to be His special nation, His people. They are the ones who the bible says were entrusted with God's words, and it was through them that God Himself would come to earth to redeem Man. Of the special position of Israel in the nations of the world, the bible says,

" Who are Israelites; to whom [pertaineth] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service [of God], and the promises; Whose [are] the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ [came], who is God over all, blessed for ever. Amen."(Romans 9:4-5) When Jesus (Whose name in Hebrew means 'Jehovah saves') died on the cross at cavalry He was sinless. According to God's rules, sin is the only avenue by which death has any claim on Man. Therefore, death had no right to take Jesus.

We know from the Gospel of John that the message Jesus taught can be summed up in, "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5) By being separate from God man was in darkness, and the darkest place was the grave, Sheol. When Jesus allowed Himself to be taken into the grave, into the pit of the earth, God had the right to go get Him out. Now what do you think happened when God, Who is light, entered into a place that was total darkness? What happens when you turn on a light in a dark room? The darkness disappears. Darkness is nothingness, but light has substance. Darkness can never overpower light. How much darkness would it take to put out a match? No amount of darkness can put out a match. In fact, the darker it is, the brighter the match is. So when God went and got His Son, He destroyed the darkness. Now I will make a very controversial statement which I'm sure will cause every one reading this to say, " WHAT!!! ". Everyone is going to Heaven. Yup, that's right. But it is also equally true that not everyone has eternal life. Put away your guns and let me explain. You see, the bible teaches that Man is a spirit, Man has a soul, and Man lives in a body. You have three parts, spirit, soul and body (Heb 4:12). Your spirit is indestructible, it cannot be destroyed. It is the part of you that comes directly from God and it goes back to God. The Greek word is pneuma. Your body is just your earth suit, something your spirit resides in so you can interact with this 3-dimensional world, and it will eventually turn to dust. Now we come to your soul. It is not indestructible. Your soul is the part of you that, being in right-standing with God, is preserved. The Greek word for soul is psukay, where we get our word psyche. That is the only way to preserve your soul, and the way to be in right-standing with God is to have faith in Him, for,

"... without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]:.."(Hebrews 11:6) God showed it to me like this. Imagine that you are moving, and you have a large bookshelf that appears to come apart into 5 pieces. So you plan out how you will move it and how you will transport it based on the knowledge that it can be broken down into 5 pieces. Fine and dandy, right. Well, moving day comes and you discover that it only looked like you could take it apart. Actually, the bolts were only for show, and it is a one piece unit. Now, what happened to that plan you had come up with to move it? It was destroyed. Only a complete idiot would still entertain the notion of taking it apart into 5 pieces when you know now that it is a one piece unit. In this analogy, the plan to take apart and move the bookshelf is your soul. As soon as you find out the truth, your soul, that had no truth, will be destroyed and replaced with the truth, giving you a new soul.

Truth preserves your soul, and truth is only found in Jesus the Anointed One. All truth. I don't care if it is truth about God or truth about math, all truth comes from Jesus. God said it was through Jesus He made the worlds and the very reaches of space and time (Heb 1:1-3), so mathematical truth comes from Jesus also. 2+2=4 because that's the way Jesus made the world and the laws of math. 2+2 never equals 5. That's just truth. You see, the bible says " God is love". Not just " God loves ", but God IS love. It also says, " God is a consuming fire." Now remember what I said about there not being any contradictions in the bible? This is not a contradiction. The bible says,

" For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."(Malachi 3:6) So now we know that love is a consuming fire, and that the consuming fire of God is love. He can't be one without being the other, because we just read God saying, " I change not." Your spirit is going to go back to God, but if your soul has no truth, no light, and is full of darkness it will be destroyed by the light of God. Period. You can't get out of it.

Christianity has allowed itself to become confused by men that were only philosophers, people that didn't have the Spirit of God with them. There souls were dark and tormented, but because they had prominent places in society we mistook that for wisdom and knowledge. The modern Christian concept of hell is not only un-biblical, but straight from the devil himself and blasphemes the marvelous sacrifice Christ made on the cross of cavalry. The bible defines hell as separation from God. If you don't know God, or have a personal walk with Him, my brother and sister, you are in hell. You walk in darkness no matter how you may look by the world's standards. You may make a million dollars a year, drive a nice car and think you have it made but if you don't have a personal relationship with your creator, you are in hell, and walking dead. The bible describes the situation of people that don't know God this way.

" ... ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:"(Eph 2:12) You have no hope and are without God in the world. That's hell, and your end is death. I've heard some say that Saul of Tarsus made a quality decision to follow God on the road to Damascus when Jesus appeared to him, but Saul of Tarsus died on the road to Damascus. He was darkness and the consuming fire of God rained down on him and burned up all the darkness in him. Saul died on that spot and Paul the Apostle was born. He didn't get a second chance either, like I've heard others try and say. Saul was a murderer and his punishment was death. Saul died that day as surely as if a huge Rock from Heaven had fallen and crushed him into the ground. By saying it was still his choice to believe Jesus was the long awaited Messiah would be like saying that when God said "Let there be light" to the universe, it was the universe's decision to allow that light to be. It wasn't. Paul himself declares he was apprehended by God (Phil 3:12).

Look at it this way. Pretend you are a blind man and you've heard all these stories about the sense of vision, but don't really believe them. If you suddenly could see, is it really your choice to believe in sight? Or if you had never seen the sky, and didn't really believe the stories you had heard that it was blue. Until you see it, mabey you could be convinced that it is polka dotted or yellow with purple stripes. Once you see that beautiful blue sky however, it is no longer a choice, it just is. It is the same way with God. Once you have seen God, talked with God, and walked with God it is no longer your choice and you can no longer say, "I didn't know".

You see, the bible says that what sinners say in their hearts is, "Does God really see us?" (Psa 10:11) or "Is there really any consequences to our actions?" (Psa 94:7) Once they know for a surety that the answer to both those questions is YES, they don't seriously entertain them anymore. Sure, they may still sin, but now they know in their hearts that, Yes, God does see and Yes, there are consequences to their actions. They can no longer lie to themselves. The problem with man is that he isn't perfect. Satan, the deceiver, is always trying to get people to lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery and everything else that is wrong. Since we aren't perfect we sometimes stumble and fall. The difference with Christians is that we know better, we know whether the path we are on is right or wrong. We know God sees and we know that there are consequences. We feel shame when we have done something wrong. If you were not a Christian, or truly had no truth in you at all, you would feel no shame. The bible says that God,

"... hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."(2 Corinthians 5:18-19) We Christians have been given the ministry of reconciliation. The whole world is God's.

I've heard people in the world, and sadly some Christians, give the impression that sinners go to some place far away from God. Sorry, not biblical. What makes you think you get to stay away from God? The bible clearly teaches the resurrection of both the good and the bad. I've got news for you, you will all stand before the judgment seat of God. The church has given such a skewed perception of the concept of hell that some sinners think they go to some place where all their party animal friends are and stay away from God. No such luck, not that that is good in any way, but it shows you how badly our false Christian doctrines have confused the world. In the past two thousand years we Christians have left a legacy of murder, attempted genocide, confusion and ignorance to a world we were supposed to bring good news to. We were the ones who were supposed to go into all the world to preach the Gospel of Peace. Instead we preached twisted doctrines of a God that was going to torment people for all eternity, bigotry, and racism. I've got some shocking news for the church; We will be held responsible. True, God will look upon each of our hearts, but even if we thought we were doing the right thing it won't change the fact that we didn't. Even if some Clansman in the KKK truly thought he was keeping the "White Christian Heritage" pure by killing non-whites, it won't change the fact that he was a deceived murderer, and his end will be death as surely a Saul of Tarsus's end was death. True hell for Charlie Manson will be standing in front of God and knowing how wrong he was, feeling ALL the pain and suffering he caused and knowing that there is nothing at all he can do to change one tiny thing that he did in his life, but desperately wishing he could. It brings new meaning to the saying, "The truth hurts." Brother and sister, the truth kills. It kills the lies, it kills death. Understanding and truth will be used by God to destroy utterly darkness and lies. Lo ve will be used to destroy hatred.

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."(1 John 1:5) If you are darkness, and have lies, deception, murder, greed, jealousy, envy and hatred in you, you will be consumed by the light of God and have all truth revealed to you. The way to preserve you soul is to ask God to show you His truth in this life, because only then do you get rid of the garbage in you and get it replaced with truth. Then, with the truth, you have eternal life because only pure truth can stand before God and not be destroyed. Only when you have truth do you begin to be alive. People with no knowledge of God don't have eternal life because life itself begins with the knowledge of God. If you don't have God, you don't have any life at all according to the bible. When the man asked Jesus if he could first go back and bury his father before following Him, Jesus replied,

" Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. "(Matt 8:22), meaning that those who are Spiritually dead are the same to God as those physically dead. The definition of eternal life is preserving your soul from this existence into the existence to come. If you have no life in this existence, you have no life to carry over into the next. The soul full of darkness will be destroyed, or the soul that sins shall surely die, by being filled with light.

Now let's see if I can come up with some of your theological, hermenitical, homiletical arguments that are going through your head right now, my religious friends. How about this one. "That's not fair that sinners get to go to heaven also. What's the point of being Christian then if everybody goes to heaven?" It is sad that this argument even comes up but it has been used against me.

If the only reason you are a Christian is to get yourself into Heaven, I'm sorry to say that I would have to question your Christianity. Being a Christian, or "anointed-one" as the English translation of that Greek word means, is just that. Being anointed with the Spirit of the living God. If that is not reason enough to be Christian, then you have know idea what it means to be Christian. You have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe and eternal life and get to partake in God's plan for the salvation of Mankind. What more do you want? "Yeah, but I have to be good and can't pick up hookers and drink myself into oblivion whenever I want." If you still think you are missing out on those things then you don't know that those things lead to death. We are not forced to be good, we have had the Way of Life revealed to us from Heaven. You shouldn't want to do those things anymore that you should want to jump off a cliff. We have been freed from those things that lead to death and have the ability to see them for what they are, satan's methods of getting you to kill yourself. Satan can't just kill you. If he could, you would already be dead. All the devil can do is try to get you to kill yourself or get others to try and kill you. Instead of envying the people in the world that don't know God, you should pity them because they don't have what you do. I heard a preacher say that they used to sing a song that, to me, epitomizes that attitude. It went, "We're so foot sore and poorly shod, but at the end of the road there's God.", when all the while the bible says,

"And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;"(Ephesians 6:15 ) This theological garbage comes from people trying to get out of standing in faith on God's promises of prosperity and health. It is much easier to let the devil beat you into the ground and try and convince yourself that your defeated life is giving glory to God than to stand up to the devil and beat him down with the Word of God. What do you think your armor of Light is for, to look pretty standing in the corner of your house?

How about this cop out. If a person you know, but didn't like, dies and you know he was a sinful person that wasn't a Christian, you say, "Oh yeah, he's getting his now in the fiery pits of hell." But make that same person one of your favorite uncles and all of a sudden it's, "Oh we're pretty sure he confessed Jesus on his death bed just before he died.", like that changed his whole past life and now he's sitting pretty on a cloud in heaven somewhere. I like to call things like that theological dancing, and it's because of exactly those types of things that the whole world is laughing at us Christians and the church. You see, I'm not saying there is no hell, don't get me wrong. You can't get away with anything, but God is just and says repeatedly throughout the bible that Man will be paid back sin for sin, what he did will come back on his own head. What God doesn't say, ever, is that a man will be paid back infinite harm for finite harm. That is unjust and if there is one thing that God is, it is just and fair. What God did say is that the wicked will suffer everlasting destruction. All that means is that the wickedness of Man, once destroyed, will never be put back together, it will be gone for good. If you take a piece of paper and burn it, it is eternally destroyed. You cannot put it back together into a piece of paper. Once the truth is revealed to a person, the lies and deceptions that the devil had convinced you of will disappear like smoke in a mighty wind.

Now I realize I have gone through this pretty quickly, and some of you may think I am crazy or a heretic (I've been called both). I know I am saying something that has only been mentioned a few times in all of the history of Christianity, and the people that suggested it were usually killed. I have never found, however, someone who adequately explained it. You see, God showed this to me. Not some teacher, not a bible study class, but God Himself revealed this understanding to me, so to me it really doesn't matter if anyone else in the entire world believes me or not. This is solid to me, because when God reveals something to you, you can be sure of it. The whole world could try and convince me with their theology that I am wrong, but they can't because I didn't come up with this on my own. You would be trying to convince me that God was wrong, and I know He is not. I realize I didn't use many scripture verses in the preceding pages, but I did that for a reason. I wanted to get the attention of both church folk and those not currently in the household of God. Now I will get more into the scriptures with quotes and passages to clearly show you what I am talking about. I figure if you made it this far you just may continue reading. I have found that, especially with the average person, if you start off with quote after quote you lose them quickly. Hopefully I have caught your attention now and got you interested in why I believe what I do. I am not asking you to believe me. I am just a man, nothing more. From now on I will be teaching directly from scripture, so I ask you to look up the verses yourselves and above all, PRAY. Pray to God to show you what he showed me. If you think I'm wrong, pray that God would show you where and how I'm wrong. He is your teacher as well as mine. Never take anyone's word for anything where it concerns the Word of God, take His Word for it and expect to receive it. Be open minded and let God put the knowledge into your head. No deception is worth holding onto. Ask God to reveal truth and only truth to you, and believe you receive it. God will do it. Just trust Him.

One of the first teachings I would like to do is on the letter Paul wrote to the church at Rome. Put on your diving suits and check your air supply folks, because we're going to go deep. I believe Paul believed the same thing that God has shown me. The reason the book of Romans is so hard to understand for most Christians is because Paul is explaining the reconciliation of the world, a belief that the church has mostly discarded. God revealed the scriptures to Paul completely. God opened his eyes to exactly what He meant in His Holy Words, and the church went downhill from there into the Dark Ages where the church all but died, which Paul also prophesied (Acts 20:29-31). Some of the things Paul explained are very hard to understand. Just look at what Peter wrote concerning some of Paul's writings.

" As also in all his (Paul's) epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as [they do] also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction."(2 Pet 3:16) Paul wrote some things that without the understanding of God, are very hard to understand. For example, it appears he contradicts himself 3 times in one chapter. Romans 11:14 says,

" If by any means I may provoke to emulation [them which are] my flesh, and might save some of them." Here is Paul saying that he hopes to get some of his fellow Israelites to imitate him in the Gospel, and so save some of them, but just above that he said, "(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day." (Romans 11:8). How could he hope to save some of them when it seems he is explaining the reason they don't accept the Gospel is because it was foreordained by God? It gets more confusing. Romans 11:26 says,

" And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:"

So let's see if we've got this. The 8th verse says God planned that their eyes should be blinded. Verse 14 indicates Paul is attempting to save some anyway. Verse 26 says all of Israel will be saved, seemingly contradicting verse 8. To most people, this would appear like Paul is rather confused. Without the understanding of reconciliation, it probably is confusing to most Christians. What does "all Israel" mean? Well, just what it says, ALL ISRAEL. Not some, not most, but ALL, from Abraham right up to modern day. What about the Pharisees, what about the Sadducees? Well let me ask this, what is left out of ALL? But, you say, they were evil and Jesus Himself called them children of the devil. Yes, but Peter says,

" And now, brethren, I wot (know) that through ignorance ye did [it], as [did] also your rulers."(Acts 3:17). Ignorance is no excuse you say? How about this? Paul says of himself, in 1 Timothy 1:13,

" Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did [it] ignorantly in unbelief." So according to Paul, it was because of his ignorance and unbelief that God was merciful to him. Paul is explaining in this chapter of Romans that Israel's unbelief was necessary in order to get the Gospel out to the Gentiles. Romans 11:25 says,

" For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." Israel was blinded so that they would persecute the church and drive it out into the Gentile nations of the world. So, you see it was God's plan that Israel reject their Savior so that the rest of the world would accept Him. Once the full number of Gentiles have come into the Kingdom of God, that is when the scripture,

" How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" (Isaiah 52:7) will be completely fulfilled. We will make Israel jealous when they see the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob doing mighty signs and wonders with us. Romans 11:11 shows us this.

" I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but [rather] through their fall salvation [is come] unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy." They will want their God back, and we will be more than happy to give back to Israel their inheritance, for then will be fulfilled Romans 11:15,

" For if the casting away of them [be] the reconciling of the world, what [shall] the receiving [of them be], but life from the dead?" Resurrection of the dead is the end result of Israel's coming into the Kingdom of God.

There are some fundamental misconceptions in the Body of Christ, the Church, that have confused people very badly and, worst of all, have allowed pride to enter. I'll tell you right now, it WASN'T your choice to be a Christian. That is boasting and the Word says in Romans 11:6,

" And if by grace, then [is it] no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if [it be] of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work." and again in Ephesians 2:8 - 10, " For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

God knew well in advance who would be a Christian and who would not. Some people would say, "I found Jesus" but He was never lost. That's like the little lost sheep calling to his brothers, as the Shepherd brings him home, "Hey, look guys, I found the Shepherd." God found you. In the words of Jesus Himself,

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."(John 15:16 ) Paul writes,

" According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:" (Ephesians 1:4) God chose you and knew you before the foundation of the world, so don't think anything you did made you a Christian. It's like saying you chose not to walk off the cliff, once you saw you were walking toward a cliff. Well, yes, that is a choice but not in the sense of the word Christians have been using it. Before God got a hold of you and opened your eyes to the truth, you were walking straight towards death. God then opened your eyes so you could see. If you were blind and were just about to walk over the edge of a cliff and suddenly you could see, and you see a path that leads down to the bottom, is it really a choice to take the path? Do you sit and ponder, "Hmm, decisions, decisions. Should I walk off the cliff and die, or take the safe path down?" No, you say, "Thank God for opening my eyes to the Way! " and try as best you can to follow that Way. Well that is what God did for us Christians. Yes, you chose Jesus, but only after you SAW Jesus, only after you could see the path that leads to life could you choose to take it. And my friends, only someone who is deceived would still walk off the cliff once he sees the path. Mabey the devil could trick him into thinking he could fly, or that walking down the path would kill him, but that is still deception and only deception from the devil can lead you astray.

Let me tell you briefly about a man named Tom Papinia. He is the grandson of a man who went by the nickname "Joey the Boss". Joey immigrated to America in the 1920's, and brought with him the Sicilian Mob. Tom's mother was a God fearing woman who would have nothing to do with her father's associates, especially after Joey was killed by his "friends" for his position and power. She never told Tom as he was growing up who his grandfather was. Unfortunately, Tom began robbing these same men and one day they came to his house. They told him that the only reason they were going to let him live was because of the respect they had for his grandfather. Well Tom wanted to know who his grandfather was, and then inherited his grandfather's position in the Mob. He worked directly for Big Paul Castalano., who we all know was gunned down by the Teflon Don, John Goti, who is currently serving a long sentence for that crime. To shorten the story a bit, Tom became a major player in the organized crime of New York. He was a very bad man who had people hurt for even looking at him the wrong way. He had such a violent reputation that certain hit-men wouldn't work for him because they were afraid he would kill them if they messed up a job. Well, he received an invitation to go to church from a friend just after putting God down to His face one day, and figured God was going to try and kill him in church the next day. He went anyway, halfway planning to kill himself before God could, just to show God he was in control of his life. Tom hadn't cried in 30 years. He had stopped crying because his dad would beat him, and would only stop if Tom didn't cry. Tom saw crying as a sign of weakness. Well, he went to this little church and sat through the service without God trying to kill him. As he was leaving, the Pastor of this little church had a word for Tom. He told him that although he was a grown man, all the Pastor could see was a little boy crying. This shocked Tom very badly. You see nobody knew his secret, but now this Pastor of the small church knew his secret. He decided right there and then that he would have to kill the Pastor. Later that night he decided to call the Pastor and set up a meeting that very night to kill him. The Pastor told him they could meet, just the two of them, at the little church. Tom thought, hey, great. I'll just kill him and no one will know and then I'll leave. So Tom set out to go kill this Pastor. Funny thing was that when he got to the church, he couldn't pull his gun. He says that all the anger left him and he couldn't get angry. He couldn't reach for his gun, so they talked a little while. The next thing Tom knew he was on his knees asking God to come into his life, bawling like a little baby. 30 years, no tears, and now here with a man he had come to kill, crying and on his knees giving his life to Jesus. Tom now goes all over the world preaching the saving grace of our Lord Jesus. There is much more detail to Tom's story that I won't go into now (you should here it from Tom himself. He gave this testimony on a program I watched.) but I ask you, whose choice was it? Tom's or God's?

I'll tell you something else. It wasn't my choice to become a Christian. It wasn't yours either. The choice of who is and isn't a Christian is God's. Only after God gets hold of you do you have any choices whatsoever. The bible says in many places that the people of this world are slaves of sin, and the last time I checked a slave has no choice who his master is. Just look at these passages.

2 Peter 2:19 : " While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." Bondage. Servants. Slaves. Not much room for choice in these situations. Only after a slave is free does he have any choices.

Christians are really the only people on earth that have any free will. We can see the paths of darkness and of light. To the rest of the world, everything is grey. Sure, they know it is not right to murder, steal, commit adultery and harbour feelings of jealousy and hatred towards their fellow man. The bible declares in Romans 2:14 - 16,

" For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and [their] thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." So everybody knows these things are wrong. There consciences which is the very Voice of God, condemn them, but without the power of God in their lives, they are powerless to do what they know is right. Then the devil steps in with all sorts of justifications and excuses of why they should be allowed to do them. "Yeah, but you don't know what they did to me.", as if someone else's crime against you justifies your crime against them. Or how about, " Well, the government rips us off and wastes our money, so I'm justified in cheating on my tax returns." Why are you making excuses? Because you know it is wrong what you are doing. If you really didn't think it was wrong, why bother trying to justify your actions? You would just do it. For example, no group of people, ever, anywhere in the world, at any time in history really believed it was acceptable to kill someone, short of defending your home and family. In order to get around this moral dilemma, people have come up with all sorts of reasons and justifications to kill. They surround murder with religious reasons, political reasons, philosophical reasons. "That tribe over there isn't really human, they're related to dogs so we are justified in killing them." "Our god requires human blood to appease it." "The sacrifice of a few will bring greater good to the world by teaching them a lesson." On and on and on. Elaborate rituals and myths and tales and legends, all for one reason: To justify murder. Why not just kill them and say it was because you didn't like them. Because you want their land, or because you want their homes. They need a reason, even a wrong one, to try and appease their conciseness which tell them not to kill their fellow human being. Eventually, they begin to actually believe these reasons. It becomes part of their culture, their heritage. After a while it becomes all they know. I'm sure some poor confused people, who believe they are Muslims, really believe that God will reward them for blowing women and children into little pieces. They have been deceived by people they look up to into believing they are right in doing this and it is the will of God. It doesn't matter that their Holy books strictly teach against this. They probably don't know their Holy books any better than anyone else. Christian bishops went around telling people at the time of the crusades that their sins, and the sins of their whole families would be forgiven by God if they just went and fought for the Holy Land. They deceived a bunch of ignorant, uneducated illiterate people into believing they were doing God's work, when all the while it was just politics.

Unscrupulous degenerates have been using God as a justification for murder, rape and pillaging from time immemorial. So this brings me to this question. Why do you believe what you believe? Because somebody told you that? Because your people have always done it that way? Why is that a reason to believe something? They could be wrong. As Christians, we have only one reason to believe. Revelation from Heaven. Period. If you didn't get your beliefs straight from the mouth of God Almighty, you have no real reason to believe it. Let me show you something Jesus taught. Matthew 16:13 -18 reads,

" When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some [say that thou art] John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Jesus is saying to Simon here that the only reason he believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, was because God Himself had showed it to him. The scary thing is that there are many people out there who think they are Christians when they only believe in Jesus based on knowledge they received from flesh and blood. Sure, they may actually believe Jesus was the Christ, that He died and was raised on the third day, and now sits at the right hand of the Majestic Glory on High, but if that knowledge didn't come from a personal revelation from God but from archeological finds and theological debates then they are not solid. They don't know that they know that they know. It just sounds right and they haven't heard anything to the contrary that disproves it. Well, then they haven't yet had a storm come upon their house. What if someone shows them something that seems to totally contradict that. Then suddenly a storm is upon them attacking their faith and they don't have that solid Rock, Revealed Knowledge, beneath them to stand on. I'll give you an example. In a recent issue of the Canadian magazine "Macleans" there was a cover story called "Is God a Woman?". In the article a supposedly prominent Christian woman said she could no longer say her vows because she no longer believed i n them. She could no longer follow a male dominated religion. Some would say she fell away from the faith. Some would describe her as being Christian and then falling away. She no longer considers herself Christian, but the bible teaches that she never was. 1 John 2:19 says

" They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would [no doubt] have continued with us: but [they went out], that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."

She didn't lose her faith, she never had any. She had never received revelation from God. She didn't talk with God or walk with God. She never knew God or she would never have had the problems she now has. You see, there is no such thing as blind faith. Blind faith is DOUBT. Faith is a "knowing", knowledge. In fact, there is only one Greek word in the bible for "faith" and "belief". Greek words are made up of two parts, the stem and the ending. The stem tells you what the word is, and the ending tells you to whom it is being applied and the gender and sense. The stem of both "faith and "believe" is exactly the same. The opposite of faith is unbelief, as it is written concerning Abraham,

"He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;" (Romans 4:20) We have faith because we know that we know that we know. Were not guessing here.

Let me ask you this. Do you have faith in the fact that when you let go of you coffee cup it will fall? Do you have faith in the law of gravity? That is what faith is. Faith is knowledge. Faith in God is knowledge about God from God, and the ONLY place to get that is to go to God. If you didn't get you knowledge about God form God, then on what foundation do you believe it is true? If you got you knowledge of God from seminars, bible schools and other flesh and blood sources, you have no solid foundation to stand on and when a flood comes, like came against this lady, you will fall. There is nothing wrong with bible schools, but your foundation must be from God otherwise you have nothing solid to keep you up. Revealed knowledge from Heaven is the only way to be sure of anything, so ask for it. God will give it to you. He has promised, and God is not a man that He should lie. What Jesus was saying in Matthew 16: 13-18 is that Simon had received revealed knowledge from Heaven. He told him he was Peter. Now, why we translated that passage that way, I will never know. Jesus said

"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Petros, and upon this Petra I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The Greek word Petros means large, movable rock, a piece detached from the living rock. The word Petra means huge, Immovable rock, or the living rock from which the first (petros) came from. Jesus basically said, Simon, you are now solid as a rock because you have had who I am revealed to you by My Father in Heaven, and upon this huge immovable rock, revelation knowledge from Heaven, I will build My Church, and not even death itself can effect it. You see, once the Father has revealed something to you, it doesn't matter if the whole world, or the devil himself, tries to convince you that you are wrong. You are solid. The whole earth could pass away but the revelation you received from God through His Word (the apostles and prophets) will always be with you. It is the sure foundation that you build the truth of your soul on, with Jesus Christ as it's Chief Cornerstone.(Eph 2:20)

Some of the reasons for the confusion about the doctrine of hell come from people picking out single passages of the bible and reading them completely out of the context they are in. This makes the bible look as if it were contradicting itself. For example, traditionalist will use the passage from Matthew 7:13 - 14 to show that I am totally out to lunch. It reads,

" Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Taken by itself, this seems to say that only a few people will get to Heaven. Most people are going to hell. Unfortunately, the bible can't contradict itself, so you have to reconcile that passage with the statement made by Paul in 1 Timothy 4:9 - 11,

" This [is] a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. These things command and teach." As a side note, in all the time I have been studying the Word of God I have yet to hear anyone command and teach these things. Now this is saying that Jesus is the Saviour of all men, especially the Christians. Not only the Christians, but especially the Christians. The Greek word there is "malista" which is translated as especially, chiefly, mostly, first of all or above all. So if you put these two verses together, and combine it with what I wrote earlier about you soul being destroyed if it is full of darkness, it begins to make some sense. Christians are the ones that find the narrow gate in this life, most people don't. So they will be destroyed once they see "the one whom they have pierced" (Zech 12:10). They will see and they will believe. The bible declares in Isaiah 45:22 - 24

" Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth [in] righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall [one] say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: [even] to him shall [men] come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed." The end of all the earth is to see Jesus and bow their knees and confess that He is Lord, to the Glory of God. They won't be forced by some big angel pushing them down to their knees like I read one confused theologian try and say, either. They will bow and worship God because they will have the truth revealed to them. The reason Christians are in the earth is to show the world what their future is. We are the firstfruits. Not just the early church, there is no such thing. There is just one church, always has been and always will be. The church of Jesus Christ. We Christians today are just as much part of the church as the apostles were at the beginning of all this. The church is the first fruits along with Jesus for the church is His body. First is never used unless there is a second. We are in the earth to be an example. James 1:18 says,

" Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."

All the earth belongs to God and everything in it. The Good News we were to bring to the world is that God has sent His Son to be the sacrifice for the world. God has reconciled the world to Himself and your end is determined. You will go stand before God. Wait, you say. What about the verses which say those that have done evil will be cast into the lake of fire? Read on my friend, read on.

Visions from God are amazing. God can drop into your mind in a twinkling of an eye something that could very well take you your whole life to explain and discuss with someone else. The vision I received from God concerning Israel was mind boggling. I could never hope to fully explain it.

The end result of being thrown into the lake of fire is destruction of the old, destruction of the chaff, destruction of the ore and purification into gold. When Jesus said to the sheep, in the parable of the sheep and the goats, that they had done all these good things, they said,

" Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed [thee]? or thirsty, and gave [thee] drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took [thee] in? or naked, and clothed [thee]? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto the?"(Matt 25:37-39) The new Testament is an explanation of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is as relevant today as it ever was. The symbolism in the Old Testament was meant for us, because with God's help we Christians are the only ones who can understand it. One of the things that Christians treat as "quaint" in the Old Testament is the practices the Israelites followed concerning the temple and the sacrifices. Most Christians don't have the faintest notion of what they were doing and why. Without an understanding of that, there are some things in the New Testament that just don't, and can't have the impact on us that they should.

For example, when a typical Christian reads about Jesus being our High Priest, it doesn't mean a thing to him. To most of us, High Priest is just some guy with fancier clothes than the rest of us and a big hat on his head. If you don't understand what a High Priest meant to and Israelite in the Old Testament, you can't understand what Jesus being our High Priest means to us. If you don't understand what it meant to an Israelite on the Day of Atonement, you can't understand what Jesus did for the world. If you don't understand why the Israelites sacrificed a little lamb on the altar in the temple, then you cannot, I repeat, cannot understand what it means by Jesus being

"...the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."(John 1:29) You see, everything Jesus did was foreshadowed in the history of Israel. Everything Israel did was a foreshadow of what Christ was coming to do for the world. On the Day of Atonement in ancient Israel, the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood of the slain lamb on the altar. In Leviticus 23:27 - 28 it says,

" Also on the tenth [day] of this seventh month [there shall be] a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it [is] a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God." On the Day of Atonement, Israel had it's sins covered over. They were put back in right standing with God, and God treated them like they were sinless. It was an awesome day. A marvelous day. It meant that God still loved them, that God cared for them. Their sins were atoned for, and it meant that God would treat them as if they had never sinned. However, it was all foreshadowing what Jesus was coming to do for the whole world. You see, the atonement made by the high priest covered the sins of ALL Israel, from the least to the greatest. Just one man, the high priest, could make that atonement. No one else. The atonement was in the hands of one man. When Jesus died on the cross, was raised from the dead and went into Heaven, He brought His own blood. He brought His blood into the temple which is in Heaven and sprinkled that blood on the altar of God in Heaven, forever, once for all making Atonement for the sins of Man. The writer of Hebrews explains this. Hebrews 10:1 explains that the levitical ministry of ancient Israel was only there as a foreshadow, or example of what Jesus was coming to do. That is the only reason God had them do it. There are many, many things like that in the Old Testament which were symbolic of Jesus and what He was going to do. We have all read the verse in Revelation 21:8,

"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."

Notice one of the conditions for receiving this unbelief. The same reason Paul said he was shown mercy (1 Tim 1:13). The Greek word translated as Brimstone is "Thion", a word Paul used for "Godhead" when he said to the men of Athens,

"Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead (Thion) is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."(Acts 17:29)

Again, it is described as the breath of the Lord, "Isa 30:33 ...the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." It is the Glory of God! This is what rained down on Paul as he walked down the road to Damascus. And like I said earlier, it killed him. Yes, all sinners will have they part in the lake of fire because without it you can never be cleansed of you sin. It is a symbol of destruction. The sinners will be destroyed as surely as ore is destroyed when it is put into a furnace, but the end result is pure gold. Samuel Wesley wrote, "So the artist melts the ore of lead, by heaping burning coals upon it's head. In the kind warmth, the metal learns to glow and pure from dross doth silver run below." We Christians have already suffered this second death. It is what happened to us when we were born again. We, our old selves, died that day, and we were recreated in the image of God's dear Son. We are no longer simply ore, but purified gold. God explains this in Ezekiel 22:18 - 22 by saying,

" Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they [are] brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are [even] the dross of silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. [As] they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt [it]; so will I gather [you] in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave [you there], and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you." It was the Fire of God that burned up the dross, or garbage, that was in you and turned you into a Christian. You have been purified by that fire and now Revelation 20:6 is true for you. It says,

" Blessed and holy [is] he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."

The second death, which is the lake of Fire, will have no power over you if you have taken part in the first resurrection. The first resurrection in being in Christ Jesus. He was the first born form the dead, and the first to be resurrected. If you take part in that resurrection, the bible says you have been baptized in Fire. Luke 3:16 explains,

"John answered, saying unto [them] all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:" That Fire is the Fire of God, God Fire, Thion. The same Fire that fills that lake. The end result of being thrown into the lake of fire is destruction of the old, destruction of the chaff, destruction of the ore and purification into gold. When Jesus said to the sheep, in the parable of the sheep and the goats, that they had done all these good things, they said,

" Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed [thee]? or thirsty, and gave [thee] drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took [thee] in? or naked, and clothed [thee]? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?" (Matthew 25:37 - 39) Jesus answer was,

" Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me. "(Matthew 25:40) Now the exact opposite was true for the wicked. We know from the bible God considers all men sinners, so His brethren are all Mankind. The truth of this parable is that everybody falls into both categories. Romans 3:23 says,

" For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" so that puts us into the goat category, and through God's grace we have all done something good at least once in our lives. In other words, the sheep represent the goodness God imparts on Man, and the goats represent the wickedness that is in Man, as Paul says,

"Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."(Romans 7:20) Wickedness will suffer everlasting punishment and be completely destroyed. I would point out that in this parable, there are no Christians standing in the crowd. What? You say. I said there are no Christians down there, for a true Christian is an overcomer (1 John 5:4), and the Christians will sit with Jesus on the Throne (Rev 3:21), judge the nations with Him (1 Cor 6:2), and be a shepherd over them with a staff of iron (Rev 2:27). So that puts things in a different light, wouldn't you say? According to tradition, the sheep are the Christians and the goats are the unbelievers, but since all the Christians are on the Throne with Jesus, everyone in front of the Throne in this parable is an unbeliever, as are all those that stand in front of the Throne in Revelation 20:12-15. No one in that crowd is in the Book of Life, yet. They must be purified with the Fire first, as you were. Don't you know you were baptized in the Lake of Fire?

Where we get our twisted ideas of punishment is from the flesh. We try to think up the most horrible, evil, sadistic punishments we can and then say God would be worse. That is punishment Man's way, according to the carnal, fleshly mind. God's ways, as He says, are not ours. Isaiah 55:8 - 9 declares,

" For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." God has a far more productive punishment in store for the wicked. You see, all this misunderstanding stems from people not trusting God to show them what His Words mean. Most of the confusion could be elevated from understanding the Old Covenant, and the symbols God used in it. Israel as a nation, was a symbol. Israel represents the church. Always has and always will. God told me that you can judge what is going on in the church by Israel, because Israel is the physical reflection of the church. We can tell what is happening to the church as a whole by looking at Israel as a nation. Just look at the Dark Ages, when truth in the church was at an all time low. Israel was destroyed, and Jerusalem was in ruins. Yet, it still had a remnant, as did the church. As the Jews started moving back into Israel, the moves of God were happening in the church. Great men and women of God, showing mighty signs and wonders started to appear in the late 1800's, at the same time calls were going out for an Israeli homeland. 1948, Israel was reborn in a single day after almost 2500 years without status as a nation. 1948, one of the greatest healing evangelists, Oral Robert, began his ministry. 1967, Israel recaptures Jerusalem. 1967, some of the greatest teaching ministries since the apostles of old began. So on and so on, and it is continuing up until this day.

Again, I stress, ask God about what I am saying here. He is the only one who can confirm these things. He is the one who showed this to me, and I am just telling you what God told me. He will tell you also. I didn't get this from anywhere else. I have never gone to bible school. If someone asks me what bible school I went to I would respond, "H.S.U." (Holy Spirit University) I listen to a lot of teachers, but not one of them teaches what I have put forth here. My only understanding of the bible comes from the bible. Not from some book someone wrote about the bible, and not from someone else's opinion of the bible. I asked God to teach me the bible and He did. What else can I say? I am nobody, nothing, dust. Now don't go thinking I have a low self esteem problem, I don't. I just mean that as far as the natural is concerned, I have know right to know what I know. God has blessed me greatly and I am just trying to pass that blessing of understanding along to others. To my brothers and sisters in Christ, and whoever else Christ chooses to hear this, that have been confused by theologians desperately trying to explain why the power of God doesn't work anymore because they can't get it to work for them, or fire and brimstone teachers that confuse people with a mean cruel God who gives them cancer to teach them a lesson.

People are far to willing to throw the Word of God out the window when it doesn't seem like it meets up with their own circumstances. At my own church, which isn't very enlightened on the gifts of the Spirit, I was appalled at one bible study meeting. We had just read psalm 1, which reads,

"Blessed [is] the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly [are] not so: but [are] like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish." After reading this, they started trying to tell us that, well, we know this can't mean in our physical life because we can see that ungodly people do so prosper, and God doesn't want you to have money because the most Godly man they had ever met was a poor missionary without a penny to his name. Like I said, most church folk do not follow what is taught in 2 Corinthians 5:7,

" (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)" Instead they walk by their sight because they have no faith. They say, "Well, that's spiritual" to get them out of having to stand in faith on the promises of God, not realizing that the Spiritual is far, far more real than the natural. The bible says God is a healing God, that God will prosper you in all your ways, that He wants to bless you at every opportunity. Instead of walking by faith, they let their eyes fall onto the world around them and believe what they see more than what God said. We are all guilty of this to an extent, but we must strive to look to God rather than our circumstances.

When Peter took his step of faith out of that boat, and put his foot down of that water, let me tell you something. Nothing in the natural looked like he would be able to stand on it. He didn't wait for the water to stiffen up, or look like a plank of wood. But he kept his eyes on Jesus. As soon as he took his eyes off Him, what happened? He started sinking. Now his step of faith was more than just the impression we've been given in pictures of him stepping out of a little canoe onto some water. They were in the middle of the sea of Galilee, at night, in the middle of a storm. Without Jesus there, that step could very well have cost Peter his life, but we all need to learn a very important lesson from this. If Peter had tried to wait until it looked like he could walk on the water, he would have been waiting a very long time. If we wait until it looks, or feels, like we can do what God has promised us, you too will be waiting a long time. Peter walked by faith, not by what he saw. If fact, what he saw went directly opposite to what he was planning on doing. This example is the perfect physical analogy to the way we receive the promises of God. It is easy to believe you are healed when you feel well, but when you don't feel well is when you had better have faith that

"... he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."(Isaiah 53:5) You see, when we say we are healed, even if we are currently sick, is not lying to ourselves. We are declaring that we believe and receive the promises of God. But brother Foster, you say, I don't see the word 'promise' in that verse. Well, let me show you another verse that doesn't have the word promise in it. Deuteronomy 5:16 says,

" Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee." Nothing mentioned about a promise in that, is there? Well, Paul says, in regards to this verse,

" Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth."(Ephesians 6:2 - 3) You see, if God says "Do that and this will happen", that is a promise of God. He is not a liar, so what He says will come to pass if only you have faith in Him and believe. If you have trouble believing, ask God for help. He will help. He knows our weaknesses. He will honour you for being honest with Him.

Well, I guess I've rambled on enough for now. I think I have given you a pretty good overview of what I believe and why. As I said, I have never found any contradictions in the entire bible, and everything in the bible confirms these things I have said. I could keep writing for days, but I think I have given you something to think about. I've said it before, but it cannot be stressed enough. Ask God to teach you. He is our teacher and our guide. He will lead you into all truth. Trust in Him. If you think about it, I haven't really said anything different than what the bible and the church teach, I'm just clarifying some confusing doctrines that haven't been explained clearly. I know there is a barrier of understanding out there concerning some of these teachings. I have watched the most anointed teachers in the world, who have God performing signs and wonders and miracles of healing in their ministries, get backed into a corner with simple little questions like, "Is Jesus the only way to God?" and "Will God sent everyone to hell who doesn't believe in Jesus?" They dance out of it with the answer, "God will be the judge." or "God is a good God", clearly implying they don't have a solid answer or understanding about the eternal judgment and punishment of the wicked which the writer of Hebrews calls the basics. Hebrews 6:1-2 declares,

"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." Please pray about this, ask God what He showed me and God bless you all.

MF