The church of Jesus Christ on earth cannot come into the predestined glory that she will have with her heavenly King so long as she indiscriminately eats from the tree of knowledge. This tree of knowledge is not completely evil, having good in it also. We have no basis upon which to assign a percentage of the tree as good or evil. Even it the tree was ninety-nine percent good, yet there is the remaining one percent that is not good…it spells death. We are commanded NOT to eat of the tree of KNOWLEDGE of good and evil.
It is true, you and I can rejoice in the truth. Ooooo, how we love the truth!!! No one but us have the truth like me and you, right? Don’t we wish to help those who do not see the truth the way that we see it? Yes, we do. We fast and pray for all who have not come into the love of the same truth that we have. Ha….! This old man has been known to get so happy at the preaching of truth that he would get into the middle aisle together with others and do the old fashioned Apostolic Holy Ghost shuffle. Let ‘em preach Jesus Only, the Only God and the ONLY name under heaven whereby we must be saved, this old man will jump six feet, unashamed….even though the wife will sometimes be inclined to pull my coat tail. Hahaha Love that woman. She has helped to keep this old relic balanced, lo, these nearly 59 years. 😀
You already know that the Devil, that old Serpent did not give you and me this great Apostolic TRUTH. No, not by the hair your chinny-chin-chin….! It’s GOOD. He wants to destroy the truth to make the tree evil. By the sly old serpent knows the way to bring death to the woman (the church), the mother of all living, is to add a little evil of falsity commingled with much good that is preached. The unwary, lacking spiritual discernment by the SILENT witness within will eat, UN-forewarned. That inward witness is allowed to sleep from our own neglect of prayer, worship and plundering the depths of the Word as He, the Spirit of Truth speaks to our living, active spiritual mind while laying quiescent the carnal mind.
While thinking about this, I can’t remember one prophecy given by our latter-day End-time Prophets that have come to pass. When I was just a young lad, I remember a preacher coming to our little Rosen Creek Pentecostal church. Our Pastor was Tom Mayo. It looked as if the UN would grant Palestine to be a nation, whose name would be the nation of Israel. Itself would be a fulfillment of prophecy in the natural, carnal sense. An Evangelist came preaching “end-time.” He preached until the sweat poured off of him. He did a great job of preaching good and truth from the Tree of Knowledge as he eloquently expounded Jn 3:5/Acts 2:38 as the only means of salvation. He continued:
“If the UN gives recognition of Palestine a nation, folks, the church is outtahear. All who are ready for the rapture will be gone and the rest of y’all will be LEFT BEHIND.” As a little kid, I was skeered beyond words cause I knew that I had been a bad boy from time to time and couldn’t help it too much.
Sure enough…. One day in school at Harrisonburg Elementary school. United Nations signed the charter. Peg-leg Cripps was our school bus driver. I got off the bus, ran inside and yelling, MAMA, MAMA….! No mama. I ran into the garden yelling, “MAMA, MAMA….! No mama. By this time my heart was pounding since I knew that as a bad little boy that I had been LEFT BEHIND. Tim LaHaye of the left behind series of books would have loved me, especially since the main character in the left behind series was named RAYFORD, believe it or not. RAYFORD WAS LEFT BEHIND.
Well, it looks like RAYFORD, my mama’s little boy, was left behind….just like the Rayford was left behind in the Tim LaHaye book series that would be written many years later. Don’t ever assume that the Devil does not discern the times too.
With near panic, I remembered Sister Walston who also attended our church. She and John lived only about a quarter of a mile down the gravel road from us. I thought that I would run down there and see if Sister Walston was also gone in the rapture. I knew that ol’ John wasn’t going anywhere….never. He would still be there, left behind, just like me.
So, I ran just as fast as my little legs could carry me. I ran up into the house without stopping at the door. Instantly, I became the happiest little boy in the whole world. There in front of my eyes was the beautiful sight of two precious saints of God….my mama and Sister Walston. I could have fainted with joy.
Such was the narrative that I’ve heard my whole life. One END-time error after another. I’ll never forget the Youth Camp preached by John Kershaw in Tioga, La in June of 1967. I’ll never forget the panic that followed that sermon entitled: “Count Down to the Rapture.” To make it worse, someone blew a trumpet into the sound system off stage. I never seen so much panic. I should write a book about that unforgettable night. Well, maybe not.
Anyway, who can forget the book that shook Christendom to the foundation entitled, “88 Reasons for the Rapture in 1988? Who can forget the 1992 End-time magazine with its many articles which prophesied seven years from the signing of the Jerusalem Peace Accord at Camp David in 1993 to Armageddon and the rapture seven years from then? I still have a copy or two of that. I had told brother I.B., at the General Conferencce in 1992 that he should not publish that magazine that it would not come to pass as he explained it to me in the book section of the Conference in Salt Lake City. I’ll never forget that 3.5 years after the signing, I sent brother I.B. an email asking where was the antichrist since he was suppose to be revealed in the midst of the latter half of the 70th week of Daniel according to the end-time theorist.
But, we should all CALM DOWN and go back to sleep since, Apostolic Pentecostal preachers of the END-TIME knowledge always thrown in some good Jn 3:5/Acts 2:38 along the way which seems to give them license to teach what they ought not. Often, they will preach their end-time theories for an hour and then give a five or ten minute Acts 2;38 altar call with dire warnings. Thus, in every church who are not yet made perfect, there are two spirits at work, i.e., the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error which spells death to the woman who will eat of it.
But the future glory of the church made perfect, a subject that I wish to write much about, will refuse the Tree of Knowledge of both good and evil. I will assure you, beloved, that Jesus Christ has a PREDESTINED CHURCH who will arrive in and come to her beautiful glory, fully and properly adored for the return of her heavenly lover to receive her unto HIMSELF, having neither spots of evil or wrinkles of error in her pure white wedding garment.
If any man will hear the heavenly voice of the Spirit, let him come, come and drink of the pure waters of Life eternal. But, who CAN hear….indeed who WILL hear? The uncircumcised in heart and ears are not able
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