Pam Padgett ... teacher
My parents raised me in the Catholic church and I attended a Catholic elementary
school. But when I was in high school, I was born again by the Spirit of God. Although we had been taught that we shouldn't read the Bible because we couldn't understand it, I had a strong desire to read the Bible and found a small New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs which I read secretly.
Later
when I went to college, a friend told me she was a born-again
Christian. We spoke about God and religion. At times I would say
something I had been taught in the Catholic church and she would ask "Where is that in the Bible?"
I didn't know, but was sure it must be there since this is what I had
been taught by the Catholic church. But when I would check into it, I found these things
weren't in the Bible. Doctrines I had been taught since childhood
started to be sorted out by what God has said in the Bible.
Although
there were several doctrines that were not according to the Bible, it
was hard to leave the Catholic church, having been taught it was the only
true church and that it was a sin to leave it. A Catholic nun attended the same college I attended, and I took a list of these doctrines to her, hoping she could explain why we were taught these. She was visibly shaken by what I presented. She didn't know how to answer these things but told me this is why "lay" people should not read the Bible. This confirmed to me that the doctrines I had been taught were incorrect, and I was able to leave the Catholic church.
Later while still in college I attended a non-denominational protestant church.
The pastor preached from the Bible and I was so happy to attend this
church. I attended the singles group at this church and rented a room
from a woman who also attended the group. She had been divorced twice
and had a young child. At first she seemed content to remain unmarried
and care for her child. When she started looking for another husband, I
spoke with her, telling her that according to the Bible a divorced
woman commits adultery if she remarries and showing her scriptures about
this (such as Matthew 5:32). She told me she didn't care what
the Bible said, she knew what she believed. I moved from her house not
long after this but continued to attend the church. Some months later I
learned that this woman and a man from the singles group were engaged.
I knew this man and went to him telling him he and this woman will
commit adultery if they married, and I gave him scriptures that tell us
this. I also knew and spoke with the woman who planned to be the maid
of honor, telling her these same things. Sadly, the wedding plans
continued. And, as a result of speaking to these people to try to stop
this adulterous marriage, I became an outcast from the singles group,
while this man and woman were married at the church.
Not long after this I heard Joan Boney speak about corruption in church
groups. (When something is corrupt it contains alterations and errors). Although scripture regarding a divorced woman remarrying
were discarded at this church, and I had even been outcast by the singles group for speaking about this, I didn't want
to recognize this as corruption, and I continued to attend this
church.
Then one day during the church service the Holy Spirit spoke to me "What are you doing here? I told you to get out. Now get out". I left that day and did not return.
After leaving, I asked God when He told me to get out of this church. I was reminded of the messages Joan had given about church groups whose doctrines are not according to the Bible.
It is often hard to leave a church group. But when the doctrines taught
do not line up with what God has said in the Bible, we cannot continue
there.
Comments by Joan Boney ... My favorite aunt attended a Church of Christ group all her life. At the end of her life she told me she knew things being taught there were not right. But she remained in this church, faithfully attending and faithfully giving money to this church. At one point, I told my aunt about being taken into heaven twice. I didn't want to tell her this had happened to me since Church of Christ is a group that would not likely believe something like this could happen from God. But I knew God wanted me to tell her this and I told her. She looked at me and said, "Something like that happened to me once and it was all golden."
After she died, I had a dream about her. In the dream, I was in a large room with long rows of baby bassinets lined up. I was walking down the rows, looking into each bassinet. I was shocked. These babies were horribly deformed (I knew this showed babies in church who never matured in things of God and had all manner of corruption.) When I got to the end of the row, my aunt was standing. She was fully matured but had very bad spots and blemishes on her face. I knew this had to do with her knowing things were wrong and yet staying at her church group. You just can't stay there when doctrine is wrong or when unrepentant people sit in the congregation. You have to leave.
I attended a church group in Dallas, Word of Faith. The pastor was Robert Tilton. I didn't see anything wrong at the time. I never missed a service ... Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and all special services.
Then in 1979, while I was attending this church, God gave me the following shocking dream ... In this dream, I went into a room where a meeting was going on. There was one vacant seat on the aisle and I sat down and began listening to a man who was speaking to the group. Another man rushed and went to the front of the room and said, "Stop ... wait ... can't you see ... It's too late! It's already begun."The first man resumed speaking to the group. I looked out the window and was shocked at what I saw. There was a tall, civil defense type pole with a yellow warning speaker on top of the pole. Out of the speaker was coming a poison gas. I knew it would kill the people and shockingly the gas was coming from our own speaker which was supposed to warn us. I looked at the man who was sitting next to me. He was sitting upright. He had a big smile on his face. He was looking directly at the speaker in an attentive way. But this man was a corpse. He was dead though he looked alive. Then I looked at people around the room and they were already dead also. And as I sat back in my seat, I felt myself falling asleep, dying as I listened to the speaker.
If I sat among them, the gas which was coming from our own speaker was going to kill me as it had already killed the others.
One Wednesday night after this dream, I was attending church. I looked around at the other people and they were exactly like the people in the poison gas dream. I got up immediately and went into the rest room and began talking to God. I said, "I believe you are showing me to leave this church. I'm going to get in my car and leave. But if YOU want me to return, I will." I drove home. I expected God to send me to another church group. HE did not. I just stayed home and read Bible and a few weeks after that an angel of the Lord spoke to me in the night and gave me call letters to radio and I was put on radio as a minister. Every time after that when I tried to find a church to attend, I saw various sins from the pastor which caused me not to be able to attend. I attend no church group now. I just speak with the 8 or 9 people in our little church group which is scattered all over the United States. These people heard me speak on radio in the various cities during the early 80's. We have been together all these years. I was on radio around the USA for several years. Then two years ago, March, 2012, God gave me a dream showing me to go on Internet and exhort the church in writings which you are reading now on our blog.
If you want a real shock, go on Internet and read about Robert Tilton, the pastor of the church I was attending in the late 1970's. After I left that church group because of the poison gas dream, God showed me all manner of incorrect doctrine which was coming forth from Tilton and others at that church group though I didn't see it at the time I was attending that group.