In 1985, I moved to Clovis, NM (USA), where my mother lived. My dad died and I knew she would need help so I moved there and built two apartments and later a house and moved my mother into the house with me until she died in 2002.
While in Clovis, I tried to find a church to attend:
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* Church on the Texico highway:
I spoke at this church several times when I was on radio between the years of 1980-1984.
Then I moved to Clovis to help my mother after my father died.
As I recall this, the man who was leader of this group contacted me when he learned I had moved to Clovis. He was not really a pastor. He was just the person in charge. He asked me not to try to come to their church group. He made the statement that he would not stand in the doorway to keep me out of their building but he wanted me to know I would not be welcome there. They were followers of Kenneth Copeland at that time.
He didn't need to be concerned. I've never tried to force my way into any church group and would not do such a thing.
Several years later, 2017, God's message to me concerned the apostasy of the end times in the churches, and there was no way I would want to go near one of these apostate churches for I know Jesus will deal with them when HE returns and I just want to stay out of the way.
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* Potter's House:
This was a really strange situation.
I spoke to the pastor about visiting his church group, not as a speaker, just as a visitor. I was looking for a church to attend.
First the pastor agreed.
I bought an appropriate dress and was excited over getting to go to a church group.
On Friday before I was to visit on Sunday morning, this pastor called me and said: "Concerning that thing about your visiting our church. I've decided I don't want you to visit our church group."
I said, "Ok ..." and hung up.
I was disappointed not to get to go to church.
A few days after this, some teenaged girls showed up at my front door. They were carrying printed hand outs. They said they were from "Potter's House" church. They invited me to attend their church.
I told them their pastor called me asking me not to visit their church.
They didn't say a word. They just turned and walked away.
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* Non-denominational church # 1:
I went to visit this church on a Wednesday night. I was hoping to find a church to attend.
The pastor was teaching about the woman taken in adultery. John 8
Pastor said: "And when she was brought to Jesus, she was naked from the waist up."
I was very shocked! I knew this was not true. I looked about the room and I didn't see anyone reach for a Bible to check this story.
Several of the men had big lust-filled looking smiles on their faces.
There were about 100 people in the congregation that night.
I called the pastor the next day. I told him I had been in that meeting the previous night. I asked him where it was in the Bible saying that woman taken in adultery was naked from the waist up as he had told the congregation.
He said, after a long pause: "I can't remember where it is in the Bible."
I explained this was very important for me to know. I asked him if he would please look this up and tell his secretary where this is in the Bible and have her call me and let me know.
Another long pause.
Then he shouted into the phone with great anger: "All right. It's not in the Bible. Where do you go to church?"
I told him I was trying to find a church to attend but I wasn't going to attend a church where the pastor told stories that were not in the Bible and then tried to lie to Christians about that which he had done.
That ended the phone call.
I saw a man in the congregation who had done some construction work for me. It turned out that he was one of the elders in that church group. I called him and told him what had happened. He seemed surprised. But he apparently had not tried to check this story in the Bible.
John 8:1-11 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning HE came again into the temple, and all the people came unto HIM; and the scribes and Pharisees brought unto HIM a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
4 They say unto HIM, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest THOU?
6 This they said, tempting HIM, that they might have to accuse HIM.
But Jesus stooped down, and with HIS finger wrote on the ground, as though HE heard them not.
7 So when they continued asking HIM, HE lifted up HIMSELF, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again HE stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
10 When Jesus had lifted up HIMSELF, and saw none but the woman, HE said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
A few weeks later, I was visiting an Assembly of God church. This elder was there that night. We talked after the meeting. He said he had left that other church group and was no longer an elder there. He said he asked that pastor about what I said and the pastor said he just didn't know why he told that story to the people that night.
Later that pastor wanted to hire a homosexual to be their choir director. And the former elder said he left that church for that reason.
But that "elder" didn't leave when that pastor told the lie about the scriptures: about the woman who was taken in adultery in John 8.
I was especially shocked that this pastor showed no shame over what he had done in lying to his congregation concerning John 8.
Later, in 2017, God taught me about antichrist and the apostasy in the churches toward the end times. Then I understood this was one of the antichrist, apostasy, churches and in the book of Revelation the people blasphemed God over the plagues but they did not repent.
I've never seen any of these corrupt men who speak lies to their church groups repent.
Antichrist does not repent.
Revelation 9:20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
v. 21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Revelation 16:8-9 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give HIM glory.
vv. 10-11 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
I don't believe these antichrist, apostasy church people can repent. They made their choice against the scriptures.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
I leave these apostate churches and their leaders alone. Jesus will judge them when HE comes to gather the elect of God.
***
* Non-denominational church # 2:
I visited this church on a Sunday morning. It was the Sunday School class and the pastor was teaching from Genesis 16 concerning Sarai, Abram's wife, and Sarai's maid, her servant woman, Hagar.
Pastor said: "Sarai and Hagar were 1/2 sisters."
I grabbed for my Bible for I'd never heard "that" before.
When I got home, I read every scripture pertaining to Sarai and Hagar and there was no mention of Sarai and Hagar being 1/2 sisters.
What the Bible does say is this:
Genesis 16:1 Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
(I did not believe an Hebrew, daughter of Israel, would have an Egyptian 1/2 sister, especially with no mention of this in Holy Bible.)
I called the pastor and told him I could not find this in Bible and I asked him where it tells that in the Bible.
Pastor replied, "I can't remember where that is just now."
I told pastor it was very important for me to know where this is in Bible and I asked him to look it up and have his secretary call me and tell me where it is in the Bible.
He became very quiet.
Then he began shouting over the phone: "It's not in the Bible!"
Incredible that a pastor would make up things like this and tell them to church as if these statements were in the Bible!
(He showed no sign of being ashamed for what he had done.)
Another thing happened that Sunday morning at that same service.
Pastor was teaching. All of a sudden, a woman began shouting and waving her hands in the air and saying, "Praise the Lord ... Praise the Lord ... Praise the Lord." Then she began running down the aisles and across the room while shouting and she ran down the row of windows at the left side of the room and then across the room to the other row of windows on the right side of the room and finally ended up back at her seat.
The pastor and the people in the congregation were very excited as she did this. I realized they thought this was the Holy Spirit who had come upon this woman.
I was horrified! (It was, to me, more like a demonic possession.)
As soon as I got to my car, I talked to God about this.
I was reminded of this scripture:
I Cor. 14:40 Let all things be done decently and in order.
I've never seen the Holy Spirit take over a human body and make anyone do anything.
This is what the Holy Spirit does:
John 14:26 Jesus says: But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in MY name, HE shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
John 16:13 Howbeit when HE, the Spirit of truth, is come, HE will guide you into all truth: for HE shall not speak of HIMSELF; but whatsoever HE shall hear (from God), that shall HE speak: and HE will shew you things to come.
I Cor. 2:9-13 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by HIS Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak,
***
* Church of Christ:
I had noticed a very small building with the name Church of Christ in my neighborhood.
One Sunday morning, I decided to visit this group.
There were only about 8 people, mostly women. A man began teaching this group and he started with this scripture:
Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
After reading this scripture aloud to the people in the room, pastor asked: "Did Noah really condemn the world?"
I said: "Yes ... Noah believed God and the world did not believe God, therefore by obeying what God said Noah condemned the world by building the ark."
(Everyone seemed shocked. Pastor said no more about Noah.)
Later, I called this man "pastor" which is what he was, but he told me he is not called pastor.
I asked, "Then what are you called?"
He replied, "Minister."
But the apostle Paul wrote:
Ephesians 4:8, 11-12
11-12 And HE gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
I had attended Church of Christ as a young person and I then recalled that for some reason they do not call their pastors "pastor" though the Bible does call such pastors.
And the memory returned to me that I was once very afraid of that word "pastor" and when I heard people from other church groups mention their "pastor", I thought this must be something very bad because we had been taught at Church of Christ not to do this.
No one at that church group was friendly to me after I spoke and no one even approached me to speak with me after the Bible class. I left before the main service.
Later I learned this church group had broken away from a Church of Christ group in Portales, NM (another city 19 miles from Clovis). These people all lived in Portales but they built a church in Clovis.
They were in division from the group in Portales but I found them to be very much like I recalled in the Church of Christ groups which I had attended at an early age.
***
* Park Lane Baptist Church:
This was a standard Baptist church.
I went to their service one Sunday morning. One of my relatives was a member at that church group and when she saw me enter the building she came to sit with me.
The pastor started the service by turning the meeting over to a teenaged boy so he could tell about the teenaged retreat from which their young people had just returned.
The boy showed a movie of their trip. Girls had their hair in rollers and the young men were running around the room trying to flip the girls on their rear ends with rolled up towels. They were yelling and laughing.
Aline Boney, who was sitting next to me, said: "I could do without this ."
(In the entire film, nothing was said about God or scripture or church. It was just a film of teenagers acting like teenagers. There was no form of spiritual edification at all. It was all flesh.)
The preacher began speaking of the following scripture:
Matthew 17:21 Jesus said: Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
Preacher omitted the end of that scripture where Jesus said: "and fasting".
A second time pastor quoted that same scripture and said: "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer."
I very quietly said: "and fasting." (no one other than Aline could hear what I said.)
Amazingly, pastor quoted this a third time. He said: "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer."
Aline joined me and together we both quietly said: "and fasting."
That same night I returned to the evening service and it was even worse than the morning service, although I remember nothing said that night.
After the evening service, I went to pastor and told him I would like to make an appointment to talk with him. He said he could talk right now if I wanted to do so. We went into his office.
I told pastor I had been in the morning service and when we come together as the church all things must be done to "edification".
I Cor. 14:26 Paul says concerning the gathering of the church.
edify means: to build, especially to build spiritually, causing the other persons to be strengthened in faith in God.
I told pastor there was nothing at all spiritually edifying in the presentation of the film given by the young man from their retreat.
Pastor replied: "Well, I liked it!"
Then I spoke concerning the way pastor had left the end off of that scripture, Matthew 17, three times.
Pastor became very angry after I said that and pastor said: "I've been doing this 23 years and I know what I am doing."
I replied: "I think I've said all to you that I need to say."
And I left, never to return again to that church group.
***
* Clovis Assembly of God:
I attended this church group on a Wednesday night. There were about 200 people present.
The pastor was teaching and he began the service by saying, "We must all pray for brother Swaggart."
(The secular TV news had just reported that Jimmy Swaggart, TV preacher, had been caught with a prostitute and Swaggart had appeared on his church-type TV show with tears running down his face and saying, "I have sinned."
I was very shocked at pastor saying we should pray for Swaggart, for the apostle Paul told us in the Bible what we were to do when a brother is a fornicator.
Paul says:
I Corinthians 5:11, 13 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
13 Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
After pastor said we should pray for brother Swaggart, I was so shocked that out of my mouth came the following statement: "We should put him out of the church!"
I said this in a very low tone but the woman sitting in front of me heard what I said and she turned around and glared at me.
I fled that church group!
Concerning Swaggart:
The leaders of the Assemble of God, where Swaggart had been ordained, decided to forgive Swaggart and pray for him and counsel him
They totally ignored the instruction given by the apostle Paul in the Holy Bible in I Corinthians 5:11.
About 2 years later, Swaggart was caught with another prostitute.
This time the Assembly of God church leaders defrocked "brother" Swaggart.
Swaggart continued with his very big TV shows unaffected.
*****
* Texico Assembly of God:
The pastor of this church group came to my house to talk with me upon my request.
I'm sure I told him I was a called apostle and prophet of Jesus Christ.
He seemed amiable.
I visited his church service on the following Sunday morning. From the pulpit he saw me and nodded to me. He began the service. He started reading scripture. He said nothing at all during that service except for scripture. He read one scripture after another without any teaching or explanation and then ended the service after about 45 minutes. He seemed to be terrified of my being there. I felt he was trying to play it safe.
I noticed this: On the right side of the wall of the small building where the people met as the church, there was hanging a photo of the long haired man that the Catholics so often think of being "Jesus."
I contacted that pastor the following day and told him he should remove that picture immediately.
I presented several scriptures forbidding the use of images such as this in the gathering of the church, and this one at his church was false, with there being no photos of Jesus, and also such things cause a form of fleshly idolatry among the church.
And Jesus told us the following:
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2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (of the Lord) shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
In 1982, I was reading this scripture and God explained this to me: "The falling away are not the people leaving the churches ... The falling away are the churches leaving the scripture."
That is exactly what I saw when I visited churches between the time I was born again in 1975 and 2017 when God went into more detail with me concerning the apostasy of the end time churches and antichrist in the churches.
Church groups everywhere I tried to attend had cast away scriptures and had added many doctrines to the Bible which were not in the Bible.
I was seeing the apostasy and antichrist at the churches I visited as I hunted for a church to attend.
But I didn't understand this at that time and it wasn't until 2017 that God explained this to me and after that I didn't try any more to find a church to attend.
(Explained in chapter 17)
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