Trying to Find Church to Attend
In looking for a church group to gather with, I have encountered many problem church groups where the word of God fails to be honored.
Poison Gas Dream:
In 1979, 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 to see what was happening, 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.
What God was showing me were the churches today.
Speakers are set up, by God, to warn the people, but the warnings which should come to the church through the speakers has turned into a type of poison which causes people to relax and think they are okay since they attend church and tithe.
And those who continue to sit among them will die, falling asleep.
Here is an example of problem with doctrine in a great many churches today.
Jesus presented the following doctrine for the church.
Mt. 5:32 ... 32But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
Many churches twist this scripture to say if the husband is committing adultery, the wife is free to divorce and remarry. This is not correct.
Jesus is telling men in the group that if a man divorces a “faithful” wife, that man will cause that faithful wife to commit adultery.
The wife will commit adultery if she remarries.
The man who marries this divorced woman will also commit adultery.
Paul, speaking to the NT church in I Cor. 7, makes it very clear about the “commandment of the Lord” for the New Testament church on the subject of divorce and remarriage.
I Cor. 7 … 10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: 11 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.
A woman could leave her husband but if she did such she must remain unmarried or return to her husband. I Cor. 7
If a man has an unfaithful wife, that man is free to divorce and remarry.
The woman who is divorced will commit adultery if she remarries after a divorce. (even if her husband has been unfaithful / In Bible there are different rules for men and women)
I Cor. 7 ... 39The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord. 40But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God.
Some churches twist this by saying we, in NT Church, are not bound by the law, therefore the woman can remarry after divorce... But Paul was writing I Cor. 7 to the NT church and nothing has changed since Paul wrote this.
Romans 7 ... 1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
I have never heard this taught in any church that I have attended. Either this scripture is completely omitted or it is explained away. Mostly it is just omitted by the church speakers.
It is so tragic for the speaker should be warning the congregation. Instead the speakers have turned into pacifiers (in so many churches today), approving many acts which are sin in the sight of God and opposite from the instruction in the Bible.
II Tim. 3 ... the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
This falling away of the church groups from scripture is the falling away Paul speaks of in I Thess. 2 which was to occur before “the day of the Lord.”
This is antichrist in the church.
Antichrist is not one man … antichrist is a spirit in man that sits in church (in the temple of God) and goes in a way opposite to scripture, opposing God and setting himself up as god.
II Thess. 2 … 1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means:for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,
(The falling away were church groups falling away from scripture and setting up another doctrine, opposing the Word of God given in the Holy Scriptures)
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
(Antichrist is not one man … antichrist is a spirit in men, opposing the scriptures … This is in the church itself, “in the temple of 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.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 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.
There are many forms of poison gas coming from speakers in churches today.
One of the greatest blasphemies has to do with the doctrine saying that crackers and grape juice are the Lord's supper.
The Lord's supper is the Word of God ... As we eat and drink the Word of God correctly we commune with Jesus Christ, eating HIS body and drinking HIS blood, partaking of JESUS who is the Word of God and judging ourselves and correcting ourselves by the Word.
A very harmful doctrine is the doctrine of the 100-fold return where some preachers guarantee you a 100-fold return on the amount of money you give at church. This is example of misusing scripture to extort money from body of Christ.
There is a time when 100-fold return is valid. But it is when you leave your lands and such to do what God tells you to do. It does not have to do with giving offerings at church.
Mt. 19 ... 27Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? 28And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
We, as members of the body of Christ, should not sit in church groups where scriptures are explained away, twisted, or omitted completely. To stay there is to approve false teaching. To stay there is to partake in their evil when you recognize it is wrong.
God gave me the following dream which explains this:
In this dream, there was a room filled with a row of bassinets. I was walking down the row, looking at the babies in the bassinets. The babies were horribly deformed. (These babies are people who attended church but never matured in things of God and became twisted through taking in false doctrines at church and were thus "deformed".) When I got to the end of the row of babies, standing there was my favorite aunt. She was fully grown, mature. But her face was covered with horrible spots and blemishes.
My favorite aunt was a Church of Christ member. Before she died she told me she knew things were wrong at their church. But she stayed there in spite of the wrong teaching.
If you do this, you will be a part of their evil doing at church.
II Jn. ... 8Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. 9Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
10If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: 11For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
I have left many church groups when I have seen them teaching things contrary to the Bible. I have often gone to pastors and shown them scripture. No pastor I've gone to has ever repented. No false doctrine has ever been corrected. I just left that church group.
You can't stay there without bringing penalty upon yourself.
I Cor. 15 ... Paul says ... 33Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. 34Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
If any of the pastors I went to would have repented in shame and sorrow over their misuse of scripture, I could have continued with them in their church groups.
I would deeply grieve if I had misquoted a scripture.
That is what should happen.
Instead what I have seen many times is that pastor becomes angry and strikes out at the one who brings the correct scripture to his attention.
This is antichrist in church group … spirit of antichrist inside the church in the hearts of pastors and people in the congregation.
In the 1990's, I was looking for a church to attend. I visited a small non-denominational church on a Wednesday night service. The pastor was teaching. He began speaking of Jn. 8, where the woman taken in adultery was brought to Jesus. The pastor said, "And when she was brought to Jesus, she was naked from the waist up."
I was very shocked.
Immediately I took my Bible and turned to John 8, though I have read this many times. I re-read John 8 concerning this passage.
Jn. 8 ... 1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. 2And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. 3And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, 4They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5Now 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. 7So 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. 8And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9And 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. 10When 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.
There were about 200 people in the congregation that night. I looked around the room and I didn’t see anyone in the room pick up a Bible to see if what pastor spoke was truth. The people in the church group who heard this from pastor just sat there with big smiles on their faces “loving” the man who spoke these things. These are the corpses in the church in the poison gas dream.
The next day, I called this pastor. I told him I visited his service. I asked him where it is in Bible saying the woman was naked from waist up. I couldn't find this, I told him.
First he said he couldn't recall where it was in Bible.
Then I told him it was very important to me and I asked him to please find that scripture and have his secretary call me with that reference.
With this, pastor became very angry and said: "All right ... it's not in the Bible ... Where do you go to church?" (Trying to accuse me.)
Where is that in Bible?
In trying to find church group to attend, one Sunday morning I visited a non-denominational group.
Pastor was teaching from Genesis. As he taught, pastor said, "Sarah and Hagar were 1/2 sisters."
I was very shocked.
Never before had I read that in Bible. I checked Bible and couldn't find that in Bible. But thinking maybe it was there and I somehow missed it, I called and spoke with that pastor. I asked him where that is in Bible.
Pastor became very angry when I asked this. He finally admitted it is not in the Bible. But he showed no shame in teaching this.
Another thing that happened that morning at that church ... It was the Sunday school period and everyone gathered in the main auditorium before going to their Sunday school classes.
Pastor said: "A terrible thing has happened ... the train that was bringing the Sunday school teachings was delayed and the teaching booklets did not arrive. Therefore you teachers are just going to just have to teach today from the Bible."
Recently I received a letter from a young man in another country. He said he is born again. He asked me to send him books to learn by.
What I would say to him is: Use the Bible and depend on God to teach you from the Bible.
That is what God showed me to do when I was born again in 1975. I just read the Bible from Genesis through Revelation and then I started over with Genesis. I've been doing this for almost 40 years now.
If you are born again and have the Spirit of God in you, the Bible never gets old. (the living word of God) No matter how many times I have read a verse, sometimes God will show me something I hadn't see from that verse. I just let God teach me.
I Jn. 2 ... 27But the anointing which ye have received of HIM abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in HIM.
Each of us who are born again in the NT church today are given the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.
Here is what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do for us.
Jn. 14:26 ... 26But 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.
Jn. 16:13 ... 13Howbeit 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, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Pastor asking me not to attend his church
I was looking for a church group to attend. I called and spoke with pastor at a non-denominational church called "Potter's House." (Clovis, NM, USA) I told the pastor I was considering coming to visit at his church and I was looking for a church to attend. Pastor said he would come to my house and talk with me about his church.
I can't recall what pastor said when he came to see me. I just spoke freely by the Holy Spirit.
I was planning to visit his church the next Sunday. I bought an appropriate dress to wear. And I was very excited over getting to go to a church group.
On Friday of that week, I received a phone call from the pastor. He said: "You know that thing about your coming to our church. I've decided that I don't want you to come to our church."
I was shocked!
(There was no plan to speak at his church. I was just going to listen as other people in congregation listen.)
A few days after this, my doorbell rang. It was a group of people from "Potter's House". They had literature and had obviously been touring my neighborhood inviting people to come to their church.
They handed me their literature and invited me to come to their church.
I told them their pastor asked me not to come to their church.
They were bewildered. Without another word, they left my house.
When I was on radio, I received a strange letter from a pastor in Colorado. (One of my radio stations at that time was in Denver.)
In his letter, pastor said: "Don't ever try to come to our church."
I'd never even heard of him or his church ...
Another pastor told me he was not going to stand in the church door and keep me out but he didn't want me to come to his church.
Certainly I didn't try to force my way in. I've never done such a thing.
I was on radio warning the church in the area where he was located.
Trying to attend Baptist church
In trying to find a church I could attend, I visited a Baptist church on a Sunday morning and again that night.
That morning some things happened which I knew were wrong. Again that evening things were wrong. I began feeling worse and worse as I visited that church.
After the Sunday night service, I told pastor I felt I needed to speak with him and asked if I could make appointment.
He said he had time to speak to me that night if I wanted to do so. I did want to. So we went into his office.
I told him I had been in the morning service, and of course I was there in the evening service.
In the morning service, they turned the service over to the youth group who had just returned from a Baptist retreat.
A young man (high school age) spoke to the congregation. He said he had a film to show us of their retreat. He began the film.
In the film, girls were running about with hair curlers in hair. Boys were slapping each other and the various girls on rear end with towels. Boys were doing boy things. No scripture was ever quoted. Nothing of Bible was mentioned. Nothing of God was mentioned. The film was just teenagers acting like teenagers.
My dad's 1/2 brother's wife was a member of that church group and was at those services and sat by me. She said to me as they played that film, "I could do without this."
I told the pastor that when we gather as the church Paul said everything should be done to edification. (I Cor. 14)
Pastor said: "Well ... I liked seeing it."
Also at that service pastor quoted the following scripture:
Mt. 17 ... this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
But the way pastor presented this scripture was by saying,"This kind goest not out but by prayer."
As I sat there and heard him say this, I quietly said, "and fasting." (nobody could hear me say this except for Aline who sat next to me.)
The pastor kept speaking ... and amazingly again he quoted this same scripture but he said again, "This kind goest not out but by prayer." (as I quietly added "and fasting" Aline joined me in quietly saying, "and fasting.")
Pastor kept speaking and once again he quoted this scripture as follows: "This kind goest not out but by prayer." (Aline and I both together quietly said: "and fasting".)
I pointed this out to that pastor. He became very angry and replied: "I've been doing this 23 years and I know exactly what I am doing." (What he was doing was taking away from the word of God.)
I said: "I think I've said all to you that I need to say." I got up and left, never to return again to that group.
Had this pastor responded in shame over omitting scripture it would have made a very big difference.
When things are wrong in the church service, we cannot stay there. If we try to stay in such a place, we will fall asleep.
If it is not truth, we must leave that group. It is like sitting in a room with poison gas coming toward us. Eventually it will kill us and we will be as spiritually dead as the other people in the group who have already been killed spiritually by the wrong teaching coming from the pastor.
It is like leaven working its way through the whole lump.
Trying to attend Church of Christ group
One Sunday morning, I decided to visit a Church of Christ group. I was looking for a church to attend.
It was Sunday school class of about 8 or 9 adults and pastor was teaching.
He was in Heb. 11 and quoted the following scripture:
7By 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, pastor asked: "Did Noah really condemn the world?"
I replied, "Yes ... because Noah obeyed God and because of this obedience the world was condemned because they did not believe God and they did not obey God.
There was dead silence from pastor and the 8 or 9 people in the room.
No one wanted to speak to me after that.
I didn't return to that group.
Trying to attend an Assembly of God group
At one point in hunting a church group to attend I decided to go to a small Assembly of God group. But before going I called the pastor and met with him. I can't recall anything either of us said.
On that Sunday morning after meeting with the pastor, I did attend his group.
Pastor was so terrified of me that I could tell he was afraid to speak. He just read from a prepared sheet of paper and quoted scripture. I felt pastor was trying to play it safe. But in doing such, you leave faith in God and quench the Spirit of God.
On the wall of the assembly room, there was hanging a picture of a long haired man. It is that picture that many use and call "Jesus". It is not a picture of Jesus. There are no photos of Jesus. There were no cameras at that time. It is just a human pretending to be Jesus.
I did call this pastor and told him it would be good to take down this photo for it is a form of "graven image" and it is also false since there were no cameras in Jesus' day. I don't recall pastor responding.
Deut. 7 ... 5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. 6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
Deut. 7 ... 25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God. 26 Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.
Deut. 12 ... 3And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. 4Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.
II Kings 17 ... 38And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods. 39 But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. 40 Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner. 41 So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
II Chron. 34 ... 7 And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
Psa. 78 ... 58 For they provoked Him (God) to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
Psa. 97 ... 7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship HIM, all ye gods.
Isa. 30 ... 22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.
Isa. 42 ... 8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Jere. 8 ... Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?
Jere. 50 ... 38 A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.
Jere. 51 ... 52 Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
Hosea 11 ... 2 As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.
Micah 1 ... 7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.
Micah 5 ... 13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. 14 And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities. 15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.
It is not a good idea to hang graven images on your wall or keep graven images statues on your porch. (or in your heart)
Jesus said ... Jn. 4 ... 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
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