A Testimony

 Written October 31, 2022

A Testimony 

In 1996, while I was in college, I was given a evangelism tract by a friend. This small booklet explained to me (a humanist at the time) the full Gospel: man’s fallen state, through Adam; our separation from God, who is perfect and holy; and what He (God) did to take away this separation. I read the tract, was convicted of my sin, repented and acknowledged Jesus Christ as

1. The Son of God, who is God

2. The Lord and sovereign of my life

3. My Savior from death and Hell.

I did not realize then, that what happened at that moment, had not only saved my soul, but was going to keep me from falling…over and over again.

Doctrines of demons…in the House of God

“God’s Word is not scripture, God’s word is the message you are hearing from God, and then you speak forth and you attract the reality that you speak.” 

This above quote from Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now, is a New Age/New Thought teaching known as the Law of Attraction…and is a mainstream teaching in but not restricted to the charismatic parts of the Church. (Osteen is just one of many highly elevated preachers that have brought this and other false doctrines into the Church, deceiving people on mass.)

Essentially this teaches that we, by the power of our words can get whatever we desire (a total twisting of scripture). 

It is a predatory lie that is being used in God’s House, by wolves in sheep’s clothing, who are getting extremely rich at the expense of vulnerable and often desperate people.

For me personally, I all but lost every concept of who Jesus Christ was…which is not surprising, when you reduce the Son of God to a genie in a bottle, who at the magic rub of our words, will appear to grant us the “desires of our hearts” (another hideous twisting of scripture)

I was one of those… I knew I was being taken for a ride, so I walked away from the Church…and came close to walking away from the Lord.

What saved me? The tract that was placed in my hand, that had given me the true Gospel and introduced me to the true Jesus Christ. That is what kept me through this heresy - against all odds. I would argue that if a person is actually “saved” through the preaching of one of these churches, they have not received the true Gospel - nor do they know the true Son of God…when they walk away disillusioned (as so many have), it is twice as hard for them to come back. (Matthew 23:15)

Isaiah 42:8

I know I came back only because, through receiving the true Gospel, I came face to face with the true Lord Jesus Christ: I was truly convicted of sin, and truly and sincerely repented. At that moment I became a child of God…and regardless of what has happened since, He has not let me go.

To preach any other “gospel” than the true, undiluted Gospel of the Kingdom, is to endanger the souls of every single person within earshot. I know, because I have been there!

1Timothy 4:1-2

***As a side note, and before everyone jumps all over me: I am not judging anyone or anything - except doctrine which I consider extremely dangerous (and I am not the only one.) My concern is not only for those teaching this, but the people they are leading astray. This is why I don’t keep silent, but warn against them. Is there a biblical precedent for this? Absolutely. In every epistle except one, we are warned about false teachings, and Paul under certain circumstances even called people out by name, that he considered to be especially dangerous. The person named in what I have written, I also consider to be extremely dangerous, because of what he teaches and the subtle way in which he does it. Of course God will judge them. But as a teacher and minister of the Word of God, I cannot listen to false teachings and stay silent. Rather, as teachers, operating as part of the five ministries mentioned in Ephesians 4, we are called to edify and build up the flock. How can we do this while allowing false teaching to go unchallenged and unchecked? This is certainly NOT what they did in the early church, and it is not what the Apostles and writers of the New Testament have instructed us to do. Whatever I say or write or do, I try to do Biblically - and with as much of the Grace of God that I can contain. But we MUST call out and correct false teachings - especially when they are influencing such a mass of people. Would we rather send these masses of people straight to Hell, because of our desire to protect one false teacher…because he has a big name…a nice smile…because we like him?

The Word of God is the ONLY source of Truth we have, and consequently our ONLY defense against lies and deception of this wicked world. We, as teachers and students MUST stand up for what is written HERE…because we KNOW it is the Word of - not men - but GOD.