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THE REFLECTIONS OF A PASTOR / MINISTER...

Being as how I have been a preacher for nigh on to 40 years, perhaps it won't make others too mad if I talk a little about preachers in general, and about myself in particular. 

Since we have put "doweknow.com" up on the web, we have received many E-mails from pastors / ministers, most of them wanting to set me and the world straight as to what and how to believe.  This would be good if they all had the same criticisms and advice and they all agreed on what you and I should believe.  However, of all of the critical experts who have sent us WRAPs, no two seem to agree on anything.  If I were a novice in the faith, this would greatly confuse me as I'm satisfied it does those ouside the Church who would like to see some reason to believe in Jesus — or the babes-in-Christ in the Church who would like to grow in the faith. 

Now I can say all this because I have been wrestling with a "critical spirit" ever since I was called to preach — and I know that I was called to preach, by the way.  

My first church was in Wausau, Florida; and no one could ask for a better congregation to love or to practice on, bless their hearts.  (I would be content if we were still there today.)  During the first three or four months of our charge, I would spend 6 days of every week struggling with my sermons — doting every "i" and crossing every "t" until they were "perfect."  Of course, such greatness needed to be preserved for posterity, so I carefully wrote out each sermon and put them away for safe keeping.  Besides, if we were to go to another church, I reasoned, I would have my sermons already prepared in advance.  In addition, if there ever came a week that I couldn't think of a good sermon, I would be covered. After three or four months, this became quite tedious. So one day as I was talking to an older minister in the community, I told him what I was doing and expressed my concern about always having a first-rate sermon.  The brother shared his experience with me; and in the doing, taught me one of my first good lessons as a pastor.   "The Lord never runs out of sermons," he said, "In my some forty years, He has always given me a word to preach: and rarely have I ever repeated the same message."  

My first hard-learned lesson came from Aunt Edna (She was Aunt Edna to everyone in the community.); and I learned it right in the middle of my Sunday Morning sermon.  The particular day was Easter Sunday, and as was my custom, I had spend the whole week in preparation.  Not only did I study the Bible, but someone had given me some literature that was critical of the whole idea of Easter Sunday, giving several verses to support his argument.  The article had me so convinced that it was evil to observe Easter Sunday the way the church was doing that I even boldly made the statement that it was ungodly and not even in the Bible.  Well, Aunt Edna couldn't sit still for that, so she raised her voice for all to hear and said:  "Yes it is, Mr. Love," and she proceed to give me chapter and verse.  (Then, as now, I also had another critic who would not hold my person in awe — my loving wife B'Ann, who wanted to know why I wasted precious pulpit time on an argument that would not change anyone's mind instead of telling others about Jesus and what they are and can be in Him.)

Well, this was an occasion for some soul searching.  After all, I trusted that every word I had been speaking was of the Lord.  How could I make such a horrendous mistake — in front of God and everybody?  I was so down that I even thought of giving up the church.  However, the Lord would not release me, but with the help of Aunt Edna, He did teach me many lessons.  I was given to understand that no "word" is perfect except the "Word of God."  I also learned that the "sheep" that I had been called to serve taught me much more than I taught them.  I also learned that God truly never runs out of sermons and that He has a unique one for every sevice or occasion. 

I would like to say that this one hard-learned lesson sufficed and I never again functioned from a critical spirit — but then preachers aren't supposed to lie.   Nonetheless, I do thank God that He finally has my ear tuned so that I, for the most part, can recognize when I am going into a critical, condemning spirit. 

I do know that there were times when God / Christ were critical of men, however, not His sheep nor the lost, but the self-righteous religious who were themselves always critical of others.  Of the lost, Jesus said,

John 3:17
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

As to the born-again believer, when God does have to deal with us, it is not from a "critical spirit," but as a Father with His son. 

Hebrews 12:
6   For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7   If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8   But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Also, as to our relation with God, Paul wrote:

Romans 8:31
What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us?

As to us being critical of one another, Jesus summed up thusly:

Matthew 7:4-5
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam [is] in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Having said all this, may the Lord help me not to be critical of my critics in the WRAPs ahead.

Don

 

This is the first of two WRAPs that Bradley has sent us.

Bradley Wrote:

Easter vs Christianity? The Truth.
(AV 1611 KJV)

Many Christians are unaware of the Foundational roots of (Easter)ly, what is it that brings the church and world together on this spring time Sunday? How is this day chosen, it’s not found in the Holy Bible? On Mar the 20th the sun falls into the constellation Aries or the first point of Aries this event is called the vernal equinox, the “full moon” that follows this event sets the timing, the Sunday that follows the “full moon” after this event is Easter, if the “full moon” falls on Sunday it will be observed the following Sunday. This is why Easter Sunday is seen moving from the last part of March to the first part of April from year to year. Herod observed this non-Christian event and held the Apostle Peter in prison during it, seen in ACTS 12:4. This practice predates the birth of Jesus Christ and is found rooted in heathenism or paganism, sun worship because it follows the phases of the sun, “the vernal equinox”, also following the “full moon” this being a practice in “many” heathen or pagan rites and rituals, the bunnies and eggs on this day representing their symbols of fertility, worshipping the reproductive act, again no place to be found in Scripture. No place in the Holy Bible is the Christian instructed to “remember the Lords resurrection”. However the Christian is instructed to “remember the Lord’s death” by the partaking of his body the bread, and his blood the cup, seen in 1 Corinthians 11:24-26 this can be done at anytime or place in “remembrance” of this glorious event!

“Easter sunrise Sunday” Nothing new under the sun!

Sunrise Sunday is also rooted in heathenism or pagan sun worship and is seen in Ezekiel 8:16 as 25 men had their backs to the Temple of the Lord and they worshipped the sun towards the east. Many will say I don’t worship the sun I love Jesus Christ. I personally love Jesus Christ, but this clearly shows the “false foundation for this non Scriptural practice”. Many would teach that following these events, and trying to establish them as Christian practices in worship, is harmless before the Lord Jesus, but scripture tells us otherwise. 

JEREMIAH 10:2 Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

JOHN 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Jesus Christ Is Lord.

Don Wrote:

I guess that for the most part, I've already responded to this WRAP in my introduction. 

Let me add, however, another experience.  Sadly, it appears that I'm one of those people that takes forever to learn.  Sometime after the Easter incident, I got it in my craw to staighten out the "Santa Claus" myth.  I spent a whole week shaping and reshaping my sermon to properly show my indignation that Santa Claus was trying to steal our Lord's thunder.  Well, as with all of my sermons, before I preached it, I sounded it off of my sounding board: i.e., B'Ann.  (On looking back, I'm satisfied she was probably the only reason the Lord left me in the pulpit.)   Well, she wanted to know if I wanted to win a battle, but lose the war. She reminded me that I was not in the pulpit to argue old adages or customs, but to preach the Good News about Jesus.  And she added, the preaching of the cross and what Christ did would be the only thing that could change hearts and minds. I could never rant, rave, and badger people into a change.  It would have to be done in gentleness and love coupled with Bible verses.   I hated to give that sermon up, it had to have been a masterpiece.  Nevertheless, I knew that my sweet wife was right, as usual.  When I went back to my prayer closet for a sermon for the week, the Lord reminded me of a word that I had heard somewhere, sometime earlier.  This preacher had shared how the Lord had impressed upon him that the Treasury Department did not waste time training their workers to recognize all of the different counterfeit bills that were in circulation, but how to recognize the real article so that any and all counterfeits would stand out.  Likewise, he said, the Lord does not want us wasting the pulpit time (the precious time of His saints) expounding on the devil's tricks and lies.  But instead, we should be steadfast and faithful in expounding the Word so that those who hear will be fully capable of recognizing any and all errors simply because they know the truth.

This still makes sense to me although I admit that there is always the temptation to fall back on my "expertise."  (May the Lord deliver me from my biggest enemy: SELF!)
This is Bradleys second WRAP.

Bradley Wrote:

THE DECEPTION FALSE (bibles)!

 

(Psalms 138:2) (Psalms 12:6-7)

Today many people aren’t aware that the new bible versions are missing "thousands" of words and verses the niv, nasb, nlt, rsv, nrsv, ncv, the American catholic bible, Yes! the Jehovahs witnesses new world translation removes the same, and "more"! These corrupt versions are backed by corrupt Greek texts from Egypt, two men Westcott and Hort in 1881 delivered this corrupt Greek text to the world. The true text is the "Greek received text" it was used by the true Christians Wycliffe, Tyndale, Knox, Calvin, Wesley, and the Av 1611 King James translators. The true Christian heritage has never used this corrupt text from Egypt, or translations from it. I will give you a sample of what is missing.

Matthew 17:21; 18:11; Acts 8:37 and more, these verses are gone or in brackets.

In John 5:7 they remove the "Godhead" The jw’s love this they don’t believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as one. Ephesians 3:9 "by Jesus Christ" is out, being creator. Luke 4:4 "but by every word of God" taken out. Luke 4:8 "get thee behind me satan" removed. Colossians 1:14 "through his blood" gone. Matthew 9:13 "to repentance" is out, calling sinners. Mark 1:31 "immediately" gone, removed the miracle. Revelation 21:24 removes "of them which are saved" everyone gets to go to the kingdom here, Lie!

Ephesians 3:14 "of our Lord Jesus Christ" is out, who do you bow to. I Corinthians 10:28 "The earth is the Lord’s" is out, who does your earth belong to? (Ask for a free list to show more.) 

The new king james and its additions and deletions are the corruptions of the textus receptus at the hands of Robert Stephanus 1550 the new king james has changed over 1200 places as compared to the textus receptus, we will look at a few. It removes "Lord" 66 times. "God" is removed 51 times. "Heaven"is removed 50 times. "Repent" is removed 44 times. "Blood" is removed 23 times. "Hell" is removed 22 times. "JEHOVAH" is removed entirely. "New testament" is removed entirely. "Damnation" is removed entirely. "Devils" is removed entirely. The new king james replaces the true Hebrew text "Ben Chayyim" with the corrupt Stuttgart edition "Ben Asher" Hebrew text.

Acts 17:29 KJV "Godhead" or nkjv "Divine Nature" the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit gone. I Corinthians 1:18 and 2 Corinthians 2:15 KJV "are saved" or nkjv "are being saved" progressive salvation is a false doctrine! Revelation 10:6 KJV "time no longer" or nkjv "no longer delay", no end of the world changing prophetic time lines. Matthew 13:39 KJV "end of the world" or nkjv "end of the age", here they remove Biblical time lines the world never ends just goes from age to age. LIE!

Revelation 13:16 KJV a mark "in" their hand or nkjv "on" their hand, mark of the beast DANGEROUS!.

Revelation 7:14 they change "came" to "come" and add "the" before great tribulation misleading one to think this pertains to the future tribulation, LIE!

There are three great books on the subject

(1)Defending the King James Bible by Dr. DA Waite ISBN# 1-56848-0008
(2) Which Bible by Dr. David Otis Fuller ISBN# 0-944355-24-2
(3) New age Bible versions by G.A Riplinger ISBN# 0-9635845-0-2 (for information call 1-800-435-4535. Pastor Chuck Smith at Calvary chapel Costamesa Ca).

USA leader of the Calvary chapels world wide exposed this over 20 years ago before the (nkjv) was printed Chuck Smith, on foundations of the word, tapes 575/576 info call The Word for today (800) 272-9673. Many Calvary’s have left this truth. All you need to study the subject can be found at Eye Opener Publications, P.O. box 7944, Eugene Oregon. 97401 USA. For a free list showing hundreds of verses send request and postal address.

Read The True Holy Bible In The English Language, The 1611 Authorized King James.   In The Love of Jesus Christ.

bradley nutt

__________________________________________________

Don Wrote:

Thanks for the information.  We're putting it up for the benefit of our visitors.  If you have read much of what is on our site, you know that we stress the importance of using only the King James Version, especially when studying prophecy; for important keys words and passages have been left out of the later versions, probably because their interpreters had no clue of the significance of what they were leaving out.

We are taught to "test the spirits," so any of our visitors that would like to "test" the authenticity of Bradley's WRAP can do so by going to the Blue Letter Bible (We have a link on our site.) and type in the references he listed.  For example, type in I John 5, and when the Scriptures come up, click on the "V" to the left of I Jo 5:7. This will bring up the verse in several different versions. 

 
 

Mark Wrote:

THE 70 WEEKS, NOT YEARS, OF DANIEL

The following pages will dispel the false teaching that Daniel’s vision in chapter nine speaks of a 490 "year" time span and prove that the vision is a literal end time 490 "day" period. We will examine and breakdown Daniel chapter nine verses 23 through 27 starting with verses 26, 27 and work our way back. Dan 9:26,27 "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate".

Messiah shall be "cut off"

Messiah "unattainable" not killed

The traditional teaching is that this phrase "cut off" is speaking of Jesus' death upon the cross however is this correct? After studying scripture we will see that the term "cut off" above means to be "separated from", "unreachable, unattainable". First, let’s study the word "cut off" and how it is used and referred to

in scripture;

Gen 9:11 - speaks of "flesh", individuals cut off, killed at the time of the flood.

Gen 17:14 - speaks of ones "soul" being cut off from his, the Lord’s people, Israel.

Lev 22:3 - speaks of one being cut off from the presence of the Lord.

Joshua 3:16 - the sea is cut off.

Job 8:14 - speaks of ones "hope" being cut off.

Psalm 31:22 - speaks of David being cut off from the eyes of the Lord for his sin.

Psalm 88:16 - speaks the same as above.

Jer 7:28 - speaks of "truth" being cut off from thy mouths.

Jer 49:26 - the men of war are cut off , killed, at the Lord’s return.

Even though there are many references to "cut off" relating to physical death, this is not always the case. Scholars have been quick to assume that "cut off" means death to fit into their thinking that this 70 week period cannot mean what it states and has to revolve around the crucifixion of Christ...

 Don Wrote:

I've cut your WRAP short; because from this point on, I can't understand what you are trying to say.

I will address two points that you've made here in the beginning of your lengthy comments. 

As to Daniel's 70 Weeks not being years, since its inception, the undisputed authority as to the use of the words in the Bible has been the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance.  Here is what it has to say about Daniel's seventy "weeks."

Strong's Hebrew Definition for weeks as used in Daniel 9:24
ewbv // shabuwa` // shaw-boo'-ah // or
// ebv // shabua` // shaw-boo'-ah // also (fem.)
// habv // sh@bu`ah // sheb-oo-aw' //

properly, pass part of shaba as a denom. of shibah; lit. sevened, i.e., a week (spec. of years)

Also, as to your criticism concerning the Messiah being "cut off," it has always been my understanding that on the cross when Jesus asked "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?", He was saying this because He had been separated or "cut off" from God because God cannot look upon sin; and for Christ to be able to pay the debt for our sins, he had to first take the sin of the world upon himself.  I don't know how "traditional" this understanding may be, but I'm at peace it.

Might I suggest that if you really feel that there are serious errors with my understanding of Daniel's Seventy Weeks, that you refer to my teachings and then show me the Scriptures that won't support what I teach.

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