JOE wrote:

Hello Pastor John,

I and OFS had some bible study on Sunday the 21/10/01. OFS told me he had some questions that he would like to ask, so when we had time alone at home we studied. We looked over 1 John 4 regarding the issue of Christianity being the antichrist and in addition to what we have heard from the you on tape, it was such a blessing when we could read them out from the bible ourselves. One part that really touched me was the explanation of the words “every spirit that CONFESSETH that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh”. We had some problem with the word confesseth as we have known that word to mean by Christian standard to verbalize something without being moved by His Spirit. The confusion and burden was lifted when we look up the word (confess) in the concordance and it says that it means to Acknowledge. Also we looked up the reference in the verse where the above quote was taken (1 John 4:2b) which was in 1 Corinthians 12:3, it showed us that to confess Christ means to “speaking by the Holy Ghost”. Again I am left with wonder where these Christians get their meaning to words like confess Christ and accept Christ from.

We also read Romans 10:9 which is the most popular verse that the Christians quote to say that if one confess his sins and accept Christ, he shall be saved. The first word that we noted there is the word SHALL (future tense). Does it not mean that even if their definition of confess is correct, that one does not get saved as soon as he confess (but shall be saved). As we dwelt on that Romans 10:9-10 thinking if the Christians were correct after all, the Spirit made us to read further down some verses. It was when we read it to verse 17 that we discovered that there is more to it than the eyes of the Christians could see. Verses 9-17 is like a ladder. The word Confess is at the top of the ladder. The Christians do not see the other items from the bottom of the ladder which one must climb (pass through first before getting to the top. They did not see that 1) sent from God, 2) to preach the Word of God not bible 3) the Word will be heard by people in other to believe; 4) believing then will make the person to call on the Lord (pray); 5) sincere call from the heart of the sinner will be answered by God’s righteousness 6) God’s righteousness (His Spirit) will then confess (acknowledge) to such a one that truly that It (Holy Spirit) has arrived in the soul of that person.

Among other things, we saw the true meaning of “and how shall they preach, except they be sent?” in verse 15. Christian ministers use that verse to collect money from people to send out some people whom they call missionaries to preach their denominational gospel and not that of Jesus. Here we discovered that “except they be sent” means that except the Father anoints on to preach His word, such a one is not sent.

J O E

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Brother J. O. E.:

You are learning much, and well. Keep it up.

You will be interested to learn that the phrase “calling on the name of the Lord” is a Biblical phrase that refers to something that man cannot do without God’s help. According to Zephaniah 3:9, the holy Spirit must inspire even that.

Pastor John