John,

The edited article on “the Apostasy” is top-of-the-line in my opinion. It is very clear, and no reasonable person reading it could deny that what you are saying is true, when comparing it to the Scriptures.  A person would have to be holding onto “something”, to not agree with your points.

However, as with all other truths, it’s going to take Jesus.  When confronted with forsaking the religion of Christianity, that’s usually a horse of a different color, and I would imagine that the god of this world will blind the eyes of many of those who read it…. But I am so thrilled it is being said!!

I loved it, and thanks for sending it.

Gary

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John,

I know we have heard through the years how all forsook Paul, but when I read what you wrote, it became more real to me.  The way you have worded The Apostasy is so plainly written that the words came off of the page and seemed highlighted to my heart and mind. You have given us a glimpse of Paul’s and John’s hearts.  It left me feeling quiet and feeling very grateful that Jesus would let us see these things. 

I could feel Paul’s and John’s hurt, their aloneness, their feelings of a clear conscience in having done all Jesus gave them to do. I felt like they showed us the kinds of things we will suffer for Jesus’ sake, and they taught us how to be perfect when going through times of suffering and being alone. They counted it all joy all the way home to be with the Lord. I felt like I got to know them better after reading this.   I keep hearing Gary’s song, “All they in Asia have forsaken me”.

Thank you for sending this out for us to read. 

Bess

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Just like Gary and Bess have said, this is very clear and very plainly written. Though, without the Spirit’s help, and yours by laying it all out as you have done, we would never be able to understand it or take it in. I am very thankful that we can even see all that we have, and are being shown and I hope that the Lord continues to show us more. This book will be good for God’s people. Thank you for sending this.

Darren

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This is good John, and sad at the same time.  Just like we read this morning while translating, seeing the labor and work that Paul did just to keep God’s people on track.  Jesus did the same thing with the apostles, working to get them to hold on until Pentecost, which he was able to do – and that is a miracle!  Paul, in the end was forsaken. :/ It’s the same now, for you it seems, the work and labor to keep God’s people on track, and in the end, many may still forsake the truth, BUT, the work is not in vain! and all those who have been faithful will be rewarded in the end and rejoice with Paul and Jesus and you and everyone else who has labored in the truth and who has remained true and believed the Gospel!  What a glorious day!

I love this “The Apostasy” that you have written.  I love the apostle Paul! 🙂

Amy B.

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Hello Bro John,

I’ve enjoyed reading all the emails you have sent out while you’ve been at the beach. I can’t even comprehend how you’ve done all this but I’m sure God has been right there with you hearing your prayers for help and understanding. I have thought about you many times, in your office there, working away to give us good, healthy food. 

As I read your writings, I thought about hungry people, no doubt many of them Christians too, out there longing for something other than what they have been taught. Probably having feelings and thoughts like, wow this makes sense, this feels right, it makes more sense than anything I’ve ever heard. Bro John, I just know there are people out there that will find relief in what you’ve written. Many times I think, I would like to be a fly on their walls to see those joyful facial expressions when that light bulb comes on and their searching and seeking pays off. Of course, we know others will hate it and you for those words they read.

I did have to look up quite a few words because I didn’t know the meanings and I wrote the definitions in the margins. That was good for me to do because I wanted to really try to get the meaning of what you were saying. Then I passed them along to Sammy so he could take each one to work. 

A few times, I felt kinda lost but I loved what you said recently, that you would get us there and I know you will. Can’t wait til my light bulb kicks in too when you explain it more in person.  

Thank you so much for wanting to get this work done. Look forward to seeing you very soon.

Sheila

 

 

Love this, from your writings on the Iron Kingdom!:

“The Gospel cannot be dressed up; it is naked truth, and whenever it is adorned with worldly clothing to make it acceptable to the world, it is changed into something else, something foreign to the righteousness of God.  The beauty of the Gospel is that the Gospel needs no clothes; it has no “uncomely parts” which virtue demands to be covered.”

Amy Boveia

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Truth is not in a “fallen state” as man is.

 Billy M.

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Amen, Billy!  So true!  I love that.

Pastor John

Oh this is good!  I just finished reading this with my parents.  I noticed you had a note at the end after the Tables comparing Daniel and John’s visions that asked if we thought you should use that last paragraph.  Yes!  It is so good how you explained that the Beast had seven heads and carried the “great whore” on its back.  Such a good explanation of the section following those Tables.  What a wealth of information, and putting it together like this makes it so clear!  You are really working, John.  I’m so glad you have been able to get this started.  Just the little we’ve read so far is so big.  Hope you are able to rest in between.  See you soon.

Amy B.

Wow John, 

I can only imagine what an undertaking this “Iron Kingdom” book is.  There is no way anyone can figure out thousands and thousands of years of layers of spiritual darkness that has been placed on peoples eyes because of the lack of trusting and obeying the Spirit that the Son made available for his people. I am like Kathy and Vince, in that I love what I feel in his Spirit about what you are doing, and I know God is with you in all these things and it will be for good for God’s people. Without his help there is nothing but confusion for the scholars and us.  It is really something to see how God gave bits and pieces of his truth through some of the scholars about Christianity and yet the darkness of it keeps them in the dark by the fear of man, and maybe God hid it that way for a reason. I am just thankful he lets us know what we know everyday.  That is a powerful thing in our lives, to believe what we do know about him everyday and live that way. I just pray that we can take in everything he wants to open up to us, and believe it, and put it into action in our lives and let it be us!! Thank you, John, for the love you have for his truth.  Oh how much that has touched our lives from day to day!

Thank you

Stuart

Pastor John,

We are blessed to have a place (that “place” is us!) to take our testimonies and our experiences with Jesus to.

While preparing for work this morning, the Spirit let me know that having a place to tell your testimony and having a place to tell what you have heard or experienced from God is a wonderful blessing!  I don’t think there are many people or groups out there, who would embrace the experiences that Jesus continues to give us….pure doctrine, wisdom, truth and judgment, music, hearing from God, being led by the Spirit, correction, and on and on.

It made me consider, what if we had no one to tell our testimony to, no one who loved it with us, no one to tell, “what Jesus said this morning”, and no one to encourage us in our right thoughts from God?

We are washed by passing out those experiences that Jesus gives to us.  And we are blessed to be allowed to do it.  It cleanses us and gives us strength.   We need to pass those experiences on as much as we need the experience itself.  What a privilege it is to be a part of the body of Christ that wants to hear, and that understands what God is saying and doing in each of our lives, everyday.

That was a good reminder for me this morning. 

We are a valuable group of people, to God and to one another.

Jerry

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Hi Jerry.

Thanks for this.  I especially was touched by this thought: “We need to pass those experiences on as much as we need the experience itself.”  That is so very true!

Any group of saints that God puts together is a holy blessing for the individual members of that body, and for the body of Christ world-wide.  I am so thankful for the body of saints that God has created here, for you and me, and for all of us!

Pastor John

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I love this (Jerry’s email). I’m so thankful for us, too.

There were times when I would listen to people testify and I would think, “I want to speak up. I want something to say.” As I’ve gone through these past two years, Jesus has given me testimonies! Ones to tell to the body and other ones to tuck away in my heart. How valuable are those experiences! It really does make you thankful for the harder times when you draw closer to Jesus.

I love having that place (us – a “who” not a “what”) like Jerry said, where people understand you. As this world becomes crazier, we have such an oasis. It is not something to be taken for granted.

Carrie

 

Hi Pastor John,

I have been listening to the tracts that we have recorded for the Going To Jesus website.  Listening to Vince’s recording of “Politics and Believers” has the same ring to it as coming out of Christianity.  The Israelites were no more entangled in the affairs of Egypt, or its government; no more task masters, no more labor of burdens for Pharaoh’s desires; no more citizens or even a country to belong to.  They were God’s sole responsibility to lead then to Canaan’s land, govern them, feed them, and be their buckler and shield. But mainly He was a God of rest.  The Government that Israel was governed with was easy and restful (as long as Israel obeyed God).

For us, or anyone, to fully come out of Christianity is to put your whole trust in God to lead, clothe, govern you (with God’s man), and to have rest in your soul from the entanglements of earthly governments and their desires, and to worship the true God in spirit and truth, not looking back to your previous residence. God knew what was going to make the Israelites happy and free, and it is no different today.  God knows what will make us happy and free, and give us rest.

I feel so very thankful this morning.

Billy

Hi Pastor John,

I was thinking about a man I know, he is serving Jesus under many burdens, such as not being free to acknowledge his own birthday, or the birthday wishes of others. He cannot accept a card at any time, wishing him well during a holiday, or enjoy a pumpkin in the fall or a sparkling decorated tree in December. While I was considering this, and the contrasting liberty that the saints of God that I know have, Jesus interrupted my thoughts, with something different. Here it is:

There is a reaction, generally, when we as individuals tell people that we are not a part of the religion of Christianity.    Folk immediately seem to put their guard up.  Their first apparent thought, based on accusations I have heard them make, is that WE (the individual) have “lifted ourselves” above the accepted standard of life in Christ….  There are many ways that those feelings are vocalized, such as: “You have exalted yourself” or “You think you are better…” or “You think you know better…”, and “You think you are the only one…”,  and so on. 

But the truth is just the opposite. 

None of us that are serving Jesus outside the walls of Christianity chose to do so.  We didn’t know how to make that choice.  We didn’t know there WAS a choice.  None of us lifted ourselves above religion as men know it – because WE didn’t know it!  Actually, we would have, and we once did, choose one of the many variations of Christian religion, just like just about every person does who gets hungry for God. There is no other choice in this world … as far as men know.

We can’t choose something that we cannot see, nor can we choose something that we did not know existed.

We are where we are because Jesus lifted us out of what is seen, and placed us into what is not seen…. out of the known and into the unknown.  All we did was not jump ship when the ship was lifted completely out of the water!  We had nothing to do with that miracle; that was the Lord’s work.  And we remain as ignorant of what lies ahead as we were when this journey of holiness began.  

What we do know is, when we obey Jesus, he moves us further away from where we started, and closer to where our hearts long to be.  We can feel it!  But only He knows the way there.

How do we make sincere people understand that, so they aren’t put off by the idea of rejecting the religious system of Christianity as a whole?  I don’t know.  A lot of love I guess.

Jerry