Pastor John

I had not ‘heard’ until last night (I’m sure you must of said it before), what you said about how Christianity not having a problem with “God” nor with even “Jesus”. But that religious system is very anti-“Christ”! Christianity would rather not have God’s Son, the Christ, in the picture. The son of Mary is ok with the spirit of antiChrist, and “God” is ok, but Christ, God’s Son who came down from heaven and entered the body of Jesus at the Jordan River …. well, that’s the One that the antiChrists can’t handle!

Thank you Jesus CHRIST, Son of The Father, the one and only door!

Thank you John.
Kay

ps. I think it interesting too, how the word ‘christ’, is often used as a cursing word.

Hey,
         Hope and I have a testimony from today. She was with me shopping today, and a little older lady was working in the fitting room. We had been in there a couple of times, and Hope said, “Mama, she’s still working. Can we give her something?” I am thankful that she senses who is kind and who might be in need of something. I said, “Well, we can give her a hug.” Her face lit up, but when we left the dressing room, the lady was gone. We continued shopping and Hope kept looking for the lady. She said, “Mama, can we go find her?” I said, “No, if we are suppose to give her a hug, we won’t have to look for her.”
       We finished up shopping and I was ready to check out. I had left some things with a young boy at a register near the fitting rooms, but I didn’t want to check out with him. So we got our things and went to another register. There was someone in front of us being waited on, and unexpectedly, from out of nowhere, that sweet little lady from the dressing room came up to us and said, “I’ll check you out over here.” 🙂
       Hope was so happy. She told the lady she had been wanting to give her a hug. They had a sweet little conversation and the lady talked about her great-nieces (made me wonder if she had not had any children of her own). When we finished paying, Hope went around and gave the lady a good hug. You could tell the lady really liked it, and Hope did too.
       I’m thankful Jesus did that for us today. That was a valuable lesson in waiting on Jesus that I think Hope will remember it 🙂
Cris

Hey John just wonted to take a minute to say how much I loved hereing you preach about Cornelius and Galatians it never gets old it was better this time than I’ve ever heard it such good sound things.I am thankful for the good feeling I have in my heart when I here these thing. Then when you followed up with Galatians breaking it up and explained the two diffent Gospels it just has a good righteous clean feeling it just never gets old. And then this week when you preached on the spirit of antichrist and began to bring those things out it feels so right and righteous. I love it and thanks.

Jimmy

Dear pastor John,

I received a phone call today from an apostolic minister in Mississippi. He called because he had read an old article on the Isaiah 58 website. It was in the “Questions of the Day” area, where I used to pose a question and then have it answered by one of your messages, or one of your father’s tracts. The Question of the Day he pulled up was, “Is Water Baptism Necessary?” The content of the article is your tract on “Baptism”. I believe that is Tract #66.

The man on the phone went on and on, and on and on, at least five minutes straight without interruption, trying to explain to me why his position on water baptism was correct. He was so long-winded that it made me wonder if God was trying to teach me through him NOT to treat people that way, but to make sure I always talk with them, not at them. I hope I do that already. I think I do, but this convresation was at least a good reminder.

After a while, when he stopped to take a breath, I jumped in to ask him a question. I told him that all I wanted was a Yes or No answer. The question I asked was this: “If a person comes to Jesus, repents of their sins, and is baptized by Jesus with the holy Ghost, with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues, are that person’s sins washed away?” He started to launch into another diatribe, but I stopped him and said, “I don’t want to hear your words. I want a Yes or No answer to my question.

He started on another long speech again. I said, “I told you that all I wanted was a Yes or No answer. Are a persons sins washed away if Jesus himself baptizes him with God’s holy Ghost (with tongues) but that person has NOT been baptized in water according to your formula, with one of your misniters pronouncing the words, ‘in Jesus’ name’? All I want is Yes or No.” He tried at least three times to talk…. and I stopped him each time, saying, “Yes or No? If Jesus baptizes a person with his holy Spirit, but one of your ministers does not baptize him in water, are his sins washed away?”….. He hesitated, but he finally said, “No.”

Then I said to him, “I have another question for you: If a person is baptized in water the way you do it, with a minister saying ‘Jesus’ name’ when it is done, but that person has NOT been baptized by Jesus with the holy Ghost and he has NOT spoken in tongues, has his sins been washed away?”

Again, he started to talk. I stopped him, and said, “I told you all I want is Yes or No.” Then he said, “yes”.

I told him that what he is teaching people is “damnable heresy”. It’s what Paul spent his life opposing, that people were washed from sin and in the body of Christ without Jesus baptizing them with the holy Spirit. Paul’s gospel is that NOTHING is to be added to what Jesus does, and that anything other than what he does counts for nothing with God. I explained briefly and concisely, why. I didn’t wear him out like he wore me out. I just told him that Paul said there is but “one baptism” (this apostolic minister apparently did not know that verse because he asked me where it was) and that it was Jesus’ baptism of the Spirit which put us into the body of Christ (I don’t think he knew that verse either). And I also told him that he was responsible for every person he told his false doctrine to, and that I oppose it with everything that is within me, as Paul did, and as you do.

He then tried to tell me that he would send me a CD, and began to talk again. I told him that I didn’t want his CD and that we had nothing further to talk about. He had been given the truth. It was obvious he did not want it. And I told him that if he did not love the truth, God would turn him over to a strong delusion, as Paul told the Thessalonians (which it appeared to me, God already had done to him). He then got quiet, real quick. He started talking almost in a whisper asking me to listen to him. I told him that I didn’t want it, and that we both were wasting our time.

I can’t recall ever being so firm with anyone before, John. He was not going to change, or even be reasonable. He just wanted me to baptize people in water, his way. That’s all. It didn’t matter to him what I told him. He had no logical response or answer. He could only wander off in to his practiced phrases and repetitious religious nonsense. My conclusion was that God must have had him to call me so that he could hear the truth, which he rejected. But that is between him and God.

That was my morning. Whew. I hate Christianity, John. I despise it. It is destructive, divisive, delusive, and nothing good comes out of that spirit. As you said just the other night, the spirit of Christianity is that “man of sin” sitting in God’s temple. It’s in the temple! It IS sin, and everything it touches turns to sin.

I’m not sure if my wording is right there, but I know what I feel – the indignation of Christ. The filthy spirit of Christianity makes me burn with anger for what it does to our brothers and sisters everywhere… For those under its spell, reason, truth, and experience come to mean nothing, and all that counts is having someone submit to our religious tradition or ceremony.

God, please don’t let me be that way! If I am, I pray he shows it to me so that I can repent and He can rid me of it forever.

Gary

Pastor John, the feelings i was having last night were sooo good, and they carried over to this AM. It has been my prayer recently to know how to love God, and that’s exactly what you said when you prayed for me. Thank you for the message last night.

Anna

Good morning John.

I just wanted to thank Jesus, and for your prayer of faith that touched my body last night.

A couple days ago I did something to my lower back, and for the past two days was in extreme pain. It hurt to sit, to stand, to do anything. You saw me hanging on the swing-set yesterday, trying to get some relief. I hardly was able to work yesterday, because I could not sit for even a few minutes without pain – I felt like I had damaged a disc or something in my lower back. And it was getting worse, not better.

Last night, I was loving what you were preaching from 2 Thess., especially the section about the “man of sin”, but also other things as well. I was eating it up, it was so sweet tasting to me. I was loving it so much I kind of forgot about the pain during those parts, but when things got quiet at the end of the meeting, I was hurting so bad again. I could hardly sit in my chair.

Then, right when you started praying for people, I felt “go up there quickly”, that I would be touched if I asked you to pray for me. When you prayed for me, the relief in my back pain was instant. So much so, that I could hardly believe it… I kept “searching” for the pain afterwards, but it was nearly gone, it just felt like a little bruise was there for the rest of the night. But I could stand, sit, or anything without that painful feeling. Song told me after the meeting that when I got prayed for, she could feel it too, it was like a wind to her body. She had seen the pain I was in the past 2 days, so she was relieved too, and that encouraged both of us. She got relief too!

It is early in the morning now, and I am sitting at my desk, pain free. I still have a small sensation of a tenderness, but no pain at all. I went to the airport with you to take the girls to RDU this morning, and sat in the car for almost 2 hours, pain free without fidgeting or moving around like I had been doing two days before. That is not a small thing. I wanted to thank the Lord, and you, for praying for me. Jesus is still healing. Still touching. He’s still alive, and He still cares about our pain. If we need relief, He has it, and it can be immediate.

Gary

Hi, Pastor John:

There was an article that I was reading about, The Five Pillars of Islam. In one of the pillars, it talks about God being one God, then it says, “God begets not, nor was he begotten”.

— Shia Islamic Faith is based on the following

1. Monotheism: The Oneness of Allah

Allah, or God, is the center of Muslim belief. Whereas certain religions focus on individuals, like Christianity focuses on Jesus, Islam focuses solely on Allah. Although Muslims respect the divine prophets, the prophets – including Muhammad – are still only servants of Allah.

The Qur’an speaks of the oneness of God: “Allah has borne witness that there is no God but Him – and the angels, and those with knowledge also witness this. He is always standing firm on justice. There is no God but Him, the Mighty, the Wise.” (3:18)

Describing God

One of the shortest chapters of the Qur’an, “The Oneness of God”,[5] summarizes the nature of God in five verses:

In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Say, He is Allah, the One
Allah, the Eternal
He begets not, nor was He begotten
And there is nothing at all comparable to Him.

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The above sure explains away John 3:16: “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave up His only begotten Son, so that all who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

I also was thinking of all the blessings the people serving Islam or any other religion will never know (in Spirit) because they try explain Jesus away (underlined above), though He gives the rain and sunshine; they experience Jesus’ blessings everyday, but don’t know they come from Him. Then, I was thinking about Christianity, (Xty), and the ones serving it. People will never know Jesus or the freedom of the Spirit with Xty’s rituals and ordinances; and Xty explains Jesus away with their doctrine of the Trinity, and their ceremonies, though it speaks His name more than any religion on this planet.

We are so very blessed to know who Jesus is (in our hearts). I was listening to a CD this week, and you were saying that people are going to the lake of fire because they don’t know who Jesus is, even if they proclaim his name. It just makes you very humble, knowing where we are, together, and the time that Jesus has taken with everyone of us to bring us together to know him. It’s like that song, “I Want To Know Him More.” That is my prayer.

billy

Bro. John:

The Spirit woke me early this a.m. with something very simple but sobering.

“The words of Jesus are not just to read. They are to apply to our lives.”

When the Spirit comes with a simple truth like this, it makes you stop and examine yourself. It also makes me want to read again every word Jesus spoke. I love waking up to sobering thoughts that cut through the foolishness of this world.

Sandy
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Amen, Sandy. The way of the Spirit and of faith is not about God’s people waiting to hear “some new thing”, as the philosophers in Athens used to do (Acts 17). It is about rejoicing in the simple way which has already been revealed and established by God, the way that is already “nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart”. We rejoice because of what God has already given us and already promised us, and we seek no other doctrine but what the Spirit which we have already received teaches us. What Jesus has done for us already, and what he is doing, and what Jesus has already said to us, and is saying, and who Jesus is, and who he will always be, is enough.

jdc

Bro. John:

You mentioned Sebastian Franck today in the office and said your father really liked him. I can see why! I looked him up and found a letter he had written to a man named John Campanus in 1531. Wow! I included here the link of the letter.

http://wadsworth.com/history_d/special_features/ilrn_legacy/wawc1c01c/content/wciv1/readings/campanus.html

It is lengthy but well worth reading when you have time. Below are a few excerpts from it:
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“Along with this, I ask what is the need or why should God wish to restore the outworn sacraments and take them back from Antichrist, yea, contrary to his own nature (which is Spirit and inward), yield to weak material elements? For he had been for fourteen hundred years now himself the teacher and baptizer and governor of the Feast, that is, in the Spirit and in truth without any outward means — in the Spirit, I say, in order that he may baptize, instruct, and nourish our spirit. And does he wish now, just as though he were weary of spiritual things and had quite forgotten his nature, to take refuge again in the poor sick elements of the world and re-establish the besmirched holy days and the sacraments of both Testaments? But God will remain [true] to his character, especially [as disclosed] in the New Testament, as long as the world stands.

Good luck, my brother, with thy wonderful theology. May it please God that it be as true as it is unbelievable to the world. Mine is not less wonderful. For I believe and am certain that at the present time not a single true and natural word of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is acknowledged on earth, yea, that no one has begun to recognize the righteous­ness of faith. No one, I say, in the whole of Germany, nay, more, in the whole world — I speak of those who sound forth their falsified word from their pulpits to the common people, that is, of the swine and the dogs — no one has been called or sent. Of this I have absolutely no doubt. Therefore, they preach without any fruit, for they are not sent of God but instead retch out the Word solely according to the letter, soiled with human filth, not according to the divine sense. For they also don’t know another word to say but what is Scriptural, and of no other teachers except their evangelists.

In brief, all that we have learned since childhood from the papists, we must all of a sudden again unlearn. Again, the same for what we have, received from Luther and Zwingli — all must be abandoned and altered. For one will sooner make a good Christian out of a Turk than out of a bad Christian or a learned divine! For the veil of Moses hinders them, that is, the death-dealing letter of Scripture, which they receive as life and as life-giving Spirit. I, however, hold completely that the intention of the Lord does not reside precisely in the rind of Scripture. That is, Scripture is not so easy for everyone to understand but what I would sooner believe that it were locked with seven seals and knowable to none but to the Lamb. For to such an extent does God hide his wisdom under the covering of likeness and literary parable of letters that none but those who are taught of God himself can understand them. And [he] does not so lightly expose his secret to the godless world and all scamps but rather conceals it beneath the rind so that only the instructed of God, as I have said, may be able to grasp it.”
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Thanks, Sandy.

Yes, I discovered Franck while doing some research as a seminary student and read some of his writings to my father, who rejoiced in them. Of course, as with John Fox and many others who were trying to break loose from the suffocating quilt of Christian doctrines and traditions, Franck’s vision may have been a little cloudy (but not anything in the excerpt you sent), but considering their times, they were remarkably inspired men.

Thank you again, I enjoyed reading what you sent and being re-acquainted with an old friend, Sebastian Franck.

jdc