http://www.goingtojesus.com/site/php/books.php?tname=word:2

Name: Gary
Comments: I want to know how I may speak with John Clark? I cannot believe what I just read about Is the Bible the word of God. If its not the word of God then we are all going to hell. I need some answers and Johns responsible for giving them, there’s a lot of blood on his hands.

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Hi Gary

Pastor Clark is away for a short time at present but I will pass on your comments.  You may contact him directly from his personal web page at www.pastorjohnshouse.com. There is a contact form near the bottom of the home page.

Gary, I’m glad that you have apparently got the point of that book but why do you think we would be on the way to hell simply because the bible is not the word of God?  Quite strange really.  Do you believe Jesus provided all we need to be saved in the end? Is he enough?  The bible as such did not even exist when he lived.  The bible is a great blessing from God in helping us to come to know Him but the word of God is what comes out of His mouth, not a record of it or a description of its effect on people and situations.  God is still speaking and those who are led by the Spirit, not those who read the bible will be saved in the end. We do not serve a dumb, mute idol. There is a word of God that we can eat every day in order to live just as Jesus said.

There is blood on hands for sure but you have the wrong man at present.

Damien Callaghan
webmaster
www.goingtojesus.com

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John,
I hope all who are under you at some point can be in at least 1 if not 2 translating sessions.  I think it would fill in any cracks which may exist about this issue.

B Wendell

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You are so right, Wendell!  The humbling experience of attempting to translate the New Testament would eradicate from any honest man’s mind the non-biblical notion that the Bible is the Word of God, and especially that any particular version of the Bible is the Word of God.  If nothing else, just comparing the many, many different translations already in print, most of them good translations, demonstrates our need to hear God’s word now in order to understand what has been written in the past.  And it is that communication from God now which is the word of God.  The word of God, for us, is what God is saying to us, not the record of what He has said to others.  He is a living God, and, thankfully, He still speaks.

jd

Hi John,

I have a question for you.  Are the events of Armageddon described elsewhere in the bible besides Revelation?  Seems to me that Ezekiel and perhaps Zechariah referred to it, or something like it, but I can’t find it.

I thought there was reference to Meggido or something like that, but I couldn’t find anything substantial on that.  Or am I just remembering Christian prophecy teaching from my past, and it’s not there at all?

Gary

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The battle of Armageddon (the word, “Armageddon” is the transliteration of two Hebrew words that mean, “hill of Megiddo”) is fought at the beginning of the 1000 year reign of Christ on earth.  It is mentioned in Revelation 16, and is also mentioned in the last half of Revelation 19.  You should be able to find more on that great battle in Ezekiel 39, and parts of Zechariah 12-14, though not by the name, “Armageddon”.

As for the final battle against evil, the one that takes place at the end of Jesus’ millennial reign, you can read Revelation 20 and Ezekiel 38.

jdc

http://www.goingtojesus.com/text/books/fatherandson.pdf

Hello Pastor John,

Just have a question.  If nobody in Heaven or on the Earth knew that Jesus was the Son of God, before the Son of God cast Satan and his demons down to earth at Pentecost, how did the demons who were in the lunatic in the cemetary know?  I am talking about the man which had the legion of demons in him.  How did they know that the Son of God was in Jesus, and ask him if he was there to torment them before the time?

Thanks for your time.

Thomas.

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Hi Thomas.

I address this issue in some depth in my forthcoming book, God Had a Son Before Mary Did.  I would be happy to send you the chapters I have completed so that you can see in detail how that question is dealt with.  To be brief, I believe that even if angels and demons knew that there was in heaven a creature called the Son, they did not know what being God’s Son meant.  They certainly did not understand that the Son created them or that he was actually ruling over all things from the beginning.  No one knew that was the case because God had been keeping that a secret from the foundation of the world.  The most obvious answer to your question is that not only the OT prophets, and Peter (Mt. 16), but also the demons who cried out concerning “the holy One of Israel”, were all speaking because they were being overcome by the power and presence of the holy Ghost, not because they had any personal knowledge of the Son.

Now, we know this is the case with the OT prophets, and with Peter in Matthew 16.  It does appear that they knew what they were saying when they spoke of the Son, but the Bible makes it clear that they absolutely did not.  So, my point, as it relates to your question, is that it was the same with demons, whenever Jesus approached them and they felt the power of “the holy One of Israel”.  And, don’t let the fact that the demons were evil cause you any theological problems.  The holy Spirit sometimes came upon evil people in the OT and compelled them to prophesy truth and speak of things that they themselves did not know.  Two examples of this are the foolish prophet Balaam and the backslidden king Saul.

Hope that helps.

Pastor John

Hey Pastor John!

I have a quick question.  When reading a recent BLOG, I noticed that you said, “[children of] Hagar are attracted to religious ceremonies, in celebration of ‘holy days’, and other such vain religious rites.  But Sarah and her children care for none of those things, choosing rather to ‘worship God in spirit and in truth’ than in vain traditions of men.”

I started having a few questions running through my head.  Are there children of Sarah who are attracted to ceremonial rites and traditions, but they don’t have the other features of children of Hagar?  I know that I have seen people who seemed to fit the good category of “children of Sarah”, but in the end they proved to be very much as Paul described the children of Hagar.  They were not attracted to religious ceremonies, but they didn’t live godly lives in other respects.

I guess my real question comes down to this: I know people in the religious system of Christianity that seem to be good people, “children of Sarah”, but they do not understand God when He calls them to come out of church religion.  Instead, they cling to Christianity’s ceremonies and traditions.  Would that single factor make them “children of Hagar”?  I think I know the answer is no.  But is what makes someone a “child of Hagar” fleshly, worldly attitudes, and not just participation in ceremonies?  And is what makes someone a “child of Sarah”, a morally pure lifestyle and godly attitudes? 🙂    Sorry this got wordy… 😛

Ashley

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Good question, Ashley.  Thanks!

You are asking if my definition of a child of Hagar is the only one that applies, and the answer to that question is obviously no.  There are many different ways to be foolish, and so, basically, a “child of Hagar” is simply someone who proves to be what Jesus called “a foolish virgin”.

On the other hand, the only place in the NT that contrasts “the children of Hagar” and “the children of Sarah” is Paul’s letter to the Galatians.  And there, Paul speaks only to the issue of faith in the law’s ceremonies (Hagar) versus walking in the Spirit (Sarah).  Strictly speaking, then, I could successfully argue that the matter of “ceremonies versus the Spirit“ is the only biblically based distinction between those two kinds of people in God’s kingdom.

However, “the letter killeth”, and we must never allow ourselves to be hemmed in by Scripture, when common sense and the Spirit are telling us more than what the Bible says.  A child of Hagar is a foolish, disobedient child of God, and a child of Sarah is an obedient and wise child of God, and in Galatians, Paul was just speaking of one aspect of being foolish or wise.

Pastor John