Hi John,

I was very blessed this morning listening to files from Betty from this morning’s talks.

My big blessing came when you were talking about Montanus, and you said that one author had the perfect description of him.  Something close to:  “The spirit of Montanus was not the spirit of the church”.  

Man, that was SO good.  To walk in the Spirit is to NOT have the spirit of the church (Christianity).  I believe many of God’s Spirit filled children feel that way (I hope they do)… they are “trying”, but no matter how hard they try, they just don’t have the same spirit as the church does.  Let them see this, Jesus.

That is my testimony… and I would say the testimony of many of us who did walk in Christianity, at some point in time.  I NEVER fit in.  I was let down. I was disappointed or rejected, and I was to the point of almost wondering if there was a real truth out there that could satisfy what I longed for, but Jesus did not let me lose hope and he did not let me stop praying.   

I prayed  “if there’s truth out there, God, help me find it.”   The bottom line is, that the Spirit God gave me was not the spirit of the church.  But I could not put two and two together.  It took Jesus, and you, and the saints working, to get truth to me, and to help me find out who I really was, and what spirit I really had. And to love the fact that he HAD given me a different one!  It was the voice of my shepherd.  

May God do that for others out there, our brothers and sisters who have a different spirit than the one the church has.  They just need to find out who they are.  If He can do it for me, he can do it for them.  I sure to hope some of the materials being sent out get in desperate hands and hears.

Thanks for that golden nugget from today!

Gary

Hi Pastor John, 

Sitting there this morning reading Chapter 9 of your Revelation book, my heart was pounding. It just came to life! 

I love when Jesus lets you feel it.

This is what struck me the most.

God could not have given us a simpler way to please Him.  Follow, just follow.  We have been given everything we need to follow.  I thought of little children when playing “follow the leader”; they usually are so closely and blindly following that person in front, that they will even bump into each other when a sudden change is made.  They are not trying to figure out the next, best move for the leader to make or anticipating where they are gonna end up; they just follow.  God must shake His head at us.  I thought about this, going all the way back to Eve’s “good idea” and Adam following the wrong one. 

This jumped out at me.

Page 14 under “Renewed Expectations” – He said to them (Acts 1:7), “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has reserved to His own authority.” 

I love that!  It isn’t our business; it’s God’s business.  All we have to do is follow.  What true peace that is!  If we are truly just following, then we don’t think we ought to have health, long life, meetings praising God together, and we don’t think we won’t; we don’t think, we just follow.  I think I love it so much because it is what Jesus has been teaching me.  I had ideas of how things should be ,but very gently Jesus has been teaching me, those were my ideas.

I had an idea I would get the holy Ghost, live among God’s people, and we would praise God together in your basement until I leave this world!  I had an idea Natalie would be old and white-haired, sitting in the basement with us.  I had an idea if we obeyed God and did well, we may suffer a little, but just enough to burn some dross off.  But who has said that?  I was putting ornaments on the tree this year, thinking about how hard I have found it to just live in the still time.  I haven’t known what to do with myself.  I know I want meetings, and your teaching, and seeing each other all the time.  I want movement.  Jesus hasn’t said to me it would be that way, and he didn’t say it wouldn’t.  As I stood there, thinking about that, I knew I needed to hear that thought.   When I did, I felt peace.

“The purging of the heart from imperfect thoughts yields perfect peace.” – the elder, Daniel, in The Jerusalem Council book.

You posted this on FB, and it was so good.  It’s even better after this morning.  I wish I could write you some educated, well thought-out feelings about how wonderful and clear this is, for the ones I pray Jesus lets see it, ( I do find it so wonderful), but I am just swimming in awe at how long humans have had their own ideas: which tree to eat off of, building calves, striking rocks, moving to Sodom, picking kings, who to kill, who not to kill…

It just makes the fact that God gives us the holy ghost and everything we need to just follow so much sweeter.  Don’t design, don’t map out, don’t plan, don’t think…just follow Jesus home. 

“But what makes any truth hard to understand is a heart dulled by what it thinks it knows!”

(This is just stamped on my heart!) 

Beth Durham

Pastor John,

I passed through the living room and a Ritz Crackers Christmas commercial came on the television showing three homosexual  black men at a table, and one was dressed in a wig, as a woman.

I was sickened beyond anything I’ve seen.  My first thought, for a moment, was to take names and never patronize those brands again.  But I then realized that it is everywhere, and in everything – the spirit of this age.  You would have to stop living in this world.

The Lord let me know that real peace, the peace the Lord gives, is being able to use all these things in this world as gifts from God while we travel through this world, without ever reacting against the mess that is attached to it.  My cause is to obey the Spirit and keep my mind on Him.

A prayer for those in that condition is so much better than outrage and a boycott.  And maybe could help.

Jerry

Dear brother John,

Regarding the Nicolaitans – “REVELATION Jesus’ Messages to Seven Pastors and John’s Vision concerning the Last Days” you write: Note 2, Chapter 6: Theories abound, but no one knows who the Nicolaitans were, or what their deeds were that Jesus hated.

One honestly cannot claim to know that “no one knows” because quite obviously one cannot know what everyone knows.

That said, I am not suggesting here that I do know “who the Nicolaitans were, or what their deeds were that Jesus hated”. Rather, I merely am submitting to you the attached file* on what they may be and what it is that is obnoxious about them. I may very well be wrong, but claiming “no one knows” is wrong too.

Thank you for your kind attention,

Warm regards,

Edouard D.

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Hi, Edouard.

Thank you for writing.

I have read both your email and Mr. Mackay’s essay on the subject, which you attached.  You may be right, that it is incorrect to say that no one knows what the Nicolaitans taught and did, but I think I will hold off from making an abject apology until I hear someone speak on the subject who has heard from Jesus. 🙂

You were right when you condemned the “once-saved-always-saved” nonsense.  And Mr. Mackay is right to condemn the ritualism of the early Christian church.  However, he did not take that far enough.  He should have included Christian  baptism and the Christian ritual of communion with all the rest.  Christ has made all ceremonies useless works.  In that regard, I invite your attention to these two short articles:

 

https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_tracts.html?tname=tract-066-baptism

https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_tracts.html?tname=tract-064-communion

Thank you again for writing.  Just as a suggestion, I would encourage you to concentrate more on the things that can be known because those are the things that truly belong to us.  All the rest belongs to God  (Deut. 29:29)

Take care and God bless.

Pastor John

* The file mentioned is not attached to this blog due to the limitations of using this platform.  However, the link below will provide Mr. Mackay’s position on the subject.https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/eq/1973-2_111.pdf

Hi, Pastor John;

I have really been enjoying the Matthew readings, especially this last one.  Feeling the joy, hearing the songs, Sue’s testimony, and especially your teaching, is “us”.  I loved watching Jimmy Sr. and Rob feeling it, too, as well as all of us, seen and not seen on Livestream.  I’m still bubbling over from the love of God for us.  I love hearing Otis’ laugh and giggle; it is contagious.

The Bible is good for stories about God, and the scriptures are good for reproof, correction, and doctrinal issues, and it does help your faith to read such things, but I loved the part where you where teaching about Jesus coming and giving His life for us to have the Spirit flowing in us, so that we can feel what we felt during the reading – and afterward.  If we didn’t know the Bible as you taught us, we still have the Spirit in us to lead us and to teach us God’s judgments and teach us about God’s kind of love, the life of God and His Son in us and living in us.  It is wonderful thinking about these things.

To have an “us” at all, there had to be a call of God to each one of us that we heard, and obeyed, to start our journey so that we became an “us”, here-and-now.  We were an “us” before the world began, in the mind of God.

I love the authority of God and the government of God . . . it is a safe feeling, knowing there is an anointed man of God over you.  I felt that when I was a teenager, when I first saw you preaching at Brother Delbert’s.  I knew we needed what you had, but didn’t know what it was. Now I know.  It was the government and order of God.  The working and flow of that yesterday is a result of it flowing among us.

I(we) love you Pastor John and your labor of love for us all.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Billy M.

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I couldn’t even begin to say all the different wonderful ways your preaching made me feel today!  It was just altogether out of this world!  The Anointing on you puts it all together, and makes it COME ALIVE, and quickens our hearts and souls!

When I hear it like today, it makes me want to laugh, cry, jump, shout, and just sit still from the joy of what is being said!!! I LOVE IT.  I JUST PLAIN LOVE IT!!

Jimmy T.

Hi Jim. 

Thank you for writing back.  I will enclose my answers within the text of your welcome email.

jdc

Pastor John,

Thank you for your response.  It was much more than i anticipated.  Typically I expect pastors who are challenged to respond with “no response.”  

That brings me to something that is inherent from our God.  The ability to reason and make distinctions.  So i will begin my case with Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s statement, one of many, though i chose this,  “To be silent in the face of evil is evil itself.  To NOT act is to act and to NOT speak is to speak.”

I have used the previous scriptures in my first letter to you only to make the claim that neither of the three presented provide you or me with a justification towards silence in any arena in this world or in this country.

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As I said in my first response, “I should correct one misrepresentation of my tract* that I noticed in your letter.  You criticized me for teaching inaction and silence in the face of evil.  That is not the case.  The tract plainly exhorts God’s children to pray for all who are in authority and to proclaim the gospel.”  Again, I do not teach God’s children to do and say nothing in the face of evil.  I teach only that we should be led by the Spirit in whatever it is that we do and say.

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The use of the term “world” and “country” are deliberate here as I will point out. There is an important distinction to be made with these two terms because the scripture makes it for us.   I as a Christian like millions of other Christian am tasked with many roles, a father a neighbor an employee or an employer, a husband a friend and a citizen of a country where ever that may be.  For you and I it is the United States of America. This country has been founded with many freedoms in mind, unlike communist China for example.  Here is the scriptural distinction that is often and mistakenly used interchangeably. Citizen of a country is a role assigned in the same manner as a role as a Christian father or a Christian husband ect.   This position in the WORLD is clearly characterized by John in his first epistle. 1 John 2 15-17. And this distinction is clearly set apart from a citizens earthly responsibility and role.  So let me clearly unpack the passage in a nutshell:  three areas: the lust of the flesh(pleasure) the lust of the eyes(possessions) and the pride of life(position or power).  These are the characteristics of the WORLD that John refers to. and these are the very things we are to guard against and not be a part of. It is not the role of a citizen in the United States that we are to shun. It is the world characteristics as described here by John. 

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That is a logical position for you to take, Jim.  I understand the distinction you are making.  I see a flaw in it, as you might expect, but I congratulate you for your clarity of thought.

By the way, have you ever noticed that the three things in 1Jn. 2 that you mentioned are the same three things Satan used to tempt both Eve and Jesus?  Eve fell, but Jesus overcame it.  Check that out.  You will be blessed with what you find.

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Second point:  The entire bible is saturated with a believers involvement in the government of their day or politics if you will.  Of course the form of government was much different and more restrictive than the one we live under.  Lets take a look at Joseph who ultimately held an upper tier position in the government of that day.  He rose to that position as second only to Pharaoh because of his loyalty and diligence to his assignments.  He is not looked upon as operating outside of his commitment to our God.  There is no condemnation assigned to him for his involvement in Pharaoh’s government, rather God looked with favor upon Joseph and immensely blessed him. Genesis 41: 37-41 depicts the position of honor assigned Joseph in Egypt’s government, a foreign land to his birth.

David who ultimately became king of Israel crafted public policy under the umbrella of God’s authority.  The Sanhedrian was primarily a spiritual decision making body but also made public policy for the Jews despite being under Roman Rule.  Even Moses established a rudimentary form of governing the people on earth.  The point being that believers have historically been assigned to roles in an earthly government-politics. In your tract there is a strong message delivered that your responsibility ONLY lies in prayer, peace, joy love truth as your weapons.  This is not entirely true those are the primary weaponry but ultimately the results often manifest itself in the here the now and the physical.  We have been given the resolve of Grace to execute our given roles as presented by God to us.   This includes and does not exclude our role as a citizen of our COUNTRY.    If someone slaps your wife across the face would you tell her to permit the offender to slap the other cheek.  I hope not.  This is an example of how the spiritual has affected the here and now. So  what is your responsibility to your wife in your role as a husband in the here and now.  I hope that you would intervene to protect her physically. Attaching the weapons you suggest do not apply immediately in such a situation. The results have already manifested itself in this situation. Even the words of Jesus telling us to turn the other cheek are not applicable here.  Unfortunately these types of versus are taken out of context and used inappropriately as in the case of some of your references.  We have a vast population of believers who do not know what time it is. They have not been instructed to properly distinguish what time is appropriate for this, for that, and for many other things to come.  Eccl. 3 outlines some of these distinctions in time.  

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Your use of Old Testament figures as examples for us to follow, in the area of political action, tells me that you do not understand the essential difference between the Old and New Testaments.  Israel was an earthly nation; the body of Christ is not.  Remember what Jesus said.  “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight” – fight in various ways for positions of earthly power, quarrel over earthly policies, campaign and vote, and even attack their enemies with deadly weapons instead of praying for them, as Peter did in the garden of Gethsemane, for which Jesus rebuked him.

The Old Testament was a covenant “in the flesh”, as Paul would say it.  Circumcision, sacrifices, etc., were all in the flesh.  But this is a covenant in the Spirit, and only that worship and service to God that is “in spirit and in truth” is acceptable now with God.

As for someone striking my wife, or any such situation, I believe that Jesus had situations like that in mind when he exhorted us to pray that God would not lead us into temptation.  I would certainly interpose my body between her and her attacker.  What else I would do, I do not know.  That would depend, I am sure, on the circumstances and the limits of my faith in God.  I have prayed many times, as Jesus told us to do, not to be led into that temptation. 

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I would point out that God has placed us in a country that gives us the freedom to challenge the political leaders. We are not defying the government in the United States when we challenge them, we are abiding by the governmental system that is already in place by God’s hand. To abdicate this incredible authority/gift because of misapplication of scriptural versus is very sad. Rom 13 gives us government to act as a restraint to evil not to proliferate evil. 

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Again, if the Spirit leads someone to rebuke a political leader anywhere in this world, from local mayors to the President himself, the Spirit is always right.  Do it.  But that is not political action; that is not taking up the weapons of this world.  That is obeying God and walking in the Spirit.  But a word of caution: we should be certain that God’s Spirit is the one leading us and not our frustrated flesh or a demon.

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So sir i hope that my use of brief Scriptural history and the distinction made between the WORLD as defined in scripture and our responsible ROLE as a CITIZEN are clearly distinguished.  We are primarily citizens of heaven for sure, but we are to refrain from world citizenship that includes a focus on pleasure, possessions and power but we also have a God given ROLE called a citizen of this U.S.A.  Avoidance, inaction, silence & apathy are not very attractive traits when it comes to the roles given to us by our God.

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That brings me back to your use of logic.  I will add here a quote from my latest book, “The Jerusalem Council”:

“Daniel: My friends, logic is a sharp and useful tool; I wish more people were skilled in its use.  However, logic is useful only in matters pertaining to this life.  In the kingdom of God, revelation is logic, and faith provides us the skill to use it.”

The revelation and power which Jesus suffered and died for us to have makes us wiser than human reasoning can make us.  Those who are in Christ are superior to even the holiest of men of God who ever lived (Mt. 11:11).  Much more, then, are they superior to the greatest thinkers, rulers, and generals of this world.  We just need the faith to see that, and to live by it.

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Let me leave you with a final challenge that was not addressed in your earlier response to me, likely and innocently left out.  Abortions proliferation that lines up with Bonhoeffer’s statement, and two, the avoidance of politics from the pulpit because it may jeopardize tax exempt status.

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(1) To kill unborn children is evil, except in special cases, such as to save the life of the mother.

(2) After a decade of consideration, we rejected the government’s offer of tax-exempt status in 2001.  That is no longer a consideration for us.

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Thank You

Jim DiGeronimo 

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Thank you, Jim.  It is a pleasure to discuss the things of God with reasonable people who are familiar with the Scriptures, and I hope that someday we will be made one in Christ by the only One who can.

Pastor John  

* Politics and Believers

 

 

 

 

Pastor John,

I received and read your tract on Politics & Believers.  I am sorry to say that it is this unbiblical approach that has contributed to the state of our country.  The country that has been entrusted to us by God. The country that we have a small corner of stewardship responsibility.  The very practice of avoidance, silence, inaction is the very disposition that has also contributed to the continued slaughter of 60 million innocent unborn children over a 47 year period.  They are unable to speak or defend themselves.  That is the churches roll and it has been abandoned.  So no a believer is not let off the hook because  the government may come and go.  There is nothing in scripture that supports your view that we should not join the military or be involved in political activity.  It is our God who gave us this political system  the political leaders and military defense . Your approach is tremendously irresponsible, but more importantly unbiblical.  We are entrusted with a responsibility in our system of government.  Romans chapter 13 does not relieve us of that  . There are many versus that have been used to justify silence inaction and apathy regarding this subject.  They include “we are citizens of heaven”  “we struggle not against flesh and blood ” we are ambassadors of heaven” and each of these are absolutely true but none of these gives us justification to ignore our role as good citizens to this country.  In fact that is one component, of many, responsibilities. I do not desire a political pastor.  The state of our government, the morality or lack thereof has to be shared from the pulpit.  Pulpit Silence has contributed to the immorality of our government corruption.  I just hope it has nothing to do with the preservation of tax exempt status that churches enjoy.   

James D.

South Carolina

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Hi James.

I am thankful that you read and understood my gospel tract, “Politics and Believers”.  It is a blessing to hear from those who are interested in spiritual things so that I can be improved in my faith.

I started to get out my Bible to study the scriptures you sent to help me correct my “unbiblical” position, but when I read your email, I noticed that you sent me no scriptures that I might use to that end.  Instead, you quoted scriptures that confirm what I teach.  That was disappointing.

I would be happy to study your biblical position if you would send me the scriptures that enjoin God’s children to become entangled with the political affairs of this life.  I humbly ask that you do that if you have the time.

In closing, I should correct one misrepresentation of my tract that I noticed in your letter.  You criticized me for teaching inaction and silence in the face of evil.  That is not the case.  The tract plainly exhorts God’s children to pray for all who are in authority and to proclaim the gospel.  Those who have God’s Spirit have mighty weapons at their disposal if they would use them, instead of resorting to the useless weapons of flesh, such as earthly weapons of war and majority rule.

Thank you again for writing.  I look forward to considering the scriptures that I hope you will send.

Pastor John