The Present Truth!

By Pastor Bill Taylor

A publication of My Father's House, inc. Volume 10/Issue 3

For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. (2Pet1:12)

 Prophecy: I haven’t come to condemn you. You were already condemned before I came. I’ve come to save you. I’ve come to show you the better way. Why am I showing you the better way unless the way you’ve been doing it won’t save you, so I’m calling you to the way that will? And why am I calling you to the way that works? Because I hate you? Because I want to destroy you? My people, I love your souls better than you love yourselves! I can care for your souls better than you care for them! Would that you had it in you to love your own soul and care for your own soul in such a way as you’d keep yourself! But this I say to you, if you’ll let Me, Jesus, live in you, I’ll keep your soul; I’ll care for your soul in the way that will work, in a way that will actually save you, in a way that’s better than you care for yourself. And that’s why you need Me, because you aren’t even good enough at caring for your own soul to do the job yourself. You don’t even know enough about yourself to save yourself. That’s why I’m showing you the better way. That’s why I’m offering to be Christ in you! Because as Christ in you I’ll guard your soul; I’ll keep your soul for My eternal Kingdom. I’ll do all this for you if you’ll call upon Me to live My life in you. I’m your only effectual Savior, saith the Lord.  (Prophecy delivered at “My Father’s House”)

A Prophetic Poem

The whole world lies under

The sway of the wicked one.

But the kingdoms of this world are a passing shadow

In the light of Jesus My glorious Son.

My Spirit is moving and consuming the darkness

With My light shining ever so bright.

My present truth today is prevailing

Over the lies of the children of night.

My living Word is quickly covering the earth.

Bringing light and salvation to man.

No more will the powers of darkness

Boast in pride they’re prevailing over My land.

I’ve given free will to every man

To choose the one whom he’ll serve.

There’s only one choice that leads to life,

Know Jesus, not the prince of this world.

Love My truth and stand against the lies of today.

Yes, even make yourself a victim.

Blessed are you when men cast out your name as evil.

For I’ll prove you’re worthy of My Kingdom.

You can choose to ignore the Truth in My Word.

And even reject Me in the servants I send.

It’s your choice, to take the mark of the beast now.

But you’ll have no choice over hell in the end.

This world is quickly passing away.

So, don’t love the world or the things in it.

Who’s the one who’ll enter into My Kingdom?

The one who does My will and walks in My Spirit!

(Prophecy delivered at “My Father’s House” by Kim Kitchen)

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. (Ps48:1-2) This scripture describes what God’s true church, Mount Zion, ought to be. But it’s also related to, “I’ve set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; (now the New Jerusalem) they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the LORD, don’t keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem (now also the New Covenant church) a praise in the earth.” (Is62:6-7) Is that happening here? In our night watches are we praying for God to perfect His church? And in the daily devotions do we continue to call upon Him to glorify His bride? We must give Him no rest until He makes His church glorious before all the nations. Most of what calls itself the church today isn’t a praise or a glory to God – she’s a shame to Him. Almost everything that calls itself His “church” is a shame. There’s little you can see in the contemporary churches that’s truly a glory to God, and that has to change. Psalm 48 shows us what the church ought to be. The watchmen are praying in Isaiah 62 for the church to become what’s described in Psalm 48; that the Lord will be greatly praised in His church. The church also is to be exalted; beautiful in elevation. She’s to be a city set on a hill (Mt5:14); a place people look up to. She’s the joy of the whole earth only when the righteous can see God truly living in His church.

 “For behold, the kings assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled; they were troubled, they hastened away. Fear took hold of them there,” (Ps48:4-6) When they see God’s glory the leaders of the nations will realize they aren’t such big shots; there’s somebody bigger they must answer to. Conviction comes upon them when they see God in His true church. “As we’ve heard, so we’ve seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it forever. (Ps48:8) When the Queen of Sheba visits Solomon she says, “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. However I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard.” (1Kng10:6-7) Job says, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.” (Job42:5) It’s in God’s true church that men are to see the truths they’ve heard about are real! We’ve thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness, in the midst of Your temple. (Ps48:9) In His true church is where God manifests His lovingkindness. It’s there men can see who God really is and what His people really are like. For example, several Corrections Officers at the prisons that receive our books have mentioned they can see the difference between the Glory of His Grace Christians and the false christians. They’re seeing our true “Christians” are real, upright, honest. In us men can see the true temple and a people who know the living God. In many places where there are Glory of His Grace believers, even the unchurched people are beginning to fear God; they’re recognizing awesome things happen when you come in contact with God’s true people. God is manifesting now in ways that show He has a real church in which He actually dwells and that His church is a glory to Him.

For He established a testimony in Jacob. God is also establishing a testimony in “My Father's House.” Telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, that the generation to come might know them, the children who’d be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. (Ps78:5,4,6,7) God gives us a testimony so others can believe and also come to know and obey Him. Everything we’re doing here, including publishing the Glory of His Grace, is a testimony to what God’s showing us, which is His present truth. God’s purpose in this is so others can hear and believe and enter into a present truth relationship with God. For this reason I’ll not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. (2Pet1:12) Present truth pertains to your present salvation. It’s a shameful thing when present truth is being ignored. If you’re not paying attention to what God is saying now in His true church, where He speaks more strongly than any other place, you’ll never hear Him. Nor will you be a son of God since only those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God, and if you can’t hear God in the present, you certainly can’t be led by Him. (Rom8:14) How will you ever hear Him if you can’t hear Him in His church? If you can’t hear Him there you sure won’t hear Him anywhere else. “The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God!” (Ps87:2,3) God loves His church “home” and values it much more highly than He values your home or the “homes” of other believers. “You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house.” (Hag1:9) God’s church must glorify Him! “Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the LORD. (Hag1:8)

It’s going to be said, “This one was born there.” (Ps87:5-6) To enter the Kingdom of God you must be a citizen of the Kingdom (Phil 3:20) and to be a citizen you must be born there; born of the New Jerusalem – the Jerusalem above. (Jn3:3;Gal 4:26) If you aren’t born from above you’re not saved. Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (Jn3:5-7) Of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one were born in her; and the Most High Himself shall establish her.” The LORD will record, when He registers the peoples: “This one was born there.” (Ps87:4b-6) For our citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20) Our citizenship is in heaven only if we were born again, born from above, born of Father God but also from the mother of all the saints, the Jerusalem above! (Jn1:13;Gal 4:26) “He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.” (Jn3:31) So the true saints are already citizens of heaven. (Phil 3:20) They come from above like Jesus and they behave accordingly; setting their minds on things above (Col 3:1-2) and walking worthy of the calling in which they’re called. (Eph4:1)

I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever; with my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, “Mercy shall be built up forever; your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens.” (Ps89:1-2) David wants God to be known as a merciful God, so he both sings and speaks (witnesses) of God’s mercy! Return, O LORD, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake! (Ps6:4) God wants people to know if they’ll come to Him in a right way He’ll help them. David, realizing God wants His mercy to be known prays, “Do this for Your mercies’ sake, so the people can see and believe in Your mercy.” (Ps31:16;44:26) And when he says, “Mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens.” This means God’s mercy will be manifested in such mighty ways the whole universe – everyone in heaven and earth will know “God is a merciful God. He keeps His Word. If you trust Him, He won’t fail you.” “Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens,” not only means God can’t fail His people, but He’ll use them mightily to demonstrate His faithfulness to others.

I’ve found My servant David; with My holy oil I have anointed him, with whom My hand shall be established; also My arm shall strengthen him. (Ps89:20-21) Your seed I’ll establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations. (Ps89:4) David’s seed is Jesus. (Rom1:3) And Christ is forever. Since Christ and His church are one this also is a prophecy concerning His church being established and strengthened. “Once I have sworn by My holiness;” (Ps89:35) God can’t swear by anything greater than Himself, so He must swear by Himself or by what belongs to Him. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. (Heb6:13,17-18) God wants to be believed. When He swears by His mercy or by His holiness, what He’s saying is, “If I’m holy then I’m not lying!” He’s showing us how serious He is about the truth of what He’s saying. “Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; it shall be established forever like the moon,” (Ps89:35-37) As the true people of Christ, we’re partaking of this. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (Eph2:4-6) Being seated with Christ is to be enthroned with Him. “Yet I’ve set My King on My holy hill of Zion.” Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. (Ps2:6,10-12) To kiss the Son in this context means to submit completely to Him. And you’d better do it, because God has eternally enthroned Him and you’ll not bring Him down. Woe unto you if you try to resist Him.

Many of you at “My Father’s House” saw what happened at the prison; how God struck those who persecuted us, and opposed His work in us with heart attacks and other serious health problems. (See our previous Glory of His Grace publication: “When Jews Work With Gentiles.”) For over twenty years I ministered at the B.C.I. facility, and I remember a vision God gave where Jesus was ruling over that prison. In the vision Jesus said, this place is Mine. Of course, whatever God says, the devil will test. So we went through some terrible trials, but in the end Jesus will be standing and the devil’s servants and the false churches will fall; because Jesus’ throne is unassailable. His throne is established forever. And insofar as we agree with real Christianity and obey Jesus, we become established also. We are established in Him, and to be established in Him is to be established in His eternal throne. “The LORD reigns; let the peoples tremble! The LORD is great in Zion, and He is high above all the peoples. He is holy. The King’s strength also loves justice;” (Ps99:1-4) God’s strength is His Spirit, and His Spirit loves justice. So God will uphold justice by His Spirit; woe to any people who aren’t on the side of justice. Because the Lord loves justice, if you’re against justice, God’s strength, His Spirit will be against you. So fear God and serve Him with trembling. (Ps2:11)

“You have established equity.” (Ps99:4) Equity means fairness or justice. God establishes justice in every place where His true people are sent by Him. There may be a battle, but God will win. The strength of God loves justice and one way He’ll establish justice is through the prayers of His people. He’ll establish justice at Brevard, at Desoto, at Marion, at Martin. Anyplace He has a praying people God’s justice will prevail. But wherever the people don’t want Him to reign, “They’ll perish in the way!” (Ps2:12)

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Ps90:12) We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” (v9,10) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (Pr9:10) Wisdom recognizes our time on earth is so short that we must not waste it. We must devote what time we have to learn to know the Lord and do His will. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore don’t be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Eph5:15-17) The heart of wisdom is to use your limited time in this life to serve God and to attain to the righteousness that makes you fit for heaven. And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil 3:9,11)

Now is the only time when you can be improved in righteousness. There’s coming an age when there’ll be no more opportunities to change, when time is no more. “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” (Rev22:11) When time stops, change stops. Now that we still have time we can change. But change can go either direction. You can change for the worse or for the better. If you choose to change for the worse, you’ve utterly wasted your life. God has given us this time when we can change as our opportunity to prepare for eternity. Number your days; use your precious time to accomplish the most important things. Wisdom says, “Be sure you make it into the Kingdom of Heaven.” Wisdom says, “Count everything loss (Phil 3:8-11) in order to attain to the resurrection. Let nothing distract you, let nothing get in your way.” Jesus says, “You must forsake all.” (Lk14:33) Anything you hold on to may cost you the Kingdom. Don’t think you can cheat God. Don’t think that you can retain little pieces of the world and still make it to heaven when God’s Word says you can’t. (1Jn2:15-17) Jesus says you must, “Lose your life and forsake all” – so do it! Redeem the time; attain to the resurrection! You’ll never have another chance. This is your only opportunity – don’t waste it! Most who’ve gone before you have wasted their lives! Don’t be one of them! Remind yourself everyday that your purpose here is not to please yourself but to please God and attain to His Kingdom. (Rom15:3) Your purpose isn’t to enjoy life here, but to make it into God’s Kingdom. Whatever it takes to get into His Kingdom, ask God to give you the grace to do it, then believe you receive and do it! “Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days! Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we’ve seen evil. Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children. (Ps90:13-16) The real Christian deeply desires to see God’s glory in the here and now; to see God act in power!

Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands. (Ps90:17) The work of my hands is to help in the building of Christ’s church, that He can have a true Spiritual church acceptable to Him. That He can examine this church and say, “Well done!” For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? (1Th2:19) Perfecting the saints, making them fit to meet Jesus is our goal and the calling for which we’ll be rewarded if we successfully fulfill it. And in “My Father’s House,” the work of “our hands” also includes the Glory of His Grace ministry, sharing God’s present truth with others that they may enter into true Spirituality. That our work will have permanent effect is what “establish” means. Establish the work of our hands means give us fruit that will remain even into eternity, as Jesus promised. “You didn’t choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” (Jn15:16) We’ve been appointed to bear fruit but you must ask for it, and then “go and bear.” You mustn’t be content with just the external motions of religion. Most so-called “christians” today, even the preachers, have no real goals; no sense of purpose or expectation. They think “christianity” is just a repetitive exercise of going to church, singing some songs, praying a little, maybe reading your Bible and trying not to do any really bad sins, but they’ve no real expectation of accomplishing anything. “Establish the work of our hands” means, I’m not content to go through the mere motions of religion. I must actually be accomplishing something useful to God. I have to see my Christianity is working, producing fruit. How can I expect to arrive at the judgment and hear Jesus say, “Well done” if I haven’t done anything? Paul says, “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” (Act20:24) And then, I’ve fought the good fight, I’ve finished the race, I’ve kept the faith. (2Tim4:7)  Paul knew he had to accomplish something and he did. And say to Archippus, "Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it." (Col 4:17) Now what about your ministry? Are you fulfilling your work in the Lord?

Things must be happening now to accomplish the work of the ministry, or there’ll be no fruit then! Paul knows that, so he watches over the churches, cares for them; making sure things stay on track, “lest my labor for you would be in vain!” (Gal 4:11) He’s not twiddling his thumbs, just going through motions of religion. Paul has a goal. He’s laboring to establish the saints firmly in Christ until they’re complete in Him, so he can present them faultless before the presence of Christ’s glory with exceeding joy. (Jude24) The goal is to hear Jesus say, “Good job, Paul!” And insofar as Christ has given you people to minister to this must be your goal too. So I’m laboring to present you faultless. But you should be working to present your children, and the believers you’re ministering to in the nursing homes, the prisons, etc., faultless. The work you’re doing must bear fruit! If you’re to receive a reward your work has to be established! There must be real church going on in the prisons. Things must be happening to cause the saints to grow stronger and stronger, and we must see them happening. If we can’t see it, it’s probably not happening! And if it’s not happening, there’ll be no reward, and if no reward then there is no purpose to the work. God is with you if you can pray, “God establish this work!” He wants to establish the work He’s given you. He wants to make your work in Christ substantial, glorious and fruitful! He wants you to ask Him to do that; and you should want to see Him do that, and be praying for Him to do that. For Zion's sake I won’t hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I won’t rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. I’ve set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they’ll never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the LORD, don’t keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. (Is62:1,6,7)

 Prophecy: There’s a race, and there’s a prize and there are three contestants. The first contestant says, “I don’t need to run, I’ve already won the prize.” The second says, “I’m strong and fast,” and he takes off like a shot. Yet, he’s a sprinter and loses the race, for he runs out of energy quickly. But there’s a third contestant who sees the road is long and fraught with many trials, so he turns to Me. And he starts his race in faith, and he looks to Me always to keep him, and he endures to the end. I tell you, only that third one wins the prize. The contestant who doesn’t run may encourage himself saying he has a prize awaiting, but he hasn’t even run – he’ll win nothing but everlasting shame. The second may be fast and he may be strong, but My race is long and in his own strength can’t endure to the end. But the third, the one who looks to Me and trusts in My strength, knowing that his strength is not enough, he’s the one who’ll overcome and win the race. They aren’t all Israel who are of Israel. Those who’ll endure to the end, those who’ll bear fruit are those who see the race is long with many trials to overcome, but they also know My grace is sufficient for them. So they run their race with joy and never give up, but through faith that takes hold of My grace they run gloriously, thus saith the Lord.   

 Prophecy: Do you have something to say? If all you have is what everybody else has, why do you need to say it? If all you can speak is what everybody else already knows, why do you need to say it? You’ve nothing to say, unless you have something the others haven’t heard. Unless you’ve something they don’t know. And if you have something that’s true that they haven’t heard and they don’t know, where did you get it? There’s only one place and that’s from Me. And if I’m giving you something to say, I’m giving you My present truth. Now if you have something to say, why don’t you say it? What’s the use of having nothing to say and saying it all the time, and what’s the use of having something to say and never saying it? Thus saith the Lord. (Prophecies delivered at “My Father’s House”)

Establish Your word to Your servant, who’s devoted to fearing You. (Ps119:38) How much of God’s Word has yet to be established to you? Are you devoted to fearing Him? Here He’s made a promise. God will establish His Word to you if you’re devoted to fearing Him. If you can truthfully say, “I’m devoted to You God. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, I have no interests above You; no purposes apart from You. I have no will of my own.” That being so, you’ve fulfilled the condition that His Word should be established to you. Of course, this can apply to all of God’s Word. But in this case David is specifically concerned with, “The children of Your servants will continue, and their descendants will be established before You.” (Ps102:28) This is one of the many scriptures in which God promises to bless the children of the elect. If you’re devoted to fearing Him, then as one of His servants, His promise to you is, He’ll establish your descendants. Even now God is establishing many brethren in the prisons, and in over 90 countries around the world who are receiving and living by His present truth ministry as given in the Glory of His Grace. These are our Spiritual descendants. The descendants of Abraham do the works of Abraham! (Jn8:39) One of the greatest works God does through Abraham is to “bless the nations.” As true descendants of Abraham we’re blessing the nations with Christ’s true gospel, and present truth in the Glory of His Grace. We’re true servants of God, and our descendants are being established as children of God also. We’ve a Christ-given privilege to ask God to establish “My Father’s House,” to magnify the truth He’s given us, to bless the brethren He’s brought to us, and to remove everything contrary to His gospel that hinders us. It’s become obvious through the battles we’ve fought to promote God’s truth and defeat satan’s lies that most “churches” today resist God’s present truths. Many are actually run by the devil and are worshipping antichrist. If someone who gets a real salvation goes into one of those antichrist “churches,” they’ll do everything they can to ruin the newcomer’s salvation and put him in some kind of bondage – heretical, legal, or licentious. And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. (Gal 2:4-5)

In satan’s “churches” they don’t teach people to be led by the Spirit; usually they teach them to falsely believe they’re saved when they’re still in sin. Antichrist sits in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God, and opposing everything that’s really of God. (2Th2:4) He wants to “establish” the deceived in his lies, and most nominal “christians” are in a very strong bondage to those lies; lies like “imputed righteousness” (being “righteous” without doing righteousness) or “Once Saved/Always Saved,” (see 2Pet1:10) or “you’re a sinner saved by grace but can never be anything but a sinner.” (see 1Jn3:6) The antichrist church and its lies have produced a false Christianity that doesn’t resemble Jesus. These false “churches” are filled with excuses as to why “believers” don’t have to be “conformed to the image of Jesus” but are saved anyway. But those excuses don’t agree with the Scriptures. They’re based on a misinterpretation of some scriptures like Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. (Jn6:47) while they ignore other very important scriptures like If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. (Jn15:6) and He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (1Jn2:6) Thus the correct interpretation of believing in Jesus in such a way as to have eternal life is, you must believe in Him in such a way as to abide in Him, His Spirit, and be conformed to His image. (Gal 4:19;Col 1:28-29) The longer a so-called “believer” has been in the antichrist church, the more difficult it usually is to get him to see truth, because the mission of the antichrist church is to “establish” their victims in satan’s lies. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” (Mt23:15)

Lies have no foundations. Both satan’s lies and those who “believe” them are doomed to fall as soon as God’s truth comes upon them. God’s truth is eternal. It can’t be overcome! For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. (2Cor13:8) Because you’ve said, “We’ve made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we’re in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us, for we’ve made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.” (Lies like you can be “saved” even if you continue to sin persistently.) Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes won’t act hastily. Also I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plummet; the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. Your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overflowing scourge passes through, then you’ll be trampled down by it.” (Is28:15-18)

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Because you’ve spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I’m indeed against you,” says the Lord GOD. “My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you’ll know that I’m the Lord GOD.” Because they’ve seduced My people, saying, “Peace!” (to the disobedient) when there is no peace (between the disobedient and God) – and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar – say to those who plaster it with untempered mortar, that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it down. Surely, when the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, “Where is the mortar with which you plastered it?’’ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume it. So I’ll break down the wall you’ve plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you’ll know that I’m the LORD. Thus will I accomplish My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it with untempered mortar; and I will say to you, ‘The wall is no more, nor those who plastered it,’” (Ezek13:8-15)

This is similar to the parable when Jesus says if you don’t do My Word, the storms will wash your house away. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. (Mt7:26-27) There are numerous scriptures where God says He’ll establish the just, but bring down the wicked. The LORD preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. (Ps145:20) The LORD lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground. (Ps147:6) The fear of the LORD prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened. The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. The way of the LORD is strength for the upright, but destruction will come to the workers of iniquity. (Pr10:27-29) Lies have no foundation; you can’t build on sand; and that’s what satan’s trying to do. But we have a sure and certain hope as we stand for the irrefutable truths of God’s Word! We’ve an unshakeable foundation in God’s truth which will prevail and be victorious.

For this reason I won’t be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. (2Pet1:12) The Glory of His Grace is a present truth ministry; what God is saying now to His people. If you’re wise you’ll reread even the early edition Glory of His Grace books regularly, because to overcome in this present evil age you must become established in the present truth. There’s a treasury of present truth in these Glory of His Grace books and Peter says you need a continual reminder of these things. You need a reminder, for example, of why righteousness saves you and of what kind of righteousness saves you. You must be able to show the false christians today what they’re calling righteousness isn’t scriptural. Their “imputed righteousness” in the way they teach it, is a lie. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. (1Jn3:7)

Recently I reread “Political Jesus.” I was amazed how much conviction it has in it. Most so-called “christians” of today would start that book thinking, “This can’t be true!” Until they get to, “seeing all these things will be dissolved.” If all these things will be dissolved what are you doing marching in the streets about them? Seeing all these things will be dissolved, why is your “church” wrapped up in them? Seeing all these things will be dissolved, why are you struggling to hold on to them, or even trying to on the one hand preserve and on the other change things that will be dissolved? In “Political Jesus” God exposed the foolishness of the year 2000 “christian” gathering in Washington D.C. and one of the most damnable indictments of these Spiritless “political” christians is in all their endless rhetoric they never made a single reference to, “Seeing all these things will be dissolved.” (2Pet3:11) They’re so wrapped up in changing this world, they almost entirely forgot about the coming of the Lord! What kind of christianity has no conscious awareness of the coming of the Lord? So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, (1Cor1:7) For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, (Phil 3:20) What kind of christianity has forgotten Jesus is coming while it parades around in pious clothing, claiming to be doing God’s will? Regarding political christians, their citizenship isn’t in heaven. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame – who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, (Phil 3:18-20) If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. (Col 3:1-2) They don’t understand what Christ is really about. “Seeing that all these things will be dissolved!” We’re not trying to fix this world but we’re building an ark and getting people out of this world, because it will soon be dissolved.

Real Christians should be constantly reminding each other, “Soon all these things will be dissolved.” This is a foundational, plain and simple truth that most contemporary “christians” don’t believe anymore. They rarely, if ever, remember it, consider it, or even understand it. It’s not being preached in their “churches.” They think christianity’s function is to straighten this world out. But real Christianity isn’t straightening this world out; it’s delivering believers from the wrath of God that’s certain to come soon upon this world. Can you see how dramatically different the perspective of a real Spiritual Christian is from this antichrist “christianity.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You’re an offense to Me, for you’re not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Mt16:23) If you don’t stay versed in sound doctrine, reminding yourself continually of God’s Word, how easy it is to slip into the antichrist mentality and think you’re serving the Lord when you’re being mindful of the things of men. You think you’re serving the Lord when you’re misinterpreting the Scriptures. Instead of holding fast to the present truth, most “christians” today are completely wrapped up in the present lies. How do you stay in the truth? You must be diligent to hold on to the truths God is presently giving you. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. (Mt10:27) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He’ll teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (Jn14:26) Make sure you know what God’s present truths are, that you haven’t forgotten them, haven’t let them slip away; because as soon as you do, you fall into the common ways of thinking; the prevalent errors. And these errors aren’t just the ways of thinking you’ll find in the unbelievers, but they’re also the wrong ways of thinking we commonly find in “believers” who don’t have the Spirit. Spiritless “believers” always slip into foolish and erroneous thoughts where they deceive themselves into thinking they’re okay with God and they know God when they don’t hear His voice and they don’t obey Him. He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God. (Jn8:47) And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. (Jn10:4) He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1Jn2:4)

God isn’t in agreement with what is commonly called “christianity.” True Christianity is a very different religion than what most so-called “christians” practice. God is telling His people to prepare to get out of this world! Seeing all these things will be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in holy conduct, waiting for the coming of the Lord? (2Pet3:11) Seeing that all these things will be dissolved, what should you be thinking about, focusing on, considering important in your life? Make sure you understand Jesus is reigning in the heavenlies, and He’s not overly concerned with the politics down here. What He’s really involved in is getting His people into the Spirit and out of this world before it’s destroyed. And it will be destroyed!

The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. He won’t be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. His heart is established; he won’t be afraid, until he sees his desire upon his enemies. (Ps112:6-8) The heart of the righteous is established because he trusts in the Lord in such a way that bad news can’t shake him. He knows nothing in this world can mess up his relationship with God. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom8:35,37,39) As a true believer I must know nothing can separate me from Christ’s love. In the midst of the most terrible cataclysms, God’s relationship with His people stands. His true saints are unshakeable. They know God is with them and they know God is for them. Is that true for you? Because although the Bible describes true Christians as being established firmly in their faith, in practice many so-called “christians” today panic when things don’t go right. Most so-called “christians” today aren’t established at all. Worse than that, many of them are actually serving their flesh and the antichrist. They have no real relationship with God so how can they have any faith in a time of trouble that God is for them; if they’re in the flesh He’s not for them! In our personal relationship with God, we should be so well established in Christ that it doesn’t matter how things go in the natural realm. We know God is for us. He’ll make all things work together for good because we love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Rom8:28)

It doesn’t matter if everything looks like it’s coming apart. In fact, what’s coming apart is everything that’s not of God. Everything that can be shaken is being shaken. But now He’s promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. (Heb12:26-27) So all the things that can be shaken will be shaken! Many things you may be involved with or touched by in some way or another are being shaken. But if your trust is in God, it doesn’t matter. You lose your job? Your faith is in God, not your job. God will find another way to supply your need. The fact that circumstances seem adverse doesn’t mean God is against you. There was a time before you had a job and God got your job for you. So you trust in God. Anything in your life that seems important but now you’re losing it, God can replace. Often He’ll replace what you lose with something even better. Sometimes the only way God can replace a lesser thing with a better is first to remove the lesser thing so He can make space for the better. God does that a lot. Much of what we’ve been through here at “My Father’s House” is like that. God had to close down some of our ministries to open up doors for even better ones. When this happens at first, it looks like you’re losing; but in the end it turns out you’re growing! And every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. (Jn15:2b) If your heart is established you know God isn’t regressing. He’s progressing, He’s moving forward. But to move forward He’ll destroy, shake, and bring down everything that’s in the way.

The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens; (Pr3:19) Then what does it take to get you established in things? Understanding! When God opened up the subject of “righteousness” to us, He gave us three Glory of His Grace books in less than three months all on New Covenant righteousness; “Saved By Righteousness,” “His Righteousness,” and “The Gift of Righteousness.” In His real church God doesn’t skip randomly from subject to subject. When He brings a subject out, He develops it. Recently He’s given us several Glory of His Grace books pertaining to God’s way of “having church.” “The Harlot Church,” “My Church,” “Jerusalem Below;” are all “church” books. And there are more coming. When God opens a subject to us, He doesn’t just give us a “taste” – He wants us to have a full understanding! He’s not content to show us just a skeleton of doctrine, or give us a couple of scanty scriptures; He wants us to understand deeply the truths He’s revealing. For example, most so-called “churches and christians” today believe to attain immortality you need only “believe” that Jesus is the Son of God. But in their definition of “believe” they think they’re believing when they mentally agree with the fact. In God’s definition, “believe” means to live in such a way as every action and decision in your life is based upon and in agreement with the truth you purport to believe! So real “believing” changes the way you live, think, and behave! In other words, believing in Jesus must cause you to live righteously or it isn’t real believing. And if you don’t attain to the righteousness that comes by faith (real believing) you won’t receive eternal life. So believing in Jesus must make you righteous in behavior or it won’t save you. Without righteousness you won’t attain to immortality.

Then recently in our study of righteousness, God showed us there are several very needful and important steps to attaining to immortality. For by grace you’ve been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it’s the gift of God, (Eph2:8) So first your faith must produce “saving grace.” And saving grace is, The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, (Tit2:11-13) So saving grace teaches us we must “live right” to be saved. But to “live right” we need faith for Jesus to come into us to live His righteous life in us so we’re actually doing God’s righteousness. “Christ in you is your hope of glory.” (Col 1:27)

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it’s he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I’ll love him and manifest Myself to him. If anyone loves Me, he’ll keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We’ll come to him and make Our home with him. (Jn14:21,23) In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. (Col 2:11-12) Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we’ve been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who’s died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, (Rom6:3-8) I’ve been crucified with Christ; it’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Gal 2:20) We must love Jesus in such a way as to keep His commandments and obey Him. We must be baptized in faith so Christ can live His righteous life in us. And we must crucify the flesh and be led by His Spirit to attain to the righteousness that comes by faith.

For if you live according to the flesh you’ll die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you’ll live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (Rom8:13-14) And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Gal 5:24) Whoever abides in Him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. (1Jn3:6-7) When you become a doer of righteousness that makes you holy. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you’re that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. (Rom6:16,18,22)

So to attain to everlasting life in the sense of “immortality” (see our previous Glory of His Grace book “Eternal Living”) you must obey Christ in you, which leads you into His righteousness and bears fruit unto holiness. And holiness is the road that leads to and ends in everlasting life; so the path to everlasting life requires you first become holy. How many so-called “churches” or “christians” today understand that? They shortcut everything by saying, “I believe in Jesus; that makes me righteous, so I have everlasting life.” But it’s a lie. You can’t attain to everlasting life in the sense of immortality until you’re holy! So your believing in Jesus has to produce His real righteousness in you, which then bears fruit in making you holy, and that holiness without which no one will see God, (Heb12:14) is the only way to arrive at immortality.

In the Glory of His Grace righteousness books, God takes us from scripture to scripture to show us how this works. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. (Rom6:19,22) Holiness is the way to everlasting life, but holiness arises out of righteousness. So you must attain to holiness before you can attain to immortality. “Holiness, without which no one will see God.” (Heb12:14)

But you become a slave of righteousness before you can be holy!  (Rom6:19) So what kind of righteousness leads to holiness? Not “imputed” righteousness alone. “Whoever doesn’t practice righteousness is not of God.” (1Jn3:10) It must be a real righteousness that shows up in your behavior, and your deeds. And don’t present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you’re that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. (Rom6:13,16-18) The righteousness that leads to holiness and to everlasting life must be a real righteousness in behavior. If you understand that well then you’re well established in the doctrine of righteousness, and if you don’t understand that you aren’t established. If you don’t understand the true scriptural righteousness that comes by a real faith, some Baptist might come along and deceive you with his “imputed” righteousness heresy, and you wouldn’t be able to see through his lies. But once you get an understanding of what is actually scripturally required to attain to everlasting life, you can see holiness is absolutely essential. Then you also know from the scriptures that to attain to holiness you must have faith to get into real behavioral righteousness. And to get into real righteousness you must have faith for Jesus to live in you, and for His grace to empower you and keep you in His Spirit so you can behave righteously in His righteousness. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezek36:27)

            When you know these things then no one can fool you, because you don’t just understand that righteousness saves you, you understand how it saves you. Understanding is not just repeating or parroting a doctrine someone has taught you, but it’s recognizing how this actually works in the Kingdom, what has to be done in order to truly attain to everlasting life, what steps have to be taken, and knowing the Scriptures that show you that. Perhaps the most important foundation of a real Christian faith is, “If heaven and earth pass away, My (Jesus’) Word will not pass away.” (Mt24:35) If in the Scriptures God says that’s the way it must be done, then that’s the way it must be done. And if people think they can do it some other way either they don’t know the Scriptures, and they’re listening to a lie or they’re simply rebellious and foolish! So what makes you different from them? From where are you getting your doctrine? Do you just listen to a few things your preacher preaches and think you know the scriptures, or do you have a real understanding? Can you explain accurately why your doctrine is true? Why it can scripturally be no other way? When you have understanding, no one can ever convince you what you know isn’t true, because in understanding you have the proof. Understanding establishes you. Get wisdom, and with all your getting, get understanding! (Pr4:7) What do you get when you get understanding? You get established! (Pr24:3)

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. (Pr4:23) Your heart is the foundation and motivational source to every important thing you do. If your heart runs in the wrong direction, it will pervert everything in your life. Once the heart is set on something, it’s very difficult to pry it free. The heart is foundational to all other things and foundations are difficult to rebuild. The heart is your source of affections, and affections can hold onto things like glue. “Do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.” (Song2:7) Don’t let yourself fall in love until it is the right time, place, person, or your heart will tear you apart. Don’t let yourself fall in love with something God says don’t fall in love with. Because once the heart connects, you may never be able to break it loose. To guard your heart is godly wisdom. One way to keep your heart is to set your affections upon God and to turn away from things you ought not look at. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way. (Ps119:37) If you had any sense of the dangers involved in letting your heart run after something it ought not, you’d be pleading with God to keep you – to help you stay a chaste virgin unto Christ. (Jude24;2Cor11:2) But each one is tempted when he’s drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it’s full-grown, brings forth death. (Jms1:14-15) Sin is an inordinate desire where the heart has gone after the wrong thing, and sin leads to death. Don’t love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father isn’t in him. For all that’s in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – isn’t of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1Jn2:15-17) How very important it is to keep your heart fixed upon and loving the things of God. “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you’ve left your first love.” (Rev2:4) And how easily men can be deceived into loving the world in a “religious way,” and trying to attain worldly advantages through religion because it’s the world they really love first not Jesus.

When “believers” lose sight of what Jesus loves and what His Word says about worldly things they need to be convicted until they can see again what they’ve forgotten: “seeing all these things will be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be?” (2Pet3:11) All these things will be dissolved: the Washington Monument, the Capitol Building, the White House. Seeing all these things will be dissolved, what ought you to be doing? Conviction comes when you see you’ve been doing the wrong things because you’ve not remembered “All these things will be dissolved.” Conviction comes by God’s Word. And it’s because you’ve forgotten what the Word says that you fall into such religious errors. (Heb12:5)

Now, keep your heart. (Pr4:23) For God to keep you from stumbling, (Jude24) you must be careful to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. (Rev2:7) The Spirit is always speaking present truth, and to be “saved” you must be established in the present truth, and, of course, that means you need to understand it. “When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom, and doesn’t understand, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.” (Mt13:19) Even if you understand it Peter says you need to be continually reminded of the present truth. For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. (2Pet1:12) It’s utterly inconceivable that Demas could have been established in the present truth. For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica. (2Tim4:10) Likewise, for Will to depart from us he had to forget the present truth. We all saw how his wisdom and Spirituality left him and how dreadfully his Christianity deteriorated before he fell away. As soon as he turned from the present truth, foolishness began pouring out of his mouth. Remember when he counseled Brenda, “If God wanted you to get up early to pray, He’d have woken you up…” Then it’s not your fault if you oversleep and miss your morning devotions, it’s God’s fault. So God is the author of sin and every sinner in the world is a sinner only because God doesn’t want them to do right. God is the one at fault? To imply such things is blasphemy! Will became a blasphemer very quickly when he fell away from present truth! The real truth is if you were in the Spirit, God would have gotten you up to pray. (Mk1:35) But if you don’t crucify the flesh you won’t be in the Spirit. (Gal 5:16,24) There are times God may have wanted to get you up to pray, but you weren’t in the Spirit. But Will has lost the ability to think right. Now what does he substitute for godly wisdom? Religious lies, devilish excuses that may fool the ignorant but don’t agree with the Scriptures. And those religious lies comfort him in his disobedience and make him think he’s wise and Spiritual when he’s become an utter fool! Now, do the opposite of what Will did. Make sure what’s coming through your mouth isn’t some lie you’ve made up to disguise your iniquity.

To abide in Christ, to abide in God’s truth you must keep reminding yourself of what the Spirit is saying to the church in our present time. Someday there may be an age in which no one has ever heard the Once Saved/Always Saved heresy! In that day, the believers won’t need to read our Glory of His Grace books exposing that lie. When the Once Saved/Always Saved lie has been totally eradicated, then no one will be preaching it and no one will be deceived by it. But we’re not in that age right now. Today Once Saved/Always Saved is a very dangerous lie and an enemy to your present salvation. Therefore, through our Glory of His Grace ministry we’re establishing ourselves and others in the present truth that exposes the deadly Once Saved/Always Saved lie! The real importance of present truth is it has a special application to a present danger. The present time strategies of satan which are temporary, will be defeated by a present time emphasizes on those of God’s eternal truths which are especially effective against the present problem. The particular eternal truth that must be emphasized right now to defeat satan’s present lie is what Peter calls present truth. And once satan’s present lie is defeated, we won’t have to emphasize that particular truth anymore, but perhaps a different eternal truth may need to be brought into prominence to defeat satan’s next lie.

So the most needful truth becomes the present truth. Present truth is dealing with the enemy at the door, right now, not the enemy that was there twenty years ago and isn’t here anymore. Nor is present truth dealing with the enemy that’s far off in the future who we haven’t yet encountered. Which enemy is most dangerous to you? The enemy that will be here tomorrow, or next week or even fifty years from now but isn’t here yet, or the one that’s here right now? Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Mt6:34) Which enemy do you have to defeat? Today’s enemy, the present enemy, the present popular lie! You’ll never get to tomorrow if you don’t defeat today’s present enemy! And what does God give you to defeat the present enemy? Present truth! How important then is present truth to you? Get established in the present truth, because it’s the present truth that saves you from the present enemy.

For this reason I’ll not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. (2Pet1:12) The present truth is what the Spirit is saying to the churches right now. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Rev2:7a,11,17,29;3:6,13,22) “He who has an ear, let him hear!” If you’re not hearing what the Spirit is saying, you don’t have an ear. And if you don’t have an ear, you’re an idolater. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they don’t speak; eyes they have, but they don’t see; They have ears, but they don’t hear; Noses they have, but they don’t smell; They have hands, but they don’t handle; feet they have, but they don’t walk; nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them. (Ps115:4-8) Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don’t see, and hearing they don’t hear, nor do they understand. (Mt13:13) These are the living dead. What they do has little relationship to actually living a godly life. It’s characteristic of most of those who call themselves “christians” today to be dead to the present truth.

In Finney’s day, the big lie that had overcome the “churches” was predestination and an erroneous interpretation of the sovereignty of God. In a typical sermon the preacher might say, “You can’t do anything about your salvation; it’s completely up to God. He’ll either save you or He won’t. So you must wait on the Lord, and if you’re predestined by God to be saved, He’ll save you. Be still and don’t try to make God do something but wait on Him, because it’s all foreordained. There’s nothing you can do anyway.” Of course, their god never did anything for them because there’s no faith in their kind of religion. They’d created a dead god! They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god; (they do this in seminaries) they prostrate themselves, yes, they worship. They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it and set it in its place, and it stands; from its place it shall not move. (Then they take their dead doctrines home.) Though one cries out to it, it cannot answer nor save him out of his trouble. (Is46:6-7) Since their god is dead, so are they. They are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; a wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. (Jer10:8) People who preach such foolishness can’t know the living God. Charles Finney was God’s man to defeat the idolatrous lies of the 1800’s by preaching “present truth” to set men free from the “predestination” heresy. The predestination lie still enslaves the Calvinist “churches” but their influence in contemporary christendom has been broken. Even as the “present truth” in Luther’s day broke the great power and evil influence of the Catholic “church,” so Finney’s “present truth” set America free from Calvinist heresies. Because of victories won by preachers of “present truth” in the past, Christians today have been set free from the lies that used to enslave believers in previous eras but are no longer “present lies” since they’ve been exposed and overcome by God’s truth. But as satan comes up with new lies “present truth” must continually arise to combat whatever new heresy is becoming popular today. Thus “present truth” must react to confront present error. And as long as there’s flesh in the “church” there’ll be error!

Regarding Calvinism, Calvin’s doctrine didn’t come from God, but from Augustine. Augustine didn’t get his doctrine from God either. He was a “scholar” tripping over his own mental shoelaces in intellectual pride. Human wisdom is flesh not revelation. And Augustine was trying to use human intellect to attain to heavenly wisdom without consulting the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t work. God always makes a fool out of anyone who does this because, He will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. (1Cor1:19) Any so-called “churches” who think Augustine is wise are themselves foolish, and full of flesh. They’re easily impressed by the “human wisdom” of “clever” men and they don’t know God. It isn’t Spiritual churches but carnal ones who regard highly things like, scholasticism, intellectualism, university professorships, etc. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Lk16:15) How many so-called “churches” today regard “doctorates of divinity” as something to be esteemed when they’re nothing but man’s opinion of other men? They’ve nothing to do with whether God is commending someone. But men step in, in place of God and give commendations where God isn’t commending. God has different ways of commending; He rewards openly. (Mt6:4) He rewards with supernatural insights, gifts and power of the Holy Spirit. So Augustine is a clever “intellectual” who is highly regarded by foolish “churches.” Calvin didn’t go to God to find out what God was saying as in present truth. But he went to the books of the ancient “scholars” and came out with what became a new “present lie.” What does such behavior remind us of? Scribes and pharisees! They didn’t know Jesus was God’s Son when He walked among them. Yet they’re full of the knowledge of what other men in other times have said about God, so they think themselves to be “experts” on God when really they couldn’t recognize Him when He was right in front of them! In the Judgment they’ll be exposed as utter rejects.

Present truth is what God is saying today for the purpose of saving you from present lies. In Finney’s day, the lie of predestination had to be exposed, and faithless christianity brought back to faith. Finney told the people that if they wanted to be saved the Scriptures say to call upon the Lord. (Rom10:13) In his ministries he often used what he called an “anxious seat.” If you wanted to be saved you could come up before the congregation and sit in the anxious seat where you’d pray for God to save you while the saints also prayed for you. The very thing the “present lie” preachers said not to do! In faith new believers could come forward and take a step towards God. Instead of waiting for God to unveil the mystery of who was “predestined” to be saved, people began to believe, “I’m one God wants to save, and that’s why He’s given me the desire to be saved.” So they’d respond in faith to the desire God was giving them and take a step towards God. And God would answer that step of faith and save people. Half a million people were “saved” by Charles Finney’s ministry of present truth that overturned the Calvinist lies of his day. Today only the remnants of that Calvinist heresy remain. They’re found in dead churches like the “Christian Reformed Church,” the “Dutch Reformed Church,” Presbyterianism and such. All of these churches are dramatically decreasing in size and influence. One of the few that seems to have “life” is Robert Schuller’s heretical ministry. He’s a “reformed church” minister who’s turned away from the traditional teachings of his Calvinist denomination to preach the “power of positive thinking.” This is the “popular” philosophies of another 20^th century heretic, “Norman Vincent Peale.” If the mountain won’t come to Mohammed, then Mohammed will go to the mountain. Since his traditional “christianity” wasn’t working, Schuller found something else that people would respond to, tickling their ears with a popular secular lie that you can “think yourself into worldly success!” – In contrast to what Jesus says, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?” (Mt6:27) Schuller’s very popular TV “ministry” has nothing to do with God’s Kingdom, and everything to do with man’s. But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Mt16:23)

The remnants of Calvinism can only carry on by having children that may stay in their father’s “church!” These “churches” don’t evangelize because they have no power from the Holy Spirit. They have no truth because they’re estranged from the Spirit of truth. They preach lies and no lie is of the truth. (1Jn2:21) The Holy Spirit doesn’t speak to them. So what do they do? They clothe themselves with their traditions. They wrap themselves up in vain repetitions of things they were taught in the past, while they corrupt themselves with lies to excuse their lack of Spirituality. It’s not much different in most contemporary “churches” today.

The greatest enemy to true Christianity is always the present lie. “He who has ears let him hear what the Spirit says to the church.” (Rev2:7) The Spirit speaks present truth. Peter says to his church, “I know that you’re established in the present truth.” (2Pet1:12) The present truth defeats the present lie. There are general truths and general lies, but as soon as you see the adjective “present” connected to truth you must realize there’s something special about this truth that’s needful for an immediate purpose. Wherever truth is immediately needful, it’s because there’s something untrue warring against God, trying to take God’s people captive, or interfere with God’s will for His people right now. So, Peter is careful to remind his church of present truth, and be sure they’re established in it. Many of the epistles were written to refute lies that were coming against the churches in those days. The apostles always used “present” truth from the Spirit to overcome those lies. Both Galatians and Hebrews were written to confront the immediate evil influences of Judaizers and to admonish the churches not to return to “what is growing old (which) is obsolete and ready to pass away.” (Heb8:13) A great “present truth” of Hebrews was if the Old Covenant was acceptable, God wouldn’t have created the New. (v7) So the author of Hebrews admonishes the believers not to go back to what God has rejected, but to receive and hold onto His new and better Covenant! 1^st John was written to protect the church from gnosticism, which was at the time rapidly gaining in popularity. The Greek word “gnostic” means “knowledge.” Paul warns the church against this heresy in, O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge – by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. (1Tim6:20-21) Gnostics claimed to possess a special private knowledge which was necessary for salvation, and only available through them; contrary to, And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (2Tim3:15) Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, (2Pet1:20) Paul warns us, Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. (1Cor8:1) Gnosticism reeks of elitism and that knowledge which “puffs up.” But it also stands as a warning against those who think salvation is found in “knowledge” today, as though merely “knowing” Jesus is the Lord and Savior will save you. For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power. (1Cor4:20) Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1Cor1:24b)

Salvation takes more than just knowing about Jesus. For a believer to be saved he must actually possess the indwelling Spirit of Christ. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (Rom8:9b) This is a present truth needed today to defeat the lie of contemporary gnosticism (salvation by knowledge,) even as John in his first epistle is refuting the gnostics of his day by powerfully reminding the church of the “present truth” concerning their salvation. In his case the church was under attack, not from strangers without but from people who had come from within. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. (Acts20:30) John calls them “antichrists.” Little children, it’s the last hour; and as you’ve heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it’s the last hour. They went out from us, but they weren’t of us; for if they’d been of us, they’d have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. (1Jn2:18,19)

They gnostics have arrogantly decided they know more about God than John and Jesus’ true apostles. Gnosticism was perhaps the first great uprising of human intellectualism disguising itself as religion in the Christian age. In many ways it’s an exaggeration of the “pharisee” spirit. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees;” (Lk12:1) Phariseeism is hypocrisy, but it’s also human intellectualism. In both Titus and Timothy, Paul continually warns us to stay away from strivings about the law that are unprofitable and useless. (Titus3:9) “The purpose of the commandment is love” – intellectual arguments about religion do not contribute to the saints attaining to “Love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1Tim1:5) They have nothing to do with godly behavior. They are just speculations, conjectures and such. LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me. (Ps131:1) These religious speculations are often just a human attempt to dissect God! It’s all mental foolishness that has nothing to do with obedience to God, knowing God’s voice, or moral uprightness! These “scholarly experts” are often consumed with intellectual questions on a useless level; they’re totally unprofitable.

There must be a godly purpose to the things believers are concerned with or meditating upon. The purpose must always pertain to fruitfulness. Our activities must be producing good fruit. If what you’re doing isn’t producing useful things then you’ve not been redeemed from your aimless conduct or delivered from vanity. The fact that what you’re doing may seem religious doesn’t mean it’s not vain. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility (uselessness) of their mind, (Eph4:17) And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, (1Pet1:17-18) To be saved we must turn away from vanity and enter into a fruitful life in Christ. “And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Mt3:10) “I’m the vine, you’re the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (Jn15:5) “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” (v2) By the wisdom of Christ we must discern if what we’re doing is actually fruitful or useful. We must see, “There’s no sense in doing this if it isn’t accomplishing anything of value to Christ or the brethren!”

Most unfruitful things are not only useless, they’re actually detrimental to good. They work against God’s purposes. They often awaken things in the believers that should be crucified. They’re the operation of uncrucified flesh continuing to reign instead of Christ. It’s through sinful “flesh” satan holds sway over the world. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. (1Jn5:19) For this reason “present truth” will be the most unpopular message in the age you live in. The present lie is always popular, either with the entire society or with particular groups within the society. For example, there are present lies in the “faith movement” that are universally believed in that group but are unknown to the greater “church” population. One of these lies is they believe you get what you say and if you confess something enough it will come to pass. The truth is, When they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. (1Thes5:3) The wicked often get the opposite of what they “confess.”

The present lie is something everybody in a society under the sway of satan has already agreed upon as being true. Today, for example, the most universal present lie is that “God loves everyone” in such a way as to be of no danger to anyone. So the society at large has no fear of God, being deceived by the lie where they misinterpret “God is love” to mean He’s harmless. The truth Jesus teaches is, “I’ll show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He’s killed (you), has power to cast (you) into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” (Lk12:5) The present lie teaches God is not to be feared, but the present truth teaches God is to be greatly feared and carefully served. In Finney’s day, the present lie was “predestination.” The churches of his day were mostly Congregationalists and Presbyterians. They were all influenced by the Calvinists. No matter what church you went to in the relatively small United States of those days every “preacher” came from the same small group of seminaries. Every preacher “learned” the same doctrines from those same colleges. And every newly educated “preacher” came home preaching the same lies. So virtually every “christian” in the United States in the 1830s went to a church that preached the same message, “God is all mighty, all powerful and predestines all things. You can do nothing to save yourself since it’s all predestined. So wait on the Lord; do nothing and let God be God!” Everyone believed that lie because that’s what was preached everywhere and no one heard anything different until Finney came along.

Finney was educated as a lawyer, not a preacher and he received his doctrines straight from the Bible – not from other preachers or theologians. God didn’t let Finney start his revivals in the big cities. The big city “churches” hated him. They considered him theologically uneducated because he was taught of God not men. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. (Gal 1:11-12) Finney had been schooled in law, but in his legal practice he began reading the Bible to help with his court cases. Eventually he became “saved.” But when Finney read God’s Word he would see things others weren’t seeing and which very much disagreed with the popular “beliefs.” When God called him to preach he went to backwoods churches and preached on the outskirts of the frontiers.

In the wilderness churches you’d find the most rejected and uneducated of the preachers. Often they were considered unsuccessful because they weren’t very good at preaching the present lie. So the frontier people, not being so well acquainted with the present lies, were more receptive to the truth. That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. (Eph4:14) That’s where God first sent Finney. And when Finney began preaching on the frontiers, waters burst forth in the wilderness. (Is35:6) A great revival began and hundreds of people were getting saved. The reputation of Finney’s ministry grew so quickly that the city people soon heard of him and became curious as to, “What’s going on out there?” This new move of God sparked a lot of controversy as every true revival does. Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. (Jn9:16) Finney preached against “predestination,” the popular lie. So how could he be of God? Yet how could such a great revival be taking place if Finney wasn’t of God? There were many arguments and division in the city churches over Finney, but eventually some started inviting him in to hear what he had to say. And when they heard, revival came to the cities too. God’s present truth was overcoming the present lie every place Finney went. Through Finney’s preaching, God set His people free to take hold of the truth they needed to be saved by a faith that works. (Jms2:17) “By grace we are saved through faith.” (Eph2:8) For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Rom10:13)

Most religion is composed of present lies; what everyone else in their church or society says is what most people believe. The deceitfulness of satan is, he’s able to get everyone who doesn’t hear God to listen to the same voice – the voice of the “mob.” “Broad is the way to destruction.” (Mt7:13) The masses are always on the broad way, while people who really hear God stand apart from the crowd. They’re on the “narrow” way. Few there be that find it. (v14) But everyone who doesn’t hear God becomes a crowd follower. Satan can manipulate them and maneuver them just like they’re a herd of sheep. They all listen to the same “popular” voice. To carnal preachers success lies in preaching what everybody else already believes is true. Ambitious men think they can advance themselves by being more zealous for the popular causes than their peers. As Paul said, I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. (Gal 1:14) So if I want to be successful I mustn’t preach anything different from the popular beliefs, but must preach these things even better than others. Thus the present lie becomes a great idol that all who are ambitious of temporal success bow down too – and the one who worships and promotes the popular lie the best becomes the most highly esteemed by the other idolaters. So the fleshly desire to succeed expresses itself in being agreeable to what everyone else says is true, and preaching it better or louder than others preach it.

 Temporal success comes by preaching to “itching ears” that want you to repeat what they already believe; self-comforting lies which they want to hear over and over so they can increasingly feel justified in their ungodly self-righteousness. Thus the self-promoting spirit of carnal ambition in the preachers, and the pride and desire for self-justification in the laity all join together in an idolatrous orgy of promoting what is already over promoted. It’s like an eruption of volcanic lava, spewing out its sparks and venomous gasses. There’s a very satanic work going on in keeping the masses so established in present lies that they even think they’re pleasing to God. They’ll put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think he offers God service. And these things they’ll do to you because they haven’t known the Father nor Me. (Jn16:2-3) If you don’t know or hear God but you’re ambitious to be regarded as being “of God,” the best way to fool ignorant men is to say more loudly and more often the things everybody else thinks are of God. That will cause most of the ignorant people to think you’re a great “man of God.” So all these fakers who don’t know God can deceive the simple minded into thinking they’re of God, and in such a society most people become very certain what they believe has to be right, because almost everybody else who claims to be of God believes it. Unlike the true Christianity where, we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, (Eph4:14) So today’s “broad way” generation falls into the same traps every past generation of the human race has fallen into.

In every age there’s always been a present lie most of the world believed. In the fifteenth century, people believed the earth was flat. And how could you convince an ignorant peasant the earth isn’t flat when the things pertaining to this truth are beyond his ability to see or perceive? The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1Cor2:14) In the western world, some of the first people to recognize the earth wasn’t flat were sailors. Seamen looking through lenses at distant ships approaching noticed they wouldn’t see the whole ship at first but only the topsail. And as the ship drew nearer they’d see the next lower sail, and the next. They could see the ship as rising above a horizon that couldn’t be level. It was just as if the ship was coming over a hill. Thus seen over a short distance the earth seems flat but viewed over a long distance the curvature of the earth’s surface becomes very apparent. The earth isn’t flat! Columbus put that present truth to the test and defeated the present “earth is flat” lie. In the reality of the way God has made things there are often “mysteries” which simple-minded people can’t see because they always jump to the obvious and “easy” but wrong conclusions. If you visit “Boot Hill” in Tombstone, you’ll notice several graves that say, “Hung by mistake.” Of course the accused said he was innocent, but no one listened. Criminals often claim to be innocent. Later, when it’s too late, the lynch mob found out these men were telling the truth. Yet fallen mankind keeps on hanging people by mistake. Their feet are swift to shed innocent blood; the venom of asps is under their lips. (Rom3:10-18) Carnal men never consider the possibility they could be wrong until it’s too late. Truth isn’t what they’re looking for; justification is what they want. They want to appear justified even if they’re wrong. It’s more important to look right than to be right, because pride doesn’t care whether it’s right; it only cares that it appears to be right. Thus the evil nature of carnal men and the wicked spirits this world is filled with all work together towards promoting the present lie.

The present lie is the devil’s present poison – his butcher’s blade. Satan is as a roaring lion. (1Pet5:8) He’s come to steal, kill, and destroy. (Jn10:10) Sometimes he’s called the fowler. (Ps124:7) He builds traps to catch men! The devil is a strategist. His “gates of hell” are always seeking new strategies to destroy men’s souls. And when one strategy is defeated, such as the predestination lie, satan comes up with another. Satan won’t stop working until Jesus sends the great angel who’ll chain him in the pit for a thousand years. (Rev20:1-2) Yet even though the devil is bound for that thousand years, there’ll still be sin. The Bible shows us people will be executed for sin during the Millennium. (Is65:20) So what the devil does must be something other than just inciting personal sin, because some individuals will still sin even after satan’s bound. One chief work of satan is to create conspiracies. He draws sinners together to sin as a group; he stirs up the nations to war against God together. The demon frogs go out from the devil to gather the nations together. The devil draws sinners to join together into groups, denominations, even armies to fight against God. (Rev16:13-16)

The Bible says if anyone prophesies in the age when satan is bound, their mother and father will thrust them through, saying, “You speak lies in the Name of the Lord!” (Zech13:3) So some people will still prophesy falsely during the Millennium even though the devil is bound. Where does the false prophecy come from if the devil is bound? From the flesh! Sin in the flesh isn’t bound yet. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires (not satan) and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (Jms1:14-15) Sin arises from the desires in the flesh. Satan can help excite those desires and tempt men to sin, but people can also give in to their own evil desires and sin all by themselves. The body is still a corruptible body. Even if satan’s bound, flesh still has sin in it. But what does the devil do after the thousand years when he’s again free? He gathers the nations together against God. (Rev20:7-8) So satan is able to manipulate the flesh of sinners and organize them to make them work together for his evil purposes. In our present time satan is able to stir up the sinful flesh, gathering sinners together to build strongholds. These particularly include false religions, heretical “churches” and denominations of false christianity. During the Millennium there won’t be any strongholds; no groups gathering together to fight against God. There will be occasional individual sinners who can be easily caught and punished. The changes in society the bible shows will occur after the devil is bound demonstrate he’s a gatherer. The devil invented sin and infected humanity with sin. But men can now be sinners on their own. They don’t need satan to “make” them sin. If they choose to, they can sin by themselves. Still satan is an instigator. He can excite sin, tempt people into sin they might not have done otherwise. But his greatest power is to be a gatherer, a “Nimrod” who gathers the wicked together to manipulate and cause them to do his ungodly will. He organizes power groups; armies, political organizations, conspiracies, false religions, Baptist churches, Catholic churches – groups that agree with and promote his present lies, fight for deceptions and war against God’s present truth. Whoever receives his present lie is separated from God! They become antichrist. Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. (1Jn2:18-19)

 We’ve experienced many antichrists who’ve gone out from us. Always it’s because they’re following some lie. They’re corrupted in their hearts and full of errors in their minds. Most deceive themselves into thinking what they’re doing is okay with God, like they don’t have to become holy, or don’t need to be in God’s church to be saved. In their arrogance they presume they can know God on their own. That’s one of the big present lies God is currently defeating through us. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. (Mt11:27) Jesus is the Head of His church; it’s His body. It’s where He teaches God’s people to know the Father. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (Jn17:3) Now, you’re going to separate from and ignore Christ’s body and still be “taught of Him?” What foolishness to think such a thing! Jesus has put His church together and given authority to the leaders in His church. He has a very specific mission His church is to fulfill, which includes the teaching, edification and perfecting of the brethren. (Eph4:11-16) It’s impossible to conceive there can be any salvation apart from participation in Christ’s true church when so much of what His church does pertains to the perfecting of the believers. Jesus didn’t create His church so you could be saved by ignoring her! And only by attending a true church can you come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge o