From my experience, the same characteristics apply to religious people as well – including church-goers who do/will not believe the Bible to be God’s Word and Final Authority - plus practising Christians who substitute the literal, plain-sense meanings of Scripture in favor of some other interpretive method.  The manifestations of these characteristics can often be expressed differently between the two groups, with angry resistance applying to the first, and passive resistance applying to the second.  Nevertheless, these are the characteristics that have shown up in opposition to me since I chose to become a Holy Spirit-led, Jesus Christ-centered, Bible-based born-again Christian back in 1985.

From what I can discern, it matters little if one rejects the Bible as God’s Word and Final Authority or if one rejects the literal, plain-sense interpretations in favor of some other method.  Why?  Because both are bordering on atheism in my opinion.  The dictionary tells us that an atheist is someone who does not believe in the existence of God.  But if we start playing “god” with the Bible, what makes us any different than an atheist?  If we reject certain Scriptures because we don’t understand them or don’t like them, what makes us any different?  New Testament James 2:19 shows us that even the demons believe in God – but they tremble in fear of Him. 

Believing in God really is not the issue.  The issue each Christian must ask themselves is, “do I believe God?”  If I do, I will not tamper with the Bible, water it down, or spiritualize & allegorize it so as I can by-pass that which I don’t understand or like in the way of literal, plain-sense meanings.  On the contrary, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, I will submit to it, embrace it, live it out, exalt it and proclaim it.  And as I continue to do so, God Almighty (in His time) will progressively deliver me from self-satisfaction, arrogance, intolerance, resistance and contempt for TRUTH. 

Churches throughout the western world love to place a great emphasis on relationship building and unity.  However, most of it is bogus.  It is only the appearance of such.  Genuine relationship building and unity is founded on TRUTH as one whole, not on half-truths or partial truths.  Jesus has told us that we will, “live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” Matthew 4:4 cf. Deuteronomy 8:3.  No wonder that the institutionalised church is dead – it committed suicide through starvation the day it decided to disbelieve the word of the Lord Jesus.  To consistently deny or reject any one part of Scripture is to fail to understand that TRUTH is whole, just as a loaf of bread is whole.

It matters not how it looks, but even if one slice of bread is removed from the loaf, then all appearances that it is still a whole loaf are illusionary.  That’s how it is with TRUTH.  Because TRUTH is rejected in those institutions, all appearances of sound relationships and unity are just as illusionary.  That is the reason many Christians are deceived.  They’ve embraced the partial, believing they have the whole.  And I have found that lots of  Christians will not have it any other way.  When testing time comes (as it most surely will for all who claim Jesus as Lord) not “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” is received, but on the contrary, only that which is palatable.

In my association with churches and sitting under leaders & teachers, I’ve been amazed by the doctrinal viewpoints held, versus those rejected.  And in all cases, when it gets right down to it, it has been men, traditions, denominations and “special” groups that have gotten the glory - not God.  When God fails to get all glory, deception very soon takes root and it is not long before it rules - even if in some cases, ever so subtly.  If I liken those doctrines held to, as slices of bread taken from the loaf, then that’s all they are – slices!  One can call it a loaf (whole) but they’re still only slices, no matter what I say to the contrary.  We cannot play games with TRUTH.

One’s attitude towards all biblical Scripture is one’s attitude towards God.  It has been said that we do not believe God more than we believe His Scriptures, nor do we obey God more than we obey His Scriptures.  How can we?  The church also comprises of multitudes of people who believe that love is the unifying factor, much more so than doctrine (TRUTH).  They say doctrine divides.  False doctrine divides.  So it should.  Doctrines that teach people they belong to “the one true church” divide.  Doctrines that teach men & women as equals in Church Leadership, divide.  Doctrines that teach Sinless Perfection, divide.  Doctrines that teach church leaders as being the human face of Jesus Christ, divide.  They are doctrines from hell.

True doctrine divides too.  It sorts out the religious from the real.  It sorts out the pretender for biblical faith from the contender for biblical faith.  It sorts out the professor of Jesus from the possessor of Jesus.  So yes, doctrine divides and that is a good thing.  Jesus has told us that He did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  He came to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, saying also, that our enemies will be in our own household etc. Matthew 10:34-36.  That’s why non-compromising biblical believers have enemies in the institutionalised church!  That is why the self-satisfied and arrogant are intolerant and completely resistant to any kind of “outside argument and contemptuous of it.”

Standing for TRUTH in the church is much harder than standing for the same in the world, I have found.  It is one thing to be told I have no love by “unbelievers” but quite something else to be told this by so-called fellow believers.  Some “unbelievers” can be quick to insult, abuse and quote, “judge not least you be judged….” but believers (much more covertly) will quote 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.  However, in every case where they’ve quoted this passage to me, there has been a complete lack of acknowledgement from them towards 1 Corinthians 13:6, “love does not rejoice in iniquity (in this case, Scriptural compromise, rejection or disobedience), but love rejoices in the truth.”  It’s as though that verse doesn’t exist for them!

There can be no true love for others without at first true love for God.  There can be no true love for God without at first true love for His word.  True love will always obey TRUTH, teach TRUTH, and be on the alert for anything that seeks to devalue & destroy TRUTH.  Otherwise, it’s not true love regardless of who says what about it.  We are living in the perilous times spoken of in 2 Timothy 3:1-9.  This passage of Scripture describes the very worst of human behavior.  Now, if it were speaking of unbelievers alone, we may have little cause for alarm.  But that is not the case.  The apostle Paul is referring also to religious people in the church, “having a form of godliness but denying it’s power.” 

Added to this, nowhere in that passage is there any suggestion that these church people are ignorant of God’s power.  They know exactly what they are doing and that is why they can be classed as self-satisfied, arrogant, intolerant, etc.  All Christians would be wise to heed God’s warnings about this.  What starts out at the beginning as seemingly harmless when denying the Bible as God’s Word and Final Authority – or - substituting literal, plain-sense meanings for some other method of interpreting the Scriptures, will, through the principle of gradualism, be turned into complete denial of TRUTH and full-on apostasy.  Once this happens, there will be no turning back from it.

Large sectors of Christendom have embraced a teaching that says in these last days, before Jesus’ returns, the church will experience one mighty, world-wide revival, whereby multitudes will turn to Jesus.  Yet Jesus Himself twice warns us, as does the bulk of the New Testament, that we can expect nothing but apostasy in the last days, as bad as what it was in the days of Noah and Lot Matthew 24:37 -38; Luke 17:28-30.  We can deny that all together, or, we can reinterpret it by pulling other Scriptures out of context and make it say something else, or, we can spiritualize & allegorize and make it say something else again.  But it will change nothing! 

So, as Christians, who are we going to believe?  Who are we going to obey?  We only have two choices – God or religious man.  Most people will make the choice to believe and obey religious man.  They always have and always will.  That is why in the end times there will be one almighty rising up of the false church – the Whore of Babylon, as it is so aptly symbolized in Revelation 17.  “….Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.  Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.  I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:17-18.  ”Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have the Son of God.  He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.” 2 John 9.         

© 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

The more I was learning about God through those studies and the fact that it was His life that He was imparting to me, the more I could see that I wanted no part of my old self.  I was fascinated to discover what it meant when looking in-depth at Jesus as being TRUTH.  It did mean such a lot to me, because my whole life up until eighteen months earlier, was a lie!  I’d been a phony.  Jesus had already shown me that, but now I was learning why I had been like this and more importantly, He was showing me the way out of it.  I had a long way to go, but at least I was on His pathway following Him.

Later, when I got baptised and became a member of that church, the odd business-type meeting took place whereby at the end of discussions the membership would be asked to vote.  When it came to “really important” matters, the pastor would reveal to certain ones among us in advance what his desires and intentions were.  Then prior to the meeting he would arrange for those people to sit up the front, so that when it came time to say, “All those in favor?” the hands at the front would rise, ensuring a greater majority of other hands behind would rise too, based on what they were observing.

Union leaders have been using that tactic for years, so to see it working in the church seemed to me to be a clever move.  It was only later when I looked at how Jesus operated did I begin to see the wickedness of such behavior.  It was manipulation.  It was man-centered behavior - insecure behavior - the old self in action, not the new man we are in Christ Colossians 3:9-10.  However, how common that sort of behavior is in churches and always has been.  Time was to confirm that this pastor was more man-centered than he ever was Christ-centered.

Another pastor we sat under used manipulation as his way of getting what he wanted.  He was rather skillful, especially with the subtle way he used Scripture.  The man was a materialist, expressing desires for things which we could ill afford but he got them by asking some of the wealthier people to give the church a loan – all in “preparation for church growth.”  There was no growth, the church died.  Here is what I have observed.  Smile, speak with a soft voice, use appropriate Scriptures, talk of people dying and going to hell, talk of saving souls, mention church growth and you can be 100% sure of getting money out of people.  But you may well be a manipulator.     

In the last church I was a member of, a leading elder was an extremely skillful chairman at our business meetings, being able to handle people’s emotions when they got heated, able to satisfactorily meet all objections to proposals brought before them, quick to clarify certain confusing points of the church constitution – over all, a gifted politician.  With regards to the constitution, years long before, he was a major player in setting it up and in getting the fellowship of that time to accept it’s final draft.  Like nobody else, he knew it back to front.

At an election for elders, I was one of two scrutineers counting the votes and one of the nominees missed out.  She did not meet the required 2/3rds, missing out by three votes. But this skillful man explained that everybody had been returned with the required majority.  When challenged about the matter, he was able to explain it away because of other ambiguous clauses in that constitution.  In the weeks prior to the election much prayer was offered up that “God’s will be done”  but we need not have bothered because she was never going to lose anyway. 

It would appear that elections were only necessary if you had more nominees than positions.  The rest of the time they were merely held to give people the impression that they were having a say.  A skillful chairman?  Yes, but also a skillful manipulator.  In all the churches I’ve been associated with, manipulation has been the major tactic used by both men and women when organising working bees and rosters of all kinds.  And “fear of what others will think of me” was the greatest trigger for response. 

Examples:  “This is a test of your love for God.”  “How much do you love Jesus?”  “How much does the extension of the Kingdom of God mean to you?”  “We are a very privileged and blessed people in this place.”  ”Nothing you and I can give will ever make up for what God has given us.”  “God has blessed us with this lovely property, He expects us to be good stewards of it!”  From what I have discerned over the years, “fear of man” Proverbs 29:25 is the motivation for most people’s responses much more so than authentic, biblical love for God.  It shows up in other ways.      

The dictionary tells us that the word “manipulate” means:  to control or influence somebody/something in a skillful way, often in a dishonest way so that they do not realize it;  esp. to manipulate people’s feelings.  Governments, Political parties, Charities, Insurance companies, Health organizations, Terrorist groups & nations – all of them them are well-schooled in the art of manipulation.  They know how to bring the deepest fears out of human beings.  But, when one turns to the Lord Jesus Christ, the last place we should expect to find manipulation, is in the church.  Yet, it is rampant. 

Of the various manipulative practices in the church however, the worst is not that of using it to get one’s way at business meetings, or recruiting people for working bees or rosters.  The worst is expressed when church leaders manipulate the Scriptures of the Bible - when they turn away from the plain-sense meanings of Scripture in favor of spiritualizing and allegorizing - making them say what God never intended them to say.  This too is rampant.  If this practice was limited to leaving, “nice thoughts” with the people (which can be sometimes the case), it would be rather harmless, but in reality, it is often most harmful.

From time to time over the years, I have had dear people share their nice thoughts with me based on what they’ve heard from their pulpits, teachings and books etc and where possible, acknowledgment was given.  However, in most cases when an attempt was made to bring them back to the plain-sense meaning, mindful of context as well, some became offended.  Others have given me that, “I feel sorry for your lack of deeper spirituality”-type look, whilst in others I have discerned a spiritual “fog” come over them.  In other words, they gave every indication of listening, but not hearing.

It seems to me that the embracing of Scriptural spiritualizing and allegorizing at the expense of retaining the plain-sense meanings creates two kinds of Christians.  The first kind appear to be solid in their faith when everything is going along well.  No sickness, good money, good job, husband, wife, family etc…. life’s good.  But when circumstances change, even slightly so, they are quick to fall in a heap.  It is then when it shows up that this embracing does not sustain them in their faith.  Why not?  Because they have failed to solidly ground themselves in the plain-sense meanings of God’s word.

The second kind who embrace the same practice become indoctrinated, blinded and deceived, reaching the point where they no longer want to see the plain-sense meanings for what they are.  They “see” something else altogether.  Not only do they “see” this something else in a verse of Scripture, but also in the passage or even in the chapter itself.  For far too many years I sat in a fellowship where this went on and each time I attempted to ask about the plain-sense meanings to a leader, I would get, “Yes, it does say that, but we believe it’s saying much more than that………”  Thank God for the Holy Spirit, Who ever quickens me to switch on now, whenever I hear, “Yes,…..but we believe..….!”  “I will gather those who sorrow over the appointed assembly, who are among you, to whom its reproach is a burden.”  Zephaniah 3:18.

© 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

“In the church, there is no hierarchy

As new Christians, unfamiliar with the Scripture’s true meaning of obedience to leadership, we took at face value what was taught.  We had not yet learned the dangers of embracing doctrinal over-emphasis.  In fact, it was to be another six or more years before I fully grasped Scriptures such as, “Obey those who rule over you and be submissive…..”  Hebrews 13:17. 

A friend from the first church we’d been involved with (see my posts: Dramatic changes. Part 1 & Part 2) called in one day to inform us that she had found a new church-fellowship and, “they are simply the nicest people one could ever wish to meet.”  After our negative church experiences over the previous three years, that was a refreshing statement to our ears, so the following Sunday we visited the fellowship.  

Our friend was spot-on in her assessment too – a gentle, friendly group they were, of about twenty-five people, including children and young adults.  As is typical of some small church groups, genuine interest was shown by them as we chatted and the invitation was extended to us to come and go among them as we felt led by the Holy Spirit.  The leader of the group readily identified with me as I spoke about our previous church troubles, saying that they themselves had been through some painful experiences six years earlier.

Apart from being lovely people, having something similar in common was an added attraction, so we decided to look no further for a church home, making the decision to fellowship with this group.  Another attraction for me was a statement made by the leader, “You are welcome amongst us, you will find no pressure here.”  The meeting place on Sunday mornings was local, but their night services were held at their main building, thirty-odd kilometers away and so after a few weeks we decided to go there as well.

When all together as a larger group, we found all the people to be exactly the same - gentle, friendly – very different than any church group I had encountered before.  The children were included at those night meetings and it was wonderful to observe the genuine honor and respect given by both the old and the young to one another.  Lots of lip service was given by each group in our other churches, but here one saw the real thing constantly in action.  They truly were a family-oriented church in practice.

Although they were not professionals in the true sense of that word, the calibre of some musicians and singers was as good as anything I had seen in my twenty-eight years as a professional musician.   Such a high standard is not always evident in Christian musicians and singers in church gatherings, but that was not the case here.  I was later to learn that they had an even larger church across town, plus equally large church affiliates interstate.  Music was a high point in all these places and they wrote their own material and songs as well.

As time went by I further learned that the preaching, teaching and music etc, was being taught in all their churches around the nation at the same time.  In other words, everyone around the country was being placed on the same “spiritual page” - embracing the same doctrines, speaking the same language.  There was a strong emphasis on the need to be truly, “connected to the body” (of fellow believers) and to be in a genuine relationship with one another.  Nearly all churches say that, but most don’t do it, so it was interesting to observe these people practising what they preached.

There was also a major emphasis on the need for families to be living according to God’s order.  As time went on I could see that my priorities had been out of order, mostly due to ignorance, both as a husband and a father.  It was becoming clearer to me that God had a better way for us to live and although some truths were unpleasant to hear, we made the decision to embrace this new word and by God’s grace, we would live it out as a family.

We committed ourselves to this teaching and people by attending nearly all the weekend seminars and annual family camps etc, and for a few years I felt blessed to be associated with them.  From time to time I heard some teaching that I considered spurious, but because I personally needed to embrace the truths that were taught about becoming a more godly husband and father, I over-looked the errors.  For example:  there was a heavy emphasis on the dangers of one losing one’s salvation if one failed to live according to God’s order in the home and in the church.  

I did/do not believe that teaching, but at the same time I was ignorant of the spiritual and mental harm such teaching can do to a person.  There was a heavy emphasis on the need to be submitted to headship order in the church.  They taught that if one was not submitted to headship, then one was not submitted to Christ and if a man’s wife was not submitted to her husband and the single women were not in submission to church headship, then they too, were not submitted to Christ.  I was well aware of the partial truths in that teaching, but I rejected the pressure to accept this as the whole truth.

As the years rolled by I was hearing much that disturbed my spirit, but each time I took this to the Lord, He always confirmed to me that I was in His hands and to trust Him at all times.  In all this time, the people (in all their fellowships) were still the same gentle, friendly folk that we had encountered at the beginning, which made it extremely hard for me to believe that they were so “off the track” in their doctrines.  I kept thinking that there must be more for me to learn and that maybe the problem lay with me rather than them.  That certainly was the emphasis from the pulpit, plus their books and teaching.    

I had done some studies on cults earlier in my Christian walk and I began to think I was now caught up in one.  But because they were such a lovely group of people and because much of the teaching was truthful and useful, I put those thoughts to one side.  Over time, they kept coming back more intensely however, and after nearly five years of hearing the same doctrines again and again, I began to think, “cult or not, I am now very much indoctrinated.”  I continued to ask the Lord about this and at one point, all I now kept hearing from Him was, “It’s the truth that sets you free.  In Me you are free.” 

I marvel at how dull my spiritual hearing had become by this time.  Firstly, I failed to study that word “free” (unrestrained, to go at pleasure, not a slave, exempt from obligation or liability), which meant I failed to recognise that God was also saying to me that I was free to leave that group.  It was nearly another two years before I did leave.  There were lots of lessons to learn from that failure - one is, find out what God is really saying when He reveals Himself with Scriptures we are very familiar with; the other is, act on His revelation regardless of what others think and He will be with you in it.

Another lesson I learned is this:  if we do not develop love for truth and pay the price for it at all costs, we can never be free, in the true sense of its biblical meaning.  The reason much of the Church around the world has no real impact on society is because it does not love truth.  The reason far too many people who call themselves Christians (including leaders) are not free is exactly the same.  They too do not love truth.  Biblical truth is progressive and each revelation of truth comes at a cost that most are unwilling to pay.  Fear of man, is a powerful demonic tool Proverbs 29:25.  The church is full of men-pleasers, but very few God-pleasers.

I thank the Lord Jesus for my experience in that fellowship.  He was always with me and never failed me and, I did learn lots of truth, which too many other churches fail to address - especially the need for us to become more godly husbands, wives, fathers, mothers and families.  I thank Him for another reason too and that is, it gave me a hunger to spend the next few years re-studying cults and how they develop and operate.  I am eternally grateful for the numerous teachers and writers whose books and Internet papers I have studied regarding cults and cultish behaviour; each one having played his/her part in highlighting to me the subtleties of counterfeit Christian practices.

My next three posts are:  Melbourne Christian Fellowship – Why I Left It. Part 1, 2 & 3.  I share in detail what I have written here.  I pray that these testimonies will inform and encourage all Christians, but especially those who think they may be  trapped as well.  If that person is you or someone you know, may God use these to reveal to you His will on the matter.  Wait upon God, read and study His word, listen for His personal voice to you through the Scriptures and above all, know that regardless of the situation you may find yourself in, God is always in control.  “Buy the truth and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.”  Proverbs 23:23.  “……For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.  Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”  John 18:37.    

© 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

Naturally enough, their next question was, “Why do I need to be born again?”  Firstly, because Jesus said so.  Secondly, the Bible tells us that we have all sinned and fall short of God’s glory.  Therefore, we must be born again in order to have our sins forgiven and have a relationship with God.  Trusting in Jesus Christ alone, the only One who paid our penalty for sin when He died on that cross, is what it means to be born again, spiritually.  If we act on those meanings, the Bible gives us the good news that we are new creatures (creations) - the old has gone the new (fresh) has come 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Jesus also told us that unless we are born again, we cannot see the kingdom of God.  That means we cannot perceive or understand the rule or the realm of God’s reign, as it applies here and now and, in eternity.  That is why people mock and ridicule God, Jesus Christ, the Bible and non-compromising biblical believers.  They don’t get it, because without a spiritual rebirth, they can’t get it.  And they will never get it, unless they humble themselves before God, acknowledge their sin and then, acknowledge Jesus Christ alone, as the one and only Solution to their sin problem.

As practising Christians, it is most important that we grasp this, because if we fail to do so, we run an immeasurably high risk of being chewed up and spat out by the false doctrines of religious men and their institutions.  Jesus told us that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him because He (the Spirit) had appointed Him as the Anointed One (Messiah) to preach the good news to the poor (beggar, as cringing); to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed (downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity) Luke 4:18.

As a public messenger of Christ, I spoke with literally hundreds of church-goers, but it was an extremely rare occasion to encounter one who was born again.  Roman Catholic or Protestant, it made no difference.  One of the ways to discern if a church-goer is born again is to listen and observe their response to the Bible’s declaration about the need to be born again.  Responses with anger, abuse, insults and guilt gave me clear indication that such a one was not.  But often the same applied to those whose response was one with fear – fear of God certainly, but equally, fear of church leaders and their doctrines. 

A typical response of one trapped by fear went something like, “I don’t care what your Bible says, my faith is in my church and their teaching and I will never leave it.  Ours is the one true church!  I was born a (Catholic, Jehovah Witness, Mormon etc) and I will die a ……..!”  These responses sounded good, faithful and noble, but the reality was they were not made by people grounded in faith.  They were grounded in fear.  They dare not leave their “faith” because if they did, in their thinking, they would lose all hope of heaven.  They were taught that, they believed that and they dare not shift from that.

These are the very people Jesus Christ came for.  People in all sorts of captivity, spiritually blind, downtrodden, bruised and crushed by the weighty, false doctrines of men, none of whom will lift a finger to help them.  They can’t help them, because they themselves are trapped by the same stuff.  It has been said that the great defect of all man-made religious systems is that they demand obedience but they do not provide the power or the dynamic needed to do so.  It’s true.  Leaders who are not free cannot led others to freedom.  In other words, you cannot take others where you can’t or won’t go yourself.

The Scripture tells us in New Testament Galatians that Christ has made free (completely liberated), all who claim Him as Saviour and Lord.  It also tells us to stand in that truth and not to be hampered and held ensnared and submit to a yoke of slavery.  So here is a test as to how free you are.  Whether you belong to one of the above mentioned denominations or some other - are you free?  What do you believe would happen to you if you made a decision to leave your denomination or group?  Regardless of whether you were “born into it” or not, what do you believe your state of mind would be?  Would it be one of freedom – or fear?

It is most important for a Christian to be able to answer that because we devalue Jesus Christ and His word if we fail or refuse to do so.  To place one’s faith in one’s church, believing it to be the true one, is not placing one’s faith in the biblical Lord Jesus Christ and His Bible.  Therefore, it is not faith at all.  And the Bible tells us that what does not originate and proceed from faith, is sin Romans 14:23.  What is not of faith, can be the sin of presumption (speaking or acting without warrant) and the Bible gives us plenty of examples of people who paid a very high price for indulging in that.  

To presume upon God, if not acknowledged and repented from, brings defeat, loss of power (especially spiritual power), rejection and destruction.  I saw that outworked in seventy-eight year old Roman Catholic lady Mrs Lang.  She was bed-ridden, riddled with arthritis and fear.  With rosary beads in her hands on each visit, she often told me, “the Bible is a load of blabber!  Jesus started the Catholic church at the Last Supper and He gave Peter the keys.”  She said she had great faith; but in Christ, it was nowhere evident.  Fear of death was written deep into her.  It was a religious spirit of fear that prevented her from hearing Christ’s word in context.

If one is born again by the Spirit of God, he or she will know by experiencing the witness of the Holy Spirit, that the same power given to Peter, in fact belongs to every disciple of Jesus in all ages.  Nowhere in the New Testament is there any hint of authority either claimed or exercised by Peter, or conceded to him above the rest of the apostles.  But in his second epistle, we see that Peter has plenty to say to the church about the trustworthiness of the prophetic biblical word, destructive doctrines, the doom, depravity and deception of false teachers and, for us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ alone.

Mary, an ex Roman Catholic, now Jehovah Witness, could not admit it but it was not love for Jehovah that put her out on the street door-knocking.  It was fear and terror of Him.  Like Roman Catholic people, JW’s believe that they are the one true religion, all others are an abomination in Jehovah’s sight.  The basis for their theology is reason and they build on that foundation, the teachings of Scripture.  They are taught to use reason to attack the beliefs of others in their conversations.  They decide what is “logical” to believe and then twist and change Scripture so it supports those beliefs.  See my post: Tell me the difference between you both.

JW’s must accept without question the interpretations of the Bible as presented in their literature.  That alone is what is what they accept as truth and they are excommunicated if they don’t accept that.  They have to work hard for their salvation.  That is the reason they are so zealous, dedicated and persistent in their evangelism.  Each member must maintain an active one-hour house to house witnessing a month, minimum.  But many struggle to do so and live in fear as a result.  Ten hours is the quota for a person in good standing.  JW’s may appear self-assured about their beliefs, but most are not.

Michael told me that he would “feel lost indeed” if he was to leave his “one true church.”  He was a Mormon.  Mormons talk a lot about faith, but what they really mean is feelings.  Mormonism is based on subjective experience – that is, praying about something and having God confirm it to their hearts.  That is the basis for accepting Mormonism and the test for all truth as far as they are concerned.  The Bible tells us that our hearts are “desperately wicked” and that is why we must be born again and renewed by the Holy Spirit as He dwells within us and teaches us according to His written word. 

They say they believe the Bible is the word of God, but that it’s unreliable.  Therefore, it has to be interpreted through the Book of Mormon.  Mormons need an “unreliable” Bible, because the Bible contradicts almost all of their doctrines and practices.  Most Bible doctrine that mainstream Christianity has accepted as truth down through history has been disputed and rejected by them.  God the Father is viewed as one who was once a spirit child of a previous God, born on another earth who had to earn and attain god-hood.  They teach that He is married and lives with His wife, the heavenly Mother!

Mormonism teaches that Jesus is a created being, the first-born spirit child of a long line of children who were sexually conceived in spirit form by this heavenly Father and heavenly Mother.  They teach that Jesus and Lucifer were brothers in the spirit world and that the Father chose Jesus to be the Saviour of the world.  Lucifer argued with that decision.  He wanted to force mankind to be saved, but Jesus wanted to allow man to choose, which God the Father preferred.  Lucifer, being angry, rebelled against the Father, who threw him out of heaven, taking one third of the angels with him to become Satan and his demons.

The Bible declares to all who are born again in Jesus Christ that it is no longer fear and dread that exists, but rather it is a full-grown, complete and perfect love.  A Divine love so powerful that all fear is cast out, along with every trace of terror.  Fear brings with it the thought of punishment.  Every church-goer who is not born again and who willingly allows the word of God to be substituted or replaced by the word of religious man will continue to remain in captivity, spiritually blind, oppressed and downtrodden – here and in eternity.  “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  2 Timothy 1:7.

© 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

Then one day I started to think and question.  I had never done that before.  For most of my life up until that point I was a follower of any opinion that sat right with me, which I then embraced and added as my own.  One of my first thinking questions was, “what about Adolf Hitler?  He had a belief system.”  In fact he even believed in God.  Adolf Hitler deeply and sincerely believed that he was appointed by God for the German people.  So powerful was his belief system that it was not long before he had those people eating out of his hand.  Then I began to dwell on the outcomes of his beliefs – nothing but devastation!

Dwelling on this for some time left me questioning my own beliefs.  And it was not long before I came to the conclusion that most of the adversities that had occurred in my life to that point, were created by myself as a result of a entertaining a faulty belief system.  Thanks to God and His great mercy upon me, Jesus Christ changed all that when I chose to believe His revelation, that He is the truth.  Confusion became a thing of the past for me when I learned that truth is not some abstract thing, but rather, Truth is a Person.

Most people despise truth.  They hate it.  They want nothing to do with it.  How do I know that?  I know it by the people’s reactions to the mere mention of the name Jesus Christ.  They have no problem with the baby in a manger at Christmas time.  A baby Jesus can’t threaten anyone.  Neither can a grown-up, “good man” Jesus who went about doing “good” when he lived on the earth.  But a biblical Jesus, He’s a different story.  He can threaten people and He does.  One who believes, whatever-it-is-he-wants-to-believe, may be happy to believe the Jesus who came to bring peace on earth, but he will reject the Jesus who said He came to bring division Matthew 10:34-36.

Even lots of Christian people despise truth.  They’ll be a lot more refined in their reactions however.  Perhaps they won’t yell and curse you (some will) like unbelievers, but, with overt smugness or covert annoyance, they will say something like, “That’s just your interpretation.”  I found that, or something similar, to be a favourite mantra among church people.  It was used by them to try and shut me down.  What they completely ignored though, was the apostle Peter’s word to us that no prophecy recorded in Scripture was ever thought up by the prophet (messenger) himself.  They were given as true messages from the Holy Spirit and He is not schizophrenic.

A very agitated old lady told me she used to be a Sunday school child and later she became a teacher of the same.  But she’d “stopped going to church years ago.”  When I asked her why, she told me that she’d come to the conclusion that it was all madness.  She blamed God for the “madness,” whatever that was.  Then her husband came to the door.  He was fuming at me as he blamed God and Christians for all the wars and starvation in the world.  That was another common mantra from people as well – “what about all the………?”  So I asked him the same question – “what about it?  What have you done to help fix it?”

I then suggested to him that when it gets right down to it, none of us can use these questions as an excuse and a smokescreen to hide behind, so as we don’t have to face up to what Jesus Christ confronts each one of us with.  Both these people chose to change the truth of God into a lie.  So deep were they now living the lie, that it was part of their belief system and it was destroying them.  They became what they believed – angry, bitter, self-righteous people, just like those who create wars and starvation.  I told these two people that Jesus said war and selfishness come from within the heart of every individual, but they rejected it.

Twenty-six year old single mother Diane was in turmoil because her young child had not been baptised.  It was her strong belief that if the little one died it would be excluded from heaven.  Such a belief gave her restless days as well as nights.  When it was mentioned that God has nothing to say to us about infant baptism in the Bible, she struggled to accept that as truth.  It was foreign to what she had grown up believing.  Diane then shared that as a teenager she argued and fought a lot with her mother.  One day she lay down on her bed after such an event and felt an incredible fight going on within her, “between the devil and God.”

Diane then fell asleep.  When she awoke she said she felt an almighty peace within and all over her.  Then she went out and gave her mother a big hug as she apologized.  She didn’t tell her mother of her experience, but she did tell some of her school mates.  They all laughed at her and told her she was mad.  That’s what they believed.  They had no basis for such a belief, having had no experience for themselves, but nevertheless, so strong and convincing were her mates that Diane believed them and not God.  Since then, she’d been operating on a faulty belief system that was blocking off any further peace and truth that God desired to impart to her.

Eighteen year old Jodie stood at the door asking lots of questions about God and the Bible, saying she was trying to figure out the meaning of life.  She’d been out of school for a year and couldn’t find a job.  All her friends had one which left her disturbed and questioning, “why me?”  I had no answer for her, but I told her that Jesus Christ did.  As a student at school she said there had been many discussions on God, but none on Jesus Christ.  She had never heard the gospel message that God has revealed Himself in Christ and that if we know Christ, we know God.  But her mother had and she rejected it.

When I mentioned to Jodie that Jesus Christ would reveal Himself to her if she sincerely asked Him to, I heard footsteps coming down the hallway and another voice saying, “That’s rubbish!”  Jodie asked another question.  Her mother was standing with her by this time as I answered, and again she said, “That’s rubbish.”  This went on for some minutes.  I challenged her mother to test her beliefs with those of Christ.  She wanted to know how that could be done, so I responded by repeating the Lord’s challenge which is, “do what God tells you to do and then you’ll find out for yourself if it’s true or not.”

That challenge softened Jodie’s mother a little and now it was her who asked some questions.  My answers were from the Bible alone.  I explained that we cannot know the true meaning of life by holding onto humanistic, philosophic or religious beliefs that don’t line up with biblical revelation.  If we do so, we are calling God a liar.  Not only that, but we will become increasingly deceived.  God tells us that if we continue to embrace falsehood over truth, then at some point He will make sure we remain embracers of falsehood (lies) with all our hearts.  In other words, we will forever believe the lies to be truth.  But in time, our beliefs will come back to bite us as they did for Hitler and the German people.

God Almighty Himself paid a high price for truth.  In some way, really only known to Himself, it was He who became a Man.  It is as a Man that God shows you and me who He is and what He is like.  We can know God’s nature and character by looking at Christ’s nature and character.  Not only that, but we can become partakers of that nature and character, if we will but choose to humble ourselves and permit Him to cast away ours (which are sinful and offensive to Him), including our faulty belief systems along with them.  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?  I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”  Jeremiah 17:9-10.

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

There was nothing special about me.  Why would anybody want to knock back what they too could have?  That was the purpose of it all.  Jesus said for us to go and tell the people what He had done for them and if they received His message by faith, then by that very same faith they would receive and experience the reality of Him.  By receiving Him, they would be receiving Truth.  Truth is a Person - Lord Jesus Christ.  It is the truth that sets us free.  It was the truth that set me free and I wanted to tell others.  How could one possibly be apathetic and indifferent to personal freedom?

It was clear they were not free, despite all their efforts to convince otherwise.  The very look in their eyes and upon their faces gave them away each time, as did their speech.  But so did their actions - restlessness, hurry, haste, striving – driven people, not at all sure of who they were and where they were headed in life.  Lovely homes, furniture, gardens, motor cars etc, but difficult to enjoy however, because the never-ending pursuit of the mighty dollar to maintain it all ruled the day.  The Bible does not speak of human beings as “lost” for no reason. 

I did not judge these people.  I was in no position to do that because up until three years prior, I was one of them.  Whatever their faults and fears, whatever their actions and anxieties, whatever their works and worries, I understood perfectly where they were at.  When I was caught up in it I used to say, “that’s life.”  But when I met The Life, I realised the lie of that statement.  It was not life at all, it was mere existence.  I was like a ship on the water without a sail or a rudder being tossed every which way by the wind.  It was not judging that motivated me, it was empathy.  I knew of a better way and wanted them to know as well.

A change of circumstances lead me to seriously question the meaning of life.  Mrs Barry was the same.  The first couple of times I spoke with her she was guarded and reserved, but sure of herself.  She spoke of her church practice, the future that she and her husband had mapped out for themselves and the family and, “we are doing fine thank-you very much.”  In her thinking she had every reason to be smug and self-satisfied.  But all that changed.  It was during the announcement of the first Gulf war when I once again called at her home.  This time as she stood in her doorway she was white-faced, trembling with fear.

Her husband was not in the armed services but he had hinted to her that he could be called up to go and the thought of that frightened the both of them.  In my previous visits I had not talked in depth about the Lord because I was not given the chance.  This time it was she who wanted to talk.  In spite of her religious practice Mrs Barry knew little of the biblical Jesus Christ and certainly nothing that could sustain her in this time of great need.  We spoke for twenty-five minutes that day.  At the end of our time the colour came back into her face and the trembling stopped.  The Lord’s presence was made real to her for the first time in her life. 

Mr Herrick’s circumstances changed too.  For fourteen years he was working as an engineer at a famous motor car company.  The day before Christmas Day he was given notice of his retrenchment.  Six months later when I spoke with him he was still in shock.  He lived in a large brick Edwardian home with beautiful surroundings and he was worried as to how he was going to keep and maintain all that.  He told me that he’d never given God any thought until just recently, further saying that, “up until this time there was no need to.”  In other words, “Life’s good.  Who needs God?”  That’s how I used to think too.

In my experience God takes advantage of such circumstances.  How else can He get through to us?  That was my challenge to Mr Herrick.  That day he had a lot of questions to ask about God and the meaning of life etc.  I explained that true meaning in life comes out of developing a relationship with God in Jesus Christ.  I told him that God is love – not rules, not guilt, not fear.  In fact, it is rules, guilt and fear that drive people away from Him.   I discovered that’s one reason why people don’t want God in the first place – all based on completely distorted and perverted views as to who He really is.

Sixteen year-old Danny was another one who was shaken by the announcement of the first Gulf war.  He was a Year Twelve student who attended a “Christian” school.  But it was clear his school had no answers for his fears and worries on the day I spoke with him.  He told me that he and his parents and teachers had all contributed to the painting of a perfect future for his life, but now, ”I’m full of sin and guilt and I don’t want to die in a war.”  Danny was visibly shaking when he expressed that.  I asked him what knowledge he had of God’s nature and character.  His response was so typical of kids who attended “Christian” schools - none at all.

Danny learned some truth about God that day.  He learned that in spite of any circumstances that he and the rest of us might encounter, God is always in control.  He was told that never is there a time when God is not in control Isaiah 45:12; Daniel 4:35.  Added to that, Danny learned that it was God’s desire to make Himself real and relational to him on a moment-by moment basis.  He’d never heard that before and he struggled with the truth of it.  His school, his religion and his parents had never told him of such a possibility. 

He did not know that if he acknowledged his sin and guilt to Christ and let Him take care of it, that he would then be opening a door for God to personally reveal Himself through Christ, and that this revelation would continue and intensify as he submitted himself to the Scriptures.  I explained to Danny that if he made a choice to do as recommended, he would not only experience God’s truth, but he would also experience God’s power and love.  Countless people, apathetic and indifferent to Jesus Christ, could not come to terms with the biblical God as a God of Love.

What had once been a good life for Paul turned sour on him too.  When I met him he’d been divorced for nearly twelve months after a nine year separation from his wife and three children.  The divorce left him a broken and confused man, as until it happened he’d lived with the belief that one day they would be reconciled.  He was a religious practitioner but he found no answers to his questions about God and the meaning of life for him, so he’d recently, “gone around all the churches,” ours being one of them.   

He came for private ministry at the church a couple of times, where he gained insight into some root causes of his troubles.  Paul learned that even though his marriage was over, with the surrendering of his life to the Person and ministry of Jesus Christ, he could be set free from any guilt arising from his part in the breakdown.  He didn’t want the guilt, but at the time, I was not sure he wanted the gospel either.  He was going overseas the following week so I gave him a copy of “Ultimate Questions” by John Blanchard to take with him to read on the plane.  “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33.

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

I found such responses to be rather amusing too, because as I listened to myself being labelled, I would observe them with a good-luck charm on their person and in the car/home, perhaps a horse shoe over the door entrance, an occultic sign or symbol, star signs of the Zodiac, a Buddha statue, beads, artifacts from Africa and the Orient etc.  Many of these same people deeply believed themselves to be free and independent thinkers, free from all chains of superstition, under the influences of nobody and nothing.

I learned that there’s really no such thing as an atheist either.  He or she may hold deeply to such a belief, but they still have a god.  He’s called ‘no-god’.  And ‘no-god’ props them up, ministers to them, comforts them, brings assurance, builds up their faith in systems, people and things just like True-God.  The one difference being that ‘no-god’ fails to turn up when his faithful one is but a few moments away from death.  He can be cruel in his absence.  For other people, their gods were ‘money’ and ‘materialism’.  They too gave the same ministry to their faithful, just like ‘no-god’.  But in severe personal economic times they became most cruel to some, leaving them destitute, or dead. 

The above three paragraphs are written based on the first powerful truth I learned about human nature – a truth I learned by way of self-analysis.  I looked into my being one day and I found one who was empty, lonely, guilty and fearful - especially of death.  And although I didn’t serve the gods described here, most assuredly I served my gods - plural.  I served the god called ‘me’.  He was a great god.  He would daily comfort me with lies, telling me anything that I wanted to hear.  He told me that I was more important than anyone else alive.  He gave me opinions about anything and everything and assured me they were never wrong.

Although in real life I was a high-school drop-out, my god ‘me’ arranged for my attendance to the College of Self-righteousness.  I was a top-class student there, putting my knowledge immediately into practice by way of  judging, assessing and analyzing people, looking down on all who didn’t measure up – just like the “old-school-tie” brigade among the so-called movers and shakers in each generation’s society.  My god ‘me’ also opened the doors for my attendance to a well-known acting school.  Like those Greek actors of old, I was never short of a word once I selected the right mask to cover the real me with.  I thought I was great, but I was later to find out that I did not fool everybody in my audience.                

I served another god called ‘music’.  He was a great god too because for twenty-three years he kept me so absorbed in him that I did not have the time or the desire for too much else.  If my god ‘music’ were an ordinary human being he would have made an excellent cult leader.  I believed him when he told me that I would find my identity in nobody but him and that I would be nobody without him.  Not long after my first encounter with him at nearly seventeen years of age, my god ‘music’ revealed to me, that in him, “This is who you are.  This is not just what you do.” 

My god ‘music’ made sure I was kept in regular work, paying me well and ensuring me that I was too busy or too tired to spend quality time with my wife and (then) growing children.  Sometimes he worked hard to conceal the distinctions between perfection and perfectionism.  Often my god ‘music’ acted like many human religious and secular leaders, by giving the impression that these words were one and the same.  He ignored to reveal the all-important difference between one who has drive and one who is driven.  But nevertheless, I loved him, I thought he was cool.   

I served another god called ‘alcohol’.  He was a beauty.  Talk about a god of comfort, assurance and faith - that’s all he ever gave me while I served him - apart from a crook guts and headache in the latter years.  He was most faithful in keeping me from reality.  Every time I glimpsed reality coming towards me, my god ‘alcohol’ gave me the power to overcome his every tactic.  Reality would often visit me in the middle of the night however.  He loved to disturb my sleep, giving much discomfort with his enticements and nagging.  He was indeed a formidable opponent.  But, the next day, with the faithfulness of my god ‘alcohol’ I always got the victory.

My god ‘alcohol’ gave me a small circle of believers to affiliate myself with as well and although we did not always hold the same “doctrinal” viewpoints we never allowed any differences to come between us.  The unity was awesome.  We had a great love for one another, and were quick to come to each other’s aid in times of trouble.  And when it was not possible for us to be together I saw no problems with worshipping in isolation and neither did my fellow believers.

Then one day as a result of changing circumstances, I began to doubt the ministry from my god ‘me’.  My doubts became increasingly confirmed as I studied the lives and works of some philosophers and inventors.  Thomas Edison was one of those people.  Mr Edison made a statement which showed me in a profound way that my god ‘me’ was in every way a false god.  He said something like, “My inventions did not come from within me.  They already existed in space.  I simply brought them into being.”  In my life of thirty-eight years at that time I had never heard of anything like that. 

I had a church upbringing which I’d left long years before, because of meaningless relevance to anything in my life.  But they did speak about God, so I was prepared to be open to His existence rather than inventions simply existing in “space” as Mr Edison put it.  But my next question was, “Who’s God?”  The god I learned about in my childhood church days was most definitely not part of my search.  I had rejected him because of what I had perceived him to be like when I observed his so-called leaders and followers - intimidating, dominating, controllers with regards the former and superstitious, compliant and driven with regards the latter.

Little did I know that as I gave all of my heart to this search for the true God, He also was giving all of His heart in making sure I would be found by Him.  In fact better than that – He was out looking for me!  This truth was confirmed one day when I read the gospel of Luke 15: 1-32.  I read there of Jesus, using parabolic language, speaking of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.  I had also experienced two dramatic encounters with the Lord Jesus prior to that discovery (see my About page), which greatly helped me in accepting those parables as the truth about Jesus Christ.  He was talking about Himself.

I discovered in the New Testament that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.  I was one of them.  No wonder I was empty, lonely, guilty and fearful, I was lost big-time.  When I got found, those three tyrants within began to get restless indeed.  I also discovered that Jesus Christ came to reveal the true God (Himself in human form) and that if I embraced Him as such, then I would be given His supernatural power to sever all relationships with ‘me’ god, ‘music’ god and ‘alcohol’ god.  So I did that.  Then I made a new discovery.  I discovered that I could enjoy me, music and alcohol.  They are still part of my life, but they are not my gods and they no longer control me. 

Discovering these powerful truths about human nature as a result of my own self-analysis - plus their remedies – was/is the reason and the motivation for me to go and tell others.  Maybe they’ve got some gods they’d like to be free from.  I do not do so under the burdens of rules, commands or laws, but rather, under the authority, anointing and enabling power of Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  I’m also fully aware that most people will reject what I have written here, but that will not apply to everybody.  Does it apply to you?  Feel free to leave a reply or comment.  “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.”  Isaiah 53:6.  “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.”  Matthew 18:11.

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

I was asked if I would meet with him and so I made a time suitable to do so, which was early evening.  The lady’s brother was named John and I liked him from the moment he came into the room.  He smiled as he said hello and I could see that whatever his problems were, John was quite different from some other drug addicts I’d had experience with.  He was a polite, quietly spoken twenty-nine year old man who looked me in the eyes as we shook hands.  He was holding down a job as a truck driver and from all reports he was well liked by his colleagues.

With some of the other addicts I had worked with prior to John, it was not long into a meeting before they would try to justify their behaviour and blame others for their predicament.  But that was not the case with this young man.  He was open from the start.  He spoke of one incident that left a mental scar upon him, but he did so without playing the blame game.  John told me that when he was a little boy his mother was angry with him one time, so angry in fact that she pushed him into the wall with the dining room table, cutting off his airflow. 

His throat matched the height of the table and as his mother kept pushing him, he thought he, “wasn’t going to get out of that.”  John didn’t like his school days all that much, saying he was bullied by some of the kids, but once again he didn’t tell me this with blame in his heart.  He smoked his first marijuana cigarette at the age of fourteen, liking it so much that he kept it up for years.  He said it gave him good feelings that he’d not experienced in natural ways.

Then John told me, that some years later he met some people who introduced him to heroin.  He loved that experience.  He was earning good money at the time and had no problems paying for more when he needed it.  But once he got addicted, things began to change and soon he lost his job and was unable to pay his rent.  That first meeting with John and myself went for more than three hours, but the time was necessary; both for him to speak from his heart and for me to listen intently, so I could then go away and start praying for him and find the mind of God for his specific situation.

Two evenings later I meet with John again.  I asked him to name the one desire of his life and he said, “peace.”  So I said to him, “Ok, lets deal with the things that are stopping you from achieving peace.”  We had over four hours of honest, straight talking that night and he shared the very worst about himself.  We didn’t play games.  By night’s end John saw his problems for what they were.  I explained to him that he needed to become a child of God.  John had a Catholic background but he was ignorant of the gospel of Christ so far as it related to him personally.  

I said to John that he needed to turn away from his current way of life, see himself as a sinner and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, who will take the sin from him, and then cleanse him by His blood shed on that cross.  I informed him that upon doing this, Christ will then enter into his soul and fill him with peace and empower him to live a new life.  Demonic evil presented itself in the room that night.  Those spiritual devils did not want John to come into this truth and experience, so they used this young man to come up with every reason as to why he should not turn to Christ.

It was an intense spiritual battle but in the end, he genuinely surrendered his heart to the Lord.  During my prayer with him, John was experiencing the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  There are ways of testing that and he passed the test.  John had a spiritual rebirth that night.  He thanked me for my time saying that he was feeling better than he ever had.  I mentioned to him that the next part towards his release, was to undertake some foundational biblical studies so he could rebuild his life and live it according to God’s empowerment.

The devil never reliquishes his hold without a fight and when he loses, he tries to bluff us that he’s still in control.  I was just getting off to sleep that night at about one thirty when I felt “hands” around my throat.  I knew it was a demonic presence, so in Jesus name, I told it to go from me, plus my family and to get out of my house as well.  With that, I rolled over and went off to sleep. 

We did do some biblical studies together over the next three weeks and he came to the church services three times.  During all this time John was of a sound mind and again he told me that he was conscious of God’s presence and ministry within him.

One late Friday afternoon however, just over the three weeks of our having first met, John phoned me at the church.  He told me that he’d taken another hit of heroin.  He said he was worried now, because he was told by his sister and husband that if this should happen, he would have to leave their home.  I encouraged to him to go home anyway, telling him that I would ring and explain to his family what happened, and that I would spend Sunday with him, because I had other committments all day Saturday.

On the Sunday morning I got a phone call from John’s sister.  She said that they came home very late Saturday night and found the garage light on.  They investigated and found him hanging from a beam.  John was dead.  It felt like part of me died when I heard that.  I was devastated.  But as the Lord ministered to me, I was then enabled to bring immediate ministry to this grieving sister and her husband.  They explained to me that their local Catholic church did not do funeral services for those who commit suicide, so they asked me if I would conduct the service.  I told them I would be honoured to do so.

On the day of his funeral, John’s friends and family heard that he was always a friendly and hospitable person.  They heard he had a willing heart and would do anything asked of him.  As a young boy he would willingly do the ironing for his sister and he would not hesitate to share whatever was needed with her.  John did not speak a negative word against anyone; he was never rude.  Because of his problems, it was natural for visitors to his sister’s home to be apprehensive not knowing what to expect from a heroin addict.  But in a matter of moments John would put them at ease.

Nobody disliked this man for what he was.  And if a person should walk in to a room that most other people did not like, he would be the first go to him or her and make them feel welcome.  I was pleased to tell his family and friends that everything they were hearing were my experiences with John as well.  By the power of God, I learned to love him too.

John’s spiritual rebirth brought restoration to his being even though it lasted a little over three weeks.  So, if that is so, why did he take his life?  That was everybody’s question.  But there is no answer.  The Bible shows us that we are tri-part beings; spirit, soul and body.  The devil killed John’s body, but he could not kill his soul and spirit, they belong to God.  And Jesus has told us that when we surrender ourselves in repentance to Him, no one can snatch us out of His hand, or that of God the Father. 

Again, the promise is:  those who confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead, they will be saved.  John did that and he meant it.  The last words of our telephone conversation confirmed that yet again.  Jesus reached out to John, as He does to all of us, and John responded.  The Bible makes it very clear that God Almighty is faithful and merciful.  He reads the heart of each one of us and I believe He read John’s heart most favourably.  “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  My Father who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Fathers’s hand.  I and My Father are one.”  John 10: 27-30.

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

When he used the words, “no hope” however, I told Bill that he was correct in one sense but incorrect in another because of what the New Testament tells us.  I told him that I was filled with hope in the midst of hopelessness all around me because of what I read in that book.  Bill wanted to know more so I shared some of the gospel of Jesus Christ with him.  The word “gospel” means “good news,” and something of what he heard in those few minutes confirmed that meaning because there was a change, both in his speech and the look in his eyes.

At his request I revisited Bill the following week and this time he invited me inside.  The main topic of conversation was once again on violence, dishonesty and corruptions and he wanted to know how we got into such a mess, “Why is the world so bad and corrupt?  I’m concerned for my wife and seven year-old child.”  So I gave him a book written by John Blanchard, “Ultimate Questions.”  This is a thirty-two page book that asks some serious questions about God, man, Jesus Christ, sin, repentance, faith and living a new life in Jesus Christ.  I said to Bill that if he would read it with openness and honesty, then many of his questions would be answered and as a result he would be less confused with what was going on around him.     

One month later I called on Bill who told me his wife had just come home from hospital.  Thinking I’d call back at another time, suddenly he gave me a welcoming look, he opened the door wider and said, “Come in.”  As we sat down his wife Marlene came into the room with a newspaper and she read out an article which contained sexually perverted statements.  She then said, “Isn’t that revolting?  How come this world is so sick and decadent?” 

It appeared to me that Marlene had not read the book I gave Bill, so I asked her, “Do you believe in sin?”  She replied, “Of course I do. I’m a Catholic.”  I then told  her that I used to be a Catholic, but said it never stopped me from sinning.  She gave me a strange look at first and then with a touch of anger in her eyes and speech, she said, “Why did you change your religion?”  I ignored the question, with a question, “Do you believe in Adam & Eve?”  Marlene’s face turned red and with increased anger she said, “No I do not!  That’s just a silly story!”

I smiled at her and said, “Marlene, I’m not asking you to believe in them, I asked if you do believe in them.”  My next question was to find out if she believed the Bible to be God’s word to man and with a quick reply she said, “No I don’t!  Only the New Testament!”  Then I asked her if she believed in Jesus Christ and what He said and did.  More anger and a raised voice, “Of course I do!  I told you, I am a Catholic!”  Now I gave her a challenge.  I said, “Marlene, Jesus believed in the Old Testament, so did the apostle Peter.  They quoted from the Old Testament, knowing it was the word of God and they used it as their final authority.”  She gave me a long angry look with silence.  Then she said, “Where?  Show me!”

So I did show her, from the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, also from the book of Acts and 1 Peter.  Marlene had much trouble trying to understand Jesus as a Man on earth and being God at the same time.  I explained that the Bible shows us that when He was on earth Christ emptied Himself of His divinity, laying aside His mighty power and glory, taking the form of a human servant, including mortality and death.  Marlene told me, “I don’t believe it!”  I replied that I was not asking her to believe it, “I’m just telling you what God says.”  With the continued anger and  loud voice, she then said, “How can you speak for God?!  Who gives you that right?!” 

This is not the first time I’d had a Catholic person ask me that two-in-one question – (Refer to my post, The Religious Spirit).  I said to her that it is Jesus who gives me this authority and that if she would trust the Jesus who reveals Himself in His written word, which includes the Old Testament, she too could have the same authority.  She said, “How do you know that?!”  Wanting to now bring Bill into our conversation, I asked for some blank paper so I could explain by illustration the realities of Adam & Eve, Satan the devil, sin and God’s plan of redemption in Jesus Christ – all of it first revealed to us in Genesis, Chapters 2 & 3.

Marlene fluctuated regularly between calmness and anger over the next five hours as I taught and illustrated.  Not all of her anger was based on argumentativeness either, she was looking for answers.  As a messenger of the Lord Jesus I knew that when truth begins to expose error and man’s religious doctrines, I must expect anger.  So my job is to relax and allow the Holy Spirit to work through me, as Exodus 4:12 promises He will.

Like most Roman Catholic people I have met, Marlene could not easily come to terms with the simplicity of the Lord Jesus’ gospel message of repentance, forgiveness and the gift of eternal life.  She said, “You have to pray and strive to be good!  You have to do penance!”  I replied, “Well Jesus said all you have to do is repent (turn away from yourself and turn to God in Jesus’ name), believe Him as Saviour and ask for forgiveness, then believe that you have it – ask and it shall be given to you.”  Upon my completion of that statement to Bill and Marlene I could discern the Holy Spirit confirming the truth of it to them.  It seemed He was saying to each, “That’s right.  It’s true.”

Bill was not a Catholic so the questions kept coming from Marlene.  She asked about Mary, the saints and the sacraments, but I simply replied by saying that in the Bible we see that God sent us only one Saviour, “and you can know Him like I do.”   I’d been with them six hours now, so it was time to ask them together if they believed what had been explained to them, and they said, “Yes.”  To confirm this I said, “Do you want to ask Jesus Christ to come into your lives and allow Him to be your Lord and Saviour?”  They said, “Yes.”  So together we bowed before God and I led them in a prayer of repentance and faith and God answered that prayer immediately.  It was a beautiful sight to observe a husband and wife do that together.

Upon each subsequent visit with this couple, Marlene’s questions on biblical Christianity versus Roman Catholicism were numerous and naturally she struggled with the Scriptural revelations.  I took the example of the apostle Paul and simply taught Christ - His reality and power for everyday living, His mercy, on-going forgiveness, peace, love and the opportunity to participate with Him in the miraculous if they so chose.  Some months later, Bill found a job and purchased a home, but not in the area where I was ministering.  “But I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.  Has Christ been divided?  Was Paul crucified for you?  Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?”  1 Corinthians 1:12.  

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

He then asked what kind of work that would be.  I said, “If you’re Jesus, then you can tell me.”  With that he laughed, and then went got a little red Gideons New Testament and started to read from John’s gospel Chapter 7.  Was there any significance in what he was reading?  None that appeared obvious.  Then he produced an Old King James version of the Bible and proceeded to read something from that.  

It’s fair to say that this man was not of a sound mind that day and given the culture of many in his generation I suspect he was on drugs.  Regardless, he let me share the gospel of Christ with him and then pray for him.  My ministry was to his spirit, not his mind.  He was thankful as he shook my hand and parted.  I saw the visit as God at work again.

I met Irene, a lady in her twenties who was a music teacher.  She told me her church background was Greek Orthodox but she had not been back since she’d left home some years earlier.  Then she said that she was studying philosophy and, “I much prefer that to religion.”  She was surprised when I told her that had been my exact experience also.  I explained to her, that it was as a result of my informal studies of philosophy, that I found a pathway to truth that I had never found in practicing religion.

She wanted to know more.  I said to Irene that in my personal search for truth I found the writings of the philosophers to be extremely enlightening.  In fact so enlightening, that over time I was driven to find out, “where this truth came from.”  I then told Irene that my search led me to the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I discovered to be the Ultimate Truth and Ultimate Reality, just as He said He was.

From there I shared the story from the book of Genesis of our first parents, who originally experienced ultimate truth and reality every day as they walked with God, but when they decided to listen to the Ultimate Liar and embrace the Ultimate Lie, they fell into unreality, and as a result, they lost their paradise.  Irene didn’t like what I had to say next however, because in my sharing, I used the word “sin.”

I explained the meaning of “sin” as “rebellion against God” and that this was the problem with each one of us in the world today.  It is a problem because we are their offspring and not only have we inherited their rebellion against God, but we’ve contributed with lots of our own as well. 

Irene did not like it when I said the only solution to the rebellion problem was to turn to Jesus Christ, the one who died on a cross as our substitute, making it now possible for each of us to turn back to God, to again live in ultimate truth and reality.

She said to me, “You’re making me feel guilty.”  My response was to inform her that she was, at that moment, under the conviction of God the Holy Spirit who was confirming to her the ultimate truth of what I was saying.  She was lost for words however when I told her Jesus Christ hates “religion” as much we both do and that if she responded to the Lord she would experience the truth of my message.  Irene was not over-joyed with what she heard, but she genuinely thanked me for talking with her.  I saw the visit as God at work again. 

No sooner had I mentioned the word “church” to a young mother and she turned red and fumed with anger.  She told me to, “!*!xx!*!” in no uncertain terms and slammed the door so hard the door frame shook.  She opened it again, ran outside and picked up a young child playing next to me.  I had nothing to lose, so I said to her that she was not angry with me and suggested she stop running from God.

The same lady phoned the church later in the day to complain about the “rude man who was questioning my baby.”  She didn’t know it was me who answered the phone so I went on to say, “Jesus said……”  She slammed the phone down hard.  I saw these events as God at work again. 

A mother, in her fifties said she couldn’t give me, “any more than a few seconds” but she actually gave me three quarters of an hour.  She stood in her doorway asking questions and was fascinated by the responses given.  Then her twenty-one year old academic son, who had been listening inside came out to tell me he was, “only interested in proof of God through science.”  His mother told me he was not at all interested in Jesus.

I took advantage of his “no interest” to talk a little about my former life as a foul-mouthed music sales rep and musician who was (basically) drunk three nights a week and smashed the other four.  Both mother and son refused to believe it.  They told me they just could not imagine that to be true.  So I told them if they wanted verification I could get it for them in less than an hour.

I explained that I was no longer that person, but I then asked the young man if he thought the change was brought about by science or by Jesus Christ – given that Jesus promises such deliverances, but science does not.  He remained silent, but his eyes were open and so were his ears.  I was given time to speak about the power of God, in Jesus’ name, being available for anyone who genuinely wanted to experience it, but that God has always had trouble trying to get through to people who want proof before they will believe Him. 

The young man needed to hear that his stumbling block to “proof” was in fact unbelief in disguise.  I then suggested to him that his unbelief was a choice - a choice which only he alone could change – and that if he chose to believe, he would prove for himself the truth and reality of God.  His mother said she owned a Bible and that Jesus was her Lord and Saviour, “in my own way.” 

Christ touched both mother and son mightily that day.  Words do not do this testimony justice.  Most certainly, I saw the visit as God at work again.  “Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.  If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.”  John 7:17.    

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.