- May 3, 2022
- 181
- 90
- 65
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Calvinist
- Marital Status
- Divorced
It is bad enough that the E.C. world perverts, corrupts, and changes Scripture. But they are not satisfied with this. In their efforts to completely overhaul all of Scripture to present another God, another Jesus, another Spirit, and another Gospel, they have added another sinister facet to their false teaching.
If you were to ask any "pastor" in the E.C. world, "Do you believe in everything Scripture teaches?" They would respond with a resounding YES! Which is not valid. Some verses clearly instruct that no man is to add or take away from God's word, Deut 4:2, 12:32, Pro 30:6, Rev 22:18-19. While these commands are directed toward all believers, they are specifically geared toward any who will teach Scripture to others.
As it has always been, the average believer does not have the time or luxury of spending time in deep study. That is why God calls some for the specific purpose of doing the deep, intense study required to learn Scripture and, in turn, teach others. Teaching Scripture, in a nutshell, is to know what is in Scripture, understand what Scripture means and then show others what is in Scripture and what Scripture tells. Those who are taught learn the truth of Scripture, how to live as a believer, and can pass on what they have learned to others. This is the most effective way that Scripture is passed on to others. An average believer, a sheep, will eventually know enough to be in a position to introduce others to some of the critical teachings of Scripture. As his life goes on, he will encounter many others, and among these others, he will unknowingly meet other sheep. But these sheep are not aware that they are one of the called. They know that they are spiritually starving and in a constant search for Scripture truth. When God has ordained the point in time that the unaware sheep is to have his eyes opened to the fact, the sheep who has some knowledge will encounter the other sheep and put forth some Scripture seed. This will open the eyes and ears of the "baby" sheep. The newly regenerated sheep will recognize the truth of what is being taught (My sheep hear my voice, John 10:27) and learn where to go to increase their Scripture knowledge. The E.C. world puts unnecessary pressure and unrealistic expectations on its members to "Share the gospel," "witness to others, "introduce people to Jesus," and "lead people to Christ." The thrust is that "You have to get people saved!"
You are a miserable failure if you are not bringing new people into the church building!
All of which are not true and unscriptural. A sheep is to sow some seed here and there throughout his life. If someone responds, great, suppose someone doesn't answer; great. Scripture does not instruct that a believer is to target specific individuals or groups and put all of their efforts into trying to "get these particular people saved." No believer is responsible for the salvation of others; that is secularly in the hands of God. It is through His word that eyes are opened, not the messenger or the style of the messenger. A sheep does not try to "witness" to total strangers. In the course of a day, things happen, and you innocently bring some Scripture into the conversation. The thing that I use all of the time is that after seeing or hearing something, I will say, "Did you know the bible says..." If another responds, I will continue. I leave it alone if it is like talking to a brick wall. I will never say, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," "Jesus loves you," or 'If you died tonight, where will you end up?"
Since only Scripture is to be taught to others, logic dictates that only what is found in Scripture will be shown. What the E.C. world loves to do is to "add" to God's word. They make statements, comments, and teachings that are not found in Scripture but are taught as if they are, leading off with the infamous line, "The Bible says..." I have written down over two hundred comments and teachings that are said very often in the E.C. world, but not found in Scripture, including:
Be the hands and feet of Jesus.
A God-shaped hole in your heart.
Share the love of God.
Jesus is so in love with you.
Lift up the name of Jesus.
Let God use you.
I am addressing the fallacy, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." This is not taught in Scripture but has been added to Scripture. The "message" of this fiction is that when a believer dies, their spirit goes immediately into the presence of Jesus. They kill two birds with one stone by not only twisting a verse and adding false teaching into Scripture. The verse they have twisted and continue to pervert is:
2Cor 5:8, "We are confident, I say, and willing rather be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."
In no way was Paul teaching anything about what happens to a sheep's spirit upon death, the event itself, or the time frame. Paul doesn't say anything in this verse about the end of a believer. To know the meaning of any verse is to discover the context and why what is written down was said. If you started reading a book in the fifth chapter and started watching a movie at the halfway point, you would be lost as to "who is who," "what is the plot," and "what has already happened." If you stopped reading the book or watching the movie and someone asked you, "What is the book or movie about?" you wouldn't have a clue. Ah, but in the E.C. world, that is exactly what they present. That a single verse can be isolated from a passage and quoted as if it is a verse that stands alone is the sole teaching on a doctrine (A doctrine is simply a belief or set of beliefs held as accepted Scripture truth). The context is expressed by the verse alone. Some verses can stand alone, but they are always verses that instruct about God:
Isa 45:5, "I am the LORD, and there are no others, there is no God besides me..."
Psalm 115:3, "But our God is in the heavens: He has done whatsoever He pleased."
Psalm 135:6, "Whatsoever the LORD pleased, He did in the heavens, the earth, the seas, and all deep places."
So, what was Paul talking about in 2Cor 5:8? If you start at 2Cor 5:1, it is not hard to see what Paul was teaching. And it wasn't "absent from the body, present with the Lord." This wasn't the first and only time Paul expressed his desire to depart this earth; Phil 1:21-23, 2Tim 4:6. I am like Paul in this regard; I am ready and eager to depart this earth. I look forward to my passing. Only other sheep can understand this.
There will be some conversation or "teaching" about death, and someone will always spurt out, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord," as if it is a truth found and taught in Scripture. When someone says, "The Bible says this or that," but won't show you where in Scripture this can be found is always a red flag! (That is why I always cite the verse location so that others will see it is God's word, not mine!) When they quote their made-up teaching, it is said in such a way as to imply that you, too, should know this.
I will end this here. No verse or teaching in Scripture says, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." Some will say, "But, the verse can be translated that way!" No, No, No! Scripture is not an abstract painting that allows anyone to determine their own meaning. Scripture is like Rubik's Cube, a math formula. Scripture is precise, and there is no way to alter how Scripture is to be learned outside the prescribed study method. Rubik's Cube has to be solved in a specific way. You cannot change the steps of a math formula to get the same result. You can't add strawberry to some milk and ice cream and come up with a chocolate milkshake.
While we are on death, I want to point out two things. Based on the O.T. teaching that the dead go to the grave and have no knowledge or awareness of anything in the world of the living, Ecc 9:5,10, 12:1, and John 5:28 in the N.T. (I am not trying to get into a debate about this subject.)
The E.C. world insists that there is no concept of the dead "sleeping" until the resurrection; their primary and only proof of this is the parable in Lk 16:19-31. I will discuss this in another post to show why this is a parable and not a true story. However, Scripture often describes death as "sleeping" or "being asleep." Have they missed this?
Deut 31:16.
Dan 12:2.
Mat 9:24, 27:52.
John 11:11-13
Acts 7:60, 13:36.
Eph 5:14
1Cor 15: 6,18, 20, 51
1Thes 4:14-15,5:10
What does it mean to sleep? You have a body in a state of sleep. While the person is sleeping, they have no conscious awareness of anything else; they are unaware of anything happening. They can't tell you anything that happened while asleep. You can't have a conversation with anybody while you are sleeping! Why would God have put into Scripture the idea that being dead is like being asleep? We all understand what it means to be asleep. These verses contradict the teaching that Lk 16:19-31 is a true story! The rich man in the parable is not sleeping; he is not only aware of his surroundings, but he also "remembers" his brothers, still alive on the earth, and he is having a conversation with Abraham, who, along with Lazarus, are alert and aware, not considered "sleeping!" To teach that Lk 16:19-31 is a "true" story requires that the above verses be ignored. One of the ground rules of the E.C. world is that "We get to pick and choose which verses we want to use and ignore the verses that contradict what we teach!"
In the N.T., there are five individuals raised from the dead besides Jesus:
Lk 7:11-15, 8:49-55.
John 11:34-44.
Acts 9:36-41, 20:9-12.
We know these are true stories, proved by being recorded in Scripture. These people did die and come back to life. Yet not one of these people ever gave an account of "what they saw or experienced" while dead. None of them claimed to have "gone to heaven." Why? Could it be that they were asleep while dead and had no knowledge or awareness of anything, as Scripture teaches? Yet, on the other hand, in the E.C. world, many people claim to have died, gone to hear one, or come back to life and can remember their "experience!" Some of them went to both heaven and hell and came back to life to tell the world about the "joys" of heaven and the "horror" of hell. And even more, there are now couples telling of how they both died and experienced heaven, hell, or both and are now out there telling their "personal story!" This phenomenon is so prevalent that it has become an industry with books, movies, and merchandise! I find it very strange that each "personal story," individually or as a couple, differs from the other "stories" being told. None of the stories match. How is that possible? I guess that there must be different heavens and different "hells!" And while all of them have a "message" from God or Jesus to deliver to "mankind" or believers, some have even come back with the gift of healing. One man, I don't recall his name, stated that he came back with specific instructions on how to build a unique chair!
Remember the book, "The Boy Who Went To Heaven," which sold over a million copies and was made into a movie? And later, the boy admitted it was a lie. Those who bought the book were utterly ignorant of what Scripture teaches or doesn't teach! I wonder how many of those who purchased the book is part of the E.C. world? Right now, there are dozens and dozens of books out there about heaven. It is significantly in vogue in the E.C. world to teach about heaven, what life in heaven will be like, and our resurrected bodies and angels. The sad thing is that Scripture does not give much information or details about these things! But there is tons of information being taught about these things! As if Scripture is just chock full of this teaching. This reinforces the truth that the "pastors" don't know what Scripture teaches and have no problem making things up! And that people will embrace lies and reject truth! I don't even think about what my resurrected body will be like, what types of abilities I will have or what heaven will be like; I have enough on my plate just learning Scripture and doing my duty, and living my life as a sheep! Revelation is known as apocalyptical literature and was a vision John had, not a real-life experience!
We also know that Paul had a vision of the third heaven, 2Cor 1-4. In verse 1, Paul clearly states this was a vision! Despite what he witnessed, he was forbidden to express it to others! Paul, Paul, the man God purposed to write two-thirds of the N.T., wasn't allowed to tell others about what he saw and heard, but everyone today has the freedom to tell their "personal stories" about heaven or hell. Really? What is the source of all these "amazing" heaven and hell stories? The internet, of course. Not Scripture! They tell their "stories" but can't prove them using Scripture!
God gave Scripture to His sheep. By Scripture, sheep know what truth is and is a lie, what is real and not accurate, and what to believe and what not to believe. Everything a sheep needs to know is found in Scripture. If it was confirmed that people could die, go to heaven or hell, come back to life and tell others "their personal story," there would be evidence of it in Scripture! It always comes back to one question, "Do you believe what Scripture teaches or believe what men say?
If you were to ask any "pastor" in the E.C. world, "Do you believe in everything Scripture teaches?" They would respond with a resounding YES! Which is not valid. Some verses clearly instruct that no man is to add or take away from God's word, Deut 4:2, 12:32, Pro 30:6, Rev 22:18-19. While these commands are directed toward all believers, they are specifically geared toward any who will teach Scripture to others.
As it has always been, the average believer does not have the time or luxury of spending time in deep study. That is why God calls some for the specific purpose of doing the deep, intense study required to learn Scripture and, in turn, teach others. Teaching Scripture, in a nutshell, is to know what is in Scripture, understand what Scripture means and then show others what is in Scripture and what Scripture tells. Those who are taught learn the truth of Scripture, how to live as a believer, and can pass on what they have learned to others. This is the most effective way that Scripture is passed on to others. An average believer, a sheep, will eventually know enough to be in a position to introduce others to some of the critical teachings of Scripture. As his life goes on, he will encounter many others, and among these others, he will unknowingly meet other sheep. But these sheep are not aware that they are one of the called. They know that they are spiritually starving and in a constant search for Scripture truth. When God has ordained the point in time that the unaware sheep is to have his eyes opened to the fact, the sheep who has some knowledge will encounter the other sheep and put forth some Scripture seed. This will open the eyes and ears of the "baby" sheep. The newly regenerated sheep will recognize the truth of what is being taught (My sheep hear my voice, John 10:27) and learn where to go to increase their Scripture knowledge. The E.C. world puts unnecessary pressure and unrealistic expectations on its members to "Share the gospel," "witness to others, "introduce people to Jesus," and "lead people to Christ." The thrust is that "You have to get people saved!"
You are a miserable failure if you are not bringing new people into the church building!
All of which are not true and unscriptural. A sheep is to sow some seed here and there throughout his life. If someone responds, great, suppose someone doesn't answer; great. Scripture does not instruct that a believer is to target specific individuals or groups and put all of their efforts into trying to "get these particular people saved." No believer is responsible for the salvation of others; that is secularly in the hands of God. It is through His word that eyes are opened, not the messenger or the style of the messenger. A sheep does not try to "witness" to total strangers. In the course of a day, things happen, and you innocently bring some Scripture into the conversation. The thing that I use all of the time is that after seeing or hearing something, I will say, "Did you know the bible says..." If another responds, I will continue. I leave it alone if it is like talking to a brick wall. I will never say, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," "Jesus loves you," or 'If you died tonight, where will you end up?"
Since only Scripture is to be taught to others, logic dictates that only what is found in Scripture will be shown. What the E.C. world loves to do is to "add" to God's word. They make statements, comments, and teachings that are not found in Scripture but are taught as if they are, leading off with the infamous line, "The Bible says..." I have written down over two hundred comments and teachings that are said very often in the E.C. world, but not found in Scripture, including:
Be the hands and feet of Jesus.
A God-shaped hole in your heart.
Share the love of God.
Jesus is so in love with you.
Lift up the name of Jesus.
Let God use you.
I am addressing the fallacy, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." This is not taught in Scripture but has been added to Scripture. The "message" of this fiction is that when a believer dies, their spirit goes immediately into the presence of Jesus. They kill two birds with one stone by not only twisting a verse and adding false teaching into Scripture. The verse they have twisted and continue to pervert is:
2Cor 5:8, "We are confident, I say, and willing rather be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."
In no way was Paul teaching anything about what happens to a sheep's spirit upon death, the event itself, or the time frame. Paul doesn't say anything in this verse about the end of a believer. To know the meaning of any verse is to discover the context and why what is written down was said. If you started reading a book in the fifth chapter and started watching a movie at the halfway point, you would be lost as to "who is who," "what is the plot," and "what has already happened." If you stopped reading the book or watching the movie and someone asked you, "What is the book or movie about?" you wouldn't have a clue. Ah, but in the E.C. world, that is exactly what they present. That a single verse can be isolated from a passage and quoted as if it is a verse that stands alone is the sole teaching on a doctrine (A doctrine is simply a belief or set of beliefs held as accepted Scripture truth). The context is expressed by the verse alone. Some verses can stand alone, but they are always verses that instruct about God:
Isa 45:5, "I am the LORD, and there are no others, there is no God besides me..."
Psalm 115:3, "But our God is in the heavens: He has done whatsoever He pleased."
Psalm 135:6, "Whatsoever the LORD pleased, He did in the heavens, the earth, the seas, and all deep places."
So, what was Paul talking about in 2Cor 5:8? If you start at 2Cor 5:1, it is not hard to see what Paul was teaching. And it wasn't "absent from the body, present with the Lord." This wasn't the first and only time Paul expressed his desire to depart this earth; Phil 1:21-23, 2Tim 4:6. I am like Paul in this regard; I am ready and eager to depart this earth. I look forward to my passing. Only other sheep can understand this.
There will be some conversation or "teaching" about death, and someone will always spurt out, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord," as if it is a truth found and taught in Scripture. When someone says, "The Bible says this or that," but won't show you where in Scripture this can be found is always a red flag! (That is why I always cite the verse location so that others will see it is God's word, not mine!) When they quote their made-up teaching, it is said in such a way as to imply that you, too, should know this.
I will end this here. No verse or teaching in Scripture says, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." Some will say, "But, the verse can be translated that way!" No, No, No! Scripture is not an abstract painting that allows anyone to determine their own meaning. Scripture is like Rubik's Cube, a math formula. Scripture is precise, and there is no way to alter how Scripture is to be learned outside the prescribed study method. Rubik's Cube has to be solved in a specific way. You cannot change the steps of a math formula to get the same result. You can't add strawberry to some milk and ice cream and come up with a chocolate milkshake.
While we are on death, I want to point out two things. Based on the O.T. teaching that the dead go to the grave and have no knowledge or awareness of anything in the world of the living, Ecc 9:5,10, 12:1, and John 5:28 in the N.T. (I am not trying to get into a debate about this subject.)
The E.C. world insists that there is no concept of the dead "sleeping" until the resurrection; their primary and only proof of this is the parable in Lk 16:19-31. I will discuss this in another post to show why this is a parable and not a true story. However, Scripture often describes death as "sleeping" or "being asleep." Have they missed this?
Deut 31:16.
Dan 12:2.
Mat 9:24, 27:52.
John 11:11-13
Acts 7:60, 13:36.
Eph 5:14
1Cor 15: 6,18, 20, 51
1Thes 4:14-15,5:10
What does it mean to sleep? You have a body in a state of sleep. While the person is sleeping, they have no conscious awareness of anything else; they are unaware of anything happening. They can't tell you anything that happened while asleep. You can't have a conversation with anybody while you are sleeping! Why would God have put into Scripture the idea that being dead is like being asleep? We all understand what it means to be asleep. These verses contradict the teaching that Lk 16:19-31 is a true story! The rich man in the parable is not sleeping; he is not only aware of his surroundings, but he also "remembers" his brothers, still alive on the earth, and he is having a conversation with Abraham, who, along with Lazarus, are alert and aware, not considered "sleeping!" To teach that Lk 16:19-31 is a "true" story requires that the above verses be ignored. One of the ground rules of the E.C. world is that "We get to pick and choose which verses we want to use and ignore the verses that contradict what we teach!"
In the N.T., there are five individuals raised from the dead besides Jesus:
Lk 7:11-15, 8:49-55.
John 11:34-44.
Acts 9:36-41, 20:9-12.
We know these are true stories, proved by being recorded in Scripture. These people did die and come back to life. Yet not one of these people ever gave an account of "what they saw or experienced" while dead. None of them claimed to have "gone to heaven." Why? Could it be that they were asleep while dead and had no knowledge or awareness of anything, as Scripture teaches? Yet, on the other hand, in the E.C. world, many people claim to have died, gone to hear one, or come back to life and can remember their "experience!" Some of them went to both heaven and hell and came back to life to tell the world about the "joys" of heaven and the "horror" of hell. And even more, there are now couples telling of how they both died and experienced heaven, hell, or both and are now out there telling their "personal story!" This phenomenon is so prevalent that it has become an industry with books, movies, and merchandise! I find it very strange that each "personal story," individually or as a couple, differs from the other "stories" being told. None of the stories match. How is that possible? I guess that there must be different heavens and different "hells!" And while all of them have a "message" from God or Jesus to deliver to "mankind" or believers, some have even come back with the gift of healing. One man, I don't recall his name, stated that he came back with specific instructions on how to build a unique chair!
Remember the book, "The Boy Who Went To Heaven," which sold over a million copies and was made into a movie? And later, the boy admitted it was a lie. Those who bought the book were utterly ignorant of what Scripture teaches or doesn't teach! I wonder how many of those who purchased the book is part of the E.C. world? Right now, there are dozens and dozens of books out there about heaven. It is significantly in vogue in the E.C. world to teach about heaven, what life in heaven will be like, and our resurrected bodies and angels. The sad thing is that Scripture does not give much information or details about these things! But there is tons of information being taught about these things! As if Scripture is just chock full of this teaching. This reinforces the truth that the "pastors" don't know what Scripture teaches and have no problem making things up! And that people will embrace lies and reject truth! I don't even think about what my resurrected body will be like, what types of abilities I will have or what heaven will be like; I have enough on my plate just learning Scripture and doing my duty, and living my life as a sheep! Revelation is known as apocalyptical literature and was a vision John had, not a real-life experience!
We also know that Paul had a vision of the third heaven, 2Cor 1-4. In verse 1, Paul clearly states this was a vision! Despite what he witnessed, he was forbidden to express it to others! Paul, Paul, the man God purposed to write two-thirds of the N.T., wasn't allowed to tell others about what he saw and heard, but everyone today has the freedom to tell their "personal stories" about heaven or hell. Really? What is the source of all these "amazing" heaven and hell stories? The internet, of course. Not Scripture! They tell their "stories" but can't prove them using Scripture!
God gave Scripture to His sheep. By Scripture, sheep know what truth is and is a lie, what is real and not accurate, and what to believe and what not to believe. Everything a sheep needs to know is found in Scripture. If it was confirmed that people could die, go to heaven or hell, come back to life and tell others "their personal story," there would be evidence of it in Scripture! It always comes back to one question, "Do you believe what Scripture teaches or believe what men say?
