I had know for sometime such was not the truth. So I asked simply, “Can you quote to me 1 Corinthians 15:51,52?” To which Ed said rather confidently, “Behold, I shew you a mystery, We shall not all sleep, but shall all be changed, in a Moment, at the twinkling of an Eye.” He looked at me fully calm, to see what I had to ask or offer next and I paused a moment in silence and then said…”Well…Whats the rest of it?”
He looked taken aback, I stated further…”That is not all of the passage, what is the rest of it?” He looked puzzled and repeated…”Behold I shew YOU A Mystery, we shall not all SLEEP, but we shall all be changed in a MOMENT, IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE.”
I stated “That is not the entire passage. WHAT THE PASSAGE SAYS, is ‘BEHOLD, I SHEW YOU A MYSTERY, We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a MOMENT, AT THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE…COMMA’…THERE is a comma there, which by the rules of English Language dictate that the information on the backside of that comma, is very RELAVANT to the information on the front side of that Comma.” He looked puzzled, but also agitated, as if he did not want to hear what would come next, not because of the content he might hear, but because of knowing whatever would come next may be a surprise.
You see Most Seminaries, teach their preachers not to “Proselyte” and yet, the prepare them to do just that, by giving an overview of the belief sets of other denominations in a point by point fashion by which the student could defend their own doctrines and argue away the doctrines of others that were contrary to the tenants of their own denominations. In such, they did not like to be the one in a position of BEING SURPRISED by the contents of Scripture. He stated…”Where is all this going, I really don’t have time for this…” to which I cited, “Pastor W, this is very important, God has sent me here today, and I was told to share a specific truth with you and I am about to make my point…” He asked me to get to the point and I continued…”What the Passage says is not ‘Behold I show you a Mystery, We shall all be changed, in a Moment in the Twinkling of an eye: And the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.’ There is a COMMA in there, what the passage says is “BEHOLD, I SHEW YOU A MYSTERY, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye COMMA…
AT THE LAST TRUMP…”
And he nearly came out of his chair as he took a very scolding tone….”STEVE, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE COMING HERE TRYING TO CORRECT MY DOCTRINE?…I AM THE PREACHER STEVE…I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS!”
There was no need of further discussion of “THE RAPTURE”, he had been preaching that passage for over 4 decades, 2 generations by modern western standareds, more than one generation by Hebrew standards, and for 40 years he had not seen that truth! For more than 40 years, he had been preaching a doctrine that used that passage out of context! For 40 years he had overlooked a single “JOT”, a “TITTLE” which pointed to information that changed in an instant his entire viewpoint and in the selfsame instant, he rejected the TRUTH! IN that moment, he knew exactly my position, his foundations were shaken, he knew that if “THE LAST TRUMP” were the trump to sound by which he had been preaching the Rapture Doctrine All those years, then he knew he had been prophesying a lie! And rather than convert in that moment to the ACTUAL TRUTH of the scriptures he had been using, and parts he had overlooked for decades, he chose the comfort of Status. He knew if he were to go down that path, he would likely be run off by his own parishioners, lose his nice House provided by the Church, access to that professional indoor Full size Basket Ball Gymanasium, the Retreat built and owned by the Church, and he chose to emphasize his “TRUTH” be “OLDER” therefore more correct, than to even lend consideration, not to my viewpoints, but to one little JOT, and THREE WORDS in the King James Bible, he chose to reject the words of his own Bible.
He told me “You can come here anytime, I am not going to tell you that you are unwelcome in this church, you can COME, and LISTEN, BUT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK OF THIS DOCTRINE TO ANYONE! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK TO ANYONE IN THIS CHURCH About any scriptures or doctrinal ideas you have on the same.”
I walked with him, heartbroken, telling him I would pray for him, As we approached his wife and the Evangelist back in the Auditorim, his wife shook my hand, the evangelist Likewise. A comment was made about lunch and being Hungry and I said, “Which Weiner King Are You going to…” Ed said, “What?” I said, “well, you made a public invitation to everyone in the auditorium from the Pulpit to meet you all at the Weiner King…” Ed said as his wife and the evangelist heard and looked bewildered…”No Steve, I didn’t really mean that, I wasn’t inviting you to Weiner King, that was just something I said, this lunch is more of a private lunch, a family get together.”
I walked away, I was down in spirit, knowing he had rejected the truth. And I realized God had used me to do what he set out for me to do in the first place, for the man Judged himself. I later shared this story on the phone with Livingstone Fagan, who told me as I shared the Story, as I neared the end, but before I could myself offer the conclusion Mr. Fagan cited… “He Judged Himself!”
You See, Ed's Bible was older than mine, he had preached his doctrine longer than I had even been alive. Some People treat “THE TRUTH” like owning the oldest edition,of a book and then even in that don’t know the very contents of that they proclaim to know. So you have one group who rejects truth when it is presented to them because they have “THE OLDEST BOLDEST” line to stand on, and then you have
Others like that Deacon at the SDA church, have “THE REVISED VERSION”…the “LATEST AND GREATEST” version, and are missing at least one third to HALF of the original Content and don’t even have a clue.
BUT THEN, there is a THIRD GROUP! Those who ARE “LEGAL LIBRARIANS”. They own volumes and volumes of works, Books upon Books, when they should concerned with only one…
”In the VOLUME OF THE BOOK it is written of Me, LO, I COME.”
In the first 3 minutes of the Sermon archive “THE SHAKING” pt A, David notes when a New Message is presented, those who hear it have 3 choices:
1) For it
2) Against it
3) Indifferent.
In such I submit to you there are 4 groups presented from those 3, 1 group who accepts the truth, and three who reject it. I label them, “The Latest and Greatest,” “The Oldest and Boldest,” “The Legal Librarians”, and the fourth quite simply, “WHEAT.”
in his teachings, David can be heard over and over warning “God is fixing to Judge the SDA like never before!” And he notes in “THE SHAKING” pt A, that the worst of those 3 groups is the 3rd group. This was well illustrated by Deacon Joe, that David Accurately saw the condition of the SDA.
And so we witness the indifference of the “Latest Greatest” group.
And we know certainly then any group other than “FOR IT” which we will discuss further in a bit, are then certainly “AGAINST IT!” Of those, “THE OLDEST BOLDEST” are loud, and hear the truth and reject it instantly when there very foundations are shaken, and go no further. BUT ONE GROUP is worse, these “LEGAL LIBRARIANS” who are oft warned…”GO NO FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A HEART FOR THIS TRUTH” they think they know it all, know better than GOD himself, and surely know better than his representative. So they proceed, and to learn the truth, but in such, never having a heart to possess the truth. So they Make themselves only that much more accountable as they study, not to prove to the truth, not to “LET GOD BE A WITNESS AGAINST” them, but to prove GOD is on their side, to win an argument, to Prove The Truth, a LIE!
These legal eagles, they can quote like no other. But they are clueless to the truth.
2000 years ago, CHRIST YEHESHUA is recorded to have said to the Pharisees “Ye Do ERR in NOT KNOWING The Scriptures!”
What was he saying? Was he saying “Nanny Nanny BOO-BOO…I can quote Scripture Better than YOU DO!”??? NO! Not at all!
There is a thing noted of Christ Yeheshua, the person most of the world erroneously addresses as “Jesus Christ”, a thing also Attributed to David Koresh, that Each…
”KNEW THE ENTIRE WRITTEN WORD OF GOD BY HEART!”
In such what people are saying is “They have memorized the Scriptures entirely!”
And this is treated like a MIRACLE! There are two points to be considered here.
FIRST…such a thing, if the case, is not UNIQUE and is not An ACT of A Miraculous super-human feat, but an ACT OF MEMORY!
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