Those Who Approve

If you approve of abortion or homosexuality, or any other sin, in spite of KNOWING what the Bible says about it, then you are not a Christian. Don’t deceive yourself!

‘Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but -have pleasure in-* them that do them.’ (Romans 1:32)

* Strong’s G4909: syneudokew

1) to be pleased together with, to approve together (with others)

2) to be pleased at the same time with, consent, agree to

…a) to applaud

Your approval of such things reveals that you have been given over to a ‘reprobate mind’ (Romans 1:28). To have been given over to a reprobate mind reveals that you are under God’s judgment. For what? The Bible says it is because you ‘did not like to retain God in [your] knowledge’.

‘Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed [it] unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools’ (Romans 1:19-22)

But that is just the beginning of judgment. Your approval of sin reveals your reprobate mind, which is a sign that the wrath of God is being poured out on you already:

‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, WHO HOLD THE TRUTH IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS’ (Romans 1:18)

‘But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil . . . (Romans 2:5-9)

Therefore,

‘ . . . Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, [even] as many as the Lord our God shall call.’ (Acts 2:38-39)

The Difference

There’s a HUGE difference between a true Christian and a ‘believer’.

A true Christian lives a life that is obedient to God, and soon sincerely repents if they stumble.

A believer . . . well . . . a believer doesn’t do much besides believe. Believe in Jesus . . . believe what the Bible says . . . but somehow it never seems to translate into obedient action.

‘Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that DOETH the will of my Father which is in heaven.’ (Matt. 7:21)

Abusers

Abusers (#1)

Abusers are unhealthy people that take pleasure in dominating and/or hurting others. For whatever reason, this is the person they have developed into.

Yes, there may be a nice person lost deep inside, but they will do whatever they can to keep that person suppressed. The odds are EXTREMELY high that by befriending them, you are NOT going to get that personality to rise to the surface and become dominant. In other words, YOU are not going to rehabilitate that person by being their friend. You are most likely going to get hurt. And, if you have been hurt badly in your past, I can almost GUARANTEE that you will get hurt, as well as get drawn into a twisted, dysfunctional relationship where the ‘nice person deep inside’ rises to the surface just often enough to keep you coming back for more abuse.

We MUST learn to evaluate people, and to evaluate them the way the Bible tells us: by their fruit (actions), not by their words.

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Abusers (#2)

If you have a history of abuse, you likely complain about two things:

1. You keep picking the wrong guys (people)
2. Nice guys (people) don’t want you

I’m going to clue you in on something, and I want you to pray about it. I also want you to read it several times, until it really sinks in . . .

Abusers do not know how to have relationships with healthy people. The only people they know how to interact with are victims. Therefore, they watch carefully to see who they might be able to ‘get along’ with. (Remember, an abuser derives PLEASURE from an abusive relationship–to him it’s all good. The VICTIM derives pain and confusion.)

So, the abuser scopes out women to find someone he feels compatible with . . . someone he can dominate and/or abuse.

Victim, you are like a little lamb. Little lambs hide from danger . . . but sadly, victims don’t. What’s worse, you advertise yourself as a victim, even though you don’t mean to do that, and don’t realize it’s what you’re doing.
Here is how you do it–and this is what leads to both of the problems (1 & 2, above) that you have:

Victims give the new acquaintance (abuser) trust that he doesn’t deserve. They do this by opening up and revealing, to the abuser, that they have been hurt before. Then, they try to get him to promise that HE won’t hurt them.

STOP DOING THIS!! This is where the problem lies.

You’ve heard of poker, right? You know you don’t reveal your cards to the other players, right? You know you be very careful, by your words and body language, not to reveal what’s in your hand, right? THIS IS WHAT YOU MUST DO WITH STRANGERS!! . . . no matter how comfortable you might feel around them.

This is exactly what ABUSERS do, to make YOU feel comfortable–they keep their cards close to their chest. Even worse, they put on lamb’s wool and behave meekly around you. They may even lead you to believe that THEY are a victim.

(In this ruse, the victim often sees and senses the danger, but instead of hiding, they put on a brave face and talk with the abuser. They try to draw out the ‘nice person hiding deep within them’ and try to convince the abuser that they (the victim!!) are a safe person that the abuser can trust.)

Regardless of your initial impression, if you are someone who has been abused, DO NOT LET YOUR GUARD DOWN WITH A PERSON UNTIL YOU HAVE KNOWN THEM QUITE AWHILE.

First impressions, especially the first impressions that a victim has, are often WRONG–especially when you are dealing with an ABUSER who is purposely misrepresenting himself as someone safe, which they usually do. Therefore, you need to be around a person for awhile, keep on your poker face, and watch and evaluate them carefully, to see who they REALLY are, before revealing personal things to them.

Now, let me tell you WHY you have these two problems.

1. You keep picking the wrong guys

You are picking the wrong guys because you open up to strangers that you have just met, and you tell them that you have been hurt or abused. Or you IMPLY it, by saying telling things like ‘I don’t like guys that play games’, ‘I have a very tender heart’, ‘I don’t want to get hurt’, etc., etc.

Abusers LOVE these kind of revelations, because it means they’ve got you on the hook. All they have to do is reel you in. And so they LIE. Yes, they deliberately LIE and tell you whatever it is you want to hear. They will promise you, all day long, that they will NEVER hurt you. (Then later, when they virtually destroy you, you are mystified as to what you might have done to cause them to break their promise. NOTHING!! You did nothing!! They lied!!)

You keep picking these guys because they GO OUT OF THEIR WAY to make you feel safe, comfortable, and loved–and you fall for it. They will go to great lengths to win you over, because they are trying to compensate for having a lot of meanness and cruelty on the inside. They almost always OVERcompensate though–which means they can seem like the nicest guy in the room. You feel flattered that such a nice guy would be paying attention to you.

2. Nice guys (people) don’t want you

Actually, this isn’t completely true. There probably ARE nice guys that want you or are attracted to you, but you SCARE THEM AWAY when you start telling them about how you’ve been hurt before, and trying to gain their reassurance that they too won’t hurt you.

Here’s the thing . . . any nice, honest person is well aware that they are not perfect, and that they MIGHT hurt you, although not on purpose. A nice, honest person does not want to add to your pain, and they know that (unintentionally) they might. After you’ve made such revelations to them, they see you as emotionally fragile and easily hurt, and so they back away.

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The very behavior that draws abusers TO you, pushes nice guys AWAY from you. And the irony is, the nice guys DO like you, and would NOT want to deliberately hurt you . . . but the abuser won’t hesitate to lie and make false promises, so HE is the one you choose!

Contrary to your fears, there is nothing inherently WRONG with you. You have just developed a behavior pattern that is dangerous and self-defeating. You do not DESERVE abuse, and it is NOT true that no one nice will ever love you. However, if you do not change this behavior, nice guys will only be able to love you from afar.

Obey Jesus . . . know them, discern them, by their fruits.

To recap:

Nice guys will RARELY promise not to hurt you, because they don’t want to LIE to you. They don’t want to make a promise to you, and then betray your trust or hurt you further by doing something unintentional, or because you are fragile and easily hurt.

Abusers however, will tell you EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO HEAR. They will promise you everything you long for, and they won’t mean one word of it. They have no intention of putting even ONE OUNCE of effort into keeping their word. You, my dear, are a tasty lamb and they are a hungry wolf. They are going to do what comes natural . . . so: BEWARE!!

 

The Proof

The Proof

These two verses are absolute PROOF that the pre-Trib rapture is a false doctrine.

Immediately after Satan is thrown into the abyss for 1,000 years . . .

‘And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received [his] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. THIS [IS] THE FIRST RESURRECTION.’ (Rev. 20:4-5)

 

Here is why the pre-Trib ‘rapture’ doctrine is false:  because we are told that the ‘rapture’ happens immediately AFTER the resurrection.

 

THIS passage describes the resurrection & ‘rapture’:

‘For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive [and] remain unto the coming of the Lord SHALL NOT PREVENT* THEM WHICH ARE ASLEEP.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: AND THE DEAD IN CHRIST SHALL RISE FIRST: Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’ (1 Thess. 4:15-17)

*precede, go before

(Also, compare this passage with Matt. 24:29-31)

 

The resurrection does not happen until the LAST DAY (but hold on, there’s even more absolute proof coming . . .).

As Martha said:

‘ . . . I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’ (John 11:24)

and Jesus promised:

‘And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.’ (John 6:39, also 6:40 and 6:44)

 

The resurrection happens at the LAST DAY. The dead in Christ rise first, then those who are alive at His coming are ‘caught up together with them in the clouds’ (what people call: ‘the rapture’). Therefore . . . the ‘rapture’ happens, AFTER the resurrection, AT THE LAST DAY

Therefore (and this is the proof), when John says he saw those who were beheaded for not taking the Mark of the Beast . . . AT THE (first) RESURRECTION . . . that is proof that the (first) resurrection does NOT take place until AFTER the great persecution (Great Tribulation) and the Mark of the Beast.

Therefore, since the ‘rapture’ comes AFTER the resurrection, and the resurrection comes AFTER the Mark of the Beast, we can absolutely prove that THE ‘RAPTURE’ DOES NOT HAPPEN UNTIL AFTER THE MARK OF THE BEAST!

1. The Great Tribulation (great persecution) and the Mark of the Beast
2. The (first) resurrection
3. The ‘rapture’

 

For some of you, this will finally open your eyes–but it will come as a horrible shock.  Brothers and sisters, start reading the word.  You will find that this change of perspective does not negate the promises of God . . . it only wipes the slate clean of many lies that you have been taught.  Take refuge in God.  Set your house in order.  Begin to walk in holiness . . . without which NO ONE will see God.

Why Are So Many Deceived?

The widespread deception we see in ‘Christianity’ today, is NOT because a bunch of born-again Christians are reading the Bible on their own, prayerfully trusting the Holy Spirit to lead them, and then coming up with crazy ideas. NO!

(And yet, that is what organized ‘Christianity’ leads you to believe will happen if you don’t regularly attend ‘church’ and put yourself under the (supposed, but unscriptural) ‘spiritual covering’ they claim to provide.)

‘But I would have you know, that the head of every man is CHRIST . . . ‘ (1 Cor. 11:3)

The widespread deception is because people have set aside the Scriptures that tells us that the former example is PRECISELY how we are supposed to learn!

‘But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.’ (John 14:26)

‘But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.’ (1 John 2:27)

Likewise, it has never been God’s intention for one man to rule over any group of people, whether it be a local church, or a nation. And yet, there again, we see that most ‘churches’ today have a pyramid shaped design with the ‘lay people’ at the bottom and a pastor at the very top.

The mainstream Christian ‘churches’ are now revealing the poison fruit of their disobedience and unscriptural practices. There are hundreds (thousands?) of denominations, all in various degrees of apostasy and doctrinal error.

Meanwhile, those people who have rejected this system and ARE prayerfully reading their Bibles, leaning on the Holy Spirit to teach them, are finding a remarkable unity in understanding.

Disobedience to God’s design will not bring God’s blessing. And in this case, it will put you in extreme danger of being caught up in deception. I hope that you will heed the instructions in God’s word, and that you will pray about the best way that YOU can be in obedience to God’s design. It could be a matter of spiritual life or death for you and your family.

Expel The Immoral Brother

We are to reach out to those who have turned away from the truth and have gone back to sin:

‘Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.’ (James 5:19-20)

‘And others save with fear, pulling [them] out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.’ (Jude 1:23)

But we must NOT tolerate, in our midst, those who take the name of God in vain . . . those who profess to be Christians, but deny Him by their deeds:

‘I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, IF ANY MAN THAT IS CALLED A BROTHER be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore PUT AWAY FROM AMONG YOURSELVES THAT WICKED PERSON.’ (1 Cor. 5:9-13)

‘Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves FROM EVERY BROTHER that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.’ (2 Thess. 3:6)

In fact, those who claim to be Christians, but persist in their blatant sin, unable or unwilling to come to a place of humble repentance, we must ‘deliver to Satan’ (in prayer together, ‘wash our hands of them’) in the hope that through the torments of Satan, they may come to a place of humility and repentance.

‘It is reported commonly [that there is] fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, [concerning] him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, TO DELIVER SUCH AN ONE UNTO SATAN for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.’ (1 Cor. 5:1-5)

Such are difficult situations for everyone involved. It is hard to turn your back on someone you love. But true humility and repentance requires brokenness, and sometimes it is only the brokenness that comes from rejection, loneliness, and despair that drives one to their knees. Let your grief and love drive you to your knees for that person, in the prayer that they will humbly repent. Hope for the day when you can welcome back that prodigal with open arms.

It is also important that The Church be pure. Making concessions for those who love their sin and will not depart from it only allows that ‘leaven’ to spread. Once the high standard of holiness is dropped for one, many others will adopt the lower standard as well. The bar has been set high, by God. Make no mistake, the standard is not ours to alter. We are plainly told that without holiness no one shall see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).

Churches today are acting contrary to Scripture when they try to be all-inclusive and reach out to all ‘whom the churches have hurt’. It just may be that the church that hurt them was doing the will of God and rejecting them in their ongoing, unrepentant sin. Contrary to the desire of sinful humans, The Church is not a social club where all are welcome. The Church is exclusive–only REPENTANT sinners may join.

Catering the Gospel

You do not need to cater the gospel message to appeal to the unsaved. All those who are being drawn to Christ by the Holy Spirit will receive the truth when you preach it.

‘We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.’ (1 John 4:6)

(Don’t be surprised to find that a lot of people who claim to be CHRISTIANS will reject the true gospel message. They thereby reveal themselves to be under a spirit of error, and not of God.)

‘No man can come to me, except THE FATHER which hath sent me DRAW HIM: and I will raise him up at the last day.’ (John 6:44)

Will the Father not work in concert with the TRUTH to draw them? Do we really need to help God?

‘And THE LORD ADDED to the church daily such as should be saved.’ (Acts 2:47)

Numbers aren’t everything–especially when the ‘converts’ have not really been converted to the truth! Lets stop hindering God by trying to improve on his model.

Unsaved Preachers

The reason that the unsaved are accepting the message of the ‘culturally relevant’ preachers, is that these preachers are unsaved too.

‘They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.’ (1 John 4:5)

(Inspecting their words and their ‘fruit’ will verify what I am saying.)