Category Archives: false doctrines

Warning: Beware of Man’s Traditions About Christ

You ever notice how the apostles of Christ never warned the early Christians about the dangers of being deceived by the gods of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Indians, Persians, et al. They weren’t concerned about Sol Invictus, the worship of the Sun god, nor the worship of the Roman Emperor, nor any of the invading mystery cult gods of the East.

They warned Christians about organized churches and synagogues who professed to know God even while they were being infected by the false teachings found in the worship of those very false gods.

Paul makes this clear: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness” (II Cor 11: 13-14).

Much to be gleaned here. First, there are false apostles, individuals who claim to be sent by Jesus Christ (Yahshua) with His message. Their stock in trade, however is deceit. How do they deceive would be followers of Christ? They “transform themselves into preachers, teachers, and priests of the God of the Bible.

“Transforming themselves” comes from the Greek words meta schema, which means “to change fashion.” Someone’s schema is “the habitus, as comprising everything in a person which strikes the senses, the figure, bearing, discourse, actions, manner of life” [1]. In other words, when you look at one of these “false apostles” of Christ, you see and hear someone who you would expect to be a man or woman of God. Their appearance, the way they carry themselves, their words about Christ, their actions in the community, and their “manner of life” testify as to their self-declaration that they are indeed a person of God.

The old way of checking out somebody–if they walk like a duck, and talk like a duck, and act like a duck, they must be a duck–does not work in this case. In fact, this is part of man’s wisdom that must be thrown away in order to go on to higher growth of discernment in God.

So Just Who Are These False Preachers, Teachers, and Priests?

Who are they? Just look around. Churches on many corners teach the “traditions of men.” Their leaders do not dig deep as Christ admonished us. They are content to poll parrot what they heard in seminary, joyfully passing on poisoned pablum to the lambs instead of the true vision.

And it just wasn’t a lone apostle Paul who warned us of these. The apostle Peter, who backs up Paul, warns of them, also (II Pet. 3: 15-16). After lining out the steps on the road to spiritual maturity and son ship, he warns us of them. “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies…And many will follow their destructive ways…” (2: 1-3  Read all of II Peter and Jude for the full picture).

In lieu of the many deceptions put forth by imposters–however sincere they may sound and appear–Paul warns us to not be spoiled through man’s philosophy and “vain deceit.” Young Christians can be deceived by man’s traditions “after the elements of this world” system. Being deceived comes from believing corrupt man’s spin on the Christian life. This comes from pagan traditions soldered onto Christ’s gospel (Col. 2: 8).

One need only thoroughly study out the major holidays of Easter, Halloween, and Christmas in order to see how man’s traditions have dominated “Christian” things the masses hold dear. It is astounding how deceived the oceans of people are, never questioning the source of their traditions. Sometimes I want to cry out, my arms stretched wide, my heart saying, Why do you persist in following pagan rites and traditions super-imposed upon Christian sounding observances? Even the History Channel has broadcast documentaries exposing the error of our holidays! And yet we slosh on and on, mired in the same false mudslides of the fetid river of lies. When will we ever learn as a nation, as a people?

But I know that the remnant of God’s people are learning. They know and discern the deceitful doctrines, and when they do, they turn away from the intoxicating fumes of those falsehoods about God.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock [to be continued]

1. http://www.blbclassic.org/lang/lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G4976&t=KJV

 

 

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What the World Needs Now Is…Agape Love

Life is really all about love. Rather, a fulfilled life is all about love. Books, songs, poems, and most artistic masterpieces have as their major theme something about love. It is “what the world needs now.”

So we have the thinkers and poets penning down for the masses the hidden longings of the heart, for love. Although they may not realize it, mankind’s longing for love is really a desperate desire for God on some level. For there is only one entity in the universe that actually is love, and that is God, for “God is love” (I John 4: 16).

Thus, mankind’s search for love ends when he finds God. Seeking to be loved from another individual is seeking an earnest of God that He has placed in man and woman, who was created in His image.

The Hebrew prophets and apostles speak of just these very things. The Son of God Himself spoke of love, living it out dramatically through His Passion. He is Love incarnate, for He exhibited the greatest love that a mortal can ever do–to lay down his life for his friends.

This act of self-sacrifice for another instantly touches the human heart like no other act. The Son of God presented Himself the sacrificial Lamb for our deliverance, and now He asks His followers to do the same. But this time we are “to present our bodies a living sacrifice.”  Through this humble service to our King, we will not become self-centered proteges of this world system, but we will be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” We will change into His image through thinking His way, by His Spirit. (Romans 12: 1-2).

Now His Holy Spirit of Love multiplies and abounds in us when we do what He did, which is lay down our lives to help save mankind from a life without love (God). It is not so we can escape hell and go to heaven. That is not why He laid His life down. To follow Him, we must do it for the same reason.

How Do We Lay Our Lives Down Like Christ Did?

He wants us to join Him on the cross. The moment just before Christ died, all of the sins of mankind were place upon Him. He wants us at first to join Him on the cross. This signifies that our old haunts and sinful desires and deeds coming out of our old heart die with Him. Our old sinful nature died with Christ that day. And “he that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6: 7). We are free from the enslavement to sin and sinning that was our old selfish life! The problem is many just do not believe it. They have not heard of it and are loathe to believe anything “new.” They think that it is impossible to be rid of sin in a Christian’s life. But is anything too hard for God? To him that believes, aren’t all things possible with God? (I John 3: 9).

Dying with Him is the initial baptism or immersion into His death. Then we  believe that we are buried with Him. And then we believe that He was raised from the dead after 72 lifeless hours in the tomb. It is through believing in His resurrection that enables us to believe that we are raised from the dead, too! (Romans 6: 4-5). This is His faith, His belief. When we also believe this great act of the greatest love, then we receive His Spirit of life and love, and we walk “in a newness of life”! And love!

His resurrection power is born of love. For it surges forth after the selfless act of laying down His life for His friends, the greatest love. Our conscious act of following Christ in doing this is met with the resurrection power of love (God), now in us.

Spiritually Growing
And then we, “as newborn babes,” are to spiritually grow in Him. Or rather, we will spiritually grow as the Spirit of Love grows in us.

“Babes in Christ” need the “sincere milk of the word” in order to grow properly. They are, of course, mostly alive in their new life for what they can receive from the Father. Their prayers reflect this, for their petitions  center on their own needs. This is why Christ teaches all of us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” and all of our earthly needs will be supplied. But it takes a spiritual growth to become mature in Him enough to do this. A growth that the milk and then the meat of the Word will accomplish. For we all must be taught His thoughts, desires, and will, in order to grow (I Peter 2.2; Matt. 6: 31-34).

But herein lies the problem. Instead of the sincere and uncorrupted milk and later meat of the Word, they are fed with half-truths, imaginations, and traditions of men about God and not the “food that is needful for [them]” (Prov. 30: 8). Thus, the little children of God, lamentably, are stunted in their spiritual growth in Christ, stunted by erroneous concepts of the Savior and His plan for this world.

But a “babe in Christ” is like a child fed only with junk food their whole life. When the white sugar, corn syrup, and white flour products are taken away and a wholesome diet is place in front of them, they will say that the old junk food is  better. “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ” “Wine” is universally accepted to be a symbol of “doctrine” (Luke 5: 39).

Warnings about this problem in the last days fill the writings of the apostles of Christ. All of the New Testament writers, along with the prophets of old, expressed their concerns.

But Some…

But some will break out of the stunted pack, pulled by a strong yearning for the answer to life’s riddle. God has called some according to His purpose. He foreknew and conferred on them a destiny “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8: 28-29). He has chosen them “in Him before the foundation of the world, that [they] should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” Agape Love (Eph. 1:4).

These chosen ones, invisibly guided by His Spirit, will answer the “high calling.” They will decrease so that He can increase His presence in them to the point that Love (God) will express Himself fully to every one on earth–through them.

These He is calling. They have already been chosen. And they will respond and become the over comers of all things like the the corrupted half-truths and traditions of men about God. Fed with the sincere truth of God’s plan, they will grow fully to express Christ in human form again. They will believe Christ’s words: “Greater works shall you do than what I have done.”

They will be the princes and princesses in God’s kingdom, soon to be established earth wide upon His return. Filled with Christ’s Spirit, during the 1,000 Year Reign, they will be His viceroys, governing the provinces of the earth after the dust and ash of Tribulation settle.

How Will They Grow?

This vision of the “gospel of the kingdom” is what will feed and nourish young Christians so that they can spiritually grow to be just like Christ.

And the growth of God within them is the growth of love within them. Christ’s words confirm this: “All men will know that you are My disciples if you have love one to another.”

The last days are upon us. All these promises of sonship are written for our time, brothers and sisters. We are living in the time of the latter rain of His Spirit. Are we the ones who will shake off the chains of Christian mediocrity and free ourselves from spiritual infancy? Will we stand up and answer this highest of His callings–to sit with Him on His throne? Not every Christian will. Consider the five foolish virgins (Rev. 3: 21; Matt. 25: 1-13).

Or will we recede to the rear near the nursery and hide our talents in the earth, only to be chided by the Master, “You slothful and unprofitable servant.”

Sadly, this will come upon some Christians, all because they did not dig deep and prove all things and study for themselves the “new things” presented to them along the way. Christians who don’t grow will never express the greatest love, the love that comes from above, that heals the poor and needy, that rights the wrongs of human depravity, that restores God’s righteous judgements in the earth, thus incarnating God (Love) once again to a love-starved earth.

It is this kind of love that we are to finally add to the divine nature within us now. “Agape love is the bond of perfectness.” It is that last attribute of God’s divine nature that makes us complete in Him. It matures us, for when added, we will have been “conformed to the image of His Son.”  {My readers, I have poured it out for you. Can a brother get an “Amen”? Tell me what you think about these things. Did they make you think? Did they inspire you? Did they make you angry? Make a comment. Let me know your thoughts about these things. Holler at me. I need your fellowship.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock}

 

 

 

 

 

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The Open Vision and the Third Seal Famine

We are in a famine today. It is not a famine of food and drink, for we are literally fat from eating an abundance of food. No, the famine is spiritual; the bread we are lacking is the bread of life, the truth, the word of God. God did say that He “will  send a famine…not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD (Yahweh)” [1].

What do you mean, God? We have got churches on every corner. Everywhere you turn a preacher is talking about the things of the Bible. How could there be a spiritual famine? How could the people be lacking the word of God?

There is nothing new under the sun. It was the same in Samuel and David’s day. “And the word of Yahweh was precious in those days; there was no open vision” [2]. The word of God was “rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.” They had priests and men of the cloth, but the word of God was a rare thing in the earth; not many had the Spirit in a reality.

And today we have the same condition. We are in a state of spiritual famine, for very few speak God’s mind, God’s thoughts. He says to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” and yet, the preachers are one trick ponies, speaking about Christ, but never allowing Christ to speak through them. Each denomination has a pet doctrine that they have hammered into their followers; nothing new is breaking forth. If His Spirit were within the pastors and preachers, then they would speak what is on His mind, which is His kingdom and His righteousness.

But you never hear anything about it. Not really. The word says that God is “bringing many sons unto glory,” that Christ will allow the over comers to sit with Him “in His throne” [3].  But they just speak of “going to heaven”  and staying there, I suppose. But the word says that He is coming back to earth to set up His kingdom, His literal government, and He is bringing us with Him.

At His return He promises to resurrect the “dead in Christ,” giving them new spiritual bodies. And those of His who are alive when He returns will be given a new spiritual immortal body [4]. And we are going to be with Him as He separates the sheep nations from the goat nations.

Get the scene. He is sitting on His throne here on earth, having “come in His glory. And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.” Yes, He makes a distinction; He is so politically incorrect. All ethnos, all nations are gathered [5].

So we have sheep nations on His right hand and goat nations on His left. The question that should be on our minds at this juncture is, Who is who? Which one is which? Who are the blessed sheep nations, and which nations are the unblessed on His left.

For He says to those on His right, “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Why them and not the other nations? “For I was hungry and you gave me meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in. Naked, and you clothed me…” And the sheep nations ask Him, When did we do all that? And He says, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto Me.”

The goat nations did not do this. Therefore, they did not show mercy to Him. They have their reward (v. 46). Who are these sheep nations blessed by the King? Just look around and see who reached out in Christian love down through the centuries and you will have your answer. Who are the generous and charitable nations that have reached out and helped the other nations? You make the call.

But the preachers never speak of these things that fill His mind and thoughts. They issue shallow platitudes about this passage in Matthew that they heard from someone, if they comment at all. No wonder He said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts” [6].

A Spiritual Famine in the Land

No, we have a famine in the land, a famine of hearing the true words and thoughts of God. We have come to a point in time that signals the last days are upon us. His sheep nations are prosperous but have grown fat and “have forgotten the Rock from whence they are hewn.” And because of this apostate condition, God has sent a spiritual famine upon the earth. Before in the old days, it was a literal physical famine that God would send to His people when they strayed to serve other gods. Now it is a spiritual dearth that is enveloping the land.

There is “no open vision.” The Hebrew word for “open” in this passage is translated in other places as “bursting forth,” signifying a “overflowing”  (Prov. 3: 9-10). If we honor the LORD (Yahweh), then our presses will “burst out with new wine.” The word of God via His Spirit will burst out, will overflow our hearts and minds–if we trust in Him (v. 5) and keep His commandments (v. 1). If we “fear God”–if we have reverential awe of Him and His greatness and power, then the wine presses of our lives will “burst forth with new wine.” The new wine is the new doctrine, the new teachings that His Spirit is putting forth today. The famine will cease when we awaken to Him as the scripture truly depicts Him and not as the old ossified traditional teachings describe Christ.

When we get it right with the correct concepts of Him in line with His thinking, then we will not be blind. We will be able to see that Yahweh is the Savior [7], and that He was in the man Christ, saving us through Him [8]. When we get rid of the old leaven concepts about Him and begin to walk and think His true thoughts, then the famine will be lifted, and His Spirit will break out and overflow us and be abundant in our lives.

The Third Seal

We are in the midst of the third seal on the book of the earth’s end time future. We are in a famine as it was in Samuel and David’s day. There are many false teachers speaking words, but not the words of Yahweh. The third seal speaks of famine which leads to the fourth seal, Death. No word of God = no life = death [ 9].

These teachers and preachers of false doctrines are the ones that the apostles and prophets warned us of incessantly. They are either sincerely ignorant or willfully ignorant; God is their judge. But we are admonished to turn away from them, for they are “blind leaders of the blind.”

Why are they blind? “For Yahweh has poured out upon you the spirit of sleep, and has closed your eyes.” Who are these spiritually asleep? “The prophets…and their seers.” The preachers are asleep, put in that condition by God Himself (Isa. 29: 10-14).

Consequently, the whole vision, plan and purpose of God is a sealed book (v. 11). And those whom God has blinded with a spiritual sleep, they can’t read what is in God’s sealed book of what is taking place and what will take place shortly on the earth. We must put the sealed book of Isaiah 29 with the sealed book of Revelation 6.

Why are they blind and asleep and can’t read the sealed book? Because their worship of God is based on man made concepts and precepts and doctrines and teachings (v. 13). And because of this, we have a famine “of the hearing of God’s word” about His real vision and purpose.

But some will shake themselves out of this sleep and awaken to Him in a reality. They will build the old waste places and will with Him at their side administer in this earth a new beginning in His kingdom.  We must ask ourselves, Are we willing to pay the price to become one of His future kings?     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

1. Amos 8: 11

2. I Samuel 3: 1 KJV; NKJV

3. Rom. 8: 18-30; Rev. 3: 21

4. I Cor. 15: 42-54

5. Matt. 25: 31-46

6. Isa. 55: 8

7. Isa. 42: 3, 11

8. II Cor. 5: 19

9. Rev. 6: 5-8

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Manifestation of the Sons of God–Just Who Are These Immortal Ones?

Immortal ones? Walking around the earth? Interacting with regular human beings? Yes. This post apocalyptic scenario is vividly painted in the pages of the Holy Bible. When read with fresh eyes, the Bible speaks of Christ the King’s return to set up His government, His kingdom. This is the plan of God for this earth and its inhabitants.

The scene painted in the “Prologue” of this book is the aftermath of the destruction of man’s attempt to rule himself without God’s direction. It describes the end of this current age. It is the culmination of human history. It is the final curtain of a sad era of man ruling man and the beginning of the government that God will set up here on earth.

This new government is a kingdom, ruled by the King called Jesus in English speaking lands and called Yahshua in Hebrew. This kingdom ruled by its anointed King is the apex of man’s historical development.

For the King upon His return from exile not many years hence will usher in a thousand years of uninterrupted peace and prosperity for all who will serve Him during that time. The scriptures of truth state that He will not be a despot, clinging to power, but rather a compassionate monarch. For He will share His power with a chosen few of His servants. These will have overcome the treachery of Satan’s temptations and have walked the lonesome valley of His sufferings and have been found worthy to partake of His “divine nature.”

For those thus prepared will be changed, as the apostle Paul said, “in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump.” Their change will be from mortal to immortal, from an old decaying earthly body, to a resplendent spiritual body, immortal like Christ’s body after His resurrection.

Many followers of Christ will receive this new spiritual body, but only a few thousand will be chosen to sit with Him on His throne. Only a few will be deemed worthy by Him to rule in His kingdom. Only a few will have Christ formed in them. Only a few thousand will have grown spiritually to attain to this “high calling of God in Christ.” Only a few thousand of all the hundreds of millions of professing Christians will have studied to show themselves approved unto God for this high office.

This book The Royal Destiny of the Chosen Ones is ultimately for those answering this high calling, but it is still useful for all Christians. For we all who love Him should know His plan and purpose and pull together as yoke fellows to help bring His plan and purpose to full fruition. For all who love Him have a wonderful place in His kingdom. And He expects all of us to study and know what He is accomplishing in the earth.

And His great accomplishment is this: He is multiplying Himself through the creation of a body of many sons and daughters. These will be the ruling monarchs in His soon coming kingdom. His kingdom/government is the gospel, the good news. And sitting on His throne along side Him will be a few thousand over comers, who will rule and reign with Him. They are an integral part of His kingdom. Thus, they are a part of the good news. This vision of the kingdom is the pinnacle of human achievement and development. It is nothing less than the glorification of a few thousand humans, who with great humility will serve the King as His viceroys in His newly established kingdom that will be instituted in the far corners of the globe during the Thousand Year Reign.

Who Are They?

They are the “generation not appointed unto death,” taken from the Christians who survive the Great Tribulation Period and are left standing when Christ sets down His feet in Jerusalem to begin His 1,000 year reign. They shall not taste death, but will be given immortal bodies upon His return and will be glorified by God and placed upon His  throne alongside Him.

The Bible speaks of these often, using many different tags. They are the “many sons unto glory” (Heb. 2: 10). They are who the whole creation is waiting for unbeknownst–the glorified manifested sons of God (Rom. 8: 17-19).  They are the humans predestined “to be conformed to the image of His Son (8: 29). They are the called, justified, and glorified of God (v. 30). They are God’s elect, His chosen ones for this honor (v. 33).

They are the 100 fold fruit bearers of the Parable of the Sower (Matt. 13). Some that heard the word/seed of the kingdom brought forth 30 fold, and some bore 60 fold fruit. But these future kings brought forth 100 fold fruit.

They are the firstfruits of God’s harvest and follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev. 14: 4).

In spiritual growth, they are in the Holy of Holies, sitting with Christ on the mercy seat. They, like the Son of God, are the Word made flesh and dwelling amongst the mortals of the earth. They are the ultimate over comers of the seven church ages (Rev. 2 and 3). They are the five fold ministry officers of God–His apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors,and teachers for these last days.

they will herald in the newly established Kingdom of Heaven, proving their authority as Christ and the early apostles did by working miracles. They will be the healers of this soon to be shattered and destroyed earth.

These immortal ones will be God’s ambassadors to the four corners of the earth, bringing His administration, judging in righteousness, according to God’s Spirit that will fully reside in them.

In a word, they will be the saviors of the world, for it will not be they that live, but Christ that lives in them fully. As the prophet Obadiah saw, “And saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S” (v. 21).

This volume is an attempt to introduce to whomsoever would know our future rulers, for that is what they are. They are no less that the Father’s sons, His princes, who will set things in order after tribulation. They will do this under the direction of the Spirit with supernatural power that none can gainsay.

We now see “through a glass darkly.” With awakened eyes the glass we look through prisms the past, projecting future events from factual patterns on the sacred tapestry of Adam and his offspring. “That which has been is now, and that which is to be has already been, and God requires the things of the past” (Eccl. 3: 15). Study the seed and you can predict the harvest.

As we study the scriptures of truth, unencumbered by the damp stale blankets of denominational dogma, we look with unfettered eyes on the word as sacred literature, to be read, enjoyed, and to be enlightened from. No longer is it a closed book, venerated yet misunderstood by the clergy and laymen, who labor under the cruel weight of the chains of error.

By faith now we anoint our eyes with the eye salve of truth and see into the near future when the sons of God come upon the scene–our scene, our day, our time. Past is prologue to the future. The immortal Christ spoke 40 days after His resurrection things concerning the kingdom of God. And then He ascended. He promised his followers that they would do greater works than what He had done. He was the Seed; we sons and daughters are the harvest.

This book asks you, the reader, Could you be one of these future monarchs? Would you at least desire to help them get there? This volume attempts to share the light that I have been given to shorten the trek on the sons’ road to immortality. I hope that it will be used as a primer for the future princes and princeses of God–our future rulers in His glorious kingdom.

Nothing less that the coronation of thousands of kings–that is God’s will. That is His eternal purpose. That is His vision for man on earth upon His return not many years hence. He said that this is what He thinks about, what His mind is full of. A few have been chosen for this honor. Just who are these chosen ones?

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A Kingdom Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand–The Fall of the New World Order

Satan has a kingdom, and it is coming down, even as we write this.  More banks are failing while more governments are borrowing trillions from central banker thieves, thus putting the people more in bondage.

Satan has a globally connected kingdom–actually many national governments who are enslaving their people through corrupt economic practices.  For the very central bankers who were supposed to “prevent the people’s elected representatives” from making a mess of things, are now the very ones selling us all down the tubes.

But we sons and daughters of God must be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”  We must know the “wiles of the devil” as we are admonished by the holy apostles of Christ.

So let us realize and believe what the Holy One Himself said about this present world system.  The “wicked one” and destroyer of men is plotting now through certain rich men how to consolidate his power over all nations (see James 5: 1-6).

Satan has longed for the day when his “one world government” is realized.  It has been many centuries in the making.

Satan’s Kingdom Is the “One World Government” and the “New World Order”

Christ taught us that Satan has his own kingdom.  “If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?” (Luke 11: 18).   Earlier we see during the temptations of Christ, Satan saying, “All this power will I give you…for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.”  We see by this statement that the power of this present world system is Satanic and the power thereof is given to men from the wicked one.

Satan is the “god of this world.”  He is in control, for now, of all the power of the governments of men.

But Satan’s kingdom is a divided kingdom.  For instance, the West is at war with the Middle East; Christendom is at war with Islamic fundamentalism; capitalism is at war with communism/socialism; Hindu India vs. Muslim Pakistan; tribe against tribe; culture against culture, ad infinitum.

The United States is going into the One World Government.  Both Republican and Democratic Parties are taking us there through very similar policies.  Ever notice how neither decries the Federal Reserve System’s stranglehold on our economy.  Remember George Bush I’s  speech gloating about the “New World Order”?  What sheer audacity.  And what do the sheeple do?  Nothing.  Not a whimper, not a word.

The Difference in Our Two Parties

Here’s the difference in the two parties.  The conservatives want the USA to be the leading voice in the One World Government.  The Liberals want to weaken her, redistribute her wealth, and strip her of her power and make the USA just another third rate power, like a middle of the road European state.

And it is all heading that way–the way that biblical prophecy has proclaimed it to be.  The world will fall under the spell of a charismatic ruler, the Anti-Christ.  For seven years he will hold sway.  But the phony peace, held together by grey duct tape of lies, will fracture because of all the evil selfish egos, and Satan’s kingdom will disintegrate about the time of Christ’s return to set up His kingdom.

He’ll set it all aright here on earth, establishing a 1,000 year reign of peace.  And He will be using His sons and daughters as His administrators and ambassadors sent to the far-flung corners of the globe, spreading His love, hope, and righteousness.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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The Manifestation of the Sons of God–The Hope for Immortality, Christ’s Return, and the “Strong Delusion”

Turn on the news and what do you see? Suicide bombings, children slaughtered, ethnic cleansing, civil wars, domestic violence–the results of hatred at every turn. The “perilous times” that the apostle Paul wrote about are upon us. The Savior said as much. “In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” And He promised that we could overcome also.

But what constitutes this overcoming the world? How did He overcome the world? We will find the answer in the power of His resurrection. This power spearheads the ultimate victory that He promised His followers. “You shall overcome also.”

You shall become like Me, He is promising. You shall walk with Me and be like Me in My immortal state. You shall receive an immortal spiritual body just like mine. John confirms this. “When He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man who has this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3: 2-3). Our hope is to be like Him–immortal.

Let’s savor these words a moment. “When He shall appear, we shall be like Him.” Christ is immortal, and so will we be when He shall appear. So when will that be?

When will Christ appear?

Christ Himself said that He will appear upon His return to earth “immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Matt. 24: 29). Which tribulation? It will be “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall be” (24: 21). It will be so destructive that God will have to intervene and stop it before all mankind is wiped out. “But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (v. 22). God’s precious elect, His sons and daughters, will evidently be in danger, for He cuts the tribulation short to spare them from collateral destruction.

Furthermore, during this great tribulation period, deception and delusion will permeate the earth through the teachings of the false Christs and false prophets. They will be so convincing that it will almost deceive God’s elect, who are obviously still here on earth. For they could not be deceived by Satan if they were already with God in heaven. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matt. 24: 24.

This is the environment of Christ’s return to earth. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven…and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send his angels…and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds…

It is a time of “great tribulation” in the earth. Christ returns at the end of this tribulation. In fact, His presence brings peace and tranquility to the earth.

And when He shall appear at this time, then “we shall be like Him.” His Spirit will be living in us fully. And this is our hope. We shall receive immortality and become just like Him–right here on earth. Not in the sky by and by. No. Right here. How can I be sure of that? Because He has promised in His word that He is coming back to earth, the same way He left earth!

Our hope is to receive immortality, thus escaping a certain physical death that stalks humans on this earth.

Our hope of everlasting life

Paul admonished the church of the Thessalonians to have this very hope of receiving a new immortal body. He mentions that if you are sorrowful because of brethren who have died, you are acting like you have no hope (I Thess. 4: 13). Hope of what? He speaks of Christ dying and rising from the dead. The same power that raised Him from the dead will give the dead in Christ a new body when He comes back to earth. Those who die or “sleep” in Jesus (Yahshua), “God will bring with Him” (v. 14).

God will be bringing with Him His saints who have died before His return to earth. Where will He be bringing them from? And to where? The answer is found in verse 16: He “shall descend from heaven with a shout.” He is coming from heaven to this earth, and the dead in Christ will be coming with Him.

Those of us who do not die before His return will not precede the Christians that have died. “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep” (v. 15). Precede them in what? Those of the elect who are still alive at His return will not go before the dead in Christ in getting their immortal, spiritual body (See I Cor. 15: 23). They will get theirs first, then we will receive our immortal bodies, and we will join them, “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (v. 17).

Rapture doctrine erroneously based on one verse

The rapture doctrine has been built upon one major verse: I Thessalonians 4: 17. Of course, “rapture” is not in the scriptures. A closer study of this passage reveals events quite differently than what those waiting for the “rapture” envision. They imagine that they will be conveniently whisked away from the “time of trouble,” the great tribulation period, that shall ravage the earth at the time of His return. They base this primarily on one verse.

But let us dig deep into it and see what it really says. First, He is coming back to this earth. When He gets into the atmosphere of this planet, the dead in Christ will receive a new immortal, spiritual body, rising up to meet Him.  Those of us who are still living will join them “in the clouds…in the air.”

So there is a “catching away,” a rising up into our atmosphere. “Clouds” and “air” are components of the very atmosphere that we mortals breathe as we stand here on earth. The dead in Christ will join Him upon His return, and then those alive in Him will be changed and “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air.” Our change, when “this mortal shall put on immortality,” shall take place in the very atmosphere that we now breathe.

There will be air and clouds there. The Greek manuscripts are clear on this. Now take note of the next line in v. 17: “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” This   part of the passage is never quoted. We will join up with Him in our atmosphere rising in our new spiritual bodies from the earth, and then we will come right back down onto terra firma! We will come back down to earth after that short ride because He is immediately coming back to earth. And we are coming back down to earth with Him, for we shall “ever be with Him.”

This is our hope–to be eternally with Christ

We will forever be with Him at this time–all of His people down through the ages and those of His who are alive when He returns. That is our hope! The first step that He will take will be right here on earth.

Paul continues to explain to the Thessalonians about how Christ’s return will be “as a thief in the night” to those who walk in darkness. “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” Those in spiritual darkness will not know when He is coming back, but the elect will know and not be overtaken. “You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness’ (I Thess. 5: 2-9).

God’s children will be changed into immortals and will not be taken in the “sudden destruction” coming upon all those in darkness. Paul says that at the time of end, the world system will be trying to induce an artificial man-made peace throughout the globe. They will say that everything is fine now. “Peace and safety” will be the talk of the land, but real peace will not reside in the hearts of the earth’s inhabitants. In reality, a godless darkness will cover the land.

Yet, this earth in all of its end time spiritual darkness will be the stage for man’s greatest disaster and greatest triumph. The New World Order and its enforced peace will crumble under the onslaught of God’s missiles, His heavenly bodies that will literally crash down onto this earth, wiping out whole civilizations. It will be a “time of trouble” never seen before on earth.

Rising out of the ashes

But, rising out of the wasteland will come striding God’s chosen ones, His elect, His sons and daughters, His ambassadors–the princes and princesses of God’s kingdom. They will have God fully formed in them. Nothing will harm them, for they are from another dimension–a heavenly one that has transcended earthly matter. They will no longer be of this earth. They will have been “changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.”

This at once terrible and glorious day will come on the world as “a thief in the night.” Darkness will envelop the land, literally and spiritually. But, as Paul exhorts, you are “the children of light…we are not of the night, nor of darkness” (I Th 5: 4-5). The very fact that we have the Spirit within us, will make us where we can see the “thief” who operates out in the night of the world system. God’s elect will know. We will know by the signs of the times, for we will be “sober, armed with the armor of God, “the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.” This “hope of salvation” is the hope of our deliverance  from the dusty tombs of our mortal earthy existence. This “hope of salvation” is the looking forward to us receiving our new spiritual body at His coming–whether we be dead or alive upon His return.

At the end of this present age, the earth, totally immersed in the evil world system, will be a crucible of wrath, bathed in fire and blood. Yet this earth’s most painful travail will with supreme irony give birth to the sons and daughters of the great Father Yahweh. They will be the first immortals to take up residence on this earth since Christ Himself did for 40 days after His resurrection. They will have His Spirit fully residing within, and they “will build the old waste places” (Isa. 61: 1-4). Paul and the Thessalonians looked forward to this day, our day. In fact, their spirit still looks forward to the day of Christ’s return, which will fulfill our hope–our hope for immortality.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Manifestation of the Sons of God–Purging Out the Old Leaven

We have become the princes and princesses of God the King by our new spiritual birth.  However, we are in training to assume royal duties with Him upon His return to earth.

What should we be doing to get ready for this great responsibility?  We are admonished to “purge out the old leaven that the lump may be holy” (I Corinthians 5:7).

Leaven?  What does that mean?  Look.  Christ is the “bread of life.”  We have received His Spirit, and it is “no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.”  Therefore, we as His body are the “bread of life,” too, because of His presence within us.  But we come into this new life with some old concepts about God and the affairs of this world system that must be gotten rid of.  We have carried over in our thinking old doctrines, beliefs, traditions, and concepts.

Unleavened bread is “sincerity and truth” (I Cor. 5:8).  So, “leaven” must be insincerity and falsehoods.  Christ Himself told us to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1).  Yes, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.”  The Pharisees were the religious leaders, and Herod was the political leader back in that day.  They are symbols of religious and political leaders today.  “There is no new thing under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).  So, Christ is telling us to beware of them in our day, too.

To “purge out” the old leaven, we must be brutally honest with ourselves and “examine ourselves.”  We must be open to new truth; if we are not open, then we must believe that we have all truth already.  And if we think that way, then it will be very difficult for the Spirit to “guide us into all truth.”

No one except Him can help us get ready to rule with Him.  It is our responsibility to study and search out true concepts and get rid of false concepts about Him and His plan and purpose.  Like the “Reverend Mr. Black” said in song, “You gotta walk that lonesome valley; you gotta walk it by yourself.  Nobody else can walk it for you.  You gotta walk it by yourself.”

We must rid our minds of false religious and political concepts and take on the “mind of Christ” in order to “make our calling and election sure” as His princes and princesses.

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Passover and Unleavened Bread–How to Spiritually Keep the Feasts

A reader once asked, “Exodus 12: 14-15 says that the feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread are a  memorial for all generations. A memorial is a yearly observance, something done from year to year. Also, Yahshua [Jesus] kept the Feasts all throughout the New Testament, leaving us an example, thus He came to “magnify the law not to destroy it. Should we not then keep the feasts?”

A brilliant question yielded this reply. Yes, the feasts of Yahweh are to be kept by us. No doubt about it. How? is the question. Paul explains how under the new covenant. There is a spiritual truth to be extracted from the feasts.

The Spirit of Christ through Paul said that the feasts are a shadow of the heavenly reality. The priests in the book of Exodus administered the seven feasts of God. But they were only serving a copy and shadow of the heavenly reality. All of those gifts offered by them and the sacrifices and the feasts are but a pattern and not the reality.

Here is the Spirit of God expounding on this: “There are priests that offer gifts according to the law; who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary,” a “pattern” shown Moses on the mount Sinai (Heb. 8: 5; Col. 2: 16-17). So if the Passover and Unleavened Bread feasts are a copy, shadow, and a pattern, then how do we keep the the real heavenly feasts?

These two feasts are mentioned by Paul. “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (I Cor. 5: 7-8).

We His children are the lump of unleavened dough that goes through the furnace of trials in order to be baked into the bread of life. He in us is the bread of life. To keep this feast, we are to spiritually get rid of any malice and wickedness out of our thinking. Replace it with sincerity and truth. Without this, no amount of eating leavenless earthly flatbread will avail anything with God. He is calling for our hearts to be pure and not puffed up with false knowledge.

In this same passage we see the New Covenant Feast of Passover. Christ, the Lamb of God, takes the place of the literal animal as seen in Exodus. He is, of course, our spiritual Passover Lamb. We keep this feast when we know and believe that all of our evilness and malice, which is our old sin nature, died when He died on the cross. For He as the old scapegoat had our sins transferred upon Himself. We keep the feast when we surrender to this truth and give up our old lives. And when He was raised from the dead, we also are raised to walk in a newness of life (Romans 6: 1-12). This is the Spirit of Christ coming into our hearts and changing us.

And then the feast of unleavened bread in the new covenant is when we get rid of the insincerity and false concepts about Him and walk in truth. The very fact that the Spirit mentioned “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” and the leaven of “malice and wickedness” should signal to us that the feasts are spiritual [For more on this: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2014/05/10/feasts-new-moons-sabbaths-mere-shadows-of-christ-in-us/ ]

The generation in the wilderness was under the cloud, the aforementioned “shadow.” Christ our Passover had not yet come. So they were to keep the feasts as outlined by Moses. There are millions of people who diligently keep the Passover, for instance, but do not believe in Jesus Christ (Yahshua) of Nazareth. They are not keeping in truth the feast of Passover, for they have rejected Him, the true Passover Lamb.

Yahshua before His crucifixion kept the feasts as authorized by the law of Moses, for that was the age in which He walked upon the earth. That is changed. All of the book of Hebrews explains this conversion from old covenant and testament to new covenant.

God was speaking to the blind and disobedient generation in Ex. 12, not the “chosen generation,” which is the remnant, the elect, those with a new heart.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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The Apostles’ Doctrine–The Curriculum of God’s Teachers

Teachers of God will expound His way, while false prophets and false teachers follow man’s interpretation of His spiritual things. God’s teachers are His gifts to mankind (Eph. 4: 11). They are precious and very few in number. If we seek, we will find one, and we will hold them dear.

But how can we tell the true from the false?  The true teachers will have a grasp of the apostles’ doctrine (Acts 2:42).  They will know how to explain in detail how one repents, how faith works in us receiving a new heart.  In short, they will have true knowledge of the “principles of the doctrine of Christ” (Hebrews 6: 1-2).

Yet they will also know that one must leave those first principles in order to “go on unto perfection.” The Spirit that is within them will “lead us into all truth.”  They will know that it is Christ in them who actually is the real Teacher.

Many in “church circles” talk about wanting the same life as the early church in the book of The Acts of the Apostles.  They see the miracles and wonders performed and long for that same divine power to hold sway on the earth today.  They want, however, to circumvent the procedure used in those enlightened days right after Christ’s resurrection.  They want to accept Christ, be baptized, and then they want to set the world on fire with God’s power.

Before the miracles come from God, prerequisites must be done. “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles” (Acts 2:42-43).  Here you see the progression of things: the doctrine, fellowship, breaking bread, prayers, fear of God, and then came the wonders and signs.

“We Don’t Want Doctrine–Just Jesus”

It was the apostles’ doctrine that the early converts stayed in.   They did those teachings.  For “doctrine” is translated from the Greek word didaskalia, which means “teaching; that which is taught.”  Beware of those who will say, “We don’t want doctrine, we just want Jesus!”  If they could only realize that the Savior Himself was referred to as a “Didaskalos,” meaning “Teacher, Master.”  The same root word!  People who say, “We don’t want doctrine” are really saying they do not want the real Christ and what He taught.

The true teachers of God will teach true repentance from sin in one’s life and how faith works to give us a new heart and new spirit that pleases God in not sinning against Him.  And this is just the first principles “of the doctrine of Christ” (Hebrews 6: 1-2).

This is not a new thing that I write about.  Read it for yourself in Martin Luther’s writings*; in the sermons of John Wesley (  http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/sermons/040.htm ), founder of the Methodist Church; from Andrew Murray, 19th Century Scottish Missionary and author           ( http://www.victoryoversin.com/murray/like/lc24.htm ); or in these books https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/ebook-the-unveiling-of-the-sons-of-god/ ).

So, turn away from anyone who doesn’t teach the apostles’ doctrine, that says that you cannot be a righteous son or daughter of God.  Don’t believe them.  They will try to drag you down into the same spiritual slop that they are stuck in.  Find yourself a true teacher and study out the apostles’ doctrine, for those are the teachings of Christ.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

* “Sermon on Three-fold Righteousness” at  http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/3formsrt.html

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Self-Sacrifice Versus Self-Improvement in Christian Growth

Life is all about love.  It is about living to love. Life is our time to love.

But it is about great love, selfless love, agape love. For that is what touches the human heart–love. But this the highest love is the giving-up-one’s-life-for-another kind of love. It is that rare selfless love. And that is the part of the Christian story that reaches into the inner recesses of the heart and gently breaks it. It touches us. That’s the kind of love that is great–laying down one’s life for a friend.

And that is where the Christian’s Savior reigns supreme in touching hearts. Hearing of His undeniable love in taking our sins upon Himself and providing Himself as an offering for our sins–for the selfish likes of us–that is what touches us.

The cool untouchable reflection of Buddha does not touch us like Christ does. It is, after all, an exercise in helping one’s self gain peace. The busy petty pantheons of India, Rome, and Greece do not move us like Christ does.

Nor do nebulous new age imaginations touch us, for they all are mere means of self-improvement, not self-denial to help others.

And we humans know too well deep down in the core of our beings that self-improvement of the self is, well, self-centered and self-important and has little to do with worshipping the Creator who needs no improvement. For His ways are perfect; His thoughts are law.

This then should give us Christians pause. For we are warned repeatedly in almost every book in the New Testament that there will be false teachers. And even though well-meaning, they “will bring in damnable heresies.”

And the heretical teaching most damning, that condemns that vulnerable babe in Christ to a stunted spiritual growth is the doctrine of “self-improvement.” In an old tract it was call “The Modern Smooth Cross,” as opposed to the austerity of the “old rugged cross.”

The smooth modern cross does not demand the death of the old self on the cross with Christ, our sin Sacrifice, the Passover Lamb of God. This doctrine merely re-directs ambitions, improves little idiosyncrasies. It never gets down to the real problem–the sin nature that is brought to the church house.

In this modern doctrine of self-improvement, the self is still there. It is never demanded to die with Christ. Therefore, the sinful self is hibernating there under the initial rush and excitement of fellowship, hiding like a cornered wild animal waiting to strike out and wound whoever would pressure it out of its comfortable lair. Some feel quite at home and feel no threats to their current status in Christendom and carry on walking through the wide gate.

The Self-Sacrifice of Spiritual Circumcision

However, we now must remember that we Christians have undergone an invisible spiritual circumcision, “made without hands, in putting off the body of sins of the flesh (Col. 2: 11-13).  For we were already “dead in our sins (v. 13). And now God has provided a way to let that sinful nature die now and avoid the rush. And we have been “buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead” (v. 12). That is how God sees it and judges it regardless of whether we see it or even feel it. The “we,” the self is dead. He said it; now we believe it.

He died on the cross; our sinful nature died with Him. He was buried; we were buried spiritually, our old sinful nature entombed forever. He was raised from the dead; we are raised with Him and “walk in newness of life (Rom. 6: 4). And we must know this one thing: “That our old man is crucified with  Him [it is already done and over with], that the body of sin might be destroyed [that means dead, caput, no more, totally annihilated], that henceforth we should not serve sin”  (Rom. 6: 6).

So how to do this in a reality? We must reckon it so. We must account that it is done like God has already done. “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God” (6: 11). Let the invisible chains of sin’s slavery fall off of you. Just walk off of the plantation. You are already dead, so just let the old sinful life go. Be alive unto God. Walk in a new life through Him and through belief in His resurrection. It is already done. God’s Emancipation Proclamation has gone forth. Just believe it, and walk off of the plantation. You are free. You don’t have to sin anymore. Whether you have been going to church three months, three years, or thirty or more years–you are free now. Just believe it; it is already accomplished. I am proclaiming liberty to the captives. Walk on in the light of His love. Give up your life for others. Sacrifice your self to help save mankind. In a word, be like Christ. That is what He is asking us to do. After he told His disciples of these things, He asked them, Are you sure you want to do this? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

The Effect?

“He that is dead is freed from sin” (6: 7). Very few preachers tell their congregations that they are freed from sin. To the contrary, they tell them how sinful they are, but never tell them how to be free from that bondage to sinning. They proudly proclaim that they are a “sinner saved by grace” and will always be a sinner. Where does the Bible say that? Just read  1 John 3: 9. They will proclaim that they “sin every day.”

But why won’t they tell them that they are freed from the clutches of sin? Because they have not taught them that they must let their sinful old nature die with Christ on the cross. No death of sinful heart=no freedom from its bondage. For “whoever commits sin is the servant [slave] of sin,” Christ said (John 8: 34). He also said that “no man can serve two masters.” You cannot serve God and serve sin. Sharp cutting words, but needful.

But tired old churchianity slogs on, “teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.” Their leaders “cause them to err,” and they will give an account to the Judge who will weigh all their justifications and give His verdict, as they are led from the room muttering, “But did we not prophesy in Your name?”

The message written here will bless the hearts of some, but some will scurry out of its light, back to the friendly confines of modern Christendom’s “Today’s Tips for Self-Improvement. ”   Kenneth Wayne Hancock    {If you haven’t visited my website Immortality Road, please do. There you will find over 300 articles and books exploring the “unsearchable riches of Christ,” all written for you, the elect sons and daughters of God, the future rulers with Christ in His soon coming kingdom
https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com }

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