Category Archives: false teachers

December 28, 2013 · 10:53 pm

Making Our Calling and Election Sure

We are admonished by the apostle Peter to “make our calling and election sure.” You mean that we have to do something? I thought it was all God and His grace that helps us to be what He wants us to be. It is, but there remains things we must do in order for the spiritual growth to take place.

We must study and pray and eventually fast that the culprit Unbelief might skulk away out of our spiritual lives. For it is unbelief that hinders our growth. But the Spirit has left us a roadmap, a way of cutting through the haze of phony doctrines about God.

Peter tells us in his second letter the steps we should take. He explains that to grow to full maturity, we must add seven attributes to our faith.

Peter writes to those who “have obtained like precious faith with us” (2 Peter 1: 1). The elect, God’s chosen ones for this high calling, have received the same exact precious faith that the early apostles received.

Now this comes about in our lives “through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ (Yahshua)” (v. 1). After we were convicted of our sin-guiltiness, and after we stepped out and laid down our old sinful self on the cross and died in revelation with the sacrificial Lamb of God, we, by believing that Christ was raised from the dead, receive a newly resurrected life by faith.

It is His faith that we have received. God believed in His own power to raise up the Lamb of God, and when we believed that, then we obtained that very same belief in the form of a “new heart” and a new spirit. By believing in His resurrection, we also believe that we were raised from the dead, for we were definitely dead in our sins—the walking dead, as it were. But now we are  alive from the dead, and we bear God’s very own faith in our bosom. As Paul said, “Old things are passed away,” and all things “are become new.” It is no longer the old Adamic man, writhing in the guilt of sin, that now lives, but rather the new man Christ, who has now begun His growth within our new hearts.

This is the faith we have obtained with Peter, Paul, James, and John. Faith is the foundation that must be added to, just like a builder adds walls, a roof, windows and doors to the foundation of the new house he is building. And it is this faith—God’s faith now in us, not our faith in Him—that must be added unto.

Adding Seven Spiritual Attributes Insures Three Things

We are to add to our faith “virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity [agape love]” (1: 5-7).

Peter writes that adding these seven spiritual attributes to His faith in us yields three major things in God’s plan for these latter days. First, they insure that we will not “be barren nor unfruitful” (1: 8). God wants us to bear “much fruit” and is glorified when we do (John 15: 8).

Second, the additions to our faith are how we solidify our standing as one of God’s elect; it is how we “make our calling and election sure.” Walking in these seven attributes of God’s nature insures our place in the elect. Or better put, those destined to be part of the elect will build their spiritual house with these attributes (1: 10).

Furthermore, it is through them that “an entrance shall be ministered unto [us] abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior” (1: 11).

Adding them is how we “partake of His divine nature” (1: 4). It is how we make our calling and election sure, how we never fall, how we will be full of spiritual fruit, how we will receive an entrance into His kingdom, and how we will “partake of His divine nature.” That sums up what spiritual growth is about. That is how important these things are as outlined by Peter in his Second Epistle, Chapter 1.

A Serious Assignment

Adding these attributes is a serious assignment that only the Spirit of truth can teach, for it is He that leads us into all truth. Truth being the key word.

“Truth is fallen in the streets,” says the prophet. And there is a famine in the land, a famine of the word of God. Because of this dearth, adding these seven attributes is a formidable task. Why? Peter in the very next chapter forewarns us of how the devil will hinder our growth in becoming God’s elect. He warns us to beware of false prophets and false teachers who “shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.” And many will follow these hypocrites, who will “speak great swelling words of vanity” and will “promise them liberty” while they are “the servants of corruption” (II Peter 2:1-19).

And how does this second chapter tie into the first? These false “Christian” teachers will spew out false teachings that will hinder a young Christian’s spiritual growth. Peter gives his stark warning to us so that we would not be hijacked and taken away by the enemy, thus prohibiting us from making our calling and election sure. Bluntly put, false teachings will thwart the children of God from growing into fully matured Christians, fit to sit on the throne with Christ. Getting rid of these false concepts about God is where the study and prayer come in after true knowledge comes to us.

Isaiah wonders, “Who hath believed our report?” Who will answer the call to go all the way to the throne of God? Only the adventurous. Only the unafraid. Only the rebels who refuse to come under the yoke of the god of this world. Only those who trust in the Spirit of God within themselves, as He helps them separate the good teachings from the bad.

But man’s wisdom cannot teach this truth to the elect. Old Adamic man just cannot teach it to us, nor the well-meaning manna-gatherers of yesteryear, who fed the flock of God with the spiritual bread that they had one hundred, five hundred, or one thousand or more years ago. That cannot sustain the elect of God for these latter days. For these elect must have the “present truth”—food convenient for them.

God is doing a new thing; He is pouring out new light as to His plan and purpose. The Spirit is pouring out His truth today all over the earth. He has seven thousand unbowed to Baal, and they are like river bed conduits of His living water. Those who thirst will drink. The rest will with parched throats persist in scratching moisture out of broken cisterns of the waters of the past, repositories of the damp shadows of truth.

For God is doing a new thing in the earth, a thing that men will not believe though God Himself tells them. For He has already, even though He has blinded all but the remnant, the elect. But they will prepare and do and put on these additions to the “faith once delivered to the saints.”   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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December 6, 2013 · 9:57 pm

Disproving the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory

Scant few scripture passages are used to “prove” the erroneous pre-tribulation rapture theory. Some people use this one: “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left” (Mt. 24: 40). They will just pluck it up out of its context, prop it up, display it, and use it to try to prove that the rapture happens before the Tribulation Period begins.

I agree that the word “taken” here is a good thing, for the Greek word (#3880) is translated in other places as “receive,” as in receiving the word of God [ http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G3880&t=KJV ]. So, yes, one is “received” or “taken” by God and the other is left. But, when does this take place? Is it before the tribulation starts or after? That is the question whose scriptural answer cannot be ascertained by just plucking the verse out of context.

So let’s dig deeper into the “one taken, the other left” passage. This verse starts with the word “Then.” “Then” signifies that something else has had to have happened before “one is taken.”

And that something that Christ alludes to is the flood of Noah, as seen in verses 37-39, just before the “taken/left” passage. We are talking ultimately here about the “coming of the Son of man” (v. 37). Noah and his family were those who were taken or received by God and preserved through the tribulation of the flood. The others would not listen to Noah and “knew not until the flood came” (v. 39).

But Noah knew when the flood would come! “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights…” (Gen. 7: 4). Noah knew that in seven days the flood would start. He knew, for God told him. And, yet, unenlightened preachers  expound in pulpits across the land that “no one can know the day or hour of His coming.” And they cite this very passage! But Noah knew! In seven days the flood would come. Will God tell a righteous man in our day when His coming will be?

What no man will know is when “heaven and earth shall pass away” in Matt. 24: 35! “But of that day and hour knows no man” (v. 36). “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (v. 37). Christ likens when the coming of the Son of man will be just like it was in Noah’s day. Noah knew and was “taken” by God in the Ark, and the others were left.

This is the context leading to verse 40: “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” The Tribulation has already started! The “abomination of desolation has already taken place in verse 15, which is further context for v. 40.

The Anti-Christ standing in the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem is a stupendous sign. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (24: 21). The Tribulation Period starts here, 19 verses before the supposed rapture-proving verse 40 where one is taken, one left.

“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (v. 22). Great calamity and distress and destruction is happening. But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (v. 22). The elect chosen ones of God, His church, are in grave danger of being destroyed in the tribulation. They are on earth in harm’s way, and to spare them, God shortens the time of destruction; He cuts it short to save their lives.” They are still on earth, for why would God have to spare them if they were with Him in heaven, having been raptured out of danger earlier?

And make no mistake who the elect in this passage are.  They are His church, His body of believers. And since they will be “caught up to meet Him in the air,” upon His return, it must be after the tribulation period ends.

The going will get rough for the last generation of His elect, those alive when Christ returns to set up His kingdom here on earth. For they will have to endure the Great Tribulation Period. But He is faithful to protect us from those hard times.                                                     [For other articles disproving the pre-tribulation rapture theory click here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/?s=rapture ]

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October 19, 2013 · 4:30 pm

The Hidden Wisdom and the Power of God

It is hiding in plain sight, this great mystery that the apostles and prophets wrote about. It is not in man’s old nature to see and understand what it is, for this hidden wisdom of God entails attributes that are completely opposite of the old nature man is born with.

In fact, when old man Adam glimpses the hidden wisdom in operation in a human’s life, it appears as foolishness. But God has chosen the foolish, weak, base, and despised things on this planet to confound the current powers that be–those humans who think that they in their own strength and position rule their own destinies (I Cor. 1: 25-29).

So just what is this wisdom of God that is hidden from men? What is this secret mystery of God that He withholds from carnal man’s eyes? The answer is in that first letter to the church at Corinth that the apostle Paul wrote.  In it he upbraids them for their lack of spirituality, citing many instances of their carnality and lack of the Spirit.

Paul explains early on in the letter that he was not coming to them “with enticing words of man’s wisdom,” but in the Spirit and its power” (2: 4).  They were hung up on following the teachings of a man. Some were saying, “I am of Paul and I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas” (1: 12).  Sounds like, I am of Luther; I am of the Pope; I am of Wesley; I am of Russell; I am of…ad infinitum. Denominationalism was already in full bloom by AD 59. “Only by pride comes contention.” And such contention as seen in the modern day churches comes in believing that they are the only ones who have the truth.

It is this vain glory that causes the divisions and schisms in the church (1: 10-17). Most denominations, distrustful of each other, labor in carnality, thus showing a lack of the wisdom of God.  We all should be “perfectly joined together.” But how? “By having the same mind.” Which mind? “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ,” which was a mind of humility, which is exemplified in the cross.

The Preaching of the Cross

The cross experience is for us to go through, not just observe in another.  Man’s wisdom looks at this as the man Christ dying on the cross for our sins.  But Paul speaks of the hidden wisdom of God as “the preaching of the cross” and what it spiritually represents.

Had the rulers of this world in Christ’s day known of this hidden wisdom of God, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”  Make no mistake of who they were.  They were the offspring of Edom who had converted to Pharisaism and by Christ’s day held most of the top posts in the religious hierarchy of Jerusalem.  They were the chief priests and religious henchmen who conspired on trumped up charges to get rid of Christ.  They goaded the people and the Romans to crucify Him, which is just what God wanted them to do. They thought in their carnal man’s wisdom that they were getting rid of Him, when they were in reality ensuring that “the cross” and the humility of God that it signified in the hearts of all mankind would ring down like joyful bells through the ages.

Of course, if the rulers at Jerusalem knew of this hidden wisdom of humility, they would not have crucified Christ.  For His cross experience put to death our old sinful nature, which was placed upon Him just before He expired on that cross.  Not only our sins died with Him that day, but also our old sinful carnal nature died as well. When He died, our old sinful self died; when He was buried, our old lives were buried with Him.  When He was resurrected, we were also “raised to walk in a newness of life.”  We are free from the bondage of having to sin,” for “he that is dead is freed from sin.” Those who believe this become “new creatures” by faith, and we receive His Spirit within and receive a new heart.

This is the preaching of the cross.  This is the hidden wisdom; this is that special knowledge of God that is hidden from carnal man and definitely hidden from the rulers of this world system, as it was hidden from the rulers of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. This act of humility–giving up our old lives–is the cross experience and is the hidden wisdom put into action in our hearts.  It is the only sacrifice that God is pleased with, for it takes faith.  It takes believing that He has done all this for us.

Those who go through this cross experience receive the resurrection power of the Spirit into their new hearts and their lives begin to change, and through proper nurturing, they will grow up into Him and He in them. But they are the desperate ones to change, and they will love much, for they will know that they have been forgiven much.  In this crucible lies the hidden wisdom and the power of God.     KWH

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August 24, 2013 · 7:39 pm

The Elect–The Key to Understanding Christian Growth

These words I write, though now published and available to all everywhere, are really intended for a certain few.  Those are the few who are able to perceive the things of the Spirit, for not all can.  The Master spoke “to him that has ears to hear, let him hear…”  He was speaking to those who had ears that could understand His sayings.  For it is given to them “to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them–the vast majority of mankind–it is not given at this time (Matt. 13: 11).

The Savior talks a lot about “the few.”  He said that “few” would find life (Matt. 7: 14), that the laborers for the final harvest are “few” (Matt. 9; 37), and that “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22: 14).  Interestingly, here we have both the “few” and “the chosen” in the same passage.

These few that He speaks of are the elect, His chosen ones.  Some take offense at Christ’s words.  They don’t like it when He says, You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bear much fruit (John 15: 16).  The chosen ones will bear “much fruit.”  The scriptures speak of Christians bearing three amounts of fruit: fruit, more fruit, and much fruit (John 15: 1-8).

To the worldly ear, trained up in the all-inclusive ways of our post-modern politically correct society, the Master’s message about His elect falls like another tired stone in the unenlightened pond of prejudice.  But God says that “my ways are not your ways.”

God has revealed His way in the “scriptures of truth,” and a few will without pre-conceived ideas and pre-judged beliefs about what the Bible actually says in black and white–those few will walk with Him in white during the last go round, the time of the end.

So these words are about those few, in all probability many who are reading this now.

Though many millions are destined to believe on Him and bear fruit in these last days, only a few thousand will  be chosen by God to bear “much fruit.”  These are the 100 fold fruit-bearing elect.  The elect are chosen by God for a special calling: “to not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom” (Matt. 16: 28; Mark 9: 1; Luke 9: 27).

The elect’s calling is not only unintelligible to the masses; they just will not believe that it is possible.  They will not be able to believe it because they have swallowed the insidious error-filled teachings of the false prophets and false teachers “who have brought in damnable heresies” that have subverted the faith of the many (II Pet. 2: 1).

But the elect will be led by the Spirit into all truth (John 16: 13).  And a big part of the truth is this concept of the elect, who are forming His company of many sons and daughters to be manifested in these latter days.

The key that unlocks this mystery, thus enabling us to believe these truths about His chosen ones, is understanding the Parable of the Sower and the different levels of Christian growth found therein (Matt. 13).  Some Christians will remain “babes in Christ,” little children in their spiritual growth, bearing only what Christ calls “30 fold fruit.  Some will grow to be stronger spiritually; these He calls “young men,” bearing “60 fold fruit” (I John 2: 13).  And then a few Christians are called and chosen to bear “100 fold fruit.”  They are the ones that the whole creation is “groaning and travailing” for.  They will do the “greater works,” greater even than the Son of God [His words, not mine], for there will be a few thousand of them raising the dead and healing the sick, and preaching the kingdom of God.  Understanding this is the key, Christ said, to unlocking all the mysteries contained in the parables of God (Matt. 13).

The elect, the future manifested sons of God, those who will do the greater works, they are forming right now.  God is speaking to their hearts, calling them out, preparing them through the joys of revelation and the despair of heartbreak and betrayal.  For “all things work together for good to them that love God, and who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8: 28).

They can’t help it.  The mighty hand of God is moving upon them just like He moved on Moses, David, Gideon, and all the patriarchs and prophets and apostles.  “No man takes this honor unto himself,” as Paul said.  “It is God’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.”  The elect will not be the mighty men of this earth according to the flesh, for “He has chosen the weak things to confound the mighty” (I Cor. 1: 27).  We will be powerless, and yet possessing the reins of the very seat of the Power of the Universe.  It’s all Him.

And the elect, the chosen few, will “make their calling and election sure” through the study and prayer of a grateful heart (2 Peter 1: 10).

We may not fully realize it yet, but the stage is being set for the exciting climax of the Book of Life, poised to begin as we write this.  For the elect, the chosen ones of God, are its protagonists.  They are the living word of God, incarnate and living out what the Author and Finisher of the Book has written of them.  The stage is set; the curtain will rise shortly on the last act.  The players are learning their lines–Satan and his men, and God and His sons.

It is going to be good, for we have already read the script.  We win–in Him.

May God bless you all, that we might be used to bring Him glory during this final act.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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August 17, 2013 · 6:48 pm

God Is Not Everyone’s Father–On Being Born from Above

The God of the Bible is not everyone’s Father, although He is everyone’s Creator.  You hear it all the time: “We are all the children of God.”  The words sound good to the ear, but we would be hard pressed to find them in the Bible.

To be one of His children, He must be our Father.  He must father us, engender us.

The Pharisees of Christ’s day said that God was their Father.  “We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.”

But Christ refuted them, “If God were your Father, you would love me…You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do…” (John 8:41-44).  They said that they were children of God, but Christ said they were children of the “god of this world,” the devil.  A stark contrast.

In the parable of the tares in the field, Christ says that “the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one” (Matt. 13: 38).  Here He makes another stark contrast between them.

The origin of God’s children is “from above” while the devil’s children are “from beneath.”  To those same Pharisees Christ said earlier, “You are from beneath; I am from above” (Jn 8: 23).  The KJV in John 3: 3 should read, “Except a man be born from above” instead of “born again.”  In John 3: 31 it is translated “from above.”

“Born again” gives the impression of a different kind of birth, a spiritual rather than the initial earthly birth.  “Born from above” speaks of a point of origin opposite of our earthly beginnings.  “From above” speaks of a spiritual realm in a heavenly dimension, a room in the Father’s heart that has already given birth to our new life.

Being “born from above” has really already happened in the Spirit’s heart.  He now with much patience and longsuffering awaits our awakening to this truth, the news of which has already been hung in the halls of heaven.

For those pages of the book of life that contain our names are already written; we must now witness that fact.  Yes, the fact of their existence, the fact that we are part of the good news, the gospel of God.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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July 27, 2013 · 4:17 pm

Who Hath Believed Our Report? How long, O Lord?

A few weeks ago I put a couple of my books on consignment in a local discount grocery store that had a rack of Christian books.  It was a self-described Christian establishment sitting in the middle of the Bible Belt, and I figured a local author with a Christian book–what’s not to like?

So I came back to the store a month later to see if the books had moved and noticed that they were not on the rack.  So I asked the assistant manager who made the deal with me about stocking the books, “Did they sell?  I don’t see them on the rack.”

He looked at me real funny and being the diplomat/merchant that he is, he began to hem-haw around, saying, “Well, the manager hasn’t had time to look them over and approve them yet.”

I said, “Your racks contain scores of books that I doubt he spent any time pouring over to approve.”

“Do you want them?”

“Of course,  I want them if you are not going to try to sell them.”

“I’ll go get them.”  In a moment he returned with my books.

And then I realized what had happened.  They had put them on the rack because they had a price sticker on them.  But a shopper had perused them and did not approve of the teachings found in them and complained to the manager.  Probably my Yah Is Savior book insulted someone’s churchianity quotient; perhaps they read the back cover which has summary of its contents.  And so they stopped right there and got indignant.  If they had read on, they would have found out much about how Christ, the Son of God, came in His Father’s name, Yahweh and what that really means.

The more truth He gives you, the less likely it will be received by the masses

But what did I expect?  That everyone really wants the truth about God and everything else?  How naïve of me.  How presumptuous, like Moses, who “supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not” (Acts 7: 25).  God had showed Moses a glimpse of the plan but not the power; that would come forty years later at the burning bush (v. 30-36).

After my little incident, Isaiah’s question kept coming to mind: “Who hath believed our report? (Isa. 53: 1).  Why is there so much rampant unbelief?  Why can’t people just believe?

It is the age old dilemma for men and women of God.  The more truth He gives you, the less likely it will be received by the masses.  You and I have had several revelations of truth and, excited about it, we share it immediately with probably the first person we meet, and it falls disappointedly on deaf ears.  The kicker is that we honestly believe that they at this time ought to believe the truth we are sharing.  But the vast majority don’t, and we wonder why.

But the scriptures state that most will not believe.  In fact, if everything you share garners a huge following and acceptance by the masses, you don’t have the right message. 

The Wide Gate and the Narrow Gate

That’s a bold statement, I know.  But, we are to “enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7: 13-14).  The masses are fooled and led to destruction through a wide gate; the few will find the true way.  These are the Savior’s very own words.

And how are the masses led astray by the tens and hundreds of millions?  Christ answers this in the very next verse: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (v. 15).  Sheep’s clothing.  They look like they are a Christian; they appear to be a bona fide spokesman for God, God’s helper, but Christ says they are ferocious wolves!  That’s how the masses are herded into the wide gate and destroyed.  By deceivers with their false teachings and old leaven concepts about God and not the true word of God.

In fact, Christ implores us to “strive to enter in at the narrow gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13: 24-30).  The word translated “strive” is rendered “fight” in many passages.  We must fight to enter through the narrow gate into the kingdom of God.  It is a fight, a struggle.  Fight against what?  Against the false doctrines and concepts taught by the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Because there will be many who went the easy way through the wide gate and  they will “seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”  Upon realizing that they messed up, they will knock on the Master’s door, but He will say, I don’t know you.  And they will be in anguish when they are rejected by Him.  Those that went in through the wide gate taught by the false prophets will be in big trouble.

But why won’t the masses believe this message?

So, the question remains.  Did I really expect when I committed my writing to God–did I expect to be believed?  Especially since what God keeps showing me is so different to the doctrines that organized churchianity teaches.

But why won’t the masses believe this message?

I found the answer, which lies in the fact that they did not believe the Savior Himself!  Very few “got Him” then, and very few get Him now.

“But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him” (John 12: 37).  It would be the same today if we had the same power to heal the sick and raise the dead.  Oh, the masses would clamor after a miracle for themselves, but they would not really take the truth in and believe it.

Nothing has changed.  But why?  Why at this present time in history won’t the people believe?

Verse 38 answers the question.  “That the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: Lord, who has believed our report…Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them” (Jn 12: 38-41).

Why can’t the people just believe when truth comes their way?  Because the multitudes are unable to at this time in history.  What?  And why can’t they believe?  Because God–yes, God Himself–has “blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts” (Isa. 6: 9-10).  He has blinded the vast majority of fleshly Israel and the Gentile nations.  That is what the sacred writings of the prophets Isaiah and John tell us.

The masses are blinded by Him, but “the few” that Christ spoke about above are entering in by the narrow gate.  These are His elect, His chosen ones.  To Christ’s disciples He said, “It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the masses] it is not given” (Matt. 13: 11-16).  And then He quotes Isaiah 6: 9-10 to them.  Although not politically correct to say it, Christ is revealing precious mysteries at present as the masses remain blind and hardened to His truth (Rom. 11: 7).

How Long, O Lord?

But when?  God, how long will it be before You open the people’s eyes and soften their hearts so that they can believe You? When will their vision be restored and their hearts softened?  Isaiah asked, “Lord, how long?  And He answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land” (6: 10-11).

When the cities are wiped out, when the earth lies totally ruined and desolate, and when this world system is forever shattered and lying in rubble on the ground, then the masses will turn to God.  These are the disasters of biblical proportions.  This is the realization of all the disaster movies we’ve ever seen.  This is the great tribulation period that everyone alive on earth will go through, just before Christ’s return to earth to establish His kingdom.

When God unleashes His trumpets and vials of wrath upon the earth, then the masses will begin to awaken and believe.  They are asleep and deceived and “poor, wretched, miserable, blind and naked.”

God, please help us.  Spare thy people, oh God.  I am grateful for this knowledge, but it is a heavy burden to bear–knowing the sufferings that await the inhabitants of the earth.

The tribulation will come, and then more of the masses will have a softened heart to believe and love Him and they will repent and follow Him.

Of course, the false prophets and false teachers say that you won’t have to go through the tribulation period.  Of course, they would teach that.  How else are they going to get the massive numbers of souls through the wide gate that “leads to destruction”?  God, help us.      KWH

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July 18, 2013 · 8:37 pm

Peace and the Mind of God

Peace is the one commodity that is in short supply in this world.  For some, peace means no more war.  For others it means no more stress.

But one thing is certain; the whole world is crying out for peace.  The destroyer is ravaging the land.  Mothers are crying in Allepo because their government has just bombed their apartment building.   Lives in the third world are collapsing around the globe through war and economic woes, flattening any chance for peace.

Even in Western Europe and North America, peace eludes the people, who, awash in material possessions, do not realize the age old adage that wealth alone can’t bring happiness, that “money can’t buy me love,” that true peace only comes as a spiritual by-product, from a life directed by one’s Creator.

Peace.  What does the Creator say about it?  Peace is a component of the “fruit of the Spirit.”  When the Spirit of God resides in us, we will have peace.

But this peace still remains elusive.  What does the Word say about what exactly brings peace—complete and utter peace?  “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee” (Isa. 26: 3).  First, God keeps the peace there in us.  It is His doing.  Second, He does this as our minds steadfastly think on Him.

Some will say that this is impossible.  How can we think about God all the time?  But let’s think about this for a minute.  Even though our minds are occupied by a host of thoughts in any given day, the Savior tells us to not think on the earthly things that the masses are pre-occupied with—what to eat, wear, and all the other things like pleasure, jobs, etc.  Our earthly life should not be the center of our thinking.  It won’t bring peace.

So, what thoughts are we to think and to train our minds to think on?  “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things [earthly things like food, clothing, entertainment] will be added unto you” (Matt. 6: 33).

Christ just taught in verse 31-32 to “take no thought” about the earthly things.  This tells us that “thinking” turns into “seeking.”  So how do we “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”?  We think about them.  We meditate on his rule and government that will soon fill this whole earth, and we contemplate on the state of being right with Him.

This is how we seek His kingdom—by thinking about it as much as we can every day.

But there is a caveat in all this.  Our thoughts must be based on sound knowledge.  If we are meditating on concepts that are in error, do we believe this is acceptable with God?  Our thoughts about God must be rid of false teachings, doctrine, and concepts about Him and His plan.  He commands us in many places to “purge out the old leaven,” and He many times warns us to not follow false teachers and false prophets (II Peter 2: 1-22; Jude 4-8).

But this is the hard part of the Christian walk—this ridding ourselves of false doctrines and concepts.  Difficult, but extremely necessary, if we are to be assured in our hearts and have confidence with God.

How do we know what is false and what is true?  Yesterday’s light won’t illuminate the path of the elect in these latter days, so you can’t depend on the light that your parents and grand-parents had, or the light your preacher has, who got it from teachers and preachers who haven’t received anything new in 50 years.  Depending on them won’t cut it.

How do we get rid of the false doctrines about Him and His plan?  By sincerely praying and asking God to reveal it to us, with a humble and repentant heart.  And He will do it.  He’ll show us.  But we need to break up the fallow ground of our heart knowing full well that when He answers, it will not be what we expected.  The elect will find the truth of His plan, if they are willing to lay it all, all prior knowledge under the knife of the husbandman.  For “every branch in Me that bears not fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, the Father purges it that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15: 2).  What is it that the Father will purge or prune out of our minds?  He will “purge out the old leaven” of malice, wickedness, hypocrisy, insincerity, and falsehoods (I Cor. 5: 8; Luke 12: 1; Mark 8: 15).

A spiritually young and immature Christian has got a lot of old leaven in there that must be purged by the Father.  He will do it, too, but we must submit to this procedure.  That is the difficult part.

But afterwards, “it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Heb. 12: 11).  Peace that the Master gives.  Peace for us in our spirits, peace as one of the fruits of the Spirit.  Peace that comes upon thinking on His wonderful plan and purpose according to truth, after the old leaven is gone.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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May 25, 2013 · 8:58 pm

“The Just Shall Live by Faith”–But Who Are “the Just”? and Which Faith?

“The just shall live by faith,” says the prophet Habbakuk (2: 4).  It is a very important passage quoted by Paul the apostle and made famous by Martin Luther.  But who are the just?  And which faith was the prophet talking about?

The Hebrew word translated “just” is rendered “righteous” in scores of passages.  So how “righteous” and “just” are we talking about here?  Godlike righteous.  We see this same word used to describe God Himself.  He “is a God of truth…just and right is He” (Deut. 32: 4).  We are talking about a godlike righteousness that some will have.  Not a self-righteousness, but a godly rightness.  The just, the righteous ones will be living their days on earth by faith.

Who are the just?  Who are the righteous?  They will carry in their hearts that righteous state of God Himself.  And they will receive this happy state with the Hebrew God because of their faith, having believed first without seeing.

The “just” in God’s eyes are those who are right with Him because He is right in them.  They are the righteous and in good standing with their Maker.

They, like their spiritual father Abraham, walk by faith and not by the sight of their eyes (II Cor. 5: 7).  Faith is the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11: 1).

So the just are the righteous humans like God is righteous here on the earth, who believe having not seen nor received the promises of the kingdom of God.  They shall live their days on earth by faith.  Believing God’s word and plan is the way they will live.  And because God can only be pleased by this walk of faith, they become just in His sight.  He imputes righteousness to them, which is being in a right state with God.  And that is all we really need.

Which Faith?

So the true faith is extremely important.  And this faith spoken of in the scriptures of truth is not the same “faith” spoken of in news casts on TV, when the news-reading talking head says about someone who displays some religious activity: “He is a person of faith.”  Meaning that he believes in a higher power.  They acknowledge that somebody up there is bigger that they are.  No, this is not the faith that Paul, Peter, and John spoke of.

Think about it.  The Hindus believe in thousands of somebodies up there swimming in a mystical nirvanic goo.  That is indeed a belief and a faith.  And many Hindus are very spiritual and religious, and TV personalities may say that they are people of faith, but that is not the faith of the Hebrew God of the Holy Bible.

Not picking on Hindus here, for the same can be said of most of the denominations and sects of Churchianity.  2,200 and counting, and they disagree with each other.  That is why there are so many of them.  But the Spirit says there is only one body (church) and one Spirit (one God) and one faith (Eph. 4: 4-6).  So all of these denominations cannot be exactly what the apostles practiced and wrote about.

Depart from Me…

Moreover, Christ speaks disparagingly of some very sincere Christians in these last days.  He says to them, “Not everyone that says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.  [We sincerely called You Lord]  But he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven [You mean confessing that Christ is our Lord won’t do the trick?] Many will say to Me in that day [Which day? The time of the end?] Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? [Come on, now, we preached in your name!] and in thy name have cast out devils? [Lord, I saw many slain in the Spirit in your name.  It had to be You!] and in thy name done many wonderful works? [We set up food kitchens and sent out missionaries and gave away bibles in far away lands, and You were with us, weren’t You?]  And then I will profess to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matt. 7: 21-23).  Since there is no idle words of God, these words will be spoken to some well-meaning people in that day.

That last paragraph was tough to write, but there it is in black in white.  Of course, some will say that His words are harsh treatment.  But why will these sincere Christians, who are “people of faith,” why will they be rejected?  Because their faith was based on a vision of Christ and His plan that was in error.

Because denominations have hundreds of different interpretations of what the Bible is saying, and because they all cannot be right and just, then somebody has to be wrong.  Sincere, maybe, but wrong as to what the faith of Christ and its vision is about.

So, yes, “the just shall live by faith.”  Those who God sees as His offspring walking with Him in His truth at the time of the end–they “shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12: 3).  Righteousness—there’s that word we started out with again.  The just, the righteous, those upon whom God has imputed righteousness because of their faith toward Him—they will shine.

In fact those “just” ones, they will rule over men during the kingdom age.  They will sit with Christ on His throne, full of His righteousness, and they will sit as princes ruling the world.  Nothing less.  “He that rules over men, he must be just, ruling in the fear of God, and he shall be as the light of the morning sun after the rain, after the rain” (II Sam. 23: 3; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiJlJgd9x1s ).

And because God has chosen “not many mighty and not many noble,” His true elect will appear as no one very special.  They are the “filth and off-scouring of the world…For God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the mighty (I Cor. 1: 26).

So the question comes full circle to each of us who is a “person of faith.”  Which faith is it, for there are many faiths in Christendom that will be rejected by Christ upon His return?  Which vision of the Bible do we believe?  For many followers will come up short and they will weep and gnash their teeth at Him when they realize that the version taught in their churches was the wrong one.  For “wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.”  And few will find the narrow way that leads to life (Matt. 7: 13-14).

We must then believe on Him the actual way that the scriptures have said.  Those who do are the just and righteous, and they will rule and reign with Him in His kingdom.       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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May 11, 2013 · 4:40 pm

Why Young Christians Fall Away

Why do Christians wilt and fall away when adversity comes?

The major reason is that they lose hope.  They can’t see the promises immediately and so their hope wanes.  Why does hope fade?  Because the young Christian stops believing what they have been told about God and His plan.

The Master was  adamant about His followers getting rid of erroneous teachings and doctrines.  He called it “purging out the old leaven, that the lump may be holy.”

And that is what it boils down to.  Organized churchianity just does not realize that they have been weighed in the scales and have been found wanting.  Christ is crying through the prophet Isaiah, “Ah sinful nation…a seed of evildoers…children that are corrupters…the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint…”  And despite all of your “sacrifices, vain oblations, incense, new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies and feast days, and though you make many prayers, I will not hear,” says the LORD (Yahweh) [Isa. 1: 4-15].

Why won’t God hear the prayers of our nation?  Because “your hands are full of blood” (v. 15).  He has a big problem with our nation right now.  He is addressing a “sinful nation.”  A nation full of sin, whose pastors tell their flocks that God is powerful but not powerful enough to get rid of sin in their lives.  In fact, the preachers won’t tell them exactly what sin is in God’s eyes; they leave the flock to their own imaginations instead of telling them the truth: “Sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3: 4).

What can be done?  He continues, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil” (v. 16).  Wait a minute.  God is speaking to very religious people, who are doing every thing their pastors are telling them.  They are doing all of their denominational doctrines outlined just before in verses 4-15.

And yet, they are sinful people, a sinful nation.  But that is not good enough for God and the plan He is implementing.

So He tells us to wash away our sins and be “willing and obedient” (v. 18-19).  Obey what?  Obey the law, the ten commandments.  But the new Christian, armed with the erroneous teachings that “no one can successfully keep them” and “you will sin, but just ask God to forgive you,” is immediately stunted, and like a young seedling, is stomped out of ever bearing any real fruit of the Spirit.

For, fed with ruinous words, their initial love, joy and peace fades, and when temptation comes, their strength fails.  All because of a poor foundation.

But some will say, That was Old Testament stuff there in Isaiah.  They were under the Mosaic Law and their sacrifices and oblations and doctrines just weren’t efficacious.  But they were for the patriarchs and prophets.  It was good enough for them at that time.  For they were the remnant, those God was referring to in Isa. 1: 9: “Except the LORD (Yahweh) of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom and Gomorrah.”

A very small number of Israelites “got it,” became truly righteous, and they became our examples for our day.  Because “that which has been is now,” a very small remnant in the latter days will “get it.”

[So I suppose that answers the question that arises occasionally in my heart: Why don’t more people see these things?  A: It’s all in the timing.  Just keep publishing the truth; that is all you can do, and trust Me and know this: Few there be to find this way of tru and Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Matt. 7: 14; Luke 12: 32).  Thank you for the encouraging words.   KWH]

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April 6, 2013 · 7:01 pm

The Next Great Move of God

God will appear to certain individuals of His own choosing not many months or years hence.  He always has; He always will.

How can I be sure of this?  God’s history of His dealings with His people serves as a prophetic blueprint of what He will do next.  “That which has been is now.  And that which is to be has already been, and God requires the things of the past” (Eccle. 3: 15).

In fact, the Holy Bible is a record of God’s literal appearances to people.  Before every great move of God, He has appeared to someone.  He intervenes with His presence, shattering the dull, numbing grind of human earthly existence with His incomparable light.  We humans evidently need this astounding experience in order for us to be sure that God really is real and means business.

These stupefying manifestations begin, appropriately enough, in the book of Genesis, the seed book of beginnings.  There we see God speaking to Adam and Eve in the Garden.  “And they heard the voice of the LORD God (Yahweh) walking in the garden,” (Gen. 3: 8).  He was in a human form, “walking in the garden,” and they were afraid of His presence there.  A bit later we see God having a lengthy conversation with Cain.

Before Yahweh destroyed by water the wicked, He talked it all over with Noah, who “found grace in the eyes of Yahweh” (6: 8).  And “Noah walked with God.”  And so it was that God confided in Noah His plans, instructed Him to build an ark, and established the Noahic Covenant with him, ensuring the continuance of His righteous seedline.

We next see  Yahweh appear to Abraham, the father of our faith.  “And Yahweh appeared unto Abram,” and established the Abrahamic Covenant with him, giving him and his heirs the Holy Land of promise (Gen. 12: 7).  And “after these things the word of Yahweh came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (15: 1; 17: 1-19).  And God makes a great move and promises Abram that of his own loins he will have a son in his and Sarah’s old age, and his seed will be as numerous as the stars of heaven.  And Abram believed what Yahweh told him.  And it was that very faith and belief that God appreciated so much that God “counted it to him for righteousness.”

This is huge.  This is a great move of God as He shows mankind that just believing God and His word will establish us in a right standing with God.  Getting right with God comes from believing Him.  Period.  This is when faith triumphs over man’s puny attempts in his own strength to keep the ten commandment law of God.

For the law was not given to us as a goal to strive for or a moral ideal, as it were.  For we in our human strength cannot successfully keep the 10 Commandments.  No.  The law was given to man as a mirror to show him of his own unrighteousness and sins, and to show him his innate wickedness.  “The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers…for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars…” (I Tim. 1: 9-10).

God granted to Abraham, because he believed Him and His promises, a new heart that keeps the commandments of God, which is when God counted his belief as righteousness, or being right with God.

What Does This Have to Do with Our Generation?

The take away for us in our generation?  God has promised us a new heart and new spirit that keeps His ways and commandments if we believe Him.  God commands us, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit.”  How do we make this happen?  By just believing His promise: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezk. 18: 31; 36: 26).

This new heart that does not transgress and break the 10 Commandments is called “righteousness” by God in the scriptures.  It is the state of being right with God, and it is attained the same exact way that Abraham obtained it from God.  By believing God.

And this way of receiving a new heart and new spirit from God that does not break His commandments is outlined in the New Testament scriptures.  Although written in plain sight in black and white, you won’t hear those passages preached in the pulpits Sunday morning, for most pastors don’t believe it (for more on this read the “Introduction” of my book found here:

https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/ebook-the-unveiling-of-the-sons-of-god/ ).

No, most modern day pastors don’t believe that after letting our old heart and spirit die with Christ on the cross, that God will give us a new heart and new spirit that does not sin against him.  The pastors don’t think God can do that.  They don’t believe that “whosoever is born of God does not commit sin” (I John 3: 9).  It is right there in black and white, but they don’t think it is possible.  But I thought that “all things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9: 23).

Do We Believe God Can Do It?

Abraham certainly did not let the “deadness of his wife’s womb” keep him from believing that God was able to keep His promise that they would have a child.  He was 100 years old and Sarah was 90.  Which is easier to believe?  That a 90 year old woman, decades past the age of bearing children could get pregnant and deliver a baby or God being able to change our hearts to not sin against Him?   Yet Abram “did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.  This is why it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4: 19-22 NIV).

Let us not waver either through unbelief of His promise to us of being His righteous sons.  We simply must believe like Abraham did.  That God will give us a new clean spirit if we believe Him; He did promise it to us if we believe that He will.

And so Yahweh appeared to Abraham and promised him much and established the way for Abraham’s spiritual children–us–to walk by faith in these last days.  Faith.  Belief.  This is what is holding us back from becoming the manifested sons of God, the princes and princesses of the Kingdom of God.  If we cannot believe Him that He will give us a pure sinless heart and spirit–a new heart that He promised–then how will we ever grow up into being like Him and those men of God that He appeared to?

Time would fail me to outline all of those men and women of faith that God appeared to–Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul–to name just a few.  He appeared to them all before a great move of His in the earth.  He will do the same today, for He changes not (Mal. 3: 6).

The Criteria

Wait a minute.  That will be the criteria.  He will appear once again to those who believe Him for a new heart and new spirit, which is being right with God.  For Christ did say, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much” (Luke 16: 10).

For a new spirit is just the beginning, as it makes us a child of God.  We must keep growing spiritually into spiritual young men and fathers.  For God will bring forth in the last days His kingdom.  That is the good news.  And ruling with Him right here on earth will be the over comers.  “To him that overcomes, will I grant to sit with me in my throne.”  Some will sit with Christ on His throne.  That is a promise.  But it will be those who are full of faith and belief, those who have bought from Christ “gold tried in the fire,” and “white raiment” to hide their nakedness, and have “anointed their eyes with eye salve that they may see” (Rev. 3: 14-22).  Those are the over comers; those are the manifested sons and daughters of God; those are the ones He will appear to in these latter days to strengthen them and encourage them for the battle to take back the earth and establish His literal kingdom and government right here on earth.  K. W. Hancock

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