idolatry
All posts tagged idolatry
The following is a brief and impassioned commentary by Bishop O.W. Prince on the willful and seemingly unconscious disobedience of Catholic and Protestant Churches and Religions with regards to GOD’S commandments and the teachings of Christ’s Apostles.
Copyright © Othealor W. Prince 2015
All Rights Reserved
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!
I was once a United Methodist Pastor and I was expected to have a relatively inspirational and academically sound sermon every Sunday. Sometimes I was expected to preach three times per Sunday at three different churches in three different locations during which time I was enrolled in full-time graduate studies, raising a family and undergoing treatment for a life threatening illness. It was a grueling and unfulfilling existence.
Many times, a few of my fellow United Methodist pastors and I would discuss possible messages for the upcoming Sunday services. More often than not, many sermons were exchanged among us. Some copied other folk’s sermons and preached them as their own.
We were sometimes encouraged to use the United Methodist Lectionary for the purpose of discovering a scripture text and developing a sermon topic. Many sermons were created out of our collaborative creative imaginations and word artistry. I can testify for myself that many sermons were no more than motivational speeches and an exercise in hermeneutics. The Holy Spirit had nothing to do with the message being delivered. The only spirits present in many of those sermons were of the intoxicating, entertaining and hypocritical kind. Preaching was only part of the vocation in a career in the United Methodist Conference where one could expect to be adequately paid on a regular basis with significant and long-term benefits and financial security. It was apart of a job description in the business of United Methodist Pastoral ministry. Pastoring/Preaching had nothing to do with being truly saved, Holy Spirit filled and sent by God on His divine mission and with His divine message. Pastoring and preaching was all about being a good United Methodist and being compliant with the United Methodist Book of Disciplines as opposed to being compliant with the Eternal Word of God and His Holy Spirit.
Many preachers today are still stealing sermons and making up sermons as they go. They are not divinely chosen, sent, endowed, empowered or otherwise authorized by FATHER GOD to say anything on His behalf (Ezekiel 13). They are simply hired and paid orators that trade in misguided, deceived and damned souls. They are ministers of deceit and duplicity – Satan’s messengers. Some are unaware of their lost and confused condition while others know better and work hard to keep up appearances and justify their status as pastors. They measure their success as Christians Pastors by their educational accomplishments, ecclesiastical promotions and attained titles.
Thank God I was delivered from Satan’s churches. Now I am blood washed by water baptism in His name and saved according to His eternal commands and endowed with the power of the Holy Ghost that made Himself known through the speaking in tongues. It is He that inspires sermons and reveals God’s Holy and Eternal Truth. I would not dare preach a message that had not been inspired and authorized by God for fear of God’s wrath. (Ezekiel 33, John 3:3-7 and Acts 2:37-42)
Many preachers and Pastors or preaching while unsaved, unsent and unauthorized. They are in need of salvation themselves. They practice effective speaking techniques, leadership skills and well rehearsed performances in order to win a following and public acceptance. They don’t have a saving Word to tell you. They don’t fear God because they don’t know God and therefore, they can’t tell you any appreciable TRUTH about God. Their god is their bellies. Their appetites are for earthly symbols of success, accomplishments, public recognition, praise, academic certifications, power, money and vain glory. They don’t have a genuine appetite or reverence for God but for their on belief systems and religious institutions. They are idolaters and just don’t know it.
I pray that everyone would consider God’s Word carefully and repent.
Repent of denominationalism, credentialism and ultimately the doctrines of demons.
Repent and die to sin. Be baptized according to God’s Command and buried in a watery grave in the name of Christ Jesus and have Him wash away your sins in His Sanctified Blood.
Repent and diligently seek God The Father for He promises to reward you with the gift of the Holy Ghost that shall speak out of you in a new tongue – confirming your acceptance and sealing you for the day of redemption.
I am a witness to the Truth that God will save and deliver you if you would Repent and Obey His Ordained and Eternal Command to die to sin and be buried with Christ and raised with Him to the newness of Life Eternal.
Repent of pride and self-reliance. You can depend on God!
Repent of man-made religious services and churches. God has only One True Community of Faithful and Obedient Souls that He calls His Ekklesia.
Repent of credentialism and man-made certifications for Pastoring.
God chooses, sends, authorizes and empowers whomever He wills as His preacher-teacher.
Repent of serving a church and try serving YHVH!
Repent of obeying a church or Christian institution. Obey God’s WORD and be led by His Holy Spirit!
Don’t allow the allure of worldly pastoral prestige, ministerial glamour and ecclesiastical gold send your soul to hell and damnation.
REPENT!
Preach because you are sent by God to preach!
Pastor because you are authorized by God to pastor!
Teach as you are instructed by the Holy Spirit to teach!
Serve as if you are employed by the Kingdom of God to serve.
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus (Yehowshua), giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
Whatever you do in word or in deed, do it all to the Glory of God!
REPENT!!!
I think that some of us need to remember and others of us need to be informed that the Bible, as we know it today, did not exist in the original Church of Jesus Christ founded by His Apostles.
The One True Body of Believers – the Ekklesia – were totally dependent upon the Power, Revelation and Demonstration of God’s Holy Spirit through the Words of Christ’s Apostles with whom He built His Church (Ekklesia).
The Apostles of Christ would refer to The Holy Scriptures (The Torah / Pentateuch) at times to confirm, affirm and proclaim the fulfillment of the promises of God in Christ Jesus our LORD and Savior. Christ himself often proclaimed that the Holy Scriptures were fulfilled in Him and that The Holy Spirit would reveal all divinely hidden Knowledge and Truth.
Jesus said that “the Helper – the Holy Spirit – whom the Father will send in His name, He will teach us all things, and bring to our remembrance all that He said to us.” (John 14:26)
“The Holy Spirit does the teaching – not the Bible. Text books are sometimes necessary for information but a teacher is required for revelation” (Bishop O.W. Prince)
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (John 16:13)
Jesus promises us that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth and he assures us that we can trust what the Holy Spirit speaks because what the Holy Spirit speaks is revelation directly from The Holy Father and not from sinful man.
God’s Truth Cannot Simply Be Obtained, Cataloged, Inventoried or Archived by way of Human Intellect, Human Wisdom or Philosophical/Theological Disciplines.
God’s Saving Power, Wisdom, knowledge and Understanding cannot be contained within the pages of a book or a collection of books. God is simply too much God for that. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Without the Revelation Power of The Holy Spirit of Christ, the Bible is just another book of information.
1 Corinthians 1:20
“Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1 Corinthians 3:19-20
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS”; and again, “THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS.”
Jesus is recorded as having said that The Father purposely hid the mysteries of Heaven and The Kingdom of God from the wise and learned of this world and chose only to reveal them to those who have become His little children. (Matthew 11:25)
Now don’t misunderstand me. I believe that Holy Scripture is contained within the Bible but biblical literary history reveals that over 600 books of Holy Scripture was also omitted from the Bible by unconverted men with evil or political motives and agendas. And even today, many groups are re-writing the pages of the Bible so as to support their human philosophical views of faith and salvation. They subtly and brilliantly try to make God’s Word agree with their theologies and philosophies. Because of this, everyone is confused and at odds with each other. There are just too many versions of theOne Saving Truth for anyone to tell which is real and which is false. Without the discerning power of God’s Holy Spirit, we are confused and lost (1 Corinthians 14:33).
Furthermore, reading the Holy Bible doesn’t make us saved saint. If that were the case, I would have been saved the very first that time I read the whole Bible. If that were true, then only those who could read would be saved. If reading the Bible and studying Holy Scriptures alone could save then every Hebrew, Jew, Israelite, Rabbi, Scribe, Pharisee, Bible student and every literate human being would be saved and those who were illiterate (unable to read) would be lost. If the Bible was the complete saving work of God, then Christ’s Crucifixion was not necessary. Reading and studying The Bible is all that would be necessary for salvation and rebirth. Salvation would be a human intellectual endeavor of self-improvement and self-salvation. But God forbid such blasphemy.
Thank God that eternal salvation comes only through theBlood of Christ. The Holy Bible, or rather, the Holy Scriptures contained within its pages, can lead one to the giver of Eternal Life and point one in the direction of genuine salvation but it never claims to be the source of Salvation or to be God.
The “Bible” is not to be worship as if it were God or trusted as if it were a sources of divine revelation and salvation, but it is a tool that can be used by God to reveal His Truth to us through His Holy Spirit – especially to those have been gifted with His Holy Spirit.
Remember that Jesus told Peter that, “Flesh and blood did not reveal who He is and that the divine revelation of who He is was not learned through any human means, but The Father who is in heaven revealed it. And that it would be upon such powers of revelation that He would establish His Ekkesia (Church). (Matthew 16:16-18)
The prudent and repentful should want to know how to receive His Holy Spirit (The Divine Teacher Revelator).
Many have searched the scriptures looking for eternal life (John 5:39) but the scriptures testify of Christ and Christ testifies of God the Father who promises to send the Holy Teacher, Guide and Comforter to those who have obeyed His Commandments regarding entering His eternal Kingdom (John 3:3-7 and Acts 2:38). This is why I stress the importance of having a genuine man of God who is anointed by God with His Holy Spirit to guide and teach us in the things of God.
“Without the Holy Spirit of God, a Pastor-Preacher is just another paid public speaker spouting philosophies and theological rhetoric and social assumptions out of his won imagination. He is like sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, signifying nothing.”
Don’t make the assumption that the Bible is the literal and infallible Word of GOD. CHRIST JESUS IS THE INFALLIBLE LIVING WORD OF GOD (JOHN 1).
God said that He would send the comforter to lead us into all truth. He never said that He would send the Bible to lead us into all truth. The Bible is an incomplete collection of Holy Scriptures. And because much of the original language and text of Holy Scripture was either lost or persecuted out of existence, what remains is subject to interpretation. And the only interpretation that can be trusted is the Holy Spirit of God – the original writer of sacred text. The Holy Spirit searches and reveals the deep things of God.
But man has tried to usurp this divine Law and principle through theological studies. Man has placed his intellectual prowess above the revealing Power of the Holy Spirit. Thus we have Doctors of Divinity and other academia credentialed experts preaching what their intellect has revealed instead of what God’s Holy Spirit has spoken.
Because of man’s reliance upon his on understanding and thoughts about God, we now have the Presbyterian thought, the Catholic thought, the Methodist thought and the Non-Denominational thought and many others distinctions of thought.
Ezekiel 13 says that they are preaching out of their own imaginations…prophesying out of their own thoughts and that TheLORD is against them.
WOW!!!
Now if you are interested in knowing the truth and entering the Kingdom of God, The Holy Scriptures point the way but we have to obey what is commanded in the Holy Scriptures in order to begin to see what God is saying.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “unless a person is born again from above, he cannot see (understand, comprehend, and grasp hold of) the Kingdom of God… unless a person is born from water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
Unless we are born of water baptism in the name of Christ Jesus and indwelt with His Holy Spirit we cannot enter Heaven.
“We Must Be Born Again!”
Everyone needs to know that Eternal Life is not found in the Bible but in Christ Jesus our LORD.
Everyone needs to know that reading the Bible may be good religion but Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ (The Anointed One of God) and salvation comes from obeying His Living Word.
On the day of Pentecost when Peter spoke to the multitude in Acts 2, He didn’t have a Bible, but he had the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit gave directions for salvation that day and everyday since. He said…
“Turn from sin, (Repent) return to God, and each of you be immersed in water–Baptized in the authority of Yeshua the Messiah for forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh (The Holy Spirit of God)! For the promise is for you, for your children, and for those far away — as many as Adonaiour God may call!”
This was the Holy Spirit speaking through the Apostle Peter to all of us today. He spoke these commands as from God Himself without there ever having been a Bible or a Torah to quote from. These instructions and commands had not previously been documented anywhere else. They were not yet canonized as Holy Scripture. But because they were spoken by the Holy Spirit, they carried the Power of God Himself – the power of Life eternal and they cannot be changed.
Now many years later, letters and books were collected that later became known as the Bible and in the Bible are Holy Scriptures written by The Holy Spirit. And regardless of how many translations, mistranslations and interpretations that man may produce of this holy work, Only Its Author can reveal what He really means in His Word.
The Holy Spirit of God is the One that we need to listen to in order to uncover the mysteries of the Bible and discover True salvation and eternal Faith in God (Romans 10:17).
This is what the listeners of Acts 2:41 did without the benefit of a Bible and 3,000 souls were added to the ekklesia that day.
Everyone needs to know that when it comes to knowing the Bible, knowing its Author is better.
The Holy Spirit is Essential and MANDATORY FOR SALVATION!
I assure you that I stand deathly afraid of saying the wrong thing about God and His Holy Spirit.
I must trust and obey the Holy Spirit in all areas of my life – for I am in utter ignorance without the revelation, knowledge, wisdom and understanding of the Holy Spirit.
I hold the written Word of God as Sacred and Holy but due to Satan’s deceptions and man’s corruption of the written Word, I then must depend on the author of the written Word to tell me What His Word means. I dare not trust my own feeble and sinful intellect, imagination or understanding.
Now Don’t Get It Twisted!
I love the Bible but I love its Author More.
All glory and honor belongs to God the Father in the name of Christ our Lord.
May The Holy Spirit Reveal God’s Saving Truth To You and All Who Read This Commentary.
Amen.
One of the saddest truth that I have come across and at one time was apart of is the belief that if I joined a church that I was bound to stay at that church for life. I thought that “church” was my way into the kingdom of God and salvation. Many folks unconsciously feel this way and are totally trusting in their churches to get them to heaven.
I was reminded of this sad truth on yesterday when I ran into a woman, who when asked if she was still singing on the choir at a particular church, she responded, “I’m not going anywhere. I’ve been there too long to leave.”
And on another occasion, many years ago, I was told by a woman that she would never leave her family’s church. She was born a Baptist and that she will die a Baptist.
It is obvious where these women loyalties lie. They are totally devoted and committed to their churches. And many church folks feel the same way that they do.
If only they were that loving, loyal and devoted to God.
Many church folks unconsciously worship their churches and church traditions as opposed to worshipping the True and Living God. They are deceived into believing that by serving at a particular place of worship that they are actually worshipping God. But this is not the case at all. They are unwittingly serving and worshipping an idol god–thier churches.
Allow me to remind some and inform others that we were born sinners and unless we believe the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, repent and are born of the water and of the Spirit, we will die as sinners.
Being a member of a church doesn’t mean that we are a citizen of the kingdom of God.
The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
We Must Be Born Again!
REPENT!
“Rediscovering YHVH'S Authentic Ekklesia" 