Vol. 9, No. 1 A newsletter for servants of the Almighty Eternal Creator, wherever they may be Jan/Feb 2003

Beholding theLord in OurPresenceby Jerry Laws

Many times during my per-sonal Bible study, I will askour Father for His guidance

in the direction that He wants me togo during this time. Not too long agoI was directed to the book of Acts,chapter 2. It was not Pentecost sea-son, when we traditionally cover thischapter, so as I was reading it onceagain I kept looking for somethingnew for me.

It was in the middle of Peter’s

The Mechanics ofthe Law and ItsBiblical Applicationby Ray Serrano

“He who turns away his ear fromhearing the law, even his prayer is anabomination” (Prov 28:9).

Throughout history and as farback as the first century A.D., the

word “law” has been indiscrimi-nately used when addressing the dif-ferent rules of human behavior. Thecommandments, statutes, and ordi-nances have been lumped togetherwhen addressing issues relating to thelaw.

Although having the same weightas law, they are significantly different.The definition of “law” can and doesinclude a wide spectrum of operatives,forcing the use of different categories,divisions and subdivisions in order to

Also in this issue:2 Truckers Bible Study3 Security in Christ3 Down-trodden Philadelphians5 Church Buildings9 Baptism & Receiving the Holy Spirit17 Did RCG/WCG Say Only Their Baptisms

Valid?18 Letters and Responses28 Literature ListShelter in the Word follows the last page

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Two Aspects of God

These two articles represent twoimportant aspects of God. On the

one hand, He works in a spiritual way(John 4:21). He gave all people a spiritso that we can understand the spiritual“things of man” (1Cor 2:11; Eccl12:7). These things include the mean-ing of life, morality, beauty, history,eternity, art, musical harmony, drama,etc. These are things that people under-stand, and animals do not. The under-standing of these things and the under-standing of God Himself is greatlyenhanced by the Spirit of God (1Cor2:10–11, John 14:26).The article at leftis about using the Spirit of God to con-trol the big issues of our life.

On the other hand, God is also theCreator of precise physical details. Hemade the vastness of the universe andthe complexity of life on earth—andHe did an unsurpassable job (Gen 1:31;Eccl 3:11). Also, by His Spirit, Godgives people the ability to do detailedwork and create beautiful things (Ex31:2–5). The article at right explainssome of the technical details of howlaws work. Someone must know andapply these principles for a congrega-tion or community to function.

— Norman Edwards

Superior technology — this photo is a cellMitochondrion, the powerhouse that runsliving cells. This is just one of the millions ofcomplex parts that keep alive the millions ofself-replicating species on our planet. Fiftyyears ago, some biologists hoped that withbetter instruments they would one day unlockthe secrets of cells and learn to create life.The better instruments now exist and wehave learned much about cell function—andalso learned that they are so complex that wemay never know it all.

Beauty and majesty — one quick look atGod’s creation can produce inspiration andawe—with no need to understand exactly how it works. A wealthy educated person, a poor person or a little child—anyone with thespirit that God put in man—can experiencethe beauty and majesty of His work.

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TruckersBibleStudyOak Grove, Mo.#114–115

The Trucker’s Bible Study is conducted weekly at the Texacotruck stop on I-70, Oak Grove, Missouri, by Arlo Gieselman,often assisted by Lenny Cacchio, the writer of this series.

December 15, 2002I want to tell you about an experience that one of the truck driversmentioned today. He said he was “saved” in July, but his story re-minds me of the phrase, “Hound of Heaven”. That was a term whichC. S. Lewis used to describe God and how He stays on our trail.

The man’s father was a Baptist preacher, but died early in theyoung boy’s life. He had never really paid much attention to religion.He was married, and eventually he and his wife separated for a whilethen came back to together. They have two daughters, one of whomis 13.

Some time ago the youngest daughter started going to a churchthat has a very good youth program, and this summer they invited theparents to a presentation. It was like a light went on in his head, andhe determined that he was going to start going to church. He couldn’tfigure out why his wife resisted, until she confessed to him that whilethey were separated, she had started attending church but had given itup when they reconciled. She was wracked by guilt. They got pastthat hurdle and now attend as a family.

Here is a case where the young daughter was the evangelist in thefamily. Her dedication set an example for the parents. I don’t knowabout mom, but the dad was like a sponge today, absorbing every-thing and asking questions. Effective youth ministry should drawunchurched adults, and it worked in this case. Sadly, we have no suchexperience with such in the COGs (with the exception of CG7), andin fact have institutional resistance against it.

At least three out of the four men today are relatively new to theBible. One man said that he has struggled with alcohol for most of hisadult life, but his wife was patient with him and prayed for him, andnow is well on his way to getting some control of his life.

A third driver told me that he has had his nose in the Bible for two

Vol. 9, No. 1 Jan/Feb 2003

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by Jerry Laws

Leaving a church organizationcan be a stressful and often con-fusing transition. Each one who

does it usually has some significantexperience to relate. Hopefully, weare now making progress in our spiri-tual lives.

For me personally, it has been 25years since my departure from aninstitutional organization, and themindset that was included. Lookingback on that experience now, I’m verygrateful for the many, many positiveexperiences as well as the correct spir-itual teaching which I received. I wascalled into this experience by God,and I was also called out of it whenthe time was right for me. Since Godworks with His children based ontheir needs, it must have been what Ineeded. I hope you can also see God’shand in your personal experience. Ifyou cannot right at this point, bepatient in your well-doing and Godwill reveal it to you.

As time has progressed, I have beenunlearning some of the misinformationI had previously accepted, as well aslearning to see the Scriptures moreclearly. It’s so refreshing when the fogof confusion is cleared away by thelight of God.

Along this road I have come to onespecific conclusion regarding theadversary; wherever God has a pointof truth, Satan will often place manycounterfeits around it, and he doesn’tcare which counterfeit we accept, theyall result in confusion. The Law/Grace controversy is an example. Ifound it more than interesting—it wasvery revealing to see how one organi-zation so steeped in the Law, misap-plying it to control the people, andthen within a relatively few shortyears managed to subtly misapply theconcept of Grace. The result was greatconfusion for many people. Again,the adversary did not care whichcounterfeit of truth the believersbought into, it allowed both truths tobe obscured in the fog of the manycounterfeits.

But make no mistake about it,Law and Grace are truth.

Of course this controversy of Lawand/or Grace has been around for cen-turies, some of us have just beenexposed to a more current and person-al episode.

With all this being said, perhapswe can now take a fresh look at oneportion of Grace, specifically theaspect of our security in Christ.

The believer who does not realizethat he is eternally secure in Christ (a birth truth for babes) is certainlynot going to be able to trust Him foremancipation from sin and maturityof growth. Those who begin weakly,and are not instructed concerningtheir real position in Christ are apt toremain weaklings. They may be veryactive, but the movement is back andforth and sideways, with rarely anyupward spiritual progress and abidinggrowth. For the most part, they subsiston experiences and so-called bless-ings. They seem to go from one crisisto another, never really settling downto consider Christ risen as the onlysource of their life here and now (Gal2:20; Heb 5:9).

Most of us have probably noticedthe if/then proposition being used inScripture: if you believe, then youmay have eternal life; if you obey,then you will be blessed, etc. Grace isconditional upon our believing,according to John 3:16. Faith andbelieving are two words very closelytied. Faith can be defined as under-standing and trusting, whilst believingis a verb, an action word, and has todo with the application of what weunderstand and trust.

Seeing and acknowledging ourcomplete and eternal security in JesusChrist is one of the building blocks oftrue spiritual growth. This is a “Faith”work into which we have been called,and our security is based on two con-ditional aspects of faith. As bothaspects begin to be comprehendedand personally appropriated by thebeliever, it is then that these proofs of

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Security In Christ Down-troddenPhiladelphians?by Norman Edwards

Over the centuries, many churchgroups have claimed to be the

“Philadelphian church” (Rev3:7–13). There is little criticism ofthat church and it is promised pro-tection from “the hour of trialwhich shall come upon the wholeworld” (Rev 3:10). Of the “sevenchurches” (Rev 2, 3), only the onlyother one that is not corrected isSmyrna, but it suffers great trials(Rev 2:10). So thousands of peoplehave diligently stayed in a churchorganization that promised itsmembers that they were the pre-sent-day fulfillment of the Philadel-phia church. .

Oddly enough, many of thegroups that have claimed to be the“Philadelphian church” have alsoclaimed to be the main group pow-erfully doing God’s work. Is thathow the church at Philadelphia isdescribed? Or does its descriptionbetter fit small groups of down-trodden believers struggling tofollow God? Let us reread thoseverses to see exactly what is said tothe church in Philadelphia.

“And to the angel of the church inPhiladelphia write, ‘These thingssays He who is holy, He who is true,He who has the key of David, He whoopens and no one shuts, and shutsand no one opens’ ” (Rev 3:7)Christ’s first statement to each

church is about Himself—what Hedoes for that church (Rev 2:1, 8, 12,18; 3:1, 7, 14). For example, thosein Smyrna who were about to bemartyred needed to remember thatChrist “was dead, and came to life”.It is not the church in Philadelphiathat has the key of David or opensand shuts doors, but they arereminded that Christ does thesethings. The meaning of this verse isexplained in the book of Isaiah:

“The key of the house of David Iwill lay on his shoulder; so he shallopen, and no one shall shut; and he

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eternal security can be imparted with-in us.

If you recognize in the Word ofTruth that the Lord Jesus Christ is theSavior because He is God the Sonwho became the Son of Man, and assuch bore in His body the sins of theworld; and

If you rest in Him, in self-surren-der for fellowship, relying with com-plete confidence on Him alone fordeliverance from the guilt and penaltyof our sins and from the power ofindwelling sin;

Then there are some twelveproofs that you can never be lost:

1. You can never be lostbecause in the sure purpose of Godyou are a container of His mercy andwill finally be conformed to theimage of His Son:

“that He might make known the rich-es of His glory upon vessels of mercy,which He prepared beforehand forglory” (Rom 9:23).

“For whom He foreknew, He alsopredestined to become conformed tothe image of His Son” (Rom 8:29).

2. You can never be lostbecause God’s love for you, supreme-ly expressed at Calvary, can now berevealed much more, and so accom-plish His every desire for you:

“But God demonstrates His own lovetowards us, in that while we were yetsinners, Christ died for us. Much morethen, having now been justified by Hisblood, we shall be saved from the wrathof God through Him, for while we wereenemies we were reconciled to Godthrough the death of His Son, muchmore having been reconciled, we shallbe saved by His life” (Rom 5:8–10).

3. You can never be lostbecause God’s infinite power is nolonger hindered by your sins, but canwholly keep you safe, for the blood ofChrist still removes your guilt:

“and if anyone sins we have anAdvocate with the Father, Jesus Christthe righteous” (1Jn 2:1).

4. You can never be lostbecause of His delight in His Son;God can never reject the prayer of theSon asking the Father to keep thosewhom He has given Him:

“I pray for them. I do not pray for theworld but for those whom You havegiven Me, for they are Yours… Now I amno longer in the world, but these are in

the world, and I come to You. HolyFather, keep through Your name thosewhom You have given Me, that theymay be one as We are” (John 17:9, 11).

5. You can never be lostbecause the death of the Son, having avalue equivalent to the punishmentdemanded for all our sins, has alsopaid for sins we now commit.

“There is now therefore no condem-nation to them who are in ChristJesus… Who is the one who con-demns? Christ Jesus is He who died,yes, rather who was raised, who is atthe right hand of God, who also inter-cedes for us” (Rom 8:1, 34).

6. You can never be lostbecause, by the resurrection of Christ,God has broken our connection withAdam and joined us to Christ foracceptance and life:

“And when you were dead in yourtransgressions and the uncircumcisionof your flesh, He made you alive togeth-er with Him, having forgiven us all ourtransgressions… present yourselves toGod as those alive from the dead” (Col2:13; Rom 6:13).

7. You can never be lostbecause, although our sins could con-demn us to death, Christ as our advo-cate continually defends us:

“For Christ did not enter a holy placemade with hands, a mere copy of thetrue one, but into heaven itself, now toappear in the presence of God for us…but now once at the consummation ofthe ages, He has been manifested toput away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”(Heb 9:24, 26).

8. You can never be lostbecause Christ ever lives to makeintercession for you, Satan has nopower to unsave you:

“He is able to save forever those whodraw near to God through Him since Healways lives to make intercession forthem” (Heb 7:25).

9. You can never be lostbecause the Holy Spirit has takenover your body as His personal per-manent home:

“And I will ask the Father, and He willgive you another Helper, that He may bewith you forever” (John 14:16).

10. You can never be lostbecause the Holy Spirit has planted inyou the very life of God, making Godyour real Father, born of God:

“But as many as receive Him to them

He gave the right to become children ofGod, to those who believe in His Name,who were born not of blood, nor the willof the flesh, nor the will of man, but ofGod” (John 1:12–13).

11. You can never be lostbecause the Holy Spirit has now unit-ed you with Christ and you are a verypart of Himself:

“For by one Spirit we were all bap-tized into one body” (1Cor 12:13).

12. You can never be lostbecause the Holy Spirit in you is theseal that your salvation is a finishedtransaction:

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,by whom you were sealed for the day ofredemption” (Eph 4:30).

Some people who casually readover this information may form theidea that it is teaching a “once saved,always saved” doctrine (perhaps asymptom of previous indoctrination)and may feel such a belief of securityin Christ results in lawlessness. Butwhat these people fail to grasp is thatthe believer who truly stands in thegrace position of eternal security inChrist, is the one who most fully fearsGod and hates sin. And hates sin forwhat it is, not just for its conse-quences. Moreover, his is not a fear oflosing God’s love, but of offendingand grieving it.

“But there is forgiveness withYou, that You may be feared” (Ps130:4). The fear of the secured believ-er is a reverential trust coupled with ahatred of evil: “The fear of the Lord isto hate evil” (Prov 8:13). “For thegrace of God has appeared, bringingsalvation to all men, instructing us todeny ungodliness and worldly desiresand to live sensibly, righteously, andgodly in this present age” (Tit2:11–12). Grace banishes all guess-work and gives one assurance, the lawkeeps one guessing. “Are we doing itright enough to obtain eternal securi-ty?”

The truth of security holds thebeliever firm in the midst of theprocess of growth. It is the insecurebeliever who is naturally unstable andflounders from one “experience” toanother, never learning and thereforenever arriving at the truth.

Meditate on these 12 points andbehold the security that is freely givento us in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

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Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne,and earth is My footstool. Where is the

house that you will build Me? And where isthe place of My rest?’ ” (Isa 66:1)

For the first fifteen hundred yearsof human history there is not theslightest indication of a building

of any form in which to meet andworship God. Adam and Even com-muned with God in a relationship ofinnocence and holiness in the out ofdoors in the Garden of Eden. Enoch“walked with God” (Gen 5:24) with-out having a religious building to goto. Abraham, the great man of faithand father of all who live by faith,related to God in a wonderful andpure relationship, without a religiousbuilding. Jacob, the father of thetwelve tribes of Israel, lived a longand rich life of intimate relationshipwith God without a religious buildingin which to meet and worship God.These early patriarchs and pillars offaith along with hundreds of thou-sands of God’s people for centuriesnever had any religious buildings.They lived in daily fellowship withGod, relating to Him in the ordinaryaffairs and places of everyday life.

Then the children of Israel went toEgypt where they were slaves for hun-dreds of years. When they came out ofthe darkness of pagan Egypt, in theirignorance of not knowing how torelate to God in a personal way, Godtaught His people to relate to Himthrough the tabernacle. The tabernaclewas a portable tent and a temporarymeans by which the people could beaware of the presence of God amongthem. Such a physical structure wasonly necessary because of Israel’signorance of God due to their manyyears in paganism. Those were darkand pagan days. We need to go back tothe ways before Egypt, when peoplerelated to God in purer and more per-sonal relationships.

Both the tabernacle and the temple

were temporary structures for alimited time and purpose inthe history and developmentof God’s people. Theyserved as places for animal sac-rifice for sin until Christ the final andcomplete sacrifice came. Even whenthe temple stood in Jerusalem as aplace for sacrifice and offerings toGod, most of the people lived a greatdistance away and they related to Goddaily without relying on a building inwhich to worship.

The tabernacle and the temple weretemporary physical structures repre-senting the presence of God until theactual reality of God’s presencecame to dwell among us inChrist. God did not initiatethe idea of building thetemple. It came fromDavid and Solomon andthen God gave the detailedplans because this was what thepeople wanted (2Sam 7:1–7).

Now that Christ, the perfect, com-plete and final sacrifice for our sins,has come, we no longer need the taber-nacle or the temple in which to offersacrifices to God. God’s Word, theBible, says we the people of God,believers in Jesus Christ, are the tem-ples of God where Christ dwells by theHoly Spirit in us (1Cor 3:16, 2Cor6:16; 1Pet 2:5).

The idea of having religious build-ings throughout the land forpeople to go to find and relateto God comes from paganBabel and pagan Babylon.

BabelNotice the similarities between Ba-bel in Genesis 11:2–9 and churchestoday.

The people settled in one place(Gen 11:2) instead of, “filling theearth” (Gen 1:28), and as the NewTestament tells us to do, “Go into allthe world and proclaim the GoodNews” (Mark 16:5). Christians aremeeting together in the comfort of

church buildingsinstead of going out

into the world toconfront sinners with thegood news of forgive-ness.

“…come let usmake brick…” (Gen

11:3). Here we see two

things: 1) human resolveto do their own thing

instead of resting in Godand just doing what He tells

us to do, which is usuallyeasier and always better; 2) the peoplehunted in Genesis 10:9 and became the servants/slaves of Nimrod, making bricks for his city/kingdom(Gen 10:10). Today people are slavesof religious systems, working andpaying for church buildings, etc. Manypeople are in bondage to man-madereligion which is difficult versus Jesus’way which is humble, restful and easy

(Matt 11:28–30).“And they had brick for

stone…” (Gen 11:3b). Babelwas made out of man-made

human products instead ofGod-made natural

things; made out ofthe things of the

earth instead of heav-enly things. Babel is the product of thekingdoms of men versus the kingdomof God. Physical church buildings ver-sus the spiritual body of Christ createsan attitude of material, earthly andpassing values instead of heavenly andeternal values. There’s a mystery here.The mystery is that religious peoplewho do not really know and followGod spiritually prefer to make physi-cal man-made religious buildingsinstead of allowing God to dwell inthem and live by His life within. Wegravitate toward what we really are,mere temporary physical beings or

eternal sons of God, the temporarykingdoms of men and this world or theeternal kingdom of God. The bodies oftrue Christians are the temples of JesusChrist by the Holy Spirit. (1Cor 6:19).

“Let us build a city and a towerwhose top may reach unto heaven; andlet us make us a name, lest we be scat-tered abroad upon the face of the wholeearth” (Gen 11:4).People still erroneously try to reach

Church Buildingsby Al Van Dyk (Mr. Van Dyk has written numerous Bible-based booklets andtracts. His literature list is available from Servants’ News [order CALLIT] or directlyfrom him: Christian Action League; P.O. Box 1035, Bella Vista, CA 98008.)

SERVANTS’ NEWS

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God through physical towers, physicalchurch buildings, sometimes withsteeples reaching toward heaven likeBabel.

God is not found in a religious placeany more than He is found anywhereelse. (John 4:21) Jesus said, “…trueworshippers shall worship theFather in Spirit and in truth.” (John4:23) The Spirit of God can and doesreach people anywhere if hearts areopen, honest and really ready to cometo Jesus Christ for salvation.

While people build and attendchurch buildings to find God, the Bibletells us of a better way. The better wayis: “Christ in you, the hope of glory”(Col 1:27). God inside of you, not in aphysical building. The same wonderfultruth is taught in John 15:5 andGalatians 2:20.

And they said, “Come, let us buildourselves a city, and a tower whose topis in the heavens; let us make a namefor ourselves, lest we be scatteredabroad over the face of the whole earth”(Gen 11:4).Notice that this is in direct disobedi-

ence to Genesis 1:28 and Mark 16:5.This is an example of trying to estab-lish central control over all mankindthrough the use of a central, religiousbuilding. The building was to befamous—there would be “nothing elselike it”. But this is a man trusting in selfinstead of trusting and obeying God.Trusting in man brings a curse (Jer17:5) but trusting in God brings ablessing (Prov28:25).

“And from thence did the Lordscatter them abroad upon the face ofall the earth” (Gen 11:8). God cursedthe Babel project by making differentlanguages so the people could notunderstand each other. Their commu-nication sounded like “babel” to eachother. Just as God scattered the peopleabroad in Genesis 11 to fulfill Hiscommand (Gen 1:28) so He is usingconfused and imperfect churches toaccomplish His great commission(Mark 16:15) today. However now inthese last days God wants to do a high-er and better work than ever before.God wants us to come to Him throughthe Living Lord Jesus, not a dead reli-gious building.

BabylonBabel was the beginning of Babylon.

Babel and Babylon are the same wordsin Hebrew and they mean “confusion”(Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary 894). Justas Babel and Babylon were places ofconfusion, so churches are confusedtoday. Churches are in confusion be-cause of different theological doctrinesand thus they do not understand eachother, and their confusion preventspeople from understanding the truth ofGod. Theologians and seminarytrained priests and ministers and theirinstitutions and “churches” are usuallya hindrance rather than an asset to thecause of Christ. The gospel is compro-mised by religious systems and reli-gious buildings because they stand inthe way of people finding Jesus in apersonal, powerful and direct way.While it is true that many people cometo a saving relationship with JesusChrist through compromised religion,we should press in for the highest andbest relationship and understandingthat God has for us, a relationship di-rect and pure with Him, free from theinfluence of Babel/Babylon.

Babylon was known for her elabo-rate temples, a continuation of Babel’stower. The temples of Babylon werebeautiful structures but without thetruth of God. They were deceptive andfalse religious structures as are most“church” buildings today. Churchbuildings can look and feel “impres-sive”, but are substitutes for a vibrant

living relationship with Jesus Christ.But it gets worse. Babylon became a

satanic center for the occult, fordemons and witchcraft. Many of thewicked teachings and practices ofpagan Babylon were taken over by theCatholic Church and mixed withChristianity resulting in a deceptiveand corrupt religion that claims to be“Christian”. This ungodly mixture ofpaganism and truth has confused mil-lions and persecuted true Christiansthroughout the centuries.

The book of Revelation containsmore references to a later Babylon thatseeks to be wealthy and control thenations in opposition to preaching thetrue gospel and worshiping the trueGod. Notice:

Then I saw another angel flying inthe midst of heaven, having the ever-lasting gospel to preach to those whodwell on the earth—to every nation,tribe, tongue, and people—saying with aloud voice, “Fear God and give glory toHim, for the hour of His judgment hascome; and worship Him who madeheaven and earth, the sea and springsof water.” And another angel followed,saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, thatgreat city, because she has made allnations drink of the wine of the wrath ofher fornication” (Rev 14:6–8).

The woman was arrayed in purpleand scarlet, and adorned with gold andprecious stones and pearls, having inher hand a golden cup full of abomina-tions and the filthiness of her fornica-tion. And on her forehead a name waswritten: MYSTERY, BABYLON THEGREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS ANDOF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.I saw the woman, drunk with the bloodof the saints and with the blood of themartyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, Imarveled with great amazement (Rev17:4–6).A woman often symbolizes a church

in the Bible, and this one is again inter-ested in wealth and persecutes the truebelievers. Babylon will be destroyedwhen Jesus returns, on “the day ofGod” (2Pet 3:12). God’s explicitinstructions regarding Babylon are,“Come out of her, my people, lest youshare in her sins, and lest you receiveof her plagues” (Rev 18:4).

High PlacesThe principle of Babel’s religious

For centuries, religious buildings have beenexpensive and impractical. High towers pro-vide little usable space, but simply look“impressive”—reminiscent of Babel’s “towerwhose top is in the heavens” (Gen 11:4).

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building to find God continuedthroughout Old Testament history withpagan people who built and wor-shipped their false gods in religiousstructures usually located on hills orother elevated places and therefore, thename, “high places”. Israel borrowedthe idea from its pagan neighbors andalso had “high places”. This is whereIsrael practiced a mixture of worshipto the pagan god, Baal, and to the trueGod, Yahweh. The principle of “highplaces” continues today in this NewTestament time in the form of“church” buildings where people go totry to find and experience God. Bothtrue and false Christians meet togetherin religious buildings they erroneouslycall “churches”.

The prophets of Israel condemnedthe high places (Jer 17:1–3; 32:35;Ezek 6:3; Amos 7:9). Isaiah’s messageconcerning religious buildings is thatGod is not found in religious placeserected by men (Isa 66:1). God wantsus to come to Him through His Son,Jesus Christ, and Jesus calls us to per-sonally follow Him, not a church orga-nization or a church building (Matt11:28–30).

SynagoguesThe practice of building synagogues inthe cities of Israel after her Babyloniancaptivity was learned in pagan Baby-lon, and is continued today all over theworld by Jews. God never told Hispeople to build these man-made struc-tures even though Jesus did sometimesreveal Himself in the synagogues. Godis sometimes found in compromisedsituations that are not His highest andbest for His people.

The Roman Catholic ChurchThis church is a departure from theoriginal teachings of Jesus Christ and amixture of compromised Christianityand Babylonianism. This false religionbegan building churches about 300years after Christ. These religiousbuildings incorrectly called “churches”were beautiful structures for the eye tobehold but they were neither churchesof God according to the Bible nor werethey places where God abode (2Sam7:5–6). Religious leaders tell people toattend the religious church buildingsbut God’s Word, the Bible, says noth-ing of the kind. The Catholic Church

attracts people to their compromisedversion of Christianity by mixing theteachings of the Bible with whateverpagan background people come from.Thus it is no problem for Catholics tohave Babylonian type religious build-ings and to have Babylonian teachingsand practices.

Protestant ChurchesProtestant Churches are products ofthe Reformation, and are a partial cor-rection of Roman Catholicism. TheReformation only corrected some ofthe false teachings of Catholicism.While Protestant churches came to re-alize the wonderful truth of salvationby grace through faith, they still hangon to many of the traditions of Catholi-cism and ancient paganism.

One of the strongholds ofBabel/Babylon/Catholic Church is theidolatrous practice of having religiousbuildings to supposedly meet Godinstead of relating to Him daily andmoment by moment. Church organiza-tions and buildings become religiouscontrol centers, a two class systemwhere the “clergy” control the “laity”.These words are not found in theBible, but are part of Nicolaitanism(Rev 2:6).

Church Buildings The Bible pattern for church meetingplaces is in the ordinary homes of be-lievers (Acts 20:20; Rom 16:5; Col4:15; Phil 2). The ear-ly Christians related toGod in natural every-day living situations,not religious build-ings like the pagans.Special larger meet-ings involving sever-al home churches canmeet in rented halls orbuildings (Acts 19:9).Avoid religious prop-erty which leads tochurch idolatry.

God wants you torelate to Him in apersonal and vitalrelationship and withother believers inevery day situations and homes of peo-ple. However, in the fourth century,Christianity became paganized underRome and religious buildings became

a way and place to worship God, andthis wrong practice is with us to thisday. Millions of religious people stillthink in terms of worshipping God at“church” buildings like the heathenBabylonians did.

Beautiful church buildings create afalse spiritual atmosphere, a man-made awe or reverence, created byarchitecture, stained glass windows,etc. It is a false religious spirit, not theHoly Spirit of God. It is a substitutespirit for the Spirit of our true and liv-ing God. God wants you to relate toHim daily and moment by moment ina natural and living way through JesusChrist.

The Lord Jesus Christ didn’t have apreaching/teaching center and neithershould we. Jesus never instructed any-one to build a church building and thuswe have no basis for building them.Jesus rebuked Peter for wanting tobuild a religious structure. We shoulddo as Jesus did and as he instructed usto do. We are told to go to people in theworld to tell them the good news, notinvite them to a church building (Mark16:15).

Meeting in a larger than homesized building is not wrong in itself.Paul met in a rented hall in Ephesuswhere there were several homechurches. It is having institutional typechurch meetings, whether large orsmall and either in a house or in anoth-er building that is wrong because theytend to take the place of a personal

relationship with God andwith His people. It is

sometimes good tohave large Christianmeetings where sev-eral home churchescome together for aspecial teaching,celebration or otheroccasion.

It’s the idea ofGod in a buildingat a physicaladdress that’s

wrong. We mustknow Jesus, walkwith Him, and talkwith Him every-

where and all the time, and going to achurch building short circuits that per-sonal relationship. Steeples, stained-glass, ornate designs and other

The Apostle Paulonce spoke to a groupof women who gathered to worship at a river(Acts 16:13)—similar to a park of our day.

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architectural elements that make peo-ple think “God is here” are all false andneed to be discarded. If a larger con-gregation needs a place to meet, andtheir own building is the only practicaloption, it should be no fancier than themembers’ homes. God does not “livein the building”—it is a tool for thepeople.

Another problem with large churchmeetings is that some “gifted” brotherwill come along and try to take con-trol—Nicolaitanism. Every homechurch must relate directly to theLord (Master) Jesus. Don’t let somereligiously ambitious brother or sistercontrol the church you attend. Godirectly to Jesus. Christian apostles,prophets, evangelists, pastors andteachers are proper and important(Eph 4:11–12), but they should notcontrol the people as inNicolaitanism, clergy ruling thepeople (Rev 2:6).

The time is comingsoon when institution-al church buildingswill either be con-trolled or destroyedby the end-timeadversary of trueChristianity. Now isthe time to prepareby meeting togetherin homes.

Jesus said, “…Iwill build mychurch…” (Matt16:18). Jesus is doingjust as He said He woulddo. Jesus Christ is building Hispure and holy Church, His remnantpeople, who follow and obey Him,not the false prophets and false insti-tutional church organizations andbuildings of men. Don’t be a RomanCatholic, Protestant, Baptist,Pentecostal, etc. (1Cor 1:12–13). Be adisciple of Jesus Christ; follow andobey the Lord (Master) Jesus not areligious leader or a church building.

Your body is the temple, dwellingplace of Jesus by His Holy Spirit, notphysical religious buildings of men(1Cor 6:19).

You are “in church” whenever andwherever two or more of you meettogether in Jesus’ name. It is just asJesus said in the following verse. “Forwhere two or three are gathered in

My name, there am I in the midst ofthem”. (Matt18:20).

The word church is from the Greek“ekklesia—a calling out… assem-bly…” (Strong’s Greek Dictionary).We are called out of the world to be apeople of God, following Jesus Christand bringing others to Him; being alight for God in a dark world. We are aliving church consisting of God’scalled-out people, not an inanimatechurch building.

The True ChurchThroughout all the errors and apostacyof church history beginning already inthe first century God has had His pureand holy church, people not in thecompromised religious institutions ofmen. It is one body, no divisions/de-nominations of men (1Cor 1:10–13).

Christ alone is the Head of Hispure Church (Eph 5:23).

All who really trust, fol-low, and obey Jesus

Christ as Saviorand Lord (Master)

of their lives are partof the One Churchwhich in the Bible issimply called “TheChurch” or “TheChurch of God”. The

Church of God has agovernment referredto in Eph 4:11–12 andfunctions throughGodly men referred to

in Acts 20:28; Titus 1:5and other places.

God gives supernatural power andabilities called “gifts” to His people(Rom 12:6–8; 1Cor 12:4–12). AllChristians are priests or ministers(1Pet 2:5, 9) and all the people mayparticipate as the Holy Spirit leadsthem (1Cor 14:26). Meeting placesare in the ordinary homes of believers(Acts 20:20; Rom 16:5; 1Cor 16:19;Col 4:15).

Remember these facts alwaysGod lives in His people (1Cor 6:19),not in physical buildings. We Chris-tians are the containers of God (2Cor4:7). Christ is our lifeline (John 15:5),not “church” buildings. Christ—thelife of God—is in you and you are inHim (John 14:20).

“But the hour is coming, and now is,

when the true worshippers will worshipthe Father in spirit and truth; for theFather is seeking such to worship Him.God is Spirit, and those who worshipHim must worship in spirit and truth”(John 4:23–24).I appeal to you, true worshippers of

God—true Christians! Put away thereligious buildings of man. WorshipGod in spirit and truth. Follow JesusChrist. Live by His life within you.Don’t accept a substitute. Live by thevital and dynamic life of Christ withinyou.

Warning: Babel/Babylon perse-cutes true Christians (Rev 17:4–5).Severe end-time persecution is comingagainst true Christians. Those whomthe Devil cannot get by deception, hewill try to get by persecution.Persecution will come from andthrough institutional churches.

What You Should Do NowGod’s instructions are very clear:

“Come out from among them and beseparate, says the Lord. Do not touchwhat is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shallbe My sons and daughters, Says theLORD Almighty” (2Cor 6:17–18).

“…Come out of her [Babylon], Mypeople, lest you share in her sins, andlest you receive of her plagues” (Rev18:4).

“Come to Me [Yahshua-Jesus], allyou who labor and are heavy laden, andI will give you rest. Take My yoke uponyou and learn from Me, for I am gentleand lowly in heart, and you will find restfor your souls. For My yoke is easy andMy burden is light” (Matt 11:28–30).The way of man-made religion

leads to death. Leave it.Come to Jesus, not man-made reli-

gion and not a religious building. Trustin Jesus Christ to be saved (John 3:16).Follow Jesus for eternal life (John10:29–30). Obey Jesus’ command-ments (John 14:15). Remember thecommandments of God are still ineffect (Matt 5:17–19). Follow andobey Jesus Christ as the Lord, whichmeans Master of your life (Acts16:31).

Tell others the good news of salva-tion (Mark 16:15).

Meet together with one or moreother sincere and true followers ofJesus (Heb 10:25; Matt 18:20).

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By Norman Edwards

W hen people seek to obeyGod, they can see the com-mand in the Scriptures to

repent of their sins and to be baptizedin the name of Jesus (or in HisHebrew name, Yashuah). They canread the many biblical descriptions ofsin, find that the result of sin is death,and see that eternal life is available inChrist. They can see the biblicalexamples of mature people—notinfants—coming to be baptized; andthey can see that baptisms are donewhere there is water to cover a per-son. Everyone should understandthese points and there is much goodmaterial on them.

So when one is ready for baptism, towhom do they go to receive it? Howdoes one receive the Holy Spirit? Ifone desires to belong to a churchdenomination, they will usually have amethod that they must follow and peo-ple who are specifically designated tocarry it out. In many groups if one doesnot follow their method, he or she can-not be considered a member of thatchurch group. But there is no biblicalexample of being baptised into aChurch organization. The Apostle Paulspecifically taught believers not toalign themselves with a particular ser-vant of God (1Cor 1:12–15).

How then, can one be baptised intothe body of Christ and receive theHoly Spirit? The Bible does not have asingle section explaining what is “nec-essary for salvation” and if there are“optional extras” that can be added onif one wants to. It has a few commandsthat were given to different individualsat different times, and it has lots ofaccounts of how God actually workedwith people like you and me. The pur-pose of believers is to accomplish asmuch as they can, not as little as theycan (John 15:8; Matt 25:14–30).

Read All of the ScripturesFortunately, it is possible to read all of

the Scriptures about baptism and re-ceiving the Holy Spirit in a somewhatlong article such as this. This is proba-bly the best approach to understandGod’s mind on the subject. Many bap-tism articles will start with scripturesthat support the author’s position, goon to “explain” (sometimes rightly,sometimes wrongly) the scriptures thatappear to differ from the author’s posi-tion and to sometimes ignore the scrip-tures that contradict it.

To make learning easier we havearranged the scriptures into the follow-ing categories:

• Commands to Baptize• Scriptures Explaining Baptism• References to Old Testament

“Baptisms”• Baptism of the Holy Spirit• Baptism for the Dead?• Ten Baptism Stories• Observations: Who Can Baptize

and How• Receiving the Holy Spirit in the

Old Testament• Receiving the Holy Spirit in the

New Testament (Before Acts 2,Acts 2 & Beyond, and via layingon of hands.)

• Laying on of Hands to Impart theHoly Spirit

• Laying on of Hands for OtherPurposes

• Observations: Receiving the HolySpirit

• What Happens If We Do It Wrong?

Yes, this article is rather long, butafter reading it, you should feel thatyou know what the Bible says aboutthis very important subject. Scripturesabout John the Baptist and his baptismhave been excluded as his work andhis baptism was clearly replaced bythat of Jesus Christ (John 3:30; Acts18:24–19:5). These verses are valuablein helping us understand how God useshuman instruments to prepare peoplefor what He intends to do, but they donot tell us much about baptism and

receiving the Holy Spirit today. TheHoly Spirit was not given with John’sbaptism.

Commands To BaptizeSeveral scriptures command the Chris-tian to be baptized and to baptize.Please read the full text provided hereeven though the verses may be famil-iar:

“Therefore, leaving the discussionof the elementary principles of Christ,let us go on to perfection, not layingagain the foundation of [1] repentancefrom dead works and of [2] faithtoward God, of [3] the doctrine ofbaptisms, [4] of laying on of hands,of [5] resurrection of the dead, and of[6] eternal judgment” (Heb 6:1–2).Even though believers were being

told to go beyond the “elementaryprinciples of Christ”, 2,000 years laterit is nice to have a list of those elemen-tary principles. It is interesting to notethat the first two things a believer mustdo himself, the next two things must bedone in conjunction with other believ-ers and the last two things God mustdo. Even so, there is no mention hereof who in the church can or shouldbaptize and lay on hands.

“Go therefore and make disciplesof all the nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Sonand of the Holy Spirit, teaching themto observe all things that I have com-manded you; and lo, I am with youalways, even to the end of the age”(Matt 28:19–20).The Apostles were commanded to

teach others everything that Christtaught them. That means they wouldalso teach others to make disciples andbaptize them. It appears to be a contin-ual, self-replicating operation.

“And He said to them, ‘Go into allthe world and preach the gospel toevery creature. He who believes andis baptized will be saved; but he whodoes not believe will be condemned.And these signs will follow those whobelieve: In My name they will cast out

Baptism & Receiving the Holy Spirit:How Does it Work? Who Does it?

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demons; they will speak with newtongues; they will take up serpents;and if they drink anything deadly, it willby no means hurt them; they will layhands on the sick, and they will recov-er’ ” (Mark 16:15-18).Baptism is for the purpose of

becoming a believer and doing a workempowered by Christ. These verses donot say that everyone will do every oneof these things—elsewhere the Bibleshows that spiritual gifts are distrib-uted among believers (Rom 12:6; Eph4:11–12). But these verses stronglyimply that some miracles would fol-low true Christianity.

“Then Peter said to them, “Repent,and let every one of you be baptizedin the name of Jesus Christ for theremission of sins; and you shall receivethe gift of the Holy Spirit. For thepromise is to you and to your children,and to all who are afar off, as many asthe Lord our God will call”... Then fearcame upon every soul, and many won-ders and signs were done through theapostles” (Acts 2:38–39, 43).Baptism is available to all people of

all generations, “as many as the Lordour God will call”. It is very importantto understand that God does the call-ing, not a church group. Baptism or thelaying on of hands should not berefused to someone who appears to becalled of God, even if they have noconnection with any religious group

Scriptures Explaining BaptismThe following three scriptures showthere is one baptism into the Body ofChrist. There is no baptism into a par-ticular church organization.

“For as the body is one and hasmany members, but all the membersof that one body, being many, are onebody, so also is Christ. For by oneSpirit we were all baptized into onebody—whether Jews or Greeks,whether slaves or free—and have allbeen made to drink into one Spirit”(1 Corinthians 12:12–13).

“For you are all sons of Godthrough faith in Christ Jesus. For asmany of you as were baptized intoChrist have put on Christ. There isneither Jew nor Greek, there is neitherslave nor free, there is neither malenor female; for you are all one inChrist Jesus” (Gal 3:26–28).

“There is one body and one Spirit,

just as you were called in one hope ofyour calling; one Lord, one faith, onebaptism; one God and Father of all,who is above all, and through all, andin you all” (Eph 4:4–6). Baptism is a symbol of our own

death—that our own ways die asChrist died and that we now live to lethim live His life in us.

“…buried with Him in baptism, inwhich you also were raised with Himthrough faith in the working of God,who raised Him from the dead. Andyou, being dead in your trespassesand the uncircumcision of your flesh,He has made alive together with Him,having forgiven you all trespasses”(Col 2:12–13).

“Or do you not know that as manyof us as were baptized into ChristJesus were baptized into His death?Therefore we were buried with Himthrough baptism into death, that justas Christ was raised from the dead bythe glory of the Father, even so wealso should walk in newness of life”(Rom 6:3–4).Sometimes, the Bible just refers to

“water” or “washing” to convey theidea of baptism. The analogy of per-sonal cleansing of sin is still there:

“Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly,I say to you, unless one is born ofwater and the Spirit, he cannot enterthe kingdom of God’ ”(John 3:5).

“…not by works of righteousnesswhich we have done, but according toHis mercy He saved us, through thewashing of regeneration and renew-ing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

References to Old Testament“Baptisms”Two Old Testament events are specifi-cally listed as being a type of bap-tism—picturing a sort of death andresurrection:

“…when God waited patiently inthe days of Noah, during the buildingof the ark, in which a few, that is, eightpersons, were saved through water.And baptism, which this prefigured,now saves you—not as a removal ofdirt from the body, but as an appeal toGod for a good conscience, throughthe resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1Pet3:20–21).

“Moreover, brethren, I do not wantyou to be unaware that all our fatherswere under the cloud, all passed

through the sea, all were baptizedinto Moses in the cloud and in thesea” (1 Corinthians 10:1–2).The ceremonial washings required

by the Old Testament Priests were alsoa kind of “baptism”. The word used forthe ceremonial washing of hands anddishes in Mark 7:4, 8 is the same oneused below, and in Hebrews 6:2. OtherBible translations will say “washings”here instead of “baptism”, but it isimportant to understand that the firstcentury believers would see them assimilar. The washing/baptism was aceremonial cleansing—a removal ofdirt/sin—that which defiles.

“This is a symbol of the presenttime, during which gifts and sacri-fices are offered that cannot perfectthe conscience of the worshipper, butdeal only with food and drink andvarious baptisms, regulations for thebody imposed until the time comes toset things right” (Heb 9:9–10, NRSV).

Baptized with the Holy SpiritThere are six references to baptism“with the Holy Spirit”. All are aboutthe comparison of John’s baptism withwater—where the Holy Spirit was notgiven—to the baptism by Christ wherethe Holy Spirit was given. This bap-tism is something that Christ does—itis not something that one believer canarrange for another.

“I indeed baptize you with waterunto repentance, but He who is com-ing after me is mightier than I, whosesandals I am not worthy to carry. Hewill baptize you with the Holy Spiritand fire” (Matt 3:11).

“I indeed baptized you with water,but He will baptize you with the HolySpirit” (Mark 1:8).

“John answered, saying to all, ‘Iindeed baptize you with water; butOne mightier than I is coming, whosesandal strap I am not worthy to loose.He will baptize you with the HolySpirit and fire’ ” (Luke 3:16).

“I did not know Him, but He whosent me to baptize with water said tome, ‘Upon whom you see the Spiritdescending, and remaining on Him,this is He who baptizes with the HolySpirit’ ” (John 1:33).

“…for John truly baptized withwater, but you shall be baptized withthe Holy Spirit not many days fromnow” (Acts 1:5).

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“And as I [Peter] began to speak,the Holy Spirit fell upon them[Cornelius and his household], asupon us at the beginning. Then Iremembered the word of the Lord,how He said, ‘John indeed baptizedwith water, but you shall be baptizedwith the Holy Spirit.’ If therefore Godgave them the same gift as He gaveus when we believed on the LordJesus Christ, who was I that I couldwithstand God?” (Acts 11:15–17).This last verse shows that this bap-

tism of the Holy Spirit was experi-enced by the Apostles and byCornelius and his household—thefirst Gentiles to receive the HolySpirit. This was the fulfillment of thewords spoken by Christ and by John.Whether or not this process was everrepeated with other believers is notclear from the Scripture. Since it isChrist who does it, he can do it as lit-tle or as often as He wants. There isno command for a believer to be“baptized in the spirit”. However, theoriginal disciples are examples to usof how Christ works—so we mightexpect Him to work similarly withothers. There are several differentexpressions used in the scriptures thatseem to indicate different amounts ofthe Holy Spirit: “filled with the spir-it”, “spirit upon me” “receive the spir-it”, etc. Since the word for baptismmeans “immerse”, a person baptizedwith the Holy Spirit would be“immersed” in it.

Baptism for the Dead?One baptism verse that is sometimesgreatly misunderstood is 1 Cor 15:29:

“Otherwise, what will they do whoare baptized for the dead, if the deaddo not rise at all? Why then are theybaptized for the dead?”Some Bible teachers have used this

verse to encourage believers to getbaptized on behalf of unbelieving deadrelatives. They probably mean well,but repentance must precede baptismand it just isn’t possible for living peo-ple to repent for dead relatives. Torepent means to change, and dead peo-ple do not change. To understand thisverse, read all of chapter 15. Somefalse teachers were preaching thatthere was no resurrection of the dead(v 12–13). They thought that believerswould simply live on until Christ

returned. Paul had to remind them thatin spite of the many miraculous heal-ings, some believers had died (v 18).He goes on to explain the need for aresurrection in verses 35 to 58. In verse29, Paul reminded them that if there isno resurrection (“otherwise”), thenwhat good does it do to be baptizedand then later die—become dead? TheGreek is difficult here, but it certainlydoes not imply being baptized for“someone else” who is dead. The NewWorld Translation of the HolyScriptures is fairly good here:

“Otherwise, what will they do whoare being baptized for the purposeof being dead ones? If the dead arenot to be raised up at all, why are theyalso being baptized for the purpose ofbeing such?” (1Cor 15:29, NWT).But in any translation, it should be

clear here that issue here is whether ornot the dead are raised—there is noth-ing at all in the Bible explaining whatgood could be accomplished by beingbaptised for a dead person.

Ten Baptism StoriesAll of the rest of the scriptures aboutbaptism are case histories of peoplewho were baptized—sometimes many,sometimes just one. We can learn a lotfrom what God thought was importantenough to include in these 10 stories. Itis also helpful to think about what wasnot included.

Baptism #1: Pentecost“Then those who gladly received

his word were baptized; and that dayabout three thousand souls wereadded to them” (Acts 2:41).This verse follows the famous Acts

2:38: “Repent, and let every one of yoube baptized… and you shall receivethe gift of the Holy Spirit.” It is impor-tant to see that this was done with oneday’s teaching. Those baptized wereprobably already knowledgeable ofGod from the Old Testament, andsome may have heard the teaching ofJesus before. But they were from manydifferent countries, so many were cer-tainly hearing the teaching of Jesus forthe very first time—but they were bap-tized that same day.

Who baptised these 3,000 people?If only the 12 Apostles did the baptiz-ing and laying on of hands, each onewould have had to baptize and lay

hands on 250 people. That would givethem less than 2 minutes for each per-son working steady for eight hours. Ifall 120 disciples (Acts 1:15) participat-ed in the baptism and laying on ofhands, they could devote 15 minutes toeach person and finish in 6¼ hours.

Baptism #2: Philip Baptizes,Peter and John Come toImpart the Holy Spirit andConfront Simon the SorcererThis is the longest story, but it containsmany elements not in any other story,so it is well worth studying, in Acts 8:

“But there was a certain man calledSimon, who previously practiced sor-cery in the city and astonished thepeople of Samaria, claiming that hewas someone great, to whom they allgave heed, from the least to the great-est, saying, “This man is the greatpower of God.” And they heeded himbecause he had astonished them withhis sorceries for a long time.

But when they believed Philip ashe preached the things concerning thekingdom of God and the name ofJesus Christ, both men and womenwere baptized. Then Simon himselfalso believed; and when he was bap-tized he continued with Philip, andwas amazed, seeing the miracles andsigns which were done.

Now when the apostles who wereat Jerusalem heard that Samaria hadreceived the word of God, they sentPeter and John to them, who, whenthey had come down, prayed forthem that they might receive theHoly Spirit. For as yet He had fallenupon none of them. They had onlybeen baptized in the name of the LordJesus. Then they laid hands on them,and they received the Holy Spirit.

And when Simon saw that throughthe laying on of the apostles’ handsthe Holy Spirit was given, he offeredthem money, saying, “Give me thispower also, that anyone on whom Ilay hands may receive the HolySpirit.” But Peter said to him, “Yourmoney perish with you, because youthought that the gift of God could bepurchased with money! You have nei-ther part nor portion in this matter, foryour heart is not right in the sight ofGod. Repent therefore of this yourwickedness, and pray God if perhapsthe thought of your heart may be for-

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given you” (Acts 8:9–22).This is the only Biblical instance

where, after baptism in the name ofJesus, other brethren had to be calledto impart the Holy Spirit. Some peoplewill claim that an Apostle, or at least a“church leader of a certain rank” wasnecessary to impart the Holy Spirit.Yet the scripture does not say that.

This is also the only place wheresomeone is baptised who was not real-ly a believer. Simon the Sorcerer wasbaptized—he must have convincedPhilip and the others that he had gen-uine interest. If the Holy spirit wasgiven right away, many people wouldhave accepted Simon’s false miraclesas works of the Holy Spirit—he wouldhave deceived many. When Peter andJohn came, Simon showed his true col-ors. This may be the very reason whythe Spirit was withheld, so that Simoncould be “weeded out”. But again, thescripture does not say that is the rea-son. We do not know for sure whyPeter and John had to come to layhands on the people. This does notoccur in any of the other stories.

Baptism #3: Philip Baptizesthe Ethiopian Eunuch

“And behold, a man of Ethiopia, aeunuch of great authority underCandace the queen of the Ethiopians,who had charge of all her treasury,and had come to Jerusalem to wor-ship, was returning. And sitting in hischariot, he was reading Isaiah theprophet…

Now as they went down the road,they came to some water. And theeunuch said, “See, here is water.What hinders me from being bap-tized?”… So he commanded the char-iot to stand still. And both Philip andthe eunuch went down into thewater, and he baptized him. Nowwhen they came up out of the water,the Spirit of the Lord caught Philipaway, so that the eunuch saw him nomore; and he went on his wayrejoicing.

But Philip was found at Azotus.And passing through, he preachedin all the cities till he came toCaesarea” (Acts 8:27–28; 36, 38–40).This scripture says nothing about

receiving the Holy Spirit, but it is clearthat the man from Ethiopia was head-ed back home and if he did not receive

the Spirit here, it is unlikely that he didelsewhere. (Peter and John hadreturned to Jerusalem—verse 25.)Afterward, Philip preached fromAzotus to Caesarea—about 70 milesof coastline full of cities. This is trulythe first “missionary journey” in theNew Testament, though we have fewdetails about it. There is nothing aboutwhether Philip baptized or impartedthe Holy Spirit on this journey, but it isdifficult to imagine that he would onlypartly fulfill the commands in Matt-hew 28:19–20 and Mark 16:15–18.

Baptism #4: Paul’s baptism“And Ananias went his way and

entered the house; and laying hishands on him he said, “Brother Saul,the Lord Jesus, who appeared to youon the road as you came, has sent methat you may receive your sight and befilled with the Holy Spirit.”Immediately there fell from his eyessomething like scales, and he receivedhis sight at once; and he arose andwas baptized” (Acts 9:17–18).Here, Ananias was specifically told

to baptize Paul. Verse 12 said thatAnanias laid hands on Paul to receivehis sight. It does not say how Paulreceived the Holy Spirit. The accountwas retold by Paul in Acts 22. It isinteresting that Ananias is not identi-fied by “apostle”, “evangelist” or anyother title, but simply “a devout manaccording to the law”.

“Then a certain Ananias, a devoutman according to the law, having agood testimony with all the Jews whodwelt there, came to me; and he stoodand said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receiveyour sight.’ And at that same hour Ilooked up at him.

Then he said, ‘The God of ourfathers has chosen you that youshould know His will, and see the JustOne, and hear the voice of His mouth.For you will be His witness to all menof what you have seen and heard.And now why are you waiting? Ariseand be baptized, and wash awayyour sins, calling on the name of theLord’ ” (Acts 22:12–16).

Baptism #5: Cornelius andFamilyThis entire story spans most of Acts 10and 11. The most significant verses arehere:

“While Peter was still speakingthese words, the Holy Spirit fellupon all those who heard the word.And those of the circumcision whobelieved were astonished, as many ascame with Peter, because the gift ofthe Holy Spirit had been poured outon the Gentiles also. For they heardthem speak with tongues and mag-nify God.

Then Peter answered, ‘Can any-one forbid water, that these should notbe baptized who have received theHoly Spirit just as we have?’ And hecommanded them to be baptized inthe name of the Lord. Then theyasked him to stay a few days… ThenI remembered the word of the Lord,how He said, ‘John indeed baptizedwith water, but you shall be baptizedwith the Holy Spirit’ ” (Acts10:44–48; 11:16).Important points to be learned here:1. The Spirit came before bap-

tism in this case.2. It was the first time that

Gentiles received it.3 “Speaking with tongues and

praising God” are given as theevidence of the baptism of theHoly Spirit.

4. Peter commanded that they bebaptized—even though thiswas a ground-breaking event,he did not do the job himself.

Baptism #6: Lydia Baptized“One of those listening was a

woman named Lydia, a dealer in pur-ple cloth from the city of Thyatira, whowas a worshipper of God. The Lordopened her heart to respond toPaul’s message. And when she andher household were baptized, shebegged us, saying, ‘If you havejudged me to be faithful to the Lord,come to my house and stay.’ So shepersuaded us” (Acts 16:14–15).Lydia was obviously a very compe-

tent woman. Even though she wasnewly baptized, the brethren met in herhouse (Acts 16:40). There are cautionsagainst giving too much responsibilityto a new convert (1Tim 3:6), but Lydiashows that a capable, newly-baptizedperson can do a lot.

Baptism #7: Roman JailerGod caused a great earthquake thatloosed Paul and other prisoners in the

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jail. The jailer was about to kill himself(he would have been severely pun-ished for letting prisoners get away),but Paul told him that they were all stillthere.

“And he [the jailer] brought themout and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do tobe saved?’ So they said, ‘Believe onthe Lord Jesus Christ, and you willbe saved, you and your household.’

Then they spoke the word of theLord to him and to all who were in hishouse. And he took them the samehour of the night and washed theirstripes. And immediately he and allhis family were baptized.

Now when he had brought theminto his house, he set food beforethem; and he rejoiced, havingbelieved in God with all his house-hold” (Acts 16:30–34).This story is probably the best

Biblical evidence for baptizing some-one even though they are just learningabout God. Before Paul, the jailer didnot appear to believe in God. But hehad just witnessed a powerful, life-saving miracle, and he was probablyvery committed. This does show thatthere is no “minimum time” that aperson must study or attend a congre-gation before they can be baptized.

Baptism #8: Crispus & Others“Then Crispus, the ruler of the syn-

agogue, believed on the Lord with allhis household. And many of theCorinthians, hearing, believed andwere baptized” (Acts 18:8).This is a great example of the ruler

of a synagogue—a man with greatknowledge of the Old Testament—being baptized along with someCorinthians—most of whom knew lit-tle about the true God. But they wouldboth worship together. Paul taughtthem all for a year and a half (v 11).

Baptism #9: For With OnlyJohn’s Baptism: Rebaptismand Laying on of Hands

“And it happened, while Apollos wasat Corinth, that Paul, having passedthrough the upper regions, came toEphesus. And finding some discipleshe said to them, ‘Did you receive theHoly Spirit when you believed?’ Sothey said to him, ‘We have not somuch as heard whether there is aHoly Spirit.’ And he said to them, ‘Into

what then were you baptized?So theysaid, ‘Into John’s baptism.’

Then Paul said, ‘John indeed bap-tized with a baptism of repentance,saying to the people that they shouldbelieve on Him who would come afterhim, that is, on Christ Jesus.’ Whenthey heard this, they were baptized inthe name of the Lord Jesus. Andwhen Paul had laid hands on them,the Holy Spirit came upon them,and they spoke with tongues andprophesied” (Acts 19:1–6).Even though these people believed

in Jesus, God apparently did not putHis spirit on them until they were bap-tised and had hands laid upon them.Many times the Church is described asthe body of Christ, and the tasks of bap-tism and the laying on of hands seem tobe a function that God wants thechurch to do. God could have just putthe Holy Spirit in these people like hedid to Cornelius and his family, but Heleft the job for His human instruments.

Baptism #10: Crispus, Gaiusand Household of Stephanas

“Now I say this, that each of yousays, ‘I am of Paul,’ or ‘I am ofApollos,’ or ‘I am of Cephas,’ or ‘I amof Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paulcrucified for you? Or were you bap-tized in the name of Paul? I thankGod that I baptized none of youexcept Crispus and Gaius, lest any-one should say that I had baptized inmy own name. Yes, I also baptizedthe household of Stephanas.Besides, I do not know whether Ibaptized any other.

For Christ did not send me tobaptize, but to preach the gospel,not with wisdom of words, lest thecross of Christ should be made of noeffect” (1 Corinthians 1:12–16).Two very important points can be

learned from this. 1. Who baptizes people is not impor-

tant. Paul told them that it was nota consideration, and he personallydid not baptize much at all.

2. Paul does not specifically remem-ber who he baptized, nor does herefer to any kind of baptismalrecords. If such records existed, hecould have used them to prove hispoint, but there is no biblical men-tion of the church keeping “bap-tism records”.

Observations: Who CanBaptize and How?

In all these instructions and examplesabout baptism, there is not one sen-tence that says anything like: “theseare or are not the people who can bap-tize.” We simply see the commands todo it, and see that people did it. Somewere apostles, but many were not, andPaul was glad that he personally hadnot baptised many, even though hepreached to thousands. Baptizing orlaying on of hands is not in any of theBiblical lists of spiritual gifts (Rom12:6–8; 1Cor 12:7–11, 28–31; Eph4:11–15, 1Pet 4:8–11), rather it is in thelist of basic doctrines (Heb 6:1–2) thatall believers should have mastered. IfGod has set limits on who is allowed tobaptize, He failed to state the rule orclearly illustrate it by examples.

Someone might ask, “if anyone canbaptize, won’t a lot of people be bap-tized falsely? Don’t we need a trainedministry to do it right?” The answer isthat God never expected believers tobe able to perfectly discern who isreally repentant and who is not. Goddetermines that. Philip’s group bap-tised Simon the sorcerer when he wasnot sincere. Seminary-trained minis-ters have baptized untold thousands ofpeople who turned out to have no seri-ous commitment to God. Even worsethan this, ministers of church denomi-nations frequently baptize people intotheir denomination. Even though theymay not actually say this, their actionsshow it in that they insist on rebaptiz-ing someone previously baptized inanother denomination, and they tellmembers that they may lose the HolySpirit if they leave their denomination.

A Bible student who does not repre-sent a denomination will certainlyknow that baptism is into the Body ofChrist, and that a believer must beguided by the Holy Spirit to find otherbelievers with which to fellowship.

The Bible does not contain a specif-ic “list of minimum requirements” forbaptism, but by putting multiple scrip-tures together we can see that a personshould:believe in God, repent, be will-ing to die to themselves and to livetheir life in Christ. There are severalexamples of people being ready to dothis the same day that they are taughtabout these things.

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The Bible never explains the role ofthe “baptizer”. Religious leaders fre-quently assure the person coming upout of the water that “on behalf ofJesus Christ, their sins are forgiven”.But the Bible gives them no suchauthority. Only God has the ability todetermine if someone is really repen-tant. When an unrepentant “Simon theSorcerer” is baptized, his sins are notforgiven. The person being baptizedsimply needs to be assured that Godwill do what he has promised, and ifthey have repented, then God will for-give their sin.

We can learn about how to baptizefrom scriptural clues and history. TheGreed words for baptize imply a totalimmersion. Every scriptural instancethat mentions where a person was bap-tized describes a place with a lot ofwater. There simply is no mention ofpouring or sprinkling water.

Since the words used for ChristianBaptism and Jewish ritual immersionare sometimes the same in the Bible,we can be relatively sure that the pro-cedure was similar. The Jewish teach-ing of the times was that it needed tobe done in “living water”—water thatwas flowing. Lacking a river or lake,the Jews frequently constructed aMikveh—a large stone tub with atleast a small source of water coming inand a place for it to flow out.Archeologist have discovered many ofthese that date back to the time ofChrist. A bath tub with water flowingin and the drain partly open would besimilar to this.

History further indicates that theperson being baptized went under thewater themselves—the baptizerwatched to be sure that he or she wentcompletely under water. If part of theirbody remained above water, the bap-tizer would tell them to redo it. (Thebaptizer might also assist a person whoneeded help getting in and out of thewater.) Today, unfortunately, many“ministers” physically push the personunder the water and then to pull themup. This seems to symbolize that aminister “controls a believer’s spirituallife”. Whereas, self-immersion sym-bolizes a person laying down their ownlife to Christ, rising up by the power ofChrist in them and relying on otherbrethren to point out mistakes that theycannot see for themselves. This sym-

bolism seems much better.

Receiving the Holy Spirit inthe Old TestamentThe Scriptures use the terms “HolySpirit”, “Spirit of God” and “Spirit ofthe Lord” (Yahweh) interchangeably.This author was amazed to find morespecific references to people receivingthe Holy Spirit in the Old Testamentthan there were in the New. However,the Old Testament references are usu-ally to one person or a small group ofpeople, whereas the New Testamentreferences include many big groups.The Spirit does appear to work withpeople for a specific purpose at timeswithout actually being in them. Refer-ences are not included with words like“and the Spirit of the LORD began tostir him…” (Jdg 13:25). Because ofthe large number, only a summary ofmost verses is presented—showinghow and why the Holy Spirit came.Please look them up if you so desire,but as it stands, this is a quick summa-ry of when God gave His Spirit as revealed in the Old Testament:

“See, I have called by nameBezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur,of the tribe of Judah. And I have filledhim with the Spirit of God, in wis-dom, in understanding, in knowledge,and in all manner of workmanship”(Ex 31:2–3).Some of the Spirit was taken from

Moses and given to 70 elders (Num11:25)

“And Balaam raised his eyes, andsaw Israel encamped according totheir tribes; and the Spirit of Godcame upon him” Num 24:2).(Balaam also practiced divination

—Num 22:7).The Spirit came upon Othniel the

son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother,so he could save the people (Jdg3:9–10).

It came upon Gideon so he couldorganize an attack (Jdg 6:34).

It came upon Jephtha so he couldorganize an attack (Jdg 11:29).

The Spirit of the Lord came uponSamson several times, mostly to fightpeople (Jdg 14:6, 19; 15:14).

Saul received it by coming close tosome prophets (1Sam 10:6, 10).

Saul received it again by gettingangry at evil Philistines (1Sam 11:2–6).

The Spirit of the Lord came upon

David when Samuel anointed him withoil to later be king (1Sam 16:13).

Saul received the Spirit again whenhe and his messengers came nearSamuel and prophets (1Sam19:20–24). (Saul took off his clothesand lay down naked because of theSpirit—God does not always do whatwe expect!)

Elisha received a double-portion ofElijah’s Holy Spirit from God whenElijah left (2Kngs 2:9–15).

The Spirit just came upon Azariahthe son of Obed (2Chr 15:1).

The Spirit came upon Zechariah theson of Jehoiada the priest when peoplerefused to listen to other prophets(2Chr 24:19–20).

It came upon Jahaziel the son ofZechariah as he stood among the peo-ple and he prophesied a message ofhope (2Chr 20:14).

The Spirit came upon Ezekiel whenhe prophesied (Ezk 11:5).

Joseph (Gen 41;38–39), Moses (Isa63:11), Daniel (Dan 4:8) and othershad the Holy Spirit, but it does not sayexactly how they got it.

“And the LORD said to Moses: ‘TakeJoshua the son of Nun with you, aman in whom is the Spirit, and layyour hand on him’ ” (Num 27:18).

“Now Joshua the son of Nun wasfull of the spirit of wisdom, for Moseshad laid his hands on him; so the chil-dren of Israel heeded him, and did asthe LORD had commanded Moses”(Deut 34:9).The last two verses represent the

only clear example of laying on ofhands to impart the spirit in the OldTestament. When the elders receivedsome of Moses’ Spirit, or when Elishasucceeded Elijah, there is no record oflaying on of hands. The rule thereseems to be that God places His Spiritin people when He so decides.

Receiving the Holy Spirit in theNew Testament—Before Acts 2Before the Feast of Pentecost, coveredin Acts 2, the Holy Spirit was not gen-erally available to all who would obey(Acts 5:32). Therefore, one might con-sider the receiving of the Holy Spirit inthe first part of the New Testament asmore similar in character to the OldTestament. Like the Old Testament,the Holy Spirit comes in a variety ofsituations by different means. Laying

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on of hands does not appear to be oneof them. Again, we summarize most ofthem, and leave out references dupli-cated among the four Gospels.

The Spirit descended “like a dove”on Jesus (Math 3:16).

John the Baptist was filled with theHoly Spirit from birth (Luke 1:15).

The Holy Spirit came upon Mary toconceive Jesus (Luke 1:35).

Elizabeth, John’s mother, was filledwith the spirit when her baby leaptinside of her (Luke 1:41).

Zecharias, John’s father, was filledwith the spirit after John was born(Luke 1:67).

The Holy Spirit led Simeon to seeJesus when He was still a baby (Luke2:25–29).

The Apostles received some of theHoly Spirit when Jesus breathed uponthem (John 20:22).

Receiving the Holy Spirit inthe New Testament—Acts 2and Beyond, Without Layingon of HandsWhile many churches teach that theHoly Spirit is only received throughthe laying on of hands, there are quitea few references, even after the Spiritwas made generally available, where itwas not mentioned or may not havehappened.

The disciples—not just the twelveApostles—were all filled with theSpirit accompanied by the sound of amighty wind and tongues of fire ontheir heads (Acts 2:2–4). We do nothave an account of the Apostles layinghands on the other disciples.

“Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent,and let every one of you be baptizedin the name of Jesus Christ for theremission of sins; and you shallreceive the gift of the Holy Spirit.For the promise is to you and to yourchildren, and to all who are afar off, asmany as the Lord our God will call’ ”(Acts 2:38). The laying on of hands is not men-

tioned above, nor is it in the general ref-erence below. Galatians 3:5 is similar:

“Does God give you His Spirit andwork miracles among you becauseyou observe the law, or because youbelieve what you heard?” (Gal 3:5).Peter was “filled with the Holy

Spirit” to preach a powerful message(Acts 4:8).

The Holy Spirit again filled the dis-ciples when they prayed (Acts 4:31).There were more disciples by this timethan there were in Acts 2:2.

The Spirit fell upon Cornelius andhis household while Peter was speak-ing (Acts 10:44; 11:15).

The disciples were filled with joyand the Holy Spirit after being perse-cuted (Acts 13:51–52).

It is unlikely that the disciples com-pletely “lost the Spirit” then had to getit back again. But they were given anextra amount to accomplish the task athand. Nevertheless, the laying on ofhands was not mentioned in the abovecases.

Laying on of Hands to Impartthe Holy SpiritThere are two clear references to be-lievers receiving the Holy Spiritthrough the laying on of hands. De-pending upon one’s viewpoint, theymight be considered very commonconditions, or they might be consid-ered unusual conditions.

“For as yet He had fallen uponnone of them. They had only beenbaptized in the name of the LordJesus. Then they laid hands on them,and they received the Holy Spirit”(Acts 8:16–17).This is the incident where Peter and

John came to lay hands on the believ-ers because they did not receive theSpirit after baptism. They also had toconfront Simon the sorcerer who wasbaptised with the others (Acts 8:9–22).

“And he said to them, ‘Into whatthen were you baptized?’ So theysaid, ‘Into John’s baptism.’ ThenPaul said, ‘John indeed baptized witha baptism of repentance, saying to thepeople that they should believe onHim who would come after him, thatis, on Christ Jesus.’ When they heardthis, they were baptized in the nameof the Lord Jesus. And when Paulhad laid hands on them, the HolySpirit came upon them, and theyspoke with tongues and prophe-sied” (Acts 19:3–5).One could say that the above two

instances of laying on of hands wereto “correct errors”, and that the versesin the previous section, where theHoly Spirit simply came upon people,are the more common ways of doingit. On the other hand, one could say

that the previous section contains spe-cial miracles used to start a church,and that the laying on of hands wasthe more common way whereby theHoly Spirit was received later on. TheBible does not give the reasons why ithappened differently at differenttimes, so we do not know. But sinceGod gives us all we need, we do nothave to know now.

There is one more place where theBible might say that hands were laidon to impart the Holy Spirit: the storyof Ananias being sent to visit Paul.There are three different accounts of it,each giving varying amounts of detail.In the vision Ananias received, Godtells him to put his hand on Paul so hewill receive his sight back:

“And in a vision he has seen a mannamed Ananias coming in andputting his hand on him, so that hemight receive his sight” (Acts 9:12).In the main story, which has the

most detail, Ananias lays his hands onPaul, and then states his purpose:

“And Ananias went his way andentered the house; and laying hishands on him he said, ‘Brother Saul,the Lord Jesus, who appeared to youon the road as you came, has sent methat you may receive your sight andbe filled with the Holy Spirit.’Immediately, something like scales fellfrom Saul’s eyes, and he could seeagain. He got up and was baptized”(Acts 9:17–18).Was the laying of the hands on Paul

just for healing or also to impart theHoly Spirit? If so, then Paul receivedthe Spirit before he was baptized,which is not the normal order, but didoccur with Cornelius and his house-hold. The retelling of this in Acts22:12–16 records the healing and thebaptism, but says nothing about thelaying on of hands.

In the basic doctrines of Hebrews6:1–2, laying on of hands is mentionedright after baptism, but nothing is saidabout the Holy Spirit. As the next sec-tion will show, the overwhelmingnumber of references to the laying onof hands are for healing and leadershipselection.

From these verses, we can certainlysee that laying on of hands as one waythat the Holy Spirit was imparted.There is certainly nothing wrong withbelievers doing it today. But to say that

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it is the only way, or a required wayseems in conflict with the scriptures.

Laying on of Hands for OtherPurposesBy far, the greatest use of “laying on ofhands” or “touching with the hand” isfor the purpose of healing. Jesus did itnumerous times (8:3; 8:15; 9:18; 9:25;Mark 1:31, 41; 5:23,41; 6:5; 7:32;8:23, 25; 9:27; Luke 4:40; 5:13; 8:54;13:13). It was a practice of believers aswell (Mark 16:18; Acts 5:12; 9:12, 17;19:11; 28:8). Mark 16:18 says of be-lievers in general “ they will lay handson the sick, and they will recover”. Je-sus also laid hands on children to blessthem (Matt 19:13, 15; Mark 10:13, 16;Luke 18:15).

There are five other examples oflaying on of hands other than impart-ing the Holy spirit. It is to separatepeople for a specific task within thechurch.

“[Seven men chosen by thebrethren to serve the widows] whomthey set before the apostles; andwhen they had prayed, they laidhands on them” (Acts 6:6).

“As they ministered to the Lord andfasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul forthe work to which I have calledthem.’Then, having fasted andprayed, and laid hands on them, theysent them away” (Acts 13:2–3).In the first passage, above, the

brethren chose the seven, and in thesecond one, the Holy Spirit did. Thelaying on of hands appears to be aphysical recognition and confirma-tion, along with a prayer, thatacknowledges the people to be chosenfor a specific task.

The next two examples show thathands were laid on Timothy when aprophecy was given that he wouldteach and lead the brethren—apparent-ly even after the death of the Apostles(1Tim 1:18–19; 6:20–21; 2:Tim 2:2;4:1–3). It makes little sense that theseverses were referring to the Holy Spiritgiven to Timothy at baptism. Paul’swriting never mentions his baptism,but continually talks about his respon-sibilities to the church:

“Till I come, give attention to read-ing, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do notneglect the gift that is in you, whichwas given to you by prophecy with

the laying on of the hands of the elder-ship” (1Tim 4:13–14).

“Therefore I remind you to stir upthe gift of God which is in youthrough the laying on of my hands.For God has not given us a spirit offear, but of power and of love and of asound mind” (2Tim 1:6).Finally, the last verse about laying

on of hands is a caution to Timothy:“Do not lay hands on anyone hasti-

ly, nor share in other people’s sins;keep yourself pure” (1Tim 5:22).If is fairly obvious that the reference

here is to laying on of hands forresponsibility. It makes little sensethat Paul would be telling Timothy tobe slow to lay hands on somebody forhealing—or to wait to impart the HolySpirit after baptism.

Observations: Receiving theHoly SpiritFrom this exhaustive study about re-ceiving the Holy Spirit and the layingon of hands, it appears that we canconclude the following:1. God often gives the Holy Spirit to

whom He wants, when He wants.Sometimes it is for a short term andsometimes for life (or until it isrejected). Neither Simon theSorcerer nor modern day churchorganizations have received anexclusive franchise to impart theHoly Spirit.

2. The Holy Spirit is sometimesimparted through the laying on ofhands, but there are more exampleswhere laying on of hands is notmentioned.

3. The most commonly mentioneduse of laying on of hands in theBible is healing.

4. The next most commonly men-tioned use is for recognizing aposition of service.

5 The Bible contains no limitingstatements as to who can or cannotlay on hands. There is no examplewhere anyone is told not to do it.

6. When people were baptized anddid not receive the Holy Spirit,they did have the Apostles layhands on them.

7, There are no Bible examples oflight-hearted laying on of hands.Everyone was serious. No oneshould ever act on behalf of God ifthey do not have faith that they are

doing the right thing. “…for what-ever is not from faith is sin” (Rom14:23).The Bible shows that God has

worked with people in many differentways. “However, when He, the Spiritof truth, has come, He will guide youinto all truth” (John 16:13). Believerscan trust the Holy Spirit to lead them,within the many methods described inthe Scriptures. The overriding guide-lines that the Bible gives us “are youwithin the law and will of God?”, not“are you authorized to do what you aredoing?”

In the Old Testament, there weremany functions that could only bedone by the priests. But now, allbelievers are priests:

“But you are a chosen generation,a royal priesthood, a holy nation, Hisown special people, that you may pro-claim the praises of Him who calledyou out of darkness into His mar-velous light” (1Pet 2:9).Every believer is authorized to rep-

resent Christ!

What Happens If We Do itWrong?There is a human tendency to say, “Ican’t baptise or lay hands on people.What if I did it wrong?” There is afine Biblical example of exactlythat—a person who diligently taughtwhat they knew, but did not under-stand as much as other believers.What happened?

“This man [Apollos] had beeninstructed in the way of the Lord; andbeing fervent in spirit, he spoke andtaught accurately the things of theLord, though he knew only the baptismof John. So he began to speak boldly inthe synagogue. When Aquila andPriscilla heard him, they took him asideand explained to him the way of Godmore accurately” (Acts 18:25–26). God sent people to correct Apollos,

and he went on teaching. If he hadrefused the correction, that would havebeen a problem. God honors a diligentbut humble attitude. If there is a manor woman who wants to be repent andbe baptized in the name of JesusChrist, any mature believer ought to bewilling to serve them—not to actimportant, but to do what Christ said.

May God help all of us to betterknow and do His will.

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Both my parents, now deceased,were baptised by WCG ministers

in the early 1960s. At the time, andprior to baptism, in line with the thennormal practice in the UK (I cannotspeak for the practice in other coun-tries), they had to undertake a some-what lengthy “investigation” by theministry to see whether or not in theview of these ministers they weresuitable for baptism (see comment onthis below). During this exercise, theywere asked to confirm that theybelieved that the then RCG [RadioChurch of God] was the only trueChurch of God, specifically of thePhiladelphian era, and the only one inwhich true baptism was available, andby which salvation could besecured.

This caused some difficulty formy mother, who had been baptisedlong previously in an evangelisingmission. However, both so con-firmed, and were baptised in duecourse. Despite this, both ques-tioned privately whether these min-isters had any authority orcommission to conduct such inves-tigations as a “condition precedentto baptism”.

The readiness for baptism is nota subject for the judgment of thethen RCG ministers, or, indeed, anyscreening process ordained by man. Itis a matter of repentance on the part ofthe sinner, a desire for baptism and abetter way conformed to God, the gra-cious conferring of the Holy Spirit, andsubsequent growth in the Lord. Thereis nothing in this last sentence import-ing the decision, or vetting, or modera-tion, or judgment of man. What theRCG was doing was similar to theRoman Catholic Church catechiticalmodus, and that of many other church-es, which insists on “interviewing,teaching, and counseling” aspirantsbefore the church makes the decisionon whether to grant baptism.

Now turning to the WCG, I can rec-

ollect an article in The Good News, inthe earlier Tkach era, which stated(and I paraphrase), “entry into thekingdom of God is dependent uponhaving the imprimatur of God’sChurch”.

“Imprimatur”, in religious matters,is almost exclusively Roman Catholic.It means “sanction”, allied to “authori-ty”. What Tkach, Sr. was saying wasfundamentally the same as the RCGministers had told my parents—theonly route to salvation is through the“gate” of the RCG/WCG, and “we’vegot the key”. This is what the Popeclaims to hold: the “keys of heaven”,known as “Peter’s keys”; a doctrinedating from 431 A.D. [They are, in fact,

the keys of the pagan gods Janus andCybele.]

This, in turn, is very closely relatedto the erroneous doctrine of “bindingand loosing”, whereby mortal manholds himself able to dictate to Godwhat might be bound and loosed onearth and in heaven. Both the RomanCatholic Church and WCG, amongstmany others, subscribe to this grossapostacy. RCG and WCG set them-selves up as the moderator betweenman and God, but the Bible says wehave only one advocate—Christ.

Now this letter comes to the person-al part. I was baptised by other than the RCG/WCG “ordained” ministry.However, prior to being baptised, I met

with two ministers of WCG fromNorthern Ireland, and asked whether itwas at all possible for anyone outsidethe WCG to have, in however smallway, the Holy Spirit. I was told in nouncertain terms that such a thing wasimpossible. The comment that wasmade was that the only place where theHoly Spirit is evident is in the WCG:nowhere else. That was in 1972, at aprivate meeting in Dublin, Ireland.

Next, 1991, this time in Scotland.Again, two ministers, this time Messrs.Delap and Bolzern. Delap questionedthe very validity of my baptism, on thebasis that it had not been conducted byan ordained minister of the WCG, theonly ministry “sanctioned” by God for

such work. It was very easy todemonstrate biblical instances ofpeople being granted the Holy Spiritwithout first being baptised by anordained minister, but this made noimpact. Delap also questioned mybiblical understanding, my relianceon God, and much else besides.Bolzern, for his part, said little.

I happened to ask why healing ofthe sick was not in evident in theChurch. Delap’s answer was that“now is not a time of healing”.According to him, God’s healingwas manifest in the early stages of

the Church, and during Christ’s min-istry, and might be so again just beforethe end, but that that was speculation.

When pointed to John 14:12,“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He thatbelieveth on me, the works that I doshall he do also; and greater worksthan these shall he do; because I gounto my father” [KJV], and when cer-tain works of Christ were discussed, byway of illustration, the minister’sresponse was that “now is not thetime—Christ was only talking aboutthe immediate few years after Hisdeparture.”

However, when such a critical

Did RCG/WCG Say Only Their Baptisms Valid?This letter by John Scott was in reference to a March/April 1999 Servants’ News, page 22 letter from the Richard Nickels Family

entitled Did HWA Baptize into Organization? Exception is taken to the Nickels’ claim that the WCG baptised into “the Church of God”,not their own organization.

Mr. Scott’s letter, and others like it, eventually sparked the previous article on Baptism and the Holy Spirit. John Scott does exten-sive Biblical research, much of which he makes available on a CD. He may be contacted at: Bupp@btinternet.com

What the RCG was doing wassimilar to the Roman CatholicChurch catechitical modus,

and that of many otherchurches, which insists on

“interviewing, teaching, andcounseling” aspirants before

the church makes the decisionon whether to grant baptism

Continued on page 26

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Web Site Is a BlessingLETTER: January 2, 2003Thank you and GOD’S blessings on your lifeas well and your family. I came across yourweb-site a week or so ago, but at the time Iwas rushed so I put it in my favorites! so Icould check it out later. Praise the living GODfor the wisdom HE gives man-kind to havenew technology. I thought your website to beincredible informative, sound teachings andone can delight oneself for long times in thisweb-site alone.

May our LORD JESUS continue to blessyou to be a blessing.

Thank you for subscribing me and theissues you mentioned you’ll send.

HIS Servant,— Myriam

RESPONSE: Thank you for yourencouragement. It is needed at times.

— NSE

Many in the Splits Are Blind

LETTER: January 2, 2003Mr. Norman Edwards,

Thank you, thank you so very much forthe Eight Studies. I thank God for your work.

I've been a member in several of thesplits, Churches of God. Mercy! So many areblind to what is going on within the organiza-tions of leaders—or they have gotten so com-fortable (lazy) with their diligence in theirstudies and reproof and lost their focus.

I am sick and hurt for them. I just do homestudy, Sabbath and Holy Days at home now.This is not an easy thing for me to do, beingalone and I so did enjoy the fellowship—meals together (potluck) being among peopleof the same mind.

— Texas

RESPONSE: I am glad that the literaturehas been helpful to you. Let me encour-age you to frequently fellowship withother brethren, however you can workthat out. If you occasionally attend withthe Church of God split groups, you may

find others who think like you. Anotherapproach is to visit Sunday congrega-tions and look for people who are inter-ested in keeping the Sabbath. Therefrequently are some, but they stay intheir Sunday group because the onlySabbath-observing groups they knowabout are cult-like.

Continue to pray that God will showyou how you can meet other brethrenand how you can serve Him.

— NSE

Likes Anti-Potter/Satanism;“Good Tidings Newsletter”?

LETTER: December 4, 2002Hello,

I hope this finds you well.I really enjoyed the last Servants’ News

especially the equipping to answer those intoHarry Potter and Satanism. Thanks.

Do you know who is putting out the “GoodTidings Newsletter”? It has a post mark fromMinneapolis, MN. No return address orname. I would like to know.

It seems the person was once a memberof the WCG and then PCG because they arevery negative towards both in their writings.No one I know who knows my new addresshas confessed to giving out my new address.And I think it a rather cowardly thing to sendliterature without putting your name on it or away to receive questions or rebuttals.

Thank you in advance.— Rob Labedz, Houston TX

Rkcka@aol.com

RESPONSE: I don’t know who is puttingout the “Good Tidings Newsletter”. Iremember that I did not put my name onmy first two mailings because I “did notthink it mattered who was saying it aslong as it was said”. I also felt that veryfew people would listen to me if I was not“ordained”. I hoped people might thinkthat the papers were from somebody“important enough” that they would readthem, but I was not interested in creating

a personality following as some previousChurch of God leaders did. I have sincerepented from that lack of faith, and real-ize that if God is speaking through some-one, that people will listen, even if heseems unimportant to himself.

People from the PCG probably havesimilar difficulties—with so muchemphasis on hierarchy and position, theyare afraid that nobody will listen to themif they know who they are. It is hard forthese people to fit in with other indepen-dent Sabbatarians because they general-ly believe that the “one true Church” wasthe WCG for many years, but it becamecorrupt; then the PCG was the “trueChurch”, but also became corrupt; andnow it is just their local group—maybejust their family. It is very difficult forthese people to believe that God is work-ing through diverse groups with differentteachings.

Hopefully, someone will see this let-ter in Servants’ News and then respondto us or directly to you.

— NSE

What Group Will Protect MeFrom the Tribulation?

LETTER: January 10, 2003Yeah, I can see [Gerald] Flurry [leader of thePhiladelphia Church of God] as a Jim Jonesthing [cult leader who led his 900 followers toGuyana where they allegedly all committedsuicide] but… so people come to Christ andRepent—then what?

RESPONSE: Then they do what Christsaid: they learn His way from theScriptures, they are a “light to the world”by being honest and good to all whomthey meet, they teach others the truthsthat they know. Whether these things bedone on a one-on-one basis, a local-con-gregation basis, or as a national or inter-national work is guided by the HolySpirit and by prophesying (God showingthings in dreams, visions, etc.—not by

We print a representative sampling of ourmail—both positive and negative. We donot include names unless we are fairly surethat the writer would not object.

To avoid any difficulty, writers shouldspecify how much of their name andaddress they would like us to print.

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adding up dates and years and interpret-ing symbols in the Bible).

LETTER: What’s wrong with “place of safe-ty”? I thought Germany was supposed tonuke America (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Revelation,bla bla bla…). I heard about that in 1975. Yes,it would be dangerous for Americans ifGermany nuked America, I agree.

Do other HWA splinter-groups now notbelieve in a “place of safety” treatise?Interesting.

RESPONSE: The people who said thatGermany would nuke America are thesame people who said it would happen in1972, then 1982, then “before the centuryis out”. If they did not get the date right,are we still sure that they got the prophe-cy right? Please read the December 1998issue of Servants’ News, page 17, to seethe many prophetic mistakes of HerbertArmstrong. I do not know how God canexpect anyone to “heed the words” of aman who was incorrect in so muchprophetic interpretation.

Some groups actively preach a “placeof safety” as a drawing card to member-ship, others do not believe it at all, andstill others are content to let some mem-bers believe it if they want to, but do notopenly preach it.

LETTER: So who teaches the whole truthand nuthin’ but the truth if it isn’t Flurry? Tellme who can prove (or disprove) “all thesethings”. I’d really like to know who I might fol-low wherever it is I’m supposed to follow themto, as Germany gets ready to nuke America.

RESPONSE: Christ taught us what todo, but it is amazing how many CoGgroups teach something else. Notice:

“But of that day and hour no oneknows, not even the angels of heaven,but My Father only” (Matt 24:36).Even though Christ said He did not

know it, people continue to try to calcu-late it from prophecies. Nowhere in heredoes Christ say to study prophecy so wewould know when He comes.

“But as the days of Noah were, soalso will the coming of the Son of Manbe. For as in the days before the flood,they were eating and drinking, marry-ing and giving in marriage, until theday that Noah entered the ark, and didnot know until the flood came and tookthem all away, so also will the comingof the Son of Man be” (Matt 24:37–39).

Today, like in the time of Noah, peo-ple have always been “eating and drink-ing” and sinning, but did not knowexactly how bad of a sin was necessaryfor God to take action. So we do notknow today.

“Then two men will be in the field:one will be taken and the other left.Two women will be grinding at themill: one will be taken and the otherleft” (Matt 24:40–41).This does not sound like one organi-

zation will be protected, but like individ-uals who have a relationship with Godwill be protected.

“Watch therefore, for you do notknow what hour your Lord is coming”(Matt 24:42).The Greek here does not mean “watch

world events”, but to watch oneself. “Bealert” is the translation in other Bibles.What kind of work is Christ doing inyou?

“But know this, that if the master ofthe house had known what hour thethief would come, he would havewatched and not allowed his house tobe broken into” (Matt 24:43).We need to watch our own house—

our own body and life.“Therefore you also be ready, for the

Son of Man is coming at an hour youdo not expect” (Matt 24:44).Yet church groups continue to preach,

“He is coming at the time that we havefigured out—or the time that we will fig-ure out”.

“Who then is a faithful and wise ser-vant, whom his master made ruler overhis household, to give them food in dueseason? Blessed is that servant whomhis master, when he comes, will find sodoing. Assuredly, I say to you that hewill make him ruler over all his goods”(Matt 24:45–47).Here is the key: We are to be doing

whatever work Christ has for us, feedingothers, physically and spiritually. WhenHe comes we need to be “so doing”.

“But if that evil servant says in hisheart, ‘My master is delaying his com-ing,’ and begins to beat his fellow ser-vants, and to eat and drink with thedrunkards, the master of that servantwill come on a day when he is not look-ing for him and at an hour that he is notaware of, and will cut him in two andappoint him his portion with the hyp-ocrites. There shall be weeping andgnashing of teeth” (Matt 24:48–51).

Gerald Flurry claims that all brethrenoutside his group are not Philadelphianbelievers. He has been found drunk bythe police twice. Other CoG leaders andministers are far more interested in themoney coming into their organization(which determines how they eat anddrink) and far more interested in pro-claiming theirs to be the “Church God isusing” than they are in just servingwhomever Christ sends to them.

LETTER: Would it be someone in anothersplinter group who “loves” me enough to res-cue me, with love of course, from the beerand the mob just in time so I can turn aroundand look up and witness the rapture—orcatch some of Stoiber’s [German leader]smuggled nuclear missiles?

— Jim Ray

RESPONSE: The purpose of Christ-ianity is not to rescue individuals fromthe “wrath to come”. Christ shows thatwe must follow Him and not seek to saveour life. Some of the heroes of faith inHebrews 11 were protected from troubleand some were not. I have about 50scriptures that show protection for somewho follow Christ, and trials and earlydeath to others. But if the latter occurs,He gives the faith to endure and take thetrials in confidence.

“And he who does not take his cross[stake] and follow after Me is not wor-thy of Me. He who finds his life willlose it, and he who loses his life for Mysake will find it” (Matt 10:38–39).The WCG and many of its splinters

effectively preached a deal consisting of“tithe, attend services, attend Feasts andobey your minister and you will bedelivered from the tribulation”. It wassort of like a hefty insurance policy—areasonable price to pay if the tribulationoccurred in your life time, but it alsoresulted in the impoverishment of somewho might have been able to serve Godbetter if they had not so heavily sacri-ficed to support a “work” that was feed-ing itself and smiting its fellow-servants(believers in other groups).

I hope this helps. Let me encourageyou to find other believers with whomyou can fellowship. I do not think I cane-mail you a directory of believers whoare independent from organizations aswebtv does not support PDF. If youwould like to give me a snail-mailaddress, I would be glad to send it to you.

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May God strengthen you in your sin-cere and honest study.

— NSE

Covenant Study

LETTER: December 7, 2002Norman,

Thanks for including my request forcovenant information [from your readers] inthe July/August issue of the Servants’ News.

I feel that I have really opened a “can-of-worms” when I began this study. It may real-ly become an exhaustive study by the timethat it is complete. The study has certainlygenerated a lot more questions than I hadexpected. It is not always easy to separatecurrently held beliefs from what is clearlysupported in Scripture. Most covenant-related papers that I have read to date, arenot intended to objectively examine theissues. Many address the covenants in sucha way as to support an already establishedset of beliefs. A good example of this is therecently released UCG doctrinal paper on thecovenants. If you do not have a copy of thispaper, I could email you a copy; it is not avail-able to all UCG members yet.

I have received several inputs from someof your readers as a result of the article in theServants’ News; these inputs should proveuseful to maintain some unbias on my part.

I will keep you informed as I proceedthrough the study.

Thanks, once again.—Wilmer Wilke, 613-256-4690

e-mail: wawilke@trytel.com1142 Corkery Road, Carp, Ontario, K0A 1L0, Canada

RESPONSE: Thank you for your studyinto this matter. I cannot promise to readthe UCG paper now—I am behind inpublishing the things that I have alreadystudied. But if you are diligent and unbi-ased in your studies, I will certainly wantto publish your results.

I completely agree with you in regardto your statement that most studies aredone to bolster some existing doctrine. Ingeneral, people who are paid to study andwho have the money to publish theirstudies belong to a large church groupand they are expected to conclude thattheir group is teaching the biblical doc-trine. Many simply could not grasp theidea that “their church” could be wrongin a major way—their view of salvationis too tied up with their being in the “rightgroup” that teaches the “right doctrines”,

not on their relationship with Christ andHis works through them personally.

The result of this is that most of thepublished studies of doctrines representthe views of larger church organizations.One of the reasons that “cults” oftenhave truth is because they are not tryingto prove an established doctrine, so theystudy the Bible with an open mind. Cultsneed doctrine that sets them apart fromthe other groups—biblical doctrines areeasier to defend than false doctrines.

Even among independent believers,however, I have found a strong tendencyfor writers to produce a rather brief arti-cle putting forth an unusual doctrine, andthen in the face of many contrary scrip-tures, the writers crank out hundreds ofpages of difficult explanations staunchlysupporting their original doctrine, ratherthan admitting that either the subject isnot that clear, or that they were justwrong. I have even run into people whoclaim to write articles or hold confer-ences to open-mindedly find the truth onan issue—while inside they alreadyknow their conclusion and are just hop-ing to draw an audience that they canconvince of their way.

I hope that you will do honestresearch showing many scriptures thatpeople use to explain covenants and theirdiffering opinions. If you believe thatGod has shown you the truth of the mat-ter, I do not object that you state it at all,but I would hope that your truth has anexplanation for most of the other scrip-tures that others use. (I read too manypapers that ignore the scriptures that dis-agree with their conclusion.)

May God bless you in your study.— NSE

Universal Reconciliation

LETTER: February 19, 2003Hello Norm,

Thank you for placing me on your list. I have read many of your articles over recentyears, but I am intrigued that you should be lecturing at a college [Port Austin College] that believes in UR [UniversalReconciliation—all people will be savedsomeday]. Delighted, I guess, as this is asubject that I have been intensively studyingthese last three years.

I know according to what I have read fromyou that you would not see it as I do, but tome this is the real gospel. I’m glad that at lastthere is communication between some of

these groups and look forward to sharingsome research with you.

I’ll send you a paper on war shortly assoon as I have finished it.

Kind Regards,— Graeme McChesney

RESPONSE: UR (Universal Restoration)is little different than what I believe. Ibelieve that everyone who desires eter-nal life will be able to have it. Most URgroups believe that everyone will have it.The only difference is whether or notthere will be a small group that rejectssalvation. Both groups teach that we donot have to worry about people whohave died or who will die not knowingabout God. I realize that there are scrip-tures that talk about “all men beingsaved”, restoring “all things”, etc.However, I can point to places where thesame word for “all” is used, and thenelsewhere in the Bible shows that thereare exception conditions—that “all” canmean “the vast majority”. Similarly, bothof us realize that there are scriptures thattalk about the “second death”, “ashesunder our feet”, “totally destroyed”, “beno more”, etc. I am sure that you haveexplanations for all of these verses.

The main difficulty I find with manyUR groups is that they tend to teach that“sin or righteousness in this life is no bigdeal because God is going to fix it allsomeday anyway”. I realize that not all dothis. But most seem to underestimate theneed to yield one’s life to Christ and liveby His power, and let Him do His worksin us.

While the UR message is a blessing topeople who may have once believed inthe false doctrine of eternal hellfire, thereis no urgency to teach that doctrine toeveryone in that it states that everyonewill be saved whether they know thatdoctrine or not. People who are atheistsor who are happy with their religion maybe changed little by UR. The message ofeternal judgment (that there is salvation,but consequences for each thing we do inthis life) and the message that “Christdied for our sins and will live in us and doHis works in us now” is truly wonderfuland in desperate need of spreading. Thatmessage eliminates a lot of needless suf-fering and replaces it either with good inthis life, or being “persecuted for right-eousness’ sake” which is much betterthan needless suffering.

— NSE

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message that I did “see” somethingnew. He was explaining to the “Men ofJudea, and all who live in Jerusalem”the meaning of what they had justwitnessed regarding the power of theHoly Spirit. In verses 22 through 24,Peter was beginning to bring theirfocus of attention to Jesus.

As he continued in verse 25, Peterspoke of the patriarch David, saying:

“For David says of Him, ‘Iwas always beholding the Lordin my presence; for He is at myright hand, that I may not beshaken. Therefore my heartwas glad and my tongue exult-ed; moreover my flesh also willabide in hope; because Thouwilt not abandon my soul toHades, nor allow Thy Holy Oneto undergo decay. Thou hastmade known to me the ways oflife; Thou wilt make me full ofgladness with Thy presence’”(Acts 2:25–28, NASB).My eye kept coming back to the

sentence, “I was always beholdingthe Lord in My presence…” This is aprophecy of Jesus Christ speaking ofthe special relationship with HisFather. This was Jesus’ mind-set—“always beholding the presence of HisFather with Him.” We must know fromthe Scriptures that there was a veryintimate fellowship between Them,and this fellowship was the Source ofall that Jesus did and said when He wasthe “Son of Man” on earth. Forinstance, Jesus tells us that He coulddo nothing on His own initiative buteverything He did and said came fromthe Father, and “…I always do thethings that are pleasing to Him” (John5:19, 30; 8:28–29; 12:49; 14:10).

Now this understanding about thefellowship that must have existedbetween Jesus and His Father was notany specifically new revelation to me,although it did amplify what I alreadyknew. However, over the next fewweeks I was drawn back to these fewscriptures, meditating and thinking onthem. Then early one morning I wasreading in Ephesians 5, where Pauladmonishes the believers in Christ tobe imitators of God, and the thought“be like Jesus” entered my mind, and

my thinking took off like a race horse.My thinking went something like

this: Jesus is the Son of God; I too ama son of God. Jesus had the Holy Spiritdwelling within Him; I too have thissame Holy Spirit dwelling within me.Then, God the Father is my Fatheralso, just as much as He is Jesus’Father, the Father of all.

I thought, “How wonderful it wouldbe if I could make this part of mylife—always beholding the Lord in mypresence—just like Jesus did when Hewas on earth. If I could do this, wouldit not draw me closer to Him?Wouldn’t this mind-set free up theHoly Spirit to accomplish God’s workin me more effectively (Phil 2:13)?Would this not make my daily walkwith God easier and flow moresmoothly?”

My answer to these questions was aresounding “Yes!” So then I thought Iwould do this and I determined to con-centrate on “always beholding the Lordin my presence”. I began by posting asticky-note above my desk quotingActs 2:25, “I am always beholding theLord in my presence; for He is at myright hand that I shall not be shaken.” Icould then see this every time I sat atmy desk, whether studying my Bible orsome other type of work. Later on, theexample of Daniel came to mind wherehe would take the time out of his busyschedule to pray with God three timesevery day. So I began to apply this. Ialready had the habit of praying earlyin the morning, but began to specifical-ly ask God to grant me His grace toapply “…always beholding Him in mypresence” three times each day.

I have understood from Genesis1:26 that the original purpose of Godwas to “make man in Our image,according to Our likeness”. This samepurpose was reiterated in Romans8:29, but magnified “to the image ofHis Son”. He started out to completeHis purpose with the first Adam, and iscontinuing with the second Adam. Ihave seen the overview of the processof salvation in 2Cor 3:18 where we are

now “being transformed into the sameimage from glory to glory”. The apos-tle Paul’s determined purpose for hisconverts was shared with us inGalatians 4:19, “My children, withwhom I am again in labor until Christis formed in you”.

That’s the key. It is not that we areto strive to be better people and there-by become like Jesus. Our responsibil-ity as believers is to yield ourselves toGod, just as Jesus did when He wasthe Son of man, and allow the HolySpirit to transform us into the exactimage as the beloved Son of God. AsChrist is formed in us, we will then be“better people” because we will be likeHim! The parable of the vine and thebranches, given to us in John 15:1–11,seems to apply here. Verse 5 says, “Iam the vine, you are the branches; hewho abides in Me and I in Him, hebears much fruit; for apart from Meyou can do nothing [worthwhile beforethe Father]”.

In the “Sermon on the Mount”Christ made a very startling statementin Matthew 5:48, “You, therefore, mustbe perfect, as your heavenly Father isperfect” (RSV). Now this is not a sug-gestion, nor is it just a request, but it isa command from our Savior to all of uswho profess belief in His name. This isindeed a difficult statement to grasp,and some have said that it is impossibleto fulfill in this life; but it is impossibleonly if you leave God out of the picture(Matt 19:26; Luke 18:27).

With this in mind, permit me toparaphrase and personalize Acts2:25–28; “As we believers in JesusChrist always behold the Lord in ourpresence, and consider Him always atour right hand, then we will not be con-tinually shaken or remain in turmoil ofthis world or of our Adamic nature.What peace and joy we shall have, andwe can praise our God with a pureheart. Because we are sons of God,holy to the Lord, we can know that weare fully accepted in Christ, and that wehave been sealed with the Holy Spiritof promise until our resurrection. TheLord will continually reveal Himself tous and teach us His way of life so thatwe may glorify Him by yielding to Hiswill and walking in His life. It is withHis gladness that we can sing “Praisebe to God” for making His presencepersonally available to us.”

“Beholding the Lord in OurPresence” from page 1

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Jan/Feb 2003

give a complete and accurate view ofits many meanings. The indiscriminateuse of this word “law” has not onlycaused schisms in many churches, buthas also caused totally new and differ-ent religions to emerge with doctrinesthat are based on Statutes and Ordi-nances (or the lack of)—views whichcannot be legally supported and havebeen misconstrued to be on the samelevel as “The Ten Commandments”.

The nature of the word “law” is sogeneral and broad that it encompassessuch a wide spectrum of activities, andrules of conduct that it behooves us allto have at least a basic understandingof its function, not only in our dailylives, but in our pursuit of a moral levelof understanding and development.We have all been misled by individualsand groups, though well-meaning, buthaving a limited knowledge and under-standing of the mechanics of the law.

Statutes and Ordinances,although having the same weight aslaw, are not legally considered “thefundamental law”. This means thatthey are not at the same level, andhave certain restrictions and limita-tions imposed on their implementa-tion and duration that thefundamental law does not have.

Definition of “Law”“LAW. In its most general and com-

prehensive sense, law signifies a rule ofaction; and this term is applied indis-criminately to all kinds of action;whether animate or inanimate, rationalor irrational. In its more confined sense,law denotes the rule, not of actions ingeneral, but of human action or con-duct.

Law is generally divided into fourprinciple classes, namely: natural law,the law of nations, public law, and pri-vate or civil law. When considered inrelation to its origin, it is statute law orcommon law. When examined as to itsdifferent systems it is divided into civillaw, common law, canon law. Whenapplied to objects, it is civil, criminal, orpenal. It is also divided into natural lawand positive law. Into written law, lexscripta; and unwritten law, lex non scrip-ta. Into law merchant, martial law,

municipal, and foreign law. When con-sidered as to their duration, laws areimmutable and arbitrary or positive;when as to their effect, they areprospective and retrospective” (BouvierLaw Dictionary, Revised Sixth Edition,1856).From Strong’s Concordance, entry

number H8451, torah:“law, direction, instruction

a. instruction, direction (human ordivine)1. body of prophetic teaching2. instruction in Messianic age3. body of priestly direction or

instruction4. body of legal directives

b. law1. law of the burnt offering2. of special law, codes of law

c. custom, mannerd. the Deuteronomic or Mosaic Law”

As you can see in the above defini-tions both Bouvier and Strong’s agree,in that the word “law” encompasses awide spectrum of activities, and rulesof conduct. The word “law” hasalways been used when speaking ofany rule of conduct, including statutesand ordinances.

However it is important to under-stand that statutes and ordinances dif-fer from the Commandments in threeimportant ways:

1. They must be in harmony, andin compliance with the funda-mental law (the Ten Command-ments);

2. They are limited in the durationof their enforcement;

3. Ordinances can be readilychanged or modified usuallydue to changing circumstances.

The Ten Commandments are con-sidered the fundamental law as can beascertained in the following definition:

Definition of “Commandment”“The law (torah) was the title of the

Pentateuch, constituting the 1st divisionof the canon (Luke 24:44); the legal por-tion, consisting of the Ten Command-ments, which form the fundamentallaw of the theocracy, and statutesbased on them, was given at Sinai” (TheNew Westminster Bible Dictionary).

In Exodus 20, not one of the com-mandments ends with a time period, asto the length of time it shall be in force.That is not the case when you considerthe statutes.

Definition of “Statute”“The written will of the legislature,

solemnly expressed according to theforms prescribed in the constitution; anact of the legislature. This word is usedin contradistinction to the commonlaw. Statutes acquire their force fromthe time of their passage unless other-wise provided. Statutes are of severalkinds: namely, public or private.Declaratory or remedial. Temporary orperpetual. 1. A temporary statute is onewhich is limited in its duration at the timeof its enactment. It continues in forceuntil the time of its limitation hasexpired, unless sooner repealed. A per-petual statute is one for the continuanceof which there is no limited time,although it be not expressly declared tobe so. If, however, a statute which didnot itself contain any limitation, is to begoverned by another which is temporaryonly, the former will also be temporaryand dependent upon the existence ofthe latter” (Bouvier Law Dictionary,Revised Sixth Edition, 1856).After the institution of the feasts of

the passover season:“And ye shall eat neither bread, nor

parched corn, nor green ears, until theselfsame day that ye have brought anoffering unto your God: it shall be astatute for ever throughout your gener-ations in all your dwellings” (Lev 23:14,KJV).In other words, statutes, after

enactment, have a limited period ofduration although the duration maybe perpetual. Notice that the statute(in Leviticus) has a time limit (for-ever throughout your generations)whilst the commandments have notime limits imposed.

Definition of “Ordinance”“Strictly, a bill or law which might

stand with the old law, and did not alterany statute in force at the time. A bill orlaw which might at any time be amend-ed by the parliament, without anystatute” (Black’s Law Dictionary, ThirdEdition).As you can see in the above defini-

tion, the ordinance can not alter the

“The Mechanics of the Law andIts Biblical Application” from

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statute in any way, and can be amend-ed at any time.

Bible Example of Laws,Statutes and Ordinances

“And the LORD said unto Moses andAaron, This is the ordinance of thepassover: There shall no stranger eatthereof: But every man’s servant that isbought for money, when thou hast cir-cumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.A foreigner and an hired servant shallnot eat thereof. In one house shall itbe eaten; thou shalt not carry forthought of the flesh abroad out of thehouse; neither shall ye break a bonethereof. All the congregation of Israelshall keep it. And when a stranger shallsojourn with thee, and will keep thepassover to the LORD, let all his malesbe circumcised, and then let him comenear and keep it; and he shall be as onethat is born in the land: for no uncircum-cised person shall eat thereof” (Ex12:43–48, KJV).In contrast, look at:

“Thou mayest not sacrifice thepassover within any of thy gates,which the LORD thy God giveth thee: Butat the place which the LORD thy Godshall choose to place his name in, therethou shalt sacrifice the passover ateven, at the going down of the sun, atthe season that thou camest forth out ofEgypt” (Deut 16:5–6, KJV).Also:

“And when he had given thanks, hebrake it, and said, Take, eat: this is mybody, which is broken for you: this do inremembrance of me… After the same

manner also he took the cup, when hehad supped, saying, This cup is the newtestament in my blood: this do ye, as oftas ye drink it, in remembrance of me”(1Cor 11:13, KJV).The time limit on ordinances,

depends on the duration of the Statuteit supports however, ordinances can,at any time be amended, based onthe circumstances. The “ordinance”of the Passover was changed inExodus 12, and Deuteronomy 16, thenagain in the New Testament. That is tosay, that the location and not the timingof the observance was changed due tothe different circumstances. Noticethat the statute dealing with thePassover, sets the time and duration ofthe observance of this feast.

“These are the feasts of the LORD,even holy convocations, which ye shallproclaim in their seasons. In the four-teenth day of the first month at evenis the LORD’s passover” (Lev 23:4–5,KJV).However, the ordinance deals only

with the procedures to implement thestatute. In other words, the start andend of the feast is an integral part ofthe statute. (Also, note the addition ofthe new procedure, “foot washing”).

“If I then, your Lord and Master, havewashed your feet; ye also ought to washone another’s feet. For I have given youan example, that ye should do as I havedone to you” (John 13:14–15, KJV).With the information that we now

possess as to the workings of the law,we can confidently conclude that:

a) The “Ten Commandments” are

the fundamental and supremelaw which will always be ineffect. (The commandments asthe Messiah Himself “brokedown” into two command-ments, is the universal law of“Love” which is a spiritual lawthat had to be made physicalfor us humans to understand,seeing that we are only physi-cal beings.)

b) All “Statutes” must be in har-mony with the fundamental lawand although having a timelimit, are, in effect, until thebeginning of the prophesiedmillennium mentioned in Reve-lation. (The “world” to come orthe third “earth age” as somecall it)

c) All “Ordinances” must be inharmony with the statutes andcan be changed at any time.

The Law, that was “done awaywith,” can only be referring to the“Ordinances” dealing with the sacri-fices which were added. Also notethat most of these ordinances were car-ried out by the Levitical priesthoodwho were removed.

“Wherefore then serveth the law? Itwas added because of transgressions,till the seed should come to whom thepromise was made…” (Gal 3:19, KJV).

“Wherefore the law was our school-master to bring us unto Christ, that wemight be justified by faith. But after thatfaith is come, we are no longer under aschoolmaster” (Gal 3:24–25, KJV).The “schoolmaster” was the law of

sacrifices (actually ordinances thatcan be changed or amended due tochanging circumstances) which job itwas to point to the coming Christ,Yahshua.

“The law of the LORD is perfect, con-verting the soul; the testimony of theLORD is sure, making wise the simple;the statutes of the LORD are right, rejoic-ing the heart; the commandment of theLORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; thefear of the LORD is clean, enduring for-ever; the judgments of the LORD are trueand righteous altogether. More to bedesired are they than gold, yes, thanmuch fine gold; sweeter also thanhoney and the honeycomb. Moreoverby them Your servant is warned, and inkeeping them there is great reward”(Psalm 19:7–11).

Passover Lamb Replaced by Christ, Not Bread & WineThe difference between laws, statues and ordinances is well illustrated

in the surrounding article. This writer would not have included the quote from1Cor 1:13, above, because “passover” is never mentioned in that chapter. A betterexample of the ordinance change in the New Testament Passover is found in1 Corinthians 5:7, KJV:

“Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as yeare unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”

There is no longer a need to sacrifice a Passover lamb when one has beensacrificed for us. That is the change in the ordinance.

For more information on the Old and New Testament Passover observance, see Servants’ News issues for Jan/Feb 1997 and Mar/April 1997, or our separate article Resolving the Passover Controversy. See page 2 for contactinformation or download them from www.servantsnews.com/snprev.htm andwww.servantsnews.com/PDF/pascon01.pdf.

— Norman Edwards

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SERVANTS’ NEWS

Jan/Feb 2003

and a half years, but I would haveguessed much longer given his level ofunderstanding and the depths of hiscomments and questions.

I was struck today by how thesemen who are relative novices knewtheir way around the Bible. Quite oftennewbies need to be told what pagewe’re on as opposed to chapter andverse, but these men kept right up withme. It’s a pleasure to see that type ofeagerness.

And they didn’t seem at all put offby my comments that Jesus was notborn in December. They wereinterested in the theorythat He was born dur-ing the fall Holy Dayseason. They hadnever heard anexplanation of theHoly Days, theirmeaning, and howthey relate toChrist. The Feastdays are a treasure trove of theologythat always grab the interest of thosewho never heard the story.

December 29, 2002We had five guests including two re-peat customers. One of these men I didnot recognize at first until somethinghappened.

On rare occasions someone attendswho is a real pain in the neck, and it’sa challenge to keep some semblance oforder to the meetings. Today was oneof those days. One of the men is arather husky fellow who had somestrange ideas about a few things, mostnotably about himself. He had beenovertaken by the “holyghost” (oneword) after fasting forty days and fortynights. He had healed lots of people,but hadn’t raised anybody from thedead yet, but he knows preachers whohave. (Afterward I wished I hadthought a little quicker and asked himhow those formerly dead people react-ed after being in Heaven and thenbeing told they had to go back intotheir corrupt bodies. But I’ll save thatquestion for the next time).

When his hands flew up in the airand he yelled, “Hallelujah”, I recog-nized him from another time. This wasthe same character who came by once

before and tried to dominate the meet-ing with the same sideshow tech-niques—all with himself at the center.

He believes that there are some peo-ple who are saved by grace and thereare others, a very special group (inwhich I suppose he would includehimself) who are righteous of theirown accord and are saved in that way.Job was his example. Okay, I thought.Maybe we can get him to think about afew things. I asked everyone to turn toJob 31 and count the number of timesthat Job uses the first person pronounin that chapter. My point was that Jobwas focussed on himself and all the

great things that he did. Ithen turned to Isaiah14 and did the sameexercise regardingLucifer. Thenfinally, for a coupde grace, I hadeveryone turn toLuke 18 andthe parable ofthe Pharisee

and the publican. The Pharisee exhibit-ed the same attitude as Lucifer (I, Me,Myself, Mine, etc.). The Pharisee hasan outward show of righteousness, buthe trusted in himself and despised oth-ers. I was hoping that this guy wouldsee himself in the Pharisee, a point thatwas not lost on some of the others inthe room. But it went right over hishead. I can still hear the echoes of whathe said in that North Carolina accent ofhis. “But the Lord has shown me whatthat means. It says the publican wenthome justified. It doesn’t say he wenthome sanctified. The Pharisee wenthome sanctified because he was doingthe right things.”

So what do you do with that? Youstop arguing and get on with the Biblestudy and make sure the fellow doesn’tdisrupt things any more.

The other repeat driver had just theopposite attitude—a humble spirit.After the study he asked me if I hadheard anything from a lady who wasthere the same time he was who wasstruggling with issues of faith. He saidthat he had put her name on his com-puter to pop up every Sunday morningas a reminder to pray for her. He alsohas an issue of his own that demandsprayer on our part. This is the seconddriver who I am aware of whose mili-

tary unit might get called up shortly.His unit would likely go to Korea. Weneed to hold those people up beforeGod. They are devout people whohave a strong sense of duty. God bewith each and every one of them.— Lenny Cacchio, L_cacchio@yahoo.com

705 NE Bryant Drive Lee’s Summit, Missouri 64086

It is never easy to deal with theperson who seems to have strong spir-itual gifts from God (Bible knowl-edge, teaching, discernment, healing,wisdom, etc.) but also seems to be aknow-it-all. In some ways, they mayappear close to God. They may havethe ability to teach and to help peopletoward God in a way that I could not.They may have studied complex areasof doctrine and come to the exactsame conclusion that I believe Godled me to see over many years.

Yet, they will insist that God hasshown them things that I clearly see tobe contrary to Scripture. If I try toshow them, they will refute everyscripture I bring up with an unlikelyinterpretation or even a “revelation”that they had had. They answer me soquickly it seems like they had alreadyheard everything I said many timesbefore. There is simply no way to getthem to think about some of the teach-ings that I have understood from theBible for years.

Sometimes, these people may haveserious character flaws, so it is clearthat one should avoid them. With oth-ers, it seems that God is working withthem. But they would not work with me,unless I would just accept everythingthey teach. When I stand before Christ,I do not want to have to say that “I believe that this scripture means theopposite of what it says because some-one claimed he had a revelation aboutit.” I think many of these people areChristians whom God is testing to see ifthey will seek Him with all their heartand resist self-righteousness. It is goodto encourage them to be more under-standing of what God does in otherbelievers. I should be patient—Ibelieved I was in the “one trueChurch” for 18 years. But some ofthese may be people with powerful reli-gious demons whose mission is to sewdiscord among the brethren. Theyshould be avoided!

“Truckers Study” from page 2

Page 25Jan/Feb 2003

SERVANTS’ NEWS

shall shut, and no one shall open” (Isa22:22).Christ compares himself to Eliakim

the son of Hilkiah, a man that Godraised up to have authority and be a“father” to Israel (Is 22:20–25, v 25 isa reference to His crucifixion). Thename “Eliakim” means “God raises”or “God sets up”. The church inPhiladelphia is being reminded that itis Christ who sets people up to do Hiswill. This is the kind of encouragementthat a small or scattered group wouldneed.

“I know your works. See, I have setbefore you an open door, and no onecan shut it; for you have a littlestrength, have kept My word, andhave not denied My name” (Rev3:8).Christ reminds this group

that He has given them things todo, even though they have littlestrength. The word translated“strength” here is from theGreek dunamis which meansinnate power—frequently mira-cle-working power. This wordoften describes the miracles ofJesus (Matt 11:20–23, etc.) and Hisapostles (Acts 2:22). Have you everthought that a lack of miracles in yourcongregation is one sign of being“Philadelphian”? Indeed it may be theone criticism of this church. Indeed,the more isolated believer has a greatstruggle continuing to “keep Hisword” and to “not deny His name”.By contrast, a big church organizationoften watches its members and disci-plines them if they begin to stray.

“Indeed I will make those of the syn-agogue of Satan, who say they areJews and are not, but lie—indeed I willmake them come and worship beforeyour feet, and to know that I have lovedyou” (Rev 3:9).Many Bible teachers identify the

“Synagogue of Satan” as a specificgroup of evil Jews, Christians or politi-cians. But a single group in one timeperiod does not seem likely as the“Synagogue of Satan” also affected theChurch in Smyrna (Rev 2:9), and itaffects many believers throughout his-tory since all are commanded to listento every message to every church.

A “synagogue” is an assembly ofmen for a religious purpose. “Of Satan”means that they are serving Satan’spurposes rather than God’s purposes.Someone who falsely claims to be aJew is lying about his relationship withGod, acting in Satan’s deceptive mode,pretending to be righteous (2Cor11:14–15; Rev 12:9). (Satan can alsooperate in a fearsome mode, like as aroaring lion 1Pet 5:8.) If any group ispretending to be “God’s people” but arereally serving Satan, are not they partof the Synagogue of Satan?

Why will God, in the future, have tobring the members of the Synagogue ofSatan to the Philadelphian believersand make sure that they “know that Ihave loved them”? So those in Satan’sSynagogue will know that God was

working with them. Which believersare the most rejected people? Beforeanswering that question, let us distin-guish between persecuted and reject-ed believers. Well-recognized churchgroups are more likely to be the targetof persecutions—financial discrimina-tion, mass imprisonment or even exe-cutions. Larger groups are persecutedby the “Synagogue of Satan” becausethey are recognized by them.

But diligent, God-fearing believerswho are not part of any big organiza-tion are frequently rejected as “nuts”.For example, when someone asks fortime off from their job or school toobserve the Sabbath or Feast days, orasks to forgo vaccination or militaryservice, they are usually asked “What’syour religion?” When one responds,“this is my personal understanding ofthe Bible”, they are often asked“What’s your religion?” again. Mostpeople in worldly systems cannotimagine that anyone would risk losingtheir position at work or school unlesssome religious group required it. Theywould also expect the church organiza-

tion to get involved in defense of itsmembers’ beliefs if necessary. “Mygroup versus your group” is somethingthat carnal people understand well.

Individual believers making majorlife-decisions by their own understand-ing of the Bible seems strange, today,and causes believers to be rejected bymany potential friends, business asso-ciates, schools, governments and evenchurches. Many churches talk about“trusting in Christ” and “having a per-sonal relationship with Him”, but inreality many professing Christians justdo what their church organizationexpects. (There is nothing unbiblicalabout serving in local church congre-gations and international evangelisticministries, but church groups shouldnot undermine individual responsibili-

ty to do right: “Therefore, to himwho knows to do good and doesnot do it, to him it is sin”—Jms4:17; see also John 9:41; 13:17;15:22.)

In summary, Revelation 3:9shows that the Synagogue ofSatan—people who claim to beGodly but who are deceivingothers—will someday recognizethat God was with those down-trodden non-denominational

believers who obeyed Him.“Because you have kept My com-

mand to persevere, I also will keep youfrom the hour of trial which shall comeupon the whole world, to test those whodwell on the earth” (Rev 3:10).Deliverance from trouble is offered

to those who persevere. Indeed, one ofthe greatest difficulties among non-denominational believers is that theydo not persevere and become lax—likethe church in Ephesus that “left its firstlove” (Rev 2:4). Numerous scripturesindicate that not all believers will bespared great trials (Matt 5:11; John15:20; 16:2, etc.), but they need notworry, Christ will help them as needed(Luke 21:14–15; Matt 10:27–29).

“Behold, I am coming quickly! Holdfast what you have, that no one maytake your crown” (Rev 3:11)Again, Christ reminds the church in

Philadelphia not to give up. They needto continue to live by the power ofChrist, use their spiritual gifts and doeverything that they know is right. He

“Down-trodden Philadelphians”from page 3

Christ reminds this group that Hehas given them things to do, eventhough they have little strength.The word translated “strength”here is from the Greek dunamis

which means innate power—frequently miracle-working power

Continued on page 26

Page 26

SERVANTS’ NEWS

Jan/Feb 2003

Servants’ News, PO Box 107, Perry, Michigan 48872-0107, USATel: 517-625-7480, Fax: 517-625-7481, E-mail: Info@ServantsNews.comInternational brethren will receive literature more quickly by writing or e-mailing the nearest address on page 2.

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Partial Literature ListAll items are free upon request. All back issues ofServants’ News are available as well as a completeLiterature List and a Literature Subject Index.

Mature LiteratureAssembling on the Sabbath by Norman

Edwards, 16 pages. An exposition of thescriptures regarding our need to fellow-ship on the Sabbath and how to do it.

Biblical Calendar Basics by NormanEdwards, 26 pages. Explanation ofBiblical and Hebrew calendars (begin-ning of months, years, postponementsetc.)

How Do We Give to the Eternal? by RichardTafoya & Norman Edwards, 36 pages.Biblical study of giving and tithing.

How Does the Eternal Govern ThroughHumans? by Norman S. Edwards, 34pages. How the KJV translators altered

Scriptures about government to pleaseKing James and an analysis of what theBible says about how we should governin today’s congregations.

What Does the Bible Say About EternalJudgment? by Norman Edwards, 83pages. What happens to people after theydie? What about “bad” people? “Good”people? Unbelievers? Diligent believ-ers? Lax believers? Read the many scrip-tures that answer these questions.

Study Resources and InformationFreedom Biblical Information Center

Catalog by Wayne Schatzle, 12 pages.Free sources of literature and tapes.

Giving and Sharing Order Form byRichard Nickels, 3 pages. Has manyexcellent free items, low prices on hard-to-find religious books, and fine literatureon floppy disk.

The Journal: News of the Churches of Godedited by Dixon Cartwright. One freesample issue. Best single source of newsabout Sabbath-keeping groups. 24 pages.

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Servants’ News Literature List, 24 pages.Servants’ News Literature Subject Index, 51

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onslaught is brought into one’s ownhouse by invited guests, it does takeone aback, if only for a short time.When they left, two of us, in indepen-dent locations, prayed to God seekinganswers to the following questions.

These are reproduced below, withthe text replies, received after askingthat our hands be guided to whatevertext God so wished:

Q: Is the WCG minister correct in hisstatements concerning the worthless-ness and ineligibility of my baptism?

A: Isa 28:7–8, “But they also haveerred through wine, and through strongdrink are out of the way; the priest and

the prophet have erred through strongdrink, they are swallowed up of wine,they are out of the way through strongdrink; they err in vision, they stumblein judgment. For all tables are full ofvomit and filthiness, so that there is noplace clean.”

Q: Should we fellowship withthem?

A: Rom 16:17–18, “Now I beseechyou, brethren, mark them which causedivisions and offences contrary to thedoctrine which you have learned; andavoid them. For they that are suchserve not our Lord Jesus Christ, buttheir own belly; and by good wordsand fair speeches deceive the hearts ofthe simple.”

These answers left nothing in doubt.

When, later, these were put to apreaching elder of the WCG, he indi-cated that it was Satan who had guidedour hands, and not the Lord. When itwas pointed out that Satan would hard-ly have urged anyone to hold to thetrue doctrine, he had no answer.

So where does this leave the matter?Was the RCG/WCG as the RichardNickels family have it? It may havebeen for them, but certainly not for me.From a reading of some of the vastamount of personal experiences of theWCG available on the Internet, I haveconcluded that almost all have hadexperiences much closer to my own.

And that is very, very, sad indeed.Yours faithfully,

— John Scott, Scotland

does not talk about a “great commis-sion” that He has given them to do.

“He who overcomes, I will make hima pillar in the temple of My God, and heshall go out no more. And I will write onhim the name of My God and the nameof the city of My God, the NewJerusalem, which comes down out of

heaven from My God. And I will write onhim My new name” (Rev 3:12).The end of each of the letters to the

seven churches contains a promise of areward. The church at Philadelphia isnot specifically promised salvation,rulership or valuables like some of theothers. Rather they are promised thatthey will never have to leave God andthat they will be identified with Himforever. This continues the theme of

hope for the rejected believer.“He who has an ear, let him hear

what the Spirit says to the churches”(Rev 3:13).Each of the seven messages end by

telling everyone to listen to all of themessages to the churches (plural). Weshould read and study them all andthink how they apply to us. We will seethat Christ promises rewards to indi-viduals who repent and overcome.

“Did RCG/WCG Say Only TheirBaptisms Valid?” from page 17

“Down-trodden Philadelphians”from page 25