Tell Your Story :: By Nathele Graham

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles, Nathele Graham

Quite often, people have a hard time talking about important things. We can discuss the weather, or talk about the latest blockbuster movie, but are those things really important? Married couples sometimes have trouble discussing finances, and children are often afraid to speak to a parent about some trouble they have. Is it the fear of being ridiculed or laughed at that stops us? It’s the same when it comes to talking to someone about why you are a Christian.

Are you afraid of losing a friend if you share your testimony? Do you think that you’ll be laughed at if you speak of Jesus as something more than a cuss word? Maybe you might think that your faults will hinder your testimony. We all have failures in life, but if you’re like me, you’re trying to turn away from the sin that hinders you. I’ve heard many testimonies in my life, and I can tell you right now that no Christian is perfect. We all have a story of how we came to full faith in Jesus.

I don’t think I have an exciting testimony. I was raised having no doubts about Jesus. When I was a child, I didn’t have deep answers to questions anybody might ask, but I had a solid foundation. At a very young age, I had a desire to please Jesus. Was I a perfect child? No, I wasn’t. Was I a perfect teenager? No, I wasn’t. Am I a perfect adult? No, I’m not. Still, my testimony can help encourage others.

There were many times that I wondered if I really was saved because I didn’t have an amazing testimony, but then I read the testimony of a well-known pastor, and his testimony was much like mine. What he said opened my eyes to the fact that we don’t have to go through drug addiction, alcoholism, gang membership, or Eastern Mysticism to have a testimony that can strengthen others. Tell your story and give God the glory!

As we study Scripture, we can see that only Jesus was perfect. When He chose the twelve men to be His closest disciples, we can see that He chose men who had imperfections. They also had strong characters and learned enough in only three years to spread the Gospel and establish the Christian faith. First, let’s take a look at Peter.

Who would have ever thought that he would be a pillar of faith? He spoke before thinking and leaped before looking. He said things that everybody was thinking but weren’t bold enough to say out loud. It was Peter who saw Jesus walking on water and wanted to walk with Him. The others saw Jesus and were amazed, but kept their silence.

Peter said, “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water” (Matthew 14:28).

Jesus told Peter to come, and Peter actually walked on water. He had faith that he could walk to Jesus until he noticed the storm. That’s when he failed.

“But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me” (Matthew 14:30). 

Instead of keeping his focus on Jesus, he saw the storm. How often do we trust Jesus until we see the storms around us? This testimony can help us to turn to Jesus during the storms in our own lives. Peter called out to Jesus, who saved him. We can chuckle at Peter’s failure, but Peter did step out in faith. He learned from his mistakes, and so must we learn from our own mistakes. It was Peter who first boldly proclaimed that Jesus was the Christ. When Jesus asked who people said He was, it was a general question. But then He got personal.

“And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ” (Mark 8:29). 

It might have been easy for Peter to make that declaration because he was among like-minded friends and didn’t fear the consequences. If he had been standing in the middle of a group of Pharisees, would he have been so bold? Maybe that’s a good reason for us to have fellowship with like-minded believers rather than surround ourselves with non-believers.

At the final meal they all shared together, Peter swore that he would defend Jesus with his life, but Jesus knew better. “And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice” (Mark 14:30). 

And it was true. Many of us are like Peter. We have great intentions, but soon hide our faith. “Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus” (John 18:10). 

Peter did boldly defend Jesus, but after that, he hid in fear and denied knowing Jesus. We all have fears in our walk with the Lord, but Jesus is always ready to call us back to Him.

There is no sin too great that Jesus won’t forgive. Peter never lost his status as a disciple, but he did lose his fellowship with our Lord. It wasn’t until after the resurrection that he listened to Jesus with all his heart when Jesus told him to feed the flock. Peter’s life was changed. His bold talk was now directed to bold truth rather than boasting. On the day of Pentecost, after being filled with the Holy Spirit, he was able to clearly speak the words of God, and many came to salvation. His life became a testimony not filled with fear, and his boldness had a purpose. Peter still had moments of failure, but because we know his testimony, we are strengthened in our own faith.

Do you ever doubt? Most Christians have gone through periods of questioning. That’s not a bad thing as long as you’re truly seeking truth, and not some “feel good” answer that says your sin is acceptable. Thomas was a disciple who had doubts and asked questions. When Jesus told the disciples that He was going away, He told them, “And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know” (John 14:4).

He expected them to understand, but they didn’t. It was Thomas who asked questions. “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” (John 14:5).

Jesus gave him an answer that we must remember. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

If you have doubts as to whether all faiths go to heaven, or get sidetracked by some false teaching, remember these words. Only faith in Jesus will bring salvation.

Soon, Jesus was crucified. Thomas knew He was dead and buried. Like the others, he feared for his life. The disciples were gathered together in a locked room, but Thomas had not been with them. Three days had passed since Jesus was crucified. Peter and John had found the tomb empty, and that caused quite a stir. That night they had a lot to talk about, and fear ran high. Suddenly, Jesus entered the room. Can you imagine the emotions? Joy, astonishment, fear all at once. Jesus showed them the marks of His crucifixion, then breathed on them. He gave them the Holy Spirit, the promised Comforter. What a testimony these men had. When Thomas heard what they had experienced, he had doubts. You see, even close friends can question your testimony.

“The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25).

Never think that Jesus doesn’t hear us when we speak. Eight days later, Jesus appeared to them again, and Thomas was there. “Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing” (John 20:27).

Now all of the disciples knew that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead and that He is Lord! Thomas had no more doubts. “And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:28-29). 

These men all had a testimony, and they shared it. They changed the world.

What about Judas? He had the same opportunities as the others, but used his experiences with Jesus for evil. Jesus knew Judas’ heart, but allowed Him to be a part of the disciples. Sadly, this fulfilled prophecy, but Jesus knew it had to happen just as it did. Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. He had remorse, but wasn’t repentant.

“And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:5).

Judas could have had a far different ending if he had allowed Jesus to change him. His testimony stands as an example of a false follower of Christ. We must always be aware of people who pretend to follow Christ, but their hearts are full of deceit and lies. We can learn from a bad testimony.

One of the greatest transformations was the Apostle Paul, also known as Saul. His life was full of hatred and murder. He had no love for Christians and thought he was serving God by persecuting people who had turned from the Jewish religion to the Christian faith. Jesus knew him, even in his sin, and knew he could and would change. It took dramatic circumstances to get Saul to recognize his need for Jesus. Saul had obtained permission to go to Damascus and arrest men and women for professing Christ for salvation. On the way, suddenly a bright light came from heaven.

“And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me?” (Acts 9:4).

Remember, when you witness to someone and share your testimony, if they laugh and mock you, it’s Jesus they are mocking, not you. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). 

It was Jesus whom Saul was persecuting, not the people. This experience changed Saul, and he is known as the Apostle Paul who became the best example of missionary work throughout the ages. His testimony is an example to all of us.

Many people found in Scripture have amazing testimonies. One was Mary Magdalene. She was one who followed Jesus. “And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance” (Luke 8:2-3).

These women all had testimonies and services to give to Christ, but that place isn’t in leadership or the pulpit. Then there was the man born blind who was healed by Jesus, and then called before the Pharisees. His testimony was questioned, and his parents were brought in as witnesses. He stood firm on his testimony even though the Pharisees had lots of opinions about Jesus.

“He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25).

Read about ten lepers who met Jesus and cried out for mercy. “And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that, as they went, they were cleansed” (Luke 17:14).

Jesus answered their prayer, but only one said thank you. I’d like to know more about the man who was possessed by demons in the country of the Gadarenes. This man had a legion of demons possessing him, and Jesus cast them out and allowed them to possess some swine. The man who had been healed wanted to go with Jesus, but Jesus had a mission for him.

“Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee” (Mark 5:19). The man obeyed and shared his testimony.

How about you? What has Jesus done for you? Is your testimony a simple statement of faith that you know to be true, or do you have a miraculous conversion story? Each is important, and you need to share what Jesus has done for you. Read through the Gospels and learn about each person who was touched by Jesus. There are many; I’ve only scratched the surface here. Then take a look at your own testimony. Do you have friends who could benefit from hearing it? Write it down if you need to and read it over. Jesus loves you enough to rescue you from eternal death, so you are important in His eyes. Share your story with others. The end of all time is approaching quickly, and your testimony may bring someone to salvation before it’s too late.

God bless you all,

Nathele Graham

twotug@embarqmail.com

Recommended prophecy sites:

www.raptureready.com

www.prophecyupdate.com

www.raptureforums.com

All original scripture is “theopneustos,” God-breathed.

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“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee” (Psalm 122:6).

 

Apostasy in the Church: The Devil is a Clever Fellow :: By Jim Fletcher

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles

One of the most fascinating stories I’ve ever read has a direct bearing on why our modern Church world is the way it is. That is, sinking into the quicksand of apostasy. I’ve written about Noah Hutchings of Southwest Radio Church, Paul Smith (brother of Chuck) of Calvary Chapel, and several other ministry leaders who always lashed themselves to Scripture. Their fidelity to Scripture kept them from hobnobbing with elites who compromised somewhere down the line. That bought the latter fame, fortune, and adulation.

God bless men like Hutch and Paul, and the rest. The faithful remnant.

I have always believed it is vital to know history so that we can understand where we are now and where we might be going. Of course, prophecy gives us a general idea, but knowing where we came from—both in the mists of antiquity and in the last couple hundred years—helps us navigate the choppy waters we’re sailing through presently.

My basic premise in this piece is looking at the theological damage wrought by false teachers that infected our seminaries, and later, national ministries.

I think the foundations of our origins explain a lot. A few have stood fast on the Bible’s accounts of origins as outlined in Genesis. The erosion of biblical truth in our country started long ago. In the middle of the 19th century, a perfect storm of attacks on the Bible came from two different directions: modern science and German seminaries employing unbelieving professors. By unbelieving, I mean that they professed to be Christians, but within the walls of the seminaries, they kept a dirty secret: faculty turned out pastors to believe that much of the Old Testament was myth – The Exodus never happened; David and Goliath, Jonah and the great fish, and Noah’s flood (especially Noah’s flood!) never happened but were Hebrew legend.

And Adam and Eve? Forget about it!

By 1902, German professor Friedrich Delitzsch gave a lecture in Berlin titled “Babylon and the Bible,” in which he claimed that much of the Bible was influenced by Babylonian myth (as opposed to the truth, which was exactly the opposite). Even the Kaiser attended the lecture. Princeton’s brilliant defender of the Bible, Robert Dick Wilson, challenged Delitzsch’s brutish attack on the Bible. Yet most people wanted to follow the German pagan masquerading as a man of the cloth.

It was in this era that science (falsely so-called) blended with the clergy to promote and market evolutionary theory—Darwinian philosophy—exporting it to America. By the time of the infamous Scopes “Monkey” Trial, evolution had gained a real foothold in America, and its domination was complete by the 1960s. School prayer was out, and more and more members of the clergy capitulated and did not stand strong on the biblical accounts.

(I want to also make the point that Darwinian Philosophy is just that—philosophical musings. It is not settled science but rather comes from the anti-God bias of Europe during the Enlightenment. It is philosophy.)

The effect was felt on many levels. In the last century, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao had all read Darwin, including Herbert Spencer’s works, which developed the concept of “social Darwinism.” These dictator-beasts used these philosophies to murder 100 million people. Frankly, the overall American church leadership community did not rise to the level of real leaders and defenders of the faith. Evolutionary thought came to hold American society in the same death-grip.

But to that story I promised at the beginning. Most of us have no real idea just how deeply propaganda has decimated society. In the remarkable Barry Werth book, Banquet at Delmonico’s: Great Minds, the Gilded Age, and the Triumph of Evolution in America, there is a very weird (but enlightening!) story involving the man known as “Darwin’s Bulldog,” Thomas Huxley. It proves that Darwinian Philosophy is fatally biased against God. Werth’s book is a really interesting story about evolutionists like Huxley and Herbert Spencer influencing Americans to believe an alternate story to Genesis.

Huxley, keen on developing the now-famous “horse series” of evolution, visited a fossil collection at Yale, in New Haven, Connecticut, in the late 19th century. Huxley was so excited to see the extensive fossil collection that he almost lost control of himself. Hear this brief excerpt:

“While his wife went with friends to Saratoga, Huxley plunged into the most anticipated week of his stay: several long days examining paleontologist O. C. Marsh’s skeletons at Yale’s new Peabody Museum, with a side trip to see fossilized dinosaur footprints along the sandstone banks of the Connecticut River north of Springfield, Massachusetts. At about the same time that Darwin had published Descent and Agassiz was renewing his attack on evolution as bereft of facts, Huxley had undertaken with a Russian collaborator to assemble the fossil lineage of a single modern mammal, concentrating on the horse.”

Darwin and his friends knew they had real holes in their theory, particularly as it related to transitional fossils. In other words, they needed to find real transitional fossils. For example, a sea creature becoming, over eons of time, a land animal.

“Darwinians had learned, in large part from engaging with Agassiz, not to rely too heavily on fossil records, which were well recognized as hosting too many dead ends, anomalies, and missing links. And Huxley resisted departing from his own popular theory. He pored over box after box of Marsh’s bones assiduously, challenging him again and again, calling for a hoof from this ancient species or a molar from that one. With each challenge, Marsh beckoned an assistant to fetch another crate. ‘I believe you are a magician,’ Huxley finally blurted. ‘Whatever I want, you just conjure up.’ Huxley declared the collection ‘the most wonderful thing I ever saw,’ telling Marsh: ‘The more I think of it, the more clear it is that your great work is the settlement of the pedigree of the horse.’”

Notice that key phrase: “Whatever I want, you just conjure up.”

Here is clear proof that Darwinian Philosophy is hopelessly biased. What it tells us is that Huxley manufactured a “horse evolution series” out of whole cloth. The series that appeared in many of the science textbooks we read in our youth was phony. But it sounded authoritative, and millions believed it. That day at the Peabody, Huxley simply put together his concept of a horse by fitting bones from different animals together to create his “evolutionary horse.”

The fact is, just as Genesis describes, God created animals after their own kind. Dogs were dogs. Whales were whales.

Horses were horses. They were never tiny animals that eventually evolved physical elements that make up the “modern” horse.

Horses have always been horses.

This kind of scientific propaganda has shipwrecked the religious faith of millions and millions of people.

Why am I telling you this? What does this modern scientific history have to do with the Church and theology?

I have talked to scores of young people over the years, and they well understand the disconnect if we accept the claims of Darwinian Philosophy. If we say that Genesis is in some way myth, how can we then claim that Christ was resurrected? Or that He even lived?

Do you see? Attacks on the Bible affect everything in it. Including eschatology. This is one of the main reasons that Bible prophecy has also fallen out of favor in our churches. The devil knows that the more he can attack the Bible, the more our society suffers.

Dr. Calvin B. Johnson was a long-time Methodist clergyman. He saw that after several Methodist denominations came together as the United Methodist Church in 1968, theological malpractice reigned. Today, the UMC is one of the most left-wing denominations in the country.

Johnson knew all this was coming; his book came out in 1997 and remains one of my best sources for understanding why the American Church is the way it is today. In particular, he has a wealth of information about how churches slowly developed the view that much of the Bible is myth. Published in the April 1951 edition of Adult Student, we read:

“The second section [of Genesis], Chapters 12 through 50, is made up of hero stories out of the semi-legendary past of the Hebrew people.”

Wow.

And to prove my point, the UMC has also for decades been a friend (dupe?) of the PLO. In the 1990s, after Bill Clinton invited Yasser Arafat to the White House 13 times, the serial killer also met with UMC officials. Pretty soon, Christians began hearing the “Jesus was a Palestinian” lie. Even author Philip Yancey identified our Lord that way, the Redeemer who is a Jew. The link between attacking Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament, and the attempted destruction of the New Testament, is clearly seen.

I’ve gone on too long, but happily for us, we don’t accept these lies about the Book. It remains for us the one and only true Word of God. We must, though, educate ourselves about the nature of the lies, and where they came from, so that we can maintain our vigilance for the duration.

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