Twos
Pastor Jerry Wilhite,
author There are two churches, two Gods, two baptisms and two ways of life.
One of the saddest things I know is there are so many people out there who think they have a relationship with God, but their perception is entirely based on what they have been told by a man their entire life. This is sad because it is not even close to the truth.
If you could not see your children for 10 years, for whatever reason, you would miss them and long to see them. Of course you would try to communicate with them and bless them, but for them to be truly blessed there must be two way communication. Unfortunately they have based their opinions of you on what they see and hear from others rather than getting information directly from you. From this they may not respect you or try to spend real time communicating with you. Actually they do not have a real desire to spend any time with you. If you were famous enough to be written about they might appear to be trying to get to know you by reading books they have found, but that is simply for the appearance’s sake or tradition. Mostly the books are coffee table conversation pieces or they are used to brace up an uneven furniture leg or a bookshelf. They don’t know you and the books written about you are just dust catchers.
Something they are really missing is your knowledge. You know things that can make their lives better and could even save them from catastrophes that could kill them in the future. All they have to do is communicate with you to learn how to avoid the catastrophes and improve their lives in all areas.
If they continue in their uncommunicative ways they forget about you and even start to think you never even existed. They know someone fathered them in the past but they are not sure who that really was. For all they know it could have been the milkman. The expression "out of sight, out of mind" is so true. Since they do not see you or hear from you, the longer it goes on, the less and less they believe in you.
If they slowed down their busy, high speed life to stop every so often and listen, they might realize you have been trying very hard to contact them. If they gave to you one tenth of the time they give to television they would know who you are and be blessed. They think that since they seem to be doing just fine without you they do not need to give you a second thought.
Oh, but wait! As soon as things go bad, they have exhausted every other means to help themselves, and time is almost up they turn to you expecting a miracle. Here is the kicker; if help does not come exactly as they expected, or in the time frame they wish, they then would blame you for all their problems.
So, even if you do bless them, as soon as the problem is over they forget it ever happened and return to their old life. Even still, if they ever gave you the time of day you would accept them and love them no matter how bad or even wicked they have become.
If by now you haven’t figured out about whom I am talking, you either never knew God or you are not reading this completely. The father of the above story is God; we are the children; the coffee table book is the Bible, and the ten year separation is this life.
Revelation 3
20. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
In Revelation 1-3 Jesus condemns all but one of the seven churches. He only finds one that is the real church. Later on in this study we will discus in more detail, which is the real church.
"Is God real?"
First of all there is a God, but to help you believe this we will discuss it somewhat.
In Fort Worth Texas there is a museum where, until the early 90s, the curator was an archeologist and a believer in God. That may sound all well and good to you, the unusual thing is that he was on one of Kenneth Copeland's daily shows back then. He told Copeland that when he was in his late 20s he started out to be an archeologist in order to prove that there was no such thing as God. Over the next 20-30 years he spent digging, researching, etc for any proof that God does not exist only to discover God does exist. In his discoveries he could not ignore the facts which proved beyond a doubt that there is a God.
You may find it shocking to know just how many scientists, archeologists, astronomers, etc started out to prove that God did not exist to only discover that He does. Over the past 12 years I have watched every show I could with archeologists, scientists, etc and read all the books I could find. What I discovered was that, instead of proving God does not exist, two out of three found proof that He does exist.
You should read about what it took to create life on earth, all the factors that had to play a part in life starting here from the smallest single cell amoebae to the entire solar system’s configuration to maintain it. You will conclude, as I have, that for this many random occurrences to transpire as they did simultaneously, the odds are too high to be just chance happenings. The odds of this happening are greater than your winning the lotto every time you played, hitting the jackpot on every machine in every casino, and being hit by every lightening strike for 100 years.
I am amazed that most of those who say that they do not believe in God are intelligent, educated people. The unbelievers do not give God a real chance to prove that He does exist. I really believe that 99% of the unbelievers do not try harder to find out the truth due to fear. They fear that they will have to change their life style, fear they would have to give up what they own, fear they would have to agree there is someone smarter and more powerful than they are. That is right, a vast majority of unbelievers are unbelievers due to pride, ego, delusions, etc. The sad thing is that they would not have to lose anything just to know God. He may want them to change some things, but that would be up to them. 99.9% of the changes God works in us are to improve our lives anyway. Giving up drugs, stopping smoking, drinking less, are all things that protect us, extend life span, and improve the quality of our lives. They are afraid that if there is a God and they became believers they would lose all their fun and become fanatics. At the very least they would have to act like good little boys and girls in church all the time.
DO NOT BASE GOD, your life with God, etc on what you see in mankind, in the church of this world, or others. Go to the source and learn the truth for yourself.
Two Churches
The reason I started this off with 2 churches, 2 gods, 2 baptisms, etc was to show just how far off most are from the truth. In Revelation 1-3 Jesus states that out of the seven churches only one is the correct and real thing and the other six are not. Now if you look at the continents on the earth six have permanent residents on them and one does not. Jesus was telling us that all the churches of the physical realm with just a physical meaning are not of the one real church. The one real and true church can not be found in buildings, or anything physical. It is only found in the Spiritual realm.
Matthew 16
15. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16. And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
In verse 18 above the church that was the only church until the sixteenth century had to justify that the leader was of Peter and that Jesus was basing the church on Peter. To do accomplish this they defined the word Petros as Peter instead of a piece of the rock.
Read verse 18 below as it should appear:
18. And I say also unto thee, That thou art a piece of the rock, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Notice in verse 17 Jesus said, "for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." The revelation was not of the flesh or physical realm, but of the Spiritual.
John 4
Jesus came to earth, died, and was resurrected in the flesh, but what He came for was to reunite us with God. Since God is a Spirit the only way we could be reunited was in the spirit. People today, as those almost 2000 years ago are missing it and Jesus because they make it all out to be of the physical. The Jews did not recognize Jesus as the Christ (Messiah) because He was not a physical conquering king.
Two Baptisms
Christians today do everything as if it is all physical and not spiritual. One of the largest disputes over the past few hundred years has been over whether we should be dunked or sprinkled when we are baptized. The point was that it is not physical but a spiritual baptism Jesus brought to us, so both are wrong.
Matthew 3
11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
John realized this and the sad thing is 2000 years later the church of this world does not. I believe a physical baptism is a showing of our faith but the one true baptism is of the Spirit. Research how many of the apostles were baptized in water VS the Spirit. Paul (as well as many other apostles) was never baptized in water, just the Spirit.
Why was Jesus baptized in water? Jesus did all that was of the law. He followed the Mosaic Law and lived as normal, everyday Jew.
Why is water baptism spoken of so much in Acts? Re-read those accounts and look up them in the Greek; note who was involved and you will be shocked.
Two Gods
You are either of God or Satan, no matter whether or not you believe in either of them. A lack of belief does not give you an excuse at the end of your time here on Earth.
John 14
6. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Before you think this is all a bunch of junk or think God does not exist and neither does Satan you had better make sure. How stupid can it be to risk all of eternity on the idea that something does not exist when there is no proof of that point? Ok, I know you are going to say you can not see, hear, touch, or smell God, but you can you can see Him in all of creation as well as smell and taste. The real proof is in hearing Him His voice.
Before I heard God I was 99.8% that I was saved. Afterwards I am 200% sure and no one can ever get me to doubt my salvation ever again. The point is that the god with a little "g" is not a god at all. He is an awesome deceiver and has misled some of the best and even tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness.
Anyone who is really intelligent will make every effort to verify whether or not God exists, if for no other reason than to prove their point, but also to make sure they are right in their ideas. Only the ignorant ignore the possibility of something’s being true.
John 4
24. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Anyone with any kind of education knows that the universe is extremely vast and expanding and that there is no way they could possibly ever know it all. Those who think they know it all or do not need to prove God’s existence to be assured are either delusional or a fool.
Two Ways of Life
Of course there are two ways of living. One is in the Spirit of God and the other is in the flesh, of the world with Satan.
Galatians 5
15. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
16. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21. Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23. Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.