Truth Vs the Lie
Pastor Jerry Wilhite,
author
Unfortunately there is as much as 97% proclaiming to be of Christ who are not and/or have no real idea what it means to be of Christ. In this study I will show the three reasons why so many are so misled.
Remember we have an enemy and we should never underestimate him. So many have and for that one reason they have failed. He has been here longer than every one you know put together and he has learned through time what works and what does not. Paul warned us about him and his tricks and how to avoid them.
2 Corinthians 10
3. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4. (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5. Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
What we must learn is that Satan and his demons do not have to possess us to affect us as they once did. Now, instead, they plant an idea here and there and let us do the rest. That’s right–we are doing it to ourselves.
Think about this, every thought you have had or will have has been thought by someone before you and will be thought by someone after you. That means we have no true original thought. All of our thoughts come from one of two places only. Either Satan forces them on us or we seek them from God.
John 14
26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
If we can be taught of by men or women, why then did Jesus say that we are to be taught all things by the Holy Ghost (Spirit)? If Jesus felt that we could learn any truth from a man or woman then He would have said something like, "taught such and such by mankind, but that of the kingdom by God." But He did not because He knew in all we would be taught from the world would be three things–lies, deception, and destruction. An example of the last would be the nuclear bomb. In regards to deception and lies–most know that the winners write history not those who lose. How much of our history is correct? In a history channel show they read from journal entries written by George Washington and a British General with whom he had a battle and both journals read that they had won. Both contradicted the other so, as far as we know, history is not 100% correct, other than that which we live through ourselves. Most courses other than reading, writing, and math are only needed if you are going to college.
The point is God knows the truth. From man you will get it all altered one way or another; from God you will get the truth.
1 John 2
27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
The anointing is the Spirit of God, so again we read how we are to be taught by God and not by man.
Think about those who followed Jim Jones to the West Coast and eventually to Africa and their deaths. Jones in the 70's was paranoid, misusing prescription drugs, and some said he had a mental illness other than his paranoia. He led 900+ people to their death. David Koresh led over 100 people to their deaths in Waco. Then you have groups like Heaven's Gate and the list goes on. The point is they all followed a man looking for what they could have had on their own. No man can give you that which God can; no man can save you, give you peace, etc–those can only come from God.
Remember Adam sinned. When he did God had said that Adam would die, but Adam did not die as far as the body was concerned; he died spiritually. So when Jesus came, what was the reason why the Jews could not see who He was? Because they were looking for a physical king and not a spiritual one, they missed Him. Today the church of the world, which I consider is influenced by a spirit of religion, is missing it as well.
Division
Falsehood based on the teachings of man is the problem with most being on the path of destruction and not on the path to life. When man follows or listens to man only, mankind is setting itself up for a fall.
Acts 5
11. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
12. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.
13. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them.
The above event is where the separation between clergy and members started. If they magnified them then over time how much more have the members done to cause an even wider division?
1 Corinthians 1
11. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
12. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
13. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
In verse 12 replace Paul, Apollos, and Cephas with a name of a local church and notice how these verses work today as well as they did 2000 years ago.
Matthew 7
13. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
15. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
The word many in the above verses in the Greek means most.
Those who seek and find are the few on the path to life. The most who are on the path to destruction are there due to false prophets which are also false leaders, teachers, etc.
Remember man put the chapter and verse numbers in the Bible; the original writer did not. So if you read Matthew 6-7 as Matthew wrote it, it would be one long teaching, not broken up by verse and chapter numbers. In Matthew 6 Jesus taught on prayer, giving, fasting, and then He gets into what all people want and need and that they could have it by first seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. If you had read verses 6-7 you would have learned that you must first forgive all the be forgiven, then judge no one, and that you do not have because you have not asked. Then He talks about how most will follow man and not God, listen to man and not God, and will be on the path to destruction. Then He gets to the reason for this:
Matthew 7
20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
21. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Jesus says that we all will be known by our fruit, that there are those who will do wonderful works in His name and appear to all to be of God. Then He states that they are not of Him; they are workers of evil and tells them to depart. HE NEVER KNEW THEM! Of course He knew of them, just as we know of the President, but we do not actually know Him personally. So in verse 20 when He says. "by their fruit we shall know them," He means we will be mislead if we depend only on the fruit of labors Vs the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23).
In Matthew 7 above Jesus was and is addressing the believers. In Mark 4:1-20 the "Sower of the Word" He addresses the lost as well as the believer. Then in Revelation chapters 2-3 He addresses the church overall. In Matthew the majority is on the path to destruction while a few are on a path to life. He is warning us to be sure that we are on the right path. In Mark 4 He tells it like it is and will be. He can see ahead and knows what is to come. But in Revelation chapters 2-3 where He states one is borderline, one is of Him, and the rest are not. He is warning us that the majority (87% based on only one of seven truly being of Him) are not of Him. In Mark 4 we learn only one of four will be of the good ground. Either way the numbers are stacked against us being on the right path, or of Him due to the flesh, basically from following man and not Him.
Following Him has been a problem since before the flood, but was evident in the wilderness after Goshen saw His ten plagues on Egypt and how He protected them, led them out of Egypt with the majority of Egypt’s wealth and even killed their enemy in the Red Sea. What did they do? The first chance they had, they built a golden calf. Then when they got past this and He offered to speak to them, they chose Moses to the "go between." Then after 40 years in the wilderness they got a chance to have God as their king they demand a man instead. If you read the Old Testament you will find that Israel chose the wrong action on a regular basis because they followed men and not God.
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.
Incorrect Translations
I have known the Lord for decades and for at least since 1993 I have had the ability (due a PC and software) to read the Bible in Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New. One of the facts most have a hard time with is that most of the Jews of Jesus’ day on Earth spoke Aramaic. Why should we be even concerned about Greek since most spoke Aramaic? For one simple reason–all that was written in the first century was in Greek not Aramaic.
Below are a few examples of how the KJV was translated incorrectly in many places. I believe this happened due to two reasons:
Here is one example of the differences between 1611 AD and now:
Job 1
8. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
How many have been taught wrongly based on the above verse? Most taught that God pointed Job out to Satan so Satan could test Job and subsequently that we are all tested. Guess what? That is not even close to being correct.
8.
|0559| And said
|3068| Yahweh
|0000| to
|7854| Satan,
|7760| Have you set
|3824| your heart
|5650| on My servant
|0347| Job?
|3588| For
|0369| not is {any}
|0000| like him
|0776| in the earth,
|0376| a man
|8535| perfect
|3477| and upright,
|3373| revering
|0430| God
|5186| and turning away
|7451| from evil.
Instead it was God questioning Satan about what he had in his heart against Job.
Following are a few of the many, and I do mean many errors I have found due to the translation of the KJV. Before you get excited and think the version you are using is ok, I have found that all of the other English versions have the same or MORE mistakes. This confirms what I have expected from the beginning–that all other than maybe the Amplified version were taken from the KJV. Meaning instead of translating from Hebrew and Greek to English they took the KJV and updated it to read easier and called it something else.
Genesis 1
28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Before PC's men had to research each word in the Bible in the Old in Hebrew and the New in Greek which required many hours. Before PC's a teaching came about due to one word in the above verse–replenish. When one man saw it he took it for face value that replenish means to RE-fill so he thought he had found something and spent months going through to prove a new teaching. What he came up with was that Satan was cast down already at this point and when he hit the earth he destroyed all God had done and God had to start over. What is sad is he could have saved himself a lot of time if he would have verified the word’s correct translation. The word in Hebrew is male' and it means simply to fill NOT refill.
Strong's Ref. # 4390
Romanized male'
Pronounced maw-lay'
or mala' (Esth.7v5) {maw-law'}; a primitive root, to fill or (intransitively) be full of, in a wide application (literally and figuratively):
KJV--accomplish, confirm, + consecrate, be at an end, be expired, be fenced, fill, fulfil, (be, become, X draw, give in, go) full(-ly, -ly set, tale), [over-]flow, fulness, furnish, gather (selves, together), presume, replenish, satisfy, set, space, take a [hand-]full, + have wholly.
I have found many words in the old and the new testaments that were translated incorrectly. The sad thing is all other versions did the same, which proves they worked off the KJV or took the KJV and just updated it making it easier to read and never actually translated the Bible.
I know you think the Bible is the breathed word of God, and it is in Hebrew for the Old and Greek for the New. No where does it say the translated is or to even translate.
Matthew 16.
18. And I say also unto thee, That thou art a piece of the rock (Peter), and upon this rock I will build my community (church); and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
The word for Peter above in Greek is Petros the word in Greek for rock is petra–two different words, and in every version they translated it wrong. It should be "a piece of the rock" not Peter.
Strong's Ref. # 4074
Romanized Petros
Pronounced pet'-ros
a primary word; a (piece of) rock (larger than GSN3037); as a name, Petrus, an apostle:
KJV--Peter, rock. Compare GSN2786.
The word in Greek for what is called church in Matthew 16:18 above is "ekklesia" and it does not mean church. That was another of the KJV incorrect translations.
Strong's Ref. # 1577
Romanized ekklesia
Pronounced ek-klay-see'-ah
from a compound of GSN1537 and a derivative of GSN2564; a calling out, i.e. (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation (Jewish synagogue, or Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both):
KJV--assembly, church.
Notice KJV used for ekklesia the words assembly or church. Even though assembly would be closer to the meaning it was still not the word in the Greek. The word should be either "a calling out" or community. Common unity is the Spirit between all of the community.
Mankind is Following Man
All of the prophecy including the NT, Revelation, etc about the antichrist is about how mankind will follow a man who will deceive them and he will be the antichrist.
So how is it that mankind is so manipulated?
Satan did it to us over the centuries. He started in the first century and by the fourth he found one who was easy to use–Constantine. Due to Constantine’s good intentions he brought the church down. In the fourth century he passed a law that all Romans were Christians no matter if they believed or not. He made Christianity a state religion and from there, in time, the church became under the control of those seeking power but who did not believe. We ended up with the dark ages, black plague, Crusades, Inquisition. Then by the sixteenth century there were those who broke away and followed Luther. From there all the denominations came about over the next 400-500 years. They broke away from each other over issues like water baptism–whether dunking or sprinkling was appropriate, when all along baptism was not even supposed to be of water but of the Spirit.
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:
It is sad that those of the sixteenth century did not read Matthew 3:11, John 1:15 and many other verses where John the Baptist said that the baptism Jesus brought was of the Spirit and was preferred before his.
Remember the leaders of the church were the only ones with a Bible until the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. The leaders were the only ones who read the Bible, then all of a sudden there were groups arguing over things that were not even true.
John 3
3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
So many use verse 5 (of course without verse 6) to prove water baptism but the water is not baptism. It is a reference to first birth from a woman. Unless one is first born of woman Jesus can not save them. Who else would there be? How about Satan and the fallen angels?
5.
|0611| answered
|2424| Jesus,
|0281| Truly,
|0281| truly
|3004| I say
|4671| to you,
|3362| Except
|5100| one
|1080| receive birth
|1537| of
|5204| water
|2532| and
|4151| Spirit,
|3756| not
|1410| he is able
|1525| to enter
|1519| into
|3588| the
|0932| kingdom
|3588| of
|2316| God!
6.
|3588| That
|1080| receiving birth,
|1537| from
|3588| the
|4561| flesh,
|4561| flesh
|2076| is.
|2532| And
|3588| that
|1080| receiving birth
|1537| from
|3588| the
|4151| Spirit,
|4151| spirit
|2076| is.
The sad thing is so many want to prove water baptism and will take verses out of context to prove it. After Acts there are no more references to anyone being baptized. Baptism of the Spirit is the only baptism mentioned after Acts. In Acts most say they were baptized in John's baptism (water) because they knew of no other. Yes, Jesus was baptized with water to end John's and begin His baptism. As He went in the water nothing happened, but as He came out then the Spirit came down. If you verify how many of the apostles were baptized you will find not all were of water, but all but Judas was of the Spirit. Plus, isn't it strange that one of the ones baptized in water was Judas.
Jesus followed all of the law, traditions, etc of the day so He could fulfill all, including water baptism.
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 the Baptist even said that the Baptism of Jesus was preferred before his baptism of water.
John 1
15. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
Oh yes I know how they use Mark 16:16 to prove their point but most do not use the entire verse, only the first half.
Mark 16
16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;
Even if the above was all there was to the verse it does not support water, it would be supporting spirit.
Mark 16
16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Notice that he that does not believe is damned. It does not say, "He that believeth not and is not baptized." That’s because one must first believe and then one is born again, baptized in the Spirit.
There are so many other misused verses such as Matthew 17:21, which does not even exist in the Greek. In the Greek goes from verse 20 to verse 22, skipping what we see as verse 21. No, it does not have verse numbers, but the text in 20 is there and after 20 ends and the next thing is what we show as verse 22. How many have had verse 21 drilled into their head when it should be about faith, not praying and fasting. I am not trying to take away from praying and fasting. It should only be done when God says it, not when man decides they want to do it in order to prove a point or prove why they can not do something. That’s usually because they are not of the true community, but of the church of the world (spirit of religion).
The entire purpose of showing you these few incorrect (yes, there are many more) translations is to show how important it is to hear from God, and have God directly teach you.
John 14
26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
The denominations were created out of the physical not the spiritual. The problem was no one had taught or was teaching the spirit, listening to God, etc. That’s because, for centuries, the church was in control by those who did not believe. When those who did believe got in control, they had not been taught correctly so they carried on as they had seen before them. Today you can still see it in all denominations of one form or another where the entire belief is based on physical precepts not spiritual ones.
All Satan had to do was plant an idea or thought here and there and use those who would reach the most and then mankind did the rest.
In John 3:16 it says, "God so loved the world". If that is true, why would Jesus say that most are on the path to destruction unless they are? This is not what He wants; it is just a fact.
In Matthew 7 Jesus tells us that, out of those who claim to be of Him, most are on the path to destruction while only a few are on the path to life. Then in Mark 4 He says that, out of four groups, the first is the lost, the second and third make it part way and then fall away, and only the fourth group makes it all the way (100%). Then in Revelation 2-3 He addresses the seven known churches and claims that only one of the seven is of Him and the other six are not. Then at the end of Revelation 3 He tells how they could change, how all can change, and can be on the path to life if only they will listen.
Revelation 3
19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
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.
He is at the door knocking but you can not hear Him or His knocking unless you are listening. Those who do hear and overcome the lies of the world and religion and overcome the flesh will sit with Him.
It is your choice remain as one of the majority on the path to destruction or stop what you are doing and:
We are not seeking more people to join us in a ministry or church of this world, but for those to join His community where they are led by Him, as are we. We all need to be of Him, not of the flesh or this world, but to be one with each other and Him in the Spirit. To have the common unity of the Spirit each and every one of us until He returns.
So your choice is easy. Read the Gospel of John one verse at a time taking it to God to reveal all it says and means. Then let Him guide you through the Bible, learning His written word and knowing the truth, because He can reveal the truth even of that which is translated incorrectly or written wrong. Cultivate a relationship with your heavenly Father. If you have children then you can understand how important it is to Him to have us come to Him to seek His advice, knowledge, guidance, love, just as we want our children to do with us.