I’m writing to you about something that has drastically changed my belief in God the Father and in the gospel of His Son Jesus Christ. My hope and prayer is that you will listen to what I have to say, and I will try my best to do this in love; because I care for each one of you. (1 Cor.16:14) I have much to say so I will go right into what I did to come about to this change of mind.
I started my search for truth shortly after I lost my brother Doug to brain cancer (August 20th 2009). As I started this journey I was discovering small amounts of truth at a time; like Dispensationalism, this is in error of what the Scriptures teach us. This doctrine contradicts several passages of Scripture, and can be easily refuted. Another truth that I discovered was how accurate the Bible is about the beginning of man, the flood, and when science is studied correctly (in other words we let the Bible be our starting point) we can see the harmony between the two.
So let’s move forward to the moment of when I came to a point of wanting to know the truth of God’s word, His will for my life as well as everyone else who wants to become a child of God. Please let me pause here to let you know that for us to gain God’s truth we have to desire only Him and His word; away from man’s ideas along with their false doctrines. I beg you to please shake yourself of what man has taught you and Seek Him only! (Matt. 6:33; Hebrews 11:6) When and if you can get to this point in your life to do this; this is when God will reveal to you the knowledge of truth. (2 Timothy 2:25; 3:7)
In the beginning of September of 2010 I did just that; I cried out to God for discernment, for knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:1-6). I did not care what man had to say, only what His word said for that is where truth is; His word only! This was my prayer to the Father knowing He would answer, and He did! My faith was greater than it had ever been before!
Please allow me to make a statement here.
The prayer that I prayed is the prayer that God will hear from a sinner (before I became a child of God)! Praying to receive forgiveness of our sins before we are saved is not Biblical. Only if you are a child of God (SAVED) will He hear your plea for forgiveness.
That was in the morning when my plea went up to God; that night He answered! Someone called the house looking for my wife who was not home at that time so they proceeded to ask me about Calvinism and asked if I knew anything of it. I told them that I would look into it and get back with them on what I discovered. I did get back to this person, but not for several days.
I started with a Google search on Calvinism; my eyes went right to the fourth result down on the first page; Calvinism refuted, and so I clicked on that link. What I found on this website was teaching straight from the Bible. This website has an extensive amount of material on it and what did I find within seconds of being on this sight. What one must do to be saved!
Now since this teaching is different from what I had been taught all my life I began to ponder in my thoughts was this God answering my prayer. After thinking through what had happened that day along with what I was reading on the website I came to the conclusion that this was answer to my prayer.
I proceeded with my studies from this site staying away from what church affiliation this person was from knowing that might hinder me from learning the truth if this was the truth. As I mentioned before this site was leading me through the Bible; not what man thinks the Bible says, but only what the Bible says. (2 Peter 1:20-21)
As I moved forward with my studies I was discovering that the doctrines of “Once saved always saved” “Original sin” and “Faith Only” or “Faith Alone” are all false doctrines as well.
After about three days of spending several hours studying what this website had to say, I came into the knowledge that God wants everyone to gain. I went to the link that directed me to the local churches in my area to obey the gospel. I called one of the elders from the Roswell church of Christ, and told him of what I had discovered.
He told me that when I was ready to move forward in obedience to the truth that he would make it happen no matter what time of the day or night. WOW!! I had never heard that before! Coming out of a denominational church you will never hear that. I understand why they schedule baptisms now; they misunderstand the importance of what is happening when one obeys from the heart. (Acts 2:38; 22:16; Romans 6:3&4; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:11-13; 1 Peter 3:20-21)
I would like to mention (Matthew 4:4) “But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’ ” I want to tell everyone that I believe with all my heart that I’m saved by grace through faith. We are now under the Law of Faith (Rom. 3:27) every word that Paul says in Romans is to be believed about justification by faith, we are justified by faith! (Romans 5:1)
But he never said faith alone justifies us! If Paul would have taken it that far he would have been in contradiction with his Lord and the other apostles. Faith is the key to unlocking the power of the gospel of Christ. (Romans 1:16, 17) Everything we do must be done in faith; without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6) (Romans 14:23 last part of verse)
You see I spent the last twenty plus years in the Baptist church and was baptized into the Baptist church in 1990. I can remember so vividly questioning what I was doing at that time. Is this what God wants from me?
I can remember going to Sunday school in the Baptist church, and after sitting there for about an hour I would think. Is the Bible really saying this? I would think to myself about all the differing denominations and except this as the way it is.
Through the years I could never shake myself from these questions. I could go several weeks without thinking about it, but when you are going to church almost every week, and you are being put into a position to believe Scripture in a way that contradicts what it is saying something has to give. You see the Baptist church will tell you to believe in what the Bible is saying, but then tell you something that it does not even say. I do not mean to point out the obvious, but this was confusing to me.
I won’t to close by saying we all need to become treasure hunters! But in doing this we must shed our selves of the precepts (doctrines) of men. God knows the inner man so you will not fool Him if your heart is not pure in your hunt. Allow yourself little by little to tear down the walls that have been built up by the denominational world.
Be patient, it might take one, or two years, or even longer. God will do exactly what He said He will do!
