TheShiningLight

Letters From Francis

This is a series of letters from a person who has now been baptised by a major COG Organization.  I am posting these because they cover a series of questions and answers that may be helpful to others.  The exchange of messages continues beyond what is posted here, regretably the other material has not been saved.  Fred is not the real name of this person.  The name and dates have been deleted.


I am interested in any and all information you have on "coming out of Babylon" I have searched the site with no real luck. Thank you. Also Revelation 2:20, I understand that Jezebel is The Catholic Church and beleive that the fornication is Sunday. I don't understand what "eat things sacrificed to idols" means nor what "because thou sufferest that woman" <------- what does these 2 things mean? sufferest this woman and eat things sacrifice! d to idols? Thank you

ANSWER

In the Greek, the term fornication is pornea, this word is not as limited as the English word fornication.  Pornea means any kind of sexual excess, including adultry and fornication.  The reference on Rev 2:20 is to spiritual fornication or adultry. Which means to be disloyal to the  God we have espoused ourselves to. In any Godly marriage sexual loyalty is imperative. If we are disloyal to our mates we damage our marriage.  God also requires our loyalty. To go seeking after other gods is disloyalty. It is not necessary to claim to worship those gods. Simply accepting and following their ways of worship, ie Sunday, is in fact accepting them in place of God's commandments.

 
You do well to say that the Roman Catholic Church is that spiritual Jezebel and that Sunday observing instead of Sabbath is fornication, or disloyalty to God's commandments. However Catholicism is only one of many false religions.  All false religions are simply various types of Jezebels. It is just that the Catholic Church and her Daughter churches claim to be Christian, to be of Christ and are therefore the most dangerous deceptions to the true Christian. That thought of fornication is much deeper than Catholicism. It refers to any and all disloyalty to God and His will.  In marriage a wife is told to obey her husband and to be loyal to him through that Godly obedience. If we are espoused to Christ, we are being trained and tested now to see whether we will be obedient and loyal to Him. Whether we would make a good wife for Him! 
 
Eating things sacrificed to idols refers to ACCEPTING things associated with idols, such as taking into ourselves (our minds) false doctrines.  Eating, brings things into our bodies. Spiritually accepting a doctrine, or the doctrines of idols (false gods) is taking into our minds the false teachings of false religions.
 
In 1611 English "to suffer" something can mean to tolerate it.  In Rev 2:20, Christ is referring to the fact that our shepherds are tolerating false doctrines to be taught to the faithful without doing anything to stop it.  A classic example would be the Roman Catholic "Primacy of Peter" heresy which was finally accepted by Herbert Armstrong around 1969.  He had preached tirelessly against this evil for most of his life, until then.  Google for HWA 1939 article on Primacy of Peter to see what he used to teach.  You may find THE ETERNAL IS GOD page, the MARRIAGE page and the pages on the SEVEN CHURCHES will help further, in this matter. Rev 2:22 says that anyone who commits adultery with Jezebel will be cast into great tribulation.  This is because committing adultrey with her means to be in agreement with her on at least a few things.  And when we commit adultery, we become ONE flesh with our partner, even so, to commit SPIRITUAL ADULTERY MEANS TO BECOME OF ONE SPIRIT with our partner.  Now if we become one with Jezebel, we have NO PART WITH CHRIST, for Jezebel is the ENEMY OF CHRIST.
 
Now the Pope says that there many ways to God.  Scripture says that there is only ONE WAY, which is through Christ.  By saying this, the Pope is elevating himself into a position of respect even in religions other than Catholic.  He is creating a situation where he is becoming a moral voice for the whole world and in so doing has begun to usurp the ultimate authority of the leaders of all religions.  Even if they do not JOIN the Catholic Church they are submitting to his guidence and moral authority.  Soon the only real sin, will be to state the truth, that there is only ONE way to God and only ONE true religion.  That will be looked upon as intolerant and considered an attitude of HATE toward other faiths.  We will be forced to tolerate "suffer" false religions or be persecuted. To comprimise sound doctrine by agreeing that there are other ways to God, will mean accepting there false doctrines.  In this way the Pope will "seduce" some of the saints.  For more than a thousand years Popes have been alternately seducing and persecuting the saints.  These things coming will be the ultimate test for us.
                              THE VERY BEST TO YOU  James Malm

Thank you so much for your quick response.
I have another question which you may have some insight about. In respect to "unclean" I have run into a debate with a Protestant member of my family (my sister) who continues to claim that God is calling her to be a Pastor. I know very well what Paul says about women being leaders in the church, that they are to remain silent in the church and are not permitted to teach. She insists that is not so for today because God has made certain provisions for things which were prohibited in the Old Testament such as eating unlcean  animals. The scripture which she is clinging to in in Acts 11: 5- 10 "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6) I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7) Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.' 8) "I replied, 'Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9) "The voice spoke from heaven a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.' 10) This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
Can you please explain this to me, I understand that the Churches of God still abide by the laws of clean and unlcean but I want an expert opinion on how to clarify this through scripture. Thank you for all your help,

RESPONSE

We are to keep the commandments of God and when there is a dream or vision we are to test (try)the spirits; whether they be from God 1 Joh 4:1.  How do we do this, by proving whether the dream or vision is consistant with the Word of God Deu 13.  When Peter saw the vision referred to in Acts 11, he immediately made the test and found the instruction to be contrary to scripture and therefore said "not so".  Then a voice  said, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common" Acts 11:9.
 
Now the event in the vision happened THREE times and immediately there appeared THREE men.
The story continues from verse eleven to verse eighteen, where it is explained that God has also called Gentiles into His way and the Jews are not to call those Gentiles common or reject them, because they had been called and cleansed by God.  The Holy Spirit cannot be given to an unrepentant (unclean) person.  The fact that God poured out His Spirit on them, showed that they had repented and that God had, CLEANSED them from SIN (verse 15).
 
This entire episode is about teaching Peter to accept the Gentiles as well as Jews, in the faith. The clean and unclean creatures were used as an allegory of clean (repentant) and unclean (wicked, unrepentant) men.  It had nothing to do with eating animals.  It is necessary to study the whole subject, in context and to start from the perspective that God's Word is the standard, not our own opinions.
 
Please study the page on CLEAN AND UNCLEAN at theshininglight web site to add to this explanation.  Also, you are right; the scripture forbids women to teach religion to men or to usurp authority over men.  Women are even commanded to cover their heads when praying to express humility and to acknowelege the authority of their husbands or fathers 1 Cor 11:4-6.  A woman is not even to ask a question of any except her husband, for it is shameful for a woman to even speak in the Church 1 Cor 14:35.  This is NOT about putting women down, it IS about not bypassing the authority of a father or husband.  In the military it is called respect for the chain of command.  It is about respect for God given authority in the family.
 
I should add that Acts 11 is a version of Acts 10.  If you read Acts 10 first and see Peter's conclusion in Acts 10:28, you will get the whole picture.  May I ask what group are you attending with?                 James


Mr Malm, Thank you so much for your insight, I am so grateful that you are doing God's work and for your quick response to my questions. I am studying to be baptized and hope to be before the feast. My pastor has deleted and so he is so overwhelmed that I ofetn do not want to burden him with my questions. Thank you for your time.

RESPONSE

Thank you for telling me that John.  No need to be concerned, there are very many in the LCG and UCG who visit our site and even get the Newsletter. We are here to be of service to everyone!  I will say, that the leadership of these groups  does not appreciate our effort.
                      ALL THE BEST   James Malm


Colosians 2:14) Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

I am not sure what this scripture means. What are the ordinaces that were against us which were contrary to us which was nailed to the cross?

Protestans typically use this to say that the Sabbath was nailed to the cross although I know that isn't so and claim that the 4th commndment is not in the New Testament but I know that Hebrews 4 covers the seventh day and that it is also reresentative of the millenial rest. Thank you

RESPONSE

When any man stands condemned by a judge, the list of the charges is read out.  As Christ stood condemned, FOR US; the list of the charges AGAINST US was nailed to the stake along with Him.  He paid the penalty required by that list of charges.  Actually only Jesus Christ and the Title King of the Jews was nailed to that stake.  The list of the ordinances which were against us (the list of those laws that we had broken, the charges against us) was figuratively nailed, in that this was what Jesus Christ was paying for.
 
There are three articles at the site which focus directly on this subject of law, they are LAW AND GRACE, TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE and THE WAY TO SALVATION.  Each of these covers this point from a different perspective.  These would go a long way to helping to understand this subject.


Mr Malm, one last scripture which Protestans use to claim that we can obsereve any day of our choosing as the Sabbath is Romans 14: 5-10 "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
 6) He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
 7)For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
 8)For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
 9)For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
 10) But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
My guess is that when we do stand before the judgement seat of Crist, we will have to give account as to why we were or were not following the commandments of God or why we followed the commandments of men. Is this correct?

RESPONSE

You do come up with the heavy questions.  I think that this is really GREAT. You are truly seeking understanding.
 
Begin with the first verse Rom 14.  The subject here is weakness in the understanding of the brethren.  Verse two and three deal with the subject of vegitarianism.  Verse five, covers days that MEN esteme, NOT God's commanded Assemblies.
 
The entire subject in Rom 14 is about not condemning others based on the differing ideas among brethren regarding the CUSTOMS OF MEN.  At that time, there were several competing philosophies among the people.  For example the Stoics taught to be vegitarians.  People coming out of these philosophies, still carried some of these ideas.  Paul was dealing with the friction caused by this.  For example, the Jews insisted on fasting on certain days each week and condemned others who did not.  Paul was pointing out that this was just tradition of men and that people should not be judged on the basis of men's traditions.
 
In short; Rom 14 is about not being offensive to others based on human tradition verse 21.  The subject here is; THE TRADITIONS OF MEN, NOT THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD!  And, that Godly love requires not causing our brethren to stumble.
          ALL THE BEST     James