Street Preachers Fellowship

 

Teachers of the Law

 

“Now the end of the commandment is charity

Out of pure heart, and a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jaingling;

desiring to be teachers of the law;

understanding neither what they say,

nor whereof they affirm.”

                                     -1 Timothy 1:7, 8

 

          There is a present day over emphasis of the law being injected into the gospel message, that began in America in 1983 and is gathering a sizeable following and influence amongst the “unlearned and unstable” (2 Peter 3:16) that this preacher feels must needs be checked before it is allowed to even minutely make an appearance into the work of the ministry amongst our churches. From the angelic admonition of Acts 1:11 that warns that as Christ returned to heaven the first time, “in like manner” shall he return to earth the second time, it behooves us to beware of the problems that effected the early church, for they will most assuredly make a reappearance in our days, just prior to the glorious appearing of our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. One of those problems that prevailed in Paul and Timothy’s days was with ministers that left off preaching in a “desire to be teachers of the law” (1 Timothy 1:7, 8). That desire has captivated certain well known preachers and unknown preachers of late, that think they have discovered some new light that no one else ever saw, and their injection of it today into the plan of salvation centers upon outright heresy, which as an Anabaptists preacher and bishop in this church, I cannot leave unchecked or uncorrected.

          This preacher has for 25 years ignored certain of these unstable souls that for the most part damaged only their own ministries, for they had little influence beyond their own self exaggerated opinions of how big they were in comparison to how big the wanted to be. This long time “lover of good men” has been a lover of the word of God even more, so that we have always felt it a simple matter to put to rest with those who “desired to be teacher of the law”, for the Bible clearly said in two unmistakable declarations, that “the end of the commandment is charity” (1 Timothy 1:&, 8), and “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness sake to everyone that believeth” (Romans 10:4). End of the argument with the author in his younger years. Howbeit, in 25 years this preacher’s over sight has expanded greatly from God and the responsibility entrusted to him by those “soldiers of the cross” called Anabaptists to write in defense of “the faith once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). The apostle Paul had to face the identical problem shortly after his ordination in Acts 13, when by Acts 15 “certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). This heresy is almost identical, and as always is started by “teachers” (15:1) instead of preachers, that want to teach “the brethren” something their own ministers are not teaching them, and without exception, is began by someone from another country that never could get an audience in his own country, so he “comes down” to where “the disciples were called Christians first” (Acts 11:26) to peddle his ignorance of the scriptures as some new light from abroad. The original law teachers came from Judaea where the ministers there “gave no such commandment” (15:24), and travelled to Antioch, Syria (14:21) to teach something new that only caused “dissension and disputation” (15:2) amongst the brethren. Paul went to Jerusalem to attempt to correct the matter (Galatians 2:1-11), which after “there had been much disputing, Peter rose up” (15:7) and with James (vs. 13) worked out a compromise which “pleased…the apostles and elders, with the whole church” (vs. 22) and “wrote letters” (vs. 23) which like the Pharisees they were (see vs. 5) laid upon the church “no greater BURDEN than these necessary things”, only one of which was necessary; which Paul openly rebuked Peter for (Galatians 2:1-11). Jesus Christ warned about “the scribes and Pharisees that sit in Moses’ seat” and “bind heavy BURDENS and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders” (Matthew 23:1-3). Howbeit, just “withstanding those that are to blame” (Galatians 2:11) never solves the problem completely, which eventually moved Paul years later to write the detailed study of the law in relation to grace that you read in The Book of Romans.  

Howbeit, today these same “Pharisees which believe” refuse to get out of “the seat of Moses” and just preach “the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3), and have decided to twist what Paul wrote in Romans so that they can slide back into what even Peter and James acknowledged in their compromise and create within the body of Christ, present day Ministers of Moses which “PREACH HIM…in every city” (Acts 15:21). Accordingly, after so many years of just “withstanding those that were to blame” (Galatians 2:11), like Paul of old, this preacher sends forth the following, which is put forth with much prayer and labor, trusting that the Holy Spirit of God will stem the flow of such heresy in this damnable philosophical attempt to supplant the preaching of the cross, with the preaching and teaching of the law of Moses.  

Jesus Christ spent more time correcting religious leaders in their emphasis upon the law, than He ever spent quoting from it. Out of the twenty four times “the law” and/or “the commandments” were mentioned by Jesus Christ, only once did He ever directly quote the law to anyone, and that was to answer the question put to Him on “which is the great commandment in the law?” (Matthew 22:36/ Mark 12:28); to which Christ quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-5 with the addition of defining “all thy might” as inclusive of  “thy mind, and…thy strength”. All the other times Christ mentions “the law” or the “the commandment[s]”, He is clarifying what they are, or correcting the Pharisees over-emphasis of the law as having anything to do with the New Testament requirements for salvation.  

          From the beginning of the New Testament, Jesus Christ made it quite clear that “the law and the prophets WERE UNTIL JOHN: since that time THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS PREACHED, and every man presseth into it” (Luke 16:16). Christ then proceeded to preach the Kingdom of God 72 times in three years’ time while only quoting from the law one time. Additionally, the Scriptures clarified that from the beginning of the Gospel according to St. John, that “the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17), and that every reference from Christ to “the law” was based upon this definition straight from the mouth of Jesus Christ that “all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for THIS IS THE LAW and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). Though Jesus Christ made it clear that “one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18), He also insisted that we “think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy BUT TO FULFIL” (vs. 17).

          And following the resurrection of Christ, the Lord assembled His disciples in on the Mount of Olives and gave one last admonition to his disciples concerning “the law of Moses”, and then gave them a very clear command as to what they should go forth preaching in His name.

 

Luke 24:44-48, “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in THE LAW OF MOSES, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

 45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

 46  And said unto them, Thus IT IS WRITTEN, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

 47  And that REPENTANCE AND REMISSION OF SINS should be PREACHED in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

 48  And ye are witnesses of these things.”

 

          There is none of those things “written in the law of Moses…concerning [Jesus Christ]” that were not fulfilled, even as Christ said. Granted there are still some few things “written in the…prophets, and in the psalms, concerning [Christ]” that are still unfulfilled physically. But not as they were “written in the law of Moses” (vs. 44). Howbeit, the refusal or failure to adhere to Christ’s instructions, his words and his last command has oft times created a Christian ministry that the last 60 years of history has proved time and again, that Satan’s “devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11) in destroying the effectiveness of the ministry, as from the beginning of the church until this present hour has always been errant ministers, thinking they had some new light on how to be “an effective witness”, “fresh voices”, “influential evangelists”, “potent teacher” instead of a preacher of the only three things Christ ever told us to preach.

• “The kingdom of God” (Luke 16:16).
• “Repentance and remission of sins” (Luke 24:47).
• “The gospel” (Mark 16:15).

 

Before this preacher examines the scriptural mandates exposing such error, allow me to set forward the present history of those that “desire to be teachers of the law” (1 Timothy 1:7, 8). The early days of the modern Fundamental movement, brought the temporary close of open air evangelism with the death of J. Frank Norris, who died ministerially, 15 years before he died physically, as Norris’ “teachers having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3) who Norris used in his seminary, “transformed” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) his preaching ministry into a teaching ministry that created a Fundamental Christianity that emphasized a “soul winning” and a “witnessing” ministry over a preaching ministry. That close of open air preaching would last 40 years, and damn countless millions of “Romans Road Christians” to hell, by “strengthen[ing] the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, BY PROMISING HIM LIFE” (Ezekiel 13:22).

          Then in the late 70’s and early 80’s God began to slowly revive open air preaching as young Bible students from Florida began to take the fervent teachings of Peter S. Ruckman out into their own personal ministries, even more than the ‘old man’ had demonstrated and kept in his own. Two of those open air street preachers that simply followed orders with much zeal were the author and an older brother named Karl Baker of Swansea, South Carolina. Brother Baker and the author never dreamed that they would be condemned by the brethren, and even the ‘old man’ that taught us how to preach on the street, if we just went out and kept doing so after we left school. But those two fervent students, one young and one old just reckoned on God being with them out of school, like they were taught He would while they were in school. In so doing, it did not take 18 months from the younger man’s graduation before both of those street preachers were in jail for simply continuing to do what they had been taught to do in Bible school. The reaction was immediate in both men’s lives. The municipal authorities went crazy with their hatred of God, and the dearly beloved brethren, without exception had spiritual breakdowns from stark fear that if these two trouble makers continued to defy law enforcement’s command to stop preaching, ultimately every Christians would eventually be thought of as being like these two nuts and everyone would be imprisoned!

          The reaction of the Brethren in condemning these two open air preachers was almost overwhelming. Yet that opposition inspired the younger preacher to rejoice and charge forward even more fervently. Howbeit, the Christian opposition eventually wore down the older preacher and persuaded him to quit open air preaching for the most part. However, Brother Baker did not dim until he had captured the attention of another nearby preacher, that like the author had followed his love of the historical annals of open air preaching right back to the single group of Christians that had always remained faithful in the calling to an open air ministration of preaching the gospel throughout the world. That nearby preacher was a man named Billy Randal, of Columbia, South Carolina. Brother Randall and the author, again one old and one young, have the distinct position in modern church history of starting the only two truly Anabaptists Churches in the United States since the mid 1700’s, which they pastored for almost 15 years before another one came into existence. When the author founded the World Wide Street Preachers’ Fellowship, his top two ministers on the Advisory Board were Karl Baker and Billy Randal.   

          In watching closely the open air preaching of Brother Karl Baker in Swansea, Randal began to notice the impact and effect that Baker’s preaching was having on the inhabitants of Swansea; listeners that openly demonstrated that they did not want to hear any of it. Karl Baker was a preacher that could stand and preach against the sins of Swansea, and in so doing, Baker would quote Old and New Testament scriptures in “striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:4) for which he was jailed and confined to a mental ward. Hearing of Baker’s plight, pastor Billy Randal came to his assistance, with much wonder about how one preacher could stir up so much trouble by simply preaching on the street in a small town. Howbeit, Billy Randall didn’t pick up on that New Testament admonition from Hebrews concerning our “striving against sin”, but rather errantly fell to an unrighteous emphasis upon the law of Moses which he would hear Baker quote from in the Ten Commandments.

 

“For the law was given by Moses,

But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

                                                         -John 1:17

 

          Randall did so out of a misunderstanding of the book of Romans, which he gleaned from his personal reading of the writings of Charles Spurgeon, that would turn Randall and his church into a Calvinistic flesh hole. Randall also had a disdain of Fundamentalism that he could clearly see had produced a fraudulent Christianity that was no different from the sinners and ungodly in the world. Howbeit, in examining the failings of Fundamentalism’s Romans Road plan of salvation, certain verses from The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans troubled the Anabaptists preacher, namely those Paul wrote that concerned the use of the law; of which the Apostle Peter warned that Paul had written in “his epistles…things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). Peter followed that admonition with this dire warning,

 

“Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before,

Beware…Beware…Beward lest ye also, being led away

With the error of the wicked,

Fall from your own stedfastness.”

                                     -2 Peter 3:17

         

          Billy Randall did not see that warning, but he did see in the open air preaching of Baker, a ministration that angered and upset the wicked, and troubled the hearts of the ungodly. Randall saw in Baker’s strong reproofs of sin and wickedness, a very violent and blasphemous reaction from the wicked and from the ungodly. And Randall liked what he saw and heard. Howbeit, Billy Randall was never an avid reader of the Bible before he became an avid preacher or teacher of the Bible, and having not repeatedly read the Bible, he did not know the Bible in those early days as well as he sought to teach it. And as with any modern day preacher or teacher, seeking to preach or teach from the most dangerous Book in the world, before you know the spirit of it well enough for God to guide you spiritually through the letter of it, is courting personal self destruction from the very Book you seek to teach and preach to others, “for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). Had Randall repeatedly read the Bible from cover to cover before he considered himself capable of commenting on the difficult passages therein, he would have recalled very quickly, that the ungodly have always reacted to “open rebuke” (Proverbs 27:5) in every age exactly how the people of Swansea, South Carolina reacted to the preaching of Karl Baker.

 

 

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam,

Prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with

Ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment

Upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly

Among them of all their ungodly deeds which they

Have ungodly committed, and of all their hard

Speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

                                                                        -Jude14, 15

 

“They hate him that rebuketh in the gate,

And they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.”

                                                            -Amos 5:10

 

          One of the first mistakes preachers make, that always move them away from the leadership of the Holy Ghost in extemporaneous preaching is regarding the faces and countenances of their congregations that either show a passion or disdain for the message and style of delivery (see Jeremiah 1:17). Twice damned is the ministry that concerns itself with results good or bad, rather than obedience regardless of the outcome! In studying the Fundamentalist’s Romans Plan of Salvation, Randall had already pre-empted his outlook towards Baker’s preaching by a critical examination of the flawed theology of the Fundamentalist’s plan of salvation based upon flawed results. While examining the Book of Romans, used primarily in the Fundamentalists’ errant plan of an easy-believism salvation, Randall could not reconcile Paul’s statements concerning the law found in Romans 3. But when he saw and heard Baker preaching against sin, and in so doing quoting the Old Testament commandments along with New Testament verses, Randall’s inordinate passion over the resulting reaction of the crowd, almost spontaneously moved him to attribute the results to the preaching of the law, for Randall did the very thing Peter warned against, and “wrestled” with Romans 3:19, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith…the law saith…the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth….every mouth…every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” And from all the verses in the New Testament to start from, Randall couldn’t have tripped over any one further removed from the reaction of the crowd that had caught his attention. In observing the violently vulgar verbal reaction of the angry crowd to Baker’s preaching, Randall errantly subscribed and attributed that response to Baker’s quoting passages from the law. Randall errantly concluded that what was stirring up the crowd was the preaching of the law in condemning the sins, which moved them to violently and verbally assault and swear at the preacher. And strange as it may seem, his proof text for such was Romans 3:19, which he failed to see actually said just the opposite that the purpose of the law as applied to those “under the law” was “that every mouth may be stopped”. The open rebuke of Baker’s preaching, as with every street preacher, doesn’t stop the mouths, but rather, for the most part directly causes them to open wide.

 

“Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me.”

                                                        -Psalm 35:21

 

          And this provocative verbal response of anger and wrath is not instigated by “the law”, but by “the work of the law” written in the Gentiles heart (Romans 2:15), because “the law worketh wrath” (Romans 4:15). The law stops the mouths (3:19). Nevertheless, from that small town’s violent reaction to being openly rebuked came the origin of the present day heresy that insists that preachers must use the law as a means to grace! As it was originally taught by Randall, it went even deeper into heresy with the wresting of the New Testament’s teaching of the priesthood of the believer. Randall eventually began not only teaching that preachers have to preach and teach the law in order for lost people to “become guilty before God” (Romans 3:19), he also propagated what he termed as “The Levitical Priesthood of the Believer”. All of this, he was teaching fervently beginning in 1983. Those heresies permeated just about all of his preaching, so that by mid 1985, Billy Randall was an Anabaptists by name only. His errant teachings concerning the law and the priesthood of the believer created a ministration that would literally trouble the mind of every Bible student that picked that heresy up. By the end of 2003, Billy Randal had come to the end of what he had errantly created, with his church openly full of sin and wickedness, perversion and mental disorders which he found no answer for in what preaching ability he had left. Finally, during  the Annual Zion’s Hill Camp Meeting of 2003, Randall drove up to Pennsylvania and spoke briefly from a very troubled heart and mind in this preacher’s pulpit, handed the author a box of the most important books in Randall’s library, with all his Federal Court Cases and told Bishop McRae, “I’m through! I wanted you to have these books because I knew you would use them and keep them and pass them on. No one left in my church would even consider them important.” With a very sincere but troubled heart, Randal bade this preacher to stand fast in the Anabaptists faith of Jesus Christ and not error from what God had already shown him, especially as it concerned Billy Randall; and then that once great preacher drove himself and his wife back to South Carolina and right out of the ministry.

 One of Randall’s students caught up in this heresy was a young man named Gary Hartsock, from Pennsylvania, who took that teaching home to his Baptist pastor Daniel Mack Hardin. In the summer of 1985, Hartsock spent hours with the author trying to propagate such errant wresting of the scriptures, about which the author firmly reproved him over and over from the scriptures but to no avail. It was too late. Ditto for his pastor. Eventually, both men were consumed with the errant ministerial heresy that had so troubled Randall, and now was beginning to trouble them.

          What Randall and now Hartsock and Hardin had missed in the Bible study about the priesthood of the believer, was also what they missed about the law as well. The priesthood of the Christian does not proceed from the tribe of Levi, but rather as the scriptures proclaim of Christ, “For the priesthood being changed, there is made a necessity A CHANGE ALSO OF THE LAW. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood” (Hebrews 7:12-14).

Every heresy in the history of the church relating to the law of Moses came into being with ministers and teachers who refused or failed to read the plain King James English warning about the very law they “desired to teach”. The New Testament told every minister very clearly that with “the priesthood being changed, there is made a necessity A CHANGE ALSO OF THE LAW” (Hebrews 7:12). Missing that very clear verse, they also missed or out right refused to listen to the Author of the Best of Books (Hebrews 12:3), when God said, “that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law” (Romans 3:19). Every law-preacher that damned his congregation only read the last half of Romans 3:19, “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God”. The first half of Romans 3:19 clarifies the second half with this defining statement, “that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law”!! The entire second chapter of Romans was the pre-emptive finalization of God in declaring very plainly that the Gentiles did not have the law (Romans 2:12, 14), nor did they have to have the law to go to hell or to heaven (vs. 12). The Bible makes it very clear that “as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law” (Romans 2:12), to teach you the if Gentiles do not need the law to go to hell, they do not need the law to go to heaven either!

That is why the apostle Paul made it very clear that as “the apostle to the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13/ Galatians 2:7) when he brought the message that “salvation is come unto the Gentiles” (Romans 11:11) he did not preach or teach the law to them! On the contrary, Paul testified that “the Gentiles, which HAVE NOT THE LAW” (Romans 2:14) were “without law” (vs. 12); and that when “the apostle of the Gentiles” came preaching to them, he ordered that ministration in accordance to the three groups listed in 1 Corinthians 9:20-21, and that he preached “to them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law” (1 Corinthians 9:21). And “this [he did] for THE GOSPEL’S SAKE” (vs. 23). He told you plain out that his preaching to the Gentiles who were “without law” was also “without law”, which he did “for the Gospel’s sake”.

The entire argument from the law preachers is that when you preach or teach the law to the lost, that the law “works” on their heart to make them realize they are “become guilty before God” (Romans 3:19). But the verse did not say that! And further, the Gentiles are without law (2:12, 14) and perish without the law, just as fast as “the Jews” and “them that are under the law” (1 Corinthians 9:20) go to hell with the law. The Gentiles go to hell because that in spite of the fact they are “without law” (Romans 2:12, 14) “they do by nature the things contained in the law” (vs. 14) and thereby “become a law unto themselves” without anyone preaching it to them (vs. 14), because verse 15 says that by the Gentiles “doing by nature the things contained in the law”, they “shew the work of the law written in their hearts” (vs. 15). And Brethren, if you already have the work of the law written in your hearts, you do not need anyone preaching it to your ears to become guilty! The “work of the law is written in their hearts” (Romans 2:15). But Brethren, as saved Gentiles, full of the Holy Ghost, I ask you one thing from God!

 

“This only would I learn of you,

Received ye the Spirit by

THE WORKS OF THE LAW,

Or by THE HEARING…THE HEARING…THE HEARING

OF FAITH?”

                        -Galatians 3:2

 

          The Galatians never answered Paul’s question, and neither do these “teachers of the law”, for they can’t. They cannot answer the question, for they cannot even see that they are teaching something that is not even true in their own salvation experience. And they cannot even tell you what “the works of the law” are, even though they insist upon being teachers of it, “understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm” (1 Timothy 1:7). Brethren, “the works of the law” are these things.

• “Wrath” (Romans 4:15, “For the law worketh wrath.”).
• Makes the offense abound (Romans 5:20, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.”).
• Sets sin in motion (Romans 7:5, “Fore when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death”).
• “The knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20, “…for by the law is the knowledge of sin”).  

 

QUESTION: Now of which one of the above “works of the law” did you “receive the Spirit by”???

Brethren, this preacher, like everyone in the New Testament received the Spirit of God “by the hearing of faith” (Galatians 3:2). But Brethren, the book of Romans also says concerning that “hearing of faith” (Galatians 3:2) that it comes only one way, for “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the WORD OF GOD” (Romans 10:17), and that no one can hear without a PREACHER (Romans 10:14)! Preaching has nothing to do with the law, but it has everything to do with “the word of faith” (vs. 8). Because Romans 10:5-8 differentiates between “the righteousness which is of the law” (vs. 5) versus “the righteousness which is of faith” (vs. 6), and in choosing between the two, the Apostle Paul spoke for all the New Testament preachers on this wise.  

 

“But what saith it?

THE WORD is nigh thee,

Even in thy mouth, and IN THY HEART:

That is…THAT IS…THAT IS…

The word of faith, WHICH WE PREACH.”

                                                  -Romans 10:8

 

Now Brethren, show this preacher one time in the entire New Testament, where Paul preached the law to anyone. Show one verse where Paul instructed anyone to preach the law to unbelievers! Romans 10:8 says they preached “the word of faith”, not the word of the law, “for the letter killeth” (2 Corinthians 3:6). The Holy Spirit of God clearly noted throughout the Book of Acts exactly what Paul was preaching before and after the Council at Jerusalem to settle the question of the law (Acts 15). When Paul began his ministry in Acts 13, he began it with “the word of God” (Acts 13:7) not the law. And the Holy Ghost (vs. 9) made it quite clear that “the word of God” that Paul was preaching skipped “the law”; for when they were in Perga (vs. 14) Paul began a customary routine of going into the synagogue on the Sabbath day to preach to the Jews, which he continued doing all his life “as his manner was” (see Acts 17:2, 10, 17/ 18:4, 19, 26/ 19:8). And the Holy Ghost that wrote that Best of Books noted very clearly that “after the reading of THE LAW and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have ANY WORD of exhortation for the people, say on” (vs. 15): and when “Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand” (vs. 16) he started with the children of Israel dwelling “as strangers in the land of Egypt” (vs. 17), quickly noted all of the Book of Exodus in only this short statement, “and with an high arm brought he them out of it”, summarized all five books of Moses and Joshua in two verses (vs. 18, 19) without ever mentioning “the law” or “the commandments” one time; then covered the entire Book of Judges in verse 20, and dispensed with the Book of 1 Samuel in one verse (vs. 21), threw all of 2 Samuel, the Kings and the Chronicles and all the prophets into one brief statement in verse 22, and then jumped straight to Jesus Christ being “THE SEED” (vs. 23). Not one time did he ever even mention “the law” or “the ten commandments” to the very people they were given to. NOT ONE TIME!!! Instead, he launched into “the gospels” (vs. 24-25) and preached to them “the word of this salvation” (vs. 26), and covered in detail the rejection of Jesus Christ, and every element of “the gospel” as it was defined in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 (see vs. 27-31/c.f. 1 Corinthians 15:1-5). Paul noted that Jesus Christ “fulfilled all that was written of him” (vs. 29), died for our sins and was buried (vs. 29/ c.f. 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4), that “God raised him from the dead” (vs. 30/ c.f. 1 Corinthians 15:4), and that “he was seen many days” (vs. 31/ c.f. 1 Corinthians 15:5). That is the entire gospel preached to the Jews, and not one time did Paul mention “the law” or “the commandments”, but purposely skipped over them completely!!

What Paul preached to them, he called “glad tidings” (vs. 32), and confirmed the fulfillment of those “glad tidings” with scripture references in “the second psalm” (vs. 33), backed up the resurrection with a quotation from Isaiah 55:1-3 and Psalm 16:10 (vs. 34) and then identified for all times exactly what should be preached, even to those “under the law”, saying, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man [not through the law]…through this man is PREACHED UNTO YOU THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS: and BY HIM [not by the law]…by him ALL THAT BELIEVE are justified from all things, from which YE COULD NOT BE JUSTIFIED BY THE LAW OF MOSES” (vs. 38, 39). Now Brethren, look at it! They that “desire to be teachers of the law” cannot see it, but the Gentiles could see it and recognize it, and those same Gentiles sitting in the Jewish synagogue listening told Paul “when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that THESE WORDS…WORDS…WORDS might be PREACHED TO THEM the next Sabbath” (vs. 42). NOT THE LAW!!!!

Not one time in the entire Book of Acts or the New Testament did they ever preach the law to anyone, Jew or Gentile! The Scriptures clearly noted that “the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to HEAR THE WORD OF GOD” (vs. 44). Paul did not FIRST teach or preach to them “the law”. On the contrary, “Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, IT WAS NECESSARY that THE WORD OF GOD should FIRST…FIRST…FIRST have been spoken to you” (vs. 46), and their rejection of “the word of God” (vs. 46) amounted to “judging yourselves…judging yourselves unworthy of everlasting life” (vs. 46). The only mention of a commandment in the entire two Sabbath day’s message was a quotation from Isaiah 49:6, which Paul mentioned in verse 47, saying, “so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth”, which establishes that message good all the way until this present day, and the Bible called that message “the word of the Lord” (vs. 48, 49).

Throughout the Book of Acts, the Holy Ghost notes this same truth constantly in identifying clearly what Paul was preaching. Note the following before the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 dispensing with the law of Moses as part of the salvation message.

• “The word of his grace” (Acts 14:3).
• “And there they preached the gospel” (14:7).
• “Preached the gospel” (14:21).

Note the following, after the Council of Jerusalem dispensing with the law of Moses as part of the salvation message.

• “The Lord had called us for to PREACH THE GOSPEL unto them” (16:10).
• “What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” (16:30, 31).
• “This Jesus, whom I PREACH unto you, is Christ” (17:3).
• NOTE: Paul would even quote a heathen poet before the law (17:28).
• “Reasoned…and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ” (18:4, 5).
• “Teaching them the word of God” (18:11).
• “Shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ” (18:28).
• “Spake boldly…disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God” (19:8).
• “The word of the Lord” (19:10).
• “So mightily grew the word of the God” (19:20) without ever one mention of the law!
• “Preached unto them” (20:7) “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ…the gospel of the grace of God…preaching the kingdom of God” (20:7-25) which Paul declared was “all the counsel of God” (vs. 27) and did not include any mention of the law.
• “Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (20:28).
• “The words of the Lord Jesus” (20:35).
• AND BRETHREN, one must needs pay close attention to the next chapter, where, after all that Paul had been preaching above, “declar[ing] particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry” (21:19), when he returned to Jerusalem, where nothing had gone on worth even mentioning in the Book of Acts since Acts 7, Peter and John were right back into same heresy of the law concerning “circumcision” that they wrote that they had rejected at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:23, 24/ c.f. 21:21). And when they insisted that Paul “purify himself…and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing” (21:24), the entire ministry is turned upside down, and Paul is beaten and thrown in jail over Peter’s stupid heretical advice, about which incident Paul wrote of Peter in the eternal records of God, “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me THE PREACHING…THE PREACHING…THE PREACHING might be fully known” (2 Timothy 4:16, 17).
• And in Paul’s defense in the midst of the Jewish riots caused by Peter’s stupid adherence to the law, Paul got up and made his defense to the teachers of the law, and never mentioned the law one time! Paul gave his testimony of salvation (22:1-17), and noted God’s word to him that “they will not receive thy testimony CONCERNING ME” (vs. 18), but never mentioned the law one time. NOT ONE TIME!
• And God approved of everything Paul had preached without the law, saying, “Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified OF ME in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness in Rome” (23:11). God never mentioned the law, nor did he upbraid Paul for not mentioning it once in his entire preaching ministry to that point. Rather, the Lord said of Paul’s preaching without the law, “AS THOU HAST TESTIFIED OF ME”, “SO MUST THOU BEAR WITNESS OF ME IN ROME”.
• “The resurrection of the dead” (24:15).
• “The resurrection of the dead” (24:21).
• “The faith in Christ” (24:24).
• “That God should raise the dead” (26:8).
• “The name of Jesus of Nazareth” (26:9).
• “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (26:18).
• “Repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance” (26:20).
• And the only time, Paul ever mentioned Moses in all his preaching ministry, he specifically detailed what portion of the writings of Moses he ever used in “witnessing both to small and great” (26:22), Paul said to Agrippa, “saying NONE OTHER THINGS THAN THOSE which the prophets and Moses DID SAY SHOULD COME: that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles” (26:22, 23). Paul specifically told you, that out of the writings of Moses, he said “NONE OTHER THINGS THAN THOSE which…Moses did say SHOULD COME: that Christ should suffer, and…rise from the dead”. Only those portions of the writings of Moses relating to the gospel, were what Paul used in “witnessing both to small and great”. Not the law! Never the law!
• Paul ended the Acts of the Apostles, just as he began it, preaching “the salvation of God” (28:28) that he defined as “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ” (28:31).

 

The reason no New Testament preacher ever preached the law to unbelieving, carnal minds was “because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it IS NOT SUBJECT TO THE LAW OF GOD, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). Can you not see that Brethren??? Why preach the law to a carnal mind, when the scriptures and the very Book the teachers of the law wrest, say, “the carnal mind…IS NOT SUBJECT TO THE LAW OF GOD, NEITHER INDEED CAN BE” (8:7)??!! The Old Testament lessons of Israel’s failure “to attain to the law of righteousness…because the sought it not by faith, but as it were BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW” (Romans 9:31, 32), is outright ignored by these “teachers of the law”. Yet these New Light “teachers of the law” want us to do the same, and that in the midst of a revival of open air preaching of “repentance toward God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).

Howbeit, ministers and teachers of the Bible, who attempt such without reading the Bible over and over from cover to cover, never can leave the Bible to simply mean what it says and say what it means (see John 21:22, 23/ Joshua 23:1, 2). In failing to do so, they habitually read what they want to teach into everything the Bible says in relation to what they are trying to get the Bible to teach. In so doing, they are absolutely blind to what the Bible says that is clearly opposed to what they teach. Example: Romans 3:9 says that “we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that THEY ARE ALL UNDER SIN”! But no where in the New Testament does it say that “they are all under the law”. On the contrary, Galatians 3:22 reiterates and clearly defines by what authority God has “concluded all under sin” and it isn’t by the law, by the teaching of it or by the preaching of it.

 

“But THE SCRIPTURE…the SCRIPTURE…

THE SCRIPTURE hath concluded all under sin,

That the promise BY FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST

Might be given to them that believe.”

                                               -Galatians 3:22

 

          And Brethren, Jesus Christ defined the scriptures in Luke 24:44 as a combination of “the law of Moses…the prophets, and…the psalms”, of which combination to that date, verse 45 calls “scriptures”. Jesus Christ called the Book of the Prophet Isaiah scripture in Luke 4:16-21. The Holy Spirit of God called Isaiah 53 scripture in Acts 8:32-35. The Bible includes the following Old and New Testament passages as scripture.

• The Book of Psalms (John 2:17-22 c.f. Psalms 69:9/ John 7:38 c.f. Psalm 1:3/ John 19:24 c.f. Psalm 22:18/ John 19:28, 29 c.f. Psalm 69:21/John 19:36 c.f. Psalm 34:20/ John 20:9 c.f. Psalm 16:10, 11/ Acts 1:16 c.f. Psalm 41:9/ Matthew 21:42 c.f. Psalm 118:22, 23/ Matthew 26:55, 56 and Mark 14:49, 50 c.f. Psalm 88:8, 18/ Romans 15:3-4 c.f. Psalm 102:18/ ).
• The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (John 7:38-42 c.f. Jeremiah 31:9).
• The Book of the Prophet Micah (John 7:42 c.f. Micah 5:2).
• The Book of Genesis (John 13:18 c.f. Genesis 3:15/ Romans 4:3 c.f. Genesis 15:6/ Galatians 3:8 c.f. Genesis 12:3/ Galatians 4:30 c.f. Genesis 21:10/ James 2:23 c.f. Genesis 15:6 ).
• Exodus [prior to the 10 commandments] (John 19:36 c.f. Exodus 12:46/ Romans 9:17 c.f. Exodus 9:13-16).
• The Book of Zechariah (John 19:37 c.f. Zechariah 12:10).
• The Book of Revelation (John 19:37 c.f. Revelation 1:7….O Yeah man! The Bible can quote itself before it reveals itself!).
• The Book of Acts (John 20:9 c.f. Acts 2:22 with Psalm 16:10, 11).
• The Book of Isaiah (Romans 10:11 c.f. Isaiah 28:16/ 1 Peter 2:6 c.f. Isaiah 28:16).
• I Kings (Romans 11:2 c.f. 1 Kings 19:10-14).
• The Book of Deuteronomy (1 Timothy 5:18 c.f. Deuteronomy 25:4).
• The Book of Leviticus (James 2:8 c.f. Leviticus 19:18).
• The Book of Galatians (James 4:5 c.f. Galatians 5:17…nothing like a good Bible Study to dissolve ignorance of the scriptures).
• All of the Prophets (2 Peter 1:20/ Romans 1:2/ Romans 16:26).
• The Book of Ephesians (Matthew 21:42 c.f. Ephesians 2:20…the law preachers and teachers are never going to beat God out!).
• All four Gospels, Acts and Romans (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4).
• All of the Pauline Epistles (2 Peter 3:16).
• All the other books of the Bible (Revelation 5:1-9).
• The Book of Revelation (Revelation 22:18, 19).

 

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets,

He expounded unto them in ALL THE SCRITPURES

The things concerning himself.”

                                              -Luke 24:27

 

          Brethren, the Bible does not say that the law puts all men under sin, because it is impossible for the law to do anything before it was given by Moses. That is why the Bible says, “for until the law SIN WAS IN THE WORLD: but…but…but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” (Romans 5:13, 14). How???? Because the Bible says, “the scripture hath concluded all under sin” (Galatians 3:22). There was no Law before it was “given by Moses” (John 1:7). “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses” because sin reigned over all men based upon the “conclusion” of the scriptures that “concluded all under sin” (Galatians 3:22) and based upon the scriptural conclusion drawn against the first known murderer and liar in the Bible (John 8:44 c.f. Genesis 4:7); to whom the scriptures said, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, SIN LIETH AT THE DOOR. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him” (Genesis 4:7). That is the very first mention of the word “SIN”, and it was a personal reference to someone called “HE” whom Jesus Christ identified as Satan himself (John 8:44). The first mention of sin on this earth in “the scriptures” (The Book of Genesis is scripture: see above) occurred before anyone committed it! Cain did not lie to anyone or kill anyone until after the scriptures warned him about “well doing” which is the first step onto the path that leads to “eternal life” (see Romans 2:7…the author dares you to look at it!) if a man will follow his “conscience” (Romans 2:14, 15) and being “accepted” (Genesis 4:7).

NOTE: It is also noted here, that the law can be present and sin still not be imputed to a murderer and an adulterer (see David at 2 Samuel 12:13 and Psalm 32:1, 2 c.f. Romans 4:6-8)!!!!

Now, after so many years of watching the devil try to destroy very good open air ministers with this lie and seeing it die with them and their ministries, it has now risen from the dead like the “son of perdition” (see John 6:70, 71/ 17:12 c.f. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10), and what it could not do from the beginning of the return of open air preaching, Satan seeks to do in the midst of the greatest revival of open air preaching in the history of the church. Just as street preaching has taken fire all across the world, comes now to the stage, front and center the same errant heresy in a different robe. Now instead of being wrapped up with the sackcloth of a southern, rough neck street preacher who slaughtered the King’s English at every turn, it now comes dressed in “purple and scarlet” and garnished with the accolades of every liberal money making Hollywood preacher in America. When such errant wresting of the scriptures first emanated from the dark shadows along Andrew Corley Road, it came with an eerie sound of mystic Satanism under the entitlement of the Levitical Priesthood of the Believer, for which Randall could never convince but a few, when such mysticism with a southern drawl sounded more like “the doleful creatures” and owls of fallen Babylon (Isaiah 13:19-22), than ever it sounded like anything spiritual from God. Howbeit, now that very same damnable teaching comes hidden beneath the fake spiritual pretense of a British accent, flowing smoothly out of the Netherlands, where the most depraved forms of wickedness are tolerated by law, and there has never existed a preacher with the courage to strive openly against such sin. In the Netherlands prostitution is legal, adultery is advertised as a main attraction at local strip clubs, where husband and wives are welcome to take center stage with other depraved couples, and no preacher in the last fifty years has stood against it, except American street preachers who travelled to the Netherlands to preach what the Netherland preachers have always been afraid of doing. Out of that liberal theological coven of silent ministerial soothsayers comes to America and the world, the most famous preacher the Netherlands could produce, with the same “bread of deceit” (Proverbs 20:17) that killed Billy Randal’s ministry, but now called ‘The Way of the Master’, and breaks upon the scene of open air evangelism with both the financial support and backing of every major liberal television evangelist in America.

 

“And while he yet spake,

Lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came,

and with a great multitude…

said, Hail, Master; and kissed him.”

                                           -Matthew 26:47-49

 

          What originated with a small town South Carolina preacher and could go no further than two of his students, has now been revived out of the rubble of “Hell’s Best Kept Secret” and is sounding across America under the auspices of the “Pastor of Evangelism” for Hosanna Chapel in Bel….Bel…[they call it Bel] Belflower, California (see Jeremiah 51:44). The man’s stage name is Ray Comfort. The name of his town means ‘the flower of Bel’, and his name means a ‘ray of comfort’. And the “letters of commendation” are without precedent.

“Ray Comfort is one of the most influential evangelists of our day. His humor and quick whit combined with his potent teachings give him the ability to reach the world with the gospel like no other. I am blessed to call him a friend.”
– Chuck Missler

· “Ray Comfort sounds a trumpet call to revival in the twenty-first century. [His teaching] is a powerful light in the darkness of our times.”
– Dr. Jerry Falwell

· “Ray Comfort brings us a word that cuts to the core of man’s spiritual dilemma. As we pray for revival and wonder what God’s waiting for, we need to seriously consider this message. To ignore it puts us in spiritual peril.”
– Terry Meeuwsen–Co-host, The 700 Club

· “Ray Comfort is one of the freshest voices in Christian evangelism today. His ministry is one of the very few that meets lost North Americans right where they are, in language they understand. I recommend the use of his ministry, message and materials to everyone. We distributed 2,000 copies of his cassette taped message ‘Hell’s Best Kept Secret’ to every Southern Baptist pastor in Oklahoma and to most of our national leadership. Personally, I use his materials nearly every week.”  
– David E. Clippard, Associate Executive Director Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma

· “Ray Comfort’s teaching is right on. I’m glad he’s out there.”
– Joni Eareckson Tada

Ray Comfort’s has been commended by Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Ravi Zacharias, John MacArthur, David Jeremiah, Josh McDowell, Dr. Norman Deisler, Bill Gothard, David Wilkerson and is used in the Moody Bible Institute, Leighton Ford Ministeries, Campus Crusade for Christ etc., etc., ad nauseam.

 

“Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!

For so did their fathers to the false prophets.”

                                                     -Luke 6:26

 

Howbeit, he teaches nothing more than Billy Randall sought to preach, with the exception that it is aimed straight at street preachers to turn them down and turn them off from that Biblical style of delivery that God chose to save them that believe. In its stead, is a push to supplant the preaching of the cross as the power of God unto salvation (1 Corinthians 1:18) in the conversion of the sinner with the teaching and reasoning of the law of Moses.

 

“It goes without saying that something is wrong,

But it has been wrong for nearly one hundred years

Of evangelism, since the church

FORSOOK THE KEY TO THE SINNER’S HEART.

When it set aside the TEN COMMANDMENTS

in their function to convert the soul (Psalm 19:7).”

                                                                        -Ray Comfort

                                                                                      Revival’s Golden Key

 

The key to the sinner’s heart is not the ten commandments!

 

On the contrary, “the word of God…is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). And Psalm 19:7 does not say that the ‘ten commandments are perfect, converting the soul’. The Psalm said, “the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul”. Luke 2:22, 23 distinguishes the difference between “the law of Moses” (vs. 22) and “the law of the Lord” (vs. 23), which in the quotation referenced in “the law of the Lord” refers to scripture written before the Ten Commandments (vs. 23/ c.f. Exodus 13) before the Israelites ever came out of Egypt, and the other reference is to Leviticus 12:8 after the ten commandments were engraven in Moses’ stone tablets. Ray Comfort never understood the difference between the law and the commandments (see Joshua 22:5/ 2 Chronicles 14:4/ 19:10/ 31:21). And from the New Testament, the scriptures make a clear difference between the new birth of the spirit and the conversion of the soul (c.f. John 3:1-6 and Luke 22:32/ Acts 3:19/ James 5:20).  

          In his book, Revival’s Golden Key, Comfort quotes from Romans and says the following,

 

“Moreover the Law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Where sin abounds, Grace “much more” abounds; and according to Scripture, that thing that makes sin abound is Law.”

 

          This quotation/misquotation is atypical of every heresy, which Bob Jones, Sr. said was “a truth twisted”. 2 Peter 3:16 calls it “wrest[ing]” the scriptures and attributes that error to those who are “unstable”. That instability of character shows through in identical fashion with their Bible reading and Bible quotation. They will quote a verse of scripture and then re-quote it completely wrong. Comfort quotes Romans 5:20, without giving the address, so that he can then in turn mis-quote it in order to wrest it into teaching something that the verse did not say! Notice that Romans 5:20 says, “Moreover the law entered, that THE OFFENSE might abound. But where SIN ABOUNDED, grace did much more abound.” But when Comfort comments on the verse he just quoted verbatim, he drops the word “offense” and inserts the word “sin” in order to teach what the verse did not say. The verse did not say “the thing that makes SIN ABOUND is LAW”. That verse makes a very clear distinction between the future intent “that the OFFENSE might abound” and the definitive post facto statement about “where SIN abounded”, by the insertion of the conjunctive “BUT” at the beginning of the next sentence. The first sentence of Romans 5:20 is talking about “the offense”. The second sentence says “sin”. The two are not the same! They are not the same word (Offense…παραπορευομαι/ Sin…αρμρτια).

          The Bible defines “Offense” as an injury to a person’s conscience (Acts 24:16/1 Corinthians 8:7-13). Hence, when you make someone “offend” (vs. 13), you “wound their weak conscience” (vs. 12). Romans 5 uses the word “offense” five times in close relation to the word “sin”, which it uses six times. When someone who is “unlearned and unstable” reads the passages, they, like Ray Comfort “wrest” the two words to be the same and mean the same, when they are not the same! “Sin” is not the same as “offense”, and to make them the same is to make Jesus Christ, whom the Bible glorifies as “a rock of offense” (1 Peter 2:8) a rock of “sin”. God forbid! Contrary to Ray Comfort, the law does not make sin abound. Sinners make sin abound by the formula found in James 1:14-15. “The law entered that the offense might abound” (Romans 5:20). But sin abounded without any help from the law, for the Bible makes it very clear in the same passage that “sin was in the world” even before the law entered (5:13), and even though “sin is not imputed when there is no law” (vs. 13) the wages of sin did reign (vs. 14/ 6:23). The difference between the offense and the sin, is kept separate even in their contrast to “the free gift”. That is why God says almost the identical thing about two different aspects of “Adam’s transgression” (vs.13), but the Holy Spirit purposely separated the two similar statements about those two different aspects into two separate verses.

 

Romans 5:15, “But not as THE OFFENSE, so also is the free gift.”

Romans 5:16, “And not as it WAS by one that SINNED, so is the gift.”

         

And only the “unlearned and unstable” (2 Peter 3:16) ever get them confused and try to make them the same. The offense is created by the sin. But the offense of sin is an injury to the conscience (Acts 24:16/ 1 Corinthians 8:7-13). Howbeit, when sin abounds to the point of creating a wicked society of open depravity, people’s consciences can be “seared” (1 Timothy 4:2) and “defiled” (Titus 1:15) so that their sin doesn’t bother them anymore. A person’s conscience “bearing witness” (Romans 2:15) doesn’t always convict the person (John 8:9) as it is supposed to do because their “deceitful heart” (Jeremiah 17:9) “the mean while accusing or else excusing one another” (Romans 2:16) to get around the conviction of the conscience. Sin was in the world” before the law (Romans 5:13) and because “the wages of sin is death” (6:23), then “death reigned from Adam to Moses” (Romans 5:14) when there was no law, “even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” (vs. 14). That is why God gave the law by Moses, so that even when the conscience was defiled, seared and dead, “the offense might abound” (Romans 5:20) in spite of the condition of man’s conscience.

          Brethren, the conscience is a very real thing inside a man. It is all the combined knowledge of that man. Hence, CON (connect/combine) SCIENCE (knowledge). A person’s conscience is all their combined knowledge of what they have been through and done. That is why the Bible says in relation to a man’s conscience, “there is not in every man that KNOWLEDGE: for some WITH CONSCIENCE of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled” (1 Corinthians 8:7). Sin can abound in any generation to the point that people don’t know any better. That is why the Bible says of a wicked generation, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil” (Jeremiah 13:23).

          And furthermore, Comfort missed the definitive verse on grace abounding, which the Bible makes very clear does not abound by the teaching or preaching of the law. Romans 5:15, “But NOT AS THE OFFENSE, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, MUCH MORE the GRACE OF GOD, and THE GIFT BY GRACE, which is by ONE MAN, JESUS CHRIST, hath abounded unto many”. Brethren, “the gift by grace” was defined in Romans 4:1-8 as a justification by faith in a “reward” (vs. 4, 5) that imputes righteousness without “the works” (Romans 4:1-10).

          Before the law came, God’s method of dealing with such a wicked society where “the wickedness of man was so great….and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5) was that God could do nothing but drown them all out! Following Noah’s flood (Genesis 7), the Lord didn’t change His mind about man’s depravity (Genesis 8:21), he just put into place a plan to reward Noah’s faithfulness by making him the “heir of the righteousness which is by faith” (Hebrews 11:7), for which the Bible jumps that inheritance right from Noah to Abraham (see next in line at Hebrews 11:8). God Almighty’s plan was to bestow “a blessing” (Genesis 12:1-2) on a man of faith (Galatians 3:9); with that blessing being “imputed righteousness” (Romans 4:1-6) before God set in motion (Romans 7:5) a law by which sin would be imputed (Romans 5:13). Every minister reading this needs to learn that one Bible Fact! God imputed righteousness BEFORE He ever imputed sin! And don’t ever forget that!!!! “Sin is not imputed where there is no law” (5:13), but God has since Abraham always been able to impute righteousness without the law!

That is what Billy Randall, Dan Hardin, Gary Hartsock and Ray Comfort all missed. God began imputing righteousness before He started imputing sin, because “sin is not imputed where there is no law” (Romans 5:13). But righteousness was imputed to Abraham before the law (Romans 4:1-3) and to David in spite of the law (4:6-8/ Psalm 32:1-3). David committed the two sins under the law for which there was no atonement for; adultery and murder. Howbeit, God did not impute those two sins to David under the law (2 Samuel 12:13) because God had already imputed righteousness to him “without the law” because David was the son of Abraham, heir apparent, sitting upon the throne of Abraham’s promised “heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2) Jesus Christ.

 

“Now to Abraham and HIS SEED

were the promises made.

He saith not, And to SEEDS, as of many;

but as of ONE, And to thy SEED,

which is Christ.”
                               -Galatians 3:16

 

          That Brethren, is what Comfort and his heretical predecessors cannot see from reading the clear words of God. There are three designations of sinners in the Bible relating to the law.

1. Sinners before the law (Romans 5:13, 14).
2. Sinners “under the law” (Romans 3:19).
3. Sinners “without the law” (Romans 7:8, 9).

And God’s plan of salvation started before the law with Abraham so that he could be “the father of us all” (Romans 4:16) and “the father of many nations” (4:17, 18) through his son Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:1), so “that the blessing (singular) of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ” (Galatians 3:14). And Brethren, that blessing is this:

 

“But now the righteousness of God

WITHOUT THE LAW

is manifested.”

                           -Romans 3:21

 

          And Brethren, “the righteousness of God” is Jesus Christ (Romans 10:1-4/ 1 Corinthians 1:30/2 Corinthians 5:21/ 1 John 3:7), and He doesn’t come to the sinner “under the law” or by the preaching or teaching of the law! The Bible takes four entire Gospel records to clarify that one truth, that Jesus Christ “is the light of the world” (John 8:12/ 9:5), “the light of life” (8:12), that “true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9), and the Bible defines that “true Light” as “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 4:6) and it is not found in the law, but “in the face of Jesus Christ” (4:6). “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” does not shine into darkness by the preaching or teaching of the law, but by preaching “Christ Jesus the Lord” (vs. 5/ c.f. Acts 11:20 and Romans 16:25). That alone, is what makes the teaching of Ray Comfort heresy of a most Satanical kind, in that he seeks to convince Christians that the preaching of the law can do for sinners today, what it clearly failed to do for the sinners to whom it was given. For 1,300 years the law failed to do for God’s chosen people even what Ray Comfort wants Christians to believe it can do now for lost sinners. This damnable heresy of “the way of the Master”, wants you to believe that the law is given in order to show the sinner his condemnation under the law so he feels guilty, and for over 1,300 years the law failed to condemn sin in the lives of those to whom it was given.

 

“For what the law COULD NOT DO,

In that IT WAS WEAK through the flesh,

God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,

And FOR SIN,

Condemned sin in the flesh:

That the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW…THE LAW…THE LAW

might be fulfilled in us.”

                                    -Romans 8:3, 4

         

Brethren, there are certain things that “the law could not do”, never could do, and still cannot do. One of those things is “justification” (Galatians 2:16). The other is “condemnation of sin” (Romans 8:3, 4). The law could become the instrument by which sin is “imputed” (Romans 5:13). But the imputation of sin is an act of God by the law (Psalm 32:2). Imputation is not a work of the law in and of itself, for even under the law, the Lord could put away sin and not impute even the worst of sins to David (2 Samuel 12:13). Those facts being said, Christian ministers and teachers that are “unlearned and unstable” confuse the different acts of God and works of the law and man, into error of the most damning kind when dealing with “the law”. The example of that is found in the law’s inability to justify a person by the works thereof. And countless errors in theology stem from ministers confusing “the deeds of the law” and the works of God’s children in justification (James 2:20-24). “The works of the law” and “the deeds of the law” are not mentioned in James 2 concerning justification. But because James 2 repeatedly says “works” (James 2:14, 16, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26) in relation to personal faith, “those that are unlearned and unstable” automatically presume it means “works of the law”, regardless of what it said. James 2 deals only with personal “works”.

Romans 8:3 and 4 clearly state that “the righteousness of the law” in condemning sin in the flesh could not be accomplished by the law “in that IT WAS WEAK through the flesh”. But “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us”. The work of righteousness in “condemning sin in the flesh” (vs. 3) is not accomplished by the preaching of “the law of sin and death”, but by “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (vs. 2). That is the only law that is “a light” (Proverbs 6:23) that can turn anyone from their sin. Proverbs 6:23 is “the stumblingstone” (Romans 9:32) of the Old Testament for Ray Comfort just as Isaiah 28:16 was for Isarel, for it is the only verse in the Bible that says “the law is light”. And from that single verse, Comfort “wrest” all the other scriptures concerning “the True Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:7).

 

“The world will never clearly see the light of the glorious gospel

of Christ, until the blackness of sin is

explicitly painted on the canvas of a just and Holy Law.”

                                                                  -Ray Comfort

                                                                                Revival’s Golden Key

 

          Brethren that is not true!!! But it is satanic, in that it uses portions of scripture to promote blatant lies. Only the devil speaks like that (see Matthew 4:6/Luke 4:3/Job 4:13-17). And only the devil mixes lies with the truth, not to get you to accept the truth, but to persuade you to accept the lie. And Brethren, “the law is good, IF A MAN USE IT LAWFULLY” (1 Timothy 1:8), but it cannot be mixed with lies and help anyone to Christ. And running through his writings, deep in his conscience, Ray Comfort knows he is dancing with darkness in shades of light that he himself does not understand the mysticism thereof. In his Revival’s Golden Key, Comfort writes, “Paradox it may seem, the Law does make Grace abound in the same way darkness makes light shine”.

 

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

 

Darkness has never made light shine! It is impossible for darkness to make light shine, for the Bible says, “God commanded the light to shine OUT OF DARKNESS” (2 Corinthians 4:6). And the Bible says, “the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5). Ray Comfort damned himself, his teachings and his ministry when he, as the Scriptures say of him, being “unlearned and unstable” (2 Peter 3:16) thought himself smart enough to tangle with portions of the scripture that the Bible of itself warned contained “things: in which are some things hard to be understood” (ibid.). The ‘Pastor of Evangelism’ [whatever that is?], “when for the time…ought to be a teacher, he has need that one teach him again which be the first principles of the oracles of God” (Hebrews 5:12). One of those first principles of the oracles of God was, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…and DARKNESS was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:1, 2). Darkness was a serious part of the creation of God, but darkness is not a part of God, for “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5), which the Bible says “is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you” (vs. 5); contrary to Comfort’s insistence that we preach and teach the law as the message or sinners will “never clearly see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ”. God created darkness. Darkness did not create God! But Brethren, GOD IS LIGHT! And that Light is “the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). It doesn’t need darkness to shine, neither can darkness make the Light shine, because the Light created darkness. Darkness did not create the Light.

 

“Thou makest darkness,

And IT IS NIGHT.”

                        -Psalm 104:20

 

“He sent darkness, and made it dark.”

                      -Psalm 105:28

 

          But the Author (Hebrews 12:2) doth warn those that would errantly seek to “trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:7) with “an evil eye” (Matthew 6:23) to “corrupt the word of God” (2 Corinthians 2:17) into “a land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where THE LIGHT IS AS DARKNESS” (Job 10:21, 22)!!! That is where Ray Comfort’s light comes from that wants Christians to believe that ‘darkness makes light shine’. That will never occur until after the man that preaches that damnable likeness is of his own self “full of darkness”, and “the light that is in thee be darkness” and “how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23). That is exactly what Ray Comfort does, when he says “the Law does make Grace abound in the same way darkness makes light shine”. History has shown this preacher first hand this terrible, tragic outcome from watching men better than Ray Comfort embrace this heresy before Ray Comfort was ever heard of; and to a man, every one of them and their ministries took on a dark side that troubled their minds, their ministries, their churches and their fellowship with God and the Brethren until it destroys them.

 

“If any man preach any other gospel unto you

Than that ye have received,

LET HIM BE ACCURSED.”

 

                                -Galatians 1:9

          Brethren, allow a very unworthy but not ignorant Preacher of the Cross of Christ to teach you from the Bible some of those hard things of the law as they relate to the gospel of Christ, that would so devilishly trouble the mind of Ray Comfort into thinking that “the Law does make Grace abound in the same way darkness makes light shine”. “Grace doth much more abound” whenever and wherever “sin doth abound” (Romans 5:20). “The law entered that the offense [not the sin]…the offense might abound” (vs. 20). The law did not enter to make sin abound, because sin was already abounding in the world before the law (Romans 5:13), and sin had abounded to the point that “death reigned from Adam to Moses” (5:14). Like the negro preacher said of the passage, “death reigned so much, that at one poent’ it rained all over da world in Noah’s day!” But the Bible speaks of “the law” in a personal way, in that it says “the law entered” (vs. 20). Now to keep you from being “unlearned” (2 Peter 3:16) about such things, learn something about the law.

          “The law was given by Moses” (John 1:17). But the law of first occurrence in the Bible defines and distinguishes what a word means by how it is used the first time in the Bible. That being said, “the law”, as it is used the first four times in the Bible is found in the First Book of Moses Called Exodus, and it is only used those four times in Exodus. And none of those four times “the law” is used, does it refer to the Ten Commandments.

The first three times “the law” is used it refers to The Passover (see Exodus 12:49/ 13:9 and 16:4-6), where the Israelites were to kill “a lamb for an house” (Exodus 12:3) and “take of the blood, and STRIKE IT on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses” (12:7), so that in the “NIGHT” (12:12) when “he that had the power of death, that is, THE DEVIL” (Hebrews 2:14) came through, “the LORD would pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and WILL NOT SUFFER THE DESTROYER to COME IN unto your houses to smite you” (Exodus 12:23). Brethren, that occurred at NIGHT (vs. 12) in a scenario that had the LORD and THE DESTROYER walking together through the world looking for “the blood of the lamb” (vs. 7). And when the LORD (vs. 23) did not “see the blood”, the LORD would let THE DESTROYER “ENTER IN” and kill the firstborn child. That scenario was what the Bible first called “THE LAW” (Exodus 12:49/ 13:9 and 16:4-6). And Ray Comfort like Randall before him stumbled and broke his spiritual neck over “the light” the Author (Hebrews 12:2) just showed you above, when that Light was given in just three words that Comfort read but missed in Romans 5:20.

 

“THE LAW ENTERED”

                           -Romans 5:20

 

          Brethren, BEWARE when you look into the Law of God, for which the Bible says “angels desire to look into” (1 Peter 1:10-12). For the Scriptures say of “the law”, that “the secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do ALL THE WORDS…all the words…all the words of THIS LAW” (Deuteronomy 29:29). There are things about the law, that the Scriptures say are “the DEEP things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). But Brethren, BEWARE, because “DARKNESS WAS UPON THE FACE OF THE DEEP” (Genesis 1:2), and “with God is strength and wisdom: the DECEIVED and THE DECEIVER are his…He discovereth DEEP THINGS OUT OF DARKNESS, and bringeth out to light THE SHADOW OF DEATH”, all for this purpose: to “take away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where THERE IS NO WAY. They grope IN THE DARK WITHOUT LIGHT, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man” (Job 12:16-25). “My Brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and my crown” (Philippians 4:1), do not look into the “deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10) until you have within yourself enough of “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6-12) to read exactly what the Bible says “before God in the light of the living” (Psalm 56:13), instead of what it is presumed to teach before Satan “in the dark without light” (Job 12:25).

          Brethren, “God is Light, and IN HIM is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5), and “God called the light DAY” (Genesis 1:5). But “the DARKNESS…THE DARKNESS…THE DARKNESS he called NIGHT” (1:5) because “God divided the light from the darkness” (1:4) to teach you from the beginning certain “principles…first” (Hebrews 5:12): two of which are that Light and Day are observable (2 Corinthians 4:18) spiritual manifestations of Jesus Christ, while Darkness and Night are observable spiritual manifestations of the devil himself.  Hence, the Scriptures warn us in these last days, “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: WE ARE NOT OF THE NIGHT, nor of DARKNESS” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). And let no man, howsoever wise he may think he is, let no man presume to dissolve that division between light and darkness in order to elevate himself as some new light broken upon the church to teach how to mix the teaching of the law with the preaching of the gospel, just as he would mix darkness with light; because the dissolvement of that division brings “the shadow of death” (Psalm 23).

 

“Such as sit IN DARKNESS

And in THE SHADOW OF DEATH,

Being bound in affliction and iron;

BECAUSE

They rebelled against the words…the words…the words of God,

And contemned the counsel of the most High.”

                                               -Psalm 107:10, 11

 

          Brethren, don’t ever study the Bible with a pre-conceived notion about one verse you think gives you some special light that no one else has, and think to go deeper than anyone else has been so you can “stretch yourself beyond our measure” (2 Corinthians 10:14). Jonah found out that you don’t want to go that deep (Jonah 2:3) when you do not understand that God can be graceful to lost Gentiles without the law! Brethren, it has to be “the Spirit that searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1Corinthians 2:10), for it is the Spirit of God that “revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is IN THE DARKNESS, and the Light dwelleth with him” (Daniel 2:22).

Additionally, the fourth and final time “the law” is used in Exodus is found in Exodus 24:12 and clearly separates and distinguishes “the law” from “the commandments”, saying to Moses, “Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.” In making that distinction, the scriptures in Exodus (John 19:36 c.f. Exodus 12:46/ Romans 9:17 c.f. Exodus 9:13-16) denote these annunciations from God: words, judgments, ordinances, a law, commandments, laws and statutes. But “the words of God” came first and the rest proceeded in order of precedent, and became a part of those “WORDS” that “will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35/ Mark 13:31/ Luke 21:33).

1. The words of God (Exodus 4:15, 28, 30/ 5:9/ 19:6, 7, 8, 9/ 20:1/ 24:3, 4, 8/ 34:1, 27, 28 and 35:1).
2. Judgments (Exodus 6:6/ 7:4/ 21:1 and 24:3).
3. Ordinances (Exodus 12:14, 17, 24, 43/ 13:10/ 15:25 all relating to the Passover).
4. The law (Exodus 12:49/ 13:9 and 16:4-6 also all relating to the Passover).
5. Commandments (Exodus 15:26/ 16:28/ 20:6/ 24:12/ 34:28).
6. Statutes (Exodus 15:26/ 18:16).
7. Laws (16:28/ 18:16, 20).

All seven of these make up “the law of Moses” and are called Precepts which title refers to and encompasses all seven, and is not mentioned or called such in any of Books of Moses, but is labeled as such in the Old and New Testament: see Nehemiah 9:14/ Psalm 119/ Jeremiah 35:18/ Daniel 9:5/ Isaiah 28:10-13/ Mark 10:5/ Hebrews 9:19). All seven of these are referenced throughout the Old and New Testament in verses about the law.  

However, when “they that are unlearned and unstable” (2 Peter 2:16) begin reading what Paul wrote concerning “the law”, they ignore the warning of Scripture that what they are reading is “hard to be understood”, and they try to make a quick work and conclusion of it, under the heretical inspiration of the devil himself in moving them to do, what the Bible says could not be done, and that is to mix faith with the law in this vain and devilish attempt to mix the law with grace, like so many heretics before them mixed works and the faith, and neither mixture will save anyone or lead anyone to salvation. In speaking of the Old Testament saints that hardened their hearts “in the day of temptation in the wilderness” (Hebrews 3:8-18) “to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest” (vs. 18), the Bible declares their failure was attributed to the “unprofitableness” of what was preached unto them, saying, “the word preached did not profit them, NOT BEING MIXED WITH FAITH IN THEM that heard it” (Hebrews 4:2).

 

“For there is verily a

DISANNULLING OF THE COMMANDMENT

going before for the weakness

and unprofitableness thereof.

For the law

MADE NOTHING PERFECT,

but the bringing in of a better hope did;

by the which we DRAW NIGH UNTO GOD.”

                                                 -Hebrews 7:18, 19

 

When you try to mix the law with grace, the deeds of the law with faith and darkness with light, you kill those you minister to regardless of how many well known preachers send you “letters of commendation” (2 Corinthians 3:1). That is why 2 Corinthians 3:3 declared a vast difference between the epistle of Christ and the law saying “the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; NOT IN TABLES OF STONE, but in fleshy tables of the heart…not of THE LETTER, but of the spirit: for THE LETTER KILLETH, but the spirit giveth life” (2 Corinthians 3:3-6). Brethren, you cannot minister “the epistle of Christ” by “the letter of the law” because “the letter killeth”. That is why God calls the ministration of the law “THE MINISTRATION OF DEATH, written and engraven in stones” (3:7). Brethren, there are only two things the Bible says are ever written in our hearts. One is “the work of the law written in our hearts” (Romans 2:15) when we were lost Gentiles, and the other is “the epistle of Christ…written…with the Spirit of the living God…in fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3-6) when, not after, but when we get saved! That “epistle of Christ” is clearly separated and set apart from “the letter” (vs. 6), “the tables of stone” (vs. 3) and “the old testament” (vs. 14), and there is a purpose and reason for that separation.

What Ray Comfort missed is the same thing Randall missed and that was the purpose and reason why God gave the Jew “the law of commandments contained in ordinances” (Ephesians 2:15). Comfort wrested the scriptures in Romans to manufacture a purpose of the devil’s own making, that the scriptures did not say, namely “to make Grace abound in the same way darkness makes light shine” (R. Comfort in Revival’s Golden Key). Howbeit, the Bible says this about the “purpose of God” (Romans 9:11) in giving the law to Israel.

“Wherefore I gave them also

Statutes that were not good, and judgments

Whereby they should not live;

And I polluted them in their own gifts,

In that they caused to pass through the fire

All that openeth the womb,

That I might make them desolate,

TO THE END

That they might know that

I AM the Lord.”

                                -Ezekiel 20:25, 26

 

          Brethren, right there is the damning misconception of Ray Comfort’s ‘Way of the Master’, and that master is not Christ. Because, within those same ordinances is revealed a dark side of the creation of God, just like there is a dark side of the moon. And though “God commanded the light to shine out of darkness” (2 Corinthians 4:6), it is Satan and not Ray Comfort who would have you to believe that “darkness makes light to shine”. Ray Comfort, like his predecessor Randall did not need to try and tackle Romans 3 and Romans 5 until he had completely mastered all there was to know about this saying, “I am the light of the world” (John 9:5).

          The dark side moves Ray Comfort to make the ridiculous statement above, but it also troubles him to call it a “paradox”, because that dark side is so sinister, that it ceases to minister anything but death, even when “transformed as the minister of righteousness” (see 2 Corinthians 11:13-15). Because that is the only way someone would come to think that “darkness makes light shine” is when “the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53) “is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) and “his ministers…transformed as the ministers of righteousness” (vs. 15). With great fear at that “horror of great darkness” (Genesis 15:12) when anyone with imputed righteousness (15:6) looks at the bloody sacrifices of bulls and goats (15:9-11), allow this Preacher to show the darkness of Ray Comfort’s ‘Way of the Master’.

          When God Almighty said “I gave them also statutes that were not good” (Ezekiel 20:25) he was aiming at something that no amount of wresting will make good for any purpose other than “a figure for the time then present” (Hebrews 9:9, 24). Those statutes and judgments were detailed in the Third Book of Moses called Leviticus over 40 times, in placing the “ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary” (Hebrews 9:1) under the “service of the Levites” (Exodus 38:21). The reason God selected Levi to “accomplish the service of God” (Hebrews 9:6) was eerily prophetic from the death bed of Jacob, who spoke of God and for God in testifying of Levi that “instruments of cruelty are in their habitations” (Genesis 49:5). One needs but read about how the Levites killed the animal sacrifices to know why God called those things “instruments of cruelty”. Of the counsel and prophecy of God, the scriptures prophesied (see 2 Peter 1:20) “O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united” (Genesis 49:6). Why would the Lord say that and allow it to stand as scripture about the very tribe that would use those same “instruments” (Exodus 25:9/ Numbers 3:8/ 4:12) to “accomplish the service of God” (Hebrews 9:6) in “the eyes of the assembly” (Leviticus 4:13)?? Answer: For the same reason he would name them after the physical manifestation of Satan himself.

          Satan, in his physical manifestation is a “red dragon” (Revelation 12:3, 9/ Isaiah 27:1), whom the Lord God Almighty named “LEVI-   atham” (Job 41:1-34). Levi is the Hebrew word for “twisted/crooked/wreathed”, hence “Levi/crooked-atham/ beast, animal”…Serpent-Genesis 3:1). Satan is “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan” (Revelation 12:9), of whom the Old Testament calls “Leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that CROOKED SERPENT” (Isaiah 27:1). Hence, Levi [twisted/crooked/wreathed] they hang wreaths on the doors of the dead! Howbeit, though Satan’s physical manifestation is a serpent (Genesis 3:1/ Revelation 12:9), his spiritual manifestation is “darkness” (Ephesians 6:12) and “the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53), which the Bible describes as just the opposite from the light of the kingdom of God (Luke 8:10-16). The devil’s kingdom and domain is “full of darkness” (Revelation 16:10), a “land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where…and where…and where THE LIGHT IS AS DARKNESS” (Job 10:22). That is where you will find Ray Comfort’s ‘Way of the Master’: where “the light is as darkness”. And Brethren, that dwelling place of Satan is called “the deep” (see Genesis 1:2) of which Leviathan “maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment. He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary” (Job 41:31, 32).

 

“And darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

                                                                     -Genesis 1:2

 

Brethren, without the Spirit of God guiding you, “the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10) can drown “those that are unlearned and unstable” (2 Peter 3:18). And the scriptures didn’t say “uneducated and weak”. Neither Randall, Hartsock, Hardin or Comfort are without education, and neither is a weak man. But without exception, each of them demonstrate an inability to learn from their education, from their Bible study, from their experiences or from anyone else smarter than they are. That inability to learn, destabilized every aspect of their character and ministry in their early years, when it was most important to be “stedfast and unmoveable” (1 Corinthians 15:58), until they had learned from age and experience “that your labour is not in vain in the Lord”. But heresy is not just being wrong or in error about certain verses of scripture. Peter was wrong about several things, but could take correction from someone smarter than he was (Galatians 1:11-14/ 1 Peter 2:18). Howbeit, without exception, every man that has gone this direction has done so with a fleshly desire for spirituality picked up from Charles Spurgeon, the most eloquent British heretic and flesh pot in the history of the church. Spurgeon has for two hundred years been the ‘prince’ of lascivious (Bible word for ‘lazy’) ministers that lust for recognition and seek to pass off fleshly eloquence as a pretense of spirituality, and propagate a deep theological heresy that mesmerizes the ignorant as a cover for their inability to learn even “the first principles of the oracles of God” (Hebrews 5:12).

 

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest,

Which are these…heresies.”

                                   -Galatians 5:19, 20

 

          Heresy, is simply a “work of the flesh” under the desire to be spiritual. Howbeit, that combination is a magnet for “seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1). A spirit is what comes out of people’s mouths (John 6:63/ Luke 9:55/ 1 John 4:1), and a “seducing spirit” is one that seduces the hearer to accept the “doctrinal significance” of the message on the basis of the mesmerizing sound of the voice (1 Corinthians 14:10) rather than the exact meaning of the words used. Brethren, the author would have everyone of you to understand that the Holy Spirit of God placed the most definitive verses on the “works of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19-21) right after verse 18, which says, “But if ye be led….led…led of the Spirit, ye ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW.” And then the Spirit of God closes that line item lists of fleshly works inclusive of “heresy” (vs. 20) with this third time final warning, “that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (vs. 21).

The Spirit of God guides no one in that direction, for spirituality is not a sound, it is not the pronunciation and diction of a British accent, nor is it the eloquence of mind altering philosophical reasoning about verses of scripture that are “hard to be understood” (2 Peter 2:18). “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy” (Colossians 2:8) is the scripture’s warning to those not “stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught” (vs. 6, 7), because “philosophy” is the style of communication the devil uses to “corrupt the minds” (2 Corinthians 11:3) of saved people “from the simplicity that is in Christ”. And when you read or hear the teachings of Billy Randall or Ray Comfort, they will quickly reference you right back to Charles Spurgeon’s sermon on ‘What is the Purpose of the Law’.

In that philosophical sermon, Spurgeon took his text from Galatians 3:19, “Wherefore then serveth the law?” and then departs from the verse never to return, and launches into his atypical philosophical and illustrative “vain jangling” (1 Timothy 1:6) about “the law” (vs. 7) that moves the listener to believe the message because it sounded ‘so right’, and leaves the hearer wondering what all of that eloquent rhetoric was about. No one who has ever read Galatians 3:19 wonders about the question or needs a religious philosopher to eulogize it. “Wherefore then serveth the law?” That question was just a very short part of Galatians 3:19. The remainder of the verse answers the question very clearly, “Wherefore then serveth the law? IT WAS ADDED because of transgressions, TILL THE SEED SHOULD COME to whom the promise…the promise…the promise [singular/ not “promises” vs. 16] was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator”. The law “was added”! Added to what? Added to the only thing it was ever a part of: it was added to the scriptures (vs. 22). And again, and again, that is what Ray Comfort missed, just like Spurgeon missed it. They missed the SCRIPTURES. The scriptures about the very law they desire to teach.  

Spurgeon writes in his sermon on the ‘The Purpose of the Law’, “My hearer, does not the Law of God convince you of sin?” No Sir, Mr. Spurgeon! No Sir, Mr. Comfort! The law convinces no one of sin! On the contrary, the Bible says of itself, “the SCRIPTURE hath concluded all under sin” (Galatians 3:22). The Bible says, “If ye have respect of persons, ye COMMIT SIN, and are CONVINCED OF THE LAW AS TRANSGRESSORS” (James 2:9). But that is not what Spurgeon said. Spurgeon admonished his hearers, “Does not the Law of God convince you of sin?” And the answer is, “No it doesn’t”. “The law was added because of transgressions” so that a sinner will be “convinced of the law as transgressors” (James 2:9) since the rest of the scriptures say, “whosoever committeth sin transgresseth ALSO THE LAW: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). But Brethren, can ye not see, that the sin was committed first before it was declared to be a transgression, and that it is a transgression “also  of the law”! Also, in addition to what? The same as to what the law was added to….the scriptures. What Ray Comfort missed is what Randall missed. And what Randall missed was what Spurgeon missed, and that is this one, clear, Biblical proclamation that “THE SCRIPTURE” was talking to sinners before “the law was added” and before any of either was ever written down as scripture!

 

“For the SCRIPTURE saith unto Pharaoh,

Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up,

that I might shew MY POWER in thee,

and that my name might be declared

throughout all the earth.”

                                         -Romans 9:17

 

          Brethren, Romans 9:17 is a quotation from Exodus 9:13-16, before any “scripture” was written. Moses wrote Exodus 9, but he didn’t start writing it until Exodus 17:14, and he didn’t finish writing it until Deuteronomy 34:27. But the reference in Romans 9:17 to “the scripture” is found in Exodus 9:13, and the “scripture” was a reference to “The Lord said…in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up” (vs. 13-16). The Bible, the Best of Books, this eternal word of God is “the scriptures”, and this Best of Books identifies “the Lord” as “the SCRIPTURE” (Romans 9:17 c.f. Exodus 8:13-16). And that scripture was before the ten commandments or the law, and contrary to Ray Comfort or Charles Spurgeon, “the scripture hath concluded all under sin” (Galatians 3:22) not the law. The law “was added because of transgressions” (Galatians 3:19), so that “whosoever committeth sin [by the scriptures] transgresseth ALSO THE LAW” in addition to the scriptures, because when God added the law, the scriptures say of that law, that it “was added…TILL THE SEED SHOULD COME to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator”. Now if you want to put your finger into some “deep thing” of the law (1 Corinthians 2:10), put it right there “in the hand of THAT MEDIATOR”, for “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5) and there is a hole in His hand put there by nails when he “was wounded for our TRANSGRESSIONS” (Isaiah 53:5)!!!!

 

“Reach hither thy finger,

And behold my hands.”

                                          -Jesus [John 20:27]

 

The reference to “the law” being “added because of TRANSGRESSIONS” from Galatians 3:19  that was “ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” is found in the very same place the word “transgression” is mentioned the first time in the Bible (Exodus 23:21), and “the law” is not a reference to the ten commandments that were just spoken to Israel in Exodus 20, but something that “was ordained by angels IN THE HAND of a mediator”, and that mediator was the Old Testament manifestation of Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5) in a spiritual form. The Author (Hebrews 12:3) says “spiritual” in that the SCRIPTURES say “the law is spiritual” (Romans 7:14) just as the SCRIPTURES also say “the angels…are…spirits” (Hebrews 1:13, 14). But the reference to “the law” was to some THING that was “ordained by angels IN THE HAND of a mediator” (ibid.), “which things the angels desire to look into” (1 Peter 1:12). O Yeah, Brethren! It says “things” (plural) because there were two of them; one in each hand of that mediator, and that mediator was the angelic appearance of “the Spirit of Christ” (vs. 11).

 

“What are these wounds in thine hands?

The he shall answer,

Those with which I was wounded

In the house of my friends.”

                                        -Zechariah 13:6

 

 

And the reference in Galatians 3:19 pointed to some thing “ordained by angels in the hand” of that mediator, in the first reference to “transgressions” in the Bible, for which the “flesh” [not the Spirit] of Christ was “wounded for our transgressions”, once in each hand.

 

“Behold my HANDS…

Handle me, and see;

For a SPIRIT hath not flesh and bones

As ye see me have.”

                                 -Luke 24:39

 

 There are “two covenants” (Galatians 4:24), and Christ Jesus was “the mediator” of “the one from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage” (ibid.)and He is “the mediator of the new covenant” (Hebrews 12:24) established in “Jerusalem which is above” (Galatians 4:26) and is “free, which is the mother of us all”. Now, if you doubt all that because in all of that are “SOMETHINGS hard to be understood” (2 Peter 3:16) then read the reference from Galatians 3:19 concerning “the law” that “was ordained by angels IN THE HAND OF A MEDIATOR”.

 

“Behold, I send an Angel before thee,

To keep thee in the way,

And to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.

Beware of him, and obey HIS VOICE,

Provoke him not;

For he WILL NOT PARDON YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS:

For my name…my name…my name is IN HIM.”

                                                  -Exodus 23:20, 21

 

          That is the first time the word “transgression” is mentioned in the Bible, and “transgressions” are different than “sins” and “iniquities”, which Ray Comfort and Spurgeon should have learned from the second time the word “transgression” is found in the Bible. Exodus 34:7, “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving INIQUITY and TRANSGRESSION and SIN, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” But unfortunately, these “teachers of the law” (1 Timothy 1:7) are “unlearned” in the very thing they wish to teach and supplant the preaching of the gospel with, “understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm”.

          Brethren, no one will understand the application of the law in either the Old or New Testament until they learn the difference between a transgression and a sin. They are not the same! That is why the Bible says very clearly that “sin” came into the world by one man, and that first sinner was the man called Adam.

“Wherefore, as by one man

Sin enter…sin entered…SIN ENTERED

into the world, and death by sin…

even over them that had not sinned after

the similitude of Adam’s TRANSGRESSION.”

                                                           -Romans 5:12, 14

 

          And right there is one of the deepest pit falls in the Book of Romans and a pit fall so deep and seemingly contradictive, that not one critic of the Bible that spends there lives finding supposed contradictions in the Bible, has ever noticed or found it. And that “contradiction of sinners against themselves” (Hebrews 12:3) is missed solely by making the words “sin” and “transgression” the same, so it doesn’t appear like a contradiction, but it does become a stumblingstone. Brethren, 1 Timothy 2:14, says “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived WAS IN THE TRANSGRESSION.” Remember??

          Now Brethren, how do you reconcile Romans 5:14 with 1 Timothy 2:14. The one says, “after the similitude of Adam’s transgression”, and the other says, “Adam WAS NOT DECEIVED, but the woman…was in the TRANSGRESSION.” Having absolutely no desire to become one, howbeit, allow the author to teach you some law!

          The Bible clearly stating that “SIN ENTERED” by Adam, like “the LAW ENTERED” by Moses, then comparing scripture with scripture, you learn from ‘the law of first occurrence’ that what Adam did in Genesis 3 in relation to what he was told in Genesis 2, is defined as SIN! Adam was “commanded” (Genesis 2:16) directly from God, from “the mouth of God” (2 Chronicles 35:22) into Adam’s ear, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16, 17). But that “commandment” was given to Adam, before Eve was ever created (see Genesis 2:18-23). Nevertheless, Eve was obviously told about the commandment of God by her husband, since her husband was the only one around to tell her, and she was able to paraphrase most of what God had said to Adam (Genesis 3:2, 3). However, she could not quote what God had said, and not being able to quote exactly what God told her husband before she even existed, she like the “teachers of the law” added to what God had said as well: “neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Genesis 3:3). The author says “added to what God said”, in that when you wrest exactly what God said, into something he did not say, that is called “adding to the word of God”.

          Now what both Adam and Eve did in Genesis 3:6 is called two things. What Adam did was called “sin”, and what Eve did was called “transgression”. Romans 5:14 attributes Eve’s transgression from 1 Timothy 2:14 to her husband Adam, since she was his from God, and one of “the first principles of the oracles of God” (Hebrews 5:12) is that the husband owns the sins of his wife on the basis that she is “bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh” (Genesis 2:23). That is why Romans 5:14 says, “Adam’s transgression” in the possessive form. It was his by ownership, in that somewhere and somehow Adam had failed to teach his wife the importance of exactly what God had said and why He said it. That is why it was called “transgression”, for it involves “the motions of sins” and “work in our members” (Romans 7:5), Eve being “members of his flesh and of his bones” (Ephesians 5:28-31/ Genesis 2:24). Hence, “trans………..gress”, like in transport, transact, transmit, transfer, translate (Hebrews 11:5/ 5:24): that’s the motion. “Trans……….gression”, like in aggression…session. ‘Aggression’ is the momentary (session) expression of one’s feeling of aggravation. “Transgression” is the motion or movement of that aggravation to something or someone else. In Eve’s case, she was aggravated over not being able to eat the fruit of one tree, when she could eat the fruit of all the other trees, which aggravation spilled out in her feminist tirade, “neither shall we touch it, lest we die” (Genesis 3:3). God never said that! Eve said that! The devil then took “advantage of” her for saying it (2 Corinthians 2:11), and beguiled her into TRANS…ferring that aggravation (the feeling) into ‘aggression’ (the expression of that feeling) then into the “TRANSGRESSION” (the result of those aggravated emotional feelings). A transgression also involves “deception” (1 Timothy 2:14). A transgression involves a personal aggravated deception either on the part of the one deceiving you (Satan beguiling Eve/ 2 Corinthians 11:3/ 1 Timohty 2:14), or on the part of yourself deceiving yourself or trying to deceive someone else (Genesis 3:6, “she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat”). And from the context of Genesis 2 and 3, that deception has to involve the intent to get around exactly what God said by trying to define why he said it (see Genesis 3:5). You question exactly “what” God said (Genesis 3:1) in order to change what he said into something God never meant (Genesis 3:2, 3) so that you can manufacture an excuse to disobey what he said because of why you think He didn’t mean what He said! That is called “transgression”. “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the TRANSGRESSION” (ibid.). However, Adam did sin (Romans 5:12) and because of that sin, and “the motions of sin” in his members (Romans 7:5) he now owned that transgression as if it was his for being a “partaker of other men’s sins” (1 Timothy 5:22). Eve’s disobedience was not called a sin, because she was never told anything from God personally, only heard from her husband what God had commanded him before she was created. That is why the Bible says about all the millions of people from Adam to Moses, that some of them “had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” (Romans 5:14). Howbeit, in the context, Adam’s sin was just willfully and knowingly disobeying what God had told him. “Adam was not deceived” (1 Timothy 2:14) when “he did eat” (Genesis 3:6) of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he was disobeying the only thing God ever told him that he was not to do. But he made that willful choice to disobey, of which act the Bible says, “If we sin willfully” (Hebrews 10:26). All of that Brethren, is a “learned” exhortation about “the law of sin” (Romans 7:23), and in it are “things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). But beware in making “sins” and “transgressions” the same in Paul’s epistle to the Romans, just so you think you can teach the law. The word transgression shows up the first time in a reference to Angel of God that would not pardon Israel’s transgressions.

And Brethren, that Angel was identified by the Apostle Paul as Jesus Christ himself (Acts 27:23), whose appearance was “sent before” the children of Israel, and they were commanded to obey His voice for two reasons!

1. “For he will not PARDON your transgressions” (Exodus 23:21); and
2. “For my name is IN HIM” (vs. 21).

 

That Angel was “the Spirit of Christ” (1 Peter 1:11) that God said would go “before” Israel, and was that very person of God who “stood before” Moses and the congregation “upon the rock in Horeb” (Exodus 17:6), “and that rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). But in that Old Testament angelic revelation, was also the first mention of the word “transgressions” for which Galatians 3:19 says “the law was added because of”. Howbeit, that first reference carried this warning that this Old Testament angelic appearance of “the Spirit of Christ” “WILL NOT pardon your transgressions” (Exodus 23:21) “for my name is IN HIM”.

QUESTION: Why would he “not pardon your transgressions”???

ANSWER: “For my name is IN HIM”.

But Brethren, God’s name being in the spiritual manifestation of Christ, is not the same as “God manifest in the flesh” of Christ (1 Timothy 3:16). And until God was “in the body of his flesh” (Colossians 1:22), “the law” was just something “ordained in the hand of the mediator” of the “first old… covenant” ( Hebrews 8:7, 13) called “the old testament” (2 Corinthians 3:6, 14/ Hebrews 9:15), which “can never take away sins” (Hebrews 10:11), nor “pardon your transgressions” (Exodus 23:21). Brethren, the Old Testament taught us that there is a difference between “iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:7), and there was a difference between “forgiving” and “pardoning”. The word “pardon/pardoneth/pardoning/pardoned” is never mentioned in the New Testament, only in the Old. But it is always a reference to either “iniquity” or “sin”. Under the Old Testament, God would pardon “iniquity…and sin” (Exodus 34:9/ Numbers 14:19/ Psalm 25:11/ Isaiah 40:2/Jeremiah 33:8), but never “transgressions” (Exodus 23:21), and that was because even though under the Old Testament “the Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and TRANSGRESSION”, he would “by NO MEANS CLEAR THE GUILTY” (Numbers 14:18), because “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4) “because that the worshippers once purged should have no more conscience of sins” (vs. 3). That is why, Galatians 3:19 says “the law…was added because of transgressions, TIL THE SEED SHOULD COME” as “the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the REDEMPTION OF THE TRANSGRESSIONS that were UNDER THE FIRST TESTAMENT” (Hebrews 9:15).

“For where a testament is,

There must also of necessity be

THE DEATH OF THE TESTATOR.”

                                       -Hebrews 9:16

          And “the New Testament is in God’s blood” (Luke 22:20/Acts 20:28), because that which “was ordained by angels in the hand of the mediator” of the  “first testament” (Hebrews 9:18) did not have “the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:19). Rather, “Moses…took the blood of calves and goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both THE BOOK, and all the people” (Hebrews 9:19) with something “which can never take away sins” (10:11). And what those “carnal ordinances” (Hebrews 9:10) “of the law” (Numbers 19:2) “could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH” (Romans 8:3), “that the righteousness of THE LAW might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (vs. 4). That is why “THE SEED” came, because “the law was added because of transgressions, TIL THE SEED should come” (Galatians 3:19).

Well Brethren, “THE SEED is THE WORD OF GOD” (Luke 8:11), and “the word was made flesh” (John 1:14), in order to accomplish this one necessary thing, “that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by THE WORD OF GOD” (Romans 10:17).

 

“And how shall they hear without A PREACHER?”

                                                                 -Romans 10:14

 

          Brethren, we dare not allow “the teaching of the law” to supplant the preaching of the word of God, because God “hath in due times manifested his word through preaching” (Titus 1:3). Faith and the word of God are inseparable, but “THE LAW IS NOT OF FAITH” (Galatians 3:12), and “whatsoever is NOT OF FAITH IS SIN” (Romans 14:23).

 

“What shall we say then?

IS THE LAW SIN?

God forbid.

Nay, I had not know sin, but by the law:

For I had not known lust,

Except the law had said,

Thou shalt not covet.”

                            -Romans 7:7

 

          But Dearly Beloved Brethren, contrary to the errant heresy of Ray Comfort, the remainder of that passage does not attribute the accomplishment of the knowledge of sin in a person to the law by sin, but rather to “sin, taking occasion by the commandment” (7:11). These errant teachers of the law want to take the “work of sin” and make it “the work of the law”. And when they do that, they miss the very fact that the work of sin (Romans 7:13… “sin, working death in me”… “for the wages of sin is death”/ 6:23) was going on long before “the law” (5:13), and that even after the law had “came by Moses” (John 1:17)  until the time the SEED showed up, “the Gentiles, which have not the law…shew the WORK OF THE LAW written in their hearts” (2:14, 15).

          Now what is the conclusion of all this? Simply this, “the SEED is the word of God”, which when preached, is a vocal manifestation of Jesus Christ (Titus 1:3), who is the Word of God (John 1:1/ 1 John 1:1-3) and by the preaching of the word of God comes “that faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), “for faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the WORD OF GOD” (Romans 10:17) not the hearing of the law. And “that faith” (Jude 3) is “the faith of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 3:22). “The law was added because of transgressions, til THE SEED should come” (Galatians 3:19) which produces that same “like precious faith” (2 Peter 1:1) “that faith” (Galatians 3:25) called “the faith of Jesus Christ” (vs. 22). Howbeit,

“Do not err, my beloved Brethren.”

                                             -James 1:16

Though Ray Comfort missed it, just as Spurgeon and Randall missed it before him, the scriptures say very clearly, “Before FAITH came, we WERE (past tense) kept under the law, shut up unto THE FAITH which should AFTERWARDS BE REVEALED” (Galatians 3:23). Well Brethren, that if being “KEPT UNDER THE LAW, SHUT US UP UNTO THE FAITH” (vs. 23) why would you presume to think that preaching or teaching the law now, will bring you unto the knowledge of the faith??? “Wherefore THE LAW WAS…WAS…WAS (past tense) our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ” (Galatians 3:24). It did not say, as Comfort and Spurgeon teach, ‘the law IS (present tense) our schoolmaster to bring us TO Christ’. “The law WAS OUR SCHOOLMATER to bring us UNTO CHRIST’ (Galatians 3:24). “The law was added…UNTIL THE SEED SHOULD COME” (Galatians 3:19), and Brethren, regardless of the tragedy of Ray Comfort missing it, “THE SEED HAS COME”!!!!!!!!!!!! That is why, Jesus Christ began his preaching and teaching ministry by reading the Old Testament scripture before the Jews in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. When he had finished reading the Old Testament passage from Isaiah 61, “he closed the book” on the Old Testament (Luke 4:16-20) and said these absolute, final words about the Old Testament, “This day is THIS SCRIPTURE fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21). And he immediately went out and started his preaching ministry saying, (vs.43) “I MUST PREACH THE KINGDOM OF GOD…for therefore am I sent”. That was because, “THE LAW and THE PROPHETS were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached” (Luke 16:16). NOT THE LAW!

Now it is commanded of us, by Jesus Christ to “go into all the world and PREACH THE GOSPEL to every creature” (Mark 16:15). NOT THE LAW!!!!! The gospel, which includes the following.

• Jesus Christ (Mark 1:1/ Romans 1:9, 16/ 1 Corinthians 15:1-6).
• The Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14, 15).
• The grace of God (Acts 20:24).
• Peace (Romans 10:15/ Ephesians 6:15).
• God (Romans 15:16/ 2 Corinthians 11:7).

 

No where, in any place, time or manner did Paul preach the law to anyone. Not one time. Ray Comfort boasts of being the “Pastor of Evangelism”, whatever that is! Well Mr. Comfort learn a lesson from “Philip the evangelist” (Acts 21:8). When Philip went “down from Jerusalem to Gaza” (Acts 8:26) and came across the Ethiopian Eunuch reading the Old Testament (vs. 27, 28), the Bible says that Philip “opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and PREACHED UNTO HIM JESUS” (VS. 35). Not the law!

But Brethren, since the beginning of the church, there has always been “a sect of the Pharisees which believe” (Acts 15:5) that want to mix the law with the plan of salvation. This first bunch of Pharisaical believers wanted Paul to teach “that is was NEEDFUL to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses” (Acts 15:5). That was and remains nothing removed from the Satanical corruption of Ray Comfort’s mind that would teach “the world will never clearly see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, until the blackness of sin is explicitly painted on the canvas of a just and holy law”. That Brethren, is not true.

This man Ray Comfort goes all over this country teaching saved people and saved ministers something that they have never seen before in their own study of the word of God, how that you must teach and preach the law to lost sinners before they “can clearly see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ”. And neither Ray Comfort nor his adherents can see that it wasn’t true in their own life and testimony of salvation until the ‘pastor of evangelism’ showed it to them. Contrary to the heretical statement of Ray Comfort, the Bible is very clear that there is only ONE WAY for “them that are lost” (2 Corinthians 4:3) to see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (4:6), and that is “in the face of Jesus Christ”. But that “open face beholding” (3:18) does not occur by the preaching or teaching of “the letter” of the law, “for the letter killeth” (3:6) as it was designed to do under “the ministration of death” (3:7). Rather, “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (4:6) is opened up for beholding through “the ministration of the spirit” of the New Testament (3:6, by “this ministry” (4:1) called “the ministration of righteousness” (3:8) and “the ministry of reconciliation” (5:18), which is a “treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (4:7). The “light of the knowledge of the glory of God” is seen in the face of Jesus Christ by lost sinners, when the gospel is preached by we Christians who in our personal lives “always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (4:10 and 11). And there is no other way of the master!

 

“For the preaching of the cross…the preaching of the cross

is to them that perish foolishness;

but unto us which are saved,

IT IS THE POWER OF GOD…

for it pleased God…IT PLEASED GOD

by the foolishness of preaching

to save them that believe.”

                                      -1 Corinthians 1:18, 21

 

          There is nothing wrong with testifying (Acts 20:21), teaching (Acts 18:11/ Romans 12:7), witnessing (Acts 26:22) or reasoning with people “out of the scriptures” (Acts 17:2). Those are all forms of communicating the word of God. But God did not choose those forms of delivery to communicate the gospel of Christ to the saving of the sinner’s soul and spirit. Testifying describes what God can do. Witnessing describes what you have seen God do for you or with you. Reasoning describes why God can do the same for others. Teaching seeks to convince the hearer by means of all the first three, that what was taught is true. But preaching is the foolishness which God hath chosen to save them that believe. Because it is a forceful, verbal delivery of a specific Biblical truth that compels the listener to either accept or reject the message. In the Old Testament it required that the prophet “cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their TRANSGRESSIONS” (Isaiah 58:1). For “the law was added because of transgressions, til the seed should come” (Galatians 3:19). But now the SEED has come, and in the New Testament, transgressions are not mentioned apart from an explanation about the Old Testament (Matthew 15:2, 3/ Romans 2:27/4:15/ Galatians 3:19/ 1 Timothy 2:14/ Hebrews 2:2/ 1 John 3:4). There is only one exception in the New Testament, for there is only one person that transgressed in the New Testament, and that was Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:25). In the New Testament, it is all about the first and only problem man has ever had, and that is “SIN”, because that is what the gospel message is about: “the death of the Testator” (Hebrews 9:17) under “the wages of sin” (Romans 6:23) and “for sin” (Romans 8:3).

          Brethren, “the law is good, IF a man use it lawfully” (1 Timothy 1:7). But turning it into “another gospel” (Galatians 1:6, 7) is a double curse from the Scriptures that no “letters of commendation” will remove (vs. 8, 9). God Almighty has for 6,000 years been able to “shew sinners their work, and THEIR TRANSGRESSIONS” (Job 36:7-9) without the law; “command[ing] that they return from iniquity” (vs. 10, 11) before the law was ever written. And without the law, “if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge” (vs. 12).  These men named above “desire to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm” (1 Timothy 1:7).  Because Brethren if you do not first learn how to be “taught” to hold fast “the faithful word” (Titus 1:9), adding an “unlearned and unstable” knowledge of the law will only “darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge” (Job 38:2).  Because Brethren, “the transgressions that were under the first testament” (Hebrews 9:15) were taken care of at the cross, when THE SEED was “wounded for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5). “He was bruised for our iniquities” (53:5). But “HE DIED FOR OUR SINS” (1 Corinthians 15:3). And that is the only message we preach and should preach. Beware, my beloved Brethren, and let us not allow such to enter the ministrations of the Anabaptists Churches. Until then, I am,

 

By the grace of God alone,

 

Ron McRae

Bishop

Anabaptists Churches of North America

P.O. Box 5607

Johnstown, PA 15904-5607

VULTUS IMAGO DI

 

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” –Romans 6:3