Please brace yourself.
In this video, I'm going to say some things that will challenge some of your most cherished beliefs.
Now, it won't be the first time that I've done that, of course
but I will go further than anything else you have seen on this channel up until now.
Over and over, people have written to me saying that their first reaction was to reject what I was saying
but then they got their Bibles out and looked up the passages of scriptures that I was referring to
and they reported that they could see that what I was saying was totally consistent
with what Jesus himself taught.
Well, it may not be that easy this time
and that is because I want to talk about what has been happening in the bigger world
and how I believe God sees human history ever since the Bible was written.
I want you to think about these two very important questions.
Where has the Holy Spirit been most powerfully operating all this time?
And where has Christ's church--or the kingdom of heaven, if you prefer that term
where have they been all this time?
When we ask ourselves questions like that
don't we get a picture of a lot of different organizations throughout history?
And don't we mentally sort through them all to work out where the real church was
and where the real Holy Spirit might be, or might have been?
So let's think about that for a bit.
There is what we call the early church
meaning the people who were mentioned or being addressed at the time that the Bible was written.
Most of us have heard how these early Christians were hated
and hunted down, not only by the Jewish religious system, but by the Roman political system.
They went underground, hiding in the catacombs under Rome in particular.
But then there is a kind of sea-change...or maybe a derailment, to use a better analogy
where a few years later, we see a church who does not only come out of the catacombs
but which is standing hand-in-hand with the actual leaders of the same empire
that had earlier been killing them.
We hear that the emperor himself, Constantine, has embraced Christianity.
He had a vision from God (or so we are told).
In response to that vision, he put a symbol of the Christian cross on his armaments
and suddenly he started winning wars.
Constantine, we are told, converted to Christianity because of this.
Please note that he did not stop being emperor. He did not forsake all.
He did not start living by faith.
He did not teach others to do the same, and he definitely did not preach the gospel that Jesus preached.
But we are told that from that point on in history, the church ceased to be an underground, hated
persecuted tiny minority, and it became, instead
the official religion of Constantine's so-called Holy Roman Empire.
Very few people have been willing to seriously question whether that transition
adequately explains where the true church went at the time.
Other similar "churches" also arose during this period, in other parts of the world
and they often became the official religions of the countries in which they appeared.
Greek Orthodox in Greece.
Russian Orthodox in Russia.
Ethiopian Coptic in Ethiopia...even a unique Church of St.Thomas in India.
And surprisingly, they all ended up looking almost the same
ostentatious buildings loaded with idols, and leaders dressed in fancy robes.
This was so unlike the simplicity of those first Christians: the early ones...the hated ones.
At any rate, whatever had happened in the Roman Church for the image to have changed so radically
must have happened in one way or another in them as well.
Still, everyone believed that true Christianity and God's Holy Spirit
must have been hidden somewhere in among all of that pomp and power and materialism.
Much later, other countries came up with new churches to replace the previous models.
Most of these new churches thought of themselves as being the true church, led by the true spirit of God.
These people were able to openly acknowledge that the institutions which they had left
were not the genuine article.
But they assumed--more or less by default--that they themselves were the real deal.
Germans came up with the Lutheran Church.
Englishmen came up with the Anglican Church.
Scots came up with a Presbyterian Church.
And Americans came up with the Baptist Church.
Each one wanted us to believe that they were the true manifestation
of what Jesus had started back there on the day of Pentecost.
They each had the real Holy Spirit...the spirit that had been given to the world on the day of Pentecost.
And then, a bit over a hundred years ago, someone noticed that, despite all these claims
not one of these organizations bore much resemblance to what really happened on the day of Pentecost.
There were know sounds like a mighty rushing wind
and there were no tongues like fire on the heads of all the believers
and so a movement was born that, throughout the 20th century
swept through all of the other supposedly Christian organizations in turn.
This new movement did include the sound...the sound of tongues or unknown languages.
Here at last was the real church with the real Holy Spirit.
Very early in the piece, people realized that what Jesus had promised at the end of at least one of the Gospels
was much more than the sound of tongues coming from the mouths of all the believers.
There were to be amazing miracles. People would be able to heal the sick.
They would be able to recover after consuming deadly poisons
and survive after being bitten by deadly snakes.
They would even be able to bring people back from the dead.
Over the years, various people made claims to having discovered this missing ingredient
and they drew great crowds to themselves
but each of them proved to be little more than the witch doctors and sorcerers
that they condemned in other religions.
All their hype was exaggeration and tomfoolery, and that is where we find ourselves today.
Real Christianity...the kind of Christianity that Jesus lived and practiced
promised us so much more, and yet from the time when Christians disappeared into the catacombs
until the present, all that passes for Christianity has pretty much proven to be a huge disappointment.
We here on this channel stand firm in the teachings of Jesus.
We feel that is what is being left out of every one of these churches
and we are determined to follow those same teachings, with or without miracles.
Those teachings have been miraculously preserved for us, and they have proven to be miraculously reliable.
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life", and we want that truth
even if it means admitting that we don't have the miracles that Jesus was able to perform.
We don't have antidotes for snake bites, nor do we have antidotes for other poisons.
We don't know how to resuscitate people whose hearts have stopped.
We don't know how to heal people who have leprosy or polio or malaria.
We don't know how to replace limbs and organs which have ceased to function.
All that Jesus promised has simply and honestly never happened.
Or has it?
You see, when we step back, and when we do our best to take an eternal
and global look at the history of this planet
we see another movement that happened sometime after Jesus ascended to heaven
and it has achieved just about everything that Jesus promised with regard to healing.
Jesus said that his spirit would lead us into all truth, yet we often forget that for nearly 2,000 years
there has been another group of people who have been looking for his Holy Spirit of truth
even if they have not been openly seen as a religion.
In their quest for truth, they have unraveled many mysteries about a world in which we live
revealing to us God's power at every step along the way.
You and I have been looking for God's Spirit in religious institutions
religious institutions which we already knew were very far away from the spirit of what Jesus taught.
And so we tried very hard to convince ourselves that somewhere
in all of that religious superstition and exaggeration, there must be real faith
because we assumed that if faith existed at all, that was where it would be found.
But if I were to say that the real movement that Jesus started
is far more evident in the ideals of scientific research, most of you would react in horror.
You would tell me about the many atheists that can be found in universities around the world.
You would tell me about scientists who openly practice sexual immorality.
And honestly, I have no defense against such claims.
But why can't we do as we have done so doggedly with the institutional church?
Why can't we say that, woven through it all, there have been sincere people whom God has used
often in spite of their theological errors?
Why can't we say that this movement may actually contain
the more sensational aspects of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to the world?
Why can't we say that he used many of these pioneers of science
because he saw something in them that he did not see in the churches.
I have personally called this quality sincerity
and it is slowly dawning on me that this sincerity has been far more evident
and far more powerful in certain scientific circles than it has been in nearly all of the religious world.
I'm talking, in particular, about medical research...the ability to heal the sick, as Jesus commanded.
When I started reading about research into people who have had near-death experiences
I was not surprised to hear that they saw this being of light
who told them that what mattered most in life was how much love they had shown to others.
But I was shocked to hear that a large percentage of them
were also told that they needed to learn as much as they could.
They had been put on the earth to love, but also to learn
and that is consistent with what I've been thinking lately about true scientific research into ways to heal.
Jesus seemed to prefer the word 'faith'
when referring to the spirit of people that he saw as being part of the kingdom that he was building.
But he used it in a way that often contradicts what we think of when we talk about faith today.
He saw something in a prostitute, in a Roman soldier, in a tax collector, and in a Samaritan heretic
that conformed with what his Father was looking for in the human race.
Forget religion for a moment. Actually, forget it altogether.
Jew or Samaritan matters not.
Christian or atheist matters not.
God is looking for something else.
It may be called faith...at times it could be called love.
Some, like myself, might refer to it as sincerity.
But Jesus saw it in the most unlikely people, and in the most unlikely places.
Now, think about all the incredible accomplishments
that have come from medical research since the days of Jesus
when all the good Samaritan had at his disposal was some wine, some oil, some bandages and his donkey
to take a badly wounded man to an inn, where he could get further treatment.
What was it, for example, that motivated a man to deliberately expose himself to deadly mosquitoes
in order to test a theory that it is mosquitoes which have caused the spread of malaria
in so many parts of the world?
What is it that caused a woman to ultimately lose her life
experimenting with technology for performing x-rays?
What is it that has caused so many others to dedicate their lives
to finding answers to and cures for the various other diseases that have ravaged so much of the world?
What caused some men to deliberately infect themselves with scarlet fever
in order to test their theory about the body's immune response?
While we religious people have concerned ourselves with trying to prove that God exists
and while we have presented our relatively rare experiences
of miraculous interventions as evidence for that
others have been moved by far less sensational motives...by compassion, in particular
compassion for all those who, for example, suffered from polio or yellow fever
or any of a hundred other diseases.
Sometimes that motive was just a hunger to understand how our bodies function
a thirst for the truth in its many and varied forms.
But it was a sincere hunger, with sincere hopes for the betterment of others.
I've lately been struck by how incredibly blind religious people can be
even when the evidence has been shoved right in their faces, they have rejected it.
I think of all the videos that I've made about Francis Chan
hoping that he, of all those people in what I call the religious chain
might have what it takes to leave that conspiracy against God
and come listen to the real Jesus of the four Gospels.
That he might listen to him and put his faith in him
enough to stop listening to all his big name friends, and start obeying Jesus instead.
Enough to teach others to obey Jesus as well.
What a fool I've been!
Francis Chan is not going to respond to Jesus.
You don't join the institutional church to find Jesus. You join it for any one of a hundred other reasons.
For Chan, it's very likely the popularity it gives him
and a way to make a lot of easy money, and escape from the hardships and anonymity
of working with the really poor and needy.
For the rank and file, it is most often just about being able to prove that you are better than everyone else.
Sadly, the same thing can happen if you were to join with me.
I know, because we have people right now who are working with us for one reason only
and that is to prove that they are better than everyone else.
Now, I cannot say for certain who they are, but I discover the truth in this sad reality
each time someone leaves us and goes back to some easier lifestyle.
They end up embracing the same lie that we have--for so many years--fought against
the lie that God doesn't expect us to take the teachings of Jesus so seriously.
So what I'm going to share with you right now is how I recently came to this conclusion.
It came from thoughts about Flat Earth theory, believe it or not.
Well, from thoughts about anti-vaccination teachings too.
Hang on, really, it's a whole lot of things
often wrapped up in a more general description called conspiracy theories.
Now, don't get me wrong, I believe there is a conspiracy.
You can't trust anyone.
You see, greed (the root of all evil) is pandemic.
It has taken over the churches, and it has always been there in government and in business.
It's behind the military, and it has corrupted the media.
It's a conspiracy that Jesus recognized and fought against
but modern-day conspiracy theory is, ironically, as much a part of the real conspiracy
the one Jesus fought against--as anything else.
You see, conspiracy theories all work on the assumption that you can--through human reasoning
separate the good guys from the bad guys.
The bad guys are the powerful...the so-called ruling elite...the biggest newspapers and television networks
the biggest governments, the biggest multinationals, and the biggest government departments
whether it is NASA, the American Medical Association, or the Food and Drug Administration
they are all out to get us...this evil ruling elite.
But who are we?
Who are these good guys that they are all out to deceive?
Well, we must be the little guys...the ones with the little YouTube channels, with little businesses
with little religious groups.
And here is where we see the same depressing process at work that has so corrupted the big guys.
We say that if we, the little guys, say that something is right
no matter how silly or how superstitious it might be, it is right
simply because we are the little guys, and because we said it.
"Don't trust them, trust us!"
That is the essence of modern day conspiracy theories.
Now, please take note
this is precisely how religion has operated through history, whether big or small, as well.
Religion says, "If we say something is right, it is right.
"Trust us! All we ask of you is blind faith, and in return we will give you salvation."
Salvation by faith, right?
That kind of attitude can be incredibly hard to overcome.
You can pry people away from one form of blind faith and get them to embrace another form of blind faith
but the attitude behind it all is still the same: blind faith
not reasoned, provable evidence...not humble recognition of what we cannot yet prove
not submission to a process of growth...just blind faith in one dogma or one group over all the rest .
And here is what you will find when you try to communicate with such a superstitious person.
They will push a point stubbornly despite any efforts you make to get them to question it
and if you should succeed in pointing out a very clear error in their thinking in one area
then, without missing a beat, they will jump tracks to an entirely different and new argument.
You see, their faith is not affected in the slightest by having been wrong in the first round.
To them, the first round never happened, and the same will be true for round two
round three, round four...and as many arguments as you can come up with to show them that they are wrong.
That can cause great frustration for those of us are trying to honestly and humbly find the real truth.
When we find that we have made mistakes
it becomes reason to slow down and rethink our position
to restate our hypothesis, or to restructure our experimentation.
But this is not so for the conspiracy theorists.
They just soldier on with the same arrogance that led them into error in the first place.
I think back to the day when Barack Obama handed over the presidency to Donald Trump.
There's a guy on YouTube named Wayne Levi Price.
Wayne had, like so many others of his ilk, been preaching very strongly for quite some time
that Barack Obama was the Antichrist, and that Obama would never step down from the US presidency.
So, I checked out his channel the day after Trump's inauguration.
Now, to his credit, Wayne Levi went on-air and admitted that he had been gobsmacked
by the fact that Obama actually handed over to Trump.
He hinted that there may have been something wrong with his calculations
although he wasn't ruling out that Obama might return the next day and regain control.
However, by the end of the day, Wayne Levi Price had released not one
but three more videos in which he was already starting to promote new theories.
In fact, it is quite likely that he had already produced those videos before the handover
knowing that he was about to be proven wrong.
You see, Wayne, like so many false leaders the world over
simply could not and would not acknowledge just how badly he had missed the mark
in all those previous videos.
He was going to start all over again, and pretend the original lies were never said.
And that same pattern can be seen in all religious fanaticism.
Why? Because they simply are not listening.
That is the root of it all
and it is so fundamentally contrary to all that Jesus came to show us
and all that he sent the Holy Spirit to teach us.
And that brings me back to the search for truth in non-religious circles.
Look, I'll be the first to admit that there is a lot of dishonesty in so-called scientific circles too.
Atheistic religious fanatics, if you like...they are totally unable to accept even the slightest bit of truth
in anything that a Christian believer might say.
They really are among the worst kind of fanatics.
But I really do think there are also sincere scientists, especially in the field of medical research
where the ultimate goal is so fundamentally linked with compassion
compassion for people who are suffering physically anywhere in the world.
I have a feeling that a large percentage of them do have some kind of Christian faith as well
but that this is not an absolute requirement for God to have used them, and given his Holy Spirit to them.
You see, about the time that the King James Version of the Bible was being produced
someone formally defined the principles of what they called the scientific method.
But like the truths contained in the King James Bible
scientific method had been there long before anyone defined it.
And I believe that true scientific method is what Jesus taught...a hunger and thirst for the truth.
Honesty, when we do not have the answers.
Humility enough to listen to others.
You see, scientific method takes us away from dogma
but it also takes us away from elaborate testimonies based on feelings alone
and it asks each one of us to show evidence for our claims...evidence that others can replicate.
Anyone can say, for example, that broomsticks wake up in the middle of the night and dance around the house
and these days it wouldn't even be hard to produce a video of brooms doing just that, supposedly as evidence.
But a true scientist will not be out to sell you on his special ability to manipulate or depict the truth.
He will tell you all you need to know to personally discover the same evidence.
You see, replication is an important part of the scientific method.
It's not about one person becoming the sole authority
simply by saying that everyone else is involved in a conspiracy against him.
If I'm speaking the truth in the videos on this channel
I want you to be able to go out and find those truths for yourself, right there in your own Bible.
I want you to be empowered to say the same things in your own words.
Real truth is like that.
But popular conspiracy theories require blind faith in the ones announcing the conspiracy.
Each of them has a different story as to why you must blindly trust them
but when that happens, red flags need to go up in our minds, and the same is true when religion does that
as they do all over the world.
You must, for example, trust the leaders of some of the biggest churches
that the wine really does turn into blood when they do their hocus pocus over it.
There is no room for scientific tests; it must be taken as fact, just because they said it
and that's because scientific examination, according to them
would be some kind of conspiracy against the dogma.
For many other denominations, you must trust the leaders when they tell you that the Bible is infallible.
If anyone were to challenge that claim
if I were to push for hard evidence that the Bible itself makes such a claim
I would be labeled a conspirator...an agent of the devil, even though I'm only trying to get you to question
what is really just another unfounded myth.
Now, let me be very clear: what I've just been saying is not coming from a loss of faith in God.
Ironically, it actually comes from a deep and quickly growing conviction that Jesus Christ
the eternal son of God, will soon be returning to this planet.
I cannot imagine what all that means in a practical sense
and I can appreciate that many scientists would find that part of my faith
hard to merge with their own desire for hard evidence
but I honestly think we are getting to a place where it is going to stop being theory
and start becoming tangible reality... frightening tangible reality.
There are other videos on this channel which can be accessed
through links in the description of this video below, so I won't try to prove them at this point.
But let it suffice that I feel a great need to get it right, right now
as we stand on the brink of what I believe is going to be the most horrifying days in the history of the world.
I arrived at this belief that Jesus is the Son of God and that he is coming back to this planet.
I arrived at it from reading the Bible.
Yes, this same belief that Jesus will return
is given some kind of lip service by people in almost all of those otherwise false churches.
That is true too. But it is also true that they are not living their lives as though they believe even one word of it.
But still, I believe that the evidence is there.
I've covered that in two other videos...both about the Synoptic Gospels
and both of which can be accessed through links in the description below, so I'll just summarize here.
I feel that God miraculously preserved the teachings of Jesus in the four Gospels
and in the book known as the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
I see frightening things starting to happen, which will mark the fulfillment of those prophecies
and I want to get it right.
I want to get it right for myself, and I want to get it right for those whom I might influence.
So what I am saying here in relation to all of that
is that evidence suggests that the place where God may be most hopeful
and the place to look for revival to begin
(if there is to be any sort of revival of faith in preparation for the return of Jesus at all)
is not going to be in the materialistic, self righteousness of either the Jewish religion
or the so-called Christian religion.
If there is to be a genuine worldwide repentance for our lack of faith in God
I'm starting to believe that it will come from sincere seekers after truth
who may be more inclined toward rational thought and scientific method
than they are to what we generally regard as religion.
Even in the scientific world, I don't expect there to be a huge turning toward God
but I do expect that tens of thousands of people out of the entire world population
will turn to Jesus in the next few years, as they see where the world is heading.
You see, mankind has not turned to God in the midst of our abundance.
But I think that the overwhelming flood of evil that is about to be unleashed upon the world
is going to trigger a desperate need to make contact with our Creator
the only one who can make sense of it all.
Forces that are already beyond human control
are coming together to enslave the entire population of the world.
When it starts to happen, this will no longer be seen as ravings from a madman.
It will (I'm convinced), in the next few, years become a tangible suffocating reality.
For some people in some parts of the world, it has already begun
and because of misuse of modern technology
we are going to discover--too late, mind you--that there is nothing that can be done to stop it
no government, no military body...we will either become a part of this prophesied worldwide oppression
or we will die resisting it.
And those who choose to resist will become something the Bible calls the Bride of Christ.
If a few happen to come from the churches, that would be wonderful
but I'm not holding my breath in anticipation.
Rather, I expect that this Bride of Christ will be people who have learned to accept correction
people who have been trying to find the truth in many different ways, but largely without success.
Are you such a person? If you are, I'd love to hear from you.
I don't know quite how it's all going to work out, but I do hope that we can inspire one another in the days ahead.
My email address is on screen.
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Thank you for watching. God bless you.
