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A LETTER FROM BOLIVIA Harry Bethel I have received many letters from all over the world over the past several years and almost never publish letters, usually only short excerpts. I received the letter below from a brother in Bolivia. I believe it and my response at the end of it will speak to, and be a benefit to, those who read it. ---H.B.
A LETTER FROM BOLIVIA: I do not know you from Adam, but I have either read something you wrote, or heard something you said, or was told something about you by someone that has, for one reason or another, motivated me to want to send you a copy of this generic letter. Therefore, please do not take anything in it as a personal statement made directly at you. My desire is simply to share my heart concerning my present situation as it regards my quest to understand my proper relationship with brothers and "so-called brothers" within this thing we've attempted to call "the Body of Christ." Also in hopes of hearing from you, your heart and present understandings in how you deal with the same situations. I am 42 years old and have been in "religion" all my life. From the very young age of 10, I began to see the hypocrisy of religion in the simple conflict between what the Bible said, "three days and three nights," and what "the Church" taught, "Good Friday, and Easter Sunday." As soon as I was out of my father's home and on my own, I began my search for "God's True Church," whatever that was. I've gone through the same "hard knocks" as many others who have had the same disgust with religion as myself, and who have also begun their own search for "God's True Church." I do not want to paint an untrue picture of myself as a pure-hearted man from my youth, such as Samuel who was always faithful to seek the Lord. In reality I allowed my frustration with the Church and my confusion concerning what was "truth" to be my excuse for falling away from God and into gross sin. In other words, I've been as religious as any man I could ever find fault with today. Therefore I am still seeking the Lord to reveal any deeper levels of my religiosity, that I might repent of it as well. But through it all, having banged my head against religion for 32 years, I've begun to recognize some patterns. The phenomenon that I feel that I have been forced to accept as fact, against my heart's desire to not want to accept it, is that those who have "come out" of religion are usually just as religious as the whore they preach against! And those who cry for "truth" the loudest are usually the most religious of all. The "trend" that I see is merely a continuation of the same religious spirit that caused Martin Luther to condemn the great religious whore of Roman Catholicism, then go right out and create another religious daughter of the great whore, every bit as corrupt as Catholicism. The same religious spirit that caused those of us in the late 60's and 70's to "come out" of organized religion, then get caught up in the non-denominational charismatic" movement, then carried away with emotional sensationalism. The same religious spirit that caused us to "come out" of the nonsense of the non-denominational's pet doctrines of "faith," "prosperity" etc., then fall head long into the legalistic doctrinal war of supposedly "seeking truth." The end result of all that "truth seeking" has ended up with a bunch of men, all with varying degrees of revelation understanding of certain truths, also claiming to have the "obligation" and/or "responsibility" to teach and declare the "absolute truths of God's Word." But the big problem with all that is that they all disagree on what that absolutely clear teaching of the Scriptures is! Therefore, rather than being a strong unified body of believers who truly love each other and all agree in heart, mind and mouth, and experience the reality of the presence of God in all His forms so that the world could see what God's True Church is really like, (James 3:13, 17, 18; 1 Peter 3:8-10; 1 Cor. 1:10; 1 John 1:7) all the world sees is back-biting, arguing, strife, and blaspheming hypocrites (James 3:14-16). I have come to the conclusion, that on any one doctrine, there is only one truth concerning it (2 Peter 1:20). God's not yours or mine, or any man's or any group of men. So why do we spend so much time and energy arguing over our own doctrines and trying to prove that we are right? Which brings us to exactly where we are today. As for myself, I honestly believe that I am seeking to accurately understand the truths of God with all my heart, soul, body, and mind, to the degree He has given me the grace to do so. As for you, if I've sent you a copy of this letter, then I've also been led to believe from something I've seen, read, or heard about you, that you too appear to be seeking to know, understand, and obey the commandments of God, in truth. But, you and I appear to disagree on the way those commandments are to be obeyed. Who is right? How do we really know for sure? I have the reassurance of the peace, love, and joy of the Spirit of God in my life, that whether or not my doctrines are presently as perfected as they will someday be, that I am at least headed in the right direction. But is that enough for me to take a stand and declare that I am right and you are wrong? I also believe that when you stand alone before the Lord with a humble, broken and contrite heart, that you [will] probably experience the same assurance and peace that your doctrines are true as I do. But can you use that alone to claim that you have been given divine wisdom from God and the authority to condemn me if I don't repent? Can we both be correct, and at the same time be in complete agreement with God? I believe that the answer to that question is that either you are right and I am wrong, vice versa, or we are both wrong, to whatever degree, but it is a mathematical impossibility for us to both be right---the very description of the "Body of Christ" today. Where do we go from here? How do we determine who the genuine truth seekers are, and who are simply religious men who have made a religious idol out of seeking mere "truths?" I have an opinion as to how to do it. I will share it with you and request your thoughts on what I share. My opinion is that the identifying mark that makes the determining judgment of a man is the pride he has in his heart. As we judge ourselves, and attempt to make righteous judgments in how we relate to others, we must understand the many subtle ways in which it expresses itself in our attempts to discuss doctrine, and search for truth. Those who genuinely seek after truth, will realize that truth is a never-changing reality, and totally unaffected by their own mere human perception of it, and that they can never lay claim to it, but merely accept the sober responsibility to make certain that their own lives are in accordance with it; and will therefore not display any amount of pride in whatever amount of truth that they think they understand. And unless they are called and anointed of God, and rightly ordained of the church to be an apostle/prophet/elder, they will not be quick to latch on to a "burden to teach," nor be quick to declare that they are right and all dissenters are wrong. Those who merely want to be recognized as knowing truth, will use Scripture as back-up evidence in their attempts to "prove" that their own doctrines are in fact the very Word of God. And without realizing it, or intending to do so, even denying having done so, they will actually condemn others by bringing attention to their faults and ignorances, then make absolute pronouncements of their error. By the principle of Romans 2:1, usually the one doing the most condemning of others' pride, is the most guilty of pride himself. Hence the dangerous ground I stand on in writing this. However, I am not directing this at you, or any one person directly, merely attempting to express a general principle that applies to us all. It is also a part of my own personal conclusion that all organized religions claiming to be "God's True Church" have been so severely polluted, deceived, and compromised that even those who are presently still within them, yet genuinely seeking to know "Truth," are so mixed up that God's True Church simply does not exist today in any form of organized religion. Does God's True Church exist at all? Are there any true saints? Absolutely, but as individuals here and there, possibly small groups here and there. All awaiting the move of the Spirit of God himself, working in the hearts of each individual to once again establish His True Church to prepare it for the end times fulfillment of prophecy. Because of the significance and magnitude of "the great falling away" it will be as meaningful as Pentecost because it will be God who does it, not religious men seeking to build a church. But I do not believe that it will be one big sensational event such as some try to teach of an "end times revival." I believe that it will be one man at a time coming into unity with the Spirit of God in truth. Then when he finds another man who has also come into unity with the Spirit of God in truth, their oneness will be in God, not each other (1 Jn. 1:7; Jn. 17:21, 22). As those different groups of men begin to form all over the world, then and only then, from amidst those groups of men who have perfected their walk of brokenness, humility, obedience, brotherly love, and submission to the point of total agreement, will God manifest himself as he did on Pentecost and call out certain men from among them to be specifically anointed to go out and declare with authority and signs and miracles, what those absolute truths of God really are. Until that happens, I believe that simply the understandings of the foundational basic fact that God's True Church must be established first, before we can be certain that our "inner knowings" are in fact God's absolute truths, will keep us from getting into pride, assuming that we are something special and God needs our wisdom and spiritual maturity to get the church straightened out. Until we reach that reality of a body of truly matured elders who have been perfected in their walk of obedience to sound doctrine (by God's definition) and have the evidence of God's miraculous power in their midst, we must all simply offer our understandings as humble opinions rather than bold declarations, then sober mindedly allow them to be reproved by other brothers who have gained our trust and respect to be genuine "Truth" seekers, not merely religious men seeking after "truths." That is why I no longer jump to embrace a man as my brother, simply because he says he is. I will let his actions and heart and words be the fruit that either is, or is not, worthy of the honor of being called a brother. I would love to send you pages and pages of my thoughts concerning my understandings of what I believe to be the false doctrines being taught by the great whore of religion, and look forward to receiving your pages and pages of response. If we were to disagree, it would in no way motivate me to want to challenge you, but simply a desire to use your response to study deeper and allow the Spirit of God to reveal the truth in the matter. However before I enter into any kind of relationship with you to study God's Word, I have a desire, even a need to get to know you and your heart first. I have found that unless two men can respect and submit one to another, and honestly consider the other's opinions as worthy of consideration as their own, and a willingness to admit their own potential fallibility (therefore the possibility of the need to admit they were wrong) then the only result of the correspondence, irrelevant to the knowledge or maturity of either party, will ultimately be strife. I hate strife. The "body of Christ" is full of strife. I've left all that and I am truly done striving to prove that I am right, or fellowship in any fashion with those who are still attempting to prove that they are right. But I so long to find and fellowship with those who have laid down their vanity and pride and simply seek to admit 1 Corinthians 8:2 that they know nothing yet as they ought to know, and humbly seek His truth by merely offering their opinions and willing to have them reproved, and wait for God himself to reveal what is true in His own undeniable way. So, before I correspond with you concerning what we each perceive to be true or false doctrines, I need to know how you feel about what I said in this letter. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you. In His love, (Name deleted by Harry Bethel)
MY RESPONSE: Dear Brother ________, Greetings in the name of the One who came in the flesh, shed His blood, and died on a cross because of our sins, Jesus Christ. I read your letter with great interest and empathy; many verses of Scripture came to mind as I read it. Pilate asked the infamous question, "What is truth?" when Jesus told him that everyone who is of the truth hears His voice (Jn. 18:37-38). Pilate was not sincere and did not have ears to "hear" the truth. I believe you are indeed sincere and have ears to hear. Without realizing it you already have the solution to your main problem. As revealed in your letter, your main problem is "how can we know what truth is as given in the Scriptures and how can we embrace those truths and share them with others without being "religious" and proud." I'm not sure what you mean by the word "religious," but perhaps we can begin by accepting a standard English definition---"characterized by adherence to religion or a religion; devout; pious; godly." If we are sincere, unlike Pilate, and truly born again, then we live out our lives in accordance with what we believe to be the truth concerning the Scriptures. Being sincere, however, is not enough to keep us from embracing error. And when we embrace error, where practical application of doctrines that we believe to be the truth is required, then we are deceived and unknowingly walk in darkness and not light in those areas. Assuming we are sincere Christians and not hypocritical, we live in accordance with what we truly believe to be the truth, not what we merely say we believe. During times of apostasy truth is always embraced only by a very small minority, if by any. God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud. Knowledge can puff up, so the Lord will take the necessary measures to prevent that from happening to any man He calls to accomplish a certain task; for example, Paul's thorn in the flesh. The Lord has very little, if anything, to teach a proud Christian (except the fact that he needs to repent). Jesus said if you obey Him then are you His disciple indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (Jn. 8:31-32). But we must first be "disciples (learners) indeed." A disciple, that is, according to the three conditions set forth in Luke 14:26, 27, and 33. If one is not a disciple, then one can be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14). Many are debating whether Jesus was crucified on a certain day of the week or not, and many other things that have little or no practical import. They are straining at gnats and swallowing camels. You said that you hate strife and that you are done with it. The Lord hates strife also, and so do I, but that did not keep Him nor does it keep me from proclaiming (at times with boldness) what I know to be God's truths. We can proclaim, when led by the Spirit, what we know to be God's truths without having a contentious spirit and without being proud or arrogant. Jesus and the apostle Paul did it and so can anyone else who has been called, prepared, and sent by the Lord to do it. "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (1 Pet. 4:11). I am not very much interested in others' opinions, but I am interested in hearing truths from others who know the truth by having been taught by the Holy Spirit. The main reason that so many Christians embrace error and are at variance in so many doctrines is because of having little or no discernment. The reasons for this are many, but to list a few, they are: defiling one's mind by watching the filth on television, including the news, and reading the cheap output of the press, including novels, newspapers and news magazines. It is also detrimental to our ability to discern to read even religious fiction and watch so-called Christian drama. Indeed, enjoying these things are already proof of a lack of discernment and carnality. Another reason is embracing doctrinal error and rejecting truth because of denominational, sectarian, or congregational loyalty. One is open to demonic control by "religious" demons when one adamantly defends error and rejects truth when presented. Of course, all of this can be explained by the prophesied falling away from truth and men not enduring sound doctrine in the last days before the Second Advent. God is giving Christians the desires of their hearts---much of what the world has to offer in terms of entertainment, indebtedness, worldly music, ad nauseam---and sending leanness to their souls; which, of course, means a loss of discernment if there ever was any to begin with in one's life. As recorded in Revelation, Jesus many times warned those who had ears to hear what the Spirit said to the churches and individuals (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 13:9). Jesus is Truth personified and His Word is Truth. It is the Holy Spirit of Christ who guides us into all truth and the truth shall make you free (Jn. 16:13; 8:32). You wrote, "...I believe that simply the understandings of the foundational basic fact that God's True Church must be established first, before we can be certain that our "inner knowings" are in fact God's absolute truths...." But knowing what God's absolute truths are is not dependent on "the true church." In fact you answered your own question concerning how we can know what truth is. You wrote, "If we were to disagree, it would in no way motivate me to want to challenge you, but simply a desire to use your response to study deeper and allow the Spirit of God to reveal the truth in the matter." You said you long to fellowship with those who "humbly seek His truth by merely offering their opinions and willing to have them reproved, and wait for God himself to reveal what is true in His own undeniable way." [Emphasis mine.] We must realize who our real Teacher is. It is true that many church leaders have a gift of teaching and indeed "teach," but this teaching is in a limited sense compared to the One who teaches us in a way that no church leader ever can. The only way we can know whether or not a human teacher is teaching truth is if the Holy Spirit of Christ reveals that to us. In fact, the only way we can know scriptural truth is if God teaches us by His Spirit. And these truths will never contradict the Scriptures. Any other knowledge of truth is, at best, only an intellectual assent to it. "For one is your [Teacher], even Christ" (Mt. 23:8). "...A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven" (Jn. 3:27). Jesus said, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him....And they shall be taught of God" (Jn. 6:44-45). "...The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things" (Jn. 14:26). "...When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth" (Jn. 16:13). The apostle Paul said, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rm. 8:14). Paul told Timothy, "Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things" (2 Tim. 2:7). The apostle John said, "These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of Him [the Holy Spirit] abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him" (1 Jn. 2:26-27). The real problem for most Christians is not how can we know what truth is. The New Testament is replete with the answer to that question, even though those verses of Scripture are obviously ignored or overlooked by many. But most Christians in these last days of apostasy really don't want to know the truth. Why? Because it usually costs something to know the truth and apply it to your life, even if the cost is only inconvenience. And, again, to learn truth to the greatest extent that God will allow for an individual Christian is for that one to be a disciple (learner) in accordance with the three conditions of Luke 14. And the condition that stops most from becoming a learner on that level is literally forsaking all (14:33). The Lord will give back in due time everything that we need to accomplish His purposes, which may be precious little. But one must first meet all three of these conditions or else Jesus said you cannot, cannot, cannot be His disciple (Lk. 14:26-27, 33). Over the years many have written to me or spoken to me about this text and tried to rationalize away the true and literal meaning of the passage by saying that Jesus only meant that we should be willing to give up everything to be His disciple. And so, they, like 99.9% of the Christians in this country, continue to stumble around, being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, embracing error and in many cases not even suspecting that anything is wrong. But another problem is the approach that we take in seeking the Lord to reveal truth to us. Many Christians seek God with the attitude "Lord, please tell me what the truth (or Your will) is so I can decide if I want to obey." Instead, our attitude should be, "God, I don't care what the truth (or Your will) is, I just want to know it so I can obey." God will reveal His will or the truth to one of His sincere disciples with that kind of approach. Of course, merely forsaking all that one has does not automatically mean that one will be a disciple. Ascetics, (including Roman Catholic monks who haven't even been born again that I have talked with) over the centuries have embraced and taught error, having been deceived by religious demons. So, what else is needed? One must be filled with the Holy Spirit of Christ which is a separate experience from being born again, even though the two may (or may not) occur at virtually the same time (Eph. 5:18; Acts 2:4; cf. Acts 4:8; 6:5). But is this all that is needed in these last days of unprecedented demonic deception? Perhaps not. An invaluable endowment in these perilous times is the gift of discernment of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10). The apostle Paul, inspired by the Spirit of Christ, warned that the time will come when men would not endure sound doctrine, that they would gather "to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Tim. 4:3-4). Also, there will come a great falling away from truth before the Antichrist is revealed (2 Thess. 2:3). In order to fall away from truth, one must have already embraced it or at least given mental assent to it. I do not see how true Christians in general could fall away any further from truths of the Scriptures than they are today. A few years ago a pastor who had been trying to contend with me over several doctrines asked me if I thought I was a prophet. My answer to the contentious man was that he was asking the wrong question, that he should be asking himself if what I was proclaiming was true or not, and if so, what was he going to do about it. Truth is truth regardless of the source. A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it, and truth is truth even if no one believes it. You said in your letter that "God's True Church simply does not exist today in any form of organized religion. Does God's True Church exist at all?" Jesus said He would build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. He did exactly that through the apostles (including Paul) whom He called, prepared, empowered and sent. But by the time of the writing of the Book of Revelation around 95 A. D., five of seven churches mentioned in chapters two and three had, in varying degrees, fallen away from the truth. The Church has been getting worse ever since, and now, although there have been scattered works of revival over the years, generally Christians (yes, even true Christians) are in a state of apostasy. In fact, power will be given to the Antichrist to overcome the saints (Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 13:7). God has given up on the organized church. He will, however, walk with anyone who is sold out to Him and refuses to compromise with the world. Jesus will not leave or forsake an individual, but it is all over for the organized church. If you will not accept the truths proclaimed above, I still love you and will pray for you, but I guess you will have to do as I am doing by the grace of God and "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12). May the Lord richly bless you with spiritual blessings. In Christ Jesus, Harry Bethel
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