The Master took to himself, only men to be trained for the work of evangelizing the world. These were to work in his stead after his ascension to heaven. During the time the Master was training these men for their role in taking the salvation-message to the world, he sent them out on two occasions as part of their training programme.

On both occasions, he sent out only these chosen men in pairs but never blended them with any women. Bible scholars have come to refer to these errands as the Mission of the Twelve (cf. Matthew 10: 1-42, Mark 6: 7-13, Luke 9: 1-6) and the Mission of the Seventy (cf. Luke 10: 1-24).

The fact that the Master chose only men to be his twelve apostles (one man representing each of the twelve tribes of Israel?), and these men-only missions of the Twelve and of the Seventy, must be the starting point where every true disciple of the Master must begin to understand and appreciate the God-ordained leadership role of men, in the business of the Kingdom of God.

But alas, many of today’s so-called disciples of Jesus Christ are hardly impressed by the manner of the Master, and the spiritual significance of choosing only men for his assignments.

Apostle Peter is my most-admired disciple of Jesus Christ. I see him throughout his apostolic work, act as a copy-cat disciple of Jesus Christ, the Master. Just watch him lead the search for a replacement for Judas Iscariot, when the latter’s bishoprick became due for grabs, after his horrible demise.

Apostle Peter in Acts 1: 15-22, spelt out the required credentials of the person who was qualified to take-up the bishoprick of Judas Iscariot. Looking critically at his requirements in verses twenty-one and twenty-two, Mary Magdalene, Joana the wife of Chuza (Herod’s steward), Susanna, Mary the mother of James, and many other women (Luke 8: 2-3 and 24: 10), did not qualify simply because they were women.

These women were ever present in all the travels of the Master, to minister to his needs out of their substance. The Master knew of their presence in the crowds that followed him in all his travels because they were always present to supply his needs. And yet the Master never gave these loyal women to his cause, any roles or assignments in his ministry.

So, who was Peter, an ordinary disciple of the Master to do otherwise? Apostle Peter could therefore never elect and anoint a woman to replace Judas Iscariot; no matter how much qualified she might seem in all other areas, aside from not being a man.

Not long after Peter led the Church in getting a replacement for Judas Iscariot, the Church again had need to look for leaders for a particular assignment. We can read of this assignment and the election of the men for its execution, in Acts 6: 1-7.

From my understanding of many accounts about the apostolic Church, this account in Acts 6: 1-7 is the best situation, that could ever have led to the establishment of a so-called Women’s Ministry and the election of women (as deaconesses?) to prosecute the objectives of that ministry. And yet the wisdom of the apostles of Jesus Christ did not permit the election of women for the assignment.

The apostles had on hand, a problem of dealing with a women’s issue. It concerned the provision of food by the Church to widows. The distribution of food to Grecian widows did not seem fair as Jewish widows in the Church seemed better-favoured over the Grecian ones.

This led to murmurings in the Church. Of course, these murmurings had the potential to kill the love and fellowship of the congregation. The apostles had to deal with this canker which in Israel’s history had always led to the judgments of God upon the people.

One would have thought that since the issues in contention were about the cooking of food in the kitchen and the serving of it at tables to vulnerable women, women-folk, should have been at the forefront to deal with them. After all, these issues obviously were in an area where women’s God-given talents and natural gifts, could deal with them adequately, possibly without any Holy Spirit endowment.

And yet the apostles did not find it prudent to elect, ordain and anoint women for the task. They had to look for as many as seven men for the solution of the problem. These were no ordinary men. For this service to the Body of Christ, these men were to be of good report, full of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, and faith.

At the end of the election and ordination of these seven men, there was peace, love flourished, and the work of God prospered. Jesus Christ and God the Father in Heaven were satisfied with their servants on earth for their actions and gave them their backing and blessing.

You see, the apostles worked with the mind and wisdom of the Master. Also, the Master worked with them in all their endeavours (Mark 16: 20). Working in and through his disciples, the Master would never elect and ordain women for any assignments in his Church. These truths the apostles knew very well from two sources.

The first source was the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in them. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in them constantly taught them the deep things of God and of His Wisdom. They could never do what was not in the mind of God or what He would not approve of.

Secondly, they learnt of the Master in four years of serious discipleship training, whatever they could do or never be allowed to do. And this training gave them the wisdom of being copy-cat imitators of all the ways of the Master.

When these men were with the Master, while he was on earth with them, did he not set the example for them, that, the greatest in his work must be the one who serves? And so these disciples learnt to serve thousands of men, women, and children, without being assisted in their tasks by women and or children (cf. Matthew 14: 15-21, Matthew 15: 32-38, Mark 6: 35-44, Mark 8: 1-9, Luke 9: 12-17, John 6: 5-13).

Whenever the disciples of Jesus Christ executed their God-ordained work of serving in the Kingdom, they received no assistance from women. Whether the task was to serve five or seven thousand men, in addition to the large numbers of women and children who were ever present, they received no assistance from any women in this service.

And whether the task was the collection of left-over food, to fill seven or twelve baskets, the disciples of Jesus Christ did not get assistance from their women-folk present.

The Master did not endorse women participation in the ministry he established for his genuine and loyal disciples. And therefore, he, never superintended over any assignments of his followers, which had women play roles (no matter how menial) in the ministry he ordained for them (his followers).

My dear Man of God, who are you then, to bring women into the Church of Jesus Christ, as leaders in place of and on behalf of men? Do you have the mandate of God to do so? No you do not. May God, be merciful to us in this error. [—this article is continued in Part Seven].

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His email address is: [email protected].

Prophetess Deborah came onto the political scene of Israel unannounced. Unlike her predecessors, Othniel and Ehud, God did not introduce her. Immediately after her, came another deliverer raised by God to deliver His people. He was called Gideon. Gideon was elaborately introduced by God as His messenger (cf. Judges 6: 12 – 8: 32).

Odd enough, Deborah did not enjoy the testimony of God that He raised her as a deliverer to His people. There is no statement in the Bible that clearly reveals Deborah was raised-up and sent by God in the same way that Othniel, Ehud and Gideon were given glorious testimonies about their God-ordained assignments.

Maybe, she just filled a void at her own will: she called herself into action. It is most likely that, this was what she did. Just like Miriam the prophetess, the joy of having the power of the Holy Spirit upon her for singing might have led her to make bold and courageous acts like leading men to war, at a time when men were afraid to. But even then, do we not see how dependant she was on Barak, a man of valour, for her military campaigns? (cf. Judges 4: 6).

Nothing that I know about prophetess Deborah leads me to the conclusion that she was a messenger sent from God to lead His people. Her success in the war-campaigns against Gentile-king Jabin, and his captain Sisera, not withstanding, there is no reference in the Bible that God sent her.

That is not say God was not with her: since the Holy Spirit was with her and inspired her to sing, albeit of herself, and friends. Deborah too, like Miriam could not be a messenger sent by God to lead men.

We could go on to examine Huldah the wife of a man called Shallum (Second Kings 22: 14-20 & Second Chronicles 34: 20-28) and the un-named wife of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 8: 3), who were both mentioned in the Old Testament as being prophetesses. Clearly, none of them was sent by God to deliver His Word to any people. Huldah was neither under the command of God to send a message to king Josiah of Judah, nor was Josiah told by God to send the high priest Hilkiah and scribe Shaphan to her for one.

King Josiah of his own volition sent his messengers to confer with her. Prophetess Huldah therefore, also stands as one of the prophetesses who were never sent by God with His Word to men. As for Isaiah’s wife we do not know for what reason she was mentioned as a prophetess: or was it in relation to her pregnancy, the only issue related to the mention of her name?

From all the foregoing, we can safely say that a prophetess is one who sings under the unction of the Holy Spirit. This understanding of the function of the prophetess should deliver many people from holding the wrong view that, a prophetess is the female counterpart to the male-prophet, and is also inspired like the male-prophet to carry God’s Word to people.

This wrong but popular stance held by many that a prophetess is a God-chosen woman to be His messenger-spokesperson, conveying His instructions in place or alongside of God-ordained men-prophets must, today, be disabused from the minds of Bible-believers.

With the issue of who is a prophetess now settled, let us look at some practices of Judaism to further establish the fact that God purposefully set-up the leadership role of man over the woman. It is common knowledge to Bible students that, Judaism, as set-up and defined by the Law of Moses, showed a men-only leadership.

Many times we read in the Old Testament that Israel appeared before God in fulfillment of the Law. For many, their understanding of these verses of the Bible is that, the entire population of men, women and children appeared in the presence of the Lord. But it is wrong to suppose so, since the whole population of Israel could never assemble in one place. It was simply not possible for such a gathering to be made.

These were men-only congregations and or convocations, which the Law of Moses commanded for the observance by the males of Israel. It was compulsory for all men to stand before God in a holy convocation three times every year. This was a commandment given for the compliance of only men. We find this in Exodus 23: 17, Deuteronomy 16: 16-17, 23: 1-2, Leviticus 4: 13-15, and 23: 2.

The ages of males qualified to stand before God in these gatherings were twenty and above. These males comprised those of the eligible military- and nuptial-age of twenty (Numbers 1: 2-3, 26: 2, 32: 11 and Joshua 5: 4-7), and those who were family-heads, military leaders, spiritual leaders, and royal heads. Just look at the composition in the select group of men who appeared before Joshua and God, before his demise, which we find in Joshua 23: 2 and 24: 1.

Every serious-minded student of the Bible knows of the obvious disposition of the Law toward males, over their females. Even the post-natal purification rites for a woman, under the Law, were different when she brought forth a male-child from when the child was a female.

When a woman brought forth a male-child, she was unclean for only seven days. She could therefore come out to be present at the circumcision, naming and presentation to God rites for her son, which were by the Law to be performed on the eighth day after the birth of every male-child. Thereafter, her purification process lasted for thirty-three days.

On the other hand, a woman who delivered a female-child was by Law considered unclean, for as many as fourteen days. Thereafter, she continued while in seclusion, the process of her purification for a further sixty-six days. In Leviticus 12: 1-6, we find God’s instructions devoted to these issues, for the strict compliance of the children of Israel. Please, read these verses for your edification.

We must keep in remembrance that the Law of Moses continued to be legal tender for the transaction of any business between man and God, onto the advent of the Messiah. In the days of the Law of Moses, God dealt with mankind on the basis of man’s submission and obedience to it. And it was only Israel who was privileged to have the Law. His right-standing before God depended on his obedience to this Law.

This explains the misery of being alienated from God, which Gentiles suffered before being reconciled unto Him by the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. Before that reconciliation of the Gentile-world to God, the Messiah of God said that, not one jot or tittle of the Law of Moses would ever pass away or fail; not until heaven and earth have passed away (cf. Matthew 5:17-18 and Luke 16:17).

Well, heaven and earth have not passed away yet and so the leadership status of the man established by God the Almighty in the Law of Moses, still stands today under the Grace Dispensation of God. We cannot doubt this if we truly are the loyal disciples of Jesus Christ.

But do we see this law of God, in which He established man as the perpetual leader of the woman, being adhered to today? Even among people who claim to be the followers of the Master, Jesus Christ, do they obey the Will of God in this? Personally, I do not see obedience to this Law. And why is this so, one may ask?

The reason is simple – many people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, are indeed not his disciples. True disciples of Jesus Christ are hard to come by in our world today. This is because a true disciple is one who imitates every way of his Master. And no imitator of Jesus Christ will permit or accept women leaders in the Church. [—this article is continued in Part Six].

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His email address is: [email protected].

Why would Miriam claim to be a spokesperson of God when she did not seem credible enough to lay claim to it? Of course, we all know that at one point in time, Miriam led the women’s group in Israel’s journey out of Egypt to Canaan, to sing a powerful song of praise to God. This was when the children of Israel crossed the Red sea safely, while the horse-men of Pharaoh drowned by the mighty hand of God (Exodus 15: 20-21).

This was the only occasion that Miriam came into contact with the Spirit of God. The euphoric feeling that she gained in this one-off contact with the Holy Spirit, might have carried her aloft and above all Israelite women for a long time. This spiritually uplifting experience, must have led her to think and believe that she was a messenger of God, who was spiritually at par with her two siblings (Aaron and Moses), and that she was chosen to run errands for Him by speaking forth His word to Israel.

After we heard Miriam sing a song of praise to God when the children of Israel crossed the Red sea, we next hear her criticise Moses for taking an Ethiopian woman to wife. How sad. This prophetess used her tongue to criticise the true man of God, instead of praising Him for mightily using him (her own brother) in the manner He was doing! Of course, her punishment for this sin, in being hit with leprosy, was deserved (Numbers12:1-16).

I am sure that her experiences of later years would have led her to reconsider her stand and, in sober-mind, rid herself of the delusion she had that God spoke through her. She, no-doubt, must have come to repent of her sin of envy and jealousy of her younger sibling (Moses), which must have caused her to speak presumptuously.

The third and last mention of Miriam in the Bible was one which announced her death and burial (cf. Numbers 20: 1). Miriam therefore, went the way of all flesh with only one good service to God to her credit! And yet she was considered a prophetess! This means that it was in her singing of praises to God, under the power of the Holy Spirit, in only one known occasion, that she was labeled: prophetess.

To sing under the power of the Holy Spirit therefore, means to prophesy. And it was not only Miriam who sung to earn the appellation, prophet, or in her case, prophetess.

The first king of Israel, Saul the son of Kish, was also a prophet by appellation because he sung praises to God when the Spirit of God first came upon him. In his case too, it is in this one known occasion that he was called a prophet.

Saul joined a company of prophets who, in function, were singers and instrumentalists under the unction of the Holy Spirit (cf. First Samuel 10: 5-13). Saul became known as a prophet because, on the day that he had the Holy Spirit of God come upon him, he joined this musical band of prophets and became as one with them in what they were doing – singing praises to God.

Note that, after Saul’s prophesying in singing, God never used him in even one instance, to carry His message to Israel his nation. And yet his name has entered the history of God’s dealings with mankind as a prophet, at one time in his life.

From the foregoing, it is obvious that singing under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, can also be termed: prophesying. From the Old Testament days unto the early days of the New Testament church, inspired singing of praises to God, either in clear understandable words or babbling tongues, remained the commonest manifestations of a person’s contact with the Spirit of God.

It was obviously so, for as many as seventy leaders of the house of Israel during the Old Testament days (cf. Numbers 11: 25-27). What could these seventy elders of Israel be doing with their vocal cords on end, prophesying without ceasing? What these elders did was the same thing Saul the son of Kish and a company of known prophets also did with their vocal cords – prophesying without ceasing.

It is not possible that on both occasions, these groups of men were delivering some message from God, without ceasing; could it? What-with all these many people using their vocal cords (and as such, all said in the Bible to be prophesying) at the same time?

What message could they be delivering and never ending or ceasing from that task? If at all they were delivering a special message from God, to who was it directed? The only thing they were doing was singing and making music in praise and worship of God.

May it therefore, be firmly established from the foregoing that, to prophesy also means, to sing under the unction of the Holy Spirit: thereby, not limiting prophesying to the delivering of messages from God.

In Acts 21: 9, we read of Philip the evangelist having in his home, four virgin-daughters who did (or could) prophesy. That is not to tell us that these virgins ever had a mission from God, to send His Word to any people of the world, either in times past or present then.

Of course, the work of sending the gospel message to the world was what their father was doing in all diligence, at the time we were told of their virginity and prophesying prowess (a feat usually exhibited together as a quartet?).

I am sure these virgins, pure and holy as they were, could never think of entering into any competition with their father in evangelizing the world. These virgins were singers who were always under the power of the Holy Spirit whenever they sang.

They, like Miriam, who is revealed to us in God’s Word as a prophetess; the seventy elders of the house of Israel in the Book of Numbers; king-elect Saul and his company of prophets; and the family and friends of Cornelius (Acts 10: 46), all ministered in songs of praises to God under the unction of the Holy Spirit immediately they had their first contact with the Holy Spirit. Women singers, singing under the unction of the Holy Spirit are considered to prophesy, and hence the reason why they are called prophetesses.

What about the mention in the Book of Judges in the Bible about a woman by the name Deborah, who is also referred to as a prophetess, someone might ask? Of course, many Bible readers know about this woman, who is also said to have been a judge of Israel. But many people do not know about her in much detail.

Prophetess Deborah was like prophetess Miriam: a songstress. The whole chapter five of the Book of Judges is devoted to her song of praise to God, of herself, and of people she considered to be of valour. She is the only prophetess I have heard of who praised herself when she sung under the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Judges 5: 7, 12, KJV).

Prophetess Deborah emerged on the national scene of Israel during a time of political and spiritual turmoil. There was at the time, no clear-cut political or spiritual leadership in Israel. At her time, Joshua, the successor of Moses had died and all the elders of Israel who saw the power of God during their wilderness journey had also passed away (Judges 2: 7-10).

At the time of Deborah, Israel was living in one of his habitual periods of disobedience. These bouts of disobedience normally caused him to suffer punishment at the hands of his enemies. But because of the promise of God to bless Abraham and his seed forever, anytime he cried out to God for help, He always sent them men-leaders to deliver them from their enemies.

During the post-Joshua era, the first of these deliverer-leaders was Othniel; a man who was evidently called, anointed and sent by God (Judges 3:9-11, KJV). The next deliverer-leader was also a man raised and sent by God who was named Ehud (Judges 3: 15-30). Next after Ehud, God raised another male-deliverer by the name Shamgar (cf. Judges 3: 31). [—this article is continued in Part Five].

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His email address is: [email protected].

Every spiritual work of God, in Israel, was done by only the male-line of Levi. The work of cleaning, arranging items of and for worship, offering of sacrifices on the altar, and any work relating to worship of God, were all done by a men-only Levitical priesthood.

If you are blessed to have the spirit of the Bible carry you along, as you meditatively read it, you will see that the house of Levi, and indeed the house of every man in Israel, did not have women being regarded as descending from those houses. Female children were never recorded at birth to have descended from their fathers.

Females were never counted in any population census. They were never eligible for inheriting their fathers. They did not have any portion in the land distribution of Israel.

Every part of the Law of Moses is clear in forbidding women-leadership in spiritual issues. When a woman brought forth a male-child as the first-fruit of her womb, that child was by the Law, to be given up for the service of God, in the company of the Levites.

By that birth, the male-child was ordained to be the priest of God, according to the Levitical order, forever. Therefore, when such children were weaned, they were handed over to the priests, to be taught, trained and groomed, for their God-ordained roles in the Aaronite priesthood, when they came of age for this service, at thirty.

This was how-come a first-born son of Elkanah by his wife Hannah, who was named Samuel, came to be enlisted into the priesthood of Israel, even though Elkanah was an Ephraimite and not a Levite (First Samuel 1: 1 – 2: 11).

When a female-child was similarly begotten, as the first to open the matrix of her mother, she was also by Law to be dedicated to the service of God. The father (and the mother?) did not own such a child, in the eyes of the Law of Moses, the Law of God. God owned such a child.

But unlike the first-born male-child, she could never join or be part of the Levitical priesthood, which God established for His worship. Therefore, any female-child who opened the matrix of every woman in Israel was to be redeemed. The fathers of such children were under obligation to buy-back or redeem them from God, as it were.

Such female-children were taken to the house of God, after being weaned of their mothers, to be given or handed-over to Him through the Levites. At these presentations, a price was placed on them at the discretion of the priests. This price was immediately paid by the fathers to the Levites and the female-child taken back home by the father, to live in submission and service to him forever.

I am sure, from all the foregoing, the choice of man by God to lead women is obvious. In my study of the Bible, the only service that I have come across to have been rendered by women in the company of men, in the worship of God, is singing of psalms and hymns.

It seems to me that, it was only the sons of Asaph who had in their ministration of worship before the Lord, women as singers. It was a rare concession given to the daughters of the house of Levi. It is only Ezra 2: 65 and Nehemiah 7: 67 which show evidence of women participation in singing, in the worship of God.

God has since the establishment of the state of Israel, used men only as prophets to communicate His Will to them. There is abundant evidence that there were never any female counterparts to men-prophets. Throughout Jewish history, God never called and sent a woman with His message to the nation of Israel or his king or any man for that matter.

How about the mention of the word prophetess in God’s Word, one may ask? The word ‘prophet’ is one of the problematic words in Greek-English Bible translation and therefore does not easily or readily reveal itself to our understanding. This is because the word ‘prophet’ is a transliteration of the Greek word ‘prophetes’, since it seems to defy a proper translation.

This transliteration does not help the non-Greek readers of the Bible much. Many forms and variants of the Greek word ‘prophetes’ exist. They are also transliterated variously as ‘prophet’, ‘prophetess’, ‘prophecy’, ‘prophesy’, etc.

Many of today’s users of the English Bible do not understand these words simply because they do not have their roots in English. They were borrowed whole-scale from Greek into English. This transliteration does the English-speaker very little or no good, at all. What is the good in being told for example that the meaning of the Greek word ‘prophetes’ in English is: prophet?

For me this is not helpful. And I wonder how many people are helped to understand this word by such transliteration. To understand the word ‘prophet’ is for one to either learn some Greek grammar and literature or gain its understanding from the spirit of the Bible.

For many people familiar with the Bible, a prophet to them is one who foretells future events. Even though that is true, it is not always the only function of the prophet. The prophet also at times carries the word of God to His people to deal immediately with current crises or any bad situation. Prophets who function in these two ways either hear with their spiritual ears, the Word of God from Him directly or through His angels, or they receive it through their spiritual eyes in dreams and visions.

Another kind of prophet is one who utters information, not foretelling of future events or bringing immediate solutions to current crises or bad situations. This prophet testifies to an event happening or just happened. An example of this kind of prophet was Simeon (Luke 2: 25-32), who was led into the Temple in Jerusalem to testify of the Baby Jesus as being the Messiah of God. Also, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, the prophetess of Luke 2: 36-38 fame was such a person who spoke not foretelling the future but testifying of a current event and thanking God for it.

There is yet another kind of a prophet that is hardly known by most bible students: the singing prophet. This is a man (and very rarely a woman), who sings under inspiration of the Holy Spirit when He (Holy Spirit) comes upon that person.

A person might function in this manner only once in his (or her) lifetime, and yet gain recognition as being considered a prophet, forever. It is in only this manner of functioning that women have been known to have participated in the work of God, and therefore called: prophetesses.

The most notable of such women was Miriam, the elder sister of both Moses and Aaron. She was the one, when yet in her girlish-years, who stood on the bank of the Nile, and watched the daughter of Pharaoh take the infant-Moses into her custody (Exodus 2: 4).

Later on, in her very advanced years, Miriam was called a prophetess; and yet was never known to have carried a message from God to His people. Of course, Miriam is recorded to have claimed that God spoke by and or through her. But was she right in her claim? There is no evidence to the veracity of her claim.

What need was there for God to have another prophet in a woman such as Miriam, when His super-prophet Moses was in-charge of His business? Maybe, because Miriam was older than both Moses and Aaron, she had come to assume a mother-figure (or was it rather a father-personality?) over these octogenarians, which gave her the courage to lay claim to any capacity to prophesy. [—this article is continued in Part Four].

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His email address is: [email protected].

In the search for the position of the Bible, on the leadership status of men, vis-à-vis their female counterparts, it is very revealing when we look critically at the Ten Commandments of God found in Exodus 20: 1-17. All of them are directed at man: for his personal obedience and also aimed at him ensuring compliance by his family members.

However, let us look at only two of these commandments in some detail. These are the fourth and the tenth. What do they say? Let us quote these commandments in their entirety, from the King James Version of the Bible.

“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shat thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed I”. (Exodus 20: 8-11, KJV, emphasis mine).

It is very clear to whom this commandment is addressed. It is only to the man and for him to ensure compliance by all in his house. No mention is made of any married woman.

Let us look at the tenth commandment. It is also clearly addressed to the man – the God-ordained head of the home. Let us quote it here:

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s” (Exodus 20: 17, KJV).

Looking closely at this verse, we can see the wisdom and mind of God in crafting it. By His design, this verse can be obeyed by men only. It is only men, within the context of this verse, who possess houses, wives, manservants, maidservants, oxen or asses. The commandments of this verse do not speak to women.

This verse is silent on women. In the way the commandments stand, they seem to give the impression that, all of man’s neighbours are his fellow-men. Women do not seem to even exist in the mind God, so far as the commandments in this verse are concerned.

It seems to me that anytime God wanted a woman, He went looking for her inside of the personality (body and will) of man. The ideal woman is one who abides in the will of her father or husband, at all times. It therefore does not seem that any woman can obey or disobey this tenth of the Ten Commandments of God.

Any person who seeks to compel women to obey this verse, or to be faulted by it, and therefore amends it to read “… thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife (or husband) …” will be seeking an amendment to God’s commandments without His mandate. I have known some teachers (of the Bible?), who find nothing wrong with adding and stressing the words in parenthesis above, during their catechism or Sunday school classes, for the information of their young pupils.

I am scared about this, since God has warned of dire consequences for any people who will add to or subtract from His Word (without His mandate). This warning we find in Revelation 22: 18-19. We must therefore be very careful in this.

On a lighter note, let me draw your attention, my dear reader, to one of God’s favourite words – thou. You may try counting the number of times this word has been used in the King James Version of the Bible, to agree with me that it is one of God’s favourite words; and more so, when He speaks English at His Conservative best.

This word, from even the very few times that God has used it in the Ten Commandments, is strongly suggestive of it being a male-gendered word. It does not seem to have any feminine-gender connotation or trait.

By simply confining ourselves to the use of this word (thou) in the Ten Commandments, we see that, any time God uses this word, He is seen to be addressing a man or men. And so we can safely go beyond the Ten Commandments to understand that both Judaism and Christianity, as instituted by God for His worship, are male-led.

In the Book of Numbers, the chapter thirty, we find a very inspiring revelation about the God-ordained leadership status of man over the woman. My dear reader, please, read this interesting and very revealing chapter, from the King James Version of the Bible, before continuing with the reading of this article.

In this chapter of the Book of Numbers, God has established a statute rendering the man as the perpetual leader of the woman. In whatever relationship that exists between a man and a woman, the man is always the leader. That is how God has ordained things to be, and so they must remain in that manner, forever.

In this chapter, we receive the revelation of God that the father is the leader of the daughter. The husband is also the leader of his woman (wife). The divorced wife is still under obligation to any vow(s) she uttered with the consent of her man (husband) when she was yet married to him! And so is the widowed woman under obligation to make good any vow(s) she made with the knowledge of her man (husband) before his demise.

If you were a woman in Israel, you were to accept and obey this statute to your great gain or ignore it to your doom. And this is what God has taught His people to accept and obey – forever. Whether the man (father or husband) of the woman is alive or dead, the leadership of the man over her remains the Will of God. This reveals God-ordained leadership to be eternal, undying, and therefore spiritual.

If any woman violates this statute of God, she brings upon herself, iniquities, according to the fifteenth verse of the chapter. The man is established by God as the domestic priest of the woman, forever. May, I humbly advice women to read this chapter of Numbers carefully, so they may be blessed by it.

Talking about priests, we see God ordained a men-only priesthood for the spiritual leadership and well-being of the woman. Everywhere in the Bible, this is what God has ordained. In both the Old and New Testaments, God always called men only to be His priests. He uses them to give instruction of His Will and direction in His worship, to people who were considered His own.

The word ‘priestess’ has never been used by God to describe any woman with any role in His service. Priestesses have always been seen in heathen countries in description of their women’s roles as leaders in idol worship.

The Old Testament Aaronite priesthood involved only the sons of Levi. No daughters of the house of Levi ever entered the priesthood of the Old Testament. No woman from the houses of Aaron, Gershom, Kohath and Merari (families that comprised the house of Levi), ever entered the service of God as Levites even though females were, of course, born to men from these houses. [—this article is continued in Part Three].

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Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His email address is: [email protected].

Many adherents to the Christian faith believe that, soon and very soon, this current world order and its system of things will come to an end. In this, they have believed rightly. And indeed, as the end of the world approaches, mankind must begin to act in readiness to stand before the judgment seat of God. No doubt, mankind will bNoNo doubt, mankind will be judged

No doubt, mankind will be judged at an opportune time. God has told us this in His Word–the Bible. Mankind will one day stand before God and His Christ, to give an account of his stewardship of how he took care of or mismanaged God’s Creation.

Since Creation, mankind has been living on earth and ruling (or misruling?), with or without God, for many millennia. It shall soon be time for God to judge man’s ways and stewardship. Since Creation, mankind has been living on earth and ruling (or misruling?), with or without God, for many millennia. It shall soon be time for God to judge man’s ways and stewardship.

Today, by the Grace of God, many people are awaking from mankind’s long and deep spiritual slumber, to re-examine most of the doctrines and practices of the Christian faith. A wind of change is blowing across the world, albeit very slowly, seeking to restore Christianity to its First Century character: in purity of doctrine and practice.

You may call those involved in this work, The Restoration Movement, as some are known to be called. You may even call them whatever name you choose. But the fact is that, God is inspiring men to re-teach today’s so-called Christian doctrines, so as to bring them back to the high level of purity and sanctity we find them to be in the Bible.

It is sad that, many of the teachings of Jesus Christ and of his apostles of the First Century are not being taught to our world today. Whenever they are taught, they do not have the potency, inspiration, flavour and fervency of that past.

One of the many corrections, which must be made to today’s doctrines and practices of Christianity, is the leadership role that women have come to assume in the Church. Do women have any God-ordained part or lot, in the leadership of the Church? Do women have a leading role to play in the fulfillment of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ?

Do women have the mandate of God to be pastors, bishops, prophetesses, etc, with the mission to send his message of salvation to mankind? Has God ordained women to be deaconesses and elders in the Church? Why is it that anywhere we have a group of people calling itself church, there are women involved in carrying out leadership roles for and on behalf of men?

The Word of God has answers to these questions; we must therefore, seek them out of the Bible. It is very important we do this, because, if we do find the correct answers, it will help us in the effort to restore today’s Christianity, to its First Century character. It is only when we have made a complete restoration of today’s Christianity to its First Century character that, mankind can then find the true salvation of God for his weary soul.

We all, men and women alike, must know and accept the fact that, since Creation, God has ruled His people through men only. There is yet to come to our world one woman, who was sent by God, with a message to God’s people. A search through the list of messengers God has sent to inform, warn, correct, admonish and direct mankind, will not reveal the name of even one woman on that list.

Please mark my words very well. I said there is yet to come to our world from God, one woman-messenger, to bring information and direction to God’s people. And I mean God’s people. God has not done so yet; and I know he will never do it. This truth I do know, since God gives to all who are genuinely in Christ Jesus, access to His mind (First Corinthians 2: 16).

That is not to say there are no women-leaders to the people who dwell on the earth. Of course, there have been many, and many others are yet to come. Women-leaders have been found throughout all generations of man’s existence on earth.

They have come as people in academia, industry, commerce, politics, and from many other disciplines of human endeavour. But there is yet to come to earth, one woman-leader sent from God to accomplish a spiritual mission for humanity. This God has not yet done, and will never do.

Let us go to the Book of Genesis to see how God in His wisdom and love for mankind, set-up leadership, to direct the affairs of His Creation. Right at Creation, God established the leadership role of the man over the woman. Remember that, Eve came out of the bones and flesh of Adam.

Before she came, God had given His instructions for mankind’s peaceful and joyful life on earth to Adam. When Eve came as the wife of Adam, it was then the responsibility of the man–Adam, to instruct her in what God had earlier-on told him.

If we read Genesis 2: 16-17 and 3: 2-3 critically from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, we will see the obvious God-given leadership skill and teaching prowess of the man–Adam. In his zeal, commitment and dedication to make Eve obey the instruction of God, Adam went beyond what God had told him about the forbidden fruit.

He told Eve that, not only were they not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but they were also not to even touch the tree at all. It was like the father teaching his child. And indeed, a father-child relationship was what had been established by God Himself, to exist forever between Adam and Eve.

Did God not bring forth Eve out of the body of Adam? Yes indeed he did. (cf. Genesis 2: 21-22 and First Timothy 2: 13-14, KJV). Therefore, Eve was forever expected of God to listen to and obey the one who begat her, all the days of her life on earth.

She was never to drift into the absurdities of women usurping the authority of man over them, as we find in our world today–a situation akin to that where the chicken, or even the egg, is able to find a rare kind of wisdom and audacity to teach the hen that brought it into being.

Moving from the Book of Genesis, let us look at other parts of the Bible for evidence of the God-ordained leadership role of men over women in spiritual matters. Of course, we will return to the Book of Genesis, because it is the book of new beginnings, and therefore clearly lays the foundation of the God-ordained men-only leadership, in spiritual issues.

Many of the problems of our earth, which we have been grappling with, have their roots in men allowing themselves to be led (or misled?), into certain crucial decisions. This weakness of men, in allowing themselves to be misled by women, with disastrous consequences, can be traced to the times of Genesis, and we shall in this article be highlighting some of them, to bring elucidation to the main thesis of this short treatise.

Let us first look at the Ten Commandments of God, and indeed all the commandments of the Law of Moses. Every student of the Torah (the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses), which God gave to the nation of Israel, will see that it was meant for men only.

All its statutes from God were always meant for men’s obedience, for and on behalf of their women (wives) and children. Even in those portions of the Law that touched directly on women, it was their men (husbands) who had the responsibility of ensuring their perfect obedience and or compliance. [—this article is continued in Part Two].

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His email address is: [email protected].

In the mind and wisdom of God, there is no ‘reverend’, archbishop, ladder-climbing pastor, deaconess, et cetera, in His work. Anywhere title-bearing people are found in groupings of salvation-seekers which call themselves “church”, then it is either such title bearers do not have God’s mandate to contribute to the spiritual wellbeing of these groupings, or that, these groupings are not of the Body of Christ.

As I mentioned earlier on, there are no title bearers in the True Body of Christ – the Church of Jesus Christ. Paul, an apostle of the Body of Christ, was never referred to as “Apostle Paul”. This was because he functioned as an apostle in the Body of Christ and not as a title-bearer.

He was always referred to as “Paul, an apostle” of Jesus Christ, defining his functional role in the Church (Second Corinthians 1: 1, Galatians 1: 1, Ephesians 1: 1, Colossians 1: 1, First Timothy 1: 1, Second Timothy 1: 1).

If his functional role in the Body of Christ as an apostle was meant to be a title, in which case Paul could be addressed “Apostle Paul”, (which no saint ever did), then he could also be addressed as “Prisoner Paul” as a title of honour to him.

This is because he was not only described as “Paul, an apostle” but also as “Paul, a prisoner” of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:1, Philemon 1).

Or would one do well to give Paul the title “Servant”, and seek to honour him by insisting that all people address him as “Servant Paul” because he was described as “Paul, a servant” of God? (cf. Titus 1: 1).

The word ‘apostle’ is not a title: it is a functional description of a man’s work in the Body of Christ. And that is also the case for such words as ‘prophet’, ‘pastor’, ‘evangelist’ and ‘teacher’. None of these words are titles. They are all descriptive of roles or functions played by people in the Church of Jesus Christ.

One of my dear role models is Philip: not the one with apostolic calling, but the one who first served in the pantry and set tables for widows of the Church at Jerusalem. In his later years, while evangelizing for the Kingdom of God, he was never addressed as “Evangelist Philip”, as one must do today, for anybody claiming to be playing Philip’s kind of role in the Body of Christ.

This loyal and dedicated disciple of Jesus Christ was simply referred to as “Philip, the evangelist” (Acts 21: 8) in definition of his functional role in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So why do we have in “church” today, Apostle Aaron, Evangelist Evans, Prophet Philemon, and all manner of weird titles for people who claim to be disciples of Jesus Christ and doing the work of the Kingdom of God?

Why are today’s so-called men of God so much preoccupied with awarding themselves titles, even when these titles belong to God? Are they seeking equality with God? Are they not disciples of Jesus Christ?

If they are indeed genuine disciples, can they not obey the caution of the Master not to take to themselves titles they do not deserve? Does the warning of the Master that anyone, who exalts himself, would be brought low, not scare these so-called men of God?

When the apostles of Jesus Christ, who walked and talked with him for four good years before his death, burial and resurrection, were in charge of the teaching ministry of the Church after his ascension, they had with them, elders, deacons and bishops in all local congregations.

All congregations were autonomous in the cities the Holy Spirit of God led the apostles to establish the Church of Jesus Christ. The congregations were all however, united as one in the doctrines of Jesus Christ, as were taught by the apostles.

Every local congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ had sets of bishops, (not just one bishop, as we are told that, in the one local congregation of Philippi, there were many bishops – Book of Philippians 1: 1), elders, pastors, deacons, etc, involved in the teaching of the flock.

During the days of the apostles, no bishop had a domain or so-called dominion beyond the local congregation in which he functioned. Of course, all bishops, elders, deacons, prophets, teachers, and other Church functionaries, were men filled with the knowledge, wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit of God, and elected for these functions by Jesus Christ himself, could visit and minister the Word of God to other congregations beyond their places of regular worship and or residence.

Today’s so-called bishop who is seen to have a spatial jurisdiction and dominion over a group of “churches” has come as a latter-century personality, who obviously lives beyond the pure Christian traditions of the apostolic era of the First Century. This certainly is a corruption of and deviation from the apostolic faith, teaching, tradition and practice.

The coming of the celibate-bishop into the Church is a further deviation brought by the pagan-Christian faith of Second Century Rome, from the faith of those who physically walked and talked with the Master, Jesus Christ the Lord.

My dear men (of God?), you who want to rub shoulders with God, be careful in your pursuit of titles meant for Him. You cannot call yourselves reverend, The Reverend (SKA?), right reverend, very reverend, most reverend, his grace, my lord or his holiness and get away with it.

Remember God says He is a jealous God who will never share His Glory with any man. So be sure that you will attract to yourselves reprisals from God in due time, if you do not repent of your penchant for titles and drop them forthwith. I believe I have carried God’s warning to you in love.

In recent times, I have grown to fall in love with some words of Sir Winston Churchill: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen”. Well, in this, I have done my bit for humanity and for the Kingdom of God. I pray to God that you, my dear reader, will do your bit. Please do yours, so we can both get to live on “Humility Avenue” in Heaven, to spend Eternity with The Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

My dear “man of God”, I love you; for the love of God in my heart compels me to love you forever without any inhibitions. This is so, since he who is begotten of Love (God) cannot, but be a love-slave to everybody. This is why I speak to you in love, as I have done in this short article.

Shalom.
Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ and is the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DODCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His e-mail address is: [email protected].

Those who allow themselves to be called laymen, in the service of God’s kingdom-work, are ignorant of the God-given roles of all Christians as priests in His service. To these simple-minded people, a privileged few are regarded as priests while an underprivileged majority are tagged and called laity or laymen.

My dear reader, do you know that there are no titles in the Christian faith? The Kingdom of God does not confer or award titles to its workers. No genuine workers of God’s Kingdom, who have been revealed to mankind in the Word of God, ever bore titles. I shall soon lead you more into this thought.

Where then do titles such as: associate pastor, resident pastor, senior pastor, general overseer, senior bishop, presiding bishop, archbishop, cardinal, general superintendant, deaconess, reverend, right reverend, very reverend, most reverend, the reverend, his grace, my lord, his holiness, etc, comfortably conferred on and borne by mortal-men, come from?

Since they do not come from God, where do they come from? Does anyone know their origin and originator? Of course, they have come as a means of setting up an elaborate organization, with class groupings of its members, an organization mankind has been deceived to call–Church. Class distinctions of God’s children! How sad.

The originators of these lofty man-made titles have without the mandate of God, intentionally fragmented the Body of Christ claiming to have made it easier and effective to minister or rule. The question is “Does God need the wisdom of men in the running of His Church?”

Absolutely not! And so, by and by, those who confer titles on people and those who receive these titles will be seen to be acting not for God, but against Him; and will be judged as such.

Since those in love with such titles are without the humility and simplicity of Jesus Christ, they could not be sent from God. And if God did not send them, who did? Your guess in this is as good as mine. Could it possibly be that they are in league with the one who seeks to exalt himself above God and His Christ?

Though this is actually so, many of these title-lovers do not know they work for this cunning and ruthless power – Satan. He allows these ignorant so-called men of God to hold on to these titles on his behalf, so as to take them back from these men whenever he wills.

Let us consider the title, reverend. This great and powerful title is used only once in the entire Bible and in honour and recognition of God alone. In the King James Version of the Bible, you can find the word ‘reverend’ only in Psalm 111: 9. Let us quote this verse here to aid the smooth flow of this discourse.

“He sent redemption unto his people: he has commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.” (Psalm 111: 9, KJV).

My dear “man of God”, do you see the seriousness of your error? You are neither worthy to bring redemption to sinful-mankind nor do you have the capacity to do so. Only God can and has brought redemption through Jesus Christ to mankind.

Dear “man of God”, do you have a covenant which you are able to keep or are keeping with mankind? If you claim you do, are you able to bring limitless blessings to mankind? If yes, then tell the whole world about it so mankind can rush to you for this blessing, and have the world rid of all its horrible suffering and poverty.

Only then would you qualify and deserve to be the co-equal to God and therefore worthy to be called by the title, reverend. Otherwise, be careful in not being accused of blasphemy, judged guilty and sentenced by the Judge of all Flesh.

For delivering to mankind, redemption from the power and dominion of sin, Satan’s power, and the consequences of sin, in and by the work of Jesus Christ, God the Almighty commands all men to revere and reverence His Name.

So-called men of God do not know or understand this? And so they pitch themselves against the Will of God by seeking to usurp His titles? I fear for these so-called men of God in antagonizing themselves against the Might of God, in view of the condemnation of God which awaits them.

Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God, has taught his genuine disciples a great lesson in humility in Matthew 19: 16-17, Mark 10: 17-18 and Luke 18: 18-19. When in these verses a questioner addressed him as “Good Master,” he quickly corrected him of his error. Jesus Christ told his questioner not to call him “Good”, since only God is Good.

Maybe, this questioner should have addressed the Messiah as “reverend Master” instead, so we could get to know if he would have accepted or rejected the appellation of “reverend” as belonging to God his Father alone. Can so-called men of God (disciples of the Master?) not emulate the humility of Jesus Christ in this? How sad.

Let me give you a secret of the Devil. He is preparing to begat and outdoor his counterfeit of God’s Holy and Anointed Messiah, Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World. When he has begotten him, he will be called the anti-Christ. Many people seem to know this open secret. However many are ignorant of the lineage of this soon-to-be-revealed anti-Christ.

Surely, the anti-Christ will descend from the lineage of people who love to take the titles of God. At the time the anti-Christ becomes manifest for the end-time show-down battle between Good and evil, he will be the same as the mortal man who will be holding the highest counterfeited title of God. And then he will crown himself God and demand worship from mankind.

For now, the devil is progressing according to his set-plan: from ‘reverend’ to ‘right reverend’, then to ‘very reverend’, then to ‘most reverend’, then to ‘his holiness’, then to ‘his grace’ and then to what next, I know not. I do not have the mind of the devil. I have God’s, by virtue of my New Birth into Jesus Christ and my faith in First Corinthians 2: 16.

But I do know, from God’s Word, that when the anti-Christ manifests, he will land in a counterfeit church which belongs to one of the numerous and notorious denominational groupings of the world. That counterfeit church will look very much like the genuine Church of God.

Its members will be tares, the devil’s counterfeit wheat. Remember, the look-alikes of wheat are tares. Also remember that wheat and tares are only genuinely distinguishable from one another, at Harvest Time, by which time their destinies would have been sealed, and the destruction of tares in hell-fire, due.

The hierarchical structure of this counterfeit church of the devil is what will give it away as false and of the anti-Christ. By the time peoples’ eyes become opened to the true identity of this anti-Christ in their midst, he would have finished marking almost all of them as his own, ready to carry them into Hell for a life of eternal suffering with him.

Let me give you some revelation about the man-made title, “archbishop”. This title has been in vogue for a long time – over centuries, in fact. It was created and delivered to simple-minded mankind, by the pagan-Christianity of Rome of the immediate post-apostolic era, when her politicians were flirting ingloriously with the Church.

The power brokers of the erstwhile Roman Empire sought to extend their domain and dominion to include the Church of Jesus Christ. When they managed to do these, they then brought into the Church, titles, to show their pomp, power and distinct statuses.

Even though the word “archbishop” seems to have been derived from two bible-words–“archangel” and “bishop”–it does not make it a holy word. The word “archbishop” is alien to the whole bible-revelation and therefore of no relevance to either the Body of Christ or the Work of the Kingdom of God. Not because there is an archangel must we have an archbishop when God’s Word does not give us any revelation on this strange word.

How could we so easily swallow the deception of the devil to tag so-called men of God with this title? I am very sad that so-called men of God are not content with the God-given functional descriptions such as pastor, evangelist, prophet and teacher, established by Him to bring perfection to the knowledge of His Will to His saints. [—the concluding part of this article is in Part Four: soon to be published].

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ and is the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His e-mail address is: [email protected].

It is very sad to observe that many people who claim to be disciples of Jesus Christ hardly live up to his expectation in their imitation of his character. In particular, Jesus Christ has told his disciples not to live like the Pharisees of his day in craving for titles and recognition by men. They were not to work in search of vainglory from and of men. They were to imitate his simplicity, selflessness, shyness for publicity, and humility.

In this regard, here is a caution of Jesus Christ to his loyal disciples: “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.” (Matthew 23: 8-10, King James Version, KJV).

These clear and simple words of Jesus Christ spoken directly to his disciples still stand good for the obedience of all his loyal and dedicated disciples today. But I wonder how many people who claim to be Christians (disciples of Jesus Christ?) do know of these verses of scripture and obey them.

It is shocking to know that some denominations, which profess to be loyal to the Christian faith, have their leaders addressed “father” or “papa” in obvious disregard to this command of the Master. I am at a loss to know whose disciples the members of such denominations truly are.

Jesus Christ has said that, all the doctrines, commandments and instructions which he has taught mankind are not his own, but God’s. Any deviations from, or violations, of Jesus’ teachings therefore, are a direct affront to God in Heaven, who sent him. All true disciples of Jesus Christ must know and be very careful in this.

The reason why Jesus Christ commands his disciples not to seek to award themselves titles, and or desire the praises of men, is to ensure they never exalt themselves. He warns that any one of his disciples who exalts himself shall be brought down; but he who would humble himself would be exalted (cf. Matthew 23: 11-12).

For me, and I am sure for many loyal and dedicated disciples of Jesus Christ, the scary nature of his warning is enough to make one comply. But alas, many more people who seem to be very educated in the secular sense, and also claim to be dedicated to the cause of the Master, do not seem to be bothered by this warning and, therefore, disregard it with glee. They seek the praise of men and are excited when men heap upon their heads titles, appellations and accolades.

Let me say, the thing the Devil enjoys most is praise, and worship. In envy therefore, when yet in Heaven under the name Lucifer, he could not stand the sight of thousands of angels worshiping God. He coveted the praise and worship God’s angels gave to Him.

As a result, he staged a mutiny in Heaven, with a large following of angels, in attempt to take praise and worship from God to himself. Mortal man must therefore be wary of the praise, titles, appellations and accolades heaped on him by his fellow-men, since love for them could draw him into the same lust Lucifer had.

Immediately after the devil lost the mutiny he staged in Heaven (when he tried to take-over the ruler-ship of God from Him), and was cast upon the earth, he started his second and now seemingly unending-campaign, toward his diabolical plan to usurp the authority of God over His Creation.

He has been strategizing subtly and stealthily, in diverse ways, to lead man away from obeying God’s commandments and, therefore, into his dominion. While doing this, he has his eyes set on the titles which belong to God and His Christ. The ultimate aim of the Devil is to usurp the status and power of God, whereby all Creation will then praise and worship him as God.

One way by which the devil is subtly and stealthily working his way toward achieving his ambitions, is through attack on the genuine structure of the Church of Jesus Christ. By confusing many people about the true structure of the Church (the Body of Christ), he seems to be gradually achieving his ambitions.

Not many people today know the true structure of the Church of Jesus Christ. You cannot fully blame today’s generation for this. The fact is, with time, as the Christian faith of the immediate post-ascension era travelled out of the lands of Palestine and Asia Minor, heading toward the West, it gradually began to lose its structure, character, power, purity in doctrine and practice.

Today’s Christian faith is a sorry-state of what it was when it first came into being in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. The Christian faith today is devoid of much of its glory, power, holiness, pure doctrines, unique influence as the salt and light of the world, and reverential practices which characterized it at its inception.

You may have to read two great books by Richard Rives, entitled, “Too Long in the Sun” and “Time is the Ally of Deceit”, to appreciate this fact.

From the revelation of the Bible, the Body of Christ is synonymous with the Human Body: the Church is a living organism with parts which function like the body-parts of man. It is obvious that all parts of the human body are of equal importance and no part lords (and lauds) itself over the others.

Read the Book of First Corinthians, chapter twelve, from verse one to thirty-one (First Corinthians 12: 1-31) to understand what the Word of God reveals and teaches about how the Body of Christ (the Church) does and must function.

Even though the human brain, together with the central nervous system, coordinates the actions of all the parts of the body, it cannot claim importance or headship over the other parts. In the human body, no part can do without the other and neither can the whole body function properly without any one part. All parts are needed, and perform their individual and unique functions for the common good of the entire body.

The Church – the Body of Christ – must be seen in similar light as the human body. The Church has a very simple structure. Jesus Christ is the Head. All other members are equal parts to this Body and are directly connected to the Head.

All these parts therefore take instructions and directives from the Head directly. They are able to function only in, by and of the Head. Also, all parts of the Body report directly to the Head.

Sadly, many people think of the Church as an organization and not as an organism. They see it as a human institution housed in some Victorian Age masonry building, with people of various statuses occupying special positions. In this organization, wrongly called the Church, every member is made to report to some other(s), higher-up in some hierarchical order.

The notion that the Church is an organization with a powerful hierarchical structure is a teaching of the devil. By this teaching, the devil has succeeded in getting many simple-minded people of the world to live in error of the true structure of the Church.

Over a period close to two millennia, after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, many people have become comfortable believing that the Church is an organization with a hierarchical order, and never even think of it as an organism.

This false belief about the structure of the Church has become a stronghold in the minds of mankind. It is this stronghold which the devil is capitalizing and gradually building on, in his bid to take-over the world from God’s influence.

It is sad that many people do not know the true structure of the Church of Jesus Christ, as revealed to mankind in the Word of God. For many people, the Church is made up of clergy and laity; whatever the words clergy and laity mean in or to the Church, since they are not part of God’s vocabulary found in the Bible to teach the Church.

Many people professing to be Christians do not even know that these words (clergy, laity or laymen) are strange and alien to the true Christian faith. Many people are satisfied, instead of being angered, when others call them laity or laymen in description of their roles in the Church. [—this article is continued in Part Three: soon to be published].

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ and is the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His e-mail address is: [email protected].

Many people might be irritated, or even angered, by this headline to my article. Many more may deem it silly to even pose the question – Are “reverend” ministers also disciples of Jesus Christ? It might seem silly to pose this question because to many people, “reverend” ministers are lead-disciples of Jesus Christ.

Let me assure my readers that it is for the love of all the men who are addressed by the title “reverend”, and their many followers, that I ask this question and go on to answer it in the light of the bible-revelation. So, if you are irritated or angered by my title, just stay calm and you will be blessed in reading this article.

Without a shadow of doubt, the greatest man that ever lived on Planet Earth is Jesus Christ. Even though followers of some renowned personalities who once lived on our earth claim that their icons never die, it is only of Jesus Christ that such an assertion is true: since he alone is alive and lives forever.

The main proof to the fact that Jesus Christ is the greatest of all men who ever walked our earth and is alive forevermore, is, he is able to manifest himself today through his genuine disciples. Oh yes, he clearly manifests himself in all his loyal and dedicated disciples, who do the genuine work given to them by him to do, on his behalf, and in his name.

Just before his ascension into Heaven, Jesus Christ commissioned his disciples to do two jobs for him, and on his behalf. These jobs, all loyal disciples of the Master must execute throughout all times and seasons of the Grace Dispensation. The proper execution of these jobs by any people is proof of their genuineness, as his disciples.

Any man who does these jobs in loyalty, dedication and dependence upon the words of direction and instruction of Jesus Christ, will have manifested in him, Jesus’ full persona for all to see. In other words, people will see manifested in these loyal disciples, the personality, wisdom, power, success, and glory of Jesus Christ.

The two jobs which Jesus Christ has given to his loyal disciples to do are in a healing and teaching ministry – taking sickness and disease out of the bodies of men, and teaching sinful-mankind the way to be reconciled with God.

When on earth, toward empowering his chosen twelve disciples to do these jobs, Jesus Christ took them through four years of discipleship-training.

He taught and demonstrated to them, how they were to heal the sick of all manner of diseases; give life and strength to impotent-halts, paralytics and cripples; open blind eyes and unplug deaf ears; and also bring the dead back to life.

He taught them how to do these by uttering his Words through faith in his name, without the use of any man-made remedies, and, with their bare, but highly-anointed, hands.

For the task of leading salvation-seekers to be reconciled with God and thereby become eligible to enter the Kingdom of God on Earth and in Heaven, he taught them in very simple and plain words, in the Great Commission statement laid out in Matthew 28: 18-20, Mark 16: 15-16 and Luke 24: 46-48, how they were to do this.

Beside the four-year discipleship-training Jesus Christ gave to his disciples, they also needed to be empowered of the Holy Spirit of God, if they were to be able to execute their God-ordained tasks of soul-winning and of healing mankind of sickness and disease.

These are the same tasks Jesus Christ executed for the Kingdom of God while on earth. He was able to execute them because he was always conscious of the fact that God (his Father) resided in him and so drew on the power of His indwelling presence for the execution of any jobs he was sent to do for Him.

As such, if any disciples of Jesus Christ are to be successful in executing their assignments, for and on his behalf, they must have a consciousness that God indwelt them. They must in this consciousness, depend on and be able to tap His power, in execution of their assignments for the Kingdom of God.

Jesus Christ made it plain to his disciples that he was unable to do anything without depending on God. Similarly, no disciple today can do any assignments for the Master, without depending on his word of instruction, wisdom in his actions, and the presence of God residing in them.

The numerous conversions of sinners, to faith in the name of Jesus Christ and into God’s salvation, during the early days of the Church-age, were the result of the disciples of Jesus Christ, doing exactly what they were told to do by the Master in the Great Commission.

We see genuine and loyal disciples of Jesus Christ achieve fantastic feats in the Great Commission, during the early days of the post-Ascension era, because they were cut out for the task, through a four-year period in discipleship-training by the Master himself, and through the power of the Holy Spirit of God who indwelt their spirits.

Today, from his position on the right hand side of the Throne of God in Heaven, Jesus Christ is impacting and changing lives more than he ever did in the four years he was physically present on Planet Earth with the mandate of God to do so.

This is because he ensures from his position in Heaven, beside the Throne of The Father, that whatever promises he has made to his genuine, loyal and dedicated disciples, become fulfilled in their lives when they accept to act in simple faith in his word.

True disciples of Jesus Christ are those who make every effort to obey, imitate and act like him in every way. Just as Jesus Christ said he imitated whatever he saw the Father doing, for success in his earthly ministry, so must his genuine disciples also imitate his ways for success in all their assignments.

The successes of any disciples in doing any work he elects them to do, depend on three things. The first is that one must have knowledge and wisdom of Jesus’ word and ways. The second is for one to be sensitive of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God in one and how to live in dependence on His power within.

The third is for one to have the character trait of the Master. This character trait of the Master is what we see manifest in the rare kind of love, compassion, selflessness, denial of praise of mankind, a life devoid of pride and arrogance, availability, et cetera, he showed the world. The ability of any person to possess and live by all three abilities marks one as a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ.

Any disciples, who do not have these virtues of Jesus’ character, cannot be successful in any assignments given them by the Master. You cannot be a successful disciple of Jesus Christ if, for example, you delight in the praise of men, or are without the compassion of the Master for people, or are not as selfless as he was, or are not gentle, or make it very hard and nearly to being impossible for strangers and the under privileged to get to you.

Also, if for example, one is boisterous, even while preaching on a so-called altar, (running, ranting, raving, shouting, jumping and gyrating as if on a theater stage), one cannot be a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ. I know in many of today’s denominational groupings, a display of such a wild trait in one’s character is accepted as high-level spirituality or charisma.

Sadly, these wild behaviours by so-called anointed men of God, contradict the portrait painted in the Bible of the Master, as being a gentle and calm character, who never shouted in the street. These behaviours make it impossible for any men to be suitable and relevant for any assignments in the Church of Jesus Christ. [—this article is continued in Part Two: soon to be published].

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ and is the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His e-mail address is: [email protected].

To give a definite answer to the question about what one should do to enter the salvation of God, I say this: repent sincerely of your sins when told about the Gospel of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and then, get baptized in His name, by being immersed in natural, living-water, by a genuine servant of God.

That is the way of God and of His son Jesus Christ for one to become Born Again. It was also the way of the apostles. It must therefore be our way today, if we are to be Born Again, or saved, or enter God’s Kingdom.

Who in the Bible accounts said a prayer to be saved? From all the Bible narratives about the salvation of people, which one of them did not hinge on repentance and baptism?

You will not get one single evidence in all your search of the Bible, where prayer, and for that matter a so-called Sinners’ Prayer or Prayer for Salvation, brought any salvation-seeker the Born Again experience. Do not therefore trust in prayer to get Born Again.

In the Great Commission of Luke 24:46-48, Jesus authoritatively teaches that only repentance and remission of sin can bring any salvation-seeker into the Born Again experience.

I like to tell you in all seriousness that, remission of sin is different from forgiveness of sin. Sadly, the understanding of many preachers of the Bible is that remission of sin is the same as forgiveness of sin.

This stance is what takes many preachers of the Bible into the error of asking in prayer, for the forgiveness of their sins, in their bid to qualify to enter the Kingdom of God.

Forgiveness of sin is what you can get from God by repenting of your sin, and confessing it, silently or audibly to Him. Forgiveness of sin is also what a fellow human being can give to you, when you repent of your sin of causing him (or her) some hurt, and ask for it.

Furthermore, forgiveness of sin is what Jesus could give to people who he saw to be sick in consequence of their sins, as He crisscrossed the land of the Jews before going to Calvary.

Forgiveness of sin is what Jesus could ask of the Father to give to those who insulted Him, slapped Him, derided Him, or nailed Him to the cross of crucifixion, even before he died in their hands to bring salvation to mankind.

On the other hand, remission of sin is what Jesus could only make available in His death. He announced at the Last Supper, to His disciples that, He was going to the cross to make available remission of sins for everybody.

Jesus Christ in His sacrifice made remission of sin to be available and beneficial to all righteous mankind, from Creation to End-time. His sacrifice was to bring remission of sin to those who were even dead before His sacrifice; those living at the time of the sacrifice; and all who would come into the world after His sacrifice.

Remission of sin is what God demands of any members of the human race whose desire it is to obtain reconciliation with Him. Jesus Christ came as the Lamb of God, to pay for the sins of mankind, to enable God grant anyone who believes in, and accepts this sacrifice, the chance to obtain remission of sin.

The payment of the ransom by Jesus, to enable God grant mankind deliverance from the power and dominion of sin, are what constitute remission of sin.

John the Baptist went crying in the wilderness of Jordan, teaching Israel about a fast-coming salvation of God that was to be made available to mankind only in remission of sin (Luke 1:77, King James Version, KJV).

That was the good news John the Baptist was sent to proclaim to all Israelites, at a time they were already enjoying the blessings of forgiveness as one of two ways that God dealt with sin in their lives. The other was by atonement of sin.

Remission of sin is obtained from God, not by asking for it verbally, but in the obedience of His instructions on repentance and baptism into the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38, KJV).

If you want to enter the blessing of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, you do not ask for it in prayer, you access it by taping the right keys of God’s information-system. These keys, which one must strike to enter the salvation of God are, ‘repentance’ and ‘baptism’.

Repentance and baptism will usher every repentant sinner into the state of remission of sin. When one enters into this state, one gets the gift of the Holy Spirit of God to indwell one’s heart. This is our assurance of being in God’s salvation from the accounts of Acts 2:37-39, KJV. This assurance is what has been enjoyed by men since the Day of Pentecost.

Remission of sin is payment by Christ of our debt of sin. Remission of sin takes the sin-nature out of our spirit and body. Remission of sin comes to sinners only once in their life-time. It therefore contrasts greatly from forgiveness, which can come as many as ‘seventy times seven’ times, even in one day, quoting the words of the Master. In further contrast, man can render forgiveness of sin to fellow men, whilst remission of sin can only be given by God to sinful-man.

A book written by me that teaches on these issues is on sale in Ghana. It is entitled “BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation”.

In this book, the true doctrine of God’s salvation is taught. The false doctrine of Sinners’ Prayer recitals and the prayers of preachers for sinners to get Born Again are also taught. Please get a copy of it. It will bless you richly. It will put you on the right track into the Kingdom of God.

In my above mentioned book, advice is given to salvation-seekers to read the New Testament as God’s Final Theocratic Constitution. This Constitution contains articles on how humans on our earth can gain membership to the Kingdom of God. Also, one can find in it, clauses and sub-clauses on son-ship and adoption of mankind as children into the kingdom of God.

When one is conversant with this constitution, one will easily see the practice of Sinners’ Prayer recitals in attempt by salvation-seekers to enter the kingdom of God as unconstitutional and therefore powerless in enabling salvation-seekers become Born Again; and therefore denounce the practice.

Study the Bible in the spirit of serious-minded salvation-seekers who Apostle Paul met in Berea, of Acts 17: 10-11 fame, and you will easily see the Sinners’ Prayer recitals as absolutely incapable of making mankind Born Again.

God’s Theocratic Constitution will spell out to all subscribers to it, their privileges, responsibilities, code of conduct, status, and future rewards in Heaven for their service to this constitution when they were on earth. Please study this Constitution to be approved by God. You will be tested by it. You will be blessed by it. You will also be judged by it.

You can never be blessed by any passionate, zealous, or sincere recitals of a so-called “Sinners’ Prayer” or “Prayer for Salvation”, in your quest to become Born Again into the kingdom of God. May you therefore please seek to obtain the Born Again experience through your obedience of God’s Word to you to repent of your sins and to be baptised into Christ.

Shalom, peace from God the Almighty to you.
Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and is the author of book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His e-mail address is: [email protected].

Dear reader, I am happy that you and I are living in the same times and seasons, according to the plan of God Almighty. I am particularly happy that you are reading this article that God has led me to write on the Born Again doctrine of the Christian faith.

My prayer for you is that, before the generations after us come to benefit by some rare teachings on salvation that God has led me to render to humanity, you my precious contemporary, would have been blessed ahead of them.

If you are serious about the Christian faith, as I am, and are an ardent listener to radio broadcasts or a viewer of television programmes of teachings by some pastors, general overseers, apostles, archbishops, etc., you might have observed something I am about to bring to your attention as an error to the Christian faith.

This error has persisted for a very long time, centuries in fact, and has therefore gained acceptance as genuine that, it passes as being able to deliver on its promises when in fact it cannot.

Did you hear the preacher-man on radio, or watch him on television this past week? Did you hear him at the end of his preaching ask you to do something if you wanted to be Born Again into God’s Kingdom? Did you hear him instruct you to place your hand on the radio or television set, and to pray a prayer after him, if you were repentant of your sinful-life, and wanted Jesus to take control of your life or get to be Born Again?

As for me I hear these every day. If you do not, begin to listen to preachers (Men of God?) on radio and television.

The prayer they ask their listeners to recite after them, when these preachers are ending their programmes on radio or television, is known by many as the “Sinners’ Prayer” or the “Prayer for Salvation”.

This is a prayer of confession of sins by repentant sinners who want to enter the Born Again experience, or start life all-over, after the power of sin has messed-up their lives. It is also a denunciation of the devil, request for God’s forgiveness, and the profession of Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Master.

The faith of the proponents of this doctrine is that, if any sinner repents of his sins, recites this prayer after the preachers of it, in sincerity and all seriousness of heart, they are instantly Born Again! Their claim is that, they are instantly passed from death to life and have had their names written into the Lamb’s Book of Life, if they were sincere in saying that prayer!

Dear reader, I would let you know that, if you ever did that, trusting the word of pious- and or sanctimonious-looking persons, who seemed worthy of your trust, then you were deceived. Nobody can get Born Again by and of prayer: be it known as the Sinners’ Prayer or the Prayer for Salvation.

Maybe, the peddlers of this doctrine are themselves ignorant that prayer cannot make one Born Again. In fact, that is the sad aspect of this doctrine – many of its proponents do not know they are in error.

Could it be that after-all, the preachers of this wrong doctrine are simply being mischievous, and cashing-in on the ignorance and gullibility of their listeners and therefore deliberately teach falsehood? I do not want to think so, even though at times one is tempted to.

What did Jesus say to Nicodemus about how anybody can ever enter into the Kingdom of God? Did Jesus say to Nicodemus to pray to enter into His salvation? Did Peter, on his very first assignment to lead people into the Born Again experience on the Day of Pentecost, instruct his listeners to pray some special prayer to be saved?

From all the Bible accounts, nobody ever said a prayer to be saved, or get Born Again. Why is it then so popular a practice for salvation-seekers to be told by so-called Men of God to recite special prayers after them so as to become Born Again?

Simply put, the practice of Sinners’ Prayer recitals for salvation is a deception of the devil. This all men should be aware of and denounce the instructions of so-called Men of God to pray special prayers for salvation.

So what must one do to be saved? The answer is to do what a jailor in the city of Philippi did in the early days of the Christian faith (Acts 16:25-34). Was this jailor not the first from the Bible accounts to ask this same question?

To answer the question of this jailor in Philippi, Paul and Silas at midnight, taught him to believe in Jesus if he wanted to be saved. They did not stop there. They went further to explain themselves.

At the end of it all, this jailor rushed to obey the word of Paul and Silas, so he could be saved. At an odd, inconvenient, discomforting, midnight-hour, this jailor rushed out of his home to be baptized in the river on whose bank the city of Philippi was built (Acts 16:12-13, 30-33) in his quest to be saved.

This jailor did nothing like reciting a so-called Sinners’ Prayer or a Prayer for Salvation to enter God’s salvation. He was properly led into the salvation of God by people who were truly sent by God.

This jailor was saved in the ministry of God-called, God-taught, God-anointed, and God-sent, obedient, loyal, and well-informed disciples of Jesus Christ. Sadly, ministers of such glorious credentials are hard to come-by in our world today.

Anybody today, who does not teach the doctrine that Jesus taught Nicodemus (John 3:3-5), or Peter did on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:37-41), or by Philip to an Ethiopian in the desert of Gaza (Acts 8:26-40), or by Ananias in his ministration of salvation to Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:10-18), has deviated from the genuine way of teaching God’s salvation.

All who follow such a one, are also off-course, in as-much-as getting into God’s Kingdom is their ambition. I hope I can bless your life with this truth: a truth I am charged by God to warn my generation in. [—the concluding part of this article is in Part Two: soon to be published].

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and is the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His e-mail address is: [email protected].

For forgiveness, one must repent of the sin and confess it verbally to God, and the wronged person, to be able to receive it. In the case of remission, one must repent of the sin and be baptized in (or into) the name of Jesus Christ, to come into the power it has, of putting the salvation-seeker into the full blessings of Christ’s sacrifice on The Cross.

When so-called Men of God gather salvation-seekers, on what they term “crusade grounds”, or in their plush cathedrals, or air-conditioned chapels, or beside radio and television sets, and teach them to ask God in prayer for the forgiveness of their sins to enable them become Born Again, and or gain entry into the Kingdom of God, they mislead or deceive them.

This is a shoddy way of offering God’s salvation to people who are in dire need of it. No one, who teaches the way into God’s salvation in this manner, has the wisdom of the apostles for soul-winning. None of the apostles, of Jesus Christ, would confuse and mislead salvation-seekers, by teaching them to do such a thing – which was neither instructed by the Master, nor in his mind or wisdom. They dared not. In fact, woes and condemnations awaited them, if they did.

So why do we do this today? Where are the genuine soul-winners of God today? Where are they? Why are genuine soul-winners so hard to come by today? Please wait a minute, and let me see how I may help you appreciate why genuine soul-winners are so hard to come-by today.

You see, many of the so-called Christian teachings, supposedly meant for the salvation of mankind, which evolved through the politico-Christian power-players of the erstwhile Roman Empire, in the immediate post-apostolic times, did not have the power associated with the faith. The glaring potency and unique character of the Christian faith, seen at the start of the church in Jerusalem, on the Day of Pentecost and in the days following it, got lost completely, by the time Rome took upper-hand, in the selection and coronation of bishops for the church.

Once Rome became a force to reckon with, in the selection of leader-teachers for the church, weird non-Jesus teachings, started to rear their ugly heads in the church’s character and administration. What-with, all that history, about the cash-sales of indulgencies by bishops, as the fulfillment of their roles in the Great Commission of the Master, to win souls into his Kingdom?

How about the influx of high-office politicians, idol-worshippers indeed by their religion, who were wrongly considered as followers of Christ, and were thus admitted into the church, without obeying the prescribed rites for membership? These, and many others, are the root causes for the high level of corrupt doctrines to the Christian faith, which we find today.

Also, the persecutions to death, of the followers of Jesus Christ, a horrible notoriety of the history of the Romano-Christian tradition under Rome, in the immediate post-apostolic days, were aimed not at their persons, per se, but at getting people to accept, believe and act on corrupted and distorted versions of the teachings of Christ. Satan knew from the very beginning of Christianity that, if he could bring into the teachings of Christ, the minutest pollutants, he would succeed in rendering these teachings impotent, in fact useless, for the salvation of mankind.

And so he calculated his plans very well – waiting till the passing away into glory, all the saints of God, who talked, walked, and ate with the Messiah, before orchestrating his intrigues of deception, lies, and introduction of contaminants into God’s Word, to achieve his aims.

How much of the teachings of the Messiah, and of the apostles, do we find among people who profess to be Christians today? Many are comfortable with a system of codes and practices which are in every way, the doctrines of men. They blindly believe them, whole-heartedly, to be the doctrines of Christ.

Even the most serious-minded people, who claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ today, have been misled to imbibe as the truth, many adulterated versions of the Word of God. In ignorance of this, they are so zealous in their beliefs in these impure versions, as to defend them with their lives, intolerant of, and hostile to the truth, whenever they are confronted with it.

If today we have so-called Men of God, presenting the salvation message of God in doctrines different from those of Jesus Christ and his apostles, then Rome, of the Second Century or thereabout, must take the blame. The entire leadership of present-day Christianity must also share in this, in being so gullible as to accept the falsehood and deception of that past, when the Bible is readily available for study and correction to these distortions to the teachings of Christ. I cannot help, but be very sad in all this.

The genuine stewards of God are those who know how to truly function as soul-winners. They are those who know how to rightly divide the Word of God, discerning forgiveness from remission.

They are those with a thorough knowledge of the New Testament doctrines of God for the salvation of sinners. They are those who win souls in the waters of baptism in the name of Jesus Christ – using the skills and talents of fishermen, who are transformed into fishers of men.

Such are those Men of God who are indeed called, taught, and imputed with the wisdom of God on how to win souls, and sent out under the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God. These are those sent to do a job that the Son of God himself should have been doing, and therefore cannot afford to do it in their way, but in the Master’s; displaying his wisdom in their service to God’s Kingdom.

It is only such workers who are sure to gain commendation by the Master, as his Wise and Faithful Stewards, at his Second Coming. It is only such workers who qualify to be ushered into the gold-plated royal residences in Heaven, to live in ease and comfort throughout Eternity.

My dear one, are you truly a soul-winner? You who call yourselves Men of God, or are happy with such appellations by men: look to your ways and works closely, and in humility, change them for God’s ways.

Do this, so you do not get disappointed at the Gates of Heaven, on the Day of Judgment, when you and your many ignorant followers, are gathered-up as tares of no use to the Kingdom of God, but for fuel in the fires of Hell.

I hope I have warned you enough.
Shalom.

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ and the author of the book: “BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation”. His email address is: [email protected]

It was John the Baptist, who came to announce the plan of God that, He was about to introduce remission of sin to deal with the sin problem of mankind once and for all. John taught Israel about the soon-coming and brand-new salvation of God, (only available in Christ Jesus), that could only be accessed through remission of sin. (Luke 1: 77, KJV).

John the Baptist revealed to Israel that, Jesus had come as the Lamb of God to take away their sin (and that of the world). Jesus had come to set those held captive by the devil, free; and to set at liberty, them that are bruised. It was the sacrifice of Jesus’ Life that brought the power which could save Israel (and in fact mankind) from a state they hitherto, were helpless and incapable of freeing themselves from.

John the Baptist went about in the wilderness of the river Jordan, crying out to Israel, about how the Lamb of God was soon to be slaughtered to make remission of sin available so that sin and its nature could be taken out of the spirit and body of every man, who desired deliverance from the power, and dominion of the devil, and from the consequences of sin.

To bring remission of sin to sinful-mankind is the reason for Jesus’ coming to earth. It is the very reason for the horrible manner in which he died on The Cross. He announced to his friends at the Last Supper that he was going to die for the remission of all the sins of mankind. (Matthew 26: 28, KJV).

After his resurrection from the dead, Jesus commissioned his disciples to be witnesses of the fact that, remission of sin was then forever available to sinful-mankind. (Luke 24: 46-47, KJV). The disciples lived all their lives after Jesus’ Ascension, toiling to bring the knowledge of remission of sin to everybody. They all died in this cause, while leading all men to genuinely receive remission of sin.

All the people in the Bible, who were directly involved in the work of God, to bring His salvation in Christ to sinful-mankind, died in the cause of remission of sin. John the Baptist was beheaded while he championed the cause of remission of sin. Jesus Christ was crucified in the cause of remission of sin. And so did all the apostles of Jesus Christ, die either the death of martyrdom, or of exhaustion from their toils, while propagating the blessings of remission of sin to mankind.

It is saddening that, close to two thousand years after remission of sin was made available to the world, most of us are still ignorant of how to obtain it for keeps – this great blessing of God. Why then did Jesus die, if the blessings of his sacrificial death cannot be accessed by sinful-mankind, because of ignorance of how to do so?

Oh Ignorance, you have killed many simple-minded folks of mankind from generation to generation. And yet you are so easily overcome by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the Word of the Saviour, and of the testimony of his redeemed.

Remission of sin comes to the salvation-seeker only once in one’s life-time. It brings about a single-transaction payment for all sins previously committed by the salvation-seeker. (Romans 3: 25, KJV). It wipes thoroughly snow-white clean, the crimson-coloured slate of sin: natural man’s heart, inherited from the first Adam.

Remission of sin breaks the yoke of bondage of Satan over sinful-mankind. Remission of sin establishes the repentant sinner as a branch in the True Vine; it infuses the divine nature of God with the spirit of man. (John 15: 5, Second Peter 1: 4, KJV). Remission of sin therefore, delivers natural man from the power and dominion of the kingdom of darkness, translating him into the Kingdom of Light of God’s dear Son. (Colossians 1: 13, KJV).

Remission of sin makes one the child of God – born of the holy incorruptible seed of God. In fact, the blessings of remission of sin are endless and are of such great value that, it is only God who can grant it to any seekers of it, who deserve to receive it because they do as He has instructed them to.

The simple-minded person, with a rather limited knowledge of the New Testament teachings on God’s salvation in Christ, who is reading this article, may be asking in his mind what we have done wrongly, incompatible with the New Testament revelation, and the apostolic teachings, which have denied us the salvation of God in Christ Jesus.

The answer is simple: all what we have done, not knowing or discerning remission of sin, what it entails and brings to the salvation-seeker, and how one can access it. This ignorance has taken us away from the salvation of God in Christ Jesus.

In particular, our error in equating remission (of sin) to forgiveness (of sin) has taken us far away from the salvation of God in Christ Jesus. This is the greatest error to the Christian faith – an error resulting from the wiles and machinations of the devil, all aimed at denying us the salvation of God in Christ Jesus.

Even though sinful-mankind can obtain forgiveness of sin from God in as many as “seventy times seven” times in even one given day, all that large number in forgiveness cannot equate to or bring about one single blessing of remission of sin. This is because, for the sinner to obtain forgiveness of sin, it does not (necessarily have to) involve the death of Jesus Christ.

No amount or number, of forgiveness of sins, can bring to the repentant salvation-seeker, the salvation of God in Christ Jesus. And to be told by a so-called Man of God to make one single request for forgiveness of sin from God, in one ‘Crusade’ event, to gain God’s salvation, is a ridiculous deception.

You can gain forgiveness of sin through repentance and confession of the sin to God, and or to the person you have wronged, without recourse to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That makes forgiveness to be obviously cheaper than remission, which (remission) must involve the precious blood and sinless life of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, to come about.

I do hope we remember that, Jesus Christ could grant forgiveness of sin to paralytics, impotent-halts, and even those who nailed him to The Cross, without them obtaining remission of sin. This was because, it was after they had been forgiven of their sins that Jesus then shed his blood on The Cross, for the remission of sin (for all mankind). This is the great contrast between forgiveness and remission (of sins) that is obviously revealed to us from the spirit (and maybe not the letter) of God’s infallible Word.

You can also gain forgiveness of sin from a fellow man, but you can never obtain remission of sin from your fellow man – not even from your closest kinsman, (except of course, from our one and only Kinsman-Redeemer, Jesus Christ). Again, as said earlier, remission of sin is obtainable from God only once in a life-time; forgiveness of sin however, can come to the sinner every day of the week, month, and or year.

Forgiveness of sin exonerates sinful-mankind from the consequences of sin: which are guilt-consciousness, sickness and disease, confusion, misery and poverty. (Deuteronomy 28: 15-68). The wrath of God, which must come upon all who sin, is stayed for those people, who are wise to seek forgiveness for their sins from Him, after repenting of them.

A man called Cornelius, of Acts chapter ten fame, enjoyed life in the blessed state of being in God’s forgiveness, and yet was neither in God’s salvation nor in His Kingdom. In that state of being in God’s forgiveness, enjoying in all, whatever the blessings of God are in that state, he did not have the remission of his sins.

It was much later on, when he was baptized in the ministry of Peter, an apostle, that he gained the remission of his sins, qualifying him to receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God in his heart and as a seal of ownership by God. That baptism also earned him the adoption and son-ship by God, for his addition into His family.

You see, forgiveness (of sin), deals with the issues of mankind’s sin, before and after Calvary. Remission (of sin) however, deals with issues of sin in man at Calvary. Both deals have their unique blessings and ways of being accessed. [—the concluding part of this article is in Part Four].

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and the author of the book entitled: “BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation”. His email address is: [email protected].

Today, it is very important we observe closely, the way the disciples of Jesus executed their first assignment in soul-winning on the Day of Pentecost, and indeed, in all others, so we can imitate them for our own successes. All soul-winners, working in and for God’s Kingdom today, must do exactly as Peter an apostle, and his friends did for the salvation of men on the Day of Pentecost, and in the years after this great day.

Peter and his friends always preached a message whose substance was designed by the wisdom of God, and aimed at bringing repentance of sin to their listeners. Also, they always had the right directive, aimed at leading those who accepted their message to appropriately respond to it, for their genuine entry into the Kingdom of God.

Any time they went out to win souls, the theme of their message was the same. It was always about Jesus the Son of God: who lived a sinless life, was falsely accused and put to death by crucifixion on The Cross, was buried, resurrected on the third day after his burial, and who ascended into Heaven, to be seated on the right hand side of God forever.

For the apostles of Jesus Christ, this is the core-message of the gospel, which has the potency to prick the hearts of any hearers of it, so as to bring them to the point of repentance from their sins. Later on, when Saul of Tarsus joined the company of apostles of Jesus Christ as St. Paul, he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to say in the Book of Romans that, this message of the gospel is the only one with the cutting-edge power to bring about repentance unto salvation. (Romans 1: 16, KJV).

Again, Paul an apostle, in the Book of Galatians, chapter one, verse eight to nine, in writing to Galatians of his day, stressed to them the importance of accepting only the message of the apostles in their quest for God’s salvation. He stressed that, even if angels came to preach to them some other message beside the one preached to them by the apostles, they should not accept it. Any contrary message, Paul revealed, would bring to both the preachers of it and their hearers, curses from God. Simply put, any such message would deny them the salvation of God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, if we are to make any genuine disciples for Jesus Christ today, who are worthy of being admitted into the Kingdom of God, this message of the apostles must be ours to all who would listen to us. We are not to preach to salvation-seekers any other message – not even one on healing from diseases or on deliverance from evil forces, or on prosperity, or on forgiveness of sin, or on any other.

Simply because a particular message can be found in the Bible does not mean it is relevant, or has the power of God, for the repentance of the sinner, toward his salvation. Sadly, many so-called Men of God do not know this! Many are yet to humble themselves to obey God’s Word for their own salvation. This they must do, so the Holy Spirit of God can get to dwell in their hearts, and then to constantly reveal to and teach them, for the benefit of their followers, the truths of God’s salvation in Christ Jesus.

Our message to the salvation-seeker must always be that of The Cross. This is the only one message, tailor-made by God Himself, which can bring a feeling of remorse to the heart of any sinner who hears it, and thereby lead him to repentance onto salvation.

Just as Peter did on the Day of Pentecost for the over three thousand returnee-Diaspora Jews, who accepted his cutting-edge message of The Cross, whenever we have any person today who comes to the realization that it is his (or her) sins that killed the Saviour, and repents of them, that person must be properly taught about how he or she must act, so as to come into the saving-power of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.

The way to obtain reconciliation with God and how to gain entry into His Kingdom, must be for mankind today, the same as was taught by Peter to his hearers in his day. There is no other way taught by God in His Word to salvation-seekers to bring this about.

So what did Peter direct the salvation-seeker to do, to genuinely enter the salvation of God, one may ask? It is very important that we know this, and to also do as Peter did, if we are to achieve any success in our efforts to win souls for Christ.

Peter told his listeners to do two things: first, to repent from their sins, and then, to be baptized in (or into) the name of Jesus Christ. Peter taught them that if they did that out of genuine desire for reconciliation with God, and to enter His Kingdom, they would receive remission of sin, and go on further, to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now, this is the only assurance from God’s Word, which we find in Acts 2: 38-39, KJV, on how any salvation-seeker can ever enter His salvation. We must always keep in our minds that, on the Day of Pentecost, when the first crop of salvation-seekers were led into the Kingdom of God, by His sure representatives, the genuine directive as to how to enter it, was for the salvation-seekers to repent of their sins, and to be baptized in (or into) the name of Jesus Christ.

As said earlier on, this baptism was to enable God grant them remission of sin, and also the gift of the Holy Spirit of God to firmly dwell in their hearts, (forever). It seems to me mankind’s difficulty in post-apostolic times, in understanding how to enter the salvation of God, has to do with the words remission of sin. But if God can and will grant His Holy Spirit to anybody who desires it in this Grace Dispensation, it must be through the person’s faith in remission of sin.

Sadly, remission of sin is hardly known or understood by even the learned theologians and self-styled Men of God, in our world today, who claim to be God’s soul-winners. The word remission is a very rare one. It is found only in the King James Version of the Bible, and in only ten verses. It is completely absent in all other popular Versions of the Bible, that I know of.

This fact of remission, as being a rare word, establishes it as a gold-miner’s word. For me, this word is found and understood by only gold-miners: miners who are engaged in the search of nuggets and pearls in the Bible. It is those who are seriously engaged in such a search, who are blessed with the knowledge and understanding of this rare Word of God – remission.

And yet, remission of sin is the best thing that ever came from God, with the intent to make all His blessings reach mankind. We can only fathom the depth of God’s love for mankind, in His gift of Jesus Christ, if we understand what remission of sin is all about.

This is because it is only those who have gained access to remission of sin, by applying the wisdom of God to their ways, who are the genuine disciples of Jesus Christ. They are those, who are in God’s salvation. Anybody else, no matter how good he looks, is in fact a tare, and not the wheat he may think of himself to be. Remember that, tares are wheat look-alike.

These truths the devil and his cohorts know. Sadly, not even the many so-called Men of God, of our generation, know these truths. They wrongly equate remission to forgiveness (of sin)! They are thus unable to properly teach salvation-seekers how to genuinely enter the Kingdom of God.

I have always wondered how the devil has been able to beguile as many as over 99% of so-called Men of God, (who I know), and as many salvation-seekers, not to know or think of remission (of sin) in their quest for the salvation of God in Christ. The devil has easily and cheaply succeeded in leading many so-called Men of God to teach salvation-seekers to ask God for forgiveness of their sins, instead of how they can secure remission of sin through repentance and baptism, in their quest to enter His Kingdom.

Until the advent of John the Baptist, even Israel, the elect of God, did not know anything about remission of sin. All they knew and enjoyed then, were atonement and forgiveness of sin. We can therefore say that, Jesus did not come to our world to die to bring into being, forgiveness of sin – forgiveness of sin being a blessing of God, which was already being enjoyed under the not-so-perfect Old Testament.

What all this means is that, sinful-mankind should not seek to obtain forgiveness of sin in his quest to enter God’s salvation. Rather, sinful-mankind must seek to understand and to secure remission of sin, to enable him enter the salvation of God. [—this article is continued in Part Three].

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and the author of the book entitled: “BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation”. His email address is: [email protected]

The year 2030 will mark the 2000th anniversary of the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is important to note that this anniversary is only two decades away. It is also important to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ, earlier on, before his Ascension, told his disciples that he would return to earth, a second time, and so mankind must await his return.

We do not know when this Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will take place. Whether it will be before this 2000th anniversary or after, we do not know. Mankind must however start in earnest now, preparations for this return of the Saviour; that is, for those who have not yet done so. For, as sure as the sun shall rise from the east and set in the west, Jesus shall soon come.

Many people, who profess to be adherents to the Christian faith, whether rightly or wrongly, consider themselves to be workers in God’s Kingdom and or stewards to His secrets, mysteries, and blessings. It may be that, it is such serious-minded people who may be preparing for The Great Day of the Lord, which the closeness of this 2000th anniversary of his Ascension seems to be reminding many of us about.

For those who consider themselves to be called by the Lord Jesus Christ, to lead people into his salvation, they have a lot of thinking and preparations to do, if they are to receive any commendations from the Lord at his coming. In particular, they must remind themselves of the Great Commission of the Master, and critically consider what roles they are playing in it.

By this Commission, the Master enlists loyal, knowledgeable, wise, and anointed followers for this special work of soul-winning. Today, those who believe they are in this Commission must be asking themselves how they are faring in the execution of this special work of, and for, the Kingdom of God.

Soul-winning is a specialist’s job. Anyone who is involved in it must be blessed by God to be able to work with His mind and wisdom, if he is to do it effectively for the expected results. This is what the Word of God says about soul-winners: “… he that winneth souls is wise.” (Proverbs 11: 30, King James Version, KJV). This means that only those with the wisdom of God can win souls for Him. Soul-winning is a job for only wise people: those wise in God’s sight, and not in the eyes of mortal men.

This explains why genuine soul-winners of God’s Kingdom have today become endangered species of the male homo sapiens. Did any people ever see this obvious scarcity of God-taught, God-anointed, and God-sent men, in the business of soul-winning? I am sure many people have. Is that why somebody tried to help God out of this, by wrongfully recruiting and sending out women, to execute a God-ordained men-only assignment?

Yes indeed, Mary Magdalene was the first to see the resurrected Christ. But she forever, thereafter, remained in essence and silence, just the first to see the empty tomb of the Saviour. She did not have the mandate of the Master, to be a legal (credible) witness (testifier of, or messenger-carrier of the proof) to his resurrection.

Mary Magdalene was never conscripted and or ordained by the Master, to have either a part or lot in the business of taking the message of his resurrection to the world, with the object of winning souls for the Kingdom of God. And so are all women, the weaker sex to men, and as such the easily beguiled by the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, never chosen by God as vessels, to carry His Word (message of salvation, warnings, or direction) to mankind. Throughout all the times and seasons Heaven has been ruling in the affairs of men on earth, God has not as yet used (and will never use) women as message-bearers, in His Information Ministry.

The error by many in depending on the wisdom of men, while trying to render a duty that was to have been done by the Son of God himself, has brought about a sad state of affairs, to the Kingdom of God. The ignorance of many people about God’s ways, and His wisdom for soul-winning, has led them into doing ridiculously weird things, all in the name of soul-winning.

Men who are called, chosen, taught, anointed, and sent out by God for this assignment, must constantly remain focused and fully dependant on the instructions of His Son, if they are to be successful. It is important for soul-winners, to always remain dependant on the Master’s instructions since they work in his stead and not for themselves.

When Jesus Christ was about to depart from earth to the Good Father in Heaven, he took the apostles outside the walls of Jerusalem, to Mt. Olivet, to bid them an unforgettable good-bye. There, he finishes his last pep-talk to the apostles. Then he becomes air-borne, en-route to Heaven. They watched and waved him good-bye, till a cloud concealed him from their sight.

This pre-Ascension pep-talk was on how the apostles were to go about the task of soul-winning, for the Kingdom of God. The success of this soul-winning work depended on these downcast men: downcast because their Master was leaving them, for a very long while.

They could not afford to make any mistakes in this soul-winning business – Heaven and The Throne were depending on them. Any mistakes would attract upon themselves, the Wrath of The Throne. One little mistake, would also bring about a permanent denial of God’s salvation to all the inhabitants of the earth.

They had to understand this, and not make any mistakes. They were to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit, to be given to them by God, and on the wisdom in the instructions of the Master. They were also told that the Holy Spirit, upon coming into their hearts to dwell, would constantly keep them in remembrance of the Master’s strict instructions, for their success.

As they waved their Master good-bye, on Mt. Olivet, two men (angels of God?), in white apparel joined their company. The men in white clothes spoke to them, echoing words which their Master had told them earlier on before this Ascension Day. The angels told them about the sure-return of the Master, in the like manner they had just seen him go to Heaven.

Then the apostles returned to their makeshift abode in the Upper Room, in Jerusalem, to console one another with this truth of their Master’s sure-return: cheering themselves up, on the temporal loss of physical contact and fellowship with their Lord.

While consoling themselves, they eagerly await the descent of the Holy Spirit of God into their hearts: by which they are promised by the Master, they would be equipped with power, wisdom, boldness, and the constant remembrance of his instructions on soul-winning to begin to execute the work of evangelizing the world, for the Kingdom of God.

After waiting in the Upper Room for only ten days, the promise by Jesus to send them the Holy Spirit is fulfilled. Then, they immediately move out into the streets of Jerusalem, catapulted by the sheer dynamism of the Holy Spirit of God in them, to execute the high-precision job of winning souls for God’s Kingdom, which can only be done by men who are endowed with the wisdom and power of God. [—this articled is continued in Part Two]

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ, and the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His email address is: [email protected]

The much-awaited Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will soon become a reality. Many people know this. But, the issue is, how many people are ready for him? A lot of people seem not to be bothered by the fact of Jesus’ return. This is because, for a long time (since Jesus made the promise about his return to his disciples) nothing has happened.

In 30 AD, the year of Jesus’ ascension to Heaven, angels of God re-echoed on Mt. Olivet words he had earlier-on spoken to his disciples about his sure-return to earth. The year 2030 AD will therefore be the two-thousandth year, since this promise. Obviously, it has been a long time since; long enough for many people to have turned themselves into scoffers, who teasingly suggest that he is unable to return.

However, this sure-to-come event of Kingdom Calendar now seems imminent. This is why there are, today, many rumours and predictions about the Master’s return. These are signs, among others, pointing to the fact that because of the integrity of the one who made the promise to return (Jesus Christ the Nazarene), the fulfillment of his words can no longer delay.

Of course, nobody knows when the return of the Master will take place. The Master has however, warned his disciples that it will come like a thief. He has cautioned all his disciples that, if the master of the house knew when armed robbers would break into his home, to take away his goods, he would not have been sleeping.

It seems to me that, everything about this coming event is characterized by surprise: season, day, hour and a never-seen cataclysm of its kind in the earth. At a time when people will seem to enjoy peace, then, this surprise will come upon them.

Not only in these things will the Second Coming, of the Lord Jesus Christ, be a surprise to the inhabitants of the earth. The composition of the group of the elect few, qualified to enter Heaven, will also shock many. We are told in the Word of God, that all creation awaits the revelation of this select-group, which will be declared eligible to enter Heaven (Romans 8: 19).

There are people who many others do not expect to see in Heaven, but who will surprise the many, when they find their way there. At the same time, a select few (of so-called archbishops?), expected by many to be in Heaven, will fail to enter it. It could be that some rank-free disciples of the Master will find their way into Heaven, while some high-rank so-called archbishops (and self-styled reverends?) will be denied entry.

According to the Master people will come, from the east and west, to feast with Abraham in Heaven, whilst many Israelites born out of his loins are cast out into darkness (Matthew 8: 11-12). Jesus has also said that, while many people of Tyre, Sidon, Nineveh and the south (Ethiopia of Africa) will gain places in Heaven, many Israelites of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum will be denied entry (cf. Matthew 11: 21-24; 12: 41-42; & Luke 11: 31).

The greatest surprise of entrees into Heaven to many people will, however, be king Nebuchadnezzar: one-time king of the erstwhile Babylonian Empire who was a thorn in the flesh of unrepentant-Israel. Nebuchadnezzar ruled with an iron hand for more than forty years – 605-562 BC. Though many people do not know of a single good thing he did in his reign, he ended it in a manner worthy of earning him life in Heaven.

How could this be, many may ask? And this is the reason why it will surprise many to see him with them in Heaven. Many more others may seek to find issues with God, for being cast out of Heaven, while this one-time wicked king is made to enter. How is Nebuchadnezzar able to achieve God’s blessing in this? The answer is simple: God’s Word in Ezekiel 36: 25-27, became real to Nebuchadnezzar at the tail-end of his life. Here are these verses:

“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36: 25-27, KJV).

You see, when it pleased God to lead Nebuchadnezzar into His salvation, He turned him into a beast. Please read Daniel 4: 1-37 to understand this drama. For many people, it was God’s judgment upon him for his wickedness; and they rejoiced in it. But that was God’s disguised blessing to him.

God wanted to wash Nebuchadnezzar in the dew of Heaven but could never get him into the open, out of his palace, to do so. And so He turned him into a human-beast; drove him into the fields and commanded angels to guard him; so nobody would hunt him down as game. And all this, God did for a period of seven years, during which He caused the dew of heaven to do a thorough work of taking out his heart of stone, and transplanting in him a heart of flesh.

With his new heart, Nebuchadnezzar was able to worship God for his very first time. Because God washed Nebuchadnezzar in the dew of heaven (waters of baptism?), he was able to meet Jesus’ condition for anyone’s entry into Heaven, stated in John 3: 3-5. Do you see the love of God for Nebuchadnezzar and how in this love, God caused all things to work together for his good? Nebuchadnezzar will therefore surprise many to be found in Heaven to spend Eternity with God.

Nebuchadnezzar will not be the only surprise in Heaven. Remember the sailors who were with Jonah, the disobedient messenger of God who was sent to the people of Nineveh? Well, they had their idol-polluted hearts purified in the rain-waters of the storm which hit them, while they were on the deck of their ship casting its cargo into the sea. In that thorough drenching by the rain-waters, they had their stony hearts replaced with those of flesh, thus enabling them fear God, offer sacrifices and make vows to worship Him. Please Jonah 1:4-16 from the King James Version of the bible to understand the drama of this account. These seamen will therefore surprise many to be found in Heaven.

Also, Naaman, the leprous-Syrian army general, will surprise many to be found in Heaven. You see, Naaman was not only cleansed of his leprosy in the seven dips he made into the waters of the Jordan. But in the process, he had God take out his heart of stone and transplant in him, a heart of flesh.

When God was through with Naaman in His transformation process, he not only worshipped God with a heart of flesh, but was ready to take a load of the earth of Israel, to build a temple unto Jehovah in Syria. In Second Kings 5: 1-19, we read the entire account of Naaman’s cure from leprosy and the recreated heart of flesh that God him after he dipped himself seven times, into the waters of the river Jordan, in obedience to Elisha, a man of God.

The Old Testament has accounts of how God (Personally) baptized some people, to make them eligible to enter Heaven, when they had no idea what blessings He was bestowing on them. The list of such blessed people is a very short one.

It consists of Noah in the ark (First Peter 3: 20-21); Abraham in the waters of the Euphrates river (Joshua 24: 2-3); infant-Moses in the Nile waters (Exodus 2: 1-10); Israel in the Red sea crossing (First Corinthians 10: 1-2) and the generation of Israelites who crossed the waters of the Jordan (Joshua 4: 1-9). Nebuchadnezzar, Naaman and Jonah’s ship mates in his infamous journey from Joppa to Tarshish were God’s latter additions to this short list of men baptized by God Himself.

All these incidents of baptism occurred as and in the shadows of this ordinance of the New Testament doctrines, which brings new-life to all who are blessed by God to receive it in Jesus’ name. Later on, God sent Jesus to make real these and many other shadows of baptism, in that which he received at the hand of John the Baptist.

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Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ and is the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His e-mail address is: [email protected].

In recent times, I have grown to become very much fascinated by records of historical events. This fascination has led me to give a lot of value to the work of archaeologists, geologists, historians and other workers who seek to inform mankind of his past, more than I ever did.

I delight in studying the past for two reasons. First, is the thrill I get from knowing how that mankind of ancient times lived without today’s technology and lifestyles, and yet advanced to the heights of being able to build such wonders as the Tower of Babel and Pyramids of Egypt.

The second is that, I get to know that nothing is really new in this world: all we see today have once been around in our world. The only differences are the ways these things come and the colour of their wrappings.

No doubt, the past informs the present, as many people believe. And that the present reflects the future is also a fact. Today is the shadow of tomorrow’s reality. What goes up also comes down; and what goes around, comes around. The wise of our earth have always thus spoken; and how true I find their words to be.

The best place to study mankind’s past is in the Word of God – the Bible. This is because many bible events predate recorded history. The Bible is history recorded by God Himself, of those special aspects, of mankind’s existence which he is himself ignorant about, but known to the infinite Mind of God.

Before mankind could get to make pots, metal-tools, develop the alphabets, or record events, relics of all of which, today, give us something about our history, God had already captured the history of mankind’s Creation and His dealings with him, thereafter.

God’s record of mankind’s history has neither error nor inaccuracies. This is because He not only has a perfect mind with which He directed the recording of mankind’s history, but also because He Himself caused those historical events to come about, and in the manner and sequence they did.

In this article, I like to take readers to mankind’s history in the pre-Flood days of Noah. The wickedness of the earth in the days of Noah, which precipitated the destruction of the entire world, were committed by two beings – humans, and also a peculiar race of giant-humans who were called, nephilim.

It might be news to many people today that, a non-Adamic race, the nephilim, once physically co-habited the earth with mankind. Yet this has been a fact of history which is more than four millennia old. The fact is that, before The Flood of Noah, the nephilim race became the second occupants of the earth.

From God’s account about this race in the Book of Genesis, the nephilim came as product of an unholy sexual union between the sons of God (a crop of fallen angels, or were they archangels?) and the daughters of men. These daughters of men were very beautiful, but sadly, too powerless to resist the physical strength of angels (and or archangels?).

I like to quote this record of Genesis from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, here: There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown (Genesis 6: 4, KJV).

May readers note in this quotation, the words “in those days; and also after that”. This is worthy of note because it establishes the fact that the invasion of this army of fallen angels to rape the daughters of men, occurred, at least, on two occasions – one before The Flood of Noah, and the other(s) sometime(s) after the deluge.

This was a case of history repeating itself; and I am not surprised about that since nothing really is new, under the sun. In fact, there has been yet another invasion by fallen angels into the lives of men, in modern times, which (invasion) also produced its latter-day race of nephilim.

Presently, I shall show when and how this modern-day invasion took place. I shall also venture to show where this took place, and go on to reveal to mankind today, how to identify the latter-day nephilim, who are in an unending conflict against today’s seekers of God’s salvation in Christ Jesus.

The offspring which came of the first invasion did not live very long, for the world-wide deluge of Noah’s day, which destroyed all life on earth, caused their extinction. We do not know when the second (or third, or fourth?) invasion by angels to our earth, to have sexual acts with the daughters of men took place. However, records in the Bible show that their offspring lived on earth much longer than the first.

We read in the Book of Genesis chapter fourteen that, after The Flood of Noah which historians teach mankind to have taken place around 2348 BC, a race of giant human beings lived on the earth. The last biblical account of this race of giants, was one that involved the killing in battle in about 1018 BC, one of its kind, who had twelve fingers and twelve toes (Second Samuel 21: 20).

The post-Flood race of giants has been known by various names in the Bible. However, they are all of a common ancestry, since they all came into being, when some fallen angels raped some daughters of men. These giants have collectively been called Rephaims, Zuzims, Emims (Genesis 14: 5), Anakims, Zamzummins and Horims (Numbers 13: 28-33, Deuteronomy 2: 9-12, 20, Joshua 11: 21-22) at various times and locations.

Individually, some of these giants have been called Anak (Numbers 13: 33), Og (Deuteronomy 3; 3-15), Goliath (First Samuel 17: 4-7), Ishbibenob and Saph (Second Samuel 21: 16-18). In Second Samuel 21: 19, it is revealed that the inglorious and well-known Goliath had a brother, of the lineage of the nephilim, whose name was however not given to us. Also, Second Samuel 21: 20 mentions the man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each leg as a man “born to the giant”. He was killed by Jonathan, a nephew of David the Warrior of Israel.

Let me make a few observations about this race of nephilim –giants, mighty men of old, men of renown. The first is that, God was angered by the union of angels and humans which brought this race into being. That being the case, this race never came into being by God’s design and therefore had neither value nor use in His Kingdom.

The race of nephilim therefore was only useful and belonged to the kingdom of fallen angels – darkness. Being of the kingdom of darkness, the nephilim could only serve it by working against mankind. Of course they were against every man, in general, but more so the elect of God.

That is why this race, throughout its period of physically intruding into the affairs of mankind, was constantly at war with Israel, the elect of God. Thank God this race became exterminated through wars waged against it by Israel, the earthly Army of God.

Today, mankind might not be aware of its existence, because today’s nephilim neither has physical contacts with humans, nor visible spatial domains: they now exist as spirit beings. Today’s nephilim came into being through a sexual union, which is revealed as spiritual adultery.

Every student of the Bible knows what spiritual adultery means. It is the forced union between the true worship of God, and that of idols, demons, Satan, and or any other powers beside God. So any union between archangels (spirit beings) and bishops (humans) will result in the birth of nephilim. And this is one cursed legacy bequeathed to this generation, by the pagan-church of Rome of the Second Century, who forced an unholy marriage between archangels and bishops.

Whether the pagan-controlled church of Rome, in the aftermath of the apostles of Jesus Christ, during the Second Century, knew it or not, their marrying of the two words –archangel and bishop– to create without the mandate of God, the word archbishop, brought into the Church, the latter-day nephilim.

After studying the many notorious acts of the Roman Empire politicians of the Second Century, in and against the Church, one is inclined to believe that they were done on purpose and at the behest of their Boss – Satan.

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Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ and is the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His e-mail address is: [email protected].

Towards the end of the Part One of this article, it was revealed that today’s nephilim, is indeed the persona of the archbishop of today. It was also revealed that the archbishop was a creation of the pagan-Christianity of the erstwhile Roman Empire and that this happened in the Second Century; over 1900 years ago.

Obviously, this has been a long time since; long enough for this nephilim-persona (of the archbishop) to have been coated with so much cosmetic powders as to have camouflaged his true identity, to people today. But what secret of man and or the Devil, can be hid from the piercing eyes and all-knowing Mind of God the Almighty?

And so today, by the Grace of God, the true identity or personality of the archbishop, begotten by and of the pagan-Christianity of the erstwhile Roman Empire, can no longer be hid from salvation-seekers. It is my hope and prayer that this article will bless all its readers and the many seekers of God’s salvation in Christ Jesus, in revealing to them who the archbishop is, in reality.

The New Testament is the Constitution of the Kingdom of God. In another thought, it is the bequeathed Will of Jesus Christ to his genuine and loyal disciples. Being a Will, is the reason why it could only come into effect after the death of Jesus Christ. Yet still, the New Testament is the last Covenant of God, made to establish, define and maintain a new relationship between God and man.

Every detail of this Covenant is composed by God alone. No man had a part in the composition of this Covenant. This Covenant is made to be in force forever: it does not change. No man can add to or subtract from the words of this Covenant since it is sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Please, be not mistaken into thinking of the New Testament to have come into being with the accounts of Matthew chapter one verse one. The New Testament came into being by the events of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, on the Day of Pentecost. The Book of Acts chapter two, verse two, is therefore, the starting point of the New Testament.

Being a constitution of the Kingdom of God, the New Testament defines the status, responsibilities, functions, privileges, code of conduct, et cetera, of all its members. This Constitution reveals how all members must function as Ambassadors of Heaven to Earth, and also lays bare, the rewards due them for their dedicated service to the Kingdom of God. These rewards, however, can only be presented to deserving ambassadors in Heaven, at the end of time.

If we study the details of this Constitution, with particular reference to its articles and clauses on membership and functions of its earthly members, it will reveal to us the personality of the archbishop, as being the latter-day nephilim. In this constitution, the archbishop is not mentioned to be a member of it. This constitution does not therefore assign any role or functions to him.

The Bible reveals that the Church of Jesus Christ is a Body synonymous to the human body (Romans 12: 4-5, First Corinthians 12: 12-27). Every member of this Body fits into it according to the design of God, and plays his assigned role in much the same manner as every part of the human body does. The role played by every member in the Body of Christ is determined and assigned by only the Master, Jesus Christ, and never by any other person(s).

Every member of this Body is either, an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, or a pastor/teacher, according to Ephesians 4: 11. It will be good if one pondered on this statement; and accepted it as the truth of God. Indeed, the Body of Christ (the Church), is made up of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors/teachers.

Each of these parts shoots off from the Head, who is Christ. All of these four members must function in the roles of elder, or bishop, and or deacon (Philippians 1: 1, First Timothy 3: 8-12). There is also the word ‘overseer’ used in Acts 20: 28, in description of any man who plays one or all three roles of elder, bishop, and deacon.

The common error in giving to men, such titles as ‘presbyter’ and ‘shepherd’, within the context of roles they play in the Church must be avoided, since nowhere in the New Testament are these names mentioned as such. Of course, we do have a presbytery, but without presbyters: and this is the revelation of the New Testament to us.

If we bring our minds down to earth from Heaven, we can understand this, when we accept that we do have Cabinet without ‘cabineteers’. We must never seek to assist God, in trying to enrich His vocabulary for Him, by forcing into His Word, without His mandate, the word ‘presbyter’ simply because He has mentioned the word ‘presbytery’ in His Word. We must not do this.

The word ‘shepherd’ when used in the New Testament, is always in the context of the role played by Jesus Christ, in the Body of Christ. None of the four-member parts of the Body of Christ– apostle, prophet, evangelist and pastor/teacher –plays the ‘shepherd’ role, in the entire New Testament revelation.

From all the foregoing, there is no mention in the Word of God, of the word ‘archbishop’. Obviously, since Creation, God has never used this word. The word ‘archbishop’ has never entered the Mind of God, and never will. Why so, one might ask? It is simply because this word ‘archbishop’ is irrelevant to all intents and purposes of God the Almighty.

All people who bear the title, archbishop, do not represent God, no matter how pious- or sanctimonious-looking they may be. Whatever roles the archbishop plays on earth, among a people who claim to be of the Church of Jesus Christ, he is without the mandate of God. No archbishop can therefore be of any good to anybody who desires to seek the salvation of God in Christ Jesus.

The entire personality of archbishop, and whatever roles he plays in any grouping of salvation-seekers, is alien to the Constitution of the New Testament. The archbishop is therefore not a God-made person; but one made by the Adversary, one of today’s spiritual nephilim. The archbishop, therefore, is a functionary of the Adversary. May every archbishop, and his followers, beware of this.

Let me lead you to think about words, their meanings, power and how they can impact on your life. Every word has within it, spiritual power; in fact all words are spirit. The word ‘archbishop’, therefore, has within it, a lot of spiritual power that enables it to do the work it was created to do. The sad thing is that, the spiritual power within the word, ‘archbishop’, does not come from God.

If a word comes from God, it is highly laden with the power of God and blesses the people it is spoken to. When a word originates from Satan, it has laden in its belly, so much demonic power that will bring curses to all it is used on or who use it.

The word nephilim of old, and its latter-day version, archbishop, have the same capacity to wreak havoc against people who seek to do the Will of God. For about 1300 years, from the date of the Flood of Noah (in 2348 BC), when the second invasion to earth by the parent stock of nephilim took place, to the year of their final destruction (in 1018 BC), the nephilim had their day.

The return of the latter-day nephilim, in the personality of the archbishop, is known to have taken place in the Second Century (after 100 AD). The latter-day nephilim has therefore been around for more than 1900 years. It must be time now for today’s spiritual Israel to be rid of this power of the enemy.

All true servants of God must take up their spiritual weapons to wage war against this imposter, to rid the world of his corruption of God’s people. For sure, God will be with all His loyal soldiers who rise up to this task; and victory will not elude His army.

Shalom.
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Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist to the Body of Christ and is the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation. His e-mail addressed is: [email protected].

(Your esteemed and highly authoritative newspaper,) The Chronicle, in its Thursday, July 21, 2011 edition, carried a news item credited to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), on views expressed by some clergymen in Sunyani, Ghana, who the GNA said it randomly interviewed on the issue of homosexuality. I must say it made interesting reading.

After reading the news item, I felt obliged to join the on-going public discourse on the rise in homosexual tendencies in Ghana, the worry of many people. This article is therefore an expression of my views on the menace of this weird lifestyle, more so on what the Clergy should have proactively done, to have stemmed its fast-growing popularity and the embarrassment it has brought us.

All in all, what did the Clergy in Sunyani say in the news item which we did not already know?  For me, these clergy-men told us nothing new. That is sad; coming from a privileged few, who claim to be so close to God that their work is to warn mankind of all impending dangers.

If they are now warning mankind of God’s sure-to-come judgment on all homosexuals, then they have done too little, too late.

From my little research, the Judgment of God came upon the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, in punishment for their sins of homosexuality, in the year 1898 BC or thereabout. Mankind has therefore lived on earth after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, for close to four millennia (1898 BC – 2011 AD).

God hates
homosexuality
For all this time, mankind has known God hates homosexuality and all other sins; that He will judge all homosexuals; and will destroy all those who engage in homosexuality. So, was it beneficial, for the Clergy to tell us what we have known ever since the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah?

What I expected the clergy-men to tell mankind was what God has done as solution to the sin-problem of mankind, which includes the sins of homosexuality: how that in, and by, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, a lasting solution has been found to stem the tide of every sin of mankind.

I believe these clergy-men know that, the homosexual perverts of Sodom and Gomorrah were enslaved to the yoke of the Devil and, therefore, incapable of breaking from it.  Jesus Christ came to set mankind free of that yoke. This freedom has been available for all salvation-seekers to access since the year of ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ in 30 AD; a mystery many clergy-men claim to be its custodians.

If the Clergy had been up to the task of propagating this good news about how Jesus Christ delivered mankind from the power and dominion of sin, all this while, the homosexual menace would not have reached the horrible limits we now face.

The Clergy seems to have fallen asleep, when they should have been informing mankind that Jesus Christ manifested to take the sin of the world away, and that he has indeed destroyed the works of the devil in, and by, his sacrifice.

The Clergy does not seem capable of dealing with the homosexual menace, despite all the power they often claim to possess in an anointing they say came to them from God, for their work. Because of their inadequacy to this task, they are now in desperation, calling on politicians to make laws to rescue our nation from an imminent Sodom-style destruction, the result of the weird lifestyles of homosexuals. How sad this is.

Very often, I have heard clergy-men preach that the age of the Law is over; and that we now live in the era of Grace. Why then do the Clergy want to take us back to an era of law? And why must they seek the support of politicians, to legislate such a law?

I think all men who consider themselves as part of the Clergy, must seek to concentrate on the core mandate of the Master, in the Great Commission, and on they functioning as the salt and light of the world, instead of trying to bring mankind back to the Law age with the help of politicians.

Why is the mandate of the Master, to bring his salvation to sinners, not being fulfilled by the Clergy, who claim to be called by the Lord for this assignment? The Clergy seem to be too much pre-occupied with the cares of this life and, therefore, are hardly seen as God’s ministers of reconciliation between sinners and God the Almighty.

problem of gays and lesbians
The problem of gays and lesbians can never be solved by politicians or by any legislation. No world government can control homosexuality. This is because, the solution to all sin problems lie in the spiritual power of Jesus’ sacrifice, God’s Word, His Holy Spirit, and the will of the individual who acts in the appropriate manner as desiring for solution to his/her sin problem.

It is therefore sad that the Clergy has resorted to cries and wails to governments of the world, for legislation to deal with such a spiritual canker as homosexuality, which pre-dates modern history. How could the Clergy take its eyes off the mandate of God to genuine workers of His vineyard, to look to worldly institutions for solutions to problems of mankind?

The answer is not difficult to find. The Church, led by the Clergy is now comfortably in bed with world governments. This was the same problem the Church suffered in the Second Century under pagan Roman Empire governments. It is sad the Church is yet to shake himself off the shackles of governments of the World Order.

The relics of the influence of pagan Roman Empire governments are with us unto this day. What-with all the titles we see borne by the Clergy, which have no relation to the Christian Faith, but were introduced into the Church by pagan-Rome?

Where from such words as Clergy, Laity and Archbishop? Do you know God has never used these words? If God has never used these words, then what relevance do they have in His Work and or within His workforce? Pagan-Rome of the Second Century brought them into the Church.

No archbishop has any role to play in the work of God. That is why God has no definition for this word. It is the invention of man and therefore irrelevant for God’s Work. For a long time this word served the purpose of pagan-Rome. Its continuous use clouds the true structure of the True Church, by introducing foreign elements into it, and distorts the salvation message.

The word archbishop is an unholy product of two words -archangel and bishop. Not because we have an archangel and a bishop must we have an archbishop. Any person, who wields spiritual power from his position as an archbishop, has not been given that power by God the Almighty.

Not very long after Creation, an unpermitted sexual relationship between the sons of God (angels) and the daughters of men (humans) resulted in the birth of an unholy and inglorious race of men-only giants known as, nephilim: who roamed our earth, before and after The Flood (Genesis 6: 4; Numbers 13: 28-29 & 33; Deuteronomy 2: 20-21; First Samuel 17: 4-7, et cetera).

This race of dreadful giants was neither suitable for God’s use, nor for mankind’s; but only for the kingdom of darkness. It therefore quickly became extinct, and the culpable angels kept in chains in very dark prisons awaiting judgment (Second Peter 2: 4, Jude 6-7).

The fact therefore is that, any hybridization of an archangel and a human-bishop will never bring forth any being, suitable or acceptable for God’s use in His Church. May all seekers of God’s salvation, beware of this.

There are few God-ordained appellations describing the functional roles by which genuine workers in the service of God are known. These are not titles; they are descriptions of roles or functions in the Body of Christ. They are: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. None of these are titles. That is why we read ‘Paul, an apostle’ and ‘Philip, the evangelist’ and never ‘Apostle Paul’ or ‘Evangelist Philip’ in the Bible.

The Clergy have gone chasing after titles that are irrelevant to the Christian Faith and thrown away the anointed functional descriptions God Himself has ordained for His workers. With man-made titles in their hands, they are then devoid of the power they must have, to be able to prosecute the agenda of the Work of God.  They then cry to political power brokers they have formed alliances with to come to their assistance and rescue. Oh my Lord Jesus Christ, where is your True Church? Maranatha.

Chris Bapuohyele is an evangelist of the gospel of Jesus Christ and is the author of the book entitled: BEWARE OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE of reciting the Sinners’ Prayer for salvation.

His e-mail address is: [email protected].