The Additions to Your Faith–Prerequisites of Receiving Immortality

Just having faith in Christ is not enough.  Now, wait a minute.  Hear me out before you jump.

Some have said, “Faith in Christ is all you need.”  To get into the first level of a walk with God, that is true.  But things must be added to the true faith in order for us to fully manifest God’s divine nature in us, according to the apostle Peter.

He says that we must make certain spiritual additions to the faith, so that we can be “partakers of the divine nature…Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity (agape love)” (II Peter 1: 5-7).

Peter goes on to say that if these additions “be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren (idle) nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus (Yahshua) Christ” (v. 8).

In other words, without these additions, we will not grow up “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4: 13).  Nor will we without these additions “be filled with all the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 3: 19).  Why?  Because the person without these additions listed above “is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” (II Pet. 1: 9).  These additions, then, serve as a kind of eye salve that anoints our eyes that we may see the spiritual road ahead of us.

In fact, the way we “make our calling and election sure” is to add these very things to our faith! That is why this is so important to the overcomers of all things.  For if we add these things to our faith, we “shall never fall” (v. 10).  The addition to our faith of these things is the key that unlocks the door to the “entrance…into the everlasting kingdom” of our God (v. 11).

Who was Peter writing to?

Peter is writing not to everyone, but to those “that have obtained like precious faith with us” (1: 1).  He is writing to “those who have already received by divine allotment” this equally honored and precious “conviction that God exists and is the Creator and Ruler of all things, the Provider and Bestower of eternal salvation through Christ” {Thayer’s Lexicon}.

It is God who has placed this faith, this “conviction” that He is real, in our hearts.  It is not something we “muster up.”  It is all Him.  It is His grace to us, which is to say, God favors us with knowledge of Him and His plan and word.  This brings light to our eyes and strength to our hearts.  God gives grace to some during this end time era with spiritual knowledge of Him.  This is His grace to us.

Now He gives this grace in accordance to “His divine power” which gives to the recipients “all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him” (1: 3).  For He “has called us to glory and virtue.”

Glorification = Immortality

God has tapped us on the shoulder in some way  to bring us to the stage of spiritual growth called “glorification”!  Yes, this spiritual road we have begun to walk down is leading us into being glorified with Him!  This is sonship; this is rulership with Him in His kingdom.

We have to add these things listed by the apostle Peter, if we are to fulfill our calling to be His manifested sons and daughters, His ruling family that He has called us unto.  That’s how important they are to Him, first, and should, therefore, be important to us.  Important enough to seriously study them out.

But the big take away of this opening chapter of II Peter is this: This conviction that God is and is in control through Christ–this faith, this conviction must have other attributes added to it, in order for us to fulfill our calling as His sons and daughters, the princes and princesses, sitting with Him in His throne.

Peter knows full well what it takes to “make our calling and election sure.”  He knows that our initial experiences based on God’s favor and grace in showing a bit of Himself to us and thereby “calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light”–he knows that those early experiences and revelations will not take us across the finish line in this race “for the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3: 14).

And it is through this knowledge of the holy things of God that we are given “exceeding great and precious promises” (II Pet. 1: 4).  God has promised to give unto us His followers immortality, or eternal life.  Immortality is it.  It is the biggest gift, the greatest promise the Immortal One can give to a mortal.  There is nothing greater for one who will die than to be granted eternal life.

And this immortality that God has promised us is what the aforementioned “glorification” is all about.  And Peter says by the Spirit of God that we are called “to glory and virtue.”  And God promised this to us from time immemorial.  “In hope of eternal life, which God, which cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1: 2).

All of this notwithstanding, in order to receive this precious promise of immortality, we must add certain spiritual components to our faith, to our conviction that God is real and true.  These additions are the elements of the very nature of God Himself.

How do we do this?  First we must study them out and receive the knowledge of just what they are, and then, reckon them added by faith.

Two points are worthy encouragers for us on this road to immortality.  First, He said of us in His prayer in John 17: 22: “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.”  In His mind, it is a done deal.  He is saying, I have already given them glorification, which is immortality.  With this, they are one with the Father and Son.  It is also good to know that “He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.”  He has full confidence in His plan, which includes us.  But the first step is to add to our faith virtue.   What virtue is comes next time.          Kenneth Wayne Hancock

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obama and the One World Government (2012)

Well, not exactly love. A better word would be understand why these things are happening.

Look, my fellow conservative-leaning  Americans, the 2012 election is over.  And many of you feel that sickness in the pit of your stomach–that same sick emptiness you felt when O. J. Simpson was found “not guilty.”  But we have to understand that it is God Himself who is allowing Obama to prevail.  Yes, that is right.  He, not Obama, is Sovereign.  He has a plan to save many people, but first they must be humbled by corrupt leaders before they will hit bottom and cry unto God once again.  After all, it is God who sets over mankind the “basest of men” as their rulers (Daniel 4: 17).  And God uses oppressor/rulers to accomplish His purposes.

It is a difficult pill to swallow, but America (and it hurts so deeply that it is difficult to pen these next words)–America, an Israelite nation in Biblical prophecy, will fail.  Our mighty nation that we grew up in–so full of liberty, promise and opportunity–is destined to be weakened and to go into a One World Government.  I hate it on one hand, for I love this country, have fought in a foreign war for this country, and have enjoyed the benefits of our free society.  But if we are to believe the prophecies in the book of Revelation, America’s federal government will become an integral part of a one world government.

“And the great dragon…Satan, which deceives the whole world was cast out into the earth…and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (1).  “And he causes all…to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads and that no man might buy or sell…” (2).  The “miracles” of technology for this is already in place.  Just google “rfid chip” or “microchip implant” (3).

Why This Is Happening

All this is being allowed by God to happen because we as a people have “grown fat” in this prosperous environment.  We are “increased with goods and have need of nothing” and don’t realize that spiritually we are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (4).  We as a nation say that we have need of nothing–especially God, the God of our ancestors, the Hebrew God of the Bible.  President Obama just declared to the world, “We are no longer a Christian nation,” even though the vast majority of Americans still say they are Christian.  Does he know something we don’t?

Into the Greatest Depression

This dive into the greatest depression is happening to America and Western Europe just like it happened to the 12 tribes of Israel back in Moses’ and the prophets’ days.  In fact, the LORD (Yahweh) through Moses warned the people what would happen after they entered the Promised Land.

He said that if you fear God and keep His commandments that He “will set you on high above all nations of the earth.  And all these blessings shall come on thee…” And He lists every conceivable blessing that a nation could enjoy.  The United States of America is the only nation in the history of the world that has fulfilled this prophecy!  “High above all nations of the earth…” (5).

But He goes on to warn them that if they do not obey His commandments and forget Him and dishonor Him, then all these curses will come upon us.  Why? “If you will not hearken unto the voice of the LORD…the LORD (YAHWEH) shall send upon you cursing…[because] you have forsaken Me” (6).

It will get so bad that “the fruit of thy land, and all thy labors, a nation which you know not shall eat up” (7).  This is happening to us right now!  Our income taxes are being given to other nations who have loaned our government money by the trillions—China, Japan, Saudi Arabia.  All our tax dollars go to them to cover the interest on the national debt!

What happened to the Twelve Tribes of Israel is happening to us right now.  When we feared God as a nation, we grew into a prosperous superpower.  But now we have forgotten God and we are being brought low by Him–just like He promised.

Deja Vu

And it is all happening again as it did in the days of old.  We now are enslaved by our own selfish appetites and are allowing our representatives to sign over our children’s future to the international bankers who control all three branches of the federal government.

We are letting them take our freedoms and responsibilities away–just as long as they give us our “bread and circus” the way the Romans did to the masses.  As long as we can eat and drink and play our games, we think we are okay.  The children of Israel, barely out of Egypt, “sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play (I Cor. 10: 7).  God called this idolatry, putting fleshly appetites before God.  That generation fell in the wilderness and did not make it to the Promised Land.  It was all written down as an object  lesson for us “upon whom the ends of the world are come” (v. 11).

A Government of, by, and for the People?  Please…

Ultimately it is we the people who are to blame for what is happening to our country.  During the past 100 years, we have become complacent and have allowed our dumb, spineless representatives in Congress to be bought by the rich oligarchy, and thus, they have enslaved us into paying income taxes, a key plank of the Communist Manifesto.

They have illegally bailed out their greedy Wall Street banker buddies who helped them get into office.  They have exported most of our good paying manufacturing  jobs overseas.  They brought in NAFTA and other harmful international trade agreements that have killed our jobs.  Remember Ross Perot warning us about the “sucking sound” of jobs going south if we go down that road?

It is our fault.  Our founding fathers warned us of foreign entanglements and central banks.  But we the people  did not hearkened to them.  The torches and pitchforks should have been gotten out long ago.  Our great-grandfathers sat idly by in 1913 as they ramrodded the Federal Reserve Act through Congress, creating a private central bank.  Our Congress shirked their duty in handling our economy, giving it over to greedy private bankers who have been pillaging America ever since.  For the Fed’s policies since then has led us into ruinous world wars, depressions, and burst bubbles–not prevented them!  And we have not thrown them out yet!

All These Things Must Come to Pass

But our decline into mediocrity has to take place; I’m sad to have to say it.  It has to happen to humble us.   It will take the debasement and final collapse of the dollar to start to wake us up.  Yet most will blindly be herded into a one world currency, which leads directly into the one world government.

But as all this takes place, some will cry out to God as our ancestors did, and it is precisely this chastening from the LORD (Yahweh) that will humble us.  And through our humility, God will be touched, and He will then grant us grace, and favor us again.  He’ll hear the prayers of a broken people enslaved by a foreign world government, and we will remember how great it was to be living in the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”  We’ll be broken-hearted and contrite and ashamed of our prideful and careless ways.

And we’ll be ashamed that we let our federal government take away school prayer to the Great God of Heaven–taken away by a Supreme Court who has the Ten Commandments carved into the front doors of the Supreme Court Building!  What a bunch of hypocrites!  And we will be ashamed that we let them give permission for the wholesale slaughter of the innocent unborn.   We the people did not demand that our representatives and state legislatures amend the Constitution of the United States to prohibit such atrocities.  It was in our power, but we did not have the will to do it as a nation.

So this is how I am learning to stop fussing and fuming every night during the evening news, as I see America being looted and hoodwinked.  They say that ignorance is bliss and being blind to all of this is easier.  Maybe they are right, for it is very difficult to see all of this come down.  But I am learning to understand that America and Western Europe have sown to their own demise by not seeking God.  And He is letting the likes of Obama and the other radical socialists strip us of our freedoms as we slide into a corporatist fascist state.

The strings on the puppet Obama are obvious to me.  I even see the hands of the puppet master as he choreographs Obama’s every movement.  And the puppet masters don’t even seem to care that they are spoiling the illusion of reality by coming out from behind the Bilderburg curtains.  I guess they realize that we the audience have been put asleep by the dope piped in by the mainstream media and will awaken just enough to be herded into another line for the next government handout.   KWH

1. Revelation 12: 9; 13: 8
2. Revelation 13: 16

3.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchip_implant_(human)

4.  Rev. 3: 17

5.   Deut. 28: 1-13

6.   Deut. 28: 15, 20-37

7.   Deut. 28: 33

“The Day of the LORD” (YAHWEH)–The Fall of Mystery, Babylon the Great

Endtime Prophecy on Mystery, Babylon the Great

The “day of the LORD” (Yahweh) is a day not to wish for.  It brings desolation, cosmic collisions with the earth, utter upheaval and destruction of man’s status quo.  Suffering, “pangs and sorrows…pain” fills the faces of mankind.  It is “cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it” (Isaiah 13: 1-10).

Many will stop here and claim that this prophecy written in 713 B.C. was fulfilled when the Babylonian Kingdom would fall many years later.  It was on one level, but the prophecy has a deeper, more far reaching force that takes those ominous words and thrusts them into our modern day scene.  These inspired words of Yahweh through the prophet Isaiah take on a universal worldwide scope when God warns in the very next breath: “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity…” (v. 11).

God goes cosmic in vision and scope while at the same time outlining the demise of  the ancient Babylonian Empire.

For the Babylon of old is a symbol of the one world system of false religion, government, and education.  The prophet Daniel in chapter 2 speaks of the Babylonian Empire as the head of gold of a much larger all-encompassing beast image.  All Bible scholars concede that the great image that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed was a glimpse into the future of four great world Gentile governments.  These would rule the earth in successive waves from c. 600 B.C. to our present day.

Nebuchadnezzar forgot the dream, much less the interpretation.  Contained in the dream was a secret from the Almighty.  “Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.  Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven” (v. 19).  Daniel proclaimed before the king that God “reveals the deep and secret things: He knows what is in the darkness…” (v. 22).  Daniel goes on to say that the wise men of Babylon cannot reveal the secret of the dream, “but there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days” (v. 28).

The God in heaven “reveals secrets.”  And what are these secrets?  The Spirit in Daniel says it another way in the very next breath.  Revealing secrets is the same as making known now what will happen in the future– “in the latter days,” the time of the end.  The time when the “day of the LORD (Yahweh)” comes.  The time when God “will punish the world for their evil.”  That is the time we are living in.

This passage in Daniel is profound and rich with meaning for us.  The religious wise men of ancient Babylon, of the world system of their day, could not reveal the secret to the king.  They prided themselves as fortune tellers and soothsayers predicting future events, but they could not really see into the future to our day.  They were “blind, leaders of the blind,” not knowing the extent of their parts in the false worship system.  The secret of what will happen in our latter day era was not revealed to them, for God withheld it from them.  They did not know that the secret of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is an astounding prophecy that takes us to the very latter days of end time happenings.

The dream, of course, was that of a “great image…whose brightness was excellent…and the form was terrible” (2: 31).  First, it was an image.  It was not the real deal.  The people were in awe of it, for it was bright and excellent.  It had a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, and legs of iron with feet of both iron and clay.  Then he saw a stone from heaven crash into the feet of the image and destroy it.  And the stone “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel by God’s Spirit interprets the image as four world empires, beginning with Babylon.  It is universally recognized that they are Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome.  The last kingdom that smashed them down is the kingdom of God, and “it shall stand forever” (v. 44).

Daniel told the king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar, “You are this head of gold.”  The head of any body contains the brain, the thoughts, which dictates the actions of that body.  The thoughts of the head resonate on down through the ensuing kingdoms.  The Babylonian religions were the Eastern Mystery Religions that would permeate the West, finally lodging securely in Rome [for much more see The Two Babylons by Hislop here: http://www.biblebelievers.com/babylon/ ].  These mystery religions flourished so much that they became the very source of papal catholic worship to this day.

This is why the apostle John saw in Revelation that the world religious system at the time of the end would be called an evil woman, “a great whore that sits upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication…”  And the woman sat on “a scarlet colored beast…and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Rev. 17: 5).  “An the woman which you saw is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth” (v. 18).  And that city is Rome.  And those teachings out of Rome have come down to modern man through the mother Catholic church and her protestant daughters.  I does say that Babylon the Great is the mother of harlots and abominations.

True Overcomers Will Continue Steadfastly in the Apostles Doctrine

There is a great awakening happening in the Christian world.  God is planting a hunger in some for the “greater works” that He promised His followers would do.  These brothers and sisters long for that same spiritual walk that the early apostles had.  But many are not following the steps laid out by those very early apostles, which serve as our example.

In other words, if we want the same spiritual experiences in our lives that they had, then we must follow the same steps that those apostles took.  We must know the same things, study the same things, speak the same words, and do the same things that they did.

Scripturally speaking, what did those early apostles study, speak about, know and do?  “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, and fellowship, and breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2: 42).  The foremost paramount thing that they did was that they stayed in the apostles doctrine.  They stuck exclusively with the teachings of the Apostle Christ.  And then they had fellowship.  If you don’t have the “apostles doctrine” you don’t have real fellowship because it is going to be the Word.  And then there was “breaking of bread.”  Yes, earthly bread, but more importantly, they shared these teachings, which is the bread of life, with each other.  And then they continued to pray, for their communication to God was a sweet savor to His nostrils, for it was in accordance with His true teachings.

But what is the doctrine of the early apostles?

What were the teachings that the early apostles continued steadfastly in?  How are we to know who the true teachers of God are?

Teachers of God will expound His way, while false prophets and false teachers will veer off into doctrines that seem like they are relevant to God’s plan, but they don’t line up with the doctrines that the apostles taught.  The true teachers are gifts to mankind from God (Ephesians 4: 11).  They are precious and very few in number.  If we seek, we will find one, and we will hold them dear.

But how can we tell the true from the false?  The true teachers will have a grasp of the apostles’ doctrine, which is the doctrine of Christ.  They will realize that “whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God” (2 John 1: 9).  So it is extremely  important to abide in Christ’s teachings.  But what is that doctrine?

The apostle Paul knew and followed it and reveals it to us in Hebrews 6: 1-2.  He is urging his readers to grow up into Christ and stop playing around with other teachings that do not yield the fruit of becoming like Christ.  “Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgement.”

There it is laid out for all of us to see.  In order to go on to perfection, which is the completed spiritual growth of “Christ in you,” we need to stop laying again the foundation of repentance of sin, faith toward God, the baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement.  These are the teachings that the early apostles continued in.  And these are the teachings that we all in our latter rain era must know and do thoroughly.

These teachings are what the early apostles talked about.  Take the teaching about baptisms.  That’s plural.  Many talk of their immersion in the Holy Spirit but have no idea about the “baptism into His death” (Romans 6: 3).  It is this baptism that opens up the other baptisms.  This is where the old self, your old Adamic nature dies with Christ on the cross in revelation, where you can truly walk in a newness of life as a “new creature” where all things are become new!  Why don’t we Christians talk about that?  Especially those who teach His word?  The early apostles did! [Read all of Romans 6]

And the doctrine of “the resurrection of the dead” comes into focus  for us and in us, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him” (Rom. 6: 5-6).  Here “faith toward God” and believing in the resurrection of Christ, lead to us believing that we too can live a life free from sin and sinning.  Here we see three of the apostles doctrines in action.  But these are the elementary principles, the foundation of the house of God, which is us His body.  And very few talk about these teachings.  Is it because no one is teaching them?

This is the “breaking of bread,” the sharing of the word and promises of God that the early apostles fellowshipped in.  If your fellowship is not discussing and sharing these teachings aforementioned, then something is missing.  And that something is the doctrine of Christ.

For not many are teaching Romans 6, and if it is read at all, it is not believed.  But the true teachers sent from God will teach it and believe it and will be solid in it, as a foundation built upon the rock.

They will know how to explain in detail how one repents, how faith works in us receiving a new heart.  In short, they will have true knowledge of the “principles of the doctrine of Christ” (Hebrews 6: 1-2).

Yet they will also know that one must leave those first principles in order to “go on unto perfection.” The Spirit that is within them will “lead us into all truth.”  They will know that it is Christ in them who actually is the real Teacher.

Many fellowships talk about wanting the same power as the early church in the book of The Acts of the Apostles.  They see the miracles and wonders performed and long for that same divine power to hold sway on the earth today.  They want, however, to circumvent the procedure used in those enlightened days right after Christ’s resurrection.  They want to accept Christ, be baptized, and then they want to set the world on fire with God’s power.  They think that visions and dreams replace the rock solid foundation of the apostles doctrine and teachings.

Before the miracles come from God, pre-requisites must be done. “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles” (Acts 2:42-43).  Here you see the progression of things: the doctrine, fellowship, breaking bread, prayers, fear of God, and then came the wonders and signs.

“We Don’t Want Doctrine–Just Jesus”

It was the apostles’ doctrine that the early converts stayed in.   They did those teachings.  For “doctrine” is translated from the Greek word didaskalia, which means “teaching; that which is taught.”  Beware of those who will say, “We don’t want doctrine, we just want Jesus/Yahshua!”  If they could only realize that the Savior Himself was referred to as a “Didaskalos,” meaning “Teacher, Master.”  The same root word!  People who say, “We don’t want doctrine” are really saying they do not want the real Christ and what He taught.

The true teachers of God will teach true repentance from sin in one’s life and how faith works to give us a new heart and new spirit that pleases God in not sinning against Him.  And this is just the first principles “of the doctrine of Christ” (Hebrews 6: 1-2).

This is not a new thing that I write about.  Read it for yourself in Martin Luther’s writings*; in the sermons of John Wesley (  http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/sermons/040.htm ), founder of the Methodist Church; from Andrew Murray, 19th Century Scottish Missionary and author ( http://www.victoryoversin.com/murray/like/lc24.htm ); or in my books which you can find at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”).

So, turn away from anyone who doesn’t teach the apostles’ doctrine, that says that you cannot be a righteous son or daughter of God.  Don’t believe them.  They will try to drag you down into the same spiritual slop that they are stuck in.  Find yourself a true teacher and study out the apostles’ doctrine, for those are the teachings of Christ.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

* “Sermon on Three-fold Righteousness” at  http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/3formsrt.html