Secrets of the Sabbath, Part Two

In Part One, we saw what man’s conception of the Sabbath is not. Reviewing, the sabbath commandment is not made for a righteous man (I Timothy 1: 8-9). This goes for the other nine commandments called the Law. [Much more on this in my latest book, The 11^th Commandment. Yours free. See end of article for ordering info.]

The sabbath is not a hoop to jump through to prove that we are righteous before God. Trying to keep the sabbath day holy is not the way for us to become righteous in God’s eyes.

Yet, an awakening Christian keeps on trying to keep the sabbath, always looking over their shoulder at the guilty conscience lurking close by, never knowing for sure if they have sinned or not. “Will it be a sin if I don’t go to the sabbath meeting?” many have wondered.

But God sees all; He sees the trepidations, but He is weary and tired of the lack of faith/belief. He sees those struggling in vain to obey the law that only His Spirit can keep.

He cries out to us through Isaiah: “Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.” Yahweh considers the sacrifices of “trying to keep the sabbath” of no profit. All the physical accoutrement that man uses in trying to keep the Law is an abomination in His sight (1:13-15).

As our High Priest, we thank Christ for obtaining for us a better covenant that has purged our “conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9: 9-14). No more recriminations, nor guilt, nor shame. No more guilty consciences, for He has wiped the slate clean. We are new spiritual creatures in Christ.

What the Sabbath Is

And with new clarity, we now see what the sabbath really is in God’s sight.

First, the sabbath, as we know it in this earthly dimension, is a shadow. This is mankind’s conception of the sabbath. It is not the reality. It is a physical metaphor for a spiritual reality. The sabbath day was instituted under the Old Covenant, which is a physical representation to lead us to the spiritual reality.

The sabbath is a shadow. It has never been the real deal.  Shadows are made from a lack of light.  Shadows are in the shape of things or people, but they are not the real thing; they are not a part of reality. Shadows merely imitate reality; they simulate what is real; they intimate that which is true; they suggest obscurely as to what or who made their image possible. But they are not the real thing.

The Spirit of truth tells us that the sabbath is a shadow. After believing our cross and resurrection experience with Christ, the Spirit says to us, “Let no man therefore judge you… in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come…” (Col. 2:11-17). They will judge you concerning the feasts of Yahweh and for using or not using the lunar calendar. And they will judge you for keeping or not keeping the seventh day sabbath (the way they would have you keep it). Pay them no mind. The sabbath is a shadow. [See more about this here: Feasts, New Moons, Sabbaths–Mere Shadows of Christ in Us | Immortality Road (wordpress.com)].

So, What Then is the Real Sabbath?

The real sabbath is Yahweh’s sabbath. “Sabbath” means “rest.” So, the true sabbath is Yahweh’s rest. We first see His rest in Genesis 2:1-3. “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.”

And He has promised us that we can enter into His sabbath rest, too. However, we must not do what the children of Israel did. They could not enter into His sabbath rest because of their unbelief. Christ appeared several times to them, led them, performed many miracles, and yet their hard heart of unbelief prevented them from joining God in His rest (Heb. 4:1-2).

We keep Yahweh’s Sabbath when we believe the gospel good news that Christ’s sacrifice has washed away our sins. Gone. And that only happens when our old self dies with Christ, is buried with Christ, and is resurrected with Christ (Romans 6:1-12). When we believe that, then “there remains therefore a rest [“a keeping of the sabbath,” a sabbatismos in the Greek] for the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:9-10).

Yahweh entered into His sabbath rest after completing His work. We enter into Yahweh’s “rest” when we “cease from our own works, as God did from His” (v. 10). We “cease from our own works” when we complete the cross, tomb, and resurrection experience IN OUR OWN HEARTS. That was our old sinful selves up there on that cross. Christ took our sin upon himself. And when He died, we died. “And he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom. 6:7).

Many professing Christians believe that Christ died, was buried, and was raised from the dead. But in order to be like Him, we have to do what He did. And that is to “present our bodies a living sacrifice.” We “are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:12).

We cease from our own works when it is “no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.” We must let it go and surrender to the cross experience. That is the key. And that is the message to both Non-Christians and Christians. The cross experience is where the old self ends and where Christ’s Spirit begins to reign in our hearts. Ceasing from the actions of self and then entering into the dimension of His rest and peace—this is walking with Christ. This is doing His will. This is holding His hand and walking through this corrupted earth. This is us crying to Him, asking Him to lead and guide us and speak through our vessels the Word of life. This is entering into His Sabbath Rest. This is one of His precious secrets. Embrace it. Never let it go.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[To further study this, I recommend my second book The Unveiling of the Sons of God, pp. 1-20. It is free with free shipping to all seekers of the truth. Ordering info below.]

[Ordering My Free Books in Paperback]

I am now able to send you a copy of my books absolutely free with free shipping.  Please specify which one.

Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality explores the deeper meaning of our Savior’s Hebrew name Yahshua, which means Yahweh is the Savior.

The Unveiling of the Sons of God explains how the whole creation is waiting and longing for the manifestation (the unveiling) of the sons of God for these latter days. Christ will be totally formed in His elect as they will have grown and matured spiritually into His likeness and power.

The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It explores God’s vision for us, to be kings with Christ and how He will use us to reproduce His nature of Love.

My latest books are The Apostles’ Doctrine and The 11^th Commandent. Their doctrine was Christ’s teachings. And the early church walked in those teachings. These books reveal just what they are and how to walk in them.

Send your request, specifying which one of my books you desire, to my email address:  wayneman5@hotmail.com 

Include your name and mailing address. For those outside the United States, or who may prefer a pdf copy of the last two books mentioned, please specify.  Also, you may read the first two books online at my website Immortality Road found here:   https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com

Free Copy of New Book “The Eleventh Commandment”

I am offering a free copy with free shipping of my latest book The Eleventh Commandment.

Just send your name, mailing address, and the name of the book to my Email: wayneman5@hotmail.com

It usually takes a week or so to get it to you.

Those living outside the U.S. will receive a pdf.

Let me know what you think of the book.

All the best.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Sabbath Rest in God’s Temple

We become the temple of God when the Spirit of God begins to dwell in us. Things happen, and after our initial conversion, we may not feel it sometimes. We might be going through a trial that tells our mind something that is against the truth of His word that said, You are the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit, Yah’s dwelling place.

Speaking of trials—they are for the purification of our faith. Peter says that these “fiery trials” burn out the dross of our faith, which he likens to gold. It operates in a cycle. Revelatory truth comes flooding over us, and we exult in the thrill of getting a little closer to God. But then the thrill is gone for a while. It is like low tide and high tide—ebb and flow. And then the fog lifts, and our hunger for truth returns, and we seek and then find more truth once again. We love the flow, but not the ebb.

Many young Christians are unaware that God’s plan uses this technique for our growth in Him. So, “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you…” It is not strange at all. We should rejoice because we are “partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” These sufferings are prerequisite for ruling with Him (I Pet. 4: 12; Rom. 8: 17).

The Mind of Christ

We are the body of Christ. Why? Because He said we are. Any thought or action or word that supersedes this reality—that we now are God’s house, that He is living inside of us—is against the truth. For it is His thought that places us in Him and Him in us, not our own imagination. Christ thought it and then said it, and His apostles wrote it down. It is His word; we just believed it. And that last four words—that is the faith that He is looking for in us.

Once we believe that our old sinful heart is crucified with Christ, and once we believe that we have “been raised to walk in a newness of life” with our risen Savior, then we are agreeing with God’s thought straight from His mind. I mean straight from the glorious brain of our Creator! Such power! Such glory! And He wants to place this creative power fully in us. But to receive fully we must believe fully. There is a growth in all this.

His thoughts do not change or deviate from the Logos (Word) which comprises the Mind of God. How does God see us? He sees us not as the pathetic selfish sinners we once were, but as His dwelling place.

Through belief, we surrender to Him and His plan. When we do this, we find refuge and enter into His rest. When we believe Him and begin to live for Him and His plan and not for our little plans, then we do enter into His rest because we have ceased from our own labors for ourselves.

This rest is our Sabbath rest. Just by believing Him and walking in the Spirit, we enter into rest and keep His Sabbath. Scurrying around, wondering if we are breaking the Sabbath is not entering into His rest. To many “law keepers,” the Sabbath is treated like a petulant old rich man who demands reverence of his every whim. That is not it, folks.

When we realize that the Sabbath was “made for man and not man for the Sabbath,” then we will rest from our own old-man-Adam-works. I pondered upon these passages in Hebrews 4 for many years, and now they are being revealed. The Sabbath day is part of the Law, and the “Law is not made for a righteous man.” Besides, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes” (Rom. 10: 4).

Entering into His Rest

As we believe His word, we do enter into His rest. And His rest is His confidence and belief that the plan contained in the Seed/Word/Logos has come, is coming, and shall come to pass just like He created the “incorruptible seed, the word of God” in the beginning.

He believes in us more than we believe in Him. Or rather, He believes in His plan working itself out in our lives–even though we don’t even understand it fully as of yet.

He knows that His thoughts, which are formed into words, “will not return unto Him void, but will accomplish” what He sent them to do. And believing this solidly, God now rests and waits with great patience on us to finally believe the same thing.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Christ Went “All in” and Magnified the Law to Set the High Standard

Christ is not a milk toast fence-straddler. He went “all in.” He laid it all on the line, “all” seeming to be the operative word. He said that all would be fulfilled in the law (Mt. 5: 18); that all our needs would be met if we seek His kingdom and righteousness first (6: 33). He healed all that were sick (8: 16). He preached the gospel of the kingdom in all the cities (9: 35). This is just to name a few.

In fact, the word “all” appears 105 times in the book of Matthew alone. “All” appears 5,621 times in the whole Bible (https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=all&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_75).

Christ pegs the needle as He commands us to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” As a newly reborn babe in Christ, one might respond with, “Yeah, right.” Yet the Spirit commands us to do some very difficult things like “pray always” and “pray without ceasing.”

Christ Magnifies the Law

Christ taught that to be like Him, we would have to do much more and go much deeper than just what is written on the surface of the letter of the law, the Ten Commandments. More is expected of us in order to be the manifested sons and daughters of the King. We are talking about being like the Father here, the Father in human form, as in “each seed bears its own kind.” We are born of the Spirit and have the Spirit now in our hearts. Much has been given to us; therefore, much is required of us. A grave responsibility has been attached to our walk with Christ. He expects us to go all in. And He shows us what He expects from us when we do that. His expectations for us are in the Sermon of the Mount (Matt. Chapters 5-7).

Christ magnified the law in that sermon and thereby created a standard of what a full grown Christian looks like. The Greek word translated “perfection” indicates completeness of the growth cycle or maturity. Several translations have it as “maturity.”

Christ was saying that it wasn’t enough to just not murder someone. That is what the law required. But even unregenerated sinners can do that. He put it like this: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, You shall not murder… But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” Anger is the spiritual root cause of murder. Christ was showing that the Father’s offspring will have a heart like His, a heart of love and not anger and hostility (5: 21-22).

Christ magnified the law when He spoke of worship. It is not enough to go to a house of worship every week, faithfully paying your tithes and offerings, if your brother has something against you. He said, “First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift at the altar.” Here Christ puts agape love for each other over formal church giving (5: 23-24).

It is not enough to not commit adultery. He continues, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” There it is. It is in the heart. God looks on the heart. It is all about the heart. Many people down through history have lived a life without committing the physical act of adultery. Some can do it in their own strength for whatever reason. He shows us that it takes the Spirit of God within us to not look on a woman and secretly desire her. We see again here how Christ magnifies the law as He digs down into the heart of the matter (5: 27-28).

Moreover, Christ tells us that it is not enough to love those who love you. He elucidates, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” And then Christ sums it all up with this command: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (5: 43-48). Grow to the point where you are spiritually mature like the Father who was in Christ and His apostles and who is now in you.

Christ Is Showing Us His Nature in Action

Christ in this sermon shows us what a fully matured Christian will look like and how they will act. In fact, He is showing us how we will be when the Father is fully formed in us. He is demonstrating how it will be when the Father has fulfilled His purpose in us. And what is His purpose? He is reproducing Himself in us. He is agape love, and He is giving us the standard of the ultimate growth in God.

The apostle Paul knew all about the Father’s purpose of multiplying and reproducing Love—Himself. He taught that we are to be “glorified together” with Christ; that we are waiting for the manifestation of the sons [and daughters] of God; that we are waiting for our redemption, which is our new spiritual immortal bodies—just like Christ’s; that “we know that all things work together for good…to them that are the called according to His purpose”; and that because of that purpose, we are “to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8: 17-33).

Setting a High Standard

Christ’s magnification of the law sets a high standard of spiritual conduct. It describes how we will be when the Spirit has grown up in us fully. This growth should be the desire of every Christian—to be like their example, to walk as He walked.

But this 100 fold growth will not come until we thoroughly know and do Christ’s teachings, which became the apostles’ doctrine. It is through His doctrine that we learn how to grow.

So we must study His teachings. I know; you thought you had finished school. So let me welcome you to the School of the Apostles and Prophets. It is only through prayerful study of His teachings that we may receive God’s approval—that He would consider us His friend and an able and valuable worker in His vineyard, and that we might not be ashamed, and that we would be spared the heartbreak of being rejected as an “unprofitable servant,” who was afraid and hid His Master’s talent in the earth… (II Tim. 2: 15; Matt. 25: 14-30).

The early prophets and apostles saw Christ’s vision and embraced it and studied it and taught it. And they wrote it down and left it for us to walk in, thereby fulfilling God’s  purpose for our day. We have a great responsibility and have much to learn. Studying the apostles’ doctrine is how we will get that knowledge. Those who go “all in” will study it all out and will come to this revelation: It is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me, “and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2: 20).

The first two teachings of the apostles’ doctrine are found in that quote.

How God Uses Evil to Perfect Us

Most Christians are painfully aware of the world system’s heavy thumb pinning them down with oppressive taxes, intrusive regulations, and the invisible chains of political correctness.

However, we as God’s children here on earth must understand how our Father has set up and ordered the operation of the world system. Code name for the world system: Mystery Babylon the Great.

The prophet Daniel, a captive in Babylon, is enlightened by God in a “night vision.” You know the story in chapter 2. King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and could not remember it, much less its interpretation. Daniel’s vision not only gave the dream and interpretation for the king of that era, but also instructs us about the world system in our day.

First, we learn from Yahweh’s prophet that He is sovereign, for “wisdom and might” are His, and His name is blessed forever. He “changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. He reveals the deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.” It is through this that God “has made known…the king’s matter” (2: 20-23).

That is some weighty knowledge right there. We need to stop a moment and meditate on this. Sometimes we are all like butterflies flitting from flower to flower, sampling knowledge like nectar. We are so busy in this Information Age that we rarely pause to savor the knowledge.

What did Daniel learn from the night vision? He learned that God is sovereign; He can do anything He wants with His creation and creatures. God puts some of His human beings on thrones, and He overthrows some of those kings that He has ordained to rule over others. God does that. God is the source of all wisdom and might, and He gives wisdom and knowledge to some. He reveals secrets and mysteries—even the mysteries of what is taking place right now in this present evil world. He reveals secrets about His government and how the world system, which is Satan’s kingdom, interacts with His kingdom.

Some readers recoiled at “Satan’s kingdom.” But those are not my words; they are Christ’s words. “If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?” (Luke 11: 18). Satan is the “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4: 4). Or could we say, “The king of this world system”? Satan is a little “k” king. And one of the things that we have just learned from Daniel is that Yahweh sets up kings, and He takes them down. Satan is one of the kings that our Father is taking down. But Satan is also one of the kings that God has set up.

The Revelation Contained in Daniel 2

The king’s dream and the interpretation thereof shows God setting up and removing Satan, the king of this world system. The dream’s interpretation shows “what shall be in the latter days” (Dan. 2: 28). “Thou, O king, saw and behold a great image” with a golden head, chest and arms of silver, with thighs of brass and iron legs. “Thou saw till that a stone was cut out without hands which smote the image…and the stone…became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” All of these body parts represent world empires that will all come down in the latter days. The stone kingdom is the Kingdom of God headed by the Stone that the builders rejected.

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (2: 44).

God is in the process of setting up His kingdom and will bring down the world system and establish Christ as King upon the throne of the Kingdom of God. This is what it is all about.

But Why Must We Have a Satanic World System?

Many Christians do not understand that God creates evil. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil…Isa. 45: 7. He has a purpose for the trials and tribulations that we endure in this life—globally, nationally and personally. So we are not to think that our trials and hardships are a strange thing that is happening to us (I Peter 4: 12).

All this is explained in the parable of the tares in the field. The tares are the children of the devil in the earth, and we are to let them grow up with the wheat, the children of God. At harvest time God will gather up the evil ones (Matt. 13: 24-30, 36-43). But in the meantime, we need to understand that evil is part of His plan. I know; it is a tough one. But God said that His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways [For more on this, read the following: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/parable-of-the-tares-in-the-field-exposing-the-rulers-of-the-darkness-of-this-world-part-i-conversations-with-the-seer/ This is in Chapter 35 of my new book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect available free with free shipping to those who send me your mailing address to wayneman5@hotmail.com ].

Knowing that God is using Satan and the evilness in the world to perfect His children is a gigantic piece of knowledge that will open up the scriptures to us.

We simply must understand how our Father has set up and ordered the world system’s operations. God is sovereign and controls the darkness and the light for His own purpose. And that purpose is to reproduce Himself. This is the theme of the new book mentioned above.

Many get angry with the world system. They get mad at the school board, the teachers, the mayor and city council, the police and sheriff, and even state and federal officials. The anger and frustration is vain and ill-conceived. For all of these offices are part of the world system which has been ordained by our Father.

Of course, the world government is not righteous; it is not the Kingdom of God. However, when we resist their authority over us—that God has ordained—we are resisting God. “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves” (Rom. 13: 1-2 NIV). Paul understood God’s sovereignty and that He was in complete control.

He urges us to pay our taxes and “owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law” (13: 8). Christ said that He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5: 17). He does that by sowing the seed of agape love into our hearts. And through His love in us, we no longer break the 10 Commandment Law (Rom. 13: 9-14).

Yet, some begin to despise the “powers that be,” and then it turns into the purple shroud of vengeance. And some young Christians become infected and are overcome in the spiritual struggle, not knowing how low they have fallen. And they have forgotten the admonition, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12: 21). It is this overcoming evil that develops His love and forgiveness in our hearts. As we grow in agape love within, then Christ’s Spirit grows and matures in us, “until Christ be formed in us.”

We are the sons and daughters of God. We are destined to be exactly like Him. Hence, our Master’s words: “Love your enemies” and pray for them. For when a Christian gets caught up in condemning another, he forgets the truer lesson here. He forgets that God is the supreme Power. It is God who allows rulers in the world system to rule over us—for now. God has given the various rulers of the world system power to create debt, and they dictate how much we own and at what interest rate.

On a personal level, it works the same. When we don’t forgive our wife, husband, children, relatives, friends and neighbors for slighting us, then they rule over our spirit. Until we forgive, they are our master. But when we forgive, agape love develops in us, and we are one step closer to being like Christ.

God wants us to be like Him. “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do,” Christ said. He spread love to his enemies as well as to His friends. He likened it to the Father raining down the life-giving showers of love upon the just and the unjust (Mt. 5: 43-48).

When we love and forgive all, we are fulfilling the Law by loving our neighbor as our selves. When we walk in this love, we awake out of a spiritual sleep. Paul likens this to throwing off the works of darkness” and putting on “the armor of light” (Rom. 13: 12). Flowing agape love to others becomes a shield that protects us from the arrows of deception hurled at us by the “god of this world.” However, the devil is not to be feared; he is just doing his sinister job. He has but a short time left. I think the devil still doesn’t know that he is helping us “go on unto perfection” (Heb. 6: 1).            Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Beware of a Spiritual Cancer in the Body of Christ

A cancer is growing in the body of Christ, the church. It is a heresy that is spreading throughout the land. Many are being bewitched by a rather “righteous and holy” appearing doctrine. It is a false doctrine that seems true to the uninitiated and unlearned. It is the very same doctrine that was running wild throughout the era of the early church during the first and second century A.D.

This doctrine deceives people into thinking that by their own might and will they can keep the Ten Commandment Law–that by working to keep the law, they can be righteous in the Savior’s eyes. In fact, they are led to believe that by keeping the law, they will be justified by God; God will see that they are righteousness.

Someone will say, What’s wrong with that? Why are you putting them down? Keeping the Commandments is a good thing, isn’t it? Yes, the law is holy and good; it is the perfect law of liberty. The catch is that the old carnal nature cannot successfully keep it on its own strength. Only through the Spirit of God dwelling in us can we keep the law.

Paul writes about such matters. And because the apostle’s writings are diametrically opposed to this cancerous doctrine of trying-to-keep-the-law-on-our-own-strength-and-not-by-His-Spirit-dwelling-within, some people are rejecting Paul’s teachings! I have heard people say that Paul is in error! They reason that he could not be correct because he does not agree with their interpretation of scripture.

Well, God has news for them. Paul has a direct revelation from God, and the world would do well to take heed to what the Spirit through Paul is saying.

If You Throw Out Paul, You Must Throw Out the Rest of the NT Writings

If you get rid of his letters to us, then you will have to finally reject the rest of the New Testament. Peter will be the next one that the cancer consumes, for Peter believed that Paul was a prophet and an apostle of God (II Peter 3: 14-15). Peter said that Paul was a beloved brother, had wisdom from God, and that Paul was writing things that agreed with Peter’s thoughts. Peter did say that Paul wrote things that were hard to understand for the “unlearned and unstable,” who wrestle with his writings, “as they do the other scriptures.” Peter considered Paul’s writings of the same caliber and quality as the other inspired writings of the prophets and patriarchs.

Consequently, if you throw out Peter, you will eventually have to throw out James and John and Matthew and the other original disciples because they were all “in one mind and one accord” on the day of Pentecost in the upper room. They all saw eye to eye spiritually. And they all received the same immersion in the Holy Spirit and fire (Acts 2: 1-4).

The exploits of the early church are set forth in Luke’s book of the Acts of the Apostles. Luke, who had “perfect understanding of all things from the very first” (Luke 1: 3), vindicates Paul’s ministry, devoting 2/3 of Acts to it.

So let’s take an inventory. Those who throw out Paul must throw out also the gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, James, the letters of Peter, John, Jude, and Revelation. Not much left of the Savior’s first coming and of His death, burial, and resurrection. All that is left is a looking forward to a first coming of the Messiah. This cancerous doctrine will leave you hopelessly  wandering to the nearest synagogue in search of others who are hopelessly trying to keep the 10 Commandments on their own strength.

This cancer is devouring the faith of many who have discovered the Sacred Names of Yahweh and Yahshua. Since they are names in the Hebrew tongue, the unlearned think that all things Hebrew is the answer, including getting into the Law of the Old Testament. The cancerous teaching is called “the works of the law” being our way to be justified, as if we could keep them in our own strength. The law leads us to Christ and His Spirit. After receiving His Spirit, His Spirit keeps the commandments by faith in the Christ of the New Testament.

As you explore the beauty of the sacred names of the Father and Son, beware of this cancer that is a “cunningly devised fable” that would deceive the very elect if it were possible. Oh, by the way, Paul and Peter warned us of it.                    Kenneth Wayne Hancock