From: Lee
To: Victor Hafichuk and Paul Cohen
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2016 5:13 PM
Subject: The Path of Truth – feedback
Dear Mr Hafichuk/Cohen,
My name is Lee. I am a son of God, born of the Holy Spirit. (I might have called myself a ‘Christian’ but that would have very little meaning since there seem to be a lot of them around.)
Today I came across your website for the first time, and found it interesting. I have now read/scanned a large number of your articles. I wanted to share a few thoughts, and let me say straight off that I do not want or need a reply.
Firstly, it must be said that we seem to have much in common. Like you, I denounce ‘church religion’, pagan festivals, Sunday Christianity, ‘once saved always saved’, ‘eternal torment’, Calvinism, and so on.
We also seem to share the view that most of the so-called ‘church’ is false, and I was glad to read many of the names and ministries you rightly reject.
For example, you denounce the GotQuestions website. I had once thought they were a sound ministry, but a few years ago, I wrote to them asking a question and received an answer from a woman who presumed to teach me! I was quite startled. After asking further questions, it transpired that many of their articles are in fact written by women (and only checked by men)! I warned them that not only they were directly disobeying the Lord, but by allowing women to teach their ministry would inevitably fall foul of Satan’s deceptions. But they didn’t seem to care. So I stopped reading their articles.
But it seems to me that GotQuestions are typical ‘church’ type religious Christians. I have found that the vast majority of professing Christians are like this, and not truly born again. They just like their special buildings, and poetry and singing. (None of which has anything to do with the Holy Spirit or the Kingdom of God.)
So I wanted to begin with a positive: that I am in agreement with a great many of your views and commend you on this.
However, that cannot be said for everything you teach. I encountered many teachings which I cannot agree with I’m afraid. I will not list them here, because I have absolutely no intention of debating them with you. Arguments with strangers over doctrine are of no interest to me!
I will gladly debate doctrinal issues with my brothers–those I know are truly children of God. Such debate is edifying, being done in a spirit of brotherly love. But when it comes to strangers, I tend to assume that most are not my brothers, and I would be wasting my time debating with them. And indeed, in the end, most ‘Christians’ usually turn out to be carnal, and end up speaking to me disrespectfully, sarcastically, unlovingly, etc, in accordance with the flesh. I cannot tolerate fleshly conversation with people. I have been saved out of the world.
But the main reason I do not intend to debate doctrines with you is that focusing on peripheral doctrines would be to focus on the wrong thing. I’m sure you would agree that sinners are not saved by holding correct doctrines or correct opinions about Jesus: Sinners are in fact saved by hearing and obeying the true Gospel of Jesus.
Hence, the real problem is false gospels, which lead to false conversions, which lead to bad doctrine. The root cause is the false gospels (which is why Paul pronounced a curse upon those who preach them).
Now, as I say, I have absolutely no wish to engage in debate with you: it is most likely your views will not change based on anything I could ever say. However, there are two particular issues on which I must share my views, for your consideration. These are two very critical key issues on which I feel could (possibly) be the root cause of your other problems. Because, candidly, I feel something is a little amiss, though I do not know quite what.
However, again I emphasize that I have no desire to argue over this. I have already read your own explanations, and I know that you will disagree. I write this purely so that you can hear my perspectives and either dismiss them or take them on board. That is your choice.
1. Receiving The Spirit VS Being Born Again
First I want to say that receiving the Holy Spirit is *not* the same thing as being born again. Obviously, one cannot be born of the Spirit until one has first received the spirit, and there are a many cases of the whole process happening in rapid succession. However, it is simply not logical to say that receiving the Holy Spirit *is* new birth. It is not logical to say that as soon as the Spirit arrives He will instantly give birth to new life that very moment.
In my case, I received the Holy Spirit *seven years* before I was born again. It all began when the Lord Jesus spoke to me in a most profound vision, and called me to follow Him. (I am from a Jewish/agnostic family and had never been to church.)
And so I had “come to faith” and started reading the Bible. And because I truly believed, I began doing what Jesus said–including being baptized in water, and praying to receive the Holy Spirit, just like everyone did in Acts–our guidebook to Christian activity and conversion (eg Acts 8:36, 10:47, 19:2, Noah, Moses). And then following this I *did* receive the Spirit. (It should be noted that none of this had anything to do with “church”, I did this all on my own with my Bible.)
But for me, receiving the Spirit was the *beginning* of my journey. I cannot deny that when the Spirit first came into my life, my life started to change, I received spiritual blessings, and my heart was turned more towards God. I found myself gravitating towards Him and turning from sins in my life.
However–what *was* I at this point? Was I a New Creation? A holy and righteous man, born of God? Or was I still just a human being full of dark desires and carnality? I was *absolutely* still just a human being, not a spiritual man. Possessing the gift of the Spirit did not make me any less of a child of Satan, or a son of Adam. I had begun to reform my life in a superficial way, but inwardly I was still 100% carnal.
Well seven years later, the Lord brought me to true repentance. He brought the fear of God upon me, and showed me that inwardly I was a wicked man, and I had gone astray, and I deserved to die. And that was when I truly renounced my life, put my flesh to death, gave everything I had over to Jesus, humbled myself, and tearfully sought after the Kingdom with every breath I had.
And following *this* I was born again–long after receiving the Spirit.
I just wanted to make that point, because in my humble opinion, simply receiving the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts does not mean a person has become a new creation and has entered the Kingdom. In my case, I had not. When I was born again, my whole existence changed radically. I could see spiritual truths for the first time. Everything about me changed. My old nature had gone and I had a brand new nature installed. It was a shock because Christians had never spoken about that kind of thing happening!
Spiritual gifts are *not* evidence of new life, they are only evidence of the Spirit’s presence. (Not to mention that there are also false spirits and counterfeit ‘gifts’.) So we ought to be careful before concluding we have been truly born again based on superficial measures. Contrary to popular Christian view, being born again is a most profound transformation!
2. The Inerrancy of Scripture
First, let me say I am not a King James Onlyist!
I do happen to believe that the Lord is in charge of the history of His Bible, and His divine hand was firmly upon both the Latin Vulgate and the English King James Bible (as evidenced by their longevity and wide distribution). I believe that the KJV is not only a good Bible, but a totally trustworthy Bible, moreso than modern Bibles, which are based on flawed Greek manuscripts.
But saying all this, I don’t think the KJV is a ‘perfect’ translation down to the last word, and I have quite a few criticisms of it (though they are minor–nothing in the KJV is dangerous).
I have many disagreements with the “Onlyists”, and I believe they are worshipping a book rather than the One who wrote it, because frankly that’s all they have. They tend to be from a Reform background (which is heresy). I believe that with the KJV, the Lord gave the English speaking world a trustworthy Bible in *spite* of the spiritual climate in which it was written, and in *spite* of the views of many of its authors. (Similarly, no one would argue that the authors of the Old Testament were perfectly righteous men, yet the Lord gave us holy Scripture through them in *spite* of their shortcomings. He is perfectly able to do that!)
Well anyway, the main point I want to make here is that I believe you are making a *gigantic* mistake in regarding the Bible as fallible, and as containing Satanic deception (eg your skepticism of Luke 16), and as not regarding it as our final authority.
Off-topic, but I wholeheartedly believe what the Lord Jesus said about the Rich man and Lazarus, though it has nothing to do with ‘eternal torment’–since those men were both *dead souls* in the mysterious place known as Sheol, which seems to be a kind of waiting room for dead souls. In contrast, the Lake of Fire is a 100% *physical* place where *living* men are *bodily* thrown (to be permanently destroyed).
Now going back to the inerrancy of Scripture: sure, there are some apparent contradictions in Scripture, but these are only apparent. Most can be explained logically (often by accepting that both are true and piecing the facts together), while other contradictions are evidently based on minor scribal errors which appear in some manuscripts but not all. And then other contradictions are deliberately written by the Lord to confound the wise! (These are spiritual truths which carnal men do not understand.)
Let me emphasize that I am not a book-worshiper! The Bible is *not* my primary way of knowing about God! The Lord knows me and I know Him, through His *Spirit*. My knowledge of spiritual things, and His righteousness, comes from my own heart, wherein the Lord has created new life, re-making me in His image and filling me with His laws and His truth. The Lord speaks to me in many ways, including signs, visions, dreams, and other ways. I am *not* a book-worshiper! I have heard of men being saved who cannot read, and the Lord has given them everything they needed!
But sincerely, I say that for those of us whom the Lord has graciously given the gift of the Bible, it is extremely dangerous when we fail to use this gift. Our prophecies *must* be tested against Scripture, and when Scripture is not our final authority, that leads to serious problems. One can go down the route of accepting all possible visions without discrimination, and, when not checked against the Scripture, they can escalate and snowball, leading to something very disastrous, possibly even demonic. (I am not accusing you of this, but I am warning you sincerely of the possibility.)
I perfectly understand your theory: You reason that since everything else on earth has been corrupted by Satan, why not the Bible?
But the Word of God is something absolutely holy and unique. There is nothing else on earth like it, as the Scriptures attest! We know that Satan cannot touch something unless the Lord permits it. Every despicable act of corruption ever carried out by Satan has been *allowed* by God. We know this. But God does *not* allow His Word to be corrupted. It is not logical that the Lord would create a book whose purpose was to uphold and proclaim the Truth to man–and yet deliberately allow this same book to be filled with Satanic corruptions.
When the Lord Jesus came to earth, was it part of His mission to correct all the errors in the Bible which Satan had changed? No. Jesus implicitly trusted the Bible 100%, quoting it constantly and relying on it as absolute Truth.
And what about 2 Tim 3:16 which says that *all Scripture* is given by inspiration of God? If this is not true, then Satan must have written this verse? If this precious and godly verse was written by Satan, we may as well forget about the Bible. What can be trusted? Who is to say?
Well, I am to say! Since some years ago I had a prophecy from the Lord telling me that the Bible is inerrant and that the Lord is in complete control over every little detail of it. This prophecy also confirmed that the Bible is 66 books, no more and no fewer.
Therefore I *urge* you to reconsider your stance on Biblical inerrancy.
Regarding the Apocrypha, it must be noted that while Bibles have historically included the Apocryphal books, they were only included for additional extra-scriptural reference, and have never been widely regarded as Holy Scripture. This is certainly true of the King James Bible and the Reformation, which included them.
It must also be noted that since Darwinism, the Lord seems to have proclaimed a judgement upon the Western world (and church). We see that on a large scale, the Lord has turned away from the West, and give it over to corruption, homosexuality, etc. And I believe a part of that judgement is modern English Bibles, which, to varying degrees, are so badly translated to the extent of being dangerous and false, allowing for much more error to creep into modern churches. But this period we are now in is not typical of God’s overall perfect preservation and delivery of His Word to the masses, and it seems to me that the true brothers, led by the Spirit, always find faithful Bible translations.
Well thank you for listening to what I had to say.
Again, I do not particularly want a reply as I am not looking to debate these issues, I am merely putting my views across (once). If you remain in disagreement, it would be a waste of your own time to try to debate further. I have already read your views and only intend to speak once about this. When I was of the flesh, I used to enjoy arguments over trivial things, but that has all been put to death. Now I speak the truth as I see it and move on, knowing that the vast majority of ‘Christians’ I speak to are never going to agree (either with my views or my spirit) because they do not have a love of the Truth.
This is why I am rejected everywhere I go, especially by Christians.
I wish you all the best,
Sincerely,
Lee
From: Paul Cohen and Victor Hafichuk
To: Lee
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2016 8:04 AM
Subject: Re: The Path of Truth – feedback
“Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him”
(Proverbs 26:12 MKJV).
Gotquestions didn’t fall, Lee. They started out in man’s religion and ways and have maintained course. But you didn’t detect this because you judge all things after the flesh, and not after the Spirit. You’re in a worse place than they are, thinking to know so much and suffer persecution because of your faith. That’s not true at all. You’re rejected by men because you’re an insufferable know-it-all, who says by his ways and attitude, “Keep to yourself! Do not come near me, for I am holier than you! These are a smoke in My nose [says the LORD], a fire burning all the day” (Isaiah 65:5 LITV).
God protect and keep us from your attitude and ways. We don’t know of anything more obnoxious to Him.
Paul Cohen and Victor Hafichuk
From: Lee
To: Paul Cohen
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 6:02 PM
Subject: RE: The Path of Truth – feedback
Gosh!
I spoke to you with love and gentleness and all the fruit of the Spirit, and yet you have responded with nothing but contempt and wicked insults. How sad. The Lord Jesus never insulted anyone, nor did the apostles, nor can I. Such things are not in the nature of the Holy Spirit. The idea of God’s children walking by the flesh is unthinkable. Having been made holy, we cannot stand to be in the presence of sin, and yearn for the day when we will be saved from this evil world.
Should you not be concerned by the fact that you are able to speak according to the flesh? Didn’t the Lord Jesus say that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit? And didn’t Paul say that those who walk by the flesh will not inherit the Kingdom of God? And didn’t John say that whoever is truly born of God cannot sin?
Your response has served as a sad and stark warning to me. Sadly, I did discern the spirit of your website (which is why I asked for you not to reply). I should have left you be, instead of trying to offer help. But I am taken aback at the ferociousness and venom of your reply.
Lee
From: Victor and Paul
To: Lee
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2016 7:20 AM
Subject: Re[3]: The Path of Truth – feedback
You are an evil creature, Lee, a serpent steeped in self-righteousness, fruit of your father the Devil. You are a liar. We hold up a mirror to you and you look at your image and mistake it for us.
The truth is what is so unpleasant to you because, as we have said, you think to know much when you know nothing. There is no fear of God in you. You despise Him; in all your deceitful words you essentially say, “There is no God.”
The viper accuses us of “wicked insults, ferociousness and venom”? He is “taken aback”?
“With the faithful You will show Yourself faithful; with the upright man You will show Yourself upright. With the pure You will show Yourself pure; and with the perverted You will appear perverse” (2 Samuel 22:26-27 MKJV).
Victor and Paul
From: Lee
To: Paul Cohen
Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2016 5:58 AM
Subject: RE: Re[3]: The Path of Truth – feedback
I’m sorry but I did not read your email past the first sentence. I cannot possibly ever imagine the Holy Spiri beginning an email with the words: “You are an evil creature”. If the Kingdom of God were full of such spirits, I would rather die than be amongst them. I follow after love and holiness and purity and meekness, which the Lord Jesus gave as an example. Even in the Lord’s most scathing letters to the churches, He spoke no evil; only sincere words of warning and rebuke.
The reason I asked you not to reply to me was because I discerned your spirit (in accordance with 1 John 4:1). I could have brought many accusations against your ministry but instead, out of love, I tried to be helpful and to focus primarily on what we had in common, and on encouraging you, and also to humbly draw your attention to what I felt were important doctrinal truths. I did not say even a single word about you that was negative, and I have done nothing wrong at all, because I walk in love and humility and good conscience, as do all the children of God.
I wholeheartedly believe that Satan is using you as an instrument to accuse and attack the Sheep, but I only say that as a warning for your sake. I would rather it not be true. That is why I focused on doctrine in my first email, because I felt something was wrong, and I cared about you. I sincerely do not see how any man can be saved if he has not obeyed Jesus and been baptised in water. But he must also execute his flesh, meaning a complete end to carnality and pride. Carnality is what Jesus saved me from. Everything that is evil must be done away with, and will one day be done away with.
From: Paul and Victor
To: Lee
Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2016 7:33 AM
Subject: Re[5]: The Path of Truth – feedback
You have your wish, Lee. You’re dead in self-righteousness.
Paul & Victor