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My mother pointed to that beautiful scene and said (in Ukrainian), “Look son, that’s Heaven over there. God, the angels and the saints are all singing and rejoicing!” That event was quite stirring to me. I knew I wanted to be there, and I don’t know if my mother told me I would have to die (in physical terms) to go to Heaven, or I instinctively knew I would have to do so to get there, but I knew I had to die. I knew I would have to lose or let go of everything in this world to have that immense privilege of being with God. It was a bittersweet experience, thrilling, yet deeply sad. Unknown to me, I would come to know the reality of it while living in this life.
“God, if You are willing to show Yourself, please, please do.”
The next time I recall having an “encounter” with God was when I was about 11 or 12. One thing after another was going wrong. I was exasperated. One day I was splitting wood under a tree and as I brought down the axe, I pulled a branch with it down onto my head, which shocked me. It seemed as though the heavens were falling in on me. I cried out to God in desperation, fearful and broken. From then on, a peace came and there were no more such incidents for a while.
When I was nearly 25, I had a skiing “accident.” I was off work for three and a half months and in physiotherapy for much longer. During that time, a search began within me for more meaning to life. Questions arose, such as, “Who am I? Why am I here? Is there a God? Will He talk to me? What does He want from me?” I began to seek out various causes, philosophies, religions, and I began to read the Bible.
By a peculiar set of circumstances, I was hired by another company and sent to a city hundreds of miles away from where I was living. I was separated from family, friends, and familiar surroundings. It was a quiet job, with plenty of time to think, meditate, read the Bible, and search after God.
During that period in 1972, I began to pray, crying out to God saying, “God, if You are there, if I can talk to You, if You are willing to show Yourself, please, please do.” Night after night, I would kneel by my bed and cry out to God in quiet desperation. That emptiness within and dissatisfaction for the things of this world were growing more intense until I felt that unless God answered, I had no reason to go on living.
That year of 1972, I decided to fast for three days and three nights, without food or water. It was around that time that I had a dream of the Lord Jesus Christ, something I knew by the term, “Second Coming.” I saw His face. It was a face like no other…perfect in beauty, love, power, wisdom, knowledge, and peace. His face was plainly, distinctly Jewish, yet it was universal. A man walked with Him on His left, and that man’s face too was distinctly Jewish, though not universal. He was full of reverence, thankfulness and joy, all because of the One with Whom he walked, and Whom he worshiped. Both the Lord Jesus and the man with Him had neat beards, short hair, and royal or priestly apparel.
As I witnessed these two persons, I was condemned, not by the Lord or that man with Him, but by my own corruption and religious doctrine. As a Catholic, I was taught that if I died with a mortal sin on my soul, I would go to Hell and burn with horrible pain forever and ever, or, if the Lord came and I was in mortal sin, I would suffer the same consequence. The Lord was acknowledging very few people as He came by the whole world, which stood very still, watching and wondering. He did not acknowledge me, and I knew He could not. I feared I was rejected and damned for all eternity. When I woke up, my clothing was wet with perspiration.
I began to believe Jesus Christ was the Answer for me and all mankind.
Greatly troubled, and not knowing what to do, a week or two later I had a second dream from God, in which I was informed that I needed spiritual food. I set out to try to change my life, to rid myself of my sins, to make myself pleasing and acceptable to the Lord. I soon began to realize the impossibility of such an undertaking on my part. I despaired and nearly quit trying altogether, when I had a third dream which was an encouragement to go on. Symbolically, the dream told me I was almost “there.”
(To read about these three dreams in greater detail, click on this link.)
Some time later, the Lord sent an elderly man, George Lynn, to testify to me, and to teach me from the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments. He was quite knowledgeable in the Bible. For some days, learning that I was Catholic, he was trying to tell me of how corrupt the Roman Catholic Church was. He related some of the gross and indecent sins prevalent in her. However, all he succeeded in doing was to make me angry.
Given wisdom by God, he steered away from criticizing my church and, instead, delved into Scripture, and spoke of the Lord and His love and sacrifice for me, and how I needed to receive and submit to Jesus Christ as Lord of my life. He made it clear that there was nothing I could do to save myself, that I needed the Almighty and Only Savior to do the job. He shared hundreds of Scripture verses with me, several hours each day. I particularly recall many verses from the epistles of the apostle Paul, such as:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV).
And: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 KJV).
And: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23 KJV).
To encourage me to believe the veracity and authority of Scripture, George shared with me (along with other passages) the words that the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy saying:
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV).
I had a joy I had never known, peace, fulfilment, direction, and purpose.
There were many verses, but the ones that stand out to me the most, and seemed to be the clinchers for me, were:
“But what says it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, Whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed” (Romans 10:8-11 KJV).
After seven evenings, each with several hours of instruction, I began to believe that Jesus Christ was the Answer for me and all mankind. I knew I was not right with God, was not able to make myself right with Him, but wanted so much to be right with Him, and here was George telling me exactly how it was possible, and the only way possible.
Somewhat bashfully, I got down on my knees and George with me. I was surprised that I did not know how to pray. What should I say? Then George counseled me to speak simply and honestly to God as one I respected but with whom I could express myself without formality. I confessed myself a helpless sinner and asked the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive me for my sins and to take over my life, which I confessed I could not manage or change on my own. (He knew I had tried to change, and failed miserably.) I did not feel, hear or see anything special or unusual. A little disappointed, yet somehow at peace, I went home.
In the days to follow, changes occurred in me over which I had no control and for which I could take no credit whatsoever. The vices and bad habits I had tried and failed to overcome were removed from me. I found myself with new desires, a joy I had never known, peace, fulfilment, direction, and purpose. I had life for the first time. The Bible became a new Book to me. I had read it once through before this momentous occasion in my life and understood nothing. Now I was full of interest in, and enthusiasm for, its contents. This Book was alive and infinite in meaning. God was real!
“You know what, Victor?” my sister declared, “I don’t like the ‘new you.’”
Let me be quite candid here, so that you may appreciate what kind of change occurred in my life at that time. As a Catholic, I had been an altar boy, president of the youth club and soloist in the choir. I went to catechism, confirmation, confession, communion, and even attended a minor seminary for one year. I did it all. At the same time, I was a great fool, liar, thief, cheat, fraud, pervert, coward, traitor, hypocrite, fornicator, adulterer, masturbator, blasphemer, idolater, drunk, glutton, smoker, and more.
I constantly went to confession, and continually sinned. I did not do so cynically, but with guilt, helplessness, frustration, and fear. I was smiles, jokes and laughs on the outside, but troubled within. For example, since puberty, I had masturbated, and when the time came that I earnestly tried to quit, I found myself a slave to it, unable to stop. I now perceive the great harm that it did, but I wonder if those who taught me, who have never come to know Jesus Christ and salvation, can tell what it did to them.
While I have confessed some things, there are sins I do not dare confess because they are so despicable that I do not want to foul minds with the thought of them. I would be committing another sin by divulging those. I only want to say to all that there can be hope, no matter how vile your sins. I have learned that we are all capable of the worst, every last one of us. There was hope and salvation for me. After all, Jesus paid the price for every sin.
When the Lord delivered me of my sins, and took over my life, turning it right side up, there came a division between me and my family, friends and associates. The Catholic parish priest and all Catholics condemned what had happened to me. My family went black. My sister threw me out of her house, and they all shunned me.
While a Catholic, I was all those things I mentioned above, several of which were known to many, yet nobody in the family or the Catholic Church had a problem with me. Truly, I was one of them, but the moment I confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, and was delivered of those vile sins, vices and habits, I was shunned by my family and condemned as an ignorant dupe of some “Bible students.”
My sister kicked me out, because I had tried to reach those I loved, telling them I had found life. I so desired to share with them that which I found. I was surprised that they found a problem with my deliverance. “You know what, Victor?” my sister declared, “I don’t like the ‘new you.'” I lost all that I had, but quite willing to have it so for that fulfillment in the Lord Who consumed me.
I began telling people that I needed to go back to the Catholic Church.
As long as I was Catholic, my sins were not an issue, but when my sins were cleaned up, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, outside of the Catholic influence, suddenly I was as a leper to them. Why weren’t they thankful?
A few months after having experienced repentance and deliverance from my sins, I was reading a book by a John O’Brien, I believe, called “The Faith of Millions.” This book was a defense of the Catholic Church and its doctrines. I was moved by it, and intellectually persuaded that indeed, the Roman Catholic Church was the one, true church, and her doctrines true and legitimate. I began telling the people of the Alliance Church where I was attending that I needed to go back to the Catholic Church. They were quite disturbed by the prospect.
During those days, just before I was going to go forward one Sunday in church and announce that I was returning to “my church,” I was struck ill. My landlord and his wife found me uncustomarily at home, in bed, in my basement suite, feverish and bringing up green bile. They took me to the hospital, late at night, having contacted my young medical doctor who met us there.
My doctor, Lorne Rabuka, did not know what was wrong, but there was an older doctor who happened to be walking by, and saw me on the gurney. He came over, gave me a press in the lower abdomen that nearly sent me through the ceiling, and said, “I think you will find that he has acute appendicitis. We need to get him into the operating room immediately.” This was around midnight. By two o’clock in the morning, they were operating. I was told later that I was a matter of a few hours, if not minutes, from dying of a burst appendix.
Now I was off work, in the hospital and later convalescing at home for a few days. I did not have the Alliance pastor visit me at the hospital. Instead, I had the Catholic priest do so, which disturbed my Alliance friends, but they did not argue or criticize. All they did was pray, though I did not know of their prayers till later. I had many questions to ask of the Catholic priest, but I found his knowledge of the Bible quite limited, and his opinions of the Bible not credible, though I found him to be amiable, unobtrusive, and yet persuasive.
By the time I reached the book of Hebrews, I was stunned.
George Lynn also happened to be back in town that week. He visited with me for a few hours and we argued about Catholic doctrines. He had been upset while I was not, and with my intellectual arguments for Catholic doctrine, which I learned from “The Faith of Millions,” he was stumped. I was not angry with him this time, and, at the end of our visit, I asked that we pray together. He consented, and later confessed that he had been humbled in that he was not the one to have suggested we pray. He went away, crestfallen, knowing I was happy and determined to go back to the Catholic Church, fully persuaded of its authenticity and authority.
However, all was not done yet. Until I had gotten ill, I had been reading through the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, a few chapters each day, and at this point I was beginning the epistle of Paul to the Romans. In that week, having plenty of uninterrupted time, which was quite unusual for me, I red all of Paul’s epistles in one “sitting,” so to speak.
By the time I reached the book of Hebrews, I was stunned. God had opened my eyes; He had reached me to the heart. He unveiled to me the truth of that which Paul was preaching. Though I had been persuaded otherwise by intellectual argument, I realized that what Paul was teaching was the very opposite of what the Catholic Church was teaching and practicing. The contrast was so stark to me. It was as though a bright and holy light shone onto the pages of Scripture and into my heart.
Truly, I could say without exaggeration that the difference between what the Catholic Church was practicing and teaching, and what the apostle Paul was teaching in his epistles, was as black and white. I knew that the Catholic Church and the Bible were diametrically opposed to each other in both letter and spirit. God had been merciful to me in my delusion and affliction. Paul had not laid down his life in vain nearly two thousand years ago, at least, not in my case. I was delivered of the power of deceptive doctrine and religion by his ministry in the Lord. As it is written:
“Concerning the works of men, by the Words of Your lips, I am kept from the paths of the destroyer” (Psalms 17:4 MKJV).
Experiencing the great deliverance and excitement after a lifetime of death, and attributing this change to the knowledge of God and of the Scriptures, I decided to go to Bible school. I thought that if the Bible could make such a difference in my life, I wanted to know it as much as possible. I finally decided upon a fledgling Southern Baptist Bible school, called the “Christian Training Center,” in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, ninety miles away from Prince Albert, the city of my spiritual conversion. It was operated by Henry Blackaby and associate pastors.
They seemed to be quite satisfied, confident that they had the truth.
I had other reasons for going to Bible school. I wanted to share this new life with others with the help of the Scriptures. Mistakenly, I thought that a Bible school was the place to go to accomplish that. A third reason that seemed to propel me in that direction was that I was continually hearing a still, small voice indicating to me that I was not “there” yet.
Though I could not deny the wonderful change that had taken place in me, I still felt like I was falling short of God’s will. Whenever I would confide this dilemma to the pastors and other evangelicals, they would advise me that it was Satan trying to cause me to doubt my salvation. Nevertheless, I could not shake that voice.
To my chagrin, I came to realize that in this Bible school, I studied church history, homiletics (the art of preaching), Sunday School, church administration, choir directing, evangelism, denominational history, Greek, but very little of the Bible. Nevertheless, during that time, God was dealing with me. I came into conflict on some issues in the church, because I was finding a discrepancy between what they were practicing and teaching, and what I was finding in the Scriptures.
I also recall having another painful dilemma. I would walk into the tiny library, with no more than maybe two thousand books at best. One of those was “Strong’s Systematic Theology,” a large, thick book in fine print, filled with doctrine and discourse. I thought, “How in the world will I ever have enough time to wade through this one book alone, much less all these other books, and much less all the theological books in this world? Do I not need to search all things out to conclude what is right and true? Is Calvin right? Is Luther right? Are any of these men right in all that they teach? If so, which man or men? Where shall I go? Whom can I truly trust?”
This consideration was very perplexing to me. The pastor could not help me, and nobody else seemed to mind too much. They seemed to be quite satisfied with the direction and schooling they were getting there, apparently confident that they had the truth.
It was a new world. The Bible came alive in a way I had never known.
I recall just after that time of perplexity, entering into a period of a few months of soul-searching and conviction of subtle sins, like being critical of others. During that time, I was experiencing somewhat the same kind of spiritual ordeal I had undergone before my conversion, only this time it was on another level.
I met my future wife there, and twenty-one months after my conversion, which was at age twenty-seven, we were married. One month later, the evening of January 1, 1975, about nine-thirty in the evening, Marilyn and I asked for and received the Holy Spirit, an experience our evangelical church and circles condemned as “pentecostalism,” as of the devil. We could not go to sleep until 7 am. It was a new world.
The Bible came alive in a way I had never known. All night, the Lord was taking us throughout the Scriptures, revealing many things to us. The Lord made Himself known to us in a way we had never experienced till then. It was very exciting.
We could not help but speak what we had experienced. We were not received at all in the Bible school or churches. The Baptist pastor, Jack Connor, told us that we should be very careful to believe something if it was contrary to the counsel and understanding of the church. I suddenly replied, with realization, “You are no different than the Catholic Church. They told me the very same thing when I was converted!”
The Lord revealed to me that Jack was not saved, contrary to his claims. He gave us three choices: one, change our minds; two, believe what we believe if we will but keep it to ourselves; or three, leave. I knew I could not deny what the Lord had done, nor could I contain myself in sharing, and so we knew our only choice was to go.
I threw away or burned all books and spent hours each day in the Scriptures.
In receiving the Holy Spirit, we received, not immediately, but in the days to come, the gifts of the Spirit…tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, miracles, healing, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, visions, dreams, and the discerning of spirits.
I began to realize something. When Catholic, I was taught that we were the true church of God, and that our doctrines and beliefs were the right ones. Then I was converted. Jesus Christ had taken over my life through the revelation of Scripture and the ministry of someone not Catholic. My life was transformed, much changed for the better. I knew the Catholic Church had not been right.
Then, when baptized in the Holy Spirit, I discovered that there had been more, though evangelicals had told me I had all that there was to be had, just like the Catholics before them. The evangelicals had not been right.
Now I was hearing from some that there was yet a third level of experience in the Lord. I was not about to allow anyone to delay me on this one if it was available. I set out to enter rest, or to be perfected or sanctified, as some would call it. However, that would not happen for many years.
In the months to come, the Lord exposed us to, and separated us from, all formal and organized religion, churches, and denominations. (Mark now, this was not a reaction out of hurt or bitterness at all, which some have understandably, but erroneously, presumed.) I threw away or burned all books and spent hours each day in the Scriptures for the next two to three years.
The Lord teaching me, I soon discovered that what was taught and practiced in the churches, evangelical included, and what was taught in the Scriptures, were quite different in many crucial points. (I do not use the word, “crucial” loosely.) It was a struggle, a battle with unbelief. Doubts assailed me; people criticized me and we were quite alone, for many years. It was hard, but good. In all that time, the Lord provided everything we ever needed in every way.
In March of 1976, just over a year after receiving the Spirit, the Lord spoke to me in an old, abandoned, log cabin and said, “I am hurting! I am hurting!” I could feel the chill of His pain go through me. Using objects as symbols, He told me His people were perishing because they were believing lies, practicing false religion, keeping heathen customs, that they were in darkness and ignorance, without knowledge. He told me to come out of all formal and nominal religious systems, where His people and all others were perishing, and to leave it all behind as I would leave behind my own dung. He brought us out.
Our circumstances were in His full control, in every detail.
Eight years later, in 1984, He gave me to query Him on what He had told me. I asked, “Lord, why are You hurting?”
He answered, “Because My people are suffering.”
I asked, “Why are they suffering?”
“Because they don’t obey Me,” He replied.
I asked, “Why don’t they obey You?”
He said, “Because they choose their own ways.”
“Why do they choose their own ways?” I asked.
“Because they lack knowledge,” He answered.
“Why do they lack knowledge?” I asked.
He replied, “Because nobody is willing to give his life that they might have that knowledge.”
I was silent for a time. Years before, I recognized that many sought for the Lord to be their friend, asking Him for things, praying to Him when they needed something. But what about being His friend? Did He not desire those who would be His friend? Abraham was known as a friend of God. I wanted that. So I asked the Lord, “Lord, would I be your friend if I was not willing to lay down my life so that people would have that knowledge?” There was no reply, but the question to me was quite rhetorical. I knew the answer.
Only minutes before that question and answer session, a great peace had come over me, and by inspiration, I said, “Lord, this is the kind of life I would like to have: one in which I am free to come and go, and in which You do with me as You please, taking care of all my needs and concerns while You use me for Your purposes, and to address Your concerns.” In that very moment, He said, “You’ve got it.” In other words, “Agreed.”
Sixteen years later, an angel visited me to strengthen me, and a consecration in obedience came, in trying circumstances. It was the final battle, to the death. One can only serve the Lord with the sentence of death upon himself. That is the victory; that is the rest. In the seventeenth year, the covenant between the Lord and me began to take effect more fully.
Let all fear and repent.
In all those years, the Lord was the Schoolmaster, the Bible was the textbook, and the world was the classroom. He brought many people into our lives, to deal with us, to teach us, and to bring us to that place of rest in Him. It has been a life of waters, fires, blood, tears, chastenings, yea, scourgings, sorrow, anguish, defeats and lessons.
The Lord has not only forgiven sins, but also dealt with the sin nature, which is very religious, self-righteous, stubborn, unbelieving, proud, ignorant, arrogant and selfish. How merciful is God, and how faithful! Indeed, He IS love, and He IS good. He also reigns over everything. This I know. Many are the times He has revealed to me that our circumstances were in His full control, in every detail. Oh, thank You, Lord Jesus, thank You! He is Lord of all.
I do declare to you today, that the Lord has chosen me from among men, to teach, to speak forth the truth to all those Whom He has ordained to hear, whether for good or for evil. I do walk with Him in His Present Coming today and do confess that Jesus Christ comes in the flesh. This is the day of the Lord. It is a great and terrible day, great for the righteous and terrible for the wicked. Let all fear and repent. The Lord has come to reconcile all things to Himself.
Blessed be the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Yashuah HaMashiach Adonai (Hebrew), Yahweh, the One and Only One Who is God and Who created all things for Himself! And as He has one walk with Him, so I have one to walk with me, Paul Benjamin Cohen, a Jew both in the flesh and spirit, to whom I was sent to deliver, by the Word of the Lord, in 1979 at Kibbutz Revivim, HaNegev, Israel. Together we walk before the Lord of Heaven and earth and speak that which He gives us to speak for the sakes of all those to whom He sends us.
I regret to inform you there have been some sad developments in our midst in this month of May 2017 concerning Paul Cohen. Still, I’m so thankful the Lord is cleaning house. I see it as making room for much better. He will be glorified. We have a peace among us I’ve been longing for, “what I’ve always wanted, now I really have it” (https://www.thepathoftruth.com/music/flying.htm).
Isaiah 28:1-29 MKJV
(1) Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower which is on the head of the fat valleys of those who are overcome with wine!
(2) Behold, the Lord is a mighty and strong one, like a hailstorm, a destroying storm; like a flood of mighty waters overflowing, He casts down to the earth with the hand.
(3) The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trampled under foot;
(4) and the glorious beauty, on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the first-ripe fruit before the summer; which the beholder of it swallows up while it is yet in his hand.
(5) In that day the LORD of Hosts shall be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, to the rest of His people,
(6) and for a spirit of judgment to him who sits in judgment, and for strength to those who turn back the battle to the gate.
(7) But they also have sinned through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have sinned through drink; they are swallowed up by wine; they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
(8) For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness; no place is clean.
(9) Whom shall He teach knowledge? And whom shall He make to understand doctrine? Those weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts.
(10) For precept must be on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little;
(11) for with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people.
(12) To whom He said, This is the rest; cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing. Yet they were not willing to hear.
(13) But the Word of the LORD was to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken and snared and taken.
(14) Therefore hear the Word of the LORD, scornful men who rule this people in Jerusalem.
(15) Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and we have made a vision with hell; when the overwhelming rod shall pass through, it shall not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood,
(16) therefore so says the LORD God, Behold, I place in Zion a Stone for a foundation, a tried Stone, a precious Cornerstone, a sure Foundation; he who believes shall not hurry.
(17) Also I will lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
(18) And your covenant with death shall be wiped out, and your vision with hell shall not stand; when the overwhelming rod shall pass through, then you shall be beaten down by it.
(19) From the time that it goes out it shall take you; for morning by morning it shall pass over, by day and by night; and it shall be only a terror to understand the message.
(20) For the bed is shorter than one can stretch himself on, and the cover is narrower than one can wrap himself in.
(21) For the LORD shall rise up as in Mount Perazim; He shall be angry as in the valley of Gibeon, so that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act.
(22) So then do not be mockers, lest your bands be made strong; for I have heard from the Lord of Hosts that a full end is decreed on all the earth.
(23) Give ear and hear my voice; listen, and hear my speech.
(24) Does the plowman plow all day to sow? Does he open and break the clods of his ground?
(25) When he has made the face of it level, does he not cast out the dill and scatter the cummin, and throw in the choice wheat and the chosen barley and the spelt in its border?
(26) For his God instructs him to do right; his God teaches him.
(27) For the dill is not threshed with a threshing instrument, nor is a cart wheel turned on cummin; but the dill is beaten out with a staff and the cummin with a rod.
(28) Bread grain is crushed, but not always does one thresh it with threshing. And he drives the wheel of his cart; and his horses do not beat it small.
(29) This also comes out from the LORD of Hosts, who is wonderful in wisdom, making sound wisdom great.
Blessed are those who are not offended in us.
We have an update concerning Paul Cohen’s situation as of July 2017:
The Lord Jesus Christ has seen fit to forgive Paul of his confessed sins. I have forgiven and blessed him. He is now faithfully fulfilling his responsibilities while subject to Ronnie Tanner, Martin Van Popta, and me. By his waywardness, Paul has forfeited his ministry by my side and any authority in our midst, which will not be restored in this life and world. He will remain in part as Abiathar, banished from his position as high priest, sent to “till the soil of his land.” Paul is as Shimei, whom Solomon spared but commanded to “remain in Jerusalem” under “penalty of death” should he disobey. He is like Barnabas, who was removed from his apostleship, or at least “never heard from again” after striving with the apostle Paul. No two situations are alike in all details. Paul is given to serve at The Path of Truth presently. We will know what the Lord requires if any changes should come. By God’s grace, we will understand and obey.
Addendum, December 2017:
Paul failed to endure to the end; he rebelled. Now also are the words fulfilled with him: “And it shall happen, whatever man will not listen to My Words which He shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him” (Deuteronomy 18:19 MKJV).
Addendum, June 7, 2024
In late November 2023, Victor wrote to Paul, moved to connect with him in the Name of the Lord. Paul replied in peace, filling Victor in on his current activities. Paul had recently begun writing again, particularly in response to the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel, and what continues to develop there.
He visited Israel in April 2024 for approximately 6 weeks, meeting with various people, speaking to them of the Lord Jesus Christ, The Messiah of Israel. Paul has written several people regarding the situation in Israel, some of which we’ve published and will be publishing. One such letter is Islam: The True Source of Enmity with Israel’s Enemies.
Victor Nicholas Hafichuk
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
