I was raised in and attended Pentecostal churches for fifty years, and predisposed to all the associate doctrines and experiences. I was taught that we had “the power” and that a last days revival would come through the Pentecostals. I remember hearing comments that men like Billy Graham and Chuck Swindoll “do not believe in the baptism with the Holy Spirit.” This was not for their confession against Spirit baptism, but because they didn’t speak in tongues.
One day while listening to the radio, David Hocking, who was another of the so-called “non-Spirit filled,” was preaching on the subject of Spirit baptism. To my surprise, he did not explain away the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as accused, but to the contrary, he fully supported Spirit baptism. I thought that I had all the answers for men like these, but as it turned out I had not heard all the questions. This sent me searching the Scriptures to find out if these things were so, and the Bible promised in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” I systematically cross-examined every Pentecostal doctrine with an open mind, logically, and critically, before an open Bible. I would not be convinced by just one or two contradictions, but it became clear that one assumption was built upon another. I finally ended up with over 272 questions, unanswerable by Pentecostal doctrine. With one assumption proved false by Scripture, the whole Pentecostal belief system pivoting on “the” experience fell like a house of cards. New to me was a coherent logical biblical doctrine, that has been taught for centuries, up to the present day, by the greatest truly Spirit filled soul winners.
My journey continued within Pentecostalism for ten more years until a final event was too much nonsense to tolerate. This was not a healthy spiritual environment for us or our children and so it was time to leave. My compilation of personal studies and research resulted in a book that maps the way out for others to follow, and many have. Even so, there are those who simply will not accept the facts as the apostle Paul noted in Acts 28:23-27, “He explained and solemnly testified…from morning till evening…And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved…Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed.” The truth is simple to understand, however, the tough skin of theological positions and a refusal to re-examine usually requires hundreds of proofs to penetrate—and so this book.
It is not my intention to attack Pentecostals for you are my people! Out of love and concern, I simply want to direct your attention to the many doctrines and experiences that are unfounded in Scripture and contradictory to themselves. I challenge Pentecostals to have open eyes and ears to all the evidence in the Word of God; accept without fear what the Lord has commanded, and to reject what He has not written. Truth is determined “as it is written” and not by feelings or seemingly “beautiful experiences.” The biggest hurdle for truth is pragmatism—if it happens, it must be God.
In my young years, there was precious little teaching on the experience doctrines, but much emphasis was placed on the seeking; camp after camp after camp meeting. After all, the experience was the desired result and the boasting was about how many “got their baptism” that night, not how many were taught and understood Spirit baptism. Looking back, more often than not, the average Pentecostal teacher did not even understand their own doctrines, and personal inventions abounded putting people “under the power.” The result was that in the pew, consistency was out the window. It is most common that the “experienced” need to be taught their own statement of faith before they can be un-taught. On the non-Pentecostal side of the argument, lack of understanding on Spirit baptism is equally present, and so there is the swamp of misunderstanding where the two meet.
In decades past, I have heard little, if any, teaching over either pulpit on the related subjects of my writings. My teachers have mostly passed on. I had small children then, but now I have grandchildren. I realize that a whole generation has passed by without essential teaching and yet another generation is following with even less chance of hearing truth. I remember Judges 2:10, “…another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD.” How is it that they “did not know?” Were they perhaps not taught? I believe we are experiencing a repeat of history.
A person once asked me why I would write a book like this. It matters what I believe! The Promise of the Father is the outcome of two decades and thousands of research hours of personal Bible study writing notes of truth, that set me free from experience based theology. When I see others struggling to put the same square pegs in round holes, it is unbearable to say nothing, but it brings much satisfaction to see others delivered from error; the false teaching that does not fit Scripture, the lame mystical inventions or traditions of men, and the embarrassing quackery that we no longer have to turn a blind eye. When we see how much more easily and logically the truth fits, there is extreme thankfulness and joy of being delivered. It is worth it all to get a letter thanking for the light that led to someone’s deliverance.
1Timothy 4:1-16, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons… Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.”
James 1:19-20, “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”
John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
The reformation happened 500 years ago because truth mattered enough to be burned at the stake. Only in the past 50 years, beginning with the ecumenical movement, attitudes have exponentially fallen toward apathy and the criteria for good teaching is warm fuzzy feelings and happy endings. Truth to the student of scripture is positive, but truth to the apathetic is labeled as negative and tearing down. The radio news headline one morning was about a counselor in the medical field whose job it was to inform people that they were at risk of breast cancer. In fact, hundreds of people were not told the truth, because the counselor probably thought she was doing good by saving people from the hard news. The reality is that positive reporting led to inevitable untreatable stages of cancer, but the negative truth could have saved lives. And so it is spiritually, should we say anything contrary and save a soul, or just be silent and keep smiling?
2Timothy 4:2-5, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
It is my heart’s desire and prayer that God will use this writing to guide others according to His truth and bring reformation to others as He has used others to bring reformation to me.
My second book, “This is the First Resurrection” Revelation 20:5, although printed first, answers two other major controversies that have plagued the church. One is that of eschatology, particularly of the rapture of the church, and the other, a growing schism within the church over the origins of man—the day-age controversy of stretching the six days of creation out to millions of years to accommodate the appearance of age.
