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Ask The Pastor
Thursday, May 5, 2005
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Question:
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I am deeply concerned with the direction of your site as it
seems to
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be leading people in a direction contrary to scripture.
With all due respect, everything I teach is Scripture
based. It is ministers of the UPCI who are going to be
accountable for preaching a message that was never preached by
the apostles. To take particular experiences that rarely
happened in the book of Acts and make them a criteria of
salvation is to misteach the gospel.
What I would ask you to do is show me one place where I
preach anything that is contrary to what the apostles
preached. The apostles never preached speaking in tongues. You
will not find it in any of their messages. Neither do I preach
speaking in tongues. Yet I preach the same gospel message that the
apostles preached.
No, my friend. It is you who will stand accountable before
God for leading people in a direction contrary to Scripture.
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While you are correct that the Bible never says the words
"evidence
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of speaking in tongues", it does show in many places that
the
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evidence of recieving the Holy Ghost is just that.
Thank you. Yes, I am correct. But no, the Bible does not 'in many
places' show that the evidence of receiving the Holy Ghost is just
that. The truth of the matter is that the Acts of the Apostles
is a historical book that covers 35+ years of early church
history. Only three times in 35+ years were there any
instances where people spoke in other languages. Each case it
was always a sovereign act of God. In none of these cases do
you ever see anything even faintly resembling what takes place
in Pentecostal altars.
I was both a pastor and an evangelist with the UPCI. I am
one of a great many preachers who left and are continuing to
leave the organization.
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I would love to discuss this with you further, but urge you in
the
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meantime to be cautious in what you write as God is going to
hold
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you to account for the things that you say and the effect that
they
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have on the lives of those you are attempting to lead.
Feel free to communicate with me. As for your urgings, I
think you need to take this caution to yourself. There is no
question that I preach and teach the message of salvation
that the apostles preached and taught. And unless the Lord
wishes to restrain me, I will continue with His guidance and
blessing to help every Pentecostal to reaches out to me.
By the way, I have UPCI ministers and often their wives
writing me for help. The UPCI is losing a lot of people
including not a few preachers. You may want to search out the
Scriptures a bit more to see if you are preaching the true
message of salvation. I am ready to stand before God for the
message I preach.
Friend, I really don't mean to sound harsh. However, there
is something that will help you, if you will do it. Go through
the book of Acts, Scripture by Scripture, and take note of the
actual messages that the apostles preached, irrespective of
what the outcome happened to be. Never, not even one time will
you ever see them preach a message that includes speaking in
other languages as an issue of salvation.
Have you never found it strange that while the UPCI claims
to preach the apostolic doctrine, they, in fact, really do
not. Is this not something you should have concern over?
But I must leave that with you....If you are willing to
discuss this issue with me in an gentlemanly manner, then I am
certainly willing to discuss it with you. The real need would
be to make certain that our discussions remains Bible
centered.
Blessings,
Buddy
Bro. Buddy
Martin - Ask the Pastor
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Lawrence "Buddy" Martin
email:
Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.ChristianChallenge.org
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