stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the secret of the … ye in the ways, and see, and ask...

Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask forthe old paths, where is the good way, andwalk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Jer e miah 6:16

The secret of the LORD is with them thatfear him; and he will show them hiscovenant. Psalm 25:14

Vol. 23, No. 4 Straight and Nar row April 2014

I was set up from ev er last ing, from the be gin ning, Or ever the earthwas. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; Whenthere were no foun tains abound ing with wa ter. (Prov erbs 8:23

A Let ter fromKarina Aston

(Recently Sis ter Karina, wife ofBrother Aland Ash ton, wrote us alit tle his tory of her hus band’s his -tory with liver dis ease and the gracethat God has been pro vid ing. Sev -eral times we have requested prayerfor Brother Aland and we ask thatyou will con tinue to lift him and hisfam ily up to our heav enly Father.

Pas tor Allen)

Dear Brother AllenThe grace and peace of our Heav -

enly Father and our Lord JesusChrist be always about you andabout the fam ily of Smyrna for ever.

I waited until now to write and tomed i tate much on your email last.Thank you very much. I felt muchbetter as I stopped to pon der all thatwas hap pen ing at home and howhard it is to see some one you love indel i cate health and def i nitely whenthis first all started. Already I have

In this is sue:The Axis of Evil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 2

Youth Cor ner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 18

From the File Cab i net . . . . . . . . . . . p. 22

Are You Pre par ing . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 23

YouTube Chan nel Up date . . . . . . . p. 24

Book Up date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 24

FL and AZ Meet ings . . . . . . . . . . . p. 24

WV Camp Meet ing . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 24

Con tin ued on page 21

The Axis of Evil Reaches Its Hands Across the Gulf

Dur ing World War II the nations of Ger many, Italy, andJapan became known as the Axis pow ers. They were con sid -ered to be fight ing to pro mote evil and to destroy what wasgood and righ teous. Long before the twen ti eth Cen tury,how ever, there was a three-fold axis of evil work ing to pre -pare the world for the last great bat tle.

The book of Rev e la tion por trays a three-fold con fed er a -tion of evil that will attempt in the last days to rule the world,while destroy ing God’s peo ple. This three-fold union has asits mem bers the beast of Rev e la tion 13, the false prophet, and the dragon. With out going deeply into the proofs becausemost of our read ers know their iden ti ties, with out res er va tion we can declare that the dragon is Satan espe cially work ingthrough the medium of spir i tu al ism (Rev e la tion 12:9). Thebeast of Rev e la tion 13 is the Papacy, the Roman Cath o licChurch (Dan iel 7, Rev e la tion 13, 2 Thessalonians 2:3). Thefalse prophet is the Protestant churches that have quit pro -test ing and have joined with Rome to help pro mote herimpe rial will upon the peo ple of the earth (Rev e la tion 13).The Bible teaches that these three forces unite fully at the end of time.

And I saw three un clean spir its like frogs come out ofthe mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast,and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are thespir its of dev ils, work ing mir a cles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the bat tle of that great day of God Al mighty. (Rev e la tion16:13, 14)

These pow ers per form mir a cles and deceive the polit i calrul ers of the world, as well as their sub jects, and gather theinhab it ants of the world for the Bat tle of Arma ged don (Rev e -la tion 16:16).

This is hardly a far-dis tant future event, for we now seethese pow ers work ing swiftly. Through the false revival ofthe Pen te cos tal churches, we see a com bi na tion of apos tateProt es tant ism and a sub tle, yet pow er ful form of spir i tu al -ism. Remem ber that spir i tu al ism, in its most basic form, iscom mu ni ca tion with evil spir its and through a false spirit,many of these peo ple are receiv ing mes sages from Satan andhis angels, all hap pen ing under the cloak of Chris tian ity.

The law of God is a spe cial point of con tro versy in this lastgreat strug gle. Dan iel 7:25 says that the papacy, as sym bol -ized by the lit tle-horn power of Dan iel 7, will “speak greatwords against the most High, and shall wear out the saints ofthe most High, and think to change times and laws: and theyshall be given into his hand until a time and times and thedivid ing of time” (Dan iel 7:25).

While claim ing to uphold the Ten Com mand ments anddeclare that God requires obe di ence to them, the Papacy hasdras ti cally altered the Ten Com mand ments. The sec ondcom mand ment, for bid ding idol wor ship, has been removed.To keep unity in the num ber of ten, the last com mand menthas been divided into two com mand ments. The first com -mand ment has not been altered, but it has been vio lated withthe wor ship of a strange god called the trin ity. The fourthcom mand ment has been altered to com mand wor ship on thefirst day of the week, Sunday, instead of on the sev enth-daySab bath. Most of these changes have been accepted by Prot -es tants, with out a sin gle Scrip ture to com mand such changeand in the face of many texts that con firm the Ten Com mand -ments as given at Sinai as still being valid.

Jesus said, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tit tleshall in no wise pass from the law” (Mat thew 5:18). The lawof God, is a rev e la tion of his will; it is a tran script of his char -ac ter and must for ever endure. Not one of the Ten

Old Paths - 2 - April 2014

Com mand ments has been made null and void; not a jot or tit -tle has been changed. David said: “For ever, O Lord, Thyword is set tled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89). “All His com -mand ments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever”(Psalm 111:7, 8). We have been told:

Romanism in the Old World and apos tate Prot es tant ismin the New will pur sue a sim i lar course [of per se cu tion] to -ward those who honor all the di vine pre cepts. (The GreatCon tro versy, p. 615)

Com ing events cast their shad ows be fore. (The De sireof Ages, p. 636)

This year, shad ows were omi nously cast in Fort Worth,Texas, at Ken neth Cope land Min is tries. While host ing alarge group of tele van gel ists and min is try lead ers for a con -fer ence on Jan u ary 21 of this year, Ken neth Cope landintro duced Angli can/Epis co pal Bishop Tony Palmer fromthe Com mu nion of Evan gel i cal Epis co pal Churches(CEEC).

Tony Palmer then gave a short per sonal his tory of him selfand explained the real pur pose of his visit—to encour ag eunity, while claim ing that the ref or ma tion is no lon ger valid.He then deliv ered a per sonal video mes sage from Pope Fran -cis, whom he claims as a spir i tual father and close friend.

The pope gave a greet ing, first speak ing in Eng lish andthen con tin u ing in Ital ian. Eng lish sub ti tles were pro vided inthe video that Palmer presented.

In this mes sage the pope claims to greet the peo ple with ames sage of love to God and love to broth ers and sis ters. Hethen states that he has been friends with Bishop Palmer foryears.

After the greet ing, he speaks of his yearn ing to see Godwork among his peo ple. He laments that they, Chris tians,have been sep a rated by sins. He declares that all share in thisblame, but he yearns for the sep a ra tion to come to an end. Hespeaks of Joseph in Egypt, when his broth ers came to buybread, and uses it as a sym bol to rep re sent how they must“encoun ter one another as broth ers. We must cry togetherlike Joseph did. These tears will unite us, the tears of love.”

Pope Fran cis declares that he is speak ing to them “as abrother” and desires that they might “embrace one anotherand together . . .wor ship Jesus Christ as the only Lord ofhis tory.”

The pope then gives thanks that the peo ple have lis tenedand asks the favor of their prayers. He pleads that the Lordwill unite them all and encour ages those lis ten ing, say ing:“Come on, we are broth ers. Let’s give each other a spir i tualhug and let God com plete the work he has begun. And this isa mir a cle; the mir a cle of unity has begun.”

The pope ends his mes sage by quot ing the Ital ian authorManzoni and then asks that whose lis ten ing might bless himafter which he then declares a bless ing upon them.

After the video Ken neth Cope land led the con gre ga tion inprayer for the pope. His prayer ended with Cope land speak -ing in some unknown tongue or gib ber ish. Cope land then

had Bishop Palmer record a video mes sage from him to thepope, assur ing him of his desire to be in unity, and he thenpro nounced a repet i tive bless ing upon the pope, backed up in uni son by the con gre ga tion.

So how do we under stand the sig nif i cance of this event?Let us first begin with the three main per sons involved.

Pope Fran cis is the best known of the three and leader ofthe world’s one bil lion plus Roman Cath o lics. He is the firstJesuit pope and the first pope ever from South Amer ica.Insid ers say he was a lead ing can di date from the prior con -clave that elected Pope Ben e dict XVI. He comes across assim ple, hum ble, and very friendly. Though his the ol ogy insome respects is strictly ortho dox, he has made calls for unity and spo ken peace ably to and about those of other faiths,includ ing Islam.

Ken neth Cope land is one of the lead ing Pen te cos tal tele -van gel ist min is ters in the United States. His min is try is based near Fort Worth, Texas on 33 acres of prop erty that includesthe Eagle Moun tain Inter na tional Church, tele vi sion pro duc -tion and audio record ing facil i ties, a ware house anddis tri bu tion facil i ties, res i dence for the Cope land fam ily, and Ken neth Cope land Airport. Min is try assets also include twoCessna jet air planes, one of which has a new cost of over 22mil lion dol lars. Cope land lives in an 18,000 square foothouse val ued at over six mil lion dol lars. The min is try isknown as KCM (Ken neth Cope land Min is tries), and itemploy ees approx i mately 500 peo ple.

Cope land was born in 1936 and was first a music art istmak ing pop u lar record ings. In Novem ber 1963 he states thathe was born again. After that Cope land com mit ted the rest ofhis life to gos pel min is try work. In the fall of 1967, heenrolled in Oral Rob erts Uni ver sity, where he soon becamethe pilot and chauf feur for tele van gel ist Oral Rob erts. Todayhe is seen on tele vi sion and holds meet ings in dif fer ent partsof the world.

Tony Palmer was born in the UK and moved to SouthAfrica as a teen ager. His wife, Emiliana, is Ital ian whom hemet when she and her fam ily were liv ing in South Africa.Together with their chil dren, Dan iel and Gabriella, they nowlive in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

While liv ing in South Africa, Tony claims to have beenborn again (twenty-two years ago). After his con ver sion, heand his wife imme di ately began shar ing what they under -stood to be the gos pel to all the peo ple who lived in theirsub urb. Early in their expe ri ence they began watch ing Ken -neth Cope land and his mes sage of evan gel i ca lPentecostalism and it struck a chord in their heart andencour aged them. Shortly after this time Palmer claims tohave gone to Rhema Bible Train ing Col lege, founded byKen neth Hagan, and received train ing for the min is try. Hewent to work in South Africa and within a short period oftime (1998) was the direc tor of KMC in Africa.

After two and a half years Palmer claims to have receiveda call from Rome (though he does not say where within the

Vol. 23, No. 4 - 3 - http://www.smyrna.org

Roman Cath o lic Church he received this call) to worktowards and with the Roman Cath o lic Char is matic Renewal.The Roman Cath o lic Char is matic Renewal fea tures, amongother things, proph ecy, faith heal ing, and glos so la lia (speak -ing in tongues).

Later Palmer went to work for the Cath o lic Church inArgen tina where he met Car di nal Jorge Mario Bergogliowho would later become Pope Fran cis. Dur ing this timePalmer became good friends with the Car di nal and the Car di -nal became a men tor to Palmer as they often vis ited andstud ied together.

In 2002, Tony and Emiliana Palmer founded The ArkCom mu nity. This min is try claims it was based on a smallgroup of com mit ted friends from var i ous churches united bya com mon com mit ment to Christ and Christ’s pur poses. Dis -ci ple ship and per sonal trans for ma tion are said to be at theheart of the com mu nity. The title of The Ark Com mu nityuses a triquetra for the “A” in “Ark” thus strongly pro mot ingand announc ing the trin ity doc trine as one of its foun da tional points.

The Com mu nion of Evan gel i cal Epis co pal Churches, towhich Palmer belongs, was formed in 1995 as a “con cen -trated effort to blend char is matic expe ri ence, bib li calrenewal, litur gi cal renewal, and sac ra men tal wor ship”(http://www.theceec.org/CEEChistory.html). Tony Palmerhas also com pleted a short course in Bib li cal Archae ol ogyand Bib li cal Stud ies (UNISA Uni ver sity, RSA), has a Mas -ters Degree in Phi los o phy, “Col lege of The ol ogy” (St.Alcuin’s Sem i nary, USA), and has an Eng lish Teach ers Cer -tif i cate from Cam bridge Uni ver sity, UK (CELTA). Whilesome of Palmer’s cre den tials do not come from accred itedschools and the CEEC is a rel a tively small group, it can not be denied that within the pope’s cir cle and the Pen te cos tal char -is matic cir cles, he is some one nota ble who must be takenseri ous.

Palmer’s visit to KCM and the mes sage from the popehave lit up the Internet, and there are mul ti ple sites onYouTube where this ser vice and the pope’s mes sage havebeen posted. With this over view and back ground, we nowwish to exam ine in more detail the mes sage of Tony Palmerto KCM and the pope’s mes sage to KCM. We will pro vide atran script of the two mes sages now inter spersed withcom ments.

Palmer’s Mes sage to KCMAs we will see, Palmer makes some very bold state ments

but we shall also see that some are sim ply incor rect and oth -ers are only a par tial pic ture of real ity. (All of the fol low ingpara graphs that are indented in quote form in this sec tion

will be from the tran script of Palmer’s mes sage and thenon-indented para graphs will be our com ments.)

God bless you all. I would like to thank Ken neth andGlo ria for giv ing me this op por tu nity to spend a cou ple ofmo ments in tro duc ing to you some thing re ally, re ally spe -cial and his toric. Ken neth asked me if I would give a lit tlebit of back ground to who I am, our con nec tion, and whatwe are about to show you to night. About twenty-two years ago, I came to faith, a rad i cal con ver sion ex pe ri ence, and it changed ev ery thing about my out look and my life andwithin a year I found my self in full-time min is try, work ing for the church where I got saved, and I was door-knock ing, giv ing the gos pel to ev ery sin gle fam ily in our sub urbwhich was about three and one half thou sand homes. Ittook me and my wife eight months to speak to ev ery sin gleper son in our sub urb about Je sus Christ and that wastwenty-one years ago. And I re mem ber (I have never toldyou this, Brother Ken neth) that be fore we used to go out inthe morn ing to do this evangelization, door-knock ing, weused to watch this crazy Texan preach the gos pel, and wehad never heard anything like this before.

Ken neth Cope land. He used to be our en cour ager ev erymorn ing to go out and preach the gos pel, and that’s how Icame across the mes sage; the word of faith—by pre par ingmy self ev ery morn ing to go out and preach the gos pel bywatch ing some video VHS tapes. Do you re mem ber thoseback in the 1930s [sic]? And we used to get cour age, and itwas amaz ing the work that we did. That was just the be gin -ning. Then I went into Bi ble school, got trained for themin is try, and even tu ally I got, I went, into the min is try inSouth Af rica to ask a friend of mine, Steve Kutsia who was your South Af ri can di rec tor at the time, for some build ingad vice and in stead of build ing ad vice I got a job. I washired by KCM and within a year, they asked me to be thedi rec tor for Af rica. That would have been 1998, and Iprom ised John when he in ter viewed me, I told himstraight, I said, John, I’ll come and work for you guys, butI’m leav ing; I’m go ing to It aly. I am kind of not tell ing youI am leav ing you be fore join ing you, but you’ve got toknow I can only stay for awhile.

So he asked me for three years, and I said fine, un less the Holy Ghost tells me oth er wise. That was our cov e nant; wemade that agree ment. Well, it was about two and one halfyears later, and the Holy Ghost said oth er wise and we were sent out to It aly, where my wife is from. I have been mar -ried to Emmy now for twenty-two years, and it has been alot of fun. Ital ian wives are in cred i bly fun. I say that with abig smile. And it was an in cred i ble time for us be cause Iwas born again, spirit-filled and in an evan gel i cal Pen te -cos tal church. Like I said, I came to rad i cal faith, both meand Emmiliana, my wife, we had rad i cal con ver sion ex pe -ri ences. We had been raised in the word of faith, we’dworked for Ken neth and Glo ria in South Af rica, but thecall that we got to It aly was the call from Rome. You


see, while we were vis it ing It aly, our fam ily, on an an nualba sis and we would share our faith with our fam ily, it washard for us be cause when they would get born again therewas no where for them to fel low ship be cause the evan gel i -cal churches at that timein It aly were in cred i blyle gal is tic where women,men and women had tosit sep a rate and womenhad to wear veils on theirheads and you could n’teven go to the beach be -cause it was con sid erednu dity. So as Je sus-lov -ing Chris tians, we didnot want to send ourfam ily to those kind ofchurches, but then send -ing them back to theCath o lic Church whichwas so tra di tional that was go ing to kill their faith. (Allbold em pha sis sup plied un less oth er wise noted.)

Com ments: Palmer does not spec ify where or from whom the call from Rome orig i nated. Rome is the head quar ters ofthe Cath o lic Church, but there are many units and divi sions.He does not say it is from the Vat i can or what part, if so. Thisarea is gray.

So me and my wife prayed in 1992 in my grand mother’s bed room. No body knew about this prayer. We said, Lordif you want us to leave South Af rica, we will leave on onecon di tion, that we come to It aly, but it must be through theCath o lic Church. No body knew about that prayer, 1992.Well, in 2003, ten years later, eleven years later, I got acall, an email ac tu ally, from Rome, say ing: Tony we’veseen your min is try and we’d like you to share your min is -try with the Ro man Cath o lic Char is matic Re newal. Wouldyou be will ing to come to It aly, and (there was a clause)you must be self-funded.

Com ment: Again Palmer notes that he received an emailfrom Rome but does not define who the “we” are in the sen -tence, “Tony we’ve seen your min is try. . .”

So I thought no prob lem. As Prot es tants, we’d beenpray ing for the Cath o lic Church for years, so ob vi ouslypeo ple are go ing to back me and send me. I sent out my let -ters for part ners. I mean I worked for Ken neth and Glo riafor three years. I knew about how part ners worked, andKen neth and Glo ria were the first and the only who saidyes, we’ll part ner with you, and he has n’t stopped since.So the Lord said what have you got? I said we’ve got ahouse; we’ve got a car. So we said that’s it. We put ourhouse and our car in the min is try, and we moved to It alywith noth ing, no min is try con nec tion, could n’t speak Ital -ian, some crazy evan gel i cal who had been called by theRo man Cath o lic Church to work with them, and we were

self-fi nanced ex cept for one part ner. Well, that was tenyears ago and if you do get to know me per son ally, you’llfind out I am not re ally a good net worker. I don’t try to getmy self into places. In fact, I pre fer to sit in the back, out of

the lights so I can en joy theser vice, but God or ches -trated so many di vineap point ments, like Jo seph,and it ex cites me be cause Iknow what I have n’t doneto be put in front of the peo -ple I found my self [in frontof], and to night is a cul mi -na tion of what’s hap penedin the last ten years, and wehave a very spe cial mes -sage, and I wanted you toun der stand the con nec tionbe tween KCM and theCath o lic Char is matic Re -

newal be cause the Cath o lic Charismatic Renewal is thehope of the church, the Catholic Church.

I was at a meet ing at St. Pe ter’s, I think it was about ayear and a half ago, it was Pen te cost, cel e brat ing the re -mem ber ing of the com ing of the Holy Spirit and PopeBen e dict. There was 450,000 of us out side of St. Pe ter’ssing ing “Come Holy Spirit”—all Cath o lics, ex cept for acou ple of us who they called us the ec u men i cal del e ga tion. I re mem ber the first time I ac tu ally put on the long teleria,it’s a long black cas sock. You’ve seen the priests whenthey wear the cas socks. I had to wear mine, and I did n’tknow that you had to wear trou sers un der neath. So I re -mem ber and be cause we were hon ored guests, they put uson the first row and the pope was right next to us, and Icrossed my legs and my leg came out, and all the bish opslooked at me, and they said he’s An gli can; don’t worry.Funny. So I was re ally not try ing to work the sys tem. PopeBen e dict, he said to all the char is matic lead ers, char is -matic Cath o lics, pub licly, he said this in Ital ian to them, hesaid: You charismatics, you are the hope of the church [ap -plause] — stop that is only the an ti pasto). He said, And you need to evan ge lize within be fore you evan ge lize out side.And when I saw that, I re al ized I had given my life to agood cause, cause it was n’t just some po lit i cal dip lo maticma neu ver ing of the Cath o lic Church to try to get us all tobe come one big thing. He re ally wanted their peo ple tocome to faith.

About eight years ago I was work ing for the Cath o licChurch in South Amer ica in Ar gen tina, and it’s pro to colwhen we go into a Cath o lic di o cese, we go visit the Cath o -lic bishop and we ask his per mis sion to work among hispeo ple. And when I went to Ar gen tina, the bishop that Ihad to visit at that time was Fa ther Mario Jorge Bergoglio,and he and I struck up a very in ti mate re la tion ship. I have


Ken neth Cope land lis ten ing to Tony Palmer

three spir i tual fa thers. The man who or dained me a priest,Arch bishop Rob ert Wise ten years ago and then later con -se crated me four years ago as a bishop. He is my spir i tualfa ther. Ken neth Cope land, with out a doubt. He re ceivedme in South Af rica very much so we con nected veryquickly, you and I and Emmie and Glo ria, my wife, Wehad good times on those three vic tory cam paigns in ‘99,and I re mem -ber the daybe fore I wasor dained apriest I cameto Brigh ton tovis i t you[ K e n n e t hCope land] and ask for yourp e r m i s s i o nand yourbless ing to bea priest, andyou prayed for me be hind thecur tains, be -hind the stagebe fore I wentoff the next morn ing and be came a priest, and the thirdspir i tual fa ther was Mario Jorge Bergoglio be cause, yousee, my wife when she saw she could be Cath o lic and char -is matic and evan gel i cal and Pen te cos tal, and it wasab so lutely ac cepted within the Cath o lic Church, she saidthat she would like to re con nect her roots with her Cath o -lic cul ture, so she did. And so I was work ing with theCath o lic Church, my wife was a char is matic Cath o lic; mychil dren were go ing to a Cath o lic school. So we raised ourkids Cath o lic, charismatics, Pen te cos tals, evan gel i cals.Je sus was all of those, you know.

Com ment: I cer tainly do not know that! While there is abib li cal under stand ing of cha risma (Greek: cha risma; trans -lated grace in the New Tes ta ment), while there is anout pour ing of the Holy Spirit (Pen te cost) that Jesus received(Mat thew 3:16), while the Bible speaks of being evan gel i cal(Greek: giv ing the gos pel news), the com mon def i ni tions ofthese words today and how they are used by Cath o lics andapos tate Prot es tants does not define the Christ of the Scrip -tures. It is blas phemy to so por tray our Redeemer. Palmer’swife re-con verted to Cathol i cism. Why does not Palmer alsocon vert to Cathol i cism? It is because he is a better tool ofRome work ing from with out than within.

Je sus is sac ra men tal. He in sti tuted the sac ra ments. Hedid the things that were re quired of him in the syn a gogue.He be lieved in sign and sym bol. He used it all the time inhis par a bles, but he was also evan gel i cal be cause he saidyou have to be born again; it is writ ten. He was also the

con tem pla tive; he was also the char is matic. How much ofJe sus do you want? Do you only want one de nom i na tionof Jesus? Jump in; get it all.

Com ment: No, thank you. We shall not jump in and get all that the man of sin and the false prophet offer.

So, Pa dre Mario, Fa ther Mario, he took me aside whenhe heard about my tes ti mony about hav ing this ec u men i -

cal fam ily, and hestarted a friend shipwith me. We startedstudy ing to gether,meet ing more of ten,to a point where hebe came one of mymen tors. And it wasvery sur pris ing tome when he emailedme a week be fore the elec tion of the popelast year, and he said, Tony, will you please pray for me be causethey have called meinto the con clave.Now con clave iswhen they chose the

pope be cause conclâve means with key, with key conclâve.That’s what it means, with a key. They lit er ally lock thecar di nals into the Sis tine Cha pel un til they have made ade ci sion. Conclâve. So I was think ing maybe he had to goin there and be one of the car di nals, cause he was a car di -nal, to pray for the pope, and I was on the train, leav ingRome, that day when they an nounced the pope, and thepope was Mario Jorge Bergoglio. My friend, my spir i tualfa ther, had be come the pope. [Congregation: loudapplause]

Now you need to be clear. This is not about my story,even though I prom ised, uh, Ken neth asked me if I wouldjust con nect the dots so you would un der stand this is im -por tant for you. It’s im por tant for the part ners be cause you sup port the work I do, but this is not about my story. This is about history, His story [point ing up], be cause God is do -ing some thing.

Now I walked in af ter, . . . well I’m jump ing the gun. Let me just say this Christ mas time. Be cause my spir i tual fa -ther, one of my spir i tual men tors, had be come pope, I amma ture enough to know that my re la tion ship is go ing tochange now. I mean, he’s got a new job de scrip tion. I did -n’t ex pect to have a friend ship like I had be fore, but I feltblessed that I had that time with him. He im parted manythings to me, like all my spir i tual fa thers have.

I got a phone call just af ter Christ mas when I was re lax -ing with my son, watch ing a bit of TV, and I grabbed my


Tony Palmer ex plain ing about meet ing the fu ture pope.

mo bile phone and said yes, Tony Palmer speak ing, and hesays hello, this is Pope Fran cis. I thought it was one of myfriends. They were look ing at me through the win dow.And I said Fa ther Mario. He said yes. So I ran up stairs tomy of fice, where there was no noise, and I said what areyou phon ing me for? He said when are you go ing to be inRome next? I said I’ll be in Rome next two weeks time. Ihave to visit one of my con gre ga tions. He said can youcome and see me? This no body from South Af rica whogives up his house to fol low some crazy call from theCath o lics ends up get ting a phone call at home from thepope. So I said to him look, I’ll be there on the thir teenth.He said no, I’m busy. I am not mak ing this up. This is howit was. Emmie was at the door, lis ten ing to the con ver sa -tion. And I said well I can do the four teenth. I can stay oneday ex tra in Rome. He said let me go get my di ary. I heardthe phone go on the ta ble; I heard the feet come back. Said,Bishop Tony? I said yes. The four teenth is good for me. I’mfree. He said to me what time? I said you’re the pope andyou’re ask ing me what time? He said yeah, what time suitsyou? So I thought well 10 o’clock cause I can miss the traf -fic. Rome is bad for traf fic. So I said 10 o’clock will suit me fine. See you at 10 o’clock. So I said to him Pope Fran cis, I can’t be lieve that you’re phon ing me. I don’t know how tore act to you. I was just be ing hon est. He said what do youmean? I said you’re the pope of the uni ver sal church. 1.2bil lion peo ple? And I’m just an ev ery day cler gy man do inghis bit for the king dom.

Com ment: There is a church with 1.2 bil lion peo ple, but it is not God’s church. It is part of the syn a gogue of Satan, andto use such lan guage should make any true Protestant sick tothe core.

He said Tony we cut co ven [sic; per haps he meant cov e -nant]. We are broth ers. He said noth ing will change ourfriend ship. I was blessed be cause all of these sto ries youhave heard about Fran cis, about pick ing his friends up inhis Popemobile and tak ing them and all, and go ing out tovisit peo ple. This, he has n’t changed his spots.

Com ment: Notice that the pope claims he and Tony have a coven(ant). They claim to be broth ers.

So I went last Tues day. I went to see him. We had themorn ing to gether, just me and him, the whole morn ing inhis apart ments, and I asked him, I said, so what’s theagenda? Why did you call me? He said I have no agenda.There is noth ing to dis cuss. That’s a fa ther; that’s a men tor. So, I started to tell him I can’t be lieve I’m sit ting here. Youknow how much we can do to gether? Yes, and we made acov e nant to work for unity for the church. I said lis ten nextweek I am go ing to Ken neth Cope land Min is tries Min is -ters’ Con fer ence, and I told him about you. I told him allyour crazy sto ries. I said there is go ing to be thou sands oflead ers, and these guys have their jets, they’ve got TVshows, and I said they’ve got churches of ten thou sand, two thou sand, twenty thou sand. I said these are big fishes! So

he said well, what do you want to do? And I said, can youplease—I told him about Ken neth and Glo ria’s part ner -ship from day one. I lost a lot of evan gel i cals be cause theythought I had be trayed the faith cause I was build ing aking dom and not an em pire. Sorry. And so I said to himhow’s about you give Ken neth a word and give the lead ersa word. He said okay. So I am wait ing for him, and he saysyou want to take a mes sage next week to Texas for me? Isaid yes, sir. I said do you want me to write it down? Hesaid, why don’t we make a video? Now, I had in the back ofmy mind (I had my iPhone, right? I al ways have myiPhone) I had in the back of my mind to ask him, but I did -n’t want to be cheeky and break the friend ship. I don’twant to abuse a friend ship. Friend ships are sa cred; theyare a gift from God. You can’t use friend ships, let God useyour friend ship, but you don’t use it. And so I was wait ingto see if like there was a Holy Spirit op por tu nity to askhim, but he was the one who asked. He asked can I make avideo. So we’ve had it ed ited; we’ve had it sub ti tled causehe speaks in Ital ian. He does n’t speak Eng lish. He tries inthe be gin ning, but then he switches to Ital ian straight away. So to night, the pope. It’s a his toric mo ment be cause I’venever, I’ve served three popes–be cause I started work ingwith them when John Paul was still alive, and then PopeBen e dict, and now Pope Fran cis. And you know PopeFran cis (St. Fran cis of Assisi was an open char is matic),this is the first pope in his tory that has took Fran cis’s namebe cause he is openly char is matic, and this is his tory thatwe’ve got a pope who rec og nizes us as broth ers and sis -ters, speaks to us as broth ers and sisters, and has sent amessage to us, and you will see what the message is about.

Com ment: This first part of Palmer’s address to the min is -ters at KCM was not posted on the CEEC’s website nor onThe Ark Com mu nity website, but the fol low ing por tion isposted, starting after the word because in the first sen tence.This is the most impor tant part of Palmer’s talk.

And I need you to at least un der stand a lit tle bit of thehis tory be hind this be cause we are liv ing in an in cred i blyim por tant gen er a tion. I be lieve that God has brought mehere to this min is ters’ con fer ence in the spirit of Eli jah. Let me ex plain. If you look care fully, the spirit of Eli jah wason John the Bap tist to turn the hearts of the sons to the fa -thers and to turn the hearts of the fa thers to the sons topre pare the way for the Lord, and we know that proph ecyal ways has a dou ble ful fill ment, and we know that Eli jahwill come be fore the sec ond com ing, as well, and I haveun der stood that the spirit of Eli jah is the spirit of rec on cil i -a tion to re turn hearts to each other. This is very important.

Com ment: We cer tainly know the Eli jah mes sage isimpor tant, and Malachi does men tion the hearts of the chil -dren and fathers being drawn to each other (Malachi 4:5, 6).How ever, did Eli jah pro mote the uni fi ca tion of Baal wor shipand that of Jeho vah while striv ing for unity or rec on cil i a -tion? No! Eli jah slew the proph ets of Baal! He would have no


fel low ship or agree ment with them. The truth is, in the NewTes ta ment, Jesus declared that the mes sage of John the Bap -tist was a ful fill ment of the Eli jah proph ecy of Malachi (seeMat thew 11:2–14). But the great and ter ri ble day of the Lorddid not come in John’s day, and so we look for the com pleteful fill ment of this proph ecy in the end, but not a sec ond ful -fill ment, as Palmer declares all proph ecy to have when hesaid that “we know that proph ecy always has a dou ble ful fill -ment.” (This is a Jesuit idea.)

The proph ecy of Eli jah that Malachi speaks of is that ofdraw ing the hearts of the par ents to the chil dren and of thechil dren to the fathers, but in what way? What does it mean in its his tor i cal con text with Eli jah as well as in applied con textin John’s day? It is only as we under stand these that can weknow how to apply it for today.

Dur ing the time of Eli jah, under the influ ence of Jezebel,Israel had fallen deeply into apos tasy and wor shiped Baal.Eli jah came to denounce the wor ship of Baal and to call for awor ship of Jeho vah. After three and a half years of droughtEli jah called for a meet ing on Mount Car mel. The proph etsof Baal mis er a bly failed to bring rain. Then Eli jah repairedthe altar of the LORD and laid the wood and sac ri fice uponthe altar. After soak ing it with twelve bar rels of water, heprayed and in the last part of the prayer he said, “Hear me, OLORD, hear me, that this peo ple may know that thou art theLORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again”(1 Kings 18:37). The call of Eli jah is the call to wor ship thetrue God dur ing a time when the wor ship of a false God isprev a lent.

Here is the turn ing of the heart that Malachi pre dicts musthap pen. It is a turn ing away from false gods to the wor ship ofthe true God. The issue is not sim ply a mat ter that par ents and chil dren can not com mu ni cate due to a gen er a tion gap, it isthat there have arisen dif fer ence between them as to who isthe true God and the wor ship of that God. Some chil dren andsome par ents agree with Jeho vah and some dif fer. God wants them united in their wor ship of him.

In the time of John the Bap tist, John was call ing for thepeo ple to pre pare their hearts to meet the Mes siah. It was nota spe cific mes sage about nuclear fam ily res to ra tion but of the spir i tual house of God to fear the only true God and accepthis Son who was sent to be the sav iour of the world.

Today, there is a peo ple who carry an Eli jah mes sage of,behold your God. This mes sage, planted and nur tured in theheart will indeed draw hearts of all kin dred Chris tian spir itstowards each other because they have been drawn towardsGod and this mes sage will pre pare a peo ple to meet the onlytrue God and his son Jesus Christ at his sec ond com ing.

We know that the first thou sand years there was onechurch. It was called the Cath o lic Church, and the wordcath o lic means uni ver sal; it does n’t mean Ro man. Raiseyour hand if your born again, you are a cath o lic. Takeback, re deem, what be longs to you. We are cath o lics. Then there was a split at the end of the first mil len nium, we had

the or tho dox, east and west, two churches. Then five hun -dred years later we have Lu ther and his pro test–threechurches in fif teen hun dred years. Three de nom i na tions,not three churches, and then from Lu ther’s pro test on -wards, thirty-three thousand new denominations.

Com ment: This is sim ply not true. The church did not gofor 1,000 years with out divi sion. Paul could write “For themys tery of iniq uity doth already work” (2 Thessalonians2:7). John spoke of divi sions in his epis tles. There was splin -ter ing among pro fessed believ ers from very early times.Some divi sions are well known by the names of the lead ersof the move ments. For exam ple, Arius raised objec tions tothe wor ship of a false god dur ing the fourth cen tury. By thetime the papacy was well estab lished, the true church had togo into hid ing into the wil der ness. “And when the dragonsaw that he was cast unto the earth, he per se cuted the womanwhich brought forth the man child. And to the woman weregiven two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into thewil der ness, into her place, where she is nour ished for a time,and times, and half a time, from the face of the ser pent” (Rev -e la tion 12:13, 14). This is the same period of time that wasproph e sied by Dan iel: “And he shall speak great wordsagainst the most High, and shall wear out the saints of themost High, and think to change times and laws: and theyshall be given into his hand until a time and times and thedivid ing of time” (Dan iel 7:25). In Bible proph ecy a day ofproph ecy equals one year of lit eral time. Using the rule of360 days to the Bible year we have 3 ½ times (3 ½ years)equal ing 1,260 years. This time period from AD 538 till AD1798 was a time that the church went into hid ing in thewil der ness.

I’ve come to un der stand that di ver sity is di vine; it’s di -vi sion that di a bolic. It’s true what you were say ing aboutthe glory; I agree with you; of course it’s true. The glorythat the Fa ther had he gave to Je sus. The glory was thepres ence of God. What is the char is matic re newal? It iswhen we ex pe ri ence the pres ence of God. And he said andI give them the glory (prag matic rea son), so that they maybe one. It’s the glory that glues us to gether, not the doc -trines. It’s the glory. If you ac cept that Christ is liv ing inme and the pres ence of God is in me and the pres ence ofGod is in you, that’s all we need be cause God will sort outall our doc trines when we get up stairs. There fore, Chris -tian unity is the ba sis of our cred i bil ity be cause Je sussaid un til they are one we’ll not be lieve, the world will notbe lieve as they should, un til we are one. Di vi sion de stroysour cred i bil ity. It is fear that keeps us sep a rated be causefear is false ev i dence ap pear ing real an ac ro nym f-e-a-rfalse ev i dence ap pear ing real. Because most of your fearis based on propaganda.

Com ment: This para graph is dia bolic! Palmer says divi -sion is dia bolic but unity in error is not blessed. It is God inhis word that calls for divi sion and sep a ra tion from evil andeven from pro fessed Chris tians who hold to false doc trines.


Read care fully the fol low ing verses: “Where fore come outfrom among them, and be ye sep a rate, saith the Lord, andtouch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Corin -thi ans 6:17). “And I heard another voice from heaven,say ing, Come out of her, my peo ple, That ye be not par tak ersof her sins, And that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev e la -tion 18:4). If we do not come out of Bab y lon we will be apar taker or have fel low ship (Greek) with her sins. John could write, “Who so ever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doc -trine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doc trineof Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there comeany unto you, and bring not this doc trine, receive him notinto your house, nei ther bid him God speed: for he thatbiddeth him God speed is par taker of his evil deeds” (2 John9–11). (See also Isa iah 52:11; 48:2; Jer e miah 50:8; 51:6.)

Palmer says that the char is matic renewal is expe ri enc ingthe pres ence of God. But the god that he is expe ri enc ing inhis renewal is a false holy spirit. Rev e la tion 16:14 and 13:13,14 speak of the spir its of dev ils that work mir a cles. This mir -a cle-work ing power is attrib uted to the work ing of the HolySpirit, but these pro fessed Chris tians wor ship the trin ity andare con fused on the iden tity and role of the Holy Spirit.

Palmer is teach ing that since God lives in all of us, we areall broth ers and sis ters and are not to allow doc trines to standin the way of fel low ship. He says that the doc trines are notthe glue; it is the glory or this char is matic expe ri ence of theHoly Spirit in the life that makes the peo ple one. But there are two big prob lems with this idea. Firstly, this spirit in themod ern emerg ing church, this spirit in the Pen te cos tal move -ment, this spirit in the cel e bra tion church is not from God,but from the devil. Sec ondly, what Palmer says is not whatthe Bible says about unity. Paul in Ephe sians 4 plainly statesthat we are to “all come in the unity of the faith, and of theknowl edge of the Son of God, unto a per fect man, unto themea sure of the stat ure of the fulness of Christ” (Ephe sians4:13). We have been also told to unify, but it must be doneupon a Scrip tural basis (Selected Mes sages, bk. 1, p. 175).Any thing less is not true unity.

“Romanism is now regarded by Prot es tants with fargreater favor than in for mer years. In those coun tries whereCathol i cism is not in the ascen dancy, and the papists are tak -ing a con cil ia tory course in order to gain influ ence, there isan increas ing indif fer ence con cern ing the doc trines that sep -a rate the reformed churches from the papal hier ar chy; theopin ion is gain ing ground that, after all, we do not dif fer sowidely upon vital points as has been sup posed, and that a lit -tle con ces sion on our part will bring us into a betterunder stand ing with Rome” (The Great Con tro versy, p. 563)

Palmer declares that our Chris tian unity is the basis of thebeliever’s cred i bil ity in the world. He claims that the worldwill sit up and take notice of Chris tian ity when we have thisunity of which he speaks. Palmer does not quote a text, butthe ref er ence must be from John 17:21, where Jesus says:“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in

thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world maybelieve that thou hast sent me.” But notice that the issue is not cred i bil ity with the world so that the world might believe inJesus, but rather that he was sent of the Father. Fur ther more,this unity is based upon being sanc ti fied by the truth! “Sanc -tify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hastsent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into theworld. And for their sakes I sanc tify myself, that they alsomight be sanc ti fied through the truth. Nei ther pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me throughtheir word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art inme, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that theworld may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:17–21).

Palmer says that “it is fear that keeps us sep a rated,” but weshould be fear ful to be joined unto the har lot and her daugh -ters! This is not based upon pro pa ganda, but upon the Bible!We should be fear ful to sanc tion sin and be fear ful to let go ofthe sin ner and make no effort to restore him.

Now why is it his toric? Be cause in 1999 the Ro manCath o lic Church and the protestant Lu theran Churchsigned an agree ment that brought an end to the pro test. Lu -ther be lieved that we were saved by grace through faithalone. Amen. But that’s not it. The Cath o lic Church be -lieved that we were saved by works. And that was thepro test. In 1999 they wrote this to gether be cause in theProtestant Church we’ve got a lot of cheap salvations.Peo ple were get ting born again but no fruit what so everand be cause we did n’t even look for fruit, it was n’t the is -sue be cause it was n’t nec es sary for sal va tion, and no, it’snot, but it’s a good judge if you are saved. So what thesetwo churches did, they put the two def i ni tions to gether.Lis ten to it. I’m read ing ver ba tim from the Cath o lic Vat i -can website. Jus ti fi ca tion means that Christ him self is ourrigh teous ness, in which we share through the Holy Spiritin ac cord with the will of the Fa ther. To gether we Cath o -lics and Prot es tants, Lu ther ans, be lieve and con fess thatby grace alone, in faith in Christ’s sav ing works and notbe cause of any merit on our part we are ac cepted by Godand re ceive the Holy Spirit who re news our hearts whileequip ping and call ing us to good works (un der lin ing sup -plied).

Com ment: This is where the facts begin to become evenmore gar bled and fuzzy. There was an agree ment signed in1999 between the Vat i can and a group of Luther ans calledthe Lutheran World Fed er a tion (LWF). “The LWF is a globalcom mu nion of 142 churches in the Lutheran tra di tion, rep re -sent ing over 70 mil lion Chris tians in 79 coun tries”(http://www.lutheranworld.org/con tent/about-lwf, accessed March 19, 2014). The LWF has been in study with theRoman Cath o lic Church since Vat i can II and has more plansfor 2014. Within Amer ica, the larg est branch of Luther ansand the larg est that belong to the LWF is the Evan gel i calLutheran Church in Amer ica (ELCA). This is a very lib eralbranch of Luther ans which ordain women and homo sex u als


to be priests. While the major ity of Luther ans world wide fallunder the LWF, they cer tainly do not rep re sent all Lutheran.

The LWF did sign a joint state ment of faith on jus ti fi ca tion in 1999, but it is not as sim ple as Tony Palmer makes itsound. Palmer’s read ing of a ver ba tim quote is not an exactver ba tim quote. He says, “Together we Cath o lics and Prot es -tants, Luther ans, believe and con fess . . .”, but the text doesnot say “Cath o lics and Prot es tants, Luther ans.” While theagree ment was between Cath o lics and Luther ans, it does notsay Prot es tants, and I for one Protestant object to beingincluded in this ver ba tim state ment. Part of the Joint Dec la -ra tion states:

“In faith we together hold the con vic tion that jus ti fi ca tionis the work of the tri une God. The Father sent his Son into theworld to save sin ners. The foun da tion and pre sup po si tion ofjus ti fi ca tion is the incar na tion, death, and res ur rec tion ofChrist. Jus ti fi ca tion thus means that Christ him self is ourrigh teous ness, in which we share through the Holy Spirit inaccord with the will of the Father. Together we con fess: Bygrace alone, in faith in Christ’s sav ing work and not becauseof any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receivethe Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equip ping andcall ing us to good works.” Remem ber that “it is a part of herpol icy to assume the char ac ter which will best accom plishher pur pose; but beneath the vari able appear ance of the cha -me leon she con ceals the invari able venom of the ser pent”(The Great Con tro versy, p. 571). Yes, the joint doc u mentuses the expres sion by grace alone, but they do not definehow this grace is achieved. It is a long-held belief in Cathol i -cism that we are pre pared for grace through our works.Fur ther more, when the doc u ment uses the expres sion “faithalone,” it is in ref er ence to the Lutheran’s posi tion and not tothe joint posi tion. In the appen dix to the doc u ment, we read:

“‘Where, how ever, Lutheran teach ing con strues the rela -tion of God to his human crea tures in jus ti fi ca tion with suchempha sis on the divine ‘monergism’ or the sole effi cacy ofChrist in such a way, that the per sons will ing accep tance ofGod’s grace - which is itself a gift of God - has no essen tialrole in jus ti fi ca tion, then the Tridentine can ons 4, 5, 6 and 9still con sti tute a nota ble doc trinal dif fer ence on jus ti fi ca -tion’” (APPENDIX, Resources for the Joint Dec la ra tion onthe Doc trine of Jus ti fi ca tion). The scope of this arti cle in OldPaths is not able to include all the sub tle dif fer ences, but restassured that Rome has not changed; the Coun cil of Trent hasnot been repu di ated. Notice these state ments from theCoun cil:

“CANON IX.-If any one saith, that by faith alone theimpi ous is jus ti fied; in such wise as to mean, that noth ing else is required to co-oper ate in order to the obtain ing the grace of Jus ti fi ca tion, and that it is not in any way nec es sary, that hebe pre pared and dis posed by the move ment of his own will;let him be anath ema.

“CANON XIV.-If any one saith, that man is truly absolved from his sins and jus ti fied, because that he assur edly

believed him self absolved and jus ti fied; or, that no one istruly jus ti fied but he who believes him self jus ti fied; and that,by this faith alone, abso lu tion and jus ti fi ca tion are effected;let him be anath ema.

“CANON XXIX.-If any one saith, that he, who has fallenafter bap tism, is not able by the grace of God to rise again; or,that he is able indeed to recover the jus tice which he has lost,but by faith alone with out the sac ra ment of Pen ance, con -t rary to what the holy Roman and uni ver sa lChurch-instructed by Christ and his Apos tles-has hith ertopro fessed, observed, and taugh; let him be anath ema” (Coun -cil of Trent, Sixth Ses sion).

But what does the Bible say? “There fore by the deeds ofthe law there shall no flesh be jus ti fied in his sight: for by thelaw is the knowl edge of sin.” (Romans 3:20). “Being jus ti -fied freely by his grace through the redemp tion that is inChrist Jesus,” (Romans 3:24). “There fore we con clude that aman is jus ti fied by faith with out the deeds of the law”(Romnans 3:28). “For what saith the scrip ture? Abra hambelieved God, and it was counted unto him for righ teous -ness” (Romnans 4:3). “There fore being jus ti fied by faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”(Romnans 5:1). “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of your selves: it is the gift of God” (Ephe sians2:8).”Not by works of righ teous ness which we have done,but accord ing to his mercy he saved us, by the wash ing ofregen er a tion, and renew ing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).

The Coun cil of Trent also declares: “CANONXXXIII.—If any one saith, that, by the Cath o lic doc trinetouch ing Jus ti fi ca tion, by this holy Synod inset forth in thispres ent decree, the glory of God, or the mer its of our LordJesus Christ are in any way der o gated from, and not ratherthat the truth of our faith, and the glory in fine of God and ofJesus Christ are ren dered (more) illus tri ous; let him be anath -ema.” This coun cil declares that if any one dis agrees with it,that per son is anath ema or damned. Palmer con tin ues:

This brought an end to the pro test of Lu ther. Broth ersand sis ters, Lu ther’s pro test is over. Is yours? In 1999 thiswas signed by the Lu theran Church, the fed er a tion world -wide. Later, about five years later, the world wideMeth od ist signed the same agree ment but as of to day, westill have had no protestant evan gel i cal that will stand upand sign this agree ment, to agree with our broth ers and sis -ters that we are saved by grace through faith to goodworks, and I be lieve that’s some thing that needs to befixed. There’s a challenge for you.

Com ment: Beloved, the Lutheran’s pro test may be over,but mine is not. To clar ify about the Meth od ists sign ing on tothe state ment, the facts are that on July 18, 2006, mem bers ofthe World Meth od ist Coun cil (WMC), meet ing in Seoul,South Korea, voted unan i mously to adopt the dec la ra tion onthe doc trine of jus ti fi ca tion. The WMC “is a con sul ta tivebody and asso ci a tion of churches in the Meth od ist tra di tion.It com prises 76 mem ber denom i na tions in 132 coun tries and


rep re sent ing about 75 mil lion peo ple, among them theUnited Meth od ist Church, the Free Meth od ist Church, theUnited Church of Christ in the Phil ip pines, the Afri canMeth od ist Epis co pal Zion Church, the United Church ofCan ada, the Brit ish Meth od ist Church, the Unit ing Churchof Aus tra lia, the Wes leyan Church, and the Church of theNazarene” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Meth od -ist_Coun cil). So when Tony Palmer says that nobody elseagrees or standsup, he is not totallyaccu rate, for it isnot just the Meth -od ists but sev eralgroups, includ ingthe Church of theNazarene.1

So, the pro -test has beenover for fif teenyears. And I geta bit cheeky here cause I chal -lenge myprotestant pas -tor friends—ifthere is no morepro test, how can there be a protestant church? Maybe wenow are all cath o lics again, but we are re formed. We arecath o lic in the uni ver sal sense. We are not pro test ing thedoc trine of sal va tion by the Cath o lic Church any more. Wenow preach the same gos pel. We now preach you aresaved by grace through faith alone. The word alone wasthe ar gu ment for five hun dred years. The word alone isthere. You can read it your self. The pro test is over. Theprotest is over.

Com ment: Notice the steps that Palmer now takes. Hefalsely states that the pro test is over because there is noth ingto pro test any lon ger. There fore there should be no Protestant Church. There is a thread of truth in what he says that if wehave noth ing to pro test, we should return to Rome. The dis -tance between most Protestant churches and Rome is far lessthan it once was, but it is not because Rome has moved; it isbecause the Prot es tants have moved towards Rome. But forthose who have not and will not move, we con tinue to pro testin the stron gest terms! We refuse to be cat e go rized as Cath o -lic in any man ner. We state clearly that there is much thatpre vents our unity, includ ing a proper under stand ing of jus ti -fi ca tion but not lim it ing it to that. We can not and will notaccept papal infal li bil ity, Mariology, tran sub stan ti a tion,

prayers to the saints, pur ga tory, limbo, Deuterocanonicalbooks, the doc trine of eter nal tor ment, and many other mon -stros i ties that the man of sin teaches. What about solascriptura? The Roman Cath o lic Church does not even pre -tend that Scrip ture is the sole author ity for its faith andprac tice. For this essen tial fact to be ignored shows theduplic ity or the igno rance of the unity move ment.

The pro test is not over!The word alone

is in the doc u mentbut look ing underthe sur face of thedoc u ment, i t isclear that themean ing is notwhat all Prot es -tants think. Palmernow says:

So let me pray,and then we’ll start the video. I be lieve we will be gin tosee more and morepeo ple called outto go into the world and work among

the churches in the spirit of Eli jah, to turn the hearts of thefa thers to the chil dren and the hearts of the chil dren to thefa thers, to make ready a peo ple pre pared for the Lord.Min is tries of rec on cil i a tion. We need to throw as much re -sources and en ergy into the min is try of rec on cil i a tion aswe do to the min is try of evangelization, or are we build ingwalls with out foun da tions? I chal lenge you to find abridge-builder and back him or her, and I’d like to praythis prayer and if you agree, you can say amen. This was ady ing man’s prayer and when you know you are about todie you cer tainly pray the most important prayers.

Com ment: One of the titles of the Roman emper ors thatthe pope uses is Pontifex Maximus. It lit er ally means greatbridge builder. The pope is the bridge builder that TonyPalmer wants every one to find.

He said I do not pray for these alone, but also for thosewho will be lieve in me through their word that they all may be one as you fa ther are in me and I in you that they also beone in us so that the world may be lieve that you sent meand the glory which you have given me I have given themthat they may be one as we are one [John 17:20–23NKJV]. Glory to the Fa ther. Amen.


Palmer in form ing the con gre ga tion, “We are Cath o lic.”

1. This is a devel op ment that may not be fully under stood on the local level of these churches. I con tacted an ordained min is ter ofthe Church of the Nazarene, whom I per son ally know, and asked if he was aware that the Church of the Nazarene was asso ci atedwith the WMC and about the joint state ment of faith. He replied that he did not know of any such asso ci a tion or dec la ra tion offaith. I then called the Church of the Nazarene’s inter na tional head quar ters in Kan sas City, Mis souri, and it was con firmed that the denom i na tion is indeed a mem ber of the WMC.

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Com ment: The prayer of Christ included that his fol low -ers be sanc ti fied by the truth (John 17:17), for he knew thatnoth ing but the truth could, in real ity, set his fol low ers free(John 8:32).

Pope Fran cis’s AddressAfter this intro duc tion, Palmer played the video of the

pope. We do not have an unedited ver sion, but there appearsto be very lit tle edit ing done, as there are no notice able cutedits in the video. Below, in quote for mat, is a tran scrip tionof the pope’s address to Ken neth Cope land and the big fishes

(min is ters at Cope land’s con fer ence). Brack eted inser tionsare in the orig i nal.

Dear Broth ers and Sis ters,

Ex cuse me be cause I speak in Ital ian, but I am notspeak ing Eng lish. I will speak no Ital ian, no Eng lish, butheartfully. It’s a lan guage, more sim ple and more au then -tic, and this lan guage of the heart has a spe cial [par tic u lar]lan guage and gram mar. Asim ple gram mar. Two rules:Love God above all and lovethe other [neigh bor] be causehe is your brother and sis ter.With these two rules, we cango ahead. I am here with mybrother, my bishop brother,Tony Palmer. We’ve beenfriends for years.

He told me about yourcon fer ence, about your meet -ing, and it’s my plea sure togreet you, a greet ing bothjoy ful and nos tal gic [yearn -ing]. Joy ful be cause it givesme joy that you have come

to gether to wor ship Je sus Christ the only Lord and to prayto the Fa ther and to re ceive the Holy Spirit. This brings mejoy be cause we can see that God is work ing all over theworld. Nos tal gic [yearn ing] be cause, but it hap pens, aswithin our sub urbs, in the sub urbs, there are fam i lies thatlove each other and fam i lies that don’t love each other,fam i lies that come to gether and fam i lies who sep a ratethem selves. We are kind of, per mit me to say, sep a rated.

Sep a rated be cause it’s sin that has sep a rated us, all oursins, the mis un der stand ings through out his tory. It has

been a long road of sins that weall shared in. Who is to blame?We all share the blame. We have all sinned. There is only oneblame less, the Lord. I am nos -tal gic [yearn ing], that thissep a ra tion co mes to an end andgives us com mu nion.

I am nos tal gic [yearn ing] ofthat em brace that the HolyScrip ture speaks of when Jo -seph’s broth ers be gan to starvefrom hun ger. They went toEgypt to buy so that they couldeat. They went to buy. They hadmoney, but they could n’t eat the money. But there they foundsome thing more than food; they found their brother. All of ushave cur rency—the cur rency of

our cul ture, the cur rency of our his tory. We have a lot ofcul tural riches and re li gious riches, and we have di versetra di tions, but we have to en coun ter one an other as broth -ers. We must cry to gether, like Jo seph did. These tears willunite us. The tears of love.


Pope Fran cis speak ing on video

The Pope reach ing out to en cour age the Prot es tants to be brother

I am speak ing to you as a brother. I speak to you in asim ple way, with joy and nos tal gia [yearn ing]. Let us al -low our nos tal gia [yearn ing] to grow be cause this willpro pel us to find each other, to em brace one an other, andto gether to wor ship Je sus Christ as the only Lord of his -tory.

I thank you pro foundly for lis ten ing to me. I thank youpro foundly for al low ing me to speak the lan guage of theheart, and I also ask you a fa vor. Please pray for me be -cause I need your prayers, and I will pray for you. I will doit, but I need your prayers, and let us pray to the Lord thatHe unites us all. Come on, we are broth ers. Let’s give eachother a spir i tual hug and let God com plete the work that hehas be gun. And this is a mir a cle; the mir a cle of unity hasbe gun.

A fa mous Ital ian au thor named Manzoni once wrote inhis novel of a sim ple man amongst the peo ple who oncesaid this: “I’ve never seen God be gin a mir a cle with outHim fin ish ing it well.” He will com plete this mir a cle ofunity. I ask you to bless me, and I bless you. From brotherto brother, I em brace you. Thank you.”

C o m m e n t :Clearly TonyPalmer has a closerela tion ship withthe pope. PopeFran cis declaresthat they have beenfriends for years.The pope callsPalmer his brotherand addresses those lis ten ing to thevideo as broth ers.He speaks of thesep a ra tion that they have had and says it has been because of sin. But does Fran -cis accept the blame because of the dam na ble doc trines andmon stros i ties of Rome, such as the Inqui si tion which neces si -tated the ref or ma tion? No, he says all are to blame and stateswe have all sinned and only Christ is blame less. But this isignor ing the issues and cast ing blame where it does not rest.

The pope then speaks of the broth ers of Joseph who wentto Egypt to buy corn and found their brother. He tries toimply a mod ern-day par al lel. Joseph’s broth ers are the Prot -es tants, and the papacy is Joseph in this par a ble. But noticethat Joseph did not go out to meet his broth ers half way, butrather they came all the way to him. In the Bible, Egypt issym bolic of sin, and in real ity the Prot es tants are going tomeet the man of sin.

The pope says that we are to “embrace one another, andtogether to wor ship Jesus Christ as the only Lord of his tory.”

But it is not the pope who will move in doc trine and wor shipto the Prot es tants, but the Prot es tants to the pope. Again thepope empha sizes that he and his lis ten ers are broth ers andthat he wants to give them a spir i tual hug. He says, “Let Godcom plete the work that he has begun. And this is a mir a cle;the mir a cle of unity has begun.” Clearly a work of unity hasbegun but it is not a work of God but of the god of the papacy,Satan. The pope then declares that God “will com plete thismir a cle of unity.”

Finally, the pope asks Ken neth Cope land to bless him, andhe declares a bless ing to those at KCM with one last ref er -ence to being broth ers and giv ing thanks.

The response at KCM was over whelm ing. The peo plegave the pope a loud, stand ing ova tion with raised hands.Ken neth Cope land then prayed for the pope and agreed withthe pope and with his “quest for the unity in the body ofChrist.” Cope land then said that he would pray for the popein spirit with words that are not his own and then goes off into speak ing in tongues. After that he asks for Tony Palmer totake a video of him in front of the con gre ga tion to take back ames sage to the pope. He said:

My dear s i r,thank you so fromthe bot tom of ourhearts. All of theselead ers rep re sentlit er ally tens ofthou sands of peo -ple that love you,that be lieve Godwith you, and inan swer to your re -quest we have justprayed for you andwith you and wedid so in the spiritand we be lieve were ceive ac cord ingto the words of Je -sus in Mark 11:24,

“That what so ever thing you de sire, when you pray, be -lieve you re ceive them, and you shall have them. Ourde sire sir, along with you, is in the fourth chap ter of thebook of Ephe sians, “till we all come in the unity of thefaith and of the knowl edge of the son of God, unto a ma -ture man, unto the mea sure of the stat ure of the full ness ofChrist.” Thank you sir, we do bless you. We re ceive yourbless ing, it is very very im por tant to us and we bless youwith all of our hearts. We bless you with all of our souls.We bless you with all of our might, and we thank you sir,we thank God for you. And so, all of us de clare to gether[Cope land turns to con gre ga tion], be blessed. Once again,all to gether, be blessed! Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen,amen.


Cope land pre par ing to re cord a mes sage to the pope.

Palmer tells Cope land: “You’re going to have to come tothe Vat i can.” To this Cope land says, “I will. I’m avail able.Praise God. God’s will be done. Amen.”

Maybe you had not heard of Tony Palmer before this. Iknew noth ing about him until this was reported. Most Chris -

tians, how ever, know that Ken neth Cope land is a big-time,Protestant, Pen te cos tal tele van gel ist; and every one knowsthat Pope Fran cis is a big-time player. Regard less of themeans, we see hands reach ing across the gulf and unityamong for mer ene mies. I am reminded of what the ser vant ofthe Lord wrote:

The time was when Prot es tants placed a high valueupon the lib erty of con science which had been so dearlypur chased. They taught their chil dren to ab hor pop ery andheld that to seek har mony with Rome would be dis loy altyto God. But how widely dif fer ent are the sen ti ments nowex pressed! (The Great Con tro versy, p. 563)

The Prot es tants of the United States will be fore most instretch ing their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand ofSpir i tu al ism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp handswith the Ro man power; and un der the in flu ence of thisthree fold un ion, this coun try will fol low in the steps ofRome in tram pling on the rights of con science. (Ibid.,p. 588)

Two of the great errors that both the papists and the vastmajor ity of Prot es tants agree with are the Trin ity and Sunday sacred ness. Adventism has fully embraced the first and isflirt ing with the sec ond in many ways. When pres sure isbrought forth, it will be declared that we all wor ship the same God (the trin ity); there fore, we should wor ship the trin ity onthe day ded i cated to the trin ity (Sunday). When pres sure isbrought to bear or favors need to be repaid, we are told:

The time is not far dis tant when the test will come to ev -ery soul. The mark of the beast will be urged upon us.Those who have step by step yielded to worldly de mandsand con formed to worldly cus toms will not find it a hardmat ter to yield to the pow ers that be, rather than sub jectthem selves to de ri sion, in sult, threat ened im pris on ment,and death. (Tes ti mo nies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 81)

A pro to type of such yield ing could be seen in the exam pleof Dr. Ben Car son, the most famous Sev enth-day Adven tistin Amer ica and per haps the world. This year, as well as lastyear, Car son spoke at a large con ser va tive polit i cal rally onthe Sab bath about sec u lar themes. Many believe that Car sonis going to run for pres i dent of the United States and is try ingto maneu ver him self into a favor able posi tion in the eye ofthe pub lic. Inter est ingly, these speeches have received lit tleneg a tive com ment within Adven tist cir cles. Another exam -ple was shared with me by a worker at an Adventistele men tary school who said that the gov ern ment came withcer tain require ments for the school to meet that the schooldid not wish, nor felt obli gated to per form. How ever, theywere reminded that the school served milk each morn ing atits break fast pro gram and that the milk was sup plied by thegov ern ment. They were then told it was time for pay back and the gov ern ment got what they wanted. Accep tance by theother churches and con tin u a tion of 501(c)(3) sta tus will notbe given up by the Sev enth-day Adven tist Church. Com pro -mise, instead, will be made.

It was by sa tanic aid that Pha raoh’s ma gi cians were en -abled to coun ter feit the work of God. Paul tes ti fies thatbe fore the sec ond ad vent of Christ there will be sim i larman i fes ta tions of sa tanic power. The com ing of the Lord is to be pre ceded by “the work ing of Sa tan with all powerand signs and ly ing won ders, and with all deceivablenessof un righ teous ness. 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10 (The GreatCon tro versy, p. 553)

The Pen te cos tal, char is matic, ecu men i cal move ment isexactly on tar get for the cel e bra tion style emerg ing churchwhich seeks to min i mize doc trine and empha size fel low shipand spirit. How do you think the peo ple who reject this Pen -te cos tal, emerg ing church will be received? Jesus said,“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall killyou: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake”(Mat thew 24:9) We have also been told:

The mir a cle-work ing power man i fested through spir i -tu al ism will ex ert its in flu ence against those who chooseto obey God rather than men. Com mu ni ca tions from thespir its will de clare that God has sent them to con vince there ject ers of Sunday of their er ror, af firm ing that the laws of the land should be obeyed as the law of God. They will la -ment the great wick ed ness in the world and sec ond thetes ti mony of re li gious teach ers that the de graded state ofmor als is caused by the des e cra tion of Sunday. Great willbe the in dig na tion ex cited against all who re fuse to ac cepttheir tes ti mony. (The Great Con tro versy, pp. 590, 591)

Beloved, we may not be at the end of the end yet, but wecer tainly are very near it. We know that accord ing to Bibleproph ecy there are more things to soon hap pen, but we cansee the stage is being set. Com ing events have been cast ingshad ows and the real ity is now upon us. USA Today reportedthat on March 13th, “House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio,extended a for mal and open invi ta tion Thurs day to Pope


Af ter his mes sage to the pope Cope land de -clared that, “Heaven is thrilled over this.”

Fran cis to address a jointmeet ing of Con gress”(http://www.usatoday.com / s t o r y / n e w s / p o l i -tics/2014/03/13/boehner-pope-fran cis/6373779/;accessed March 16 ,2014). No pope or anyreli gious leader thatserves as a head of statehas ever addressed Con -gress. Boehner, a RomanCath o lic, stated:

His ad dress as a vis it -ing head of state be fore ajoint meet ing of theHouse and Sen ate would

honor our na tion in keep ing with the best tra di tions of ourdem o cratic in sti tu tions. . . . It would also of fer an ex cel lent op por tu nity for the Amer i can peo ple as well as the na tionsof the world to hear his mes sage in full. (Ibid.)

In other words, the pope is being invited to use the UnitedStates Capitol build ing as his pul pit!

USA Today also reported that House Minor ity LeaderNancy Pelosi, also a Roman Cath o lic and nor mally a bit terpolit i cal enemy of Boehner, has joined Boehner in wel com -ing Pope Fran cis to address Con gress. The arti cle alsoreported:

Pelosi at tended his in au gu ra tion at the Vat i can andpraised him as “a moral force.” (Ibid.)

If the Pope speaks from the United States Cap i tal build ingwith the full sup port of Con gress it would cer tainly con sti -tute a repu di a tion of our Con sti tu tion. We have been told:

When Prot es tant ism shall stretch her hand across thegulf to grasp the hand of the Ro man power, when she shallreach over the abyss to clasp hands with spir i tu al ism,when, un der the in flu ence of this three fold un ion, ourcoun try shall re pu di ate ev ery prin ci ple of its Con sti tu tionas a Protestant and re pub li can gov ern ment, and shall make pro vi sion for the prop a ga tion of pa pal false hoods and de -lu sions, then we may know that the time has come for themar vel ous work ing of Sa tan and that the end is near. (Tes -ti mo nies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 451)

Sim ply know ing the last-day event sched ule is not enough to be ready for the return of Jesus. While Hosea says, “Mypeo ple are destroyed for lack of knowl edge” (Hosea 4:6),knowl edge itself will not save us. The devil knows more than we do, but he will not be saved. Even if we know every detailof last-day events we shall not be saved unless we know thehand that con trols the last-day events and says “thus far, andno fur ther.” Our only hope and ref uge is in Christ; he alonecan save (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). We cer tainly need to be onguard. We cer tainly should be watch ing the signs of the

times, but above all wemust trust in Jesus andcling to him and likeJacob say, “I will not letthee go, except thoubless me” (Exo dus32:26). Finally:

The time is upon uswhen the mir a -cle-work ing power ofthe arch de ceiver willbe more de cid edly re -vealed. And hisde cep tions will in -crease in theirde lu sive at trac tion, so that they will per plex,and if pos si ble, de ceive, the very elect. The prince of dark -

ness with his evil an gels is work ing upon the Chris tian

world, in duc ing those who pro fess the name of Christ to

stand un der the ban ner of dark ness, to make war with

those who keep the com mand ments of God, and have the

faith of Je sus. An apos tate church will unite with the pow -

ers of earth and hell to place upon the fore head or in the

hand, the mark of the beast, and pre vail upon the chil dren

of God to wor ship the beast and his im age. They will seek

to com pel them to re nounce their al le giance to God’s law,

and yield hom age to the pa pacy. Then will come the times

which will try men’s souls; for the con fed er acy of apos -

tasy will de mand that the loyal sub jects of God shall

re nounce the law of Je ho vah, and re pu di ate the truth of his

word. Then will the gold be sep a rated from the dross, and

it will be made ap par ent who are the godly, who are loyal

and true, and who are the dis loyal, the dross and the tin sel.

What clouds of chaff will then be borne away by the fan of

God! Where now our eyes can dis cover only rich floors of

wheat, will be chaff blown away with the fan of God. Ev -

ery one who is not cen tered in Christ will fail to stand the

test and or deal of that day. While those who are clothed

with Christ’s righ teous ness will stand firm to truth and

duty, those who have trusted in their own righ teous ness

will be ranged un der the black ban ner of the prince of

dark ness. Then it will be seen whether the choice is for

Christ or Belial. Those who have been self-dis trust ful,

who have been so cir cum stanced that they have not dared

to face stigma and re proach, will at last openly de clare

them selves for Christ and his law; while many who have

ap peared to be flour ish ing trees, but who have borne no

fruit, will go with the mul ti tude to do evil, and will re ceive

the mark of apos tasy in the fore head or in the hand. (El len

White, The Re view and Her ald, No vem ber 8, 1892) ?


House SpeakerJohn Boehner

Mi nor ity LeaderNancy Pelosi,

Youth’s Corner — The Welsh Girl, and theBeginning of Modern Bible Distribution

The story begins with a lit tle Welsh girl’s ques tion, “Whyhave n’t we a Bible of our own, mother?”

“Because Bibles are scarce, child, and we’re too poor topay the price of one.”

Two miles from Mary Jones’s home lived a farmer whoowned a Bible. She secured per mis sion to call and read itspages now and then. The story of the first visit we mustrepeat:

The good farmer’s wife went away, leav ing Mary alonewith a Bi ble for the first time in her life.

Pres ently the child raised the nap kin, and, fold ing itneatly, laid it to one side.

Then with trem bling hands she opened the Book,opened it at the fifth chap ter of John, and her eyes caughtthese words, “Search the Scrip tures; for in them ye thinkye have eter nal life: and they are they which tes tify ofMe.”

“I will! I will!” she cried, feel ing as if the words werespo ken di rectly to her by some di vine voice. “I will searchand learn all I can. O, if I had but a Bi ble of my own!”

And this wish, this sigh for the rare and cov eted trea -sure, was the key note to a grand and glo ri ous har monywhich, years af ter, spread in vol ume un til it rolled inwaves of sound over the whole earth. Yes, that yearn ing ina poor child’s heart was des tined to be a means of light andknowl edge to mil lions of souls in the fu ture. (Mary Jonesand Her Bi ble, pp. 58, 59)

Now the girl began to work untir ingly to gather money tobuy a Welsh Bible of her own. It was in the year 1800, aftersix years of sav ing, that she made the bare foot jour ney ofover twenty-five miles to the town of Bala, with the price ofthe book in her pocket.

How her hun ger for the liv ing word was used to start anagency for feed ing the hun ger of the nations is told briefly byone of the Brit ish Bible Soci ety’s sec re tar ies:

She was told she had better go to Mr. Charles at Bala,and per haps he would be able to pro cure her a Bi ble. Balawas a great way off — twenty-five miles or more amongthe hills; but she set out very gladly on her jour ney. Nowyou must think of her go ing on that long and lonely way;walk ing bare foot on the moun tain track or the hard high -road, for like a thrifty coun try maid, she car ried her shoesand stock ings ‘ to save them; ’ sing ing to her self, I have nodoubt; rest ing a lit tle some times on the green turf or un derthe shadow of a tree, and eat ing a lit tle from her store; butal ways busy in her thoughts with her Bi ble, and her meet -ing with Mr. Charles, and her joy ful journey home again.

As she drew near Bala, she stopped to wash in a brookand to put on her shoes; but it was al ready late when shereached Mr. Charles’s house, and she could not see him,fot it was his cus tom to go early to rest and to rise at cock -crow. So she stayed that night at the house of the wor thyel der, Da vid Ed ward, and next morn ing, be tween five andsix o’clock, he took her to Mr. Charles’s. Yes, there was alight in his study win dow, and he was al ready hard atwork. They knocked and were ad mit ted, and Da vid toldMr. Charles her story.

“Re ally,” said the good min is ter, “I am very sorry thatshe should have come from such a dis tance, for I fear, in -deed, that I can not spare her a copy; Bi bles are so veryscarce.”

For thir teen years Mr. Charles and other de vout min is -ters of the gos pel had been try ing to ob tain a plen ti fulsup ply of the Scrip tures in Welsh for their fel low coun try -men, but they had met with lit tle suc cess. At last theSo ci ety for Pro mot ing Chris tian Knowl edge had con -sented to print ten thou sand Bi bles and two thou sandTes ta ments. It was a large num ber, you think; but as soonas the books were ready, they were ea gerly bought up, andby April in that very year ev ery copy had gone, and thepeo ple were ask ing for more. The only cop ies that Mr.Charles had be longed to friends for whom he had ob tained them.

Poor Mary! When she heard his an swer, her dis ap point -ment was so great that she burst into tears, and sobbed as ifher heart would break. Mr. Charles was deeply moved,and tears filled his eyes, partly in sor row for his coun try,where the word of God was so scarce, and partly in pity for Mary. He could not bear that she should re turn home ingrief and dis ap point ment.

“You shall have a Bi ble,” he said, and he gave her one of the re served cop ies. Mary’s tears were now tears of joy asshe paid for her trea sure.

“Well, Da vid Ed ward,” said Mr. Charles, turn ing to theel der, who had been weep ing too, “is not this very sad —that there should be such a scar city of Bi bles in the coun -try, and that this poor child should have walked sometwenty-eight or thirty miles to get a copy? If some thingcan be done to al ter this state of things, I will not rest till itis ac com plished.” (Lit tle Hands and God’s Book,” by W.Can ton, p. 22)

And he did not rest. He told the story of Mary Jones at ameet ing in Lon don. The idea of a soci ety to mul ti ply and dis -trib ute the Scrip tures in all lan guages, began to form. In1804, at a meet ing held in the com mer cial ware house of Old


Swan Stairs, still stand ing near Lon don Bridge, the BibleSoci ety was launched. It was fully orga nized at a meet ingcalled later. One who was there entered that day in his diary:

March 7, 1804.— Mem o ra ble day! The Brit ish and For -eign Bi ble So ci ety founded. I and oth ers be long ing to thetract so ci ety had long had it in view; and af ter much prep a -ra tion, in which we did not pub licly ap pear, a meet ing wascalled in the Lon don Tav ern, and the so ci ety be gan with avery few. . . . Na tions un born will have cause to bless Godfor the meet ing of this day. (Af ter a Hun dred Years, p. 2)

It was a true utter ance. The soci et ies for Bible dis tri bu tionmul ti plied, and the word of God speaks today, in whole or intrans lated por tions, in more than six hun dred tongues. God,who uses the weak things of this world so often in His work,used the jour ney of the youngWelsh girl to start His wordjour ney ing to and fro throughthis world in these lat ter days.

Stir ring scenes have beenwit nessed again and again asthe first Bibles have reached apeo ple or tribe. It was the joyof Mary Jones over her firstBible, re-enacted over andover again.

The first issue of the Brit ishBible Soci ety, appro pri atelyenough, was the Welsh NewTes ta ment. The first ship mentof five hun dred was orderedsent to Mr. Charles, of Bala,the place where Mary Joneshad wept her tears of grief andthen of joy. The news that the books were com ing spreadthrough the val leys.

By the Thurs day week, the whole coun try was wildwith ex cite ment, and peo ple be gan to pour into Bala fromthe neigh bor ing vil lages and hill slopes at an early hour.When the time came for the car rier to be at no great dis -tance from the town, the peo ple went out in crowds to meet him; the old mare, which had ever be fore been obliged tostrug gle with her load as best she could, was now re lievedof it, and mus cu lar farm ser vants pushed them selves intothe shafts. Ropes were ad justed and manned andmaidened, and the cart was lit er ally swarmed on all sides;then the joy ful pro ces sion pro ceeded to ward the town,where they were hailed by crowds which blocked up thestreets. (Life of the Rev. Thomas Charles, Vol. Ill, p. 68)

In 1810 the Moravian mis sion ary, Benjamin Kohlmeister,returned to the bleak coast of Lab ra dor with the first Scrip -ture por tion, the Gos pel of John. The lit tle kay aks, or canoes,filled with men, women, and chil dren, crowded about theship, and with tears and shouts of joy the mis sion ary and hisBook were wel comed home. Mr. Can ton says:

The books were dis trib uted in the win ter, when all hadcome home from their hunt ing ex cur sions; and as theywere given only to those who could read, con sid er ableprog ress was made by schol ars of all ages. The peo pletook ‘ St. John ’ with them to the is lands when they wentout in search of fish or game, seals, wild geese, or ber ries;and in their tents or snow houses they spent the eve ningsread ing by the glim mer of the moss in their lamps of soap -stone. But most they liked to gather in some large dwell ing at night fall, when they re turned from the sea or the hunt ing ground, and hear the word of God read by some one, childor adult, who had been taught in the schools of the mis -sion. (Lit tle Hands and God’s Book, p. 44)

Again, one of the sec re tar ies of the Bible Soci ety tells ofthe arrival of a ship in the Soci -ety Islands in 1816, bring ingthe paper from the soci ety forthe print ing of the Gos pel ofLuke in Tahi tian. The island -ers had been turned fromcan ni bal ism within a fewyears, and “the stones whichhad been used in human sac ri -f ices , the mis s ion aryemployed for his print ingpress.” Mr. Can ton says:

Now was not this a mar vel -ous thing, that in 1800 a lit tlebare foot girl went fifty milesover the Welsh hills for a Bi -ble, and that in 1816 somepor tion, if not the whole, ofthat Sa cred Book had reached

the ends of the earth — that the Es kimo read it un der theglow of the north ern lights, and the Hot ten tot child spelled it un der the pear tree in the Clough of Ba boons, and theNe gro learned it by heart on the sugar plan ta tions, and theRed In dian car ried it in his breast as he threaded the for estor pad dled on the Great Lakes, and that the so ci ety hadsent it to the sea ports of South Amer ica and the Aus tra lianset tle ments, and was hav ing it trans lated into the lan -guages of In dia and China and the Ma lay Ar chi pel ago?(Ibid., p. 49)

In 1852 the mis sion ary, Mr. Buzacott, returned to Raro -tonga with the printed Bible for which the peo ple had waited. Mr. Can ton describes the scene:

A rush was made for the boat when it ap proached theshore; the crew jumped out, and the boat, with all onboard, was lifted onto the shoul ders of the peo ple, and car -ried up the beach to ward the house, the men shout ing, thewomen weep ing, for joy. . . . The heavy pack ages werebrought through the surf over the reef, and the happy “sons of the Word” light ened their la bor with a song in their owntongue:


Where withal shall a young man cleanse hisway? By tak ing heed thereto ac cord ing to thy

word. Psalm 119:9)

“The Word has come!One vol ume com plete!

Let us learn the good Word!Our joy is great!

The whole Word has come!”

“It is enough,” said Papehia, when the books were dis -trib uted, — Papehia, the old na tive teacher, who firstlanded on Raro tonga thirty years be fore, when the peo plewere sav ages and can ni bals,— “my eyes have seen whatmy heart has so long de sired. 1 say with Simiona, ‘Now,Lord, let Thy ser vant de part in peace!’” (Ibid., p. 105)

Space fails to tell of long jour neys made through wil der -nesses to secure the pre cious Book. “In the West Indies anold grayheaded slave trudged fifty miles to obtain a Bible inorder that it might be read to many of his friends; and at theend of three months he returned, as he had prom ised, with the price of it, which had been col lected among the slaves.” Thus to hearts in dark ness in all parts of the world has come theblessed “day spring from on high.”

One of the trea sures of the Bible House Library in Lon donis the “bur ied Bible,” in the Mal a -gasy tongue, from Mad a gas car. Thewicked Queen Ranavalona I hadturned against the Chris tians. It wasin the year 1835. To be found with aBible was pun ish able with death.Search was made for the books.How this copy, now in Lon don, wassaved by the Chris tians of one vil -lages told by the organ of thesoci ety, The Bible in All the World:

A lit tle to the north east of theirvil lage was a hill, near the foot ofwhich stood a clus ter of largebowlders. In side that clus ter,from ten to thirty of the con vertsused to hold a ser vice each Sunday. Un der neath one of thelarg est of the bowlders at the foot of the hill, the peo plehad dug out a cave to serve as a small pox hos pi tal for thevil lage; in a dark cor ner of this cave their Bi ble was hid den be tween two slabs of granite.

The queen’s of fi cers ar rived at the vil lage to search forthe Bi ble and other Chris tian books which the queen andgov ern ment be lieved, from the re ports of spies, were to befound there. A search was made in vain in the huts of thesus pected and in the rice fields; and then the of fi cers madestraight for the clus ter of bowlders on the hill side. Whenthey were ac tu ally on the point of en ter ing the cave wherethe Bi ble lay, a vil lager said, “I sup pose you know that thisis the small pox hos pi tal.” “We did not,” they said, start ingback in hor ror. “Wretch! Why did you not tell us sooner?Why did you let us come so near?” The of fi cers beat ahasty re treat, and the Bi ble was safe.

It is not the words of man about the Book, but the inspiredwords them selves, that have the power to let the light into our dark hearts. Of the plant ing of one Bible in the heart of theDark Con ti nent, the late Henry M. Stan ley, the Afri canexplorer, told the fol low ing story:

Janet Living stone, the sis ter of Da vid Living stone,made me a pres ent of a richly bound Bi ble. Not lik ing torisk it on the voy age round the Vic to ria Nyanza, I askedFrank Pocock, my com pan ion, to lend me his some whattorn and stained copy; and I sailed on my way to Uganda,lit tle think ing what a rev o lu tion in Cen tral Af rica thatbook would make. We stayed in Uganda some time, andone day dur ing a morn ing levee, the sub ject of re li gionwas broached, and I hap pened to strike an emo tional chord in the king’s heart by mak ing a ca sual ref er ence to an gels.Kings and chiefs were moved as one man to hear moreabout an gels. My ver bal de scrip tions of them were not suf -fi cient. “But,” said I, “I have a book with me which willtell you far better, not only what an gels are, but what God

and His blessed Son are like, towhom the angels are but ministering servants.”

“Fetch it,” they ea gerly cried,“fetch it now; we will wait.”

The book was brought, opened,and I read the tenth chap ter orEzekiel, and the sev enth chap ter ofthe Rev e la tion from the ninth verseto the end; and as I read the elev enthand twelfth verses, you could haveheard a pin drop; and when theyheard the con clud ing verses, “Theyshall hun ger no more, nei ther thirstany more; nei ther shall the sun lighton them, nor any heat,” I had a pre -

sen ti ment that Uganda would even tu ally be won forChrist. I was not per mit ted to carry that Bi ble away. Mtesanever for got the won der ful words, nor the star tling ef fectthey had on him and on his chiefs. As I was turn ing awayfrom his coun try, his mes sen ger came, and cried: “TheBook! Mtesa wants the Book!” It was given to him. To daythe Chris tians num ber many thou sands in Uganda. Theyhave proved their faith at the stake, un der the knobstick,and un der tor ture till death. (The Mod ern Mis sion Cen tury, Ar thur T. Pierson, pp. pp. 95, 96)

The psalm ist said: “He sendeth forth his com mand mentupon earth: His word runneth very swiftly” (Psalm 147:15).In this time of the end the printed word has been run ning toand fro through all lands. And God, who is ever bring inggreat results from small begin nings, used the Bible-lov ingWelsh girl’s plea as the call to Chris ten dom to spread theword of light through out the world. ?


Thy word have I hid in mine heart,That I might not sin against thee.

(Psalm 119:11)


spent five long years since then, and I still believe in theprom ises of the Lord: “But in all these things we are morethan con quer ors through him who loved us” Romans 8:37.Many sad mem o ries are stored in my head and in my heart.Only the love of God gives me the strength, every momenttell ing me not to let go of his hand. “My Father, which gavethem me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck themout of my Father’s hand” John 10:29, and it is at this time thatGod knew it was time to have this great tes ti mony of faith:

It was Sunday I remem ber, almost 10 p.m. and my ideal,Brother Aland, he was passed out in the bath room of thehouse in a pool of blood. I was des per ate and not know ingwhat to do to, going into shock, and I thanked the Lord thatmy chil dren were sleep ing: Yovel (6), Levmach’er (5),Brakhot (2), Yerushalayim (14), but it was my daugh ter whohelped me lift her dad, who then weighed 120 Kg and in afainted state seemed much heavier. The Lord allowed him torise, and I left for the hos pi tal in a taxi, leav ing my chil drenalone by her sis ter and tak ing care of my lit tle Brakhot theneven breast-feed ing. They could do noth ing at the hos pi taltwenty-five min utes from the house, so we were sent toLima, one hour thirty min utes away, with gas tro in tes ti nalbleed ing and uncon scious. We cried out to God for Aland,brother, hold ing his hand tightly heard that said : “¿LORD IN SEOL I’LL PRAISE? ” filled me with his forces I also cryand cry out to God: “Though I walk through val leys of theshadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.”After a long jour ney with emer gen cies, out walked a doc torwho told me “You must be pre pared that this one today doesnot die, as he has lost a lot of blood.” And I replied that Godwill do the work and that I will be tak ing my hus band out ofhere, walk ing and eat ing, and that it was God who camebefore us. They sent me to buy many med i cines, and it wasalmost 2 a.m. The hos pi tal where we were is sit u ated in avery dan ger ous area of Lima and when I wanted to go out and buy the med i cines, the young secu rity guard at the doorasked me not to leave because it was very dan ger ous. I closed my eyes and I cried to heaven and said: “Jeho vah’s angelsencamp around those who fear him and deliver them” Psalm34:7, and I went to a phar macy but not find what I wanted.Sud denly came inside another ven dor and offered to buy themed i cine for me and for me to wait, and he did! Then I returnto the hos pi tal, thank ing God for his strength and knew at thetime, and the Lord con firmed to me, that he would be withme. “I will lift up mine eyes the hills, from whence com ethmy help. My help com eth from the Lord which made heavenand earth” Psalm 121:1,2. There were thirty-one days sleep -ing on the floor of the hos pi tal in the emer gency ward, nowait ing rooms, cry ing to the Lord and tell ing me of strengthto go on, and of his angels encamped at my house around mychil dren. Sud denly received a call from my daugh ter,Yerushalayim. Brakhot is des per ate because my baby,Brakhot, did not want to take the bot tle and me in the hos pi tal with my breasts full of milk and sup port ing the most

inde scrib able, untouch able pain com pletely by just rub bingmy arms, my tears fell alone for the pain I felt. I asked theLord for many forces to sup port and to allow my baby to takea bot tle and remove his dis tress of hun ger, as it was more than being sad and ask ing your mom for help, only the forces ofthe Lord could help, and it was you have exalted my horn like that of uni corn, you will be anointed with fresh oil. Psalm92:10. The next day I called and Yerushalayim was happyand told me that the baby had already accepted the bot tle andI was more than sur prised that I no lon ger felt the pain in mybreasts and there was no milk in them. I told the Lord that if itwas his will, it will be. I looked after my ideal, some timestook his hand and told him that through this test we will betogether because from our heav enly Father and his onlybegot ten son Jesus Christ we have from his hand. But hisbleed ing did not stop because they dis cov ered that gas tro in -tes ti nal bleed ing was because seven varices in the esoph a gusthat had col lapsed and would not stop bleed ing and had toleak. Two weeks in the hos pi tal and I was extremelyexhausted and went to stand and sleep in the hos pi tal fur ni -ture at office. It was 3 in the morn ing and I fell asleep, and alady woke me up and told me the doc tors would soon come to care for their patients, con cerned for what she said was thetime. It was almost 4 a.m. I ran to see Brother Aland andfound him cov ered and drawn to the morgue because he hadno pulse. God sent a doc tor who said he passed the patientwho was under pres sure too low and he admin is tered med i -cine to its pres sure level and put in blood and plasma,Blessed be the Lord. I am sure and I feel in my heart that Godsent an angel to give me notice and run to see what hap penedto Brother Aland, and the next day when I went to thank thesecu rity guard lady who woke me, they told me in there allthe secu rity per son nel were males. I lift my eyes to heavenand said, Thank you Lord. There were days and nights ofanguish, but I told myself that suf fer ing pro duces per se ver -ance, AND PATIENCE TEST, AND TEST HOPE (Romans5:3,4), and it is that hope that focused my faith. But thosewho hope in the Lord will renew their strength with wingslike eagles; they shall run and not be weary, walk and notfaint. Isa iah 40:31. Pas tor Allen, there were so many things Iexpe ri enced in those thirty-one days, includ ing a call tell ingme that my baby Brakhot fell off the bed and hit one of thefour lit tle teeth that had root. His sis ter took him imme di ately to the den tal sur geon and said he would have to use pros thet -ics for life for hav ing left his tooth and root, rip ping all thegum. He now almost turns 7 years old and you know Pas torAllen, his lit tle tooth is sprout ing. It is the Lord because forhim there is noth ing impos si ble. If a tooth is noth ing to theLord, imag ine a liver. Blessed be his holy name; Blessed beJesus Christ his only begot ten son. It will be five years thatBrother Aland was told it was hope less and that he only hadthree years of life. If it has been five, it can be fif teen, twenty,twenty-five; God knows; he is the mas ter of life. And so

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Are You Preparing?Olym pic swim mer Mark Spitz once said, “If you fail to pre -pare, you’re pre pared to fail.” At the end of this month, if theLord wills, I will be hik ing from one side of the Grand Can yonto the other side and back. Within a day. Maybe. I have hikedinto the can yon and out sev eral times but have never done thiskind of a hike. Actu ally I have wanted to attempt this hike forthe last twenty years and it seems that one thing or anothercomes up and the attempt has not hap pened. Recently myambi tious daugh ter Heidi said, “Dad, if we don’t at least try itsoon, it may get too late to try” (mean ing that the old man isget ting older!). I had to agree, so I have been train ing for thishike, pre par ing phys i cally, men tally, and even spir i tu ally. Iknow that forty-six miles and 11,000 feet ele va tion gain maybe a bit much for me now but I know that if I fail to pre pare, Ihave pre pared to fail. I want to get to the other side of thatmajes tic can yon and back so badly I can taste it.

But what about our Chris tian lives? Do we really want toget to “the other side” as we so often hear it described? Arewe pre par ing for the return of Jesus? Are we so anx ious for itthat we can taste it?

I am so thank ful that the theme of our camp meet ing thisyear is per fec tion of char ac ter. I real ize that most peo ple,even Chris tians, feel this is impos si ble and there fore theymake no effect to see it accom plished in their lives. But heretoo, fail ing to pre pare is to pre pare to fail. Jesus tells us to “be

ye there fore ready” (Luke 12:40). Paul said, “I press towardthe mark for the prize of the high call ing of God in ChristJesus” (Philippians 3:14). Beloved we do as Chris tians havethe goal to be Christ like. But that does not mean we have hair exactly like Jesus or look like him. He is never described inthe Bible any way. But what it does mean is to have a char ac -ter like Jesus. It means that we will live like he did. The life of Jesus was one of con stant vic tory over sin and one thatrefused to all self to rule and always glo ri fied God.

Can we be that way too? If we believe the Bible we notonly can be that way, we must be that way. Jesus said, “Be ye

Look ing across to the north rim of the GrandCan yon from the south rim


Old Paths is a free monthly news let ter/study-pa per pub lished bySmyrna Gos pel Min is tries, HC 64 Box 128–B, Welch, WV24801–9606 U. S. A. The pa per is ded i cated to the prop a ga tionand res to ra tion of the prin ci ples of truth that God gave to the early Sev enth-day Ad ven tist pi o neers. Du pli ca tion is not only per mit -ted, but strongly en cour aged. This is sue, with other gos pellit er a ture we pub lish, can be found at our web site. The url is:http://www.smyrna.org. Phone: (304) 732–9204. Fax: (304)732–7322.

Ed i tor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Allen Stump— ed i [email protected] so ci ate Ed i tor . . . . . . . . . Onycha Holt — [email protected]

YouTube Chan nel: YouTube Chan nel: We arepleased to announce that we have posted sev eral new vid eoson our YouTube chan nel this month.

To see more vid eos, includ ing char ac ter-build ing sci encedem on stra tions, we invite you to visit our Youtube chan nelat: http://www.youtube.com/user/swiftkayak?fea -ture=results_main. ?

You may see this sci ence dem on stra tion at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vp9drAT1_Y

&list=UUvsrGJG5fm2ux0AEwVuoVAw&fea -ture=share&in dex=3

WV Camp Meet ingWe are pleased to announce that the West Vir ginia campmeeting will be June 24–28 this year. The theme of the campmeet ing will be the per fec tion of char ac ter. Sev eral speak ersare being arranged, and we hope to have some new speak ersfrom over seas that we know you will not want to miss. Wecer tainly encour age you to come and share the bless ing withus. Camp ing is free to all, but each camper will be respon si -ble for his or her own meals, except on Sab bath when afel low ship meal will be pro vided. We will have full detailsnext month, but please check your cal en dars now and blockoff the time.

Meet ings in Florida and Ar i zonaWe wanted to announce that Pas tor Stump will be hav ingmeet ings in Florida and in Ari zona soon.

Florida: Sab bath, April 26, 2014, at 21056 SW 5th Pl,Dunnellon, FL, Florida. You may con tact Dee-Dee at352-208-8446 for more infor ma tion.

Ari zona: Sab bath, May 3, 2014, at 5141 East Forge Cir cle Mesa Ari zona. You may con tact Sally at 480-247-2831 formore infor ma tion.

A new, updated ver sion ofBible Stud ies To Do at Homeby David Sims is now avail -able at Smyrna Gos pelMin is tries. We encour ageyou to obtain a copy andcom plete the les sonsBrother Sims has writ ten on“This Is Life Eter nal,” ThePer son al ity of God, “ThatThey Might Know Thee,”The Father & The Son,“The Only True God,”“And Jesus Christ,” The

Holy Spirit, A Day With God, and God’s Love on Trial. Please con tact the Smyrna office at 304-732-9204 if you are inter -ested in obtain ing a copy or cop ies to share.

Pas tor Allen Brother Aland was dis charged Sep tem ber 13,2009, and until now still fight ing the good fight of faith, buthas the symp toms still. Cry in faith for heal ing for BrotherAland. And all those who were await ing Brother Aland, andyou will always be in our prayers. Thank you for agree ing tobe a chan nel of bless ing for Brother Aland.

Here are a worldly say ing goes thus: “ lie in bed and seewho loves you ” , but I think so , “LIE TO BED AND SEEHOW YOU LOVE GOD AND JESUS .”

there fore per fect, even as your Father which is in heaven isper fect” (Mat thew 5:48). That is pretty per fect isn’t it!

Ellen White understood that Christians will obtain no high than that at which they aimed. She said. “The Lord requiresper fec tion from His redeemed fam ily. He expects from us the per fec tion which Christ revealed in His human ity” (ChildGuid ance, p. 477).

I hope you are pre par ing for eter nity. I hope you are pre -par ing to go to “the other side.” I also hope you will come tothe West Vir ginia camp meet ing where we will be dis cuss ingthis won der ful theme. Satan will try to block the way butGod will help pro vide a way if you cry to him in faith.

Worldly attrac tions will be pre sented to draw his atten tionfrom the Sav iour, but he is to press on toward the goal, show -ing to the world, to angels, and to men that the hope of see ingthe face of God is worth all the effort and sac ri fice that the

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stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the secret of the … ye in the ways, and see, and ask...

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