”Now these people were more noble and open-minded than those in Thessalonica, so they received the message with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” – Acts 17:11 (emphasis added).

Fast forward to a more modern quote….

”It is difficult to get a preacher to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it” – Upton Sinclair (with my variation).

Welcome to the second main part of this site.

Following many years of personally experiencing the truth in Sinclair’s quote and not being a gifted orator myself, the aim here is once again just as the site title suggests, to provoke and stir up every single church going person in this land to be like those Bereans and to just start to think for ourselves and examine the Scriptures daily rather than blindly believe what the modern preacher tells us. This message below is not new, it is just bringing back to light things that have been systematically removed from church doctrine for nearly 200 years now and if you are serious in your relationship with our Lord you NEED to know these truths that our great preachers of this country’s past once understood and taught.

Please skip to the next sub heading now if you dont want…

All the Introductory Waffle!

I was baptised 25 years ago but it’s only relatively recently that I have come to realise just how important a thorough knowledge and crucially, the proper historical context of the Old Testament really is (and let’s not forget, those Bereans only had the Old Testament to validate Paul’s messages) because it is impossible to accurately interpret the teachings of the New Covenant without a thorough understanding of the Old. That can especially be seen today with all the absolutely ludicrous interpretations of the Book of Revelation by people who don’t realise that the correct figurative interpretation of virtually every term or phrase can be found from a knowledge and understanding of the Old Testament. Allowances are made here for the average readers lack of that vital knowledge (as with my own past, if our pastors don’t teach us the importance of these things as babes, we’re not likely to know are we) although to save space it will be assumed that the reader has a certain amount of so called ‘background knowledge’ and is grounded in what I’d call basic New Testament Christianity. 

There are scores of guys immeasurably more gifted than one here to do that, my intention is not to start a full ministry or Bible course here on this site. There are many solid old school teachers with their material online and to name just one, you wont go far wrong with Derek Prince Ministries, and although Mr Prince passed away a while ago his material remains available today both on YouTube and he has many books written of which ‘Foundations for Righteous Living’ should be on every Christians bookshelf and is strongly recommended for every dear soul new to the faith. Mr Prince is not limited to basic teachings, I still learn from him 25 years on….but, he doesn’t teach the subject you will read about here and that’s why I’m making a humble effort to do so.

More than Doctrine, this is Life or Death.

I truly cannot emphasise enough just how important the illumination of the truths in this section really are for us all, and for me this eye opening is second only to that illumination of saving grace. This subject is not just another guy arguing over doctrine, this is 100% relevant to daily secular life and will indeed be a case of life and death for many people, or death and life if you can work that one out….

Something to consider before reading further though, similar to how we once as kids had to learn how to read in a physical way, parrot fashion, before we could glean any subject matter, so it is with the deeper things of the spirit. Think of Nicodemus in John 3 initially thinking physically, and, like Nicodemus, once we mature and can read the Bible spiritually, we will then see that the mystery of God really is an ‘open secret’, there in plain sight for those granted eyes to see. This really is down to us and if we are only half hearted with God, He will only reveal a half hearted truth to us but to those who are genuine and devoted in their relationship, He will reveal genuine and deep truth to us. So please, can I encourage you not to give this a once over or try and read it in one or two nights, the things I’ve gleaned that are written about in this section are the fruit of a five year journey for me and that’s on top of my Christian base being built before that. And that’s also why I’ve only partially compromised on keeping these pages brief, because I’m not trying to appeal to those with a short attention span on these deeper sections.

Next, just an analogy as a warning sign on our journey, to try to show why we must be so careful not only in our own studies but also with everyone we allow to teach us.

Imagine finding our way home after getting lost somewhere in England (I’m English by the way)! People are friendly aren’t they and if we ask they will point us safely on our way.
But imagine being English and shot down in a bomber in WW2 Germany and asking for help. Could or would you trust anyone/everyone?
Well similarly, we’re told we are strangers in a strange land in this world system and we MUST NEVER FORGET THAT. The main subject of this whole section is typology, and this is a very offensive weapon we hold. The enemy will always try to disarm the church of this powerful weapon so please keep that in mind.

Practically then, we must exercise great caution when it comes to who we are to trust in this hostile world. All countries have spies/double agents and we know we have an adversary too – in a church setting the Bible called them ravenous wolves. And we must be just as discerning today. Remember too, wolves always have to speak enough truth to win over a church congregation before they can then inject their poison so the more ACCURATELY we know the Word the less we will be deceived. It’s a little like how only an expert banker can recognise a good bank note forgery, most people are deceived by an almost perfect – yet totally worthless – counterfeit. I’ve just read a book about magic and the occult written by a guy called Cornelius Agrippa, born Germany 1486, and I dare bet virtually all ‘Sunday Christians’ today as well as many keen Christians younger in the faith wouldn’t realise it wasn’t a godly Christian book because at least four fifths of it sounds like an Anglican church service guide!

So also in church today, deception of a slightly different nature has virtually encompassed the whole Church in the Western world and only those who interpret their Bible accurately will recognise the almost perfect counterfeit church system, the deceived teacher, and the wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing.

I’m not saying I’ve got every last detail sussed out or correct here but then who has? I’ve picked up useful bits and pieces from all sorts of people with differing doctrines and denominations and I hope somebody may find at least some truth here to help to continue to piece together their own jigsaw. I rest though knowing that anyone who chooses to do the will of God will know whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak my own words. What incredibly clever words those are of Jesus aren’t they, just read them again….

I’m asking you as your friend or brother in Christ to please consider this, Paul said of the deeply religious and devout Jews of his Old Covenant day, ‘I bear them witness that they have a zeal and enthusiasm for God, but it is not enlightened and according to [correct and vital] knowledge’, Rom 10 AMPC, and most went on to perish in AD70. Can we really say there is no possibility at all that church today could be in a similar position?

Please be like those Bereans in Acts 17. I am not another Joseph Smith, there’s nothing new here. It did occur to me when I first started reasoning the things I’m about to show that maybe I was seriously deluded, until weeks later when I discovered that these truths were actually common knowledge to guys like Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon and others until they were systematically eradicated by Bible colleges this last century or so and again I encourage you to keep Luke’s words in mind – “the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed”. Acts 17:11-12.

Let’s all learn to think for ourselves about what the preacher tells us.