This last summer, a new friend made himself known to me. He leads a group who focus all their Scripture-Studies on "end-time" details in the Scriptures. He was excited to see the reports in this newspaper about the "Mark of the Beast" (per Revelation 13). Soon, he was bringing his family, and even some of "his" group to fellowship with the "church in the house" which I lead.

He and his friends car pooled with his family each week. He admitted to learning profound lessons at my mouth from Scripture. Regarding "Babylon", he even confessed his amazement of that revelation before our church that, "Until now, everyone's just been guessing..." But after a couple of months, he and his car pool of our then mutual friends did not return again, nor did anyone call.

After a few weeks, my closest brother in Christ telephoned him. My brother testifies that that friend then brought up the issue that he had discovered my supposed heresy regarding Adultery in the several writings at my own hand (of which had been given freely to him).

That very next day, I mailed a letter to that friend. With it, I included several copies of the hand-written version of the Scripture-Study (which had been put together quickly for his specific benefit) of "HOW GOD BLESSED MESSIAH DAVID" (although that version was simply entitled, "David").

No response. In the next week, and in the week after that, I repeated the request to speak before all of our mutual friends.

In the third week, I was about to mail more to him, but discovered his response back to me in the mail. I was excited. While the letter was a rather strong rebuke, I was still so glad that my friend had finally responded. However, what he had written, at first, did not appear to "connect" to anything I had ever written. As for correction, the only verse quoted that made any attempt to correct me was the "two shall be one flesh" of Ephesians 5:31 (which had already been addressed in other past writings at my own hand).

I sought the LORD in this matter, and He revealed it to me. Because many men in the Old Testament Scriptures indeed had more than one wife, my friend had mistakenly perceived that I somehow must be teaching the false concept of being "under the Law" (because it, too, was of the Old Testament). With such a miscalculation, he was rightly and correctly rejecting the "curse of the Law". However, I have never and would never put anyone under the "curse of the Law". (But this revealed that many others, too, may have made the very same miscalculation, in their initial reactions to this matter.)

So (I tell you) with God's revelation of that, I sat down and wrote the following letter to my friend.

And as I prayed that the grace of God be manifest thereby unto my friend, so too do I pray that that be so unto all who would read this letter, as though it was also written to them.

© December 4, 1996, The Standard Bearer
P.O. Box 765, O.O.B., ME 04064

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