FOUR STAGES TO SPIRITUAL TRUTH

        I first discovered the Anglo-Saxon-Israel Message by   turning on the radio in 1976, and I won't go into details of what all it took to finally bring me

to teaching and preaching the Truth, but I found that one can learn from any example in life. So I hope you aren't going to object to the sermon I am going

to bring to you this morning, which I got from a "hippie." I believe by the time I get through with this message you might have some questions answered

that perhaps you have never really understood before.

First, why can you speak to some church or religious people concerning Anglo-Saxon-Israel Truth and draw a complete blank? Surely you have had that experience,

as you begin, ''You know, I have found the most exciting discovery-that the Anglo-Saxon-Germanic-Scandinavian and kindred people are the Israelite people

of Scriptures." It will be so quiet, and then someone will say, "Well, do you think it is going to rain today?" You draw a complete blank; they don't want

to hear any more about it.

Another thing you will understand at the end of this sermon, I hope, is why Truth is so hard to get into churches. History shows and verifies the fact

that one of the worst places to find Truth is in churches. If this were not the case, we wouldn't have so many    divisions in our land today-because Truth

is absolute. Two plus two are four...it cannot be anything else but that.

Now, when we have so many divisions, this should tell us that there is not too much Truth out there in the religious world. This sermon will tell you why

Identity people are sometimes very   suspicious of a church. l have found it very difficult to be a pastor of a group of people who didn't want to hear

the Truth when I began to preach it to them, as I found it in Scripture. I also found it is not the easiest thing in the world to be a pastor of a group

of people who like to have the Truth, either. You will understand, by the time we get through this message, why there are so many embittered people regarding

religion.

People say, "I don't want to hear anything about it; I have had my fill of religion." You will understand why it is harder for women to accept the Israel

Truth than men. You will also  understand why it is harder for preachers to accept this Truth than it is, probably, for anyone else. This is a lot to accomplish

in one message, particularly when the message comes from a "hippie." But the point is, we can learn from anyone.

While in a cafe in Boulder, Colorado, I began to explain to this "hippie" about who we were, and he thought it very interesting. I said, "This is something

you will not find in most churches." He replied, "I can understand that," and he began to explain to me an article he had read by a psychiatrist. The article

was entitled, Spirit Always Grows, Psychiatrist and Author Says. It is about a psychiatrist, Dr. Peck, who wrote a book called The Road Less Traveled,

initiated by the observations he made as a psychiatrist.

He wrote: "If people came in as religiously centered, they often left as atheists or agnostics. On the other hand, agnostics, or atheists, would go the

whole route and leave deeply religious." Certainly, we would prob­ ably not be surprised that most religious people who came to him left ''un­ religious,"

but vice versa, it is rather interesting, don't you think? He was very interested in this phenomenon, too. He could not understand what was going on, so

he began, according to the article that the "hippie" gave me, to delve into this self-discovered mystery. Thus he came up with what he called "The Four

Stages of Spiritual Transformation." From those four stages of spiritual transformation I developed this message entitled, The Four Stages to Spiritual

Truth.

Now, there have always been many ways that psychologist-type people have categorized other individuals, and we can learn from them. I remember learning

in the University how different people can be categorized by their physiology, and that people have different personality traits that go along with their

physiology, at times. Another well-known individual in the "Christian world" by the name of Tim LeHaye has done an excellent job in categorizing people.

He wrote the book, The Spiritual Control Temperament, and he categorized people according to four personality types - the choleric, the phlegmatic, the

sanguine, and the melancholy. This is interesting to read, and one can learn about people who are a particular personality trait. One of the best categorizations

I have ever seen to help understand how people think and where they are  coming from is the categorization made by Bill Gothard, famous for his program

called Basic Youth Conflicts.

He took the gifts of the Spirit described in Romans 12:6, which reads: And since we have gifts according to the grace given to us, let us each exercise

them accordingly, and then it says in Scripture that there is a "gift of prophecy, a gift of serving, a gift of exhortation, a gift of giving, etc." When

you begin to understand these gifts and the characteristics that go with these  individuals, you will understand why some people react to situations differently

than how you might react to them, yourself.

One of the best illustrations I have ever heard along this line was when a woman was coming into the dining room where others were sitting around the table.

She is carrying a big platter of turkey, and she stumbles and falls, with the turkey falling on the floor. Now, how you initially react depends on what

gift you have. The person who has a gift of mercy will jump up and say, "Oh honey, don't feel bad about that-it could happen to anyone." Someone who has

the gift of administration will jump up and probably say, "So-and-so, get a broom; you get a mop," and he will organize things. Someone who has the gift

of giving will jump up and say, "Hey, I will run down and buy some Kentucky Fried Chicken." The one who has the gift of exhortation will jump up and say,

"Well, what can we all learn from this?" The one who has the gift of prophecy, which is of particular interest to me, because I know that I have the prophetic

tendency, will jump and say, "If you had been more careful, that wouldn't have happened." You see, everyone reacts differently according to how he is given

gifts by the Lord.

I think this particular psychiatrist, Dr. Peck, has done a marvelous job in classifying people according to their categories of trying to discover Truth;

what he calls the stages of spiritual transformation, and I have entitled it, The Four Stages to Spiritual Truth. Let me read to you the four stages of

spiritual transformation according to Dr. Peck.

The first stage is the chaotic, anti-social stage. The people are principled by self-surviving, and 20% of these people are people of the lie, or evil.

They are usually found in some kind of trouble, he said, and when they come in touch with the chaos of their own being they often kill themselves in the  process.

That is Stage One-the chaotic, or the anti-social stage.

Stage 2 is the institutional stage. Typical of these people are the model prisoners, such as, perhaps, the editor of the prison newspaper who within three

days after release has robbed seven banks. Stage 2 people are often in the military, he said, or make good company people. Tens of thousands of these Stage

2 people would have chaotic lives if not for the paternalistic institution they are in. This stage comprises the majority of church-goers. Characteristic

of these people is to depend on an institution. There is an intense attachment to the forms of worship.

Stage 2 people often get together, marry and raise children, because stability is very important, and these children enter Stage 3 with principles literally

engraved on their hearts. These children are no longer dependent on institutions or on forms. So that is Stage 2, the institutional stage.

Stage 3 is the skeptic stage. Peck describes these people as often agnostic, often more spiritually developed than the majority of church-going people.

They are usually scientists, educators, and professors. They are invariably truth-seekers.

Stage 4, he categorizes as the mystic stage. Mysticism has to do with unity, with mystery-not reserved for monks and nuns. The stage is marked by those

who relish how little we know.

So those are the four stages set forth in the article. I have observed people for the past twelve years as a preacher, and I think this man has some very

valid points. So I want to give to you what I consider the four categories as they relate to people coming to spiritual truth. As we go through these stages,

perhaps you might be able to look at your own life and say, "Hey, I went through those stages." I know, to a certain extent, that I did. I want to share

some Scriptures in each category, or each stage, as we discuss them. I want to talk about the attitudes of people experiencing these stages.

Stage 1 is what I call the unstructured, or the undisciplined stage. Peck called it the anti-social stage. These are the people who are not really too

concerned about spiritual matters. They are not concerned about Biblical truths-it is more of a "do-your-own-thing." If it feels good, do it. Naturally,

the people normally found in Stage 1 are the younger people. Remember the saying in the 1960’s - never trust anyone over 30.

Before they knew it, they were there, and over. You will find that the people in this Stage 1 are people of a lie. They have fallen for something that

looks good, and it often turns out that it isn't. Usually they are younger, but this is not always the case.

Recently I heard a song on a country-western station, which went something like this: "Most of my friends are staying home and raising kids—I am still

raising hell, just like I did." So you will find a few of these people, still wearing Levi’s, trying to grow their hair long, and trying to hold onto youth,

as it is rapidly slipping by. So this is found in Stage 1, the anti-social or unstructured stage, as I call it.

There are a few Scriptures that people in this category need to hear. One is Ecclesiastes 11:9: "Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your

heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood; And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes, yet know that God will bring you

to judgment for all these things."

The judgment which God brings these people to isn't  always that great judgment in the sky that we hear about. Quite often the judgment comes much sooner

than they would ever desire. Sometimes it is an incurable disease; sometimes it is damage to their bodies by drugs, or something from which they can never

recover entirely. Ecclesiastes 12:1 says: "Remember, also, your Creator in the days of your youth. Before the evil days come and the years draw near, and

you will say I have no delight in them.”

In this stage, as Dr. Peck pointed out, you can do irreparable damage, such as with drugs, alcohol, etc. The examples of irreparable damage are read in

Scripture, and one of the greatest of these which youth can commit in this particular stage is the sin of immorality, something they can never change again.

They may lose their virginity, and when they have lost it, they have lost it forever. Many times, however, when these Scriptures are read to these types

of individuals, it means nothing, because they have a problem with authority. In reading Scripture, you will find that when a spirit of harlotry comes

upon the people, they begin to lose their understanding and they reject authority.

And of course, this is one of the reasons the enemies of our land have pushed immorality so hard on our youth, for once they become involved with immorality,

they lose their respect for authority and they lose their wisdom; consequently, Scriptures mean nothing to them. Usually, if they live through this stage,

as Dr. Peck says, many of them will see that they have been children of the lie, they have been lied to. In other words, they wake up and say, "Hey, I

am not happy, this is no fun. I am depressed, I am discouraged." This happens all the time in our country, and people are literally committing suicide.

Why? Because they tried to find happiness, but they tried to find it outside of the laws of God. Many of these people will go from Stage 1 into Stage 2,

into what I call the structured, or the disciplined stage.

Dr. Peck points out that many people go into the military who go into Stage 2. There you have structure, you have  discipline, and you are being told what

to do. A lot of people might join a club of some type, or a lodge, to give some purpose to their life. Many people sometimes just get married to get some

kind of stability in their lives, to find some kind of purpose. He said many of these people are model prisoners, and sometimes (quite often, I should

say) they join a cult, or they join a church where they can find some kind of authority, some kind of structure with lines drawn in this particular organization.

Dr. Peck points out that Stage 2 people often find themselves in "the church of their choice.'' He points out that there is an intense attachment to various

forms of worship. This is where you will find people saying, "Well, I am a Lutheran," or "I am a Methodist," or "I am a Presbyterian." But they say it

in such a way that they are really saying, "Don't bother me with the Truth. Don't bother me with what you are trying to tell me, because we have everything

just the way we want it, and if I happen to listen to you, you are going to rock the boat."

You see, they are in Stage 2; they finally found structure, they found some lines drawn for them, and they know perfectly well, if you begin to tell them

this Truth and they begin to accept it, what is going to happen to that stability. When you bring up the Anglo-Israel Truth, they immediately want to change

the subject, because they are not interested in Truth. This is why it is very hard to get into churches. For example, we had an individual start   coming

to our church after frantically trying to find us. He had been going to different churches before hearing of our church, and upon attending one local church

in particular, he felt the Lord must have led him to this certain Sunday School class. They all sat down and began talking, and one lady wanted to know

about this rumor that was going around about the Anglo-Saxon-Germanic-Scandinavian and kindred people being the Israelite people of Scripture. As they

began talking, he was throwing in his opinion, when the teacher said, "Hold it; we have got to stop this right now. I think we had better drop it. This

kind of thing could split this church wide open." So, you see, when you are in Stage 2, you dare not accept any Truth, because it is going to rock the

boat.

There are some Scriptures for Stage 2 people, one being found in 2 Peter 3:18: "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…

We see that it is the Christian's responsibility to grow in grace and knowledge. Then we read I Peter 2:1-2: "Therefore,  putting aside all malice, and

all guile, and hypocrisy and envy, and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

"

Certainly these Scriptures teach that God wants Christians to grow. I think growth can be a real paradox. I have watched my wife as she has mothered our

two children over the years. She was always trying to put food down them when they were little. Why? So they would grow. And then when they grew up, she

wailed, "Oh, my kids are all grown up." Well, certainly they grew up. You kept feeding them all these years!

But the natural response for parents who love their children is that they want their children to grow. And so it is with our Heavenly Father. Yet we have

these people in Stage 2 who are not interested in growing in grace and knowledge.

At the Stock Show in Denver one can see all kinds of livestock. Once I saw the cutest little miniature horses, miniature ponies. I looked at them one day,

and I thought to myself, "What in the world good are they? You can't ride them, and you would have to have a half-dozen of them just to pull a milk-cart."

They are absolutely worthless. Why? Because they have never grown. And that is the way with Christians in Stage 2; they are worthless to their society

and to the world about them, because they are just cute little ornamental Christians   sitting there. They don't grow or do anything. There is not any

purpose to them.

Let us look at Matthew 5:6: "Blessed are those who   hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

Here we can see that it is a blessing from our Lord when we are hungering and thirsting for Truth. In the church where I was ministering when I began to

teach the Israel Truth, I thought to myself, "I am going to go slowly and teach them." I took quite a bit of time. Though I am not "tooting my own horn,"

I think I did a fairly good job, because when it was all said and done, they were all convinced. No one denied the fact that we were Israel.

But do you know what they said to me? "We just don't want to hear it." What were they really saying? "We like it just the way it is, the way of other churches

with whom we fellowship ... so don't rock the boat." They were Stage 2 people, and to them Truth is not as important as what they call, "love and    unity."

What they are really talking about is, "Don't mess up my boat," but they don't want to say it that way. They say, "Well, the important thing is Jesus,"

or "What difference does it make"? They have all different types of little reactions as you are trying to bring them to this Truth.

This brings us to why it is so hard to reach preachers. Turn to 2 Timothy 3:16-17: "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,

for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequately equipped for every good work."

So we see in Verses 16 and 17 that it is all Scripture that is inspired by God, which is used to make us "equipped." Now, I was trained by a church that

used to brag about being a, "New Testament Church." You might as well call yourself an incomplete and inadequate church as to call yourself a "New Testament

Church." It says All Scripture.

So what in the world happens if you throw out 85% of the Scriptures? You are an incomplete and inadequate church. Then most of the people who call themselves

a "New Testament Church" only teach from one or two choice New Testament Scriptures, such as John 3:16. But going on to 2 Timothy, 4th chapter, Paul turns

to Timothy and gives him a very solemn charge: "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead,

and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with patience and instruction."

The reason is: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wan­ ting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves

teachers in accordance with their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." I believe we are living in

those days, when people have actually turned away from the Truth.

This is just a quaint little pious phrase that the Israelites have come up with in the Twentieth Century called, "Attend the church of your choice." This

Scripture actually states, "Heap to yourselves teachers after your own desires. Find the one that tickles your ears and suits your fancy, and that is where

you attend. " After Paul had just told Timothy that all Scripture was inspired by God, and after he told him to preach these things, he tells him why he

is giving such a solemn exhortation in Verse 5: But you be sober in all things, endure hardships, and do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

So we see that it is a very hard job when one wants to be a teacher of the Truth in this era. He says, "But you must be willing to endure hardships. "

Man, we know, is a very prideful individual. He wants to feel successful in whatever he is doing, the cock of the roost, the bull of the woods. This is

a man's philosophy. He likes to be able to have success. Well, think of yourself as a preacher. Now, what is one of the ways that the world measures a

successful ministry? By numbers, of course. So what happens if you begin to preach the Truth during this time that Paul is talking about? Not too many

people will listen, so how successful does that make you feel?

We have seminars called, "Church Growth Seminars," but you never hear of seminars on Church Truth. Well, this is Stage 2 type people, and this is why it

is so hard to reach people in this stage who are preachers. They know those hardships Paul was talking about might be making tents, or maybe driving a

truck, because it is not going to be very long, after you begin to preach the Truth as a preacher of the Gospel, until they throw you out. You are rocking

the boat. They are Stage 2 people, and they are not interested in Truth.

Then why is it harder for a woman to accept this Truth of Identity? If you watch a little girl as she is playing, she is playing house and dolls; if you

watch little boys, they are playing army, soldiers, etc. What I am pointing out is that God has wired a man and a woman differently. I know when my children

were little, they would come running into the house with hurt fingers, etc., and Mother says, "Oh, honey, what's the matter-Let Mommy see it." And Dad

says, "What happened?" This is because Mom and Dad are wired differently. A woman wants security, she wants a nest, she wants her friends, etc. I heard

a preacher once say, "Hey, that's scary," as he began to look at this Truth. It certainly is scary. He was saying, "If I begin to preach this, you know

what is going to happen? I am going to lose my friends, l can lose my social standing in the community, and on and on it goes..."

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Therefore, security is sometimes more important to the female than the male, and that, I believe, is one of the reasons it is harder to reach the woman

than it is the man. There is a tremendous danger here.

2 Thessalonians 2:10-11 teaches quite clearly that if you do not want to receive a love of the Truth, then God will send you a deluding influence, so that

you might believe a lie. So you start playing around with the Truth, and I want to tell you something, there are some real dandy lies God can send upon

you, such as "the rapture." The Rapture Doctrine is like a little child coming in and making a tee-total wreck out of the living room, an absolute mess,

then to think he is going to be "raptured" off before Mom comes home. Well, we made the mess, and we are going to sleep in this thing, and somebody is

going to wise up and say, "Hey, we are not getting raptured here." God will send a deluding influence, if you will not accept the Truth.

Some of the institutions we have out there, the Stage 2 people, are so cold and so stoic, their people are so long faced they could eat oatmeal out of

a boot, and many begin to wonder what in the world is going on. So all of a sudden someone comes up with a wild idea; Why don't we speak in tongues? People  respond,

"Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Tongue-speaking!" What they are really trying to do is to put some life in this cold, formalistic institution. But there

is a better answer, and that is Truth. There are some people in Stage 2 who are always looking for the Truth, and eventually they start to stumble upon

it.

But what happens is, they might find some Truth, and they go running to the institution with it and say, "Hey, look what I found out. This is really going

to make you happy." Or they go running to the institution because they see some  hypocrisy in the group, and they confront them with it, or maybe begin

to question some of the things being taught. What this  person is doing is going from Stage 2 into Stage 3, trying to find Truth.

The church's tradition, as Dr. Peck points out, is to expel its  critics. It always has been. Look at Martin Luther. He really had no intentions of starting

another church, as far as I can see, but all of a sudden, he found himself on the outside looking in, more or less, because the tradition of Christianity

is to expel its critics. Now, the methods they use to expel people vary greatly. Sometimes it is just a cold, gradual withdrawal. You go to church, and

nobody is speaking to you... things are different.

Maybe it is a formal excommunication, or maybe it is absolute church discipline, or sometimes (this has been a very effective method I have seen churches

use) they begin to talk to the children, and they turn the children against the parents: "You know your Mom and Dad are beginning to believe some cult-type

teachings." Sometimes they begin to slander the individual; and of course, the old method was the rack, or burning at the stake. We have only become a

little more civilized since then. But if the Truth-seeker is really after Truth, the words of Christ will be fulfilled: "Blessed are those who hunger and

thirst after righteousness, because they will be filled. "

I have found if you accept a little bit of Truth, God will give you a little more, and a little more, and a little more. You might say, "Well, what do

I know?" God will continue to bring Truth into your life.

Stage 3 is what I call the dissolution stage, and Dr. Peck calls it the skeptic stage. The people in Stage 2 are saying that it is the fallen-away stage.

The Stage 2 people say, concerning the Stage 3 people who have gone on from Stage 2, "Oh, my, the devil has hold of him, and he has fallen away." Dr. Peck

had an interesting comment on this: "We think of conversion as going from skeptical to believer. But going from Stage 2 to Stage 3 is also conversion." And

it is, if you think about it.

A preacher once told me, "You know, the hardest people to ever get back in church are the people who used to be preachers, or Bible college students, or

used to be good church people and they fell away. They try to get them back, but they can never get them back in. They just don't want anything more to

do with it. They have seen through the Stage 2, and now they are out there in Stage 3.'' Dr. Peck said that many of these people are agnostics, but often

they are "more spiritually developed than the majority of church-going people."

You will find people out there in Stage 3 very skeptical. They were involved in a church, and they were burned quite   badly. You will find that many people

who have come to the Truth as to who we are, are people who have been burned in churches. But they eventually left that group, and now they are out there

in limbo; they are very skeptical. 

But guess what. They still have this hungering.

They still have this thirst for Truth. So you can see the steps they are going through. Can you see these steps in your own life? This hippie knew what

he was talking about, didn't he? Many   people quit the ministry in Stage 3 because they have to; to whom are they going to preach? There is no one out

there, and some   people become very disillusioned. They even become embittered. In my own case, I had been taught one thing in Bible college, and I am

very grateful for it. A man told me, "If you keep your heart right, no one can destroy you." How true that is. And I wouldn't let them destroy me, because

I did keep my heart right.

Many people try to find contentment in Stage 3 by going after materialism, or status and success as measured by the world. Skepticism is the order of the

day for a man in this stage. In my case I became a "black sheep preacher." I was able to hold onto the reins and stayed in preaching, but I became very

critical of  churches, and even the church which had trained me. In fact, I   almost resented some of the things they had taught me, because I was in that

critical state. Normally, the skepticism is justified and good, and this is what Dr. Peck says, "The church should encourage doubt. It should be a virtue,

a Christian responsibility to question, to be skeptical."

Now, there is another attitude that develops in this Stage 3, which is, I don't like preachers. When you think about it, there are a lot of people who

have been burned, and they don't want anything more to do with preachers, because they had put their faith in one. They thought he was telling the truth,

but now they find out differently and are almost embittered.

Remember, Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled." In other words, you can get to Stage 4, but

sometimes before you get there you get humbled a little. The Lord can think of some wonderful ways of humbling you, can't He?

Have you ever noticed that quite often before people come to the Anglo-Israel Truth, or immediately after they come to it, some catastrophe happens in

their lives? Sometimes it happens, because, you see, "knowledge puffeth up," but God giveth grace to the humble. It is a wonderful thing when you have

God working in your life, because He is preparing you, He is teaching you.

Dr. Peck said in his article, "I think the greatest challenge is how to get from Stage 2 to Stage 4 without spending a lifetime in Stage 3." But getting

from Stage 3to Stage 4 is another of Peck's worries. The growth is very gradual, and the pitfall is that people think they can direct it. They sign up

for classes, they meditate, and they enroll in ways to push that development. That is not the way it works. The only way we can get to God is in realizing

that God directs the process. I think that is so interesting. You just can't push it, you have to be patient.

A good Scripture for people in Stage 3 is Galatians 6:9: "And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary."

I Corinthians 15:58: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is

not in vain in the Lord."

For those who hold on and continue to seek the Truth, we come to Stage 4, and this is what I call the more perfect truth-because none of us have all truth.

But this is a more perfect truth. For this Scripture, I think of Matthew 7:14: "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few

are those who find it."

Those few normally do not go to church-you know why? There is no church to go to. They are very fortunate to find, through the providence of God, perhaps

a pastor on the radio that they can be fed from. But there is no church to go to. They know what they believe, however.

For example, we have some people coming to our church who said they hadn't been to a church in 20 to 30 years. They have been at home reading their Bible

and studying. They had ordered materials from Mr. Rand, and then they found out about Pastor Emry.

I wonder how many people are out there today just like that? They were so excited to find a church that teaches Truth, but all these years they were probably

looked upon by the religious world as unspiritual. They don't go to church, but they are Stage 4 people. Dr. Peck says that often people in Stage 4 relish

how little other people know. Their faith is much different than the church-goer, in that it is a very strong, deep current, compared to a shallow, dry,

sandy creek. I believe the major portion of people in the Anglo-Israel movement are probably Stage 4 people. They have gone through these stages. Now,

think about it. Why would it be difficult to be a pastor of such a group of people?

 To get to Stage 4, you must be strong-willed, wouldn't you agree? You have to be quite tenacious in hanging in there. Such an individual in Stage 4 is

an individualist. He is independent. He knows what he knows, and he is going to stand where he stands. Usually he has been burned by a church or by a preacher.

So how do you think he is going to react to a minister? Very suspicious, very "hands-off." They are very suspicious of false doctrine. Why?

           Because they swallowed the lie once before, and they are not going to do it again; consequently, it really makes it difficult to be the pastor,

because you know they are always checking you out (and the truth of the matter is, you are not always right while behind the pulpit, you know, particularly

if you are a pastor who is trying to grow in Truth, yourself). They will find you in error, run up to you, and say, "You know what you did...? " They rub

your nose in it, and then you have to repent before the group, and the whole works. It is a difficult situation. And it is only natural for these types

of people to be noncommittal. They don't want to join up with a group, with a church, because, again, they have been burned. I had several people from

different parts of the country say that it is very rare to find an Anglo-Israel Truth church.

Well, you begin to understand why, when you understand these four stages. You see, there are a lot of Israel people who   didn't like me as a preacher

when I started preaching. They were rather excited to find me as a preacher, at first, but then I began to understand why... because they have been burned

and have been through the stages, and on and on it goes.

Another trait of these people is that they have a lot of knowledge, so sometimes it is very difficult for them to just listen to anyone. They are often

leaders, themselves, so it is very hard for them to submit to the leadership of anyone else.

There are some Scriptures that should be remembered in this stage, Matthew 16:18: "and I say also to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I shall

build my church."

There is a place in Scripture for the church. Now, a lot of times you will find people in Stage 4 who are very arrogant. Not only are they arrogant, but

they are also mad, and they are on the warpath. You see, they seem to forget that we are the ones responsible for this mess.

It is not this one-it is not someone else-it is our own fault.

We made this mess, because we were not faithful to our God. Many times you will find certain sector of people in Stage 4 who are really militant. I have

had many people leave our church because I wasn't militant enough. I want to tell you something. "Christianity" is the term man has coined to identify

a group of people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, is it not? It is only natural for us to coin a word, so that we can identify someone.

Well, the same way with this word, "Identity." It is not in the Bible, but it is a word that men have coined to identify this Truth that the Anglo-Saxon-Germanic-Scandinavian

and kindred people are in Scripture. However, remember that it is what it is; a Truth. Now, in Christianity they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of

God. The Pope believes that, I suppose, though I don't know for sure, and the Baptists believe that. But are there any connections between the two of them?

Well, that is about all they have in common, isn't that right? The same way with Identity. There are some militant groups out there who have the brains

of a Christmas goose and the spirituality of a tadpole, and they happen to have this Truth that we are Israel, yet that is all they are, a militant group

with this Identity Truth.

There is also a different between them and a church that has this Truth. I somewhat resent people trying to put me in the same boat with them. Because

I am a Christian, I am not a militant individual; I am not embittered; I am not after revenge or hatred, etc., etc. I have listened to men talk about perfect

hatred. Have you ever figured out what "perfect hatred" is? Sometimes just go through the Concordance and look down through all the Scriptures that talk

about love and forgiveness, and compare those with the Scriptures on hate and r

AH: Thanks to my internet service provider Bell, I was unable to see the rest of this Scriptures for America Dragon Slayer Newsletter 2022 Vol. 9 article. However, the message "Four Stages to Spiritual Truth" can and should be purchased from Scriptures for America Ministries here for a price that's way more reasonable than you'll pay for anything else these days.