Hi Everyone!

[andrevan]

Hi Everyone, just a note to introduce myself and say hi to my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Well I've been reading Ray's site for about 4 months and have read about 90% of the papers. I know that it was God's intention for me to come across this website, I still don't know how exactly I came across it, but the tithing article caught my attention.

About a month before I came across Bible-Truths, my wife was suffering from severe depression and her faith was suffering. This spell was probably the worst of all occasions, and guess what fuelled it: the never ending fear that she could end up in hell being subject to torture by fire! She had been reading a book called "A Divine Revelation of Hell", this was after reading Choo Thomas' "Heaven Is So Real" (I refuse to read either), talk about extremes! But thanks be to God who by His grace brought us out of darkness and into the Light!

I was able to little by little share with her Ray's studies of hell and eternal punishment and God's real plan for the ages and after, and how we had been indoctrinated into pagan myths and false teachings by the church institution. I'm happy to report that my wife is gaining a genuine love for God out of seeing His mercy and goodness and not out of fear (can fear really lead to love?), and my own new understanding of God has brought me peace.

I hope to learn and fellowship with you all here and grow in my knowledge of God. I've been reading this forum for about a month now, and look forward to posting some of my questions in the near future.

God bless you all,
Andrevan.

[Patrick]

Welcome and God bless you and your family.

[hillsbororiver]

Hello Andrevan,

It was great to read your introduction, I am very happy to hear your wife is accepting the truths you found on Ray's site.

That hell doctrine is indeed a damnable heresy, it puts our loving Lord in a very bad light, portraying Him as the exact opposite of what He really is, and what He really accomplished through His death and resurrection and what He is doing now in the lives of believers.

Welcome Brother,

Joe   

[orion77]

Hello Andrevan,

Good to hear that you and your wife are coming into the Light of His word.  The doctrine of hell has many people entangled in its web.  To think that God Himself has created such a place is totally against the scriptures.  It's through tradition and ignorance that His people suffer needlessly.

Welcome aboard and look forward to your posts.

God bless,

Gary

[eggi]

Hi Andrevan,

Your story is a strong testimony to how the teaching of hell really is destroying the lives of some people. There are people who profit (if you can call abusing others profiting) by the horrible fear this teaching is creating. It is important to remember that even this teaching has been allowed by God, He is controlling all things. With this in mind, I feel even more grateful for being brought out of that fear, and thankful that God revealed Himself to me in such a wonderful way.

I was, like your wife, seriously depressed because of the "turn or burn" teachings, for a period of about one year. In the end I wanted nothing to do with that god. I started believing that the god of the Bible was not the true God, he couldn't be! God was already beginning to prepare me for discovering the Truth, I guess. Then after a period of five years I began "picking up the loose threads", and then one fine day I found Bible-truths.com via an ad on Google.

Since then I'm really humbled by the fact that I know so little, as God once showed me that in fact I didn't know ANYTHING about Him until He revealed Himself to me. EVERYTHING I believed was wrong, really EVERYTHING. Nothing they teach in organized religion is true:

For, behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; (Isa 3:1 ASV)

I'm discovering day by day how utterly false and wrong my believes used to be. This is "coming out of Babylon", something we must face on a daily basis, the rest of our lives, Lord willing.

God bless you and keep you,
Eirik

[gmik]

Welcome Andrevan,

I loved reading your post.  I will be praying for your wife as I have had clinical depression.  God's light has a way of dragging you out of the "grayness".

God Blessyou both.  Enjoy the fellowship here.

gena

[brothertoall]

Welcome to the forum my friend. The freedom that God has so graciously given us from that fear and has revealed to us His love for all is wonderful.

I too was always depressed and ever trying to please Him all by myself and the failure at that attempt. I always saw God as angry with me if I stepped out of christiandom line and that was absolutely horrorable.

Thank God he has brought you to us all here.

Thank you very much for sharing your testimony with us.

love to you and your family,

bobby(bob)

[Deborah-Leigh]

Hi Andrevan

....as I read your post that your wife's faith was suffering, I felt joy because for me that means God is dragging her out of Mystery Babylon...TO HIS SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND LOVE. 

I believe many men and women suffer from repressed anger, fear, confusion, painful memories and frustration that can often become undiagnosed clinical depression. I do not think most conditions that can be identified as clinical depression even  rise to the surface to be detected or addressed clinically. Those that do I believe are only the tip of the iceberg.

I was treated  ten years for clincal depression. I know first hand just how deep into the darkness of hopelessness one can plumet and with the helping hand of false teachings, and indoctrination pushing  despair deeper,  it is a miracle to be free for anyone living in this dark age of spiritual idolitory and rank heresy.   God wants us to know what is evil and what is good so we can be like Him. I think the evil of depression is one way we experience what evil does and for me it came close to never knowing what goodness was. God decided to rescue me and give mercy to me.  I believe He has done the same for you and your family.

We can be awe struck that God has touched our lives with His love and teachings that we do not merit and can never repay. This awe is enough to melt any depression...   Welcome! ...and the Truth will set you free......!

Arcturus

[andrevan]

Thank you everyone for your kind words and warm welcome.

It is taking time to undo all that I've been led to believe over the years, and I feel like I'm on the brink of a whole new journey with God. I've already found many of the posts on this forum of great help to me. At the moment I'm still attending a church, what keeps me attending every couple of Sundays a month is that many of God's called people are there, although I've already faced some hostility towards my view of speaking in "tongues", tithing and the doctrine of hell. I guess in the back of my mind I know that eventually i will no longer be welcome by most.

Again, thanks for the responses.

God bless, and love to you all,
Andrevan.

[Deborah-Leigh]

I think you are correct......

Persecution is part of the dragging process as I have been experiencing it.....and it shows Christs calling away from human approval towards right standing with God.......Human approval is so fickle anyway!....built on sand if you know what I mean

God bless you

Arcturus......

[lasohe]

Hi Andrevan,

It is taking time to undo all that I've been led to believe over the years, and I feel like I'm on the brink of a whole new journey with God. I've already found many of the posts on this forum of great help to me.

Take your time brother. Sometimes there will be a struggle to put those beliefs down. Remember you are eating meat now. The diet is different. There's a lot of getting use to do. I experienced the same. I have to undo many things. There were times I felt cheated and fooled even thouh I know I was genuine. I am glad for the journey that I went through. Without that I won't have now. I am sure thre are many who are genuine in the walk with God, it is just that they were not shown the way yet. Do you agree?

At the moment I'm still attending a church, what keeps me attending every couple of Sundays a month is that many of God's called people are there, although I've already faced some hostility towards my view of speaking in "tongues", tithing and the doctrine of hell. I guess in the back of my mind I know that eventually i will no longer be welcome by most.

Just follow your heart and your courage.

I thought I was doing my share of letting my friends know about what I found in Ray's site. I was called names. I was told that I was too legalistic. The church even sent people to check on me. 
I left because I was not ready for any face-off. I was not strong enough to face them. I was weak. I do not want to argue for the sake of arguing. My friends acted that way because they dio not know what they were doing. I am sure one day their eyes will be open to the truth.

I am still chewing on the meat that I found here.

lasohe

[joyful1]

Welcome and God's blessings upon you and your wife, Andrevan!
joyful 1

[andrevan]

Hi Andrevan,

It is taking time to undo all that I've been led to believe over the years, and I feel like I'm on the brink of a whole new journey with God. I've already found many of the posts on this forum of great help to me.

Take your time brother. Sometimes there will be a struggle to put those beliefs down. Remember you are eating meat now. The diet is different. There's a lot of getting use to do. I experienced the same. I have to undo many things. There were times I felt cheated and fooled even thouh I know I was genuine. I am glad for the journey that I went through. Without that I won't have now. I am sure thre are many who are genuine in the walk with God, it is just that they were not shown the way yet. Do you agree?

I guess in a way that was what I experienced. I often look back and am a little embarassed by the things I said, thinking that I was on the right track. I like the analogy of eating meat, so true.

At the moment I'm still attending a church, what keeps me attending every couple of Sundays a month is that many of God's called people are there, although I've already faced some hostility towards my view of speaking in "tongues", tithing and the doctrine of hell. I guess in the back of my mind I know that eventually i will no longer be welcome by most.

Just follow your heart and your courage.

I thought I was doing my share of letting my friends know about what I found in Ray's site. I was called names. I was told that I was too legalistic. The church even sent people to check on me. 
I left because I was not ready for any face-off. I was not strong enough to face them. I was weak. I do not want to argue for the sake of arguing. My friends acted that way because they dio not know what they were doing. I am sure one day their eyes will be open to the truth.

I am still chewing on the meat that I found here.

lasohe

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement, I'll keep on chewing 

God be with you,
Andrevan.

[andrevan]

Welcome and God's blessings upon you and your wife, Andrevan!
joyful 1

Thanks joyful 1! 

God bless you,
Andrevan.