This is an amazing Scripture tucked away, you might say, in a corner of this small epistle. First John has 5 short chapters. But with verse 20 I could take the rest of this lecture and still not exhaust teaching what that one little verse means; it is so powerful. Slow down and read what John is actually saying.

“But you ...”, John is writing to his audience in the 1^st century C.E., but it has come down to you and me. He is writing these things down, but not just for the people at that time. He says they already knew them. He was writing them down for us today so that we might be aware of them, we who live in the 20^th [now the 21^st] century, just at the period at the close of this age.

“But you have an unction [an anointing] from the Holy One [Christ] and you know all things. I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it [the truth], and that no lie is of the truth.” ³

• 1 John 2:20–21

That is quite an arrogant statement for John to make. Writing to those people back there, he said they know “the truth.” He did not say part of the truth. He says you know all the truth. Of course, what he meant were those truths essential for salvation.

“But the anointing [this “unction” in v.20] which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, that is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.”

• 1 John 2:27

This anointing given to those people back there had such a profound impact that they understood what the words of God already were. They knew the truth already. John says, because you know it already and because you know all of it, why do you have any man teaching you? He is not saying that they do not need to learn more about God. He is talking about the revelation of the truth being given. He is talking about the basics of the Gospel.

Truth and the Word of God

John also had a very powerful verse in John 17:17 which further defines what he means by the truth and how to come to a knowledge of the truth. This is again Jesus Himself, on the eve of His crucifixion, teaching these last principles for His apostles to keep in mind. Thankfully, through the Holy Spirit they have been written down and preserved for us. You and I can read them clearly and plainly.

Jesus said in His last prayer to God the Father to “Sanctify them [the apostles, and through them all of us] through thy truth: your word is truth.” There it is. Truth means the Word of God.

John at the beginning of his Gospel starts out by saying, “In the beginning was the Logos and the Logos was with God and the Logos was God,” “Logos” is a Greek term, ⁴ and it means “word.” In the King James Version it says, “In the beginning was the Word.” It more appropriately means “saying” or “statement” or something of that nature. It means that when God makes a statement (and that statement can be written down, it has a noun, a verb form, it has everything to make up sentences and so on) that statement is so powerful that will be brought to pass, because God said it. That is why, “In the beginning ... Logos,” or “the saying,” was with God, and was God as a matter of fact. John identifies the Logos with Jesus Christ.

Go back to Genesis chapter 1 and notice the power of the Logos, the power of the Word. It says that God created the heavens and the earth. “And God said ...” That is all He did; He said, He spoke. He said, “Let there be light.” Light did not evolve, it came on the scene when God told it to. He knows the means by which He can do those things. They are in these statements, in these words.

The words of the Holy Scripture, or any words uttered by God, uttered by Christ Jesus, are powerful words. If you want to know the truth, you must know the words of God. The words of God can be spoken audibly (as it was to the prophets, apostles and to the early church), that is quite true; but the words we find in the New Testament were uttered by the apostles. Christ told these apostles just before His crucifixion, that He was leaving it for them to tell others what the truths of God are. Write them down and put them in a book. That book happens to be the Holy Scriptures. You should not have any man, any more, try to tell you exactly what the Word of God says if you have all the truth at your fingertips. If you have it.

I will show you how you can know all the truth and the real meaning of the biblical words. It is simple. But I will tell you this, it means that you have to study the Word and understand the Word in a proper way, because the truth is resident in God’s Word. “Your Word is truth” (John 17:17).

Isaiah says that in the Old Testament. It does not matter what mankind tells you. It does not matter if they claim to be religious people or wise people. Read the entire context of Isaiah chapter 8, because the 6 chapters (chapter 7 on through chapters 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12) speak in prophecy about Jesus Christ coming on the earth, about Him raising up some apostles, about the books being written, so that we might have the Word of God in written form. You must understand the context. Isaiah writes:

“To the law and to the testimony: if they [anybody], speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

• Isaiah 8:20

That is the standard that you must go by. But how do you gain the knowledge of God’s word? Obviously through having God open your mind through the Holy Spirit. Even when the Holy Spirit opens your mind, even when you have a basic understanding, you might be able to say that you have all the truth relative to salvation. You could say that, but you may not know all of the intricacies, all the details, all the factors that make up the truth in all its dimensions. Yet you can know all the truth as far as has been given.

I will give you later some doctrines found in the Scripture that if you know these doctrines alone, you will know all the truth. You will see what I am saying is the truth, because I will give it to you directly from the Word of God.

A Christian Creed

Do you realize there is a Christian Creed in the Bible? It is in the New Testament, written by an apostle. In that creed are all of the essentials of the Gospel, all of the needful teachings which will allow you to get the real meaning of every single biblical word. You can know the practicality of it and be able to get all of the intricate details if you just stay with it the way the Bible says. Yes, the details may take some time, but as far as the basic understanding is concerned, you can know that if God begins to open your mind — and He will, and He has for all of you — you can know all the essential truth relative to salvation. And, you will know the real meaning of the biblical words.

To really get to the details, to the intricacies, requires effort on your part. It also requires God to open your mind more, and more, and more. As time goes on God says He will let us know more and more of His truth based upon the basic teachings which He has given us from the very beginning. To know that truth read what the apostle Paul said was essential to understand the intricacies of the Word of God.

 “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing [cutting or apportioning] the word of truth.”

• 2 Timothy 2:15

The word of truth is in the Scripture. But if you really want to know it in its fullness, and not be ashamed when someone asks you a question, you must expend some effort. You have to study. Each one of us should set aside at least once a week, if not every day, to study the Word of God. You will find answers that will back up the essential truths known from the very beginning.

The very last thing Peter said was that we were to, “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). That means fully committing yourself to a plan of study so that you know all of the basic truths of the Scripture. Then you should go and continue to study to get the intricate details. I will show you a bit more about that in a moment.

A Principle to Learn

Look at the first principle for finding the real meaning of biblical words, sentences and paragraphs, books, and really the message of the whole Bible. This is an amazing principle, because most people when they find it out are not pleased with it. They do not like the way God has written the Scriptures. That is because the natural mind that is educated can read the words in the Scripture, but sometimes those words may not have the real meaning behind them that God intends. People normally do not like that. But if you want to really grow in grace and knowledge, then you must deal with this principle.

That Principle is this: Though you can read the words which are in the Scriptures (and even if you could read in the original Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek, and understand those languages perfectly), it still does not mean that you will understand the real sense behind those words. God has told us in the Old and New Testaments that you cannot understand or comprehend the meaning of those words unless you have, as I pointed out earlier, the Holy Spirit to open your mind to know what they actually mean.

You can know what the words say. You can analyze the grammar perfectly but you cannot know their meaning of the words unless you have some other ingredient. That ingredient is the Holy Spirit of God. This principle is found throughout the Scripture. Let me sum it up very quickly then I will give you some details.

What God has done by writing His Bible in the fashion that He has, is to give clear, plain, simple Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek words, which can be translated into simple and plain English words, simple and plain Italian words, simple and plain Russian words, or German, or French, or whatever. But even when you have the words simply put in the languages that you can understand, so far as the natural man is concerned, you will still lack a knowledge of the spiritual teaching behind those words unless God opens your mind. That is the first principle.

This principle is clearly defined in Scripture. You know what God does? God says in effect: I am giving you in these (in the King James Bible) some 1356 pages, I am giving you My Word. It is something that you can read, but you know what? I will hide it. I will hide the real meaning in section after section after section; and I will hide it in the open. I will hide the real meaning from people in the world who can read the words but they will not be able to understand them.

The first thing that God does is to tell you how He is doing it. God does not hide the fact that He is hiding the meaning. In fact, He says this: I will give you words that you can comprehend, but you cannot necessarily get the meaning out of those words that is intended by Me.

You will need something else. You need the Holy Spirit to enable you, or me, or anyone to see what those words actually convey to us who are His children. In a sense the Bible is written for the initiated, those who are initiated into an understanding of what God’s principles are in the first place. He has given you understanding how to interpret these words that He has not given to the world. God stated openly in the Bible that that is how He wrote His Word. That is how He intends it to be understood. He said it time and time and time again.

If the natural man wants to really understand God, he should first read those Scriptures about how God is hiding the real meaning. If you want to know the real meaning behind the words of Scripture, you must get the meaning from God’s point of view. You will not get it from man. You will not get it from yourself or your own experiences, though they are helpful. You must have the understanding of the knowledge of God given to you from the outside. It must come from somewhere else.

It comes from God. It comes from our Elder Brother through the Holy Spirit uniting with our minds, our spirit, so we can extract the real meaning behind those words in the Holy Scriptures. The way you do that is to be selected by God to be able to understand these words — supernaturally.

God created everyone from Adam down to today. There are almost 6 billion souls on this earth here today. And only very, very few understand the real meaning behind the Scriptures. Several billion people (1½ to 2 billion) call themselves Christian. That is a large number of people who have the Bible in their midst which they claim to live by.

At the same time they can read and even argue about what the words say, but they do not understand or comprehend the real meaning behind these words they read, because they are not in touch with God in the way that He wants them to be, because He has not yet called them to His truth.

Jesus spoke to the Pharisees in the Gospel of John chapter 6. Those Pharisees were made up of Jews, of the Abrahamic race, from Jacob, from the 12 tribes. They had privileges that others did not have concerning the knowledge of God. Those Pharisees disputed with Christ time and again. Finally He was crucified because the people did not agree with Him that He was the very Son of God bringing the Father’s message to them. If they had understood who He was, they would not have killed Him (1 Corinthians 2:8).

They killed Him because they did not know who He was. They did not comprehend His words. They heard His words and were quite capable of putting the sentences together and the paragraphs, but they were unable to get the full meaning of the message of Christ or His reason for coming here on this earth.

Christ understood that. Those people back at Christ’s time could not help themselves. How can you be guilty of something when God has not given it to you yet? Jesus said to those people back there in John 6:44: “No man can come to Me except the Father, which has sent me, draw him and I will raise him up at the last day.” That statement shows that God gives certain people an understanding of Himself and draws them to Him, while He does not do so for others at the present time. You may call that discriminatory — and it is — but God has stated that this is the way He operates.

Christ Jesus later restated the same principle. He knew why most of the people were not accepting Him and His teachings at the time. It was because God had not opened their minds to it. He gave a reason why in John 6:65: “And he said, ‘Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.’” There you are again.

The very fact that you believe the Scripture, that you know the Scripture (as I will show) allows you to realize the full meaning of the Scripture. You are able to do that and know that because God the Father has supernaturally opened your mind to see it. It is not something of your own making. The Father has done it.

John 8:43 says virtually the same thing. Pay close attention to these short verses tucked away in longer passages of Scripture. “Why do you not understand my speech? [After He had given a long discourse to these people, He answers His own question.] because you cannot hear my word” (John 8:43).

They heard the words, but they did not “hear” the Word. They knew what He said in Greek (or Hebrew if He was speaking that language). They knew the sentences, the words and all the components of speech, but they were not able to put them together correctly. Why not? Because they were not called of God — yet. We see the same thing later in John:

“But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, when he spoke, ‘Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ Therefore they could not believe, Jesus said, because that Isaiah said again, ‘he has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.’ These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spoke of him.”

• John 12:37–40

So you see, God has the ability to hide the meaning of His truth from people even when the words are plain. He has done it and He continues to do it.

Jesus Himself told people He was teaching that even though many miracles were done before them, that they would not accept His teachings, and they would not believe on Him. That was not their fault! He goes on to say by quoting Isaiah chapter 42:19–20 that it was the Lord, YHVH, who blinded their eyes. ⁵

The difficulty most people have with this is that they say, “God seems to be discriminating. Why does He do it this way?” We will get to that later. The fact is, this is the way that He does it. He actually puts down His words from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Book of Revelation, gives it to everyone on earth. Then He tells them this, “This is My Word. What you need to do is to search out its meaning. Because it is hidden from the world.” These words, in themselves, must be sought out for their real meaning.

Christ’s Method of Teaching

Read Matthew chapter 13 where Christ told the common people the method of His teaching. You would be surprised at the number of people today who believe that Christ gave the parables as illustrations to make the meaning of His message clear and plain. That was not the reason Christ said He gave the parables.

There was a prophecy in the book of Isaiah that parables would be given by the Messiah when He would come. Christ absolutely fulfilled that prophecy by giving His parables. However, the teachings found in the parables were not given so that people could understand the truth, but so that they would not understand the truth. Those of us who have been initiated into the final Mystery of God, the great secret of God, ⁶ can go back to these parables. Read them and they make perfectly good sense when you have the keys to comprehend them. However, if you take these parables the way that Christ gave them to the people in the 1^st century without the teaching of the Mystery that God later gave to us, you will not comprehend them, just like the people back then did not comprehend what Christ was talking about. These teachings given by Christ were designed so that they would not understand. Believe it or not.

“And the disciples came and said unto him, ‘Why speak you unto them in parables?’ He answered and said unto them, ‘Because it is given unto you [you apostles] to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.’”

• Matthew 13:10–11

All people will come to a knowledge of the truth one of these days. But Christ did not want the majority of the people to come to the knowledge of the truth at that time. But He is giving you open teaching, while He is giving the parables. They were given as mysteries that you can understand. When the apostles first heard those parables, they were as confused as the people were. You know why? Because the Holy Spirit had not yet been given to them. Christ even said that when the Spirit of truth is come he would lead them into all the truth. Then these parables will make sense. You must have the Holy Spirit of God. You must have the Word of God with it, because the Word of God is the truth that the Holy Spirit will allow you to understand what God’s message actually is. Jesus answered and said to the apostles,

“Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it is not given. For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has.”

• Matthew 13:11–12

In the 1^st century the Jews had the 22 books of the Old Testament. They already had made up their minds what it taught. When Christ came along and fulfilled the prophecies they were so confused about on what they thought the prophecies said, that they lost even some knowledge they thought they had. That is what Christ is talking about. They did not know who He was, the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament.

“Therefore speak I to them [the people] in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says, ‘By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive. For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes [He says to the apostles], for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.”

• Matthew 13:13–15 [referring to Isaiah 6:9–10]

Note the distinctions between the people and the apostles. He spoke to the people in parables. He explained the parables to the apostles who did not fully understand until the later revelation of the Mystery.

“All these things spoke Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spoke he not unto them: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets saying, ‘I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.’”

• Matthew 13:34–35

The parables — when properly understood — reveal things that had been secret from the foundation of the world. When the apostle Paul in 63 C.E. received the revelation of the great Mystery, the great secret, he said (Ephesians 1:4, 9) how long had it been kept secret, from “before the foundation of the world.” The finality of the great secret was made known some 33 years after Christ made these statements. The understanding of these mysteries was given to the apostles, but the Holy Spirit had to come first and lead them step-by-step so they would finally have all the truth. Read John chapter 16 with this in mind.

All Comes from God

Knowing the truth is all in how God dispenses it. God must turn the screw in your head, so to speak, so that you can see the truth. God must open people’s minds to it. Most people today do not have the truth of God. They have the truth of God as far as the words are concerned, and the Bible is the most popular book published today. But even though the words of God are there, people cannot comprehend their meaning unless God begins to open the minds of people. Then they will see the real meaning of biblical words.

This teaching is found throughout the Bible. In Ephesians 2:8–9 the apostle Paul told the Ephesians, “By grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” I have written much in past years to show that people must do certain things to come in contact with God. But in doing those things they will find it is God doing those things for them. They may think they are doing them, but everything has been given by grace. The fact that you come to the knowledge of Christ and accept Him is not because of something that you did, it is something God the Father has done.

Philippians 1:29 is a very important Scripture where Paul says, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.” You could not even believe on Him unless God granted that privilege to you. Each one of you appreciates the words of God not because Ernest Martin gives them, but because God gave them. Read the words of God for yourself without me. But once you read them, once you understand them, once you believe them, know that God the Father gives you that privilege. Others can read the same words and not see what they mean at all, nor can they understand.

In Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” The fact that you will to study the Bible, that you set your mind to do it, you might say you are the one doing it. That is correct, you are. But ultimately who is the one responsible for the willpower to do that? Who gives you the willpower if someone stands up against the teachings of God and you stand firm in them and express your will to stand firm? God’s Holy Spirit gives you that ability. He not only gives you the will to do right, or the will to accept Christ, or the will to teach the Gospel, but it says He gives you the will to do the things that are necessary, and the ability to perform has all been given by God. And it says by God’s “good pleasure,” not your pleasure, but God’s good pleasure. In Second Timothy Paul continues this theme that it is God who gives us the things we need just to be Christians.

“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”

• 2 Timothy 2:25–26

Paul speaks here about people who have gone astray from the truth. He says that we should show meekness, but keep instructing them, and if we do, then God — perhaps — “will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth.” It is up to God to turn that screw in their heads, so to speak, so they will respond.

Many of us have relatives that we want to know the truth. Maybe they responded and maybe they have not. What you have to do in meekness and instruction is to keep giving them truth with wisdom. If God wishes them to understand the truth, He will turn the screw and they will accept and understand these truths. In the epistle to Titus we find Paul saying,

“For we ourselves were also sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.”

• Titus 3:3

Does that sound like human nature? Paul says we will continue to experience those things.

“But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal [age-lasting] life.”

• Titus 3:4–7

Paul says that we were doing all of those things but a kindness suddenly came, not by any works of righteousness which we have done, but because of God and His mercy toward us. He turned that switch in our minds and we had a renewing of the Holy Spirit. God felt it was time to wake us up and He did it. He poured out His Holy Spirit on us “abundantly.” He justified us by His grace, by His gift.

The apostle Paul continually tells us that even our expressions of faith are a gift from God, not something we work up. Oh no! It is the faith of Jesus Christ that saves us. Do you know what He does? He supernaturally gives us faith so that we can express it on our own.

The very fact of belief is not something you concocted in your own mind. Belief is the supernatural ability given by God through grace. The fact that you confess Jesus Christ as Lord, as your master, as your elder brother, as the One who has done all the things to get you saved, the fact that you believe and confess those things, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:3, is not because you decided to do so in cooperation with God. God gave you the ability and He gave the orders to change your mind whether you want to or not.

His grace is irresistible. His Spirit is irrevocable, and powerful enough to change your mind to the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. You cannot get out of it. When God wants to turn you into one of His children who has knowledge and understanding and wisdom, He gives you these factors of salvation. Faith, confession, repentance are all given to you as a gift. You do not suddenly read Scripture, say “I’ve been wrong” and make up your own mind to repent. That superficial repentance would not work. It must be a repentance motivated, charged by, energized by the working of God’s Holy Spirit. ⁷

In Hebrews 12:2 the apostle Paul wrote, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith …” That is all I need to give you in that verse. Read the rest to get the whole context. He is saying that the faith you have is contained in and derived from Jesus. Who is the author of your faith? You? No, Jesus was. Who is the finisher of it? You? No. Jesus is. You do not have faith of a mustard seed. If you had that much faith, it would grow and grow like a mustard seed, and a large plant full of faith would result.

That is the kind of faith that God gives to you through grace. That is the kind of faith that will save. The faith to believe in Christ, and in the Father, and in the message of the Gospel is not something that you have authored. It is not something that you have finished. Jesus is the author of it and finisher of it. God the Father initiated the whole thing in the first place. We find James, the brother of Jesus, telling people not to err on some important cardinal principles of the Gospel. He said,

“Do not err, my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift [that we might have] is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”

• James 1:16–18

Whose will is it that we will know the word of truth? Whose will is it that we should become a kind of firstfruits? It is the Father’s will. It is God the Father who gives every good gift.

You want the gift of salvation? It comes from Him. You want the gift of knowledge? Ask Him for it. Do what He says though — study, study, study. He will open up more and more to you. You want the perfect gift? It will come from God from above. Verse 18: “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth ...” You have that because God has placed that truth in you. ⁸

The Learning Process

At the present time we are, as His children, in a learning process. Step by step, we can know all the truth of the principles of the Bible, what makes God the Father tick and know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of heaven. We can also know the mysteries of salvation. I will show you shortly how simple it is to know them. There are three major points you must know for you to comprehend the real meaning of virtually every word in the Scripture, every verse in the Bible, every chapter, every book.

But God must open our minds to understand these truths. And at the end of the age, as He said in Daniel 12:4, 9, He will open up the understanding of prophecy as never before. People will begin to see what the truth is. In Acts 3:21 when the apostle Peter was teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem just after Pentecost, and he said to the people that God was about to restore all things. Before the end of the age, the restitution, the full knowledge of the truth, will be given to the world. There is no doubt that that is the case.

Jesus Himself said in Matthew chapter 17 that a man would come in the spirit of Elijah the prophet and that He would restore all things to the knowledge of the people, and give them understanding of what Moses was all about, what the fathers were all about, and be able to show messages and teachings that will be clear and plain. All of this is prophesied to occur just before the Second Coming of Christ back to this earth.

God gave the words of Scripture to the world to read, and those who are literate can read them. But only those of us who have, so to speak, that screw turned in your mind supernaturally by God can really understand the meaning. Christ talked about the time just prior to His Second Coming. He said in Matthew 24 that as far as the Gospel was concerned, many people would superficially believe it, but not many would comprehend it. This is important.

The first principle is: God hides the meaning of the words of Scripture. The second principle is: People who read Scripture, though the meaning is hidden, in most cases do not think it is hidden from them. They think they have the truth. But people who are deceived believe they have the truth.

Just prior to the Second Coming of Christ, the words of the Bible will be made known to such an extent that many, many people will admit that Jesus is the Christ. But will they understand the real teaching of the Scripture? No. It will be given only to those few who God picks by His wisdom to understand the truth.

I do not understand why you have been picked right now. I do not understand why I was given a certain understanding of the Scripture. I know I have it. You know you have it too. God has not told me why except He said that we are given it by lot before the foundation of the world when a great lottery took place and certain ones were to be given knowledge of the truth and others were not. But why me? Why you? The apostle Paul admitted that he was known before he was in the womb, even before the foundation of the world. So was each of you. That is knowledge others do not have.

The apostles were given a message by Christ concerning His Second Coming not two days before His crucifixion. They were told that at the end of the age many in the world would correctly believe that Jesus was the Christ, but they would not understand the real meaning of salvation or the message of the Gospel.

 “And as He [Jesus] sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when shall these things be? [talking about the destruction of the Temple] and what shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age [“world” in the KJV]?’ Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘Take heed that no man deceive you. [talking about deception:] For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.’” ⁹

• Matthew 24:3–5

 “Many” will say or admit that Jesus is the Christ but in so doing they “shall deceive many.” When will this occur? Just prior to the Second Coming of Christ. The apostles were asking when these things would be and when would the sign of your coming take place. Jesus responded that from that time many would start accepting Him. Within 3 centuries the entire Roman Empire accepted Jesus as the Christ, and they perverted the Gospel in a way that we have been subjected to ever since with Constantinian Christianity. ¹⁰

This is the result of the second principle: If the many say Jesus is the Christ, and begin to prove it, you could almost be assured that their denominational teachings are likely wrong simply because they are there to deceive and just as Christ said would happen prior to His Second Coming. “For many shall come in my name saying I am the Christ and shall deceive many.” What it means is this: Establishment Christianity in existence presently, with its 20,000 different types of beliefs all admitting that Jesus is the Christ, are there to deceive. You can almost be certain of it. You cannot be certain on every single doctrine. But in general know that established Christianity is basically wrong according to the prophecies. Christ said, “Many shall come ... and deceive many.” He goes on to say that a change is coming near the end of the age (before the abomination of desolation set up in a Jerusalem Temple), and the Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the world as a witness to all nations. Then shall the end come.

In other words, the real Gospel will go forth as prophesied. An Elijah will come out of the Middle East who will preach the Kingdom of God throughout the world. It will be very different from what is taught by traditional Christianity today. This is one thing all of us need to understand.

If people then have the Bible in their midst, read about Jesus and say they like Jesus, they begin to accept Him. Yet it says, “Many shall come ... saying I am the Christ and shall deceive many.” It must mean they are not getting the real meaning of the biblical words. They read the words, but God has not turned the screw in their minds to see the real meaning behind the words, which you and I are privileged to know.

You might say, Ernest, what gives you the arrogance to say that we know and they do not? Good question. What is it that gives us the truth? How can we be assured that we have the basic truths such as John says, that we have all the truth? What is it that puts us in the category of saints to comprehend the basic truth when others do not? This question is answered by the apostle Paul in a way that if you will read it, you will find the means by which you can know the central doctrines that will open the whole mystery of the Gospel of Christ and of God the Father. You can get it from the Scripture yourself if you pay close attention.

A Christian Creed

Do you realize that there is a Christian Creed given in the Bible? It is almost like the creeds of various denominations or church councils, but the apostle Paul gave it to us. Where is it? It is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, basically in the first 28 verses. The first 8 verses are a prelude. From 1 Corinthians 15:29 to the end of the chapter Paul gives a commentary based on that creed. But if you accept the basics of 1 Corinthians 15:3–28, analyze its factors, you will get out of it three principle doctrines. If you accept these three, everything fits perfectly from the Old Testament and the New so that you can now know what the meanings of the words and the verses are, from beginning to end. Let us begin in 1 Corinthians 15:1:

“[Paul says to the Corinthians:] I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received and wherein you stand; [He sums up the Gospel:] by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received ...”

• 1 Corinthians 15:1–3

The creed starts in verse 3. Here is what you must believe to be able to understand the real Gospel:

Point 1:	“how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” You must believe that (v.3).
Point 2:	“And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” You must believe that He was buried and rose again the 3rd day (v 4).
Point 3:	“That he was seen of Cephas [Peter], then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some have fallen sleep.” You must believe the witness of those who saw Jesus alive from the dead (not from some disembodied state). “After that he was seen of James; then of all the apostles [again]. And last of all he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time.” (vv. 5–8)