1 Peter 3:15

    From BelieveTheSign
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    But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect...[1]

    Video Transcript

    The Apostle Peter issues a command to all Christians in 1 Peter 3:15: But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, but do it with gentleness and respect.

    The Greek word for defense used here is "apologia" which is the same word that the Greeks used to describe a lawyer a defending a case in a court of law. The Greek for reason is "loggia" from which we get the word "logic."

    My experience with virtually all message ministers is that:

    1. first, they are not prepared to make a defense;
    2. second, they are not prepared to give any coherent reasons or logic for their beliefs; and,
    3. third, they rarely do so with gentleness and respect.

    Take for example the pastor of Bethel Tabernacle. This message minister has specifically stated on several occasions that he will not engage in Bible discussions on Facebook. He also refused to answer a sincere question online as to whether he agreed with a particular quote of William Branham. His solution was simply to remove the entire discussion so that people could not witness his failure to obey scripture.

    Is Peter the only one to tell us how to react when people ask us questions? No! In Acts chapter 6, a synagogue full of people rose up and disputed Stephen, but unlike message ministers Stephen didn't avoid conflict. Rather his opponents could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.

    The Apostle Paul was constantly reasoning with the Jews in the synagogue. In fact, the scripture says in Acts 18:4 that he did this every Sabbath. Then why is it that message preachers hate the very concept of reasoning?

    Is it because they exalt William Branham above the Bible?

    Their prophet in a clear misquoting of scripture, repeatedly said that the Bible tells us to "cast down reasoning." But there is no such passage in the Bible. Was William Branham adding to scripture?

    The approach of message preachers is to tell their congregations not to think. Check your brains at the door rather than giving a defense. They tell people to shut their minds off and ignore the evidence.

    We have proved using clear evidence that William Branham lied, had visions that failed, and had prophecies that change dramatically over time. In fact, we have yet to find one single unambiguous prophecy that William Branham made on tape, before the fact, that was later clearly fulfilled. Is that the test of a prophet?

    Luke took the time to amass a body of evidence that proved the gospel to be true. He stated in Luke 1:4 that the purpose of his gospel was to provide certainty to the things Theophilus had been taught. In Acts 1:3 he states that Jesus provided the Apostles with many infallible proofs. The problem with the message is that the proofs have been clearly shown to be fallible.

    That's why I left the message. some message preachers are knowingly lying to their congregations while others have simply stuck their heads in the sand. What's the real reason message preachers won't answer our questions? Why can't they defend the message against the facts we've presented?

    The simple truth is they don't have the evidence on their side.


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    1. 1 Peter 3:15, English Standard Version