Tim's Reply....
Hi [chatting with dead brother],
Firstly, I am thankful that you have taken the time to reach out to me, and if it is truly your belief that the Scriptures are more authoritative than any man, then let us open these Scriptures together and carefully compare your experiences to what is revealed in the Scriptures.
Our adversary plays upon our deepest fears and desires to deceive us into believing a lie; therefore it is vitally important for all believers to understand that our experiences cannot be taken at face-value but must rather be carefully tested against the testimony of all the Scriptures. As we read in 1 John 4:1, let us not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they be of Elohim.
Next, I am very sorry to hear of the passing of your brother and do hope that on the last day he will rise and live, as Yahshua said in John 5:28-29, “the hour is coming in which all those in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have practiced evil matters, to a resurrection of judgment.” I pray that while he lived, your brother, to the best of his knowledge and ability, endeavored to demonstrate his love for his Creator by diligently obeying to His commandments – all of them. Furthermore, I pray that he realized that there is one mediator between Yah and man, and that is the man Yahshua Messiah. If your brother did strive to obey Yah’s commandments, then he strived, for example, to keep the Sabbath Day holy and do no work thereon; he strived to abstain from all forms of idolatry; he studied the Scriptures diligently so that he would know the truth for himself, knowing that the fear of man brings a snare (Proverbs 29:25) and the trust of man brings a curse (Jeremiah 17:5). These are fruits of repentance.
Your brother is asleep until that last day, and most assuredly, you saw an impostor that was certainly not your arisen brother. Your brother will arise in bodily form on the last day and be judged, just as all of us will. The Scriptures do not support the idea that souls rise absent from their bodies to be seen by people in visions, as even the witch at Endor saw the mighty man (i.e. “elohim”), which was Shemu’el (Samuel), coming up out of the earth per 1 Samuel 28:13. Also, in Matthew 27:52, we read that the most holy ones who slept came out of their graves and were seen by many. These souls arose from their graves with their bodies. The Scriptures do rather support the idea that unclean spirits, also known as demons or fallen messengers (angels), can possess people and manifest themselves to people.
Consider how the adversary works to deceive us. Per the testimony of Scriptures, he is authorized to perform miracles for us so that we will be tempted to believe the lie. He relies on our faulty interpretations of our own experiences to deceive us into disobeying the Most High, which has been his modus operandi from the Garden (Genesis 3). We cannot rely on our experiences to determine our belief system. I have spoken with so many people from the New Apostolic Church (and from other denominations) who cling to false, unscriptural beliefs because of the miraculous experiences that they have witnessed, which is why it is vitally important to allow our thought-patterns to molded by the Scriptures so that we recognize the evil one when he comes to us in his various disguises. The instructional video located here provides a more elaborate explanation on this topic. The Scriptures tell us that these experiences can be used to deceive us. Consider the words of Shaul (Paul) in his second letter to the Thessalonians (2 Thes 2:9), which reads “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and with all deceit of unrighteousness in those perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth, in order for them to be saved. And for this reason Elohim sends them a working of delusion, for them to believe the falsehood, in order that all should be judged who did not believe the truth, but have delighted in the unrighteousness.” If you delight in the NAC doctrine, then you delight in unrighteousness, which has made you a candidate to receive this delusion so that you would believe the falsehood.
Next, regarding my departure from the NAC, keep in mind that my resignation was a result of studying the Scriptures independently and noticing the differences between the teachings in Scriptures and those of the NAC. After reading, for example, what the Scriptures teach regarding services for the departed and false prophets such as Chief Apostle Bischoff, I started to suspect that the NAC was a church of Satan. This suspicion was reinforced when I was rebuked for teaching Proverbs chapter 31 to my confirmation class. The suspicion was further reinforced when an apostle of the NAC told me that it was wrong to preach the Gospel at abortion clinics in order to convince mothers not to murder their unborn children. I realized that only the devil himself would not want the children to hear the words of the Scriptures; only the devil would want unborn children to be murdered with nobody to plead on their behalf. Thankfully, after much study, after realizing that the Scriptures are truth forever, I had to reluctantly resign from the church out of principle and concern for my family’s welfare.
I pray now that you will do your brother’s memory honor by resolving to reconcile your experience against the testimony of Scriptures. Again, the Scriptures teach that those who communicate with the dead are an abomination to Yah. The Scriptures refer to those who communicate with the dead as necromancers. You were deceived into committing a sinful act, and now your mind is locked into a pattern of belief that is contrary to the teachings of Scripture. The rouse succeeded in deepening the deception you are under. If your experience contradicts the teaching of Scripture, then the Scriptures and your experience cannot both be true; one of them is a lie. Since we know that our Messiah has instructed that the Scriptures are truth forever, then the Scriptures are certainly not a lie. Therefore, the only possibility that remains is that your experience was the lie. By trusting only in the written word of Yah and not trusting in the useless doctrines of man-made religious systems, we can easily discern truth from lie.
Finally, I pray that starting today you will trust only in the saving grace of Yahshua our Messiah by resolving to obey YAH’s commandments and intently studying His true Word as found in the Scriptures. Even if you believe nothing that I say, you certainly must believe that studying the Scriptures is a good action; therefore I challenge you to study the Scriptures daily as if your life depends on it, as it most certainly does.
Praying for peace and truth in the name of Yahshua our Messiah,
Tim
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