~ Search the Scriptures ~

Today is Wednesday, 6/8/05. This is a testimony type message for the purpose of teaching the importance of studying, searching, the Scriptures. Jesus said: John 5:39 SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

John 5:38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.

Now ponder this a while. Jesus told them you have not his word abiding in you. What did this result in? You believe not whom he hath sent. So see that because the Jews did not have God’s Word abiding in them [they had not been searching the Scriptures] they did not believe in Jesus, whom God had sent. Jesus said then, Search the Scriptures. You think they will give you eternal life. The Scriptures are they which testify of me. All Scriptures testifies of the Son of God, Jesus. This is the only source or truth and eternal life. So if you fail to obey this command from Jesus and do not study or search the Scriptures, you will not have faith or eternal life.

This command to search the Scriptures is not just for certain people, ministers. It is for everyone who desires to have eternal life. There is not one way for the ministers and another way for the rest. No, we all must come in the very same way. There is only one Gate into eternal life. Your only access through this gate is the Written Word of God.. You must obey the Word. You must search the Scriptures daily in order to know what is truth.

2Tim 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Now doesn’t this admonition from Paul match what Jesus said? Sure it does. Study to show thyself approved unto God. Study what? Rightly dividing the Word of Truth. So what is this word of truth? The Scriptures. So study the Scriptures to show yourself approved unto God. How then can you be approved unto God any other way? There is no other way. So, are only minister supposed to be approved to God? Not if you desire eternal life. See then that being approved to God is also to have eternal life? There is no other way. Are you not afraid to flit through life without searching and studying the Word of God?

Ac 17:1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: 17:2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, 17:3 Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.

Ac 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Now see that the more noble people received the word with all readiness of mind, and SEARCHED the Scriptures DAILY to see if the things Paul taught them were so. They were obeying the command from Jesus to search the scriptures. They did not just accept what Paul told them and go their way. They took the time to study the Written Word and find out if Paul were telling them the truth. When they saw that the Scriptures did indeed teach that Jesus is Christ, they then accepted the truth of the Word and were approved by God.

Gal 1:11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 1:12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Gal 1:17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. 1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. 1:19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.

Paul tells us here that he did not go to the apostles and seek a message from them. He did not go let them teach him their understanding. He went off alone and studied the Scripture and let God reveal the truth to him personally. Thus he had the assurance that what he was teaching matched the OT Scriptures and was the full truth. Paul quotes from the OT Scriptures all through his teachings. Afterwards he went to Jerusalem and visited Peter. Now after this, they were assured that they both had the revealed Word of God and it was the same message.

Now I can assure any who reads this, that the message I teach came to me the very same way. I have searched and studied the Scriptures for many, many years. God reveals the Word to me by the written Word. Each Scripture has to be explained by another Scripture, else you have no truth. What I teach matches exactly what Paul and Peter and Jesus taught. So therefore I know it is the truth. It does not cross any written Scripture anywhere. I know of no other doctrine which fits the written word this way.

I know of no church or minister who teaches a message which is written and fits all of the written word.

Nothing I teach now did I learn from some other man. At first I did have some things which I had heard taught. But after God revealed His truth to me, I saw that they had only handed down lies from someone else. None of them had taken the time to diligently search the Scriptures and prove a thing true or false. God will not hold any guiltless who take this indifferent way of serving him. Unless you take the time to search the Scriptures, you will not have faith or eternal life, nor please God.

Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Now after you hear the word taught by a preacher, you are obligated to search the Scriptures and prove if he told you truth. Hold only to that which matches the Word of God, just as it is written, not as a man twists and adds his own thoughts. If it is NOT written just the way he tells it, then do not believe him. Your soul depends upon believing only the truth. It also must fit all other written Scriptures. It cannot cross any other verses, for God did not lie at any point. His entire Word matches from the first word till the last one. If your beliefs cross any verse from Gen. through Rev. then know that you have it wrong. Then the only safe way is to pray and ask God to reveal the truth to you.

But know that God will not go against your mind or willingness to listen and obey his word. If you insist on holding to your former beliefs just because you were taught it by someone you believe to be a true minister, or your parents, or your church, then God will let you believe a lie and be damned, for you are placing their word above God’s Word. Also you then are calling God a lie to say something different from His Written Word.

God said do not add one word to his, and do not take away one word, for if you do, then you make it a lie. Also you must pray for the anointing of the Holy Ghost to lead you into being able to rightly divide the Word. What does it mean, divide the Word? It means you must be able or led of the Spirit to know what pertains to the old covenant of law and what pertains to the new covenant of grace. They are both written in the Word, but God has done away with the old law covenant. Take heed how you hear. Do you hear law or grace? By the law shall no flesh be justified, for the law is not of faith. Law is that forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Do not eat of this tree, for it brings eternal death.

I was raised in a Baptist church which taught the trinity doctrine. But after I grew up, I began to search the Scriptures and I saw this was not taught in the Word, so I dropped this belief. Then I heard the Jesus only doctrine. For a few years I believed this lie. But after I searched the Word much more, God showed me this is also false doctrine of man. It is not written in the Scriptures.

I was taught that the Baptism of the Holy Ghost was not for us today and that speaking in tongues is of the devil. But after I searched the Scriptures, I saw that this is false. So, after seeking God for his glorious power to come into my life, He gloriously filled me with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of His speaking in tongues through me. God was leading me. He had spoken directly to me and told me to leave the Baptist church and never go back. I obeyed immediately. Then after a few years in the Jesus-only church, God again told me to leave this one. I obeyed.

Then I heard a man called William Branham teach a bunch of junk. At first I believed him, even though I saw much of what he said did not fit the Written Word. But after much searching of the word, I finally came to enough faith in truth to outright call this ‘prophet�?a lie and a false prophet. Now I fully see that nothing this man taught or did was true with God. He added many hideous lies to the Word. He was following another false teacher, Josephus.

We now have millions of people who blindly accept this man’s lies just because he claimed to work many miracles. They are setting this man up as their god, for they believe his word over God’s true Word. They refuse to search the Scriptures and stay true to the written word of God. If you receive not a love for the TRUTH you will believe a lie and be DAMNED. It is a dangerous thing to fail to search the Scriptures and hold to the truth it SAYS.

As a young woman, still in the Baptist church, [in my early 20’s] I heard a man preaching over the radio. This man was teaching that all the holidays came from worship of idols. He told how Christmas was actually the old Saturnalia of the Romans. He told that Easter came from another pagan idol. He told how you can find proof of this in encyclopedias. So I immediately checked out what he was saying. Instead of making me mad, as this teaching does to most people, it trilled me. Something inside me recognized this message as truth.

It excited me to hear some truth [food] for a change. I could hardly wait to get my hands on some books which show the origin of all these holidays. I accepted this truth immediately, and even though I had small children at the time, I stopped keeping any of these holidays. This caused almost everyone I knew to turn against me and quit having anything to do with me. I did not let this stop me. I was in love with truth.

In later years, in response to much searching of the Scriptures, God revealed the true birthday of Jesus to me. He revealed from the Scripture in Job three that God blotted Jesus�?birthday out of existence. God revealed to me this could only be Feb. 30. His word said that this day was cursed and we are not to bless it. So this confirmed to me that these holidays are only devil worship. This teaching alone causes most people to refuse anything I teach. They love these devil-worship holidays more than they love God or truth.

Even after this truth is pointed out and proven by the Word to them, they still refuse to repent and turn from their sins. They love the world and the things of the world more than they love God and truth. Even preachers who pastor churches still go on doing these evil holidays after they have read my messages proving this is devil worship. Yet they claim to have the Holy Ghost and be apostolic preachers! How blind can one be!

If I had failed to search for the truth after I first heard this taught, I would still be in the darkness of these devil-worship holidays also. I am so thankful God gave me a love for His Truth. Without this love for truth, there will be no salvation for anyone. Going to church does not make you a Christian and it will not save you. Only obeying the Word of God will save you. Idol worship, like these holidays, will send you to hell fire. You are warned!

God spoke to me and called me out of every church I ever attended. After much searching of the Word of God, I have come to see that the churches of today are not of God. Nothing in their doings fits anything taught in the Word. Not one thing they do is being led of the Spirit. God does not tell anyone to set up ‘healing�?campaigns. Where is this taught in the Word? I never heard of this in the Scripture. Where does God show that the apostles ever set up meetings months in advance? How is this being led of the Spirit?

Jesus told his Church to go OUT into the world and preach to every creature. What church today obeys this? I know of none. They are not searching the Word for truth in how to have a true church. Where does the Word say go to church every Sunday or on Saturday? Where does the Word even say “go to church�? I never read that in the Word. The Work of God is done on a DAILY basis. The Scripture is full of this, yet they do not seem to have ever read it. God spoke to all those minister and told them each day where to go and what to preach. They worked with people on a ‘one-on-one�?basis. The church today wants no part of this type of ministry. They only want crowds and loads of money. No true minister in the Word of God ever took up offerings for himself! It is not written; it is not Scriptural.

They set their churches up on a theater style. God showed me this is not His way. The early church was in a ‘home�?type setting on a daily worship. Everyone of them was involved in the Word of God, not just a few select men. Every Christian is supposed to study and teach and minister the Word of God. I know of no church which teaches this to their members. They bind their members down and say they must not go anywhere except their own little theater church. Where is this written in the Word? They claim this is their duty. Yet the Word teaches that when we do things out of �?I>duty�?we are unprofitable servants. It is not God’s way.

A few years ago a certain person told me they thought Adam might be the devil. He was going by the Scripture which said that in Adam all die. So I began searching the Scripture to see if this were true or not. After much study, God revealed to me, and later proved to me, that Adam is indeed Satan. When I told this person that I now saw proof of this, he said, “Oh, I don’t know about that. Maybe we ought not to say that.�?I said I have found proof of this. He still to this day refuses to accept this as truth, even though he was the one who first thought it might be. See, he did not search the Scriptures for proof. God only used this person to get this thought to me. I believe this. He never cared enough to search for proof, I did. I had to know. Now I see it more fully taught each day. God continues to open this truth up in the Word. SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES. Without this, you will believe a lie and be damned.

I had always heard that John the disciple wrote the book of Revelation. When I first met the above mentioned person, he told me that John the Baptist wrote it. He had no proof, he just thought it. I searched the Scriptures for proof and found this to be true and have written a message proving this. Yet everyone who has ever read this message still clings to man-made tradition that a disciple wrote this prophetical book. The person who first told this to me knew no Scriptural proof. I had to see the proof of it in the Word before I accepted it.

This has always been my safety and has given me much, much revelation out of the Word of God, things I never heard anyone teach. I searched the Scriptures to find the truth. I loved the truth. This is the only way that leads to eternal life. SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES, FOR IN THEM YOU THINK YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. They are they which testify of me.

My daughter and I had believed for years that the New Testament Church is not to tithe. We did not believe we were under any law. Yet one day we realized we did not know what the true way was for us. So we began to search the Scriptures for an answer. In just a day or two, God showed us both on the same day what the truth is. We both saw it, that with the NT Church, Grace, it is all or nothing with God. It is 100%. The apostles gave their all to God. They had all things common. They had a true ONENESS. They were the image of the true kingdom of God. They loved their neighbor as themselves. They were free; they were not under any law. So am I. Praise my God for His truth.

All my life I had been taught that women cannot preach or minister. This caused me much grief, as I had a burning desire to do a work for God. The Word burned in my soul. I could not forbear. I had to teach it. Yet I was afraid of disobeying God. So I spent many hours and months and years praying and searching the Word for an answer to this. I KNEW my God had put a ministry into my life and heart and soul. It would not let me rest! After many years of searching the Scriptures on this matter, God spoke to me and told me this is only of LAW. In grace, there is neither male nor female. We are all ONE in Christ Jesus.

Many women ministers are named in the NT. They are free to do anything a man can do when they have the Holy Ghost, for it is not you that speak, but the Father speaking in you. He doeth the Work. He uses his daughters as well as his sons. He told the OT people they would have to ‘eat the FLESH�?of their daughters as well as that of their sons = the NT Ministers of Grace. Unless you EAT my FLESH [words], you have no life in you. [Jesus]

Because I continued to search the Scriptures, God revealed more and more truth to me. Do you take everything you hear to the Word and study to see if it is true or not? Unless you do, you will believe a lie and be damned. When someone tries to tell you or show you something about the Word of God and you refuse to listen, you are closing your heart’s door to God. A person who refuses to listen and debate the Word and study the Word to see if it is true or not, is not open to God to show him anything. This attitude comes from a lack of love for or desire for the truth. A person who is content to just believe what has been handed down from the false churches will never find eternal life.

Jesus has knocked at your door when he sends someone to you with any word. It is your RESPONSIBILITY to then search the Scriptures and find out if it is true to the Written Word. If it is not written, discard it as error. If it is written, then accept and love and embrace it, or you will end up in hell fire. A person who has no interest in learning the truth of the Scriptures is NOT headed to eternal life. You are headed to hell fire and damnation away from the presence of God. So, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES. This is the only way to eternal life.

While I was still a young woman, in the Baptist church, I was teaching Sunday School. I would only teach from the Scriptures. I refused the Sunday School literature of our denomination. I did not believe it this even then. I studied the Word diligently each week for a good message to give my class of women.

I began then to see that much of what they taught was wrong. They taught that a person can live in all manner of sin and still be a Christian and on their way to Heaven. I saw that this is a lie. I began to teach what the Word says about no adulterer having eternal life. I saw that homosexuals were not Christians. This caused such an uproar in our church, that they all turned against me. I read the Word extensively at that time.

I trilled to all the glory I read that had been in the lives of God’s people. I said one day, If God is all this Word says He is, then there has to be more to serving Him than this [our church services]. I became more and more discontent there. My soul longed to feel the glorious power of God which I read about in the word. Soon, God spoke to me and told me to leave there. I obeyed. I have never regretted it. But If I had failed to be searching that Word, I would still be sitting there, dead, as so many of them still are. Oh, I am so thankful to my God that He had mercy on me and called me out of that dark death.

Our preachers taught that you cannot quit sinning, that you will and must sin every day. This just did not seem right to me. I read in the Word where it said, “Awake to righteousness and sin NOT.�?The next Sunday, our pastor was saying that you cannot ever get above sin. I remembered that Word I had read the night before. I gave him such a look, he realized something, became so frustrated, he could not finish his sermon. He just quit. See, my spirit of truth had worked right there and went to war with that lie and brought that to naught. Even though I did not know how to do this, and did not really intend to do it, God had done it.

Many times I tell people things of truth. I point out to them where they are saying things which are not true to the written Word of God. They just walk away and will not discuss it or even consider the truth. This is to their own damnation. They are refusing to search for truth. Most people I speak to will just get into a ‘smarty�?attitude and say rude things to me. They are just sealing their own doom. It is not a matter of what they say or do to me; it is that they do not wish to discuss the Word and search for truth. This is in direct disobedience to the command from Jesus to search the Scriptures. Since they have no desire or time to do this, they will never come to truth to be saved.

 Believing lies will not save anyone. We must believe the truth to be saved. How can you believe truth when you do not search the Scriptures to find out what is written? There is no other way. Trust not what anyone tells you. Only believe it if it is WRITTEN. I fully believe it must be written in the KJV to be true. I know there may be some other Books which are not in the KJV, but they will NOT contain anything we need or anything contrary to what IS written in God’s Book, the KJV. So, in truth, we do not need them. If they speak different from what is written, then they are lying. God did not tell any lies.

So if you find books which contain things CONTRARY to what is Written in Scripture, then they are not God’s word, they are man’s made-up stuff.

God gave us all we need in the KJV. There is enough of God’s Word written there to save us and heal us and raise us from the dead to eternal life. Believe it or be lost. SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES, for in them you THINK you have eternal life. If you disobey this, you will believe a lie to be damned.

2Thes. 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

You must study the Word enough to be able to remember what is written in one place when you read things in another place which will bring it together and reveal the full truth. This is the only way Scripture is interpreted, by another Scripture. Unless you find at least two different witnesses saying a thing, then it is not established as truth. God said in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.

Years ago I read in Isaiah 42 that God’s servant [Jesus] was blind and deaf. Now I KNEW this scripture could only be speaking of Jesus. Yet I had no idea how Jesus could be blind and deaf. I prayed and asked God what this means. God always reveals things to me when I ask him. But this one thing He did not reveal to me for a long time. I searched and prayed for an answer, but it came not.

Then one night, as I worked at a job I had then, I was reading in Psalms 38. All of a sudden, there was the answer to this question. I just began to rejoice and praise the Lord for this great answer to my prayer and this mysterious question. This is the only way you will ever receive truth. You must desire it and pray for it and SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES, FOR IN THEM YOU THINK YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.

By: Jo Smith