I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. - 2 Timothy 4:1-5 (NASB)

In the first article on this website titled, "Is the Rapture Really Taking As Many As You Think?", I used the event of the Rapture (without going into the eschatology behind it) as a vehicle to suggest that with all the false movements currently wreaking havoc within the Church, with so many followers of false teachers and false prophets, and with the general tolerance of sin within the Christian community, that not everyone who claims the label "Christian" or even "Evangelical" is currently meeting the minimum biblical requirements to participate in that event.

I followed this up with the article, "Who Will Be Left Behind?" which explained from Scripture that those who will be left behind the second go-round will be the same ones "left behind" at Christ's First coming, people who claim an association with God but refuse to accept Christ on His terms, who further refuse to deal with willful sin and false doctrine in their life, and are ultimately proven false by their lack of spiritual fruit. But now I can fully divulge my ultimate destination in tackling this subject: who is responsible?

The vast amount of finger pointing focuses on the myriad false teachers and the powerful false movements they propel, but while this is significant, I am going to offer these may not be the most guilty party. Those who just might have to shoulder the greatest burden of responsibility for the "great falling away" of these final hours is you and I.

When it comes to deception in the Last Days, most commentators quote verses 3 and 4 above to discuss the problem of apostasy or false teachers. By leaving out the verses on both sides, it is very easy to lose sight that the true context is not a detached observation about others, but a specific call to action directing what we should do about it. This is not merely information to understand the situation but instructions detailing the expectation of how we will respond.

In Paul's instructions to Timothy quoted above, I highlighted our responsibility when false teachers arise and how to deal with them. Most of us will not be afraid to "preach", and because "exhort" has a positive ring to it we don't feel much discomfort there, but when it comes to "reprove" and "rebuke" the knees go wobbly and the heart rate revs uncomfortably higher. In part I think this is because when we read the many New Testament requirements that Believers are to hold other Believers accountable, we read it in a detached sort of way that this is something "someone else" will do because we either do not feel qualified or believe it is someone else's responsibility.

Those terms by themselves on the one hand demand that we know the Truth to begin with (every term is a form of applying God's Word), but on the other hand demands that we look at our own spiritual condition first before launching into an exploration of someone else's walk. Many faithful and authentic Believers are uncomfortable with the challenge that within their own fellowship they must go forth and "preach", "reprove", "rebuke", and "exhort". I get it. We are loathe to throw the first stone because we are acutely aware of our own, fragile spiritual condition. The problem is that we read such things in isolation from their true context, and I submit that the true context in this case is "family".

It does not take a genius Bible scholar to uncover the truth that church is supposed to be a family. God is our Father, we are His children, we are co-heirs with the Son, and the New Testament is riddled with family terminology. I have come to believe that so many are afraid to "preach", "reprove", "rebuke", and "exhort" because they and their fellow church attendees are not a family; they are merely co-located together.

In a true and properly functioning family, these terms do not invoke the same kind of fear. And why is that? Because a properly functioning family dynamic is dominated by love. True love overcomes the fear of not being "qualified" to "reprove" or "rebuke". Families who truly love and care for each other do the hard things because they are not worried about whether or not they are qualified to do the difficult things because their motivation is the sincerest expression of love.

If we do not have the kind of church fellowship which mirrors a family relationship, I absolutely agree that we are going to make little headway should we attempt to "preach", "reprove", "rebuke", or "exhort". If we should walk over to someone who in reality we only casually know from our once-a-week joint encounter at a Sunday morning service and say, "I've seen you cattin' 'round town with that married woman", the impartation of truth is probably not going to achieve any kind of change. But if we actually had a relationship with them and could approach them with, "I am so concerned over what you are doing to your wife and children whom I have come to love as dearly as my own", it may not be 100% guaranteed that the situation will be set aright, but the odds are astronomically higher. This all speaks to one of the most significant signs of the End Times...

"Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold." - Matthew 24:12 (NASB)

I elaborated on this in an article last year titled, "The Real Problem Is That It Is Getting Colder", but a loving, biblical relationship is what is required to be able to correct "lawlessness" through the application of the Word through preaching, reproving, rebuking, or exhorting.

I have no doubt that someone in a fellowship who has no personal relationship with an attendee who is a Christian in name only is going to have little success effecting a change. That is because we are not co-workers, we are not merely members of the same group, but we are supposed to be family. False teachers and false movements play a significant part in what is going on today, but no small part of what is going on can be attributed to anything less than a failure in personal relationships within the walls of the institution we call "church". People who truly love each other in such a family dynamic have the best advantage to "save others, snatching them out of the fire". (Jude 23)

I am not saying this is a guarantee. We have all experienced or known loved ones who, in spite of our loving attempts to the contrary, still go their own way. All I am saying is that unless we pursue a right and loving relationship with those in our fellowship, there is little chance that merely stating the truth to them will accomplish anything. I am not talking about evangelism to the unsaved who have never heard the Gospel, but rescuing those who have responded to the Gospel at least in part but without fully completing that commitment.

In the course of instructing the Ephesians concerning spiritual gifts (Eph. 4) and their purpose to "attain to the unity of the faith" so that we might combat "every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming" (Eph. 4:13-14) - another instance of dealing with false teachers, Paul provides the context...

but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. - Ephesians 4:15-16 (NASB)

I am not trying to hurt your feelings, and I am not absolving any false teacher or false movement of its responsibility, but we have to face some hard facts here. If we possessed a biblical, family-based relationship with the people with whom we fellowship, we would be in the best position to address the need to meet Christ on His own terms. We would be in the best position to address the presence of willful sin. We would be in the best position to address the issue of a lack of spiritual fruit. And we would be in the best position to snatch them out of the fire.

There seem to be a significant number of Christians who do not feel the need to "interfere" in another church member's life because they stick by the notion that Jesus will take care of it. After all, once someone raises their hand for Jesus, it does not matter how they act, does it? Their ticket to heaven is guaranteed and therefore it does not matter if such do not live like a Christian, make no effort to change their life, nor even bear the spiritual fruit Scripture so often speaks of. I find this variation of an unconditional "once saved, always saved" attitude disconcerting. Without arguing this point theologically, I believe the greater issue is that it is a smoke screen, an excuse people use to justify themselves for not developing the kind of interpersonal relationships Scripture demands from the New Testament family.

For those of us who were born-again during what was certainly the last, authentic large-scale revival in America which roughly ran from 1967-1977, there was something very telling which took place. During that time it was very unusual to attend a Bible-believing fellowship of any shape, size, or denomination who allowed a week to go by without singing one of two songs. It did not matter if it was a small group of hippies with a guitar or a more traditional church in suits and ties with an organ and choir; arguably two of the defining songs of that time were "The Family of God" and "They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love". Like many of the revivals throughout history, hymns and songs sprung up to express one of the indicators of a true New Testament revival - a church acting and loving like a family.

One of the other things I have come to believe is that just as secular music reflects the state of the worldly culture we live in, Christian music reflects the state of the spiritual culture within the church. The majority of new songs I encounter are geared to expressing how God makes me feel or how I feel about God rather than extolling and praising the greater qualities of His godhood. And it has certainly been a very long time since I have heard someone singing about the familial love of the Body of Christ for each other. For me it is yet another sign of the End Times and another confirmation that the love of many has already grown cold.

Paul concludes his instructions to Timothy...

But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. - 2 Timothy 4:5 (NASB)

In the context of working within our local fellowships, love is not easily attainable. (Perhaps that will be the subject of a future article.) But again I would argue that each of these things extracted individually are quite difficult if they are isolated from the need to pursue biblical, loving relationships. And when it comes to church organization, lest we forget, what is known as "The Love Chapter" of 1 Corinthians 13 comes in the midst of instructions on the proper application of spiritual gifts. As Paul progresses into 1 Corinthians 14 to finish his teaching on the gifts, he summarizes, "Let all things be done for edification". (1 Co. 14:26) No matter what gift a person has or what office or position they claim to occupy, the authority and working of that individual gift is never enough to overcome an equal application of the pursuit of love which is most born out in our personal relationships. The gifts are meant to build a family, not establish an individual career path.

Why are some going to be left behind? Some of the blame can be laid at the feet of the purveyors of deception and false doctrine, some attributed to the willful retention of sin, and some even further to a lifestyle of providing the external appearance of a Christian but in reality being nothing more than a fruitless fruit tree because, "every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire". (Lk. 3:9) But what about the responsibility of the spiritually aware to make a good faith effort to reach them? What is our obligation to provide the opportunity for them to make things right by preaching, reproving, rebuking, and/or exhorting?

'But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman's hand'...But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life. - Ezekiel 33:9 (NASB)

I am not asking you to explain the eschatology of the Rapture or to educate them on how to understand prophetic Scripture. I am asking that since you already know such things, why are you not consumed with seeing so many in your own sphere of influence "to turn from his way" so that their Christian walk is in line with your eschatology and understanding? Even Scripture does not guarantee they will all respond as they should, but can you see we have to make the effort? And I do not think we would be either so fearful or reluctant if we were pursuing this not as a theologian from the mind but a family member from the heart. Not everything that is taking place in this growing age of apostasy is directly attributable to false teachers and false doctrines; there is also a very big problem with false love.

While there are still true and faithful Believers who are willing to proceed from the difficult task of establishing a personal relationship with such people, there is still a chance to save them. They might not listen to a prophet or a pastor or a watchman, but they just might listen to a brother or sister or mother or father. The challenge for us is whether in a time of growing darkness and when it is most difficult to love, whether we will seek to be more like the church at Philadelphia or completely succumb to the likes of Laodicea.

In Him,

This day is eventful to me. Knowing my own feeble state as a believer, it amazes me that our gracious and sovereign God uses even the pathetic likes of my reprehensible self despite my shortcomings too numerous to count and too disgraceful to mention. I know it is Him and nothing to do with me. It must be Him. Anything I do in my own strength I usually mess up, particularly in ministry.

Recently I returned from Israel. While there I spoke with Yossi Ovadia, a Jewish believer who attended small Bible lessons with me as a new believer. Despite myself, he testifies that I was used of the Lord to teach him the Word of God as a young believer. Today he pastors a very sizeable and growing congregation in Galilee that even plants other congregations. Although he drives me frantic with his abhorrent Calvinism and other things, I just taught a bible study in Jerusalem to a radical evangelistic team led by a Jewish believer who is easily Israel's most radical Jewish evangelist. He prayed with me to receive Yeshua in Israel in 1982. Not long ago I was invited to preach at a church in England. Upon arrival, I discovered that the pastor was a young Jewish man which I did not know. Neither did I know until he told me that it was through the ministry the Lord gave me that he was influenced through me to obtain a degree in theology and enter the ministry as a young believer. A few weeks ago I spoke with a young Gypsy man whom I knew since he was a little boy when he regularly attended my Bible studies 15-20 years ago. He just opened a church in the Gypsy community in Essex, UK which he pastors and told me that the bible teaching he got from me (from Jesus through me) obviously had an impact which is why he has ended up a pastor.

Far from being trophies to me however, knowing that Jesus has been gracious enough to use me to raise up others into His service as pastors and evangelists is frankly a source of deep humility. Why should He use a recovering refugee from a freak show who still carries a lot of bad baggage like me?

More humbling still are the souls I have led to Christ or who have come to faith through the ministry of Moriel. This is indeed God's grace. Many are Jewish, others were Catholics, some were nominal Protestants, and others still skeptics with no faith at all. Moriel has also seen Mormons saved through the ministry of David Lister, and what is truly an amazing expression of God's goodness I recently learned of another Muslim saved listening to my recording 5 Questions for Our Moslem Friends.

Once when I speaking at a Messianic Fellowship in South Africa, a young Jewish guy came up to me and thanked me for leading his father to Yeshua before his father died. I told him that I did not recall meeting his father. He informed me that I indeed hadn't but his father came to know his Messiah listening to one of my recordings. As Scripture says: "Cast much bread upon the water and we shall reap in a due season" (Ecc. 11:1); other times it is a case of, "One man sows and another man reaps, but the Lord gives forth the increase". (1 Co. 3:6) Neither I nor Moriel assume an ounce of credit for any of these precious souls for whom Christ died and arose; He saved them-not us. But it is an encouragement to see someone come from death to new and eternal life in Jesus (Jn. 5:24).

The Moriel ministry has multiple facets. There is church planting and missions; there is biblical exposition looking at the Judeo-Christian origins of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures employing the hermeneutics of the early church; there is discernment ministry alerting God's people to the things Jesus warned us would come in the last days; there is support for Israel, Christian rights against militant Islamic, homosexual, Darwinist, and abortion activism, and campaigning for the persecuted church; there is Ebyown in Africa for HIV babies and small orphan children and feeding the rubbish dump children in the Philippines. A search on the Internet will reveal that different people (both those who like us and those who do not) know Moriel for different things. Some know Moriel for BeAlert, others for Ebyown, others for discernment, others for emphasizing the need to exegete scripture as the early Jewish church did; others still identify us as a discernment ministry. While all of these things are by the calling of God true, the first and foremost focus of Moriel must be evangelism; specifically evangelizing people of other faiths beginning with the Jews. Our 5 Questions For You series has in the grace of Jesus born fruit even among Muslims. But until now, I must confess a major disappointment. I have by God's mercy led Jews to Christ as well as Muslims, and Roman Catholics, and Protestants. David Lister has reaped harvests from among the Mormons and Dave Royle among Africans. But never-not even once, have I led a single Jehovah's Witness to Christ and the Lord knows it was not for a lack of trying.

I actually came close twice (once with one of their elders), but it never happened. I found this frustrating. Again, not that I collect souls like trophies for myself or for Moriel, but I desire them to be trophies for Jesus who died for them.

I have witnessed, prayed, contended, and won arguments, but never a single soul. The spiritual and psychological grip of Satan that keeps people in bondage to that wicked cult is almost unbelievable. We have seen Muslims and Orthodox Jews saved, but not Jehovah's Witnesses. The late Moriel administrator John Zari had been a Jehovah's Witness for over 20 years and got saved, and I have met other former Jehovah's Witnesses who came to know Jesus. I know it happens, but it never happened for me-not until now.

After 39 years I received a text today from a pastor in Kent, UK informing me that a sister in his church gave a copy of my recording 5 Questions for Jehovah's Witnesses to someone who had been in that cult 11 years. Over the last year this former Jehovah's Witness secretly listened to it four times and just received Jesus by Second Birth a few days ago. I have waited 39 years for this to happen. I hope not for reasons of religious pride, but I was almost discouraged about it. Not any more. It may be only one Jehovah's Witness, but that is 100% more than last week. Indeed-To God Be The Glory!

May this ex-Jehovah's Witness grow in their faith in the true Jesus.

J. Jacob Prasch

Originally posted on the MORIEL website
http://moriel.org/MorielArchive/index.php/discernment/jw/the-first-jehovahs-witness-soul-the-lord-has-given-us 

A Question for Jacob RE: His Television Comments

The following was forwarded from Revelation TV:

I am writing in response to your interview with Jacob Prasch. I really enjoyed him and all the knowledge that he possesses. I would just like pick up on a point that one of your viewers wrote in about regarding the revivals that have happened (such as Lakeland etc) and are happening now in Alabama. Jacob said that these were counterfeit and not of God. I cannot speak with any authority on previous revivals but feel passionately about what is happening in Alabama.

I have known Nathan Morris since he was 6 years old his Father is the pastor of my church. The heart of that family is that the lost will be saved they love the Lord with un-compromised lives. I know Nathan and the testimony of how God saved him. He walks only in obedience to the Lord and nothing of what he does is driven by selfish ambition or deception. He wants souls for the Lord.

I just felt I had to speak up because I don't want him to be tarred with the same brush (so to speak). He speaks an un-compromised gospel and signs and wonders follow.

Jacob Responds:  

Greetings in Jesus.

I know nothing of Nathan Morris. (Obviously, however he has never been anointed of the Lord to have a major evangelistic impact for Christ in his own country, the UK, or we all would have heard of him). This so-called "Church of His Presence" in Alabama, however, is pastored and led by John Kilpatrick, the same religious con-artist and proven liar who led the Pensacola scam that ended in financial scandal and an ugly split between Kilpatrick and Michael Brown.

Who can forget on TV when Kilpatrick presented the young vibrating girl with the slurred speech prophesy as if she was palsied and attributed it to the Holy Spirit? Despite the scriptural test that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is "self- control" ("egkrateia" in Greek) and not the lack of it (Gal. 5:23), Kilpatrick stated he knew this was real because "he knew her family". That was his authentication - not the Word of God. Kilpatrick claimed she came from a good Christian home and that her mother is a Christian teacher and her father a Christian medical doctor. In fact, she came from a broken home, her parents split and divorced when she was young, and she was a troubled young girl. Kilpatrick is a demonstrable liar.

In Alabama, as in Pensacola, there are medically unsubstantiated claims of healings that are not clinically documented with more of the same lunacy, dishonesty, bogus claims, unscriptural doctrine, and mysticism being passed off as Christianity. After the collapse of Pensacola and its proven failure as a false revival which merely recycled the Toronto Experience via Holy Trinity Brompton in England, once more we see the exact same conniver John Kilpatrick giving another repeat performance and once again claiming it came from England. All of this hype we are hearing is what we all heard before - ad nauseum.

It is simply a sequel to Pensacola. I made no comments concerning Nathan Morris because I never even heard of him, but I certainly know who John Kilpatrick is. This garbage is nothing more than the counterfeit revival of Pensacola - Part II. Don't let anyone con you. It is just more of the same old ridiculous rubbish from the same old deceiver John Kilpatrick. It began in Kansas City, then Toronto, then Pensacola, then Lakeland, now it is Alabama. It is the same old lie from the same old liars repackaged.

What you refer to is just another combination of the carnal and the demonic seducing the naive, scripturally ignorant, and undiscerning. No revival came from Kansas City, or Toronto, or Pensacola, or Lakeland and I assure you none is coming from Alabama.

In Christ,

Jacob Prasch