Statement of Faith (otherwise known as the New Testament)

A Short Testimony

I was raise in a church going Lutheran family, the oldest of seven children. Like almost everyone else, I did not know God or know anyone who did.

Then I began to experiment with drugs looking for a spiritual reality I did not see in church or in the "Christians" I knew. I began to look for God, but I was looking in the wrong places. Like many others of my generation, what I found was that drugs were indeed a door into a spiritual world, but only later did I find out it was the wrong spiritual world. And I found that once you opened the door into that world you are powerless to shut it.

To make a long story short: I joined the Air Force about year after I graduated from High School after having been layed off at General Motors for some months during a recession. Not long after this I resumed my search (or was forced to resume it by the spiritual forces I had unleashed). I soon found myself both possessed by those forces and in restraints in the psycho-ward of the base hospital.

This experience taught me one very important fact. I was not a Christian despite what I had been taught in Sunday School and Confirmation class. I was lost and doomed to hell unless I had an encounter with the real Jesus. I needed a savior.

A number of months later while kneeling alone in my dorm room at Minot AFB, North Dakota, the Spirit of God took pity on me and entered the room. He revealed to me that Jesus had indeed died for all my sins. Suddenly, the scales fell from my eyes. A few days later the Spirit of Jesus returned and said, "give me your life."

Later I began to see clearly that it was no longer possible to stay in the military as "no one can serve two masters." I openly declared that Jesus was my commanding officer, and from now one I must follow His orders. And that was that. (after about a month or two of latrine duty)

That was over 30 years ago. Like many others of the Jesus Generation, I have spent much of that time wandering in the wilderness. I returned to General Motors for a number of years. I tried my hand at business. I worked as an engineer, as a pastor, and many other things; but never finding the place God has prepared.

Now we stand on the edge of the abyss, the storm clouds of the last days clearly visible on the horizon. As Moses was 40 years in the wilderness before God sent him into Egypt, so it is with the Jesus Generation. The seed sown many years ago is about to spring up in these last days. We are witnesses of Jesus, disciples of Jesus, prepared by the Spirit of God to proclaim truth and life and judgment to the final generation of this age. - Stephen Anderson

Purpose

The purpose of Disciples of Jesus is to exhort Christians to a true and living commitment to Jesus Christ as both Lord and Savior, to alert them to the smoke and mirrors of phony christianity and false religion (including americanism, capitalism, communism, and scientism), and to make known to the world (hopefully) that what is commonly called Christianity is not true Christianity at all, and to point everyone to Jesus Christ and His Apostles true teaching.

What men call Christianity today is the product of history and what Paul calls 'the flesh.'  It is the institutionalized embodiment of centuries of manmade religion laid over the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It did not begin with Constantine, but he is the one who can be credited with 'establishing' a degenerate form of Christianity as an institution of the state and the world.  The Gospel of Jesus and the Apostles is profoundly contrary to this world system, yet by using its symbols and rejecting its substance, the state transformed it into a tool of the established order, into Lenin's "opiate of the masses."  So, since the time of Constantine, there exits two Churches of Jesus Christ: the institutional and fragmented carnal religious systems of the world which the world calls 'Christianity'; and the Ekklesia of the of the Lord Jesus, the spiritually united community of those born of the Spirit through faith in Christ Himself.

Progress is one of those sacred cows that is so ingrained in our thinking that to question its reality immediately marks one as a pariah, a cultural heretic; yet the Bible reveals that what is called progress is most often the ripening fruit of apostasy and sin.   From the perfection of the Garden, men sank to the depravity of the world of Noah's day.  From the pure revelation of the Law at Sinai, almost immediately to the Golden Calf, then faithlessness, and then the rejection of the government of God for a government by men. And from the pure revelation of God Himself in Jesus Christ and the purchase by Him of a New Covenant that promises freedom from the bondage of sin and death, to a religion made by often well-meaning human wolves dressed in the robes of Christ.   (does the wolf know that he is a wolf?  Proverbs 21:2, Jeremiah 17:9) Yet even their robes are not genuine, for Christ left His glory and dressed in the the clothing of the common man just as He had clothed Himself in the flesh of common humanity; but this unregenerate Christianity clothes itself in the splendor of the world, in garments of gold and silk, with Rolex watches and multimillion dollar temples.  Men do not have to deliberately plot and scheme to distort the truth and corrupt the Gospel, they only have to walk in the flesh to produce the fruit of the flesh.

My premise is therefore that the Church created by Jesus Christ, the Church revealed in the pages of the New Testament, is the true Church, and only a Christianity that conforms to the New Testament is the true faith, the tree planted by our Father. Every departure from the teaching of Jesus and His Apostles, is therefore a departure from the Truth. Let us pray that God may open our eyes to this and the true Gospel and that we may have the courage to embrace the Truth with all our hearts and minds.  But be warned that you must count the cost. For to follow Jesus means you follow Him to Calvary and the Cross.   To reject the church of this world will make you a heretic, a pariah; unwelcome and outcast by all those who would rather cover their ears than hear and obey the true Gospel.

As I hope is evident as you read these pages, my purpose in writing about topics generally considered political is not to promote political activism and involvement, which I consider a distraction and error, but to strip away the spin and lies that have become a fine art in this world, and point you to what the Word of God has to say about all these things.  I confess to writing at times in the heat of emotion, sometimes after watching the evening news, or after being provoked by the spin of some politician or some money-loving televangelist.   And at times I use (perhaps unwisely) hyperbole to make a point, or make confrontational statements in order to cut through the mental conditioning we are all subject to.   Print is an imperfect means of communication and imperfect human beings too often misunderstand the words of one another.  So don't hesitate to contact me with your gripes.

As Zerubbabel had to first remove the debris from the foundation of the temple in order to restore the house of God, I hope in a small way to also sweep away some of the worldly debris that today is heaped up upon God's foundation.  But neither Zerubbabel, nor Joshua, nor  Haggai, could rebuild the temple alone.  It required the labor of the People of God, those who had had enough courage to leave Babylon and return to the land of promise.  And the rebuilding was not without many difficulties, delays and much discouragement.  Yet until we also leave spiritual Babylon, the rebuilding of the true Temple remains an impossibility.  You can take the blue pill of willful ignorance and return to your warm bed in the land of Babel, or take the red pill and suffer with all those who receive the love of the truth.  The choice is yours.  "Enter by the narrow gate;  for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it." (Matthew 7:13) Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." (Matthew 16:24)

I hope the essays contained here provoke thoughtful reflection rather than anger, but even anger is better than indifference.

If you find anything written herein that is untrue or unchristian or out of date, please take the time to contact me so I can make corrections.  I make no claim of authority for my opinions, only for the Word of God, fully manifest in Jesus Christ and delivered to us in the writings of the New Testament and Old.  I have endeavored to properly apply God's Word to the situation we find ourselves in today, seeking to slay the holy cows that have no legitimate place in the Christian world view.  If I have slain one of your cows, I hope you will consider prayerfully what God says and whether I stand in agreement with Him before you vent your wrath on me.  If you find I am pasturing some holy cows of my own, then you can vent your wrath on me.  I confess it is easier to write about the Truth than to live according to it.

If you are not a believer in Christ, I point you to the resurrection of Jesus.  If He truly rose from the dead as He said He would, then He is who He claimed to be: the Son of God.  The New Testament contains the testimony of those who were eyewitnesses to His life, death, and resurrection.

And if you are a Christian, you better be sure you understand the implications of who Jesus is, and are following Him rather than an adulterated gospel made in America.

The love of the truth is necessary for salvation (2 Thessalonians 2:10)

God bless you all and love in Christ to all my Brethren,

Stephen Anderson