Departing from the Truth
Hi Everyone,
The three visions I have to share with you today, speak of ideas and beliefs that we may have been taught, but are they true, are they Biblical? It is the truth that sets us free. So we need to know for ourselves what is the truth. Jesus said:
“I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
I hope you will read this post for it will certainly challenge you in in some of the traditional views of the faith. When the world’s ideologies mix with the truths of scripture, things can get to be a bit “off.” We need to study and reflect, pray and seek God for wisdom and revelation. The Lord wants us to walk in truth and walk in the Spirit.
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3
So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:9-10
The Visions
The Tattooed Foot
I was at church in the sanctuary after the service, just praying by myself. I saw the front top section of a foot facing me. It was covered in tattoos, even the toes were tattooed. The nails were rather discolored with jagged edges, ugly, resembling claws. The toes were clenched and pulled back.
There is no doubt that what I saw was a demon’s foot. But it is not surprising that demon’s show up in churches. They are scheming to undermine the plans of God for his people. They want to bring discord, and division. They want to cause strife, confusion and misunderstandings among the people.
There is an excellent book that I read many years ago by C.S. Lewis called the “Screw Tape Letters.” It is a fictional story about the letters passed between a demon and his nephew. However it teaches us to be aware of the devil’s tactics. The older demon in his letters was teaching the younger how to operate in deception to undermine the faith of believers, to distract them in church and to cause them to sin and even deny their Lord.
Those wicked powers coming against the church want to cause trouble, and raise havoc in the body of Christ, pitting one group against another or causing the shepherds of the flock to sin, and thereby scattering the faithful.
“Strike the Shepherd and the flock will scatter.” Zechariah 13:7
Jesus, as the shepherd, quoted Zechariah when speaking to his disciples:
Then Jesus said to them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of Me. For it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” Matthew 26: 31-32
Even though it appeared that the devil had had his way and had struck the shepherd, with a fatal blow, it was God’s intended plan for Jesus to be sacrificed as the perfect, sinless, lamb of God. It was God’s will for Jesus to rise again, and restore the fellowship between man and God that was lost when man sinned in the garden. The separation between man and God caused by sin is called spiritual death. Now we who believe that Jesus is Lord and God, are no longer spiritually dead, but alive in Christ. We are no longer separated from God, but are reconciled to the Father, and dwell with him, for the Holy Spirit dwells within us.
Zechariah prophesied about the Messiah making a way for a fountain of cleansing to take away sin and purify those who believed in him:
“In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. Zechariah 13:1
The Lord’s plans and purposes will stand. We simply align ourselves with his word, trust God and know that he will never leave us, nor forsake us. We must be able to see the schemes of the devil and take captive every lie and idea he plants in our minds. We must take authority over the entities that come to cause harm and throw us off track. “We bind them in the name of Jesus!” We declare, “No weapon formed against us shall prosper.” Therefore, let’s walk in faith and not succumb to the plans of the wicked one.
A Rebellious Young Woman
In this vision, I saw a young woman push over a large upholstered chair or love-seat. It fell with a crash. The scene moved right and I saw two people, a man and a woman sound asleep in two twin beds. They were not awakened by the sound of the seat crashing.
Another Young Woman
In the third vision, I saw a seated young woman with her leg extended wearing a white tennis shoe. Her shoe was removed without any hands seen. Her foot was exposed and revealed that she wore only a half sock so that the toes and forefoot were bare.
What the visions mean
Two of these visions involve some aspect of feet. Usually when I see feet and shoes it represents our walk with God. In the first vision I saw tattooed feet that were ugly, with discolored nails that were rough and split at the edges. The foot looked like it belonged to some type of demonic being, but it could also represent the walk of people who have chosen witchcraft over serving the Lord, or have chosen evil and sinful lifestyles, which open doors to demonic beings. People can take on the characteristics of the demons they worship.
When Jesus spoke of the religious leaders, the Pharisees, he revealed who their true father was, not the Lord, but the devil himself.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John 6:44
The Pharisees had in mind to kill Jesus, for their desire aligned perfectly with the devil’s desires.
The Lord brought heavy accusations against the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Matthew 23. He pronounced 7 woes against them, and then declared that they would be held accountable for the sins of all mankind from Genesis through Zechariah. And the devastation that he would bring upon them would occur in “their generation,” calling it “this generation.”
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers. You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell?
Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.” Matthew 23:29-36
And the Lord kept his promise “coming in the clouds,” in the spirit, while the Roman army on the ground worked his will. They surrounded Jerusalem and for three and a half years they besieged the city. Its final destruction and the destruction of the temple came in AD 70.
With the destruction of the temple which was their source of pride and wealth, the age of the Old Covenant was terminated. We are now living in the age that was to come. For we are living in God’s eternal plan - the New Covenant. All the prophecies concerning the Lord were now fulfilled or consummated, just as he and the prophets had prophesied.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Luke 24:44
One of these Old Testament prophecies was given by Malachi, in the last book of the Old Testament. After Malachi, nothing was heard again from God for 400 years.
“Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. Malachi 1:10
John the baptist broke the silence by speaking of the Lord and preparing the hearts of Israel, for his coming. When John saw the Pharisees coming to see him baptize the Jews in the Jordan, he spoke of God’s judgment and wrath to befall them.
But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come One more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:7-12
Jesus came in AD 66-70 “in the clouds” to put his enemies under his feet, and to terminate the Old Covenant and inaugurate the New Covenant.
The Rebellious Young Woman
In the next vision, the young woman tipped over a large chair or love-seat because she was angry and defiant. She was acting in rebellion against the authorities placed over her. The sleeping couple might represent her parents, which would be the primary authority figures God places in a child’s life. In the vision, the man and woman did not wake up. They were ignoring, or tolerating her bad behavior. Perhaps they gave up working with her to make changes in her attitude, now that she was an adult and capable of doing her own thing.
In the visions that the Lord gives me, a young woman usually represents the church. Not all “churches” follow the Lord’s teachings. Some churches are “seeker friendly,” and are more interested in building their own kingdoms and estates, than building and equipping the believers who are the real church. We see that the mega churches do not hold to the biblical model of church building. They want to create their own “brand,” and use satellite churches so as to control the message and keep all the church growth under one central power - the head pastor and his closest staff. The satellite churches do not preach, or even teach on their own. The small groups within the conglomerate are instructed to discuss the Sunday sermon, to keep uniformity across the campuses. They do not want churches to spin off, but to stay under one central authority. They want all the satellite churches to consider the lead pastor as their authority even though they may never actually meet him. The local pastor is more of a place holder and hopefully one they can turn to for counseling and support.
This is man’s way to control the message, and the money. The biblical model is quite different:
Grow, train, equip, and divide; grow, train, equip and divide; grow, train, equip and divide... New churches should be planted and set free to serve God, to hear from the Lord for themselves, not to simply accept whatever their central leadership decides to speak on and fall in line to serve them. The church has only one head - Jesus. The church is not a business, nor a social club. The church is the body of Christ. We are individuals, set apart to love and serve the Lord, and to love and serve our fellow man. We are to love and show others who God truly is. He is faithful, He is true, He is the great I am, He is our savior, our redeemer, our healer and our deliverer. Scripture tells us that there is only one mediator between man and God the Father, that is Jesus, the Christ (the Messiah)!
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all—the testimony that was given at just the right time.
For this reason I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a faithful and true teacher of the Gentiles. I am telling the truth; I am not lying about anything. Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension. 1 Timothy 2:5-8
It may also be that the young woman represents the churches that do not teach the need for holiness and avoid confrontational sermons that speak of the need to repent and get right with God. Some churches are embracing sinful lifestyles as perfectly normal, and acceptable. If a couple is “engaged,” and they are living together as man and wife, outside of marriage, the church may not correct them, for they do not want to embarrass them, or offend them, and cause them to leave the church. But of course this is not the proper Biblical manner in which it should be handled.
If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Matthew 18:15-17
Tolerating sinful lifestyles in the church undermines the teachings of Christ, and promotes sin, allowing it to spread throughout the church. When the church fails to take a stand on what is right and wrong, but acquiesce to the world’s view on sexual relations between non-married couples then immorality is seen as perfectly acceptable and no longer sin. What impetus is there to cause a person to change, if they are accepted at all the social functions, in the classrooms, on the worship teams and in the choir. Does this please God? I don’t think so – God does not wink at sin.
It is actually reported that there is sexual sin among you. I’m told that a man is sleeping with his father’s wife… Shouldn’t you have thrown out of your church the man doing this? 1 Corinthians 5:1-2
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5:9-13
I remember years ago, I spoke to a pastor’s wife about this very thing, not about a specific person but in general. She said, “We believe that they should be allowed to stay and we let the Holy Spirit convict them of sin.” But Paul warned the church that “a little yeast (sin) works through the whole batch.” (1 Corinthians 5:6)
When I spoke to another Pastor at a different church, and this time, it was about specifics, He took what I said to heart and met with the couple. The couple agreed that the Pastor was right, and the word of God was right, so they set a date to be married, and the man moved himself to the basement until the day they were to be married. This is the right way to do things!
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20
Another Young Woman
In this third vision, I saw a young woman seated in a lounge chair with her right foot straight out in front of her. Without anyone or any hands visible, I saw her white shoe removed from her foot. The sock on her foot was only a half-sock for the sock had no forefoot or toes. The woman’s toes were exposed.
As it was in the other vision, the woman represents the church. She was lounging, leaning back in her chair. The shoe was white representing purity and truth. Someone (God) had removed the shoe for she was no longer pure. The foot as before representing our walk with God was now exposed. The sock was cut off representing a separation from herself and God. This separation was not visible until the shoe came off to expose the fact that she had already departed from the truth.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus told John to write to the seven churches. To one specific church, the church at Ephesus, Jesus had John write:
“I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come and remove your lamp-stand from its place, unless you repent.” Revelation 1:3-5
The removal of the shoe is like the judgment of removing the lamp-stand. It is necessary to expose sin so that we have an opportunity to see where we are in error and repent. God gives us the means to recognize our sin as it is. He wants us to get right with him.
The church at Ephesus had lost its first love and was no longer following the Spirit’s direction. These believers had taken their eyes off God and had lost their spiritual fervor. They had become complacent. Persecution may have played a role in making them weary of serving God and nearly ready to give up.
But to every one of the churches, the Lord encouraged each to stay the course and to overcome their weaknesses. By remaining faithful even to the point of death, they would receive their reward.
The young woman in the vision sat back in a lounge chair, for she was no longer concerned or interested in the things of God. She, like many in the church today, was complacent and merely waiting for what she believed was to be her ticket out of here – her escape from the earth (the rapture). Little does she realize that the Lord came as he said he would in AD 70, and that the rapture that she is looking forward to is a mere human interpretation of scripture that continues to mislead people. John Darby’s idea of premillenial dispensationalism featuring “the rapture,” has only existed in the last 250 years. It undermines true faith, for it makes Jesus out to be a liar. “Where is this coming he promised?” It's been 2000 plus years and the words “soon,” and “close at hand,” and “this generation” mean nothing! How can someone believe the truth of the gospel, if he reads these words and hears the church saying, “No Jesus hasn’t come yet.” What is he to think? He thinks “Jesus is a liar!”
Jesus himself said to his disciples:
“For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done. Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Matthew 16:27-28
“When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” Matthew 10:23
Jesus told the Pharisees:
Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation. Matthew 23:34-36
Shame upon the early church that denied Christ’s coming to appease the authorities of the day: Constantine. They lost sight of what happened in AD 70, for the church was mostly Gentile by 325 AD and was not interested in the historical record. Their mission was to agree with Constantine’s mission - to unify the empire under one religion. Constantine moved his capitol from Rome to Constantinople (today - Istanbul) as he himself had worshiped the sun god.
He offered the leaders of the Church freedom to practice without persecution, and he gave them salaries and were tax exempt. In exchange they were to accept the modifications of the symbols of the church to blend or harmonize with the Babylonian religious symbols. The cross, which literally means “stake,” was changed to resemble the letter T for it was the symbol used to refer to Tammuz, who was the Babylonian reincarnated sun god Nimrod.
The halos that are shown around the saints were originally Babylonian representations of the sun god, Nimrod, Tammuz and his mother, Semiramis, the “queen of heaven,” mentioned in Jeremiah 44.
And the women said, “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?” Jeremiah 44:19
Nimrod was the grandson of Ham who was one of Noah’s three sons. He was a hunter and a mighty man a giant. He accomplished much in his lifetime even building the tower of Babel. He married his mother Semiramis. After his death Semiramis his mother and wife became pregnant, so to avoid loss of position and power, she fabricated a story explaining that the child she carried was actually the reincarnated Nimrod the sun god. She named the child Tammuz.
The Queen of Heaven (Semiramis) and her reincarnated husband Nimrod, the sun god, was now in her lap as an infant. There were many images made as mother and child with halos representing the sun and proclaiming their deity. Semiramis, as Queen of Heaven was worshiped by all middle eastern peoples. Ezekiel speaks of the Jewish women worshiping Tammuz, and the elders worshiping the sun.
Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.
“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Yet you will see even greater abominations than these.”
So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun. Ezekiel 8:14-16
idolatry had always been a problem for Israel, having started from nearly the beginning in Genesis. When Constantine decided to unify the empire by legitimizing the church and merging the pagans traditions and beliefs with the Christian beliefs, the church made concessions. They accepted the symbols and compromised the faith. The pagan mother and child, with their halos as they were depicted in Babylonian artwork, were now given Christian names: The Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. The transition from one to the other was made. Pagans and Christians alike worshiped together adjusting to the new titles and symbols. The worship of mother and child continued.
Another concession made was to change the symbol of Christ. The Greek word “stauros” and the Latin equivalent “crux” both are translated as “stake,” or “pole.” Jesus was nailed to a stake in the ground. The words were kept, but the symbol they represented was changed to a T for Tammuz.
In addition, the church took another left turn and accepted the Platonic (Plato’s) belief that everyone had a soul that was eternal. This was strictly a Greek idea and the church readily accepted this, rather than hold to the biblical idea of the word “soul” which meant “a living being.”
Today, a large denominational church teaches that we have a body, a soul, (representing the mind, the will and the emotions), and a spirit. But this is not biblical. We do not have souls. We are souls. We are living beings, just as a dog and a squirrel are also living beings. They are souls too!
What is true? We are spiritually dead in our sins, and remain that way unless the Lord calls us, and we become born of the Spirit and made alive in Christ. We do not have an eternal soul for this idea was entirely alien to the Hebrew mind and not found in the Hebrew scriptures.
The idea of hell is also a Greek idea. It is said to be a place of eternal torment. For if we accept the Platonic notion that everyone has an indestructible soul, the wicked would need to be kept in chains for all eternity, for there would be no way to destroy them. This idea of the eternal soul mandates an eternal punishment, in order to confine them, since destruction is no longer an option. The Hebrew scriptures teach that prior to Jesus’s death on the cross (nailed to a stake), everyone went to Sheol, the place of the dead. Since Jesus came in AD 70, and we are living in the age that was to come: The New Covenant Age, we go directly to heaven.
Note: that if Jesus did not come in AD 70 the consummation of the New Covenant would not have occurred and we would still be living under the Old Covenant and the Law, and we would still be destined to go to Sheol and wait for perhaps another 2000 years before he comes! It is amazing how anyone 250 years ago believed Darby!
Today the church is oblivious to God’s plan for his everlasting kingdom. Jesus rules from heaven, yet he dwells with us as the Holy Spirit who was the guarantor of the newer and better covenant. The new heaven and new earth are here. I could write so much more about this topic, but it is best to do our own research and know for ourselves what is true. May I suggest a few books:
Kenneth Gentry - “Before Jerusalem Fell” Gentry researched and wrote this amazing book of 400 pages to prove that the writing of Revelation was before the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed about AD 65, and not 26 years after the Fall of Jerusalem.
Josephus - “The Jewish War” Josephus was a non-Christian Jew who was an eyewitness and historian who wrote about the siege of Jerusalem in AD 66 to AD 70. He was commissioned by Vespasian and Titus, the two Roman generals who later became Emperors of Rome, therefore there is no Christian bias in the historical account.
James Stuart Russell - “The Parousia” The following note comes from Wikipedia:
In 1878, Russell anonymously published The Parousia, a cogent exegesis of myriad passages of the New Testament concerning the Second Coming or "Parousia" (a New Testament Greek word meaning "presence") of Jesus Christ. Based on his critical analysis of Scripture texts that anticipate a generation-specific, first-century Parousia (such as Matt. 16:28, 24:34; Mark 9:1, 13:30; and Luke 9:27, 21:32), Russell set forth his interpretation that Christ's Second Coming occurred in A.D. 70, when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by the Romans. Russell explained: "The destruction of Jerusalem was not a mere thrilling incident in the drama of history, like the siege of Troy or the downfall of Carthage, closing a chapter in the annals of a state or a people. It was an event which has no parallel in history. It was the outward and visible sign of a great epoch in the divine government of the world. It was the close of one dispensation [the Mosaic Age] and the commencement of another. It marked the inauguration of a new order of things."
Don K. Preston - many books on fulfilled Eschatology
David Curtis - Berean Bible Church Virginia Beach VA Many online videos, and studies in Preterism
2026 Berean Bible Church Spring Conference — online videos of this year and previous years
Conference speakers and writers: Gary Del Mar, Bob Cruickshank Jr.
It is the truth that sets us free. We need to know the scriptures for ourselves not to simply be spoon fed what others would have us believe. This is not the time to become complacent. We need to be diligent like the Bereans, who searched the scriptures to confirm the gospel message that Paul was bringing to them. We need to know what is true and what is erroneously believed to be true. When Constantine made Christianity the primary or imperial religion, all people were allowed in with all their former ideas and beliefs. We call this mixture, and unfortunately after 2000 or so years, we are thoroughly mixed up in the traditions of man and church. We need to separate the holy from the unholy and truth from lies.
Thanks for reading and sharing this post. God bless you in your studies and in your seeking the giver of life and truth: Jesus! King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
