Lance and Jo Schmidt - right after marriage 1968                        Lance and Jo today with our first grand daughter, Corinne (age 20)...we waited through 5 sons, then 3 grandsons before finally, a GIRL!!...a (grand)...DAUGHTER!

Recollections Of God Working In My Life

Starting With the Early Years

Originally written October of 2006 with minor edits added May of 2016. This essay was composed as part of a book rough draft I started back in 2006. This was just before all of the financial global economic troubles that would lead to my new life directions and the major financial market collapses in the USA occurring in September 2008. The book's title would become "SOLID ROCK-SINKING SAND",  a collection of articles, essays and Bible studies comparing serious error and false doctrine with truth and sound doctrine

 
I am not a "scholar"; especially a "Bible scholar". I am not even officially a college graduate. I discontinued my studies as a senior year undergrad at the University of Baltimore after completing 90 credit hours. Why when so close to the finish line? I was recruited for a well-paying factory rep position to support my young wife, Jo and our three small boys, Cary – 4, Matthew – 2 and Mark – only 9 months.  It was a tough choice.

I wanted so much to finish and go on to Law school. I had all A’s and B’s with a 3.5 average in a pre-law program, an “interdisciplinary program" in the social sciences. For the first time I was motivated to really study, read and truly learn my subject matter. High School had been a drudgery as music and other interests kept me from doing my best academically. Now I was motivated!

My fleshly old patterns, with its less than admirable tendencies in the past for shameless self promotion, once enjoyed repeating that "pre-Law inter-disciplinary" phrase as my "spin", because it sounded impressive and important. Today it is meaningless, other than I appreciate the help my University experience has given me to develop certain skills of communication and a love for reading and educating myself.  

I consider myself a long time dedicated student of life, but most specifically the Bible, the Holy Scriptures. I subscribe strongly to life long education. When you stop growing and learning new things each day, you stop living life and only enduring or sustaining life.

The choice to quit my undergraduate program was pragmatic, a means to an end. I needed to make money, provide a home and the basic “good things” of life for my family instead of fulfilling “my personal dream”. 

My goal of being a “successful attorney” was something created in me by exposure to a prosperous and interesting brother-in-law who practiced criminal law.  I was not even completely sold on it as my dream. I reasoned that by the time I finished the remaining 30 hours of undergraduate work; then completed my Law school studies (which would have to be mostly part-time); and then placement as a new attorney getting established in a practice; my family would be almost grown and gone before we were ever able to afford our first house.

You see, we were married right out of high school  in 1968 and we had three little boys...

...by the time I was only twenty-two!

I studied with a 15 hour course load per semester, worked in a retail music store and played music part-time for extra money while trying to support and raise a family. This was a challenge, but I was too young and naive to even know it at the time. It was an amazing example of not only burning the candle at both ends but also in the middle!

I didn’t know any better. I was young, skinny as a rail and energetic. I was optimistic about life, had a trusting faith in the LORD based on my salvation experience as an 8 year old boy... and had His promises to take care of me... providing me with a sense of stability and destiny.

However, I was doing my ‘own thing’.  “Living my life was my job, not God’s”, I reasoned. After all “God helps those who help themselves, does He not?” This idea is nowhere in the Bible, but I did not take notice of this fact at the time. It sounded plausible and I naively assumed it was in the Scriptures somewhere... and therefore must be true. It had the “ring of truth” to it, so I thought...

As I considered this attitude logically, it made sense. (It did not dawn on me that this could be strictly from man’s defective perspective). I have since learned that the “ring of truth” is more likely to be a deceptive “wile” (a deceitful trick) of the devil. Tuck that one away for later! 

I reasoned further that God gave me life and I was to live it in the way I understood to be best for me and my family... and hopefully, along the way I would receive God’s approval and material blessings.  I further thought, “God takes care of his own, right?” Yes, but not in the ways I thought. There are trials, testing, chastening, suffering, and yes...great blessings too, but often different in many ways from my superficial expectations.

I also rationalized, “I will have more time for Him (God) later.” Justifying my agenda, I considered myself very busy with obligations I had to meet. Kids to raise, family and friends to impress and my own sense of ambition motivated me to work hard, play hard and study hard (though little Bible reading and study at this time).

I could live on four hours of sleep per night and the occasional "sleep-in to recover" mode, usually on Sundays, as we were not sensitive to the good reasons for a pattern of weekly church activities as a benefit and protection of the LORD in those days. It was ‘hit and miss’ because I knew I was “under grace” and not “under law” therefore it was not a “requirement” to attend church.

This was a deception used by the devil to cheat me and my family out of much blessing from obedience to the LORD’s clear plan and direction for us.

College classes were on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8:00 AM until noon. Retail work started at 12:30 PM on those days, fortunately, not far from the campus. I worked in a local retail music and sound shop conveniently located nearby in the city. Tuesday and Thursdays were full days at the store. Saturdays were another full day usually with early leave to make it to the location of our "gig".

I worked 46-50 hours per week, played music most Friday and Saturday nights and studied in between...often pulling all nighters for finishing a paper that Jo would type for me...or studying for a critical exam. 

My amazing wife, Jo, was (and still is) a fabulous secretary and mom (and a grandmom!...and now a great grandmom as of 2015). In between having and caring for babies as they arrived, she worked in various full-time jobs, first as a top-notch real estate office assistant and then for a real estate closing attorney. She often was the closing agent for the real estate transactions every day.

Her success provided maturity and stability that I lacked in certain areas. Of course, there were brief breaks for her to actually have the babies, and then back to work she would go. We needed the two incomes to make ends meet. The demands of having three sons less than five years of age with two of them in diapers at the same time never really rattled us.

We were excited about our family and the future. Jo was a superb rock of strength in the midst of all of this; I guess in part because she loved me so much and had this amazing confidence in me. She truly believed that I would succeed at whatever I set out to do; whatever was in my heart and mind that I really wanted to accomplish.  This support and strength from her was an indispensable gift from God although I did not understand and consider the importance of that at the time.

Her wonderful encouragement and confidence in me (and us as a married couple) was the “glue” that God placed in our relationship until he would get a hold of us to walk closely with him in intimate daily fellowship.

My faithful and loving mother in law, Kathleen, would baby sit for us. That was a huge support. We simply referred to her as “Mamom” and we knew she was always there for us with her servant spirit. Jo’s mom is near death at the present time of this writing. (She soon passed on to glory in 2006).

Mamom enjoyed a wonderful last Thanksgiving and Christmas with us in her earthly body of 90 years of age. She enjoyed being with her family in several locations; Tennessee, Florida and Maryland during her latter years. She loved gardening, crafts and cooking, even at 90 years of age. Her sight had been challenged by a gradual eye disease of the retinal nerve but she managed to still function for about 20 years in that declining vision condition enjoying her friends, neighbors and growing family now located all over the country. I am certain she is (and has been) a prayer support for all of us as well as an example to the family of disciplined healthy living. We have all been blessed for her to live so long with her strength and trust in the LORD. 

Opportunity Knocked 

The new job offer was too good to pass up. To become a Manufacturer’s rep in sales and marketing in the music and sound industry was tailor-made for my experience of six years in the retail music business. The position was doubly attractive in that I was joining the largest and most prestigious company in the industry.

Law became a distant goal that would eventually be good in years ahead for making money and having an interesting career someday but this was immediate opportunity knocking; to make some real money, right now! And it was the “lifestyle” and work of being around music and musicians that I really loved more than the thought of Law practice. But it is important to go back a bit further and tell you some more of my childhood background. 

I knew the LORD personally at the time I married. I was not however surrendered to God’s complete control of my life when I became a Factory Sales representative in 1972. I was not sensitive to the importance of this step of surrender to His Lordship. I had been saved at a summer church camp where I first heard the true gospel preached.

As an eight year old boy I was terrified by the thought of my sin taking me into an eternity of punishment and suffering without God. I knew I was a sinner and not right with God. I knew I needed forgiveness and to be saved. I met the Saviour that night at camp; the LORD Jesus Christ became very real to me.  

The campfire that we sat around was the perfect setting for the preacher to describe hell, the torment and the sadness of missing heaven just because of being too proud to admit that I was a lost sinner desperately needing the answer that God had provided through his Son, the LORD Jesus Christ.

I humbly raised my trembling hand at the invitation and came forward to receive God's great gift of salvation, the Saviour himself, into my young heart. I prayed and asked God to save me through Jesus’ death on the cross and through his work of dying in my place. I knew I was a sinner needing to be forgiven and cleansed. I wanted to know that I would be with God forever one day when this life was over.

 
My zeal as a young boy for the LORD was unquestionable. I had debates with my friends who were largely Roman Catholics or nominal Protestants in our suburban town just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. I shared with them what happened to me at camp. I asked them to also trust Jesus alone and not depend on their works or their church membership or Baptism.  

I remember discussing about Mary, the young teenager and virgin maiden that God had chosen for her special role in his plans. I could never understand how the Catholics could call her the “Mother of God”. I knew that God has no mother but that the LORD Jesus needed an earthly vessel, a woman, by which he would come into this world. I did not understand much about the virgin birth because I was too young to even know yet about sex and procreation.  

I did believe what I was told and saw it also from the Bible itself; that God placed the baby Jesus inside of Mary miraculously by the Holy Ghost. I understood that God had chosen Joseph to marry her and be Jesus’ earthly adoptive father and parent, but that GOD himself was his actual real Father, therefore he was called the Son of the Most High and the Son of God. I understood that he came directly from God through Mary into this world. I knew also that the LORD Jesus needed a godly earthly mom to birth him, and a godly family led by a good man, Joseph, that would raise him, and nurture him while he was preparing to face the ultimate sacrifice and service for God the Father, the Holy Ghost and all of mankind.  

I understood that the LORD Jesus’ real divine purpose was his sacrifice for sin on the cross. Leading up to that incredible event, his ministry was to also proclaim that God’s kingdom and salvation had come to this world. His ministry would lead him to a cruel and bloody death by crucifixion on the cross of Calvary, but followed by his glorious and triumphant resurrection as the ultimate confirmation of his true identity.

His work of salvation and His resurrection as absolute proof of the complete satisfaction for man’s sin problem and debt was solid in my heart and mind...with His atoning death permitted by His Father as this payment . It was all necessary and God’s plan for our salvation.

Love drove the LORD Jesus to die for us even while we were yet his enemies because of our sin and rebellion. Love motivated the Father to give us His only begotten Son.

I was determined to be a good boy for my parents and show the LORD my serious love in return. I played football and baseball, studied hard and enjoyed Cub Scouts.

Church activity was mostly regular attendance and also Vacation Bible School and summer camp.

Then music happened in my life.

The asserting of self and self-will was about to take over control. Ball playing, scouting, studies, and church activities would begin to take more and more of a back seat to music. I began learning to sing and play along in accompaniment in 1960 at age 10. A little electronic Magnus brand Chord organ was my first remembrance of personal music learning. Following the instructions of the little book of songs to play the melody and the chords to accompany the melody, was just plain fun!

Some of these songs were great hymns I had learned in church. But, I also wanted to learn to play the snare drum after watching the elementary school band in action and visiting a little music store on the corner near my school (Fifty five years later both are still there last time I checked in Catonsville, Maryland.). 

My brother, “Carl”, bought me a ukulele for Christmas the next year in 1961 along with a Kingston Trio album from my parents (the snare drum was not an option with Mom and Dad). This album also had the teaching materials for playing along. At eleven years old, I learned all of their songs on my own following the instructions.  The album had the chords and words on the jacket. It was easy to learn to play and sing along with the music for hours on end until I got the sound, tempo and singing just right. I had become the fourth member of the Kingston Trio which I turned into the “Kingston Quartet!” They never knew they had an anonymous ukulele member in their group!

My friend, Eddie, across the street in my neighborhood had received a Sears-Silvertone (made by Danelectro) electric guitar for Christmas. This was more interesting to me than the ukulele for it had six strings instead of four with a fuller sound from the amp built right into the case. Of course, it looked more “cool” than the “uke” which did not hurt my motivation to learn. (By the way, as a sidebar, that Danelectro made instrument/amp/case package is worth a small fortune to collectors if its in decent condition.)

I soon mastered the same songs and wanted a guitar of my own. My Dad helped me find a nice old used acoustic orchestral style guitar. It reminded me of the big band players I saw in old classic movies on TV.

Folk music was in full bloom and I was learning all of the favorite ‘Peter, Paul and Mary’ songs as well as many others. Country music had only a little influence in our area but it also was blossoming in popularity with the more crossover type songs.

Another friend in the neighborhood named Gary had saved money from his part-time jobs. He bought an even nicer electric guitar and an amp to learn to play the popular styles heard on radio. His older friend, Denny, was already an accomplished electric guitar player and soloist who knew all of the top instrumentals of the day in the pop music world. They wanted to form a band where we could compliment the sound of each other.  

We began to meet regularly to play and learn. I frequently was the one to sing lead and play the chords but I also liked learning the bass lines even though we did not have a bass guitar. This led to my first electric guitar.

I traded some of my penny coin collection (Indian heads and Lincoln cents) for an old electric acoustic arch top (Kay brand). I plugged in with my friend into his amp. I learned the bass runs on this guitar and then saved to buy a real bass and amp next.

By early 1963 we had a neighborhood band that was getting invitations to play; first the Rolling Road country club (Catonsville) where my Aunt Betty (married to Dr. Garrett Dean, my pediatrician Uncle) was helping on the social committee, then the local young teen dances at the Catholic and Methodist churches (CYO and MYF).

Dances in those years were quite tame by today’s standards. I was only twelve years old. We all dressed up in our Sunday best, put on the best after shave of our Dads, usually Old Spice or Mennen’s “after shave”, the cheap drug store kinds.

The dancing was ballroom style and some mild forms of the jitterbug for faster songs. Popular fad dances like the Twist, the Mashed Potatoes or the Stroll among others dominated our American culture. It was all very fun, innocent and seemingly quite harmless in the early 60's. I did not know that Satan was setting the trap for me and our entire culture to lead us step by step into greater evil.

I was in the mainstream of conservative “churched” American life. We were excited about the new sounds we heard from popular radio and TV. There was the influence of Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, the Ventures, and other “top forty” artists. There was a growing economy of opportunity for better pay and prosperity. Job advancement, better homes, cars, conveniences and leisure time made our lives a virtual “American dream”.  

The more raw and heavy beat forms of music such as the Rhythm & Blues (R&B) from Little Richard, James Brown, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave and others would soon follow in my music experience.

The Beatles and the “British invasion” were also just around the corner in 1964. This R&B and British sound was my first exposure to the growing open sensuality and sexuality that was happening in our time. It had long before started in the roots of jazz, blues and the night club life of the early 20th century.

Our “pop” culture music was just a modernized form of these earlier pioneers. Our music was growing out of the new technologies of electric guitar and electronically enhanced music. This style of music was combined with an increasingly heavier beat and increasing amplified volumes.  Satan always pushes the envelope. When I observe where we are today with the open perversion and evil in the music of the culture I am amazed at how far it has fallen into baseness and debauchery.

At the early stages of my music experience, Vietnam was not in the news except as an occasional story about our military advisers being there to help the South Vietnamese resist the attacks of the communists; the North Vietnamese Viet Cong, which received help from their allies, the Soviet Union and the Communist Chinese.

China was just a giant and primitive nation of mystery with cultural traditions and history so foreign to my experience. Little did I realize that years later I would make many trips to Asia… and China in particular… with everyday business being as common as shaving each morning.

Our President, John F. Kennedy, would be assassinated later in that 1963 year, the first of my "teen" years at age 13. None of us understood the tumult about to break in the sixties with the war in Southeast Asia and the culture war at home, spearheaded by the growing demands for sexual freedom and experimentation with drugs. We did not realize we were in the midst of a cultural revolution, a transformation of our society and its core values. 

Our lives were “good enough”. Complacency combined with our “comfort zone” attitude toward living described our daily experience. Nominal attention was paid to church and spiritual things. The “falling away” from the things of God was becoming more evident but we did not really notice it, as it was so gradual.

I did not know that the old King James Bible, our bedrock of truth, had already been severely subverted causing major “cracks” in our American culture's foundation. Our nominal Christianity and occasional use of the King James Bible, we mistakenly thought, was “good enough”.

The 50's and early 60's were calm, placid, even deceptively optimistic with innocence that would soon be shattered. We depended on our Pastor and our Sunday school teachers to give us “the word” each week. Our lives were not perfect, but seemed almost perfect.

The shocks of war, social unrest, changing mores, subversive cultural behavior and instability with the economy would soon begin to show the cracks in our “American dream” foundation as we ended the sixties and went on into the turbulent seventies. 

Later, as a young husband with a family of five, I accepted an exciting promotion in my Rep job in 1973 and we moved from Maryland to the Deep South where we settled in Montgomery, Alabama. This was a major deal for us as we had never been away from either of our families on our own. Aside from the culture shock and change in lifestyle from the big city, it was a time of focus on our own growing needs and developing our unique family traditions.

 
Neighbors can be important! 

Our first neighbors, Mike and Joanne, who lived next to our rental house, were not church going people. They were nice people. They were fun to be around and kind to us, with a standard of reasonable behavior but they had no kids and were only interested in living the good life and pursuing their interests. They quickly took to us and our kids.  

Motor cycles were one of their loves and hobbies. They raced them and attended serious pro races as fans. Our little boys thought that this was very “cool” and “neat”, so before we could get too settled into family life, we were going with them on Sundays to the races they scheduled.

It only took a few times for us to get excited about it enough for us to acquire a couple of racing dirt "bikes" of our own.  Racing became a ritual weekend pattern with occasional trips to Talladega or Daytona to see the big races.

Our first year was “fun time”; constant leisure activity when not working and little thought about the tone we were setting in our home for the boys. It all seemed harmless but it was an “idol” in the place of God. 

Fortunately, the opportunity arose for us to buy our very own first house. We did not even realize then that it was God providing this blessing to us in spite of ourselves. He was up to something… to draw us closer to Him.

Our new home was close by, but we now had some new neighbors who would begin to make an important difference in our lives. On one side of us lived a black Congregationalist preacher and his family (which we would later learn was the main reason why we made such a great deal on the house). We thought nothing of this racial issue and prejudice because we had grown up in the Baltimore – Annapolis – Washington, DC region where the integration of most neighborhoods was more common. However, when it would later come time to sell, we had problems getting the attention of any Realtor and their prospects because of the “old South mentality”.  

An interesting thing about this family was that there was not the positive influence on us that you might have expected. They were kind and neighborly but they never invited us to church. I guess “whites” were considered off-limits to their outreach. You see. Prejudice can work in both directions. They liked their social circles, which included golf and cocktail-dinner parties with their friends from their more liberal church environment active in the civil rights movement. They were involved in a politically oriented "social gospel" kind of church that emphasized issues in our culture and our political system rather than knowing God’s word well and the LORD more intimately and personally through growth in his Son. 

On the other side of us was a family of middle class white Southern Baptists, evangelistic, Christ centered in many ways, but trying to be "culturally relevant" by their willingness to compromise on certain social behavior for the sake of relating to their neighbors like us. They were accommodating to go out to dinner with us and indulge in “adult beverages” with us “in moderation” of course.

I am indeed thankful to the LORD for the wonderful influence on us for good even though it was not an optimum church example in terms of its lack of fervor for Bible knowledge and personal spiritual maturity growth. They also had lower lifestyle standards than many solid Gospel ministries and even some non biblical practices.

The experience however, of those largely faithful neighbors who loved the LORD and reached out to us, is what worked to get us to visit their Baptist church and begin to consider the spiritual welfare of our family and our three precious little sons.  

Not long after this experience God would move us on to new ground in North Georgia; actually much safer ground spiritually where we could hear our first real strong bible based preaching as a family.

The new church was an independent Baptist church and much more committed to standards and separation from worldly influences. The emphasis was the salvation of lost people and raising a godly family for the LORD that he could use to reach our community and prepare the next future generation. We were encouraged to live a life that reflected God’s love to others so we could earn a fair hearing and witness to the world around us. 

Jo, my dear wife, was saved in this church along with our children at a revival meeting. This Baptist church had not abandoned God’s pure words; however, they were on a slippery slope that I did not realize at the time.  

The visiting evangelist was fiery and strong in his firm convictions about the King James Bible and denounced competing modern bibles as counterfeits and dangerous as he preached the revival services. This was the first time I took notice of the issue of God’s written "word" being under attack from within the church; an “inside job” by stealth and deception, causing leaders to accept or tolerate alternative versions of the Bible.

I had heard preaching growing up against very liberal and modernist versions of the Bible as being corrupt, but not the ones used in our circles along side of the KJB, such as the Living Bible, the NIV (New International Version) and NASV (New American Standard Version). 

I would learn years later that our pastor disagreed with the evangelist’s strong stand on the bible issue and apparently had determined that he would not have him back again because of it. However, many years later God would do a work of healing and reconciliation because our pastor later received for his service of many years in church ministry an honorary doctorate from the very Bible College established and led by this same evangelist. I can only assume that they “buried the hatchet” of disagreement and came to unity on this issue for the good of the Gospel ministry going forward.

This time of growth as a family, from 1976 to 1984 in Georgia, was precious for us. Our pastor and his wife as well as the youth and music pastor made a huge difference in our lives by investing themselves personally in us. They discipled us and allowed us to serve and to grow in ways we never could have imagined. The preaching was bible based and honoring to the LORD. The church was very sensitive to unsaved people and excellent growth was given by the LORD. I quickly began to understand the importance of learning and personally growing in the word.

Teaching was a gift the LORD gave me and soon we were heavily involved in youth ministry and teaching with the senior high young people. This drove me into the word as never before because of the sense of having serious responsibility for others as well as my own young family. I wanted the young people in our ministry to avoid the mistakes we had made but also to benefit from our experience; to know firsthand God’s mercy, love and grace as he had shown it to us as a family. 

I had received as a gift from my brother in 1972, an NASB (first edition – New American Standard Bible – Lockman Foundation) and from my wife, Jo an NIV (first edition – New International Version bible) 1978. Both were completely innocent of the matter of the Scriptures being changed and corrupted. My godly older brother Carl, who was a pastor and camp director had simply desired for himself, his family and friends, a more current reading style of English that made the words more understandable in today’s modern English.

Likewise, Jo’s innocence in picking out the NIV “bible” at the local “Christian” book store was later honored by the LORD by his lifting the veil of deception from our eyes. Both my brother and my wife had noble purposes and sincere hearts so the LORD would ultimately protect all of us from the dangers to be discovered in due course. 

I never really used my NASB gift because this was during my “prodigal son” wandering years. My NIV bible was a different story. It was 1978, right in the midst of my excitement for spiritual things as the LORD had renewed my heart with surrender a year or so earlier. He had saved my wife, Jo and also our kids.

I was experiencing a spiritual high with newly discovered insights about the evidences for our faith. I began to teach using the NIV which Jo had purchased for me as a Christmas gift.  God has an amazing patient way of dealing with us as “babes” including the “messy diapers”.

The LORD kept showing me glaring discrepancies between my NIV and the KJB which I also had kept from my childhood days. These disparities in readings made me so uncomfortable that after the first 6 months of teaching, I shelved the NIV and acquired a new KJB with study helps from Dr. Charles Ryrie of Dallas Theological Seminary.

I had no technical explanation for the differences I found in my NIV or the shocking notes that my Ryrie study Bible contained that cast doubt and questions on the AV text. This was my first hint that these “scholars” might have some problems.

I simply chose to walk by faith and not be tempted to buy into the “spin” and “scholarship” couched in the comments, especially since they contradicted God’s own words of promise to preserve his words purely and perfectly for his people. These pure words that God preserved just had to be somewhere!

I sensed He was showing me they were safe and sound in the AV1611 text of the KJB Holy Bible 1769 edition. Our Baptist church in North Georgia, under the leadership of a Godly pastor, emphasized the importance of preaching and teaching from the KJB even though they had embraced the idea of the "originals" being the only perfect and truly pure, infallible scriptures. Our pastor felt that the versions and translations that we had today were almost perfect and certainly “good enough” so he never made an issue of it.

Only one time when passing him in the hall did I hear him make a comment along with our youth pastor about this strange debate going on from “radical” Baptists that were “King James only”. This was the first time I ever heard that expression and did not think much about it at that time. I saw it as a fringe issue and distraction not knowing any of the particulars.

I was focused on our family and the youth ministry, not textual research issues that seminaries usually grapple over. God would allow me to defer real research on the subject until after we moved with my next career promotion in a new direction to California but he showed me that I needed to clearly stick with my KJB for reasons I could not entirely explain.

The “old paths” just seemed to be well trodden and safe. Perhaps the exposure I had been given to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs helped. The bible I used was the one these godly people gave their lives for… to protect and keep from the satanically deceived Roman “church”. They shed their blood protecting and defending it.

It just seemed right and safe to stick with it. It also read and sounded more spiritual to me than the other modern “Bibles” that used the everyday language of common speech. The KJB seemed to elevate the atmosphere to one of greater reverence for the LORD and his words.

I guess you could call it a sense of awe and wonder that the LORD had given me for the King James Bible. The blessings of God for those that used this old Bible were obvious to anyone willing to consider its global impact since it arrived in the hands of the English people in 1611.  It unified the realm of King James and propelled the British Empire to global prominence and importance.

In California my reading and studies

began to open my eyes. 

In reading some good books on the story of the bible and how it came to us I soon learned some basics. The historic bible; the KJB, agreed wonderfully with the earlier English bibles that were widely used and accepted, only it was better in expressing God’s truths in terms of richness of meaning, clarity and beauty. The KJB was “polished like pure gold is polished” compared to the earlier bibles that were missing this final step that would “magnify” its value.

Had there been any critical changes or discrepancies in the AV1611, it would have quickly been challenged and rejected as many other bible version attempts had already fallen by the wayside into disuse for their questionable and corrupt renderings.  Instead, God purified the subsequent editions and printings for the AV 1611. The first major edition change dropped the Apocrypha section, which was not inspired scripture though the Romanists accepted it as such.

This extra-biblical material was placed between the two Testaments and not treated by the translators as inspired writing from God in the first printing of the KJB. It was strictly to be used for additional background information but they soon realized it would be treated incorrectly as though it were inspired scripture. The acceptance by the Pope and the Church of Rome confirmed their sound judgment to remove it.

The Papal pronouncement of acceptance of the Apocrypha as Holy Scripture happened in reaction to the Protestant Reformation. It was part of the Roman Catholic’s Counter Reformation effort mounted by the Jesuits against this protest and movement of non Catholic and Protestant Christians away from the corrupt Roman “church”. They also brought out their own corrupt English "bible" based upon the polluted stream of the textual tradition...the texts from the Alexandrian Gnostic influence.

As we progressed with my career directions while in California and eventual move to Florida, I did learn more about our Georgia pastors’ Bible training. His alma mater had a staff of theologians that embraced the concept that translators and editors have been engaged in the restoration of the text from the perfect "originals" which have been changed in certain ways. But we do not have any "originals" to compare with today's texts! We only have texts in the original languages of the Bible but even that is deficient as these ancient languages have changed over time.

They assert that well meaning scholarly men have made mild corruptions of minimal consequence so they subscribe to a position of “almost perfect” or “good enough”. An entire generation of men has come from this training environment with this incorrect frame of reference. The only anchor that holds many of these men to still be faithful in their preaching and teaching is that they check their AV1611-1769 edition Bibles as a result of earlier training and tradition to compare to the modern renderings found in these other modern Bibles.

They stand on the shoulders of other great men’s preaching and teaching that were fully moved by God’s Holy Spirit using the power and purity of the AV1611-1769 edition – Charles Spurgeon, D. L. Moody, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards et al. 

I am not saying that these men using other modern bibles are apostates but they are moving in a dangerous direction away from the safe and pure text that God has preserved. They are headed toward a slippery slope to apostasy. They are playing loose and free with a very dangerous position that has ultimately destroyed many souls with unbelief; the pseudo “science” of Textual Criticism.

The leavening effect of this “science, falsely so called” will eventually work its way through the entire lump (churches) given enough time. Many good men with good hearts have been deceived and it is high time to sound a strong alarm to move them away from the edge of the “cliff” that they are about to “plunge over”. They are in grave danger without even realizing the nature of the problem or the reason why. 

I traveled extensively in the remote parts of Idaho in the late 1980’s with my work and was amazed at the deep ravines that would suddenly appear from out of nowhere. What looked like continuous desert of relatively flat land lay before you…so it appeared.

The landscape as you looked across to the horizon was punctuated by cacti and occasionally a hill or two, but the land was really a deceptive desert interrupted by extremely sudden and deep crevices in the earth that would surprise man and beast alike to plunge to their deaths.  The Indians would use these gaping cracks in the earth to their advantage in hunting. They would run buffalo over the edge to their deaths for a grand “harvest of meat” before winter would set in.

It reminds me of Satan’s clever way that he uses our herding instinct as "sheep" against us; to go along with the crowd. If we are not listening intently to the voice of the shepherd himself we will simply move with other "sheep" into danger.  The hireling type "shepherd" often just wants to tend the "sheep" with programs and strategies devised by men, instead of working hard in his personal study of the word to feed them with the pure and perfect doctrines of the living and true God.

“Good enough” is indeed not good enough if it can get you started in the direction of the deep ravine! Beware of blind leaders who attempt to lead you unknowingly in a wrong direction. 

“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”  Matthew 15: 14

 
Look for the good “under shepherd” pastor who will faithfully follow the LORD and his pure words with his whole heart…a heart that is right before God. He must have a conviction for the preserved and perfect words found in the KJB. A “Pharisee” pastor will justify his new version and have a proud spirit of “scholarship”. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” 

Matthew 16:12

“Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”(Emphasis mine) 

I understood that God’s word was under attack from unbelievers in the world that rejected the Bible as his word. But this was something new and shocking. I found it hard to imagine that someone who named the name of the LORD Jesus Christ would dare attempt to change his words! Even if they thought it was for better understanding or clarity, how dare they take on such a dangerous and spiritually perilous exercise?  

I knew the warning at the end of the Bible in the book of the Revelation that applied to the complete word of God and not just this single book given by the Holy Ghost to the Apostle John concerning end time prophecies. When the expressions “prophecy of this book” or “words of the book of this prophecy” are used in God’s word in Revelation 22, it refers to more than just the future things being predicted but the preaching and teaching of truth – the “forth telling” of the whole counsel of God in all of the Holy Scriptures (as well as the “foretelling” of great future events). 

Revelation 22: 18 – 19

“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”(Emphasis mine)

 
We dare not add or take away any of the words of the LORD! He states firmly that he shall take away that man’s “part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

That makes me tremble for those who have done this very thing. When I read that sobering command and promise, I am reminded that God is very serious about how we regard and keep his words.  

The Awakening 

The next phase of my life experience is what I term, the “awakening”.

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”

Romans 14:11 

The next 10+ year period of my life, from 1982 – 1993 was an amazing time of learning and growing with my King James Bible. As a Bible teacher and student, I experienced steadily increasing understanding, wisdom and discernment of the Scriptures and their key doctrines that we must earnestly contend for against all odds.

The LORD was showing me things that would prepare me for the battle to erupt around me in the 90’s. One of the areas of preparation was in the realm of deception….subtle, intricate and detailed spiritual deception.

Satan’s elaborate schemes throughout history were coming into focus as I learned about the explosion of the influence and growth of cults, false religions, eastern mysticism, self-esteem development, psychological concepts, personal transformation experience and techniques of spiritual disciplines used by esoteric practitioners of satanic methods down through the ages. 

The New Age movement was really coming into focus as books were hitting the bookshelves in mainstream stores on all kinds of spiritual topics – enlightenment, self discovery, man’s "godhood", the coming "new world order", the global village, spaceship earth, planetary citizens, one world government, quantum leaps in man’s evolutionary development, the inner intelligences of the planet, spirit guides, nature worship, the ancient serpent wisdom, occult religious teachings and practices, holistic healing, the Tao of Physics, the Yin and Yang, the I Ching, the Kabbalah, the chakras of the body, attaining balance and health through the proper use of the life force in the meridian lines in the body, developing your latent mental powers, mesmerism, hypnosis, the paranormal, psychic powers, the mind sciences, yoga, TM (Transcendental Meditation), Rolfing, EST (Erhardt’s seminar training), Scientology, Psycho-cybernetics, Self actualization, Para-Psychology, new therapies for finding your true self etc. etc. ...

It would take an entire book much longer than this discussion just to deal with the many facets of Satan’s elaborate schemes and traps of spiritual deception.  This background knowledge of “spiritual wickedness in high places” in many forms of spiritual deception and now manifesting itself in the form of New Age teachings would prepare me for the next step; my “awakening” to the depth and subtlety of the warfare going on in the spiritual realm for control of planet earth.

Satan wants desperately to be worshiped but he has to steal this place from the true God. He has to pretend to be God and like the true “Most High”. He has to convince humanity to worship him by using the words of God twisted to suit his lies.

This decade would prepare me for an interesting experience in 1993; the understanding that Satan has been conducting his attack right inside the camp of true believers. Bible Colleges, Seminaries and churches, though claiming conservative and fundamental doctrinal positions, have been (and are being today) subverted by an attempt to overthrow the authority of God’s words.

This is not a frontal assault, but a many pronged and simultaneous attack from many different angles in small incremental ways. Like ants at a picnic, if you get enough of them, they can carry away the whole meal.

In late 1993, I saw an ad for a new book entitled “New Age (Bible) Versions” by. G. A. Riplinger which caught my attention in one of the ministry newsletters I received at that time. The title immediately resonated with me having studied thoroughly the nature and scheme of the New Age movement with its doctrines and strategies.

I ordered the book and devoured it from cover to cover a number of times because of the breathtaking research that it revealed into the Bible controversy. The expose, of the deceitfulness and the satanic plot behind the basic new message of the new "bibles", the men who translated them and the manuscripts they used, I found to be chilling. And this research was well documented to show the fundamental issues at stake.

The conspiracy in the spiritual realm was real and the plans were in motion for a one world religion, a one world political system headed by a global leader and a one world "bible" that would support that system – the "new world order" (actually ancient "mystery Babylon" reconstituted for the end times!).

The common thread to all of this was (and is) a basic opposition and even hatred, for true bible based Christianity and true Old Testament (only) believing Jews that truly seek after and worship Jehovah as God…yet are blinded to Jesus as their long awaited Messiah. The true remnant and godly people of Israel when Jesus came; the true sons of Abraham that followed his example in his love for the LORD, believed on Jesus and the entire early church was 99% Jewish!

This small remnant of Jews understand and respect the Law of God; given through Moses but they also realize that they cannot be saved by the works of the Law. They recognize that their keeping of the Law is imperfect and defective.

Today, devout Jews cannot even keep the animal sacrifices that the Law requires. There are no provable Levitical priests and besides, they are no longer needed. True faithful Jews, believing in Jehovah, agree with King David who often wrote about salvation and God, his Saviour. He knew that apart from God’s mercy and love as the only Saviour and redeemer, no one can enter into his presence and have eternal fellowship with Him.  This small number of believing Jews (God’s Jewish Christian remnant) looks for and longs for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus as a second coming! They share this great hope and longing with bible believing Gentile Christians who also look for the coming of the Messiah again.

But for emphasis, I state again; in the case of true Christians (Jews and Gentiles), it is the LORD Jesus Christ’s second coming we all look for; this time as the conquering King of Kings and LORD OF LORDS. He came as Jesus of Nazareth, the first time. He was the suffering servant and Lamb of God that the prophet Isaiah wrote about. He had to take away the sins of the world first.

Jesus himself stated: 

“And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” Mark 9:35  (emphasis mine) 

The Messiah, to be the perfect example for all men, had to first be the servant of all. The LORD Jesus; (Messiah Jesus!) is therefore now deserving of all honor… and glory… and preeminence as the “first born from the dead” having rightful rule as the God-man over all creation.

He earned this place of being first with his love and sacrifice… and by providing the eternal gift of salvation purchased with his own precious blood. He could have just declared himself first, as God, for he is God and God is all in all…the first and the last, the beginning and the end of all things. But he chose to show us his true holy nature and character of infinite love, mercy and amazing grace.

Without this demonstration of who He really is, His nature would forever remain unfathomable to us. Even now we can only begin the journey of understanding the depth of His love, His mercy, His grace, His holiness and the myriad other wonderful attributes of God.

Thankfully we have eternity ahead of us to increasingly understand Him and the wonder of His nature. Even though many unbelieving Jews have been allowed to be blinded to the truth of Jesus being their Messiah by God’s purposes, this blindness will be lifted at some point as God has promised. This veil over their eyes has only been permitted by God so that His wonderful salvation plan could be made known to the entire world of Gentiles as well as the believing Jews.  

There is a darker side to Jewry. I hesitate to reveal my knowledge on this as it will draw the criticism of "anti-semitism", but I assure you I am a person who loves all people and want all to know the love of God through Jesus, His Son.

Let me first state a key Scripture passage:

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Romans 11:25 

God Himself has allowed this blindness in part and Satan has seized upon that opportunity.

There are many today that say they are Jews and they are NOT necessarily true sons of Jacob from Isaac and thus also from Abraham. They may be semitic sons of Abraham but have descended from a blood line of Ishmael or the twin of Jacob, Esau. They may not even have that faulty Semitic bloodline of Abraham! They may be "Jewish converts" from the Turkish, Mongol and Caucasian stock of the Khazarian Empire of the 8th century. Or they may be modern converts like the late Sammy Davis Jr., the late Jayne Mansfield or today's Ivanka Trump, who married into the Jewish family, Kushner, and coverted to Judaism, a "Jewish" religious belief system based on the Talmud and Rabbinic teachings.

I emphatically now declare that this kind of conversion is NOT to the pure Old Testament (Tanakh only) "Jewish" ancient Israelite religious belief and practice! Not even close!

This is a wicked Babylonian mysticism infection of the old religious belief system of the Law of Moses (The real Torah of the first 5 books of the Old Testament), the other OT wisdom writings and the Prophets ...that was revered... and practiced... in ancient Israel long before the captivities and dispersions of the 12 tribes.

Kabbalah, the Zohar and the Talmudic writings of the sages of this corrupt religion are modern Judaism in its variant forms.

All of these variants are "AntiChrist spirit" in nature because they express in their writings a hatred and contempt for our LORD Jesus Christ, denying His Messiahship, His Godhood and His Saviour role for the entire world of men, both Jews and Gentiles (goyim). They blaspheme His Holy name, claiming He is burning in hell even now in His own excrement and semen!

This might shock you if you have never heard the inner hatred they have for the crucified LORD, "Christ" Jesus ("Yeesoo" as they say it to avoid saying JESUS with it's clear Jehovah "SAVIOUR" meaning), expressed vehemently in the Rabbinical history of the extensive library of Talmudic writings (which they eroneously try to now call their TORAH).

You need to investigate the "Synagogue of Satan" to understand the detailed truth of this wickedness.

However, the real issue is not the bloodline of our common fleshly human DNA that matters. It's our spiritual DNA through the "new birth" that Jesus described in John's Gospel Chapter 3...a "spiritual birth" by "grace through faith" in the LORD Jesus Christ that matters! (Ephesians 2:8).

The saving faith found only in Him makes you a child of God and a spiritual descendant of Abraham by FAITH! Physical ancestry has no value if you miss the new birth!

There are only two races! Either you are a member of Adam's race living in a state of sin and judgment from the fall in the garden of Eden of our first parents or you have been born again into the NEW race of Jesus Christ as a redeemed new eternal creature possessing eternal life as a gift from Him! Are you saved? Are you headed to the New Earth, New Heaven and New Jerusalem? (the true ZION!).

Through the death, burial, shed blood and mighty resurrection of the LORD Jesus Christ, God has certified that this is the plan and the only plan of salvation.

There is salvation in no one else, just as God declares: 

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  Acts 4:12

Let me make something perfectly clear at this juncture. God does not blind individuals. He did not blind individual Jews to cause them to reject him and his Son, the LORD Jesus. He allowed the nation Israel to be blinded by using their wicked and rebellious hearts against themselves to cause this spiritual blindness. God will allow us to oppose ourselves!

If we will not humble ourselves in the search for Him and the truth, our sin can harden our hearts!

Remember that many of the Jews and other Israelites had left the "system" of religious harlotry to turn back to the true God of Israel, Jehovah. They responded to the voice calling in the wilderness of God's prophet, John the Baptist. They left the old religious fraud system of the "synagogue of Satan" to turn from their old ways to the truth of the LORD and His kingdom which " was at hand"...remember, Jesus told the religious rulers; "Ye (all of you) are of your father, the devil"!

Jesus (Jehovah-God, the eternal WORD) was on the planet and walking about... to be introduced as the miracle working, love preaching, forgiveness dispensing, gentle and kind "Lamb of God".

The national leaders and others in influential stations in society as a whole in Israel, rejected (and many still reject today) the LORD in their hearts. These people set the agenda for the nation’s position. Jesus declared to them: "Your house is left unto you desolate".

They loved not the truth otherwise they would have received it and believed on Him (Jesus Christ) whom God had sent.

Individual Jews (and all men for that matter) still have the freedom of their own will and conscience to follow the wrong crowd or follow the LORD. There are those Jews who are the remnant; a small remaining portion of believing Jews. They have been mercifully protected from the blindness because they sought the LORD. And they sought his truth. The same holds today. Many individual Jews worldwide believe God and have accepted his Son, the LORD Jesus Christ, as their Messiah.  

It is the "nation"; the political entity, that has not recognized him. It was the corrupt national leaders who rejected him and gave him to the Romans to be crucified. Collectively, God has judged them and allowed the blindness but he still deals individually with each person and each heart.

This applies today to America as a nation. The culture war is being fought between the forces of believers in a supreme creator God and the forces of unbelievers, to determine the conscience of this nation.

We, collectively as a nation of people, can reject or acknowledge God by reflecting our belief and commitment in our customs, our traditions, our laws and our policies both domestic and foreign.  God will still deal with individuals in the midst of this national conscience to bring them to truth to save their souls according to his "glorious Gospel" plan.

However, we must decide to recommit as Americans, and as we once declared at our founding; God is our ruler. God oversees our affairs. He is rightfully due the thanksgiving and gratitude for all of the blessings of liberty and the freedoms we enjoy including the freedom to worship Him according to our consciences.

If we reject him nationally, His blessings and His Spirit will withdraw from us. Our people will go the way of evil…the way of the Canaanites, darkest Africa, and secular Europe with its dead state churches or into a state controlled dictatorship under a brutal atheistic philosophy as in Communist regimes… or even submitting to a false god ruling us, such as in Islamic regimes.

The same applies to us as true Christians living today. God does not blind individual hearts to the truth about doctrinal issues or about which Bibles are the pure, preserved and perfect words of the LORD.

He wants us to take him at his word and believe every word from the pure preserved Bibles (in your language). As leaders in churches reject him and the pure word, he will allow a blindness in part to come over their hardened hearts in this area...and a failure to see the issue clearly and biblically. This same blindness may affect their group as a part of their rebellion against the LORD.

However, individually, he still works with each heart, calling each of us to the truth and to “…come out from among them and be ye separate…”

 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;

and I will receive you,”
2 Corinthians 7:17