Personal from
Leonard V. Johnson
SINCE the end of August a small, tiny voice has been speaking out, through a positive Authority, with revelations of the soon-coming fulfillment of God’s prophecies, along with the ANSWERS to this world’s problems. The WatchMan Report is that small voice – along with our website www.owensborocojc.com.
But how do we – and by “we,” I mean the Church of Jesus Christ Online Ministries and our affiliated churches – know the answers!?
When one turns on the television to the likes of Fox News they certainly describe many of the world’s troubles; yet, we make PLAIN the true meaning of what is causing it. God’s chosen begotten children reveal the causes, and we give this world the Solution. And, we confidently and boldly tell this world how these troubles will be solved.
Now, this may sound condescending to some – but, how did we come to know!?
I’ve been watching a television program called 24 Hours in A&E filmed in London, England in 2012. Now, I’ve heard – and I’ve never been – that London is often called Londonistan. Because it’s almost a Muslim nation within the UNITED KINGDOM! I’ve come to see that living in London is equivalent to living in such U.S. cities as Chicago, or Detroit, or St. Louis. There is, in the city of London, rampant crime, drunkards, and a complete lack of respect for any authority. Today, in 2021 – to an ever-greater extent in London - rampant civil unrest, utter discontent, disobedience and disrespect of parents, protests, violence with blood pouring into the streets immeasurably –and it is growing exponentially.
Today, our peoples have completely lost their bloody minds!
We are living in a world with appalling evils, but we are told here in America, “just deal with it!”
And there appear to be no solutions.
In all of this moral and social decay, our peoples are venting their frustrations.
“Let us impeach President Trump! Let us get him out of office any way we can!” Then, they inject a candidate that begins – once again – to destroy the nation!
I said to my wife just today – insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting a different result. All throughout mankind’s history, they have replaced one unworkable and evil system or culture with another, which is equally unworkable – and always expected a different result.
God’s chosen begotten children dare – even as it was in the first century AD – to speak out ABOVE politics! With an Authority higher than any other! We dare to light up the world, to be that city set upon a hill for all to see – to speak the truth of God and the solutions which will come. We tell our listeners with a positive assurance of a soon-coming Utopia – of world peace – of a soon-coming prosperous WORLD TOMORROW!
I recently typed an article entitled “Are You But A Traditionalist?” and towards the end, I asked – is it not clear that there are, even today, two groups!? This grave division of these two basic groups is with us even to this day. On the Day of Pentecost 31 AD, with the creation of the very spiritual Body of Christ – there was no other group who was approaching and answering these bewildering questions in the same manner.
In the last Personal I wrote about “What Gospel?” – here I speak about just how we came to understand.
I’ve asked before – just how did you come to believe what you believe!? Few indeed actually stop to ask themselves the likes of – “what will I be doing in heaven!?” - if indeed you go there. The large majority of professing Christians fail to inquire in retrospect just how they came to believe what they do. Now, everyone has ideas, convictions, and beliefs – and we know that so many others hold a completely different belief. Yet, each one is certain, in their own mind, that they are right. But, we know what God says –
“There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death” – Proverbs 14:12, NKJV throughout unless otherwise noted.
And, the LORD our God mentions it twice for posterity and importance.
What most may not realize is just how these ideas, convictions, and beliefs found their way into their minds. Very few truly realize that the things in which they believe were simply taken for granted – they carelessly assume it’s true, without any real proof. They simply accept it. Now, it may be completely untrue, but they believe it and will often vehemently fight to uphold their belief.
Then, also, so many of our peoples just want to believe what they want to believe. They absolutely refuse to accept or even hear want they don’t want to believe – whether it’s right or wrong. As I said, prejudice is a strong barrier to growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
One says: “I don’t want to learn any more than I did in 1972! – don’t confuse me!” And, there are a great many that just want to “belong.” They belong to a church, a club, a party, a movement.
Now, in this rapidly declining 21st Century, we have a “Woke” movement spreading like cancer in our educational system. And our children are told and expected to participate. As I had written in several of our Letter to our Friends – there is also a great Islamization of American schools, of soft Jihad in our schools! Also, the Left has made it so that our history books are now being rewritten and sanitized so that people will forget what real history is. If you change your history and you do not remember it the way it was, you will be doomed to repeat it!
Also, the utter lack of education is on full display in the United States of America – I have on my personal Facebook page a short video by Mark Dice in California back in 2013, asking random people on the street, “When the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1976, what country did we break away from?” And, repeating the question – verbatim, a young millennial answers, “That’s a really good question – it’s China” – with true conviction.
Now, of course, we’ve come to see that the educational system as established by the status quo has perpetuated errors and falsehoods in the guise of truth – e.g. It twernt Paul Revere who shouted “The British are coming! The British are coming!” in 1775!
A glance at the very definition of the word “education” in the online Encyclopedia Britannica is truly illuminating –
“Education can be thought of as the transmission of the values and accumulated knowledge of a society. In this sense, it is equivalent to what social scientists term socialization or enculturation. … Education is designed to guide them in learning a culture, molding their behavior in the ways of adulthood, and directing them toward their eventual role in society.” 1
So, to answer the question within this Personal - how we came to understand!? – a little personal history. And, I’ve spoken of some of this before. There was a series of unusual circumstances and incidents which led me, personally, to God’s revealed knowledge and grace – surely completely different from the usual way of just taking for granted what one hears, reads, or discovers what others believe.
Having done some research, I discovered that my paternal ancestors migrated to America from Aberdeenshire, Scotland on a vessel belonging to Charles Sun in 1696 – some eighty years before the United States got her independence. My paternal 24th great-grandfather, Waltheof Siwardsson earl of Northumberland Johnston, was the last Anglo-Saxon aristocrat and the only noble executed under the reign of King William the Conqueror.
In the year of our Lord 1969, I was born and reared just on the outskirts of Stayton, Oregon, to stable parents of theist belief. From a child, I had a great passion for understanding. Always wanting to know the “why” about things. At age 8 I knew that I would grow up to be a truck driver because my father and older brother drove dump trucks.
At the age of 12, I suddenly became fired up with great excitement to learn what God’s living word – the Holy Bible – actually says. My father – for the briefest of moments – had attended with my grandmother the Worldwide Church of God under Herbert W. Armstrong until the organization's 1953s completely Scripturally misunderstood edict came out concerning divorce and remarriage. He stopped attending – but would still watch every Sunday morning The World Tomorrow television program. In 1983 I began receiving the Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course. In these young years of my life I came face to face with an important question - would a Creator, having supreme intelligence, wisdom, and love to think out, plan, design, and bring about all creation – this earth, and all life upon it – have left human beings in ignorance of His purpose? That – to me – was a profound question. Upon the completion of the course, I had asked my father if I could begin attending church with my grandmother – of which I did. And, true to my nature, my inquisitiveness was to get me into trouble. It turned out that the church didn’t like anyone questioning their doctrines, edicts, rules, or laws. I was prehumously and ungraciously thrown out of the church – cf. Isaiah 42:3. I had drifted away from religious interests, at age 16. I had chosen long-haul truck driving as my life profession and attended schooling in this regard.
Then, in 1992 I was told by a friend that I had been conformed to Armstrongism. Always an inquisitor, I desired to know whether he was right! He questioned everything I had learned – i.e. the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, angels, life, death, God’s Law, the Sabbath, etc. All the foundational doctrines of which I had come to understand in my 3 ½ years of learning.
For the next 19 years, I was made painfully aware of the fact that this world has grave troubles, conditions, and problems. I was observing the “what” – but no others had the “why.” This profession required me to travel over the United States and see with great distress that we are living in a very sick nation – cf. Isaiah 1:5-6. I had come to witness that the “successful” is very seldom happy. Their bank accounts might be full, but their lives were empty. I had kept that passion to understand “why!?” I was witnessing in vivid color America filled with unrest, discontent, general unhappiness. I had learned that untold populations of this Earth's 7.8 billion is merely existing in depths of abject squalor and disease, illiteracy, and filth – a 21st Century world in which 940 million (13% of the world) do not have access to electricity, and 3 billion (40% of the world) do not have access to clean fuels for cooking. 2
But W H Y!?
Why is there all this unrest, discontent, misery, and suffering throughout the world!? Why do we have wars!? Why is there no world peace!? It certainly should make us all think!? And think I did.
My friend who questioned my belief didn’t have the answers. Science doesn’t have the answers. The religions around the world don’t have the answers, nor have they succeeded in making this world a better place. All the various systems of governments around the world – the majority committed to bettering their people – don’t have the answers. Higher education has not produced future leaders capable of understanding or solving this world’s woes, confusion, and suffering.
In early 2011 I began TEACHING and WARNING with an online blog about many of the very truths of God which I had learned, foundationally, within those 3 ½ years!
Then in the spring of 2018, while I was studying God’s living word in relation to the resurrections, I came across the conversation that our Lord Jesus had with Jarius, the synagogue ruler, regarding his daughter. I came to our Lord Jesus’ words, “’ Stop wailing,’ Jesus said, ‘she is not dead but asleep.’” A soft whispering voice in my mind spoke to me which said, “You must believe Me!” Before that, I had begun to drift away from God’s foundational doctrines which are found in His living word – the Holy Bible – and, I put up with it! – cf. 2 Corinthians 11:3-4.
The apostle Paul wrote, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” – Rom. 8:28.
God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ had allowed me to drift off the narrow way and begin to ‘put up with’ a false gospel to be a catalyst to His plan! God led me to His New Covenant with better promises – the very promise of eternal life! I have come to understand – based on forty years of involvement, interaction, Scriptural study, and hearing what God’s Spirit says – that the Church of God from my youth was based upon biblical truths and partial truths - there were some teachings that were not based upon a proper understanding of God’s living word.
Therefore, I accepted the challenge of a multi-month intense Bible study. Breaking down and methodically going through each doctrine of God’s living word – I truly wanted to understand and to know biblical truth and knowledge and to properly distinguish, differentiate, and discern between biblical truth and biblical error. I needed to erase the chalkboard – but not forget – everything I was taught for those 3 ½ years. I started at the elementary principles of Christ – cf. Hebrews 6:1-2, and began to learn the truth of God as shown to me through God the Father and Jesus Christ as I read, studied, and prayed in connection with God’s living word – Them being my Teacher. Not what some Armstrong said – but through Them!
I even went as far back as to study the proofs of God’s very existence –
- Creation. The very existence of a creation requires a Creator.
- Design. The very existence of design supports a Creator.
- Law. Where did law come from!? Or, was law given to us by a Lawgiver!?
- Friction. e.g. laws of motion – a Sustainer is required.
- Life. How does one explain life coming into being!? Life requires a Life-giver.
- Fulfilled prophecy. 95% of all biblical prophecies are yet to be fulfilled. How does things hundreds or thousands of years into the future get predicted with perfect accuracy!?
- Answered prayer. The ultimate proof that a Creator exists.
I restudied the very question of “evolution” rereading large portions of the Origins of Species by Charles Darwin and still was impressed by his command of contemporary studies in geology, botany, and zoology. He was blessed with an insatiable and unbounded appetite to test all kinds of things using science. Though much makes one scratch their head and appears seemingly convincing, when examined under the microscope of God’s living word – his hypothesis, theories, and explanations fall dead.
By laws of science, by logic, by reasoning, by many proofs–
i.e. God’s living word does not describe the Earth as ever being a hot molten mass. On the contrary, His word states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And, according to His word – “But this fact is hidden from them – they themselves choosing to ignore it – that by the Word of God the heavens existed of old, and the earth came forth out of water and amid water” – 2 Peter 3:5, NET. It was not created as a result of the “Big Bang” theory! Also, as an example, Uranium-238 gradually disintegrates through many intermediate states into lead.
–I proved to myself, beyond a doubt, irrefutably and conclusively, that the living Creator God does exist.
To my elation and chagrin, I discovered – as I stated earlier – that the Church of God founded by Herbert W. Armstrong was based upon biblical truths and partial truths! I was not just “going along” with what I had heard or read, nor was I just believing what I wanted to believe, rejecting anything of which I might be prejudiced.
In the fall of 1969 – recall earlier I had mentioned a series of unusual circumstances and incidents which had occurred? – well, the first one didn’t actually happen directly with me, but with my mother. Now, I find it striking that most of what I had gone through in my young life – from the time that I was born with transposition of the great arteries, to surely, even before I was born and on into the future – had been written down and recorded and even prophesied – cf. Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139:16. Of the fact that the very day in which I had been born, an angel had told my mother that I would not need another operation and that someday I would travel the world speaking with thousands. And I wasn’t witness to this until the year 2010 of things long ago prophesied which did indeed occur. This was a shocking and exciting revelation to me – that this prophesied event had been fulfilled when God had healed the scar tissue surrounding my heart which caused atrial fibrillation – and that I would never need what is called ventricular restoration surgery. This was even further proof of this great and powerful being who had become ever-more dominant in my understanding, more prevalent and practical in my life, more genuine and factual than ever before. And this overwhelming desire which pierced my soul, spirit, joints, and marrow, was an unbelievable notion that I somehow needed forgiveness. I needed to be cleansed of all my tales of rebellion. I needed to be washed of my mistakes, my failures, and more importantly – my sins. And there was no one who could accomplish this task in my life, with the exception of this One Being!
The second unusual circumstance and incident occurred – the 12th of February 2013. As I was meditating and speaking with Father God and our Lord Jesus Christ while lying in my bed in the early morning hours, They allowed me to feel just a small portion of the love They have for me, and in my mind whispered, ‘I cannot let you feel all the love I have for you because your physical body wouldn’t be able to handle it.’ The very next day I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and had hands laid upon me – receiving the glorious gift of the Holy Spirit.
It was the greatest and most everlasting feeling and incident which has ever happened in my life! It truly opened my heart, and my choice was to accept what truths I had so long ago found – true. Again, properly distinguishing, differentiating, and discerning between biblical truth and biblical error.
Now, God certainly has dealt with each of us, individually, in our own unusual circumstances and incidents which caused us to have to make a decision – and to find AT LAST, THE ANSWERS TO THE REALLY BIG AND LONG LASTING QUESTIONS OF MAN’S TROUBLES IN THIS WORLD!
God’s called-out and begotten children have found the CAUSES of humanity’s woes, confusion, and suffering!
We have found the reason why the religions of the world have not solved this world’s ills!
We have learned how our human problems are going to be solved!
We have been blessed with the truth that makes sense!
We have found that neither science, nor higher education, or religions, nor governments, nor even sociology can give the world THE ANSWER to all these fast escalating troubles.
And, this is why The WatchMan Report and our website www.owensborocojc.com speak out today with a positive voice of Authority in this world with such woes that need a positive assurance.
We did not come to believe what we believe in the usual manner. And, everything about this great worldwide work of God – of true education – is as different as the very manners in which we each, individually, were led into the true understanding.
So, my personal study and research, foundationally, began in the autumn of 1981 – and was picked back up again in the fall of 2011. I had found the authoritative source I was bound to accept! It is the foundation of truth and knowledge!
We have built upon – as the apostle Paul says – “the foundation of the prophets, and Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” We do eliminate error whenever found. And now, the www.owensborocojc.com for the last two years has had over 63k views in over 16 countries! This awesome knowledge and truth is being heard and seen and read by more than 65,000 worldwide in the last two years!
Now, remember, we never ask our friends to believe what we say or write because we say it. CHECK IT! PROVE IT! Believe what you see proved! We do! □
to be continued.
Bibliography
1) "education". Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Nov. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/education. Assessed 8 Nov. 2021.
2 Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2020) - "Energy". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access. Retrieved 9 Nov. 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Be sure to leave a comment and tell us what you think.