Dear Friends,
this is Brother Frank speaking to you from the Mission Center in Krefeld, Germany. I am very grateful for this opportunity to be in your country, city, even in your home. God has given me a direct call and commission to preach His Word and to go from city to city and from country to country. And the past forty years I have just used in the ministry in over 130 countries. And now the Lord has given us the opportunity to speak to you directly in this way. You may rest at ease in your home and see and hear what God promised in His Word and what is taking place right now. We do call this subject “the apostolic-prophetic ministry” and especially we do speak about the return of Christ, and of course the necessity to put all teachings back into place, about the Godhead, about water baptism, about Spirit baptism, about the Lord’s Supper, about the new birth, about all what is written in the Holy Scriptures. Because, beloved Brothers and Sisters, dear Friends, we live in a time when we can have many, many subjects, we can speak about the new birth and not have the experience of it. We can speak about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and not have the experience. We can speak about many subjects, but what we need is divine revelation, and we have to participate in all blessings God gave to us in the new covenant.
By Jesus Christ, our Lord, was said in Matthew 26, from verse 26, “This is the blood in the new covenant which is being shed for many.” The many are always those who do receive. Like when our Lord said in John, chapter 20, from verse 21, “As the Father hath sent Me, so send I you.”, and then He breathed into them the Holy Spirit, gave them power, gave them the unction of the Holy Spirit, divine authority to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And then He made the statement, “To whom you remit sins, they are remitted, and to whom you retain them, they are retained.” This is being misunderstood, so therefore we have to take it back to the Scriptures and see what the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul, what the teachings were in the New Testament. We can go right to the first sermon where the Apostle Peter gathered all the commission said together from Matthew, from Mark, from Luke, from John – always saying what the Scripture already said, preaching the Gospel, and at the same time announcing, “Repent, everyone of you, and be baptised in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Beloved, it is so important not to take just one scripture, but to take every scripture pertaining to the same subject, and then go from there and dig into it deep enough, so that you can know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free. In Romans, chapter 16, verse 24, the Apostle Paul summarises what he was writing to the believers, saying, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel” – according to my gospel! “… and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began …” Men of God in the Old Testament who prophesied about the grace were searching, seeking to find out when this time would be, when the things they prophesied would come to pass. The apostles in the New Testament, they showed how the grace of God was manifested in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Moses in the Old Testament had a prayer, “O Lord, if I found grace in your sight, let me know Thy ways.” What we need to know today is God’s endtime plan. We have arrived at the end of the time of grace. Although nobody knows the day or the hour, we are told in Matthew 24, in Mark 13, in Luke 21 that we would see the things promised and predicted, and when we were going to see these things then we should lift our head, we should look up, because our redemption is drawing near, speaking of the redemption of our body. The redemption was actually completed on the cross of Calvary. Soul, spirit and body – the price was paid. The soul is already redeemed, has already received eternal life, but we are waiting for the changing of the body. The spirit is changed, the soul has eternal life, but this body, the mortal body must be changed into immortality, which will take place at the return of Christ. And as certain as His natural body was changed into a resurrection body our natural body at His return will be changed into a resurrection body, into a glorified body, and we shall see Him and we shall be like He is. That is what John wrote in 1 John, chapter 3, verse 1–3. The Apostle Paul spoke about it in 1 Corinthians 15, especially from verse 43–49, and then coming on to 50 and 51, where he says that we shall not all fall asleep, but all shall be changed.
Now is God’s time to restore all things within the Church of Jesus Christ, as they were in the beginning. We cannot compromise, and as you might see, I have the catechism here: many, many pages, a very large book. But I do have this book, which I would call “the Book of books”, the only book on earth that has the handwriting of God, has the confirmation of God! In the Old Testament all the promises were made, in the New they come to fulfilment. In these books men have written what they thought. In this book God’s thoughts are expressed. As I express my thoughts by my words, God expressed His thoughts by His Word, and therefore a true believer will only take his stand for and in God’s Word. But here is maybe a lesson we all need to learn: in Matthew, chapter 4, the enemy came several times to our Lord, saying, “If thou be the Son of God then speak to these stones to become bread.” – “If thou are the Son of God, then speak!”, “If thou are the Son of God, then speak!” Beloved, Satan comes with the Word, but he always takes it out of context. He displaces it, he misinterprets it, he misapplies it! And therefore, we have to watch! “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter into the Kingdom of God” – not everyone in whose mouth is the Word of God is saying the Truth: it must be the original Word of God! Not just a statement here and a statement there. To give you an example, so you know what I mean. Beloved Brothers and Sisters, dear Friends, going to the Great Commission and we have to start with the ABC! And you know, I love to speak to you directly about the Book of Revelation, about the things written therein which are so important for us to know, and actually I have written a small book about the 22 chapters of Revelation. It’s so important to know the symbols which express something. You know, if you read the first four seals you see one horse rider, the next, the third and the fourth. But they all represent something. And then in the fifth seal you don’t see any horse rider any more. Four is enough, but these four do have a significance. Then you read about all the other things in the different chapters of the Revelation.
But, Beloved, we must start right, we must come to the Lord, have our own relationship with him, our fellowship, we must be reconciled with God, we must know Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour. Repentance must come upon us, which only comes by the conviction of the Holy Spirit. When God’s Word is being preached, then the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. First of unbelief, second of judgment, third of righteousness. You can read it especially in the chapters of John, chapter 14 and 16, even to the extent that when the Holy Spirit has come, He will lead us into all the Truth, He will even show the future things unto us. Beloved, it’s so important! But we must start right! We must have personal access to God and to His Word, and then only the mysteries found in the Scriptures will be revealed unto us.
As we said many times: the misunderstandings prevail. Like if you read Luke 16:16, “The law and the prophets were unto John. From that time the Kingdom of God is being preached.” In one time you read, “Christ is the end of the law.”, and then in Romans 7 you read that the law is spiritual for him who understands the significance thereof. In my country there can be as many laws as you wish, I never came to know a single law, because I live in grace. I keep the laws and therefore I don’t need to appear in court. The law of my country is never applied to me, because I live not over the law but in the law, but not because something makes me to do it, voluntarily I just live according to the rules and regulations. But when it comes to the spiritual part, then we all live in transgressions. We all have broken the commandments and the law is given to convict us of our trespasses, the law is given to take us to judgment, and grace is coming or has come to take us out of the prison. The law has put us into prison, because we were guilty, and grace has taken us out of prison. We have to understand these things. So if the apostle says, “The law is spiritual”, then we understand what it means: It’s not “do this!” or “do that!”, but be convinced of the transgressions, be convinced that we are cut off from God, we are separated from God. We transgressed in many, many ways, and we need God’s grace, we need salvation, we need eternal life – not a religion. So everything, even law, has its place, grace has its place, the Gospels have their place, the Book of Acts has its place, the epistles have their place. Everything is divinely ordered in the Holy Scriptures, or better to say, is in a divine order. So in the four Gospels we find the description about our Lord and Saviour right from His birth to His ascension. In the Book of Acts we have the establishing of the New Testament Church by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, where the first sermon preached in Acts, chapter 2. And we have there where baptism is being administered. We have there where repentance is being preached. Everything is right in the first sermon.
So everyone preaching today must compare whether we do teach what the apostles taught, whether we baptise in the Name of Jesus Christ, after people have received the remission of sins. Water baptism does not remit sins – the remission of sins should be preached in the Name of Jesus Christ. You can check it: Luke, chapter 24, verse 47. There our Lord says that remission of sins should be preached to all nations “in My Name”. There you have it! First the remission of sins is being preached by the Gospel, then those who believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour they receive the forgiveness of their sins according to what our Lord said. And Peter could very clearly speak and say, “Those who believe, your sins are forgiven.” And he had to say, “If you don’t believe, your sins cannot be forgiven, because Jesus Christ is the object of our belief.” Only in Christ God met with us and only in Christ we can meet with God. And therefore, God was in Christ reconciling the world with Himself. And the blood was shed, the blood of the new covenant was shed for the remission of our sins. So the blood remits sins and the baptism is the confirmation that we have repented and have received the forgiveness of sins. Therefore we are baptised unto the remission of sins. Beloved, all things must be rightly understood – even Acts, chapter 2, verse 38, you have to take to Acts, chapter 8, where people believed and were baptised. You have to take it to chapter 10, you have to take it to chapter 11, you have to take it to chapter 19, and you have to take it to Romans, chapter 6. You have to take Acts, chapter 2, verse 38, to all the other parts where the Gospel was preached, where people received the forgiveness of their sins, where they were baptised in the Name of Jesus Christ and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Many people, especially in the “Jesus-only” teaching”, so-called “oneness teaching”, which is also not according to the Scripture, they believe that the forgiveness of sins is in baptism. No, it is not! The forgiveness of sins is in believing that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, shed His blood on the cross of Calvary for the remission of your sins, and then you believe and you receive the forgiveness of sins and then you are baptised because of it.
So all things can only be understood in the right way, when you don’t place them upon one scripture, like just referring to Matthew 28:19, and not going to Mark, chapter 16; not going to Luke, chapter 24; not going to John, chapter 20; and then not taking all these scriptures to the Book of Acts and not only to chapter 2, but also to the other chapters to put all things rightfully together.
And that is what we have to do in this apostolic-prophetic ministry. We have to take every Word of God, not just putting a label of one scripture. Anybody can do this, and as we have mentioned: Satan came to the Lord, saying, “It is written …” Anybody can come and say, “It is written in Matthew 28:19 …” Anybody can come and say, “It is written in Acts, chapter 2, verse 38 …” But you have to go, as I said, into the four Gospels and into all the places in the Book of Acts and you have to continue with the letters to the Romans and to the Corinthians and go right through the New Testament to understand about the Godhead, about the water baptism, about the Spirit baptism, about repentance, about the new birth, about all the scriptural teachings. You have to take all scriptures belonging to the same subject and then you have a balanced understanding of what the Holy Scripture actually teaches.
Now, let us summarise, and I have to emphasise it: we cannot only go back to the days of reformation or to the great men who lived after the reformation. They are known in church history. And we cannot only go back hundred years ago, when a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place. We cannot only go back to what happened after World War II, that was the mightiest visitation God ever gave since the days of Jesus Christ, and He used William Branham, a man sent from God in a very special way to bring the breakthrough for the healing and salvation revival which spread across the earth. He was the only one that I came to know in the early fifties who preached the true Word of God and had a prophetic, apostolic ministry. But we cannot only point to him, we must return and search the Word of God for ourselves to see whether things are so or not. But God used him in a very special way as no other since Bible days. But again let me tell you, beloved Brothers and Sisters, that time has come to search the Holy Scriptures and to return to Bible days, to apostolic days, to Bible teaching, to apostolic practice. I believe, this is God’s time of visitation, and may He bless you and be with you. I would be glad to hear from you. In Jesus’ holy Name. Amen.