CIRCULAR LETTER December 2010

Special greetings to all of you, my beloved Brothers and Sisters worldwide, with the Scripture from 1. Ths. 2:13: 

“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” 

Since my calling, the Almighty God has accompanied me for almost half a century now on my missionary trips into 155 countries, fifteen of which are Islamic republics. As with Eliezer, He has always given grace for the journey (Gen. 24) and has called out from all nations people who believe according to the Scriptures. All those who are part of the Bride Church can come to the well as Rebecca did to drink the water of life and eat the bread of life. The Holy Spirit leads them into all the Truth through the proclamation of the Gospel. 

Since the days of Abraham, God has not only foretold the way with Israel, but also with the Church. Through Abraham, who believed God from the first encounter and obeyed Him (Gen. 22:1-19), all the generations on earth were blessed: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen.12:3; Rom. 4:17; Gal. 3:6-14. a. o.). In Isa. 49:6 we read: “It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” 

From the very beginning, God has required faith and obedience, which brings us in contact with Him. Unbelief and disobedience separate even the elect from God. We can see this with the people of Israel and in the Church. Then even all worship by the believers is in vain. The LORD Himself said this of His covenant people Israel: “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Mat. 15:8-9). 

Through the prophet Jeremiah, the LORD God stated, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.” (Jer. 7:23). And He admonished them with these words: “How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.” (Jer. 8:8). 

Such a Word should shake us to the core: Wherever man-made commandments and creeds are established, there any worship is in vain. The LORD requires that the true worshippers worship God in spirit and in truth. It is a divine must. “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (Jn. 4:23-24). This is dead serious, in the truest sense of the word: Real worship can only take place with those who are indeed in the Word of Truth and in the Spirit of God. Upon closer examination, any self-made worship by mankind is useless and in vain because they all have their own doctrines, their own ideas and creeds (Mk. 7:6-9). Today that applies to every church, every denomination, and every religion since they all are miles away from the original biblical proclamation and practice and have replaced them with their own doctrines and dogmas. 

Only true, personal faith together with a personal experience of salvation, as Abraham had it, counts. The living faith is anchored in the promises of God, leads to obedience, and connects us with God. During the first covenant, the heart remained unchanged; the Word was written on tablets of stone. In the New Covenant, by the power of the completed redemption, God grants a new heart, a new Spirit – the Holy Spirit – and the new, divine, eternal life to the ones who come to believe in Jesus Christ through an experience of salvation. Even today it is about the true scriptural faith and the total obedience toward God and His Word. 

The everlasting, original Gospel as it was proclaimed through the apostles by the commission of the risen LORD is now being preached to all nations for a witness (Mat. 24:14). At the end of the time of grace, those who let themselves get called out will be led back to the beginning, to the doctrine of the apostles. That is the only true biblical foundation (Acts 2:42; Eph. 2:20). Only what God has promised through His prophets in all of the Old Testament and what is written in the Holy Scripture comes to fulfilment in the New Covenant. The Apostle Peter left it unto us in this way: “Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.” (1. Pet. 1:12). 

God purposed a plan of Salvation before the foundation of the world. HE wanted sons and daughters, therefore the manifestation in the Son, the Firstborn among many brethren through Whom Alone we have received the adoption of sons (Gal. 4:4). God has given promises which He fulfils from the beginning, also the ones that find their fulfilment now, before the Return of Christ. All true children of God are as Isaac children of promise; they believe the Word of promise and receive the Spirit of promise (Rom. 9:8; Gal. 4:28; Eph. 1:13). 

The Bride Church is now being called out from all nations and is led into the Word of promise and thus made ready for the coming of the Bridegroom.