Hi Mike,

Thanks for sharing. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.

I have been reading a lot of writings from different people who are all believers of God being the Saviour of all men. In particular I find that J. Preston Eby appears to have some keen insight.

However, I would like your take on his position on the following, if you will be so kind. Thanks. I find myself wanting to believe all of his writings, but I am concerned that he might be off base here.

You can find this about a third of the way down on his web page.

A famous preacher of yesteryear related the following story. “I was visiting one day with a religiously divided family. The wife was a devout Christian; the husband, a hard, rancorous unbeliever. He was hardly courteous to me. Why should he be? As a minister of the Word of God I was in his eyes little better than a fool. When the evening paper came, he grasped it eagerly as a fortunate escape from what he considered a boring conversation. I had been talking with his wife about the marvelous love of God. Suddenly he threw the paper in front of me. ‘Look!’ he shouted, pointing to the headlines – THOUSANDS ARE SLAUGHTERED IN BIG PUSH – ‘how can you say that God is love? Nonsense! If He were alive and loving as you say, would He not stop it all?’ His question was put very sharply, but it was not new. It was as old as the race” – end quote.

Any thinking mind will be quick to consent that the problem in the world today is not with God – it’s with MAN! The vast majority of the pain, sorrow, suffering, cruelty, heartache, war, bloodshed and despair in the world today really reveals nothing at all about the nature of God; it merely points out the barbarity, selfishness, ruthlessness, brutishness, and savageness of MAN! It is MAN who wars, lies, exploits, divorces, deserts, deceives, cheats, ignores, intimidates, does drugs, steals, murders, and breaks the hearts and destroys the lives of those about him. Not GOD!

It appears to me that if God directs all of man’s steps, then God is responsible for what happens in EVERY situation, good and bad. His will is always being done, even if we can’t explain it. It appears that brother Eby wants to put the evil part of the blame on man. Am I reading this right? What are your thoughts on this writing and brother Eby?

Thanks again, Mike. It is appreciated.

Peace,

S____

Hi S____,

This has been an interesting exchange. Your questions are the exact same ones I had a few years back. If it is God who is “working ALL THINGS after the counsel of HIS OWN WILL, why would He ever complain about anything that happened. This is the exact question Paul poses in Romans 9. After telling us of God’s plans for Jacob and Esau and His plans for Pharaoh before He ever “raised them up”, or in the case of Jacob and Esau, before they were ever born, Paul verbalizes the question he realizes will naturally be in the mind of any thinking person:

Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

This is a reference back to:

2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest [not] thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

This is the truth of all the scriptures: ‘He works all things’ both all the good and all the evil, all things after the counsel of His own will, and “none is able to withstand” Him.’

Look carefully at this scripture in Jeremiah:

Jer 4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

This verse is typical of all verses in scripture on the subject of God’s anger. Never is God ever said to be angry with mankind or with any particular man because of that man. God knows that men are not responsible for anything. After all He “worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will.” So God never holds man responsible for anything. “ My fury comes forth like fire, and burns that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” It is not “because of you,” but “because of the evil of your doings.” God requires us all to give an account for “our doings,” but the word ‘responsible’ is nowhere to be found in all of scripture! It is God who is, by His own admission, ‘responsible’ for the “evil of our doings.

Pro 20:24 Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?

Jer 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”

God created evil (Isa 45:7) for the purpose of His being angry “at the evil of your doings” so that we would learn not to take evil lightly. If God Himself were not “furious” about “evil ways,” why then should we be upset at our own evil ways. God is angry about evil because He created evil to be angry at.

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Finally, there is the scripture given above:

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Evil is temporary in the work of God and will one day be abandoned like the ugly scaffolding around a building while it is still under construction. The ‘very good’ of the garden of Eden is not the finished product, in spite of the millions of Christians who look forward to ‘going back to Eden.’ There is no ‘going back’ with God. As with the old covenant, so with the first Adam:

2Co 3:10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

I hope this is of some help in understanding why God says He is angry about what He is doing and why He repented of creating man. The omniscient God always “determines before [hand what is] to be done” (Act 4:28).

It is so encouraging to receive letters like yours. It is good to know that God does truly have “7000 men reserved unto Himself who have not bowed the knee to [the false teachings] of Baal” (Rom 11:4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal).

You have just “discerned” a false spirit. Jesus Christ said, “The words that I speak… ARE spirit” (Joh 6:63). If Christ’s teachings “are spirit” then the teachings that contradict His teachings are also ‘spirit’. Now maybe you can get a better understanding of what John meant when he told us:

1Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

A “spirit” is a doctrine, and we are to “try the spirits whether they are of God: BECAUSE many false prophets are gone out into the world.”

We tend to think that the “trying of spirits” is merely a matter of discerning good from evil. Nothing could be further from the Truth. We are specifically warned that:

2Co 11:13 … Such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

What these verses in 2Corinthians 11 tell us is that the ministers of Satan will be accepted as ‘ministers of righteousness’ by most Christians:

Rev 2:20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

‘Committing fornication and… eating things offered unto idols’ is old covenant phraseology for following the false doctrines of the heathen nations around Israel. This is what is being taught by the Nicolaitans who run the orthodox Christian denominations of today. [Be sure to read this link: to understand who are the Nicolaitans?] False doctrines can also be taught by those who may have no position at all in the organized church.

Mr. Eby teaches that God is responsible for the good you do and you are responsible for the evil you do. Nothing could be further from the truth, but in discussing this subject we need at all times to maintain a “pattern of sound words”:

2Ti 1:13 Hold fast the form [pattern] of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

With this in mind, we need to be careful never to assert that God Himself makes or forces us to sin. That is most definitely not a scriptural phrase. God does not need to make or force us to sin because He as created us “in sin.” We were formed right from the creator’s hand as sinning machines, ready and willing at all times to volunteer to sin; not always totally depraved sin, but always “short of the glory of God” sin. If depravity is needed as in the case of king Saul, who was constantly trying to annihilate David then “the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord [was sent to] trouble Saul”

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

This pattern is repeated with Job before Saul and king Ahab after Saul. If total depravity is what is called for, as in the case of the betrayal of Christ, then Satan himself is sent to make sure that the necessary steps are taken to accomplish “whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel hath determined beforehand to be done.”

Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

‘The kings of the earth, the rulers Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, gathered together to do what God’s hand and counsel had determined before to be done.”

This was not Satan’s idea. Satan, just as every one else in this drama, according to this and a thousand other scriptures just like this, was simply used of God to accomplish His intention.:

2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

But God always accomplishes these evil ends through the channel of evil spirits so that James is quick to warn us never to use the excuse that God has tempted us to do evil.

Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he [Himself] any man:
Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

It was because of the weak and sinful nature that Eve was given from the Creator’s hand, that she “lusted” for the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, before she had ever touched that tree to eat of its fruit. Eve did not sin because she ate of the tree, she ate of the tree because she had already sinned by lusting after that which she had been expressly forbidden to eat. Why did she do this? Did she sin because she had chosen to sin? Here is what the scripture reveals:

Psa 51:5 Behold, I [Adam] was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother [Creator] conceive me.

We are all born innocent until we sin. Is there any doubt that we will sin? Apparently not, because God had prepared Christ as a sacrifice for Adams transgression “from the foundation of the world.”

Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

So to sum up the ‘pattern of sound words’ on this subject, we are all ‘born naked’ from the hand of the Creator. We are all “shapen in iniquity… conceived in sin.” We “ARE dust.”

Mr. Eby teaches that “you are not a physical [dust] being having a spiritual experience, you are a spirit having a physical [earthy] experience.” He calls this “the law of circularity.” This doctrine flies in the face of clear Biblical teaching:

1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

Mr. Eby does not believe “that was not first which is spiritual.” He teaches the exact opposite. In doing so he has bought into the serpent’s lie: “Thou shalt not surely die [only your body will. You are first a spirit having an earthly experience].

I do not know Mr. Eby. I do know Christ. I believe Christ as he inspired his apostles and prophets.

Mr Eby has several such unscriptural teachings that I have had to deal with in my emails.

God will give you the ability to continue to discern the spirits of “many false prophets” if you will simply “search the scriptures to see whether these things be so.”

Act 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

God bless you as you continue to “try the spirits to see whether they be of God.”

Mike