Hey Mike,

I’ve recently been awakened to a lot of truth your website and others like it teach. I’m a new Pastor, and my family and I have recently started a church. We are gonna have our first service in our newly rented building this coming up Sunday, and I am just wondering what your advice would be. I simply CANNOT teach the false doctrines I grew up in and refuse to do so, but at the same time I believe jumping all the way into this new truth will make everyone choke. We will sing songs to the Lord and praise him, we will fellowship and I will teach, but I need to really find a way to lay some of these true foundations before I just bust out with “Hell is false, Everyone will be saved, Satan is NOT Lucifer; what’s some advice?
Thanks,
M____

Hi M____,

Thank you for your question. I appreciate your wisdom in seeking advice at this time. You are wise to not choke your fellow believers on your strong meat. Do not give them more then they can receive, as God gives you the wisdom to discern what can be received by whom.

Mar 4:33 And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it.

Nevertheless you must speak only Truth, so you might consider simply demonstrating with the scriptures the real meaning of the words ‘aion’ and ‘aionios.’ That is merely a suggestion. The Lord will give you the words He wants you to speak. One thing is certain, there has to be a starting point that brings us out of Babylon. God knows what is needed for each of us and that can and does differ from person to person. Ask God for wisdom. He promises to give it to those who ask:

Jas 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all [ men] liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

We all lack wisdom. I am praying for wisdom as I write every letter I write. Wisdom is Christ, and to the degree He is in us we are wise.
If your new church seeks only to be a work of the Lord, then it won’t be destroyed by the truths of the basic oracles of the first principles of Christ. It is the first principles upon which you must concentrate, as the milk for carnal babes in Christ.

1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, [ even] as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able [ to bear it], neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas [ there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I [ am] of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Here is Paul pointing “yet carnal… babes in Christ” toward Christ and away from men and their institutions. Because the Truth is there is but one gospel, and that one gospel is simply received differently by those with different degrees of maturing.
All I can do is to point out to you what is called the beginning principles and pray that God will give you the wisdom, humility and integrity to “feed His lambs,” if indeed that is what He is doing in your life.
Here are the verses which deal with those beginning principles:

Heb 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, [ even] those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

This is not a condemnation of any particular person or group of persons. It is but a commentary on our common walk. Here now are the very next few verses:

Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3 And this will we do, if God permit.

So give these six milk doctrines to those who cannot see Christ as strong meat, but be careful not to stay only on milk. It is the refusal of most Christians to go beyond these six doctrines that constitutes part of God’s “strong delusion.” I hope you have read Will God’s Strong Delusion Deceive You? “Let us go on unto perfection” is absolutely essential to our salvation, because if we do not, we are “no better than a slave,” and all we bring forth is the briers and thorns with which the rest of this chapter is concerned.

Gal 4:1 Now I say, [ That] the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;

God bless you as you strive to serve Him. Nevertheless do not fail to accept and be prepared to experience the Truth of these verses.

Mat 10:21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against [ their] parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Rest assured that most of your flock will reject even what Peter calls “the sincere milk of the Word,” which is the six milk doctrine of Hebrews six.

1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

Rest assured also that your own faith will be tried and tested, “but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” God’s elect do “endure to the end” and they have this assurance:

Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God will guide you and is working His work in you. He knows your heart and He is working all things together for your good.

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [ his] purpose.

What wonderful and comforting words! You will be in my prayers.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike