Those words written by Paul’s ministerial partner in Second Peter 3:16 could not be more correct. I once became so angry trying to make sense out of Paul’s letter to the Romans that I ripped my Bible to pieces and threw it away. My incredibly patient God in heaven, knowing how determined I was to understand His Holy Bible, forgave me and called me into His ministry. Believe me, He called me IN SPITE OF MY MANY SHORT-COMINGS. I asked Him why, considering my history, He chose me for this ministry. Then I remembered the Apostle Paul who was responsible for the martyrdom of many of God’s people, some of whom were fed to wild beasts. God obviously sees things in people that they do not see in themselves. I Praise His Holy name each day for His grace and kindness.

Let us face facts: PAUL’S WRITINGS ARE INDEED “HARD TO BE UNDERSTOOD.” This truth, continues Peter, causes those in the church who are “unlearned and unstable” to twist (misinterpret, use out of context, substitute with wishful thinking, etc.) Paul’s proclamations “to their own destruction.” Peter notes that such people, Biblically described as “false prophets,” also malign the proclamations of other New Testament apostles and Old Testament prophets as well.

Relative to the ministry of such church leaders, another problem arises when the laity come to believe their erroneous versions of God’s Truth which Jesus warned about in Matthew 24:4,5. His warning was ignored, causing salvation seekers to leave the Lord and form what is known today as “CHURCH DENOMINATIONS” where they turn their religious errors into “CHURCH DOCTRINES.” In verse 17 Peter warns people in the church to “beware lest you … be led away by the error of wicked … and fall from your steadfast position in the Lord.” Yes, dear readers, one can fall away from the Lord. This change of allegiance from the Biblical God to his enemy is called “APOSTASY” which Paul warned would take place throughout the whole of professing Christendom shortly before the Lord Jesus returns to the earth (2 Thess. 2:1-3). This movement began to take place in the 1800’s with the rise of the Industrial Revolution and gradually increased in speed and size until today. As Jesus warned, what we are watching take place in the Institutional Church is merely the “beginning of sorrows” which will culminate in the Great Tribulation and the great and terrible Day of the Lord. Read about these events using the key word–Tribulation. Today, Satan, through his false prophets, is leading church people away from the Lord in record numbers. I have dealt with some of the church pastors who are dining at his table.

As I noted in a previous series, I recently saw and heard one of those “unlearned and unstable” ministers tell his television and local congregation that in order to get to heaven they need to obey, not the Holy Bible, but “CHURCH DOCTRINE.” Some time ago I saw and heard another well-known false prophet announce to his local and t.v. congregation that they must “… obey God’s Law.” He said that during a SUNDAY church service. Unlearned and unstable indeed. Billions of salvation seekers have been, are being and will continue to be “led away by the error of the wicked.” This ministry is designed to warn those who will listen. Those who listen will learn that no seeker of salvation has ever been to heaven, is in heaven now or will ever go to heaven and that Sunday is the day sun worshipers pay homage to their god–the sun, whose name is Tammuz. The church calls him Jesus. Read The Kingdom of God. Key word–Kingdom and Ezekiel chapter 8.

Possibly the most deadly twisting of a Paulesque teaching is found in his letter to the church at Rome. It involves a passage found in the 7th and 8th chapters of that epistle which has been used by “unlearned and unstable” church leaders to draw billions of people away from God’s Truth and into Satan’s deadly religious web. Read Bait and Switch. Key word–Bait. This series features one of his most powerful tools by which he does to the masses what he did to Adam and Eve. For this reason, truth seekers must involve themselves in an in-depth “fine print” study in order not to fall into the trap professing Christianity has been wallowing in for almost 2000 years.

Before we delve into Paul’s message, I will remind you that he received his Gospel directly from Jesus Christ through revelation (Gal. 1:12). If any Bible writer knew the mind of the Lord, it would have been Paul. The problem is that he is: “HARD TO BE UNDERSTOOD.” Nevertheless, let us begin our study of what has come to be viewed and preached as Paul’s admission of living a life of sin until his death. Those who believe that Paul remained an inveterate sinner from his Damascus Road encounter with Jesus until his martyrdom often use this series’ focal passage to “prove” that God does not expect church people to be holy. Pillars of “the church” have convinced their congregations that it is impossible to live without sin, and more that that, God does not require that we do so. One ex-missionary told me: “it’s just too much trouble to obey God.” One famous preacher said: “Don’t even try to be holy; you’ll just make yourself sick. You’re nothing but a society of sinners.” The tragedy is that church people around the world, if they had all heard him, would shout in unison: “AMEN.”

It is because of such false teachings that the Lord gave explicit instructions as to how to study His divinely-inspired Words in order to separate His Truth from church theories. His study instructions are found in the 58th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, verses 9-13. The Apostle Peter stated that “holy men of old spoke (and wrote) as they were moved by the Spirit of God” (2 Pet. 1:21). Isaiah was one of those holy men who heard from their Lord, believed what they heard and obeyed Him. In His message to biological Israel anciently and spiritual Israel today (God’s true church–Gal. 6:16), the prophet begins his vitally important message by noting why God’s study commands were and are necessary. In verses 7,8 Isaiah states that those leading the people “have erred” and are “out of the way.” Their vision of the Lord’s way was in “error.” The table of spiritual food they sat before the people was nothing more than “vomit and filthiness,” so much so that there was “no clean place” on the table (vss 7,8).

Nothing has changed. Those seeking God are still being fed “vomit and filthiness,” so much so that there is no place for church people to dine in that there is no clean table within the Catholic/Protestant Religious System known as “the church.” The only solution to that problem is to (1) follow Paul’s instructions found in Second Corinthians 6:14-7:1, then (2) ask the Lord to point them to a true Bible teacher who will lead them to His “fine print” that must be believed and obeyed in order for His “headlines” to come to fruition. We will fulfill number (2) by studying an important “fine print” message written by the Prophet Isaiah. L.J.