Letter from Grandpa Anderson (c.1991) - Installment 1
Now about our spiritual birthright denied by Cain and Esau…My family never had one Christian believer on either side as far as I know.
I was born physically in 1921, married in 1941, and saved born again in 1961. That’s when our lives started – like Paul said – everything before that except our marriage and birth of our three children was considered dung. Helen’s mother and dad were saved, and Helen was saved when she was nine. She handed down the birthright to me, and would not marry me until she took me to church, and I professed to be saved. She then prayed for me and you kids consistently until 1960; she finally realized I was not saved. You see, no one ever told me except her.
By the way, she did everything possible to get you kids saved. Finally, she went to the Lord and prayed for my salvation and said she didn’t care if it cost everything we had, but save her husband and kids. He answered her prayer; we lost everything carnal. Then the Lord let Ray get sick; we thought he had polio. I went to the Lord and said, “Lord, save him, and I’ll do anything you want me to do.” I meant it. That very day, around noon, I called Helen, and she said, “He’s okay.” I said, “Let’s go down to the little church in Canoga and start serving the Lord with all our heart.” I had been witnessed to by a little 5 year old boy. He told me more scripture than any pastor I had been listening to. (The pastors I’d been listening to were only trying to build monuments to men. I went forward to get saved when I was 32 under the preaching of man. Again, I was not told how.) One week later (i.e. one week after being witnessed to by the 5 year old boy), two men came to our home and showed me in the scriptures how. We immediately went to church, never missed any meeting, tithed, etc.
Something began to happen! Every friend we had (and we had many) left us. Helen’s family, professing Christians, would not even talk to us. My family, all Mormon or nothing, dropped us. My best friends all carnal left me. I thought we had the plague, but I soon found out no one wanted to know about the Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). But something else was also happening spiritually: my language changed, “my life changed.” Everyone said, “You are insane,” “Drop dead,” etc.
When I received the Lord Jesus Christ, I gained the most wonderful friend and family tree of life. Faithful beyond description (John 15:17-17:26) I gained a new family, the Household of God, the Body of Christ (Matthew 12:46-50). The Lord Jesus said that in the Holy Bible, the Scripture. Praise the Lord. Not some apostate, greedy, proud, rebellious man, and you wonder why I became indignant and shouted when someone started to pervert or change scripture! …to lie about my dearest friend and family, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I started to tell everyone. I thought I’d found something everyone was searching for. “No,” they said, “shut up, you fool.” I couldn’t even say “church” around our family or friends.
We are not complaining because the more people who turned against us, the more he loved us and revealed himself to us (John 16:1-6; John 15:18-20).
We also gained God the Holy Spirit (John 14), “the Comforter,” the God of all comfort. We also gained heaven and eternal life (John14:1-6; John 17:3; 1 John 5:1-20). We gained a “great shepherd” who gave his life for the sheep. We gained a heavenly father over the household of God. Praise the Lord, hosanna in the highest, amen. His mercy endureth forever. We gained mercy, forgiveness, lovingkindness (Psalm 138:1,2), and truth. Praise the Lord again and again (1 Thessalonians 5:18). We are in his will (1 Timothy 2:4-6), heirs (Romans 8:14-18), and our names are written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world (Luke 10:20).
He put love in our hearts, chose us, ordained us, and sent us out to tell the world about his great salvation. We have made a sorry attempt, but his love and grace are greater than all our sins. I could write 10,000 books on his grace alone. There are no words to describe his Majesty, the King of kings, Lord of lords, the Holy Bible. He said, “Let there be light,” and he was born, the true light (John 1:9). In him, through the Word, was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:4).
He is everything; I am nothing and a nobody and as Brother John said in 5 books, all the books in the world could not contain all his miracles and wisdom (John 20:30,31; John 21:24,25). We gained a great high priest the Most High after the order of Melchisedec, the Lord Visible (Hebrews 10:9-25). See also the whole book of Hebrews as well as John 17 where Jesus prayed for us. The Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 23), and we are the sheep of his pasture.
I could preach and teach and write for 1,000,000 years with a thousand tongues, and I couldn’t tell you all about his glory and majesty. He said he would not share his glory with anyone. Praise the Lord. He willed it all to us as his heirs, and we leave it all to you for the asking – the greatest inheritance you could ever have, worth more than the whole universe.
Now do you see why I get indignant (not angry)? These sorry, sick hypocrites, proud garbage can mouth teachers, pastors, and Bible correctors change, deceive, and boast about their self-righteousness (Isaiah 64:6). They laugh at, make light of, lie about, and tamper with the God-breathed scripture (2 Timothy 3:15,16; 1 Peter 1:19-21). But the Lord begged for our life at the cross when he said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Stephen said the same thing in Acts 7:54-60. I have begged and prayed for your lives in tears. God promised roughly 7,000 times (e.g. the whole book of John, Matthew 7, Luke 11, etc.): live, believe, be saved, be accepted.
Now if you want to trade that for a mess of pottage, you will have to do that over his dead and resurrected body and ours also.
You can say, “Oh, shut up! Quit yelling, you jerk!” Okay. Will do.
Duane Donald Anderson (1921-1992)