Christians Should NOT Cremate Their Dead

“Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:” Amos 2:1

The Bible teaches that we are to bury our dead, not cremate their bodies. I understand that people who have lost a loved one are already going through enough and don’t want the financial burden of a burial, but they still shouldn't opt for cremation. It’s disturbing how many pagan practices have crept into our so-called Christian nation, and I think the fact that burying our dead has become so expensive is just the Devil’s plan to get us to participate in the heathen practice of burning the dead.

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:28-29

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17

The destiny of saved people is to be resurrected to be caught up in the air with the Lord, so why would we want to symbolize the person burning in Hell just to save a little money? Throughout history, Christian people have buried their dead because it is a picture of the fact that they will rise again one day. Just as a seed is planted in the earth, and a new life is produced in the form of a plant, so the body that is buried in the earth will someday be raised again in newness of life.

 “It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” 1 Corinthians 15: 43-44

Whether a person is buried or cremated has nothing to do with their salvation, but both practices are symbolic. The question is, what do we want to symbolize?

“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 12:2

Here is a sermon to go with this article.

Upcoming Anti-Anderson Conference

Sam Gipp

Well it looks like Sam Gipp and Keith Gomez are planning a conference all about fighting yours truly. Many preachers across America have recently expressed appreciation for the preaching and soul-winning being done by our church and other churches in our movement, but as usual, a few are envious. In this case, one is a hyper-dispensationalist and the other pushes "repent of your sins" salvation.

The following is copied and pasted from an e-mail forwarded to me by another pastor:

The Bible Answer to Post-Trib: Presented by Dr. Sam Gipp

The doctrine of a pretribulational rapture has been under attack recently by a pastor in Arizona, Steven Anderson.

Many pastors across the nation have voiced their concern over this issue...some have lost church members as a result of this doctrinal error.

I am aware of even some young preachers who are falling for Anderson's false teaching.

You may not think your church is being influenced by this heresy...but it is!

On May 8-10, 2017 (Monday-Wednesday), Dr. Sam Gipp will be presenting the Bible Answer to Post-Trib Theology.

I encourage you to attend this much needed and requested meeting in just a few weeks.

Morning sessions: 9AM to 12PM at the campus of Providence Baptist College (345 W River Rd, Elgin, IL 60123).

Evening sessions: 7PM at Northwest Bible Baptist Church (9N889 Nesler Rd, Elgin, IL 60124).

Issues being addressed: Post-tribulation rapture, replacement theology and anti-dispensationalism

The evening sessions will be live streamed and also recorded. You can request your free copy in advance by replying to this email.

Dr. Keith Gomez
Pastor
Northwest Bible Baptist Church (Elgin, IL)

Complimentary lodging at PBC is available on a limited basis for pastors (and spouses) attending this meeting. Reply to this email by May 1 to request a room.

I couldn’t find anything about this meeting online, but apparently, this e-mail was sent out to pastors in their circle and in their geographic area. It’s on their church’s calendar simply as “Evangelist Sam Gipp,” so I guess they don't want people in our movement to get wind of it and show up at the conference or participate in the live stream.

I guarantee that the conference is going to backfire. Most independent fundamental Baptist pastors (even the ones who are dispensational) do not believe in the radical hyper-dispensationalism taught by Sam Gipp. Anyone at the conference who is actually saved and indwelled by the Holy Spirit is not going to fall for Gipp's "multiple Gospel" garbage (i.e. that Jesus taught a different Gospel than Paul, etc). After listening to 4 hours per day of Gipp's teachings on dispensationalism, many of them will never want anything to do with him again. Most IFBs don't realize how radical and heretical he is on these subjects. In our film, Marching to Zion, we even documented him saying that Jesus is not his Messiah!

Not only that, but "Doctor" Sam Gipp is one of the least intelligent preachers I have ever heard. Why would Keith Gomez pick the dumbest possible preacher to defend this doctrine? At least Sam Gipp's mentor Peter Ruckman (also a heretic) was extremely intelligent. Sam Gipp is like Peter Ruckman without the brains. Talk about the worst of both worlds! In a typical one hour sermon from Gipp, he puts his foot in his mouth about 10 times.  This video provides a small sample of his intellectual deficit:



The bottom line is that I believe that this wicked conference will backfire, and that it will ultimately be used for God's glory by exposing more people to the truths found in After the Tribulation and Marching to Zion. Once any saved pastor delves into the issues surrounding Israel, the tribulation, the rapture, etc, he is going to come to the same conclusions that we have because we all have the same Bible and the same Holy Spirit. I welcome the controversy because at least pastors will start digging into the Bible and getting to the bottom of these subjects. If they are sincere, the Holy Ghost will guide them into all truth.

Lottery Tickets are Purchased by Fools

“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Luke 16:10-13

If you’ve been given a little bit of money and you are unfaithful with it, why would anyone invest a larger amount of money with you? People who have a little money and are stupid with it cannot be trusted with more. One of the things stupid people do with their money is buy lottery tickets.

Do you ever wonder why people who win the lottery ruin their lives? It’s because only dumb people are buying the ticket! Do they suddenly become wise after they win? No, the lottery winner is the same foolish person who bought that ticket.

If a wise person won the lottery, he or she would be smart with it, but people who know how to manage money don’t buy lottery tickets. If you study the demographics of who plays the lottery, the poorest zip codes buy the most lottery tickets, and the wealthiest zip codes buy the least. A lot of poor people are taking what little money they have and being unfaithful with it.

Instead of using the money to buy nutritious food or invest in something that will improve their situation, they waste those last couple bucks on a lottery ticket. A person like that doesn’t know what to do with “the true riches” even if they ever do hit it big.

In the end, they’ll go into debt because they open up lines of credit with their winnings and end up worse off than before. They started out with zero when they spent their last few bucks on a lottery ticket, and now they’re in the negative.

The house always wins, friend. Not only are the odds stacked against you, but God is not going to bless your finances if, instead of working diligently, you are always trying to get rich quick.

“He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.”

Here is a full sermon on gambling.

Don't Quit the Ministry

A lot of guys go out and start a church and then quit, and it’s a tragedy because we need more churches. If you are a young man who wants to become a pastor or missionary, you need to decide right now that you are going to finish what you start. When I started Faithful Word Baptist Church, it was hard. I had to knock a lot of doors to get visitors, and most of them didn’t stick.

We averaged around ten people the first year including my family of five. At one point about six months in, we were running in the 20’s, but then we lost almost everyone and it was down to my family and just two other people—Amanda and Virginia. My family and those two ladies were important, and I continued to preach as if I had a large crowd. Amanda has remained faithful since the second Sunday, and I don't know what we would have done without her since there were many services where it was just her and our family.

In those early days, I didn’t know how it was going to turn out, but I kept telling myself not to quit. My sister told me to think of myself as a missionary because I was winning a lot of souls out door-to-door even though the church was small. Pastor Jimenez and Pastor Berzins had similar experiences in that they started with very few people and experienced slow growth even though they were working hard.

Now that several of us like-minded pastors have a large following on YouTube, we have listeners all over the world who are looking for a good church to attend. People will hear about a new church starting up in their area and show up for the first service. That might make for a better turnout in the beginning, but if you’re going to be a pastor, you need to be willing to stick with it even if things don’t go as well as expected.

Trials still happen. People drop out of church or move away, and infiltrators creep in and try to cause trouble. Protestors might show up or worse. Persecution will come. Being in the ministry is more than just preaching and going soul winning. It is often a series of trials and disappointments, but if you stick with it, it can be very rewarding in the long run.

“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24

Bob Gray's Soul-winning Strawman

“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17

This thing where Bob Gray Sr. keeps telling us we should ask people whether or not they are Sodomites before witnessing to them is just a straw man argument. When you are out soul winning and an effeminate-looking man or a butch woman answers the door, go ahead and give them the gospel. You ought to give people the benefit of the doubt in these situations, anyway, because some people just dress wrong but aren’t actual homos. Preach the gospel to every creature, but you’ll probably get a lot of doors slammed in your face.

Those of us who try not to cast our pearls before swine have probably accidentally given the gospel to more Sodomites than many of the naysayers who say we aren’t loving enough. Most Sodomites probably don’t look any different than anyone else, so yes, we do try to give the gospel to them at the door. If I am 99% sure that someone is a Sodomite, I still give them the Gospel in case of the 1% chance they are not a homo. However, if they are in drag or state unequivocally that they are a Sodomite, I walk away.

Bob Gray wants you to think there’s some kind of contradiction between the reprobate doctrine and scriptures that say that salvation is available to everyone that believes, but there is no contradiction. Christ died for everyone, and whosoever will may come. A reprobate used to be a “whosoever,” but has now crossed a line with God. It’s not that a homosexual act is what makes them a reprobate, but a normal person is not tempted with unnatural sins. Burning in your lust toward the same gender is a SYMPTOM of being a reprobate. Romans Chapter 1 lays out the progression of how someone rejects God to the point where God eventually rejects them.

When someone comes to me concerned that they might be a reprobate (perhaps due to something they participated in unwillingly while drunk,) I ask them if they burn in lust toward the same gender. When they say no, I ask some questions to check what they believe about salvation. If they answer everything correctly, I reassure them that if they are able to believe on Jesus Christ, then they are not a reprobate.

"Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." - John 12:39-40

Don’t get hung up on the whole "soul-winning" argument that Bob Gray Sr. is using as a smoke screen to avoid addressing Johnny Nixon’s false doctrine. Faithful Word Baptist Church and other churches we fellowship with are filled with die-hard soul winners. Our church has eleven different regular soul-winning times each week in addition to various soul-winning events across America as well as overseas.That isn't the point. The point is that Bob Gray, Nixon, and others have gone soft on the Sodomites and are actively recruiting these dangerous predators into our churches and recommending them for childrens' ministry of all things.

Here is a link to the documentary Burn that Way After All exposing Bob Gray's perverted Born that Way endorsement

Hymn Recording Project

Even though I grew up in Baptist churches, there are a lot of songs in the hymnal that I’ve never heard sung anywhere. I am excited about a new project we are working on since it has forced me to go through and examine every single song in the hymnal. Our church is in the process of recording each and every song, with the exception of a few I am leaving out that are doctrinally questionable. That still leaves over 400 songs that we plan to record.

We typically only sing about 250 songs here at Faithful Word Baptist Church, so we are learning over 150 new songs! The hymnal we use is called Soul Stirring Songs and Hymns, which is a great hymnal that I grew up with. You can order it from Sword of the Lord Publishers, or you can pick one up for free here at FWBC in Tempe, Arizona.

The plan is to record all the songs, put them on YouTube, and then put them onto CDs. Each disc will have approximately 25 songs on it, so there will be a total of 16 or 17 discs. Each disc will have a theme. For example, the theme of the first disc we released is "The Cross," the second is "The Resurrection," the third is "The Second Coming," and the fourth is "Comfort and Encouragement." Hopefully, we’ll be coming out with a new CD every month. We tried recording the songs during church, but the acoustics aren’t that great, so about 13-15 of us have been squeezing into a recording studio to record congregational-style singing.

There are a lot of old songs that have been forgotten since churches often end up singing only a few hymns and/or branching out into contemporary-styled music. We want to resurrect the forgotten old hymns of the faith. Not only that, but we want to help people get used to singing hymns in general, so they can sing them throughout the day as well as in church. I'm a big fan of singing as opposed to just listening to music, so don't forget to get a hymnal as the companion guide to the CD's.

Once we’ve recorded all of the CDs, that should add up to about 17 hours of congregational hymns, which we will be putting onto one flash drive. The CDs and flash drive will of course be available for free here at Faithful Word Baptist Church.

We never sell anything in the house of God, but there is a private business that sells these items online. A friend of mine, Paul Wittenberger, sells these items in his online store at Framingtheworld.com, which is a great resource for people who are unable to visit our church.

There is already a playlist on our YouTube channel where we have uploaded about 60 of the songs so far, so you can start listening to them right away.

“Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.” Psalm 71:8

Here is the recording of a new song that I learned by doing this project, "Will Jesus Find Us Watching?"

New YouTube Business Cards

Front of the YouTube business cards

A guy by the name of Adam Fannin from Stedfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, designed these really cool little YouTube cards for us. The cards provide our church website address, show how to search for the Bible Way to Heaven video, and also show how to find our three major documentaries, which can be watched for free online.

Each of the following documentaries is very educational plus includes a clear presentation of the Gospel at the end of the film:

After the Tribulation

After the Tribulation is a hard-hitting documentary that proves from the King James Bible that the rapture will take place AFTER the tribulation but before God pours out his wrath upon the earth. The film also exposes Satan’s plan for a global government and a new world orlder. People love anything to do with end times prophecy, and this film debunks the false doctrine being perpetuated in many churches and in movies like Left Behind.

New World Order Bible Versions

New World Order Bible Versions is a compelling documentary that explores the rich textual history of the KJV and exposes the corrupt origins of modern versions. The film goes into the history of the King James Bible and shows how it is consistent with the previous English translations, while the modern versions are dramatically different. The film focuses on how modern perversions are designed to undermine key doctrines and pave the way for a one-world religion.

Marching to Zion

Marching to Zion would be great for a new believer to watch because the beginning of the film provides a 5 minute overview of the entire Old Testament. It then continues the history of the Jewish people from the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 to the founding of the modern-day nation of Israel in 1948. Biblical evidence, history, and cutting-edge DNA science make this a ground-breaking film. This important documentary answers the question: Who are God’s chosen people?

The new YouTube cards have a nice glossy design and one side of the card is in Spanish.

Back of the YouTube business cards

It is a great tool to hand out to let people know about our films, our website, and most importantly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are making the cards available for free since you will actually be helping the cause of Christ by distributing them. Give them to your friends and family or hand them out when you are out soul winning.

We will be sending out packages of 30, 60, or 100, so just give us your mailing address and let us know how many you need, and we will get some out to you.

Here is our e-mail address where you can order yours today: faithfulword1@gmail.com

A Strategy to Evangelize the Entire World 4: All Nations

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Missionaries

As our church reproduces itself across America, churches like ours could strategize with each other in the area of foreign missions. Instead of one church supporting a hundred missionaries they know very little about for a ridiculously low amount of money (e.g. $50 per month), each church could pick perhaps four countries to emphasize. They could fully support missionaries to go to those countries and start independent Baptist churches that would carry out steps 1,2, and 3 of the strategy in their area (see previous blog posts).

Missions Trips

Not only do we want to send out full-time missionaries and establish churches in some of our focus countries, but we also want to continue this new style of missions trip where we preach in schools, do door-to-door soul winning, and heavily distribute our audio and video materials. Our church has already carried out missions trips to South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Trinidad, and Guyana, where the Gospel was preached door to door as well as in schools, churches, and other venues. We plan to continue the work in those countries, and we also have a trip to Mexico planned for July of this year.

Start Where it is Receptive, Safe, and Legal

When it comes to foreign missions, we are starting with the countries that are the most receptive and where it is safe and legal to go soul winning. Hopefully, soul winning in those other places will eventually become receptive, safe, and legal, but let’s start with the low-hanging fruit before tackling the harder countries. If God sees us getting the gospel to every person in the receptive areas, don’t you think he’s going to open doors for us in other places too? In the meantime, we are at least reaching some people in those harder to reach countries via the internet.

Internet Ministry

Through YouTube and putting sermons on the internet, we literally have people in every country on earth who listen to the preaching that comes across the pulpit of Faithful Word Baptist Church. We’ve already translated preaching, documentaries, and other materials, into over 115 different languages, which includes every major language in the world. Just one upload on YouTube of Despues de la Tribulacion, the Spanish version of After the Tribulation, has over 10 million views and was shown on TV in Nicaragua multiple times! We’ve also been mentioned in the media in most countries of the world.

Distribution of Audio and Video Materials

Not only are we spreading the Gospel via the internet, but we also send out our DVDs, CDs, and flash drives to foreign countries every week. For example, we've been sending packages of materials to Bro. Richard Symes in the Philippines who has been preaching in schools, soul-winning one-on-one, and consistently getting hundreds of people saved. We also have had our full-time guy in Botswana distributing materials non-stop for the last 6 months

“And the gospel must first be published among all nations.” Mark 13:10

Here is the sermon: A Strategy for Reaching the Entire World with the Gospel.

A Strategy to Evangelize the Entire World 3: Samaria

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Titus 1:8

If the rest of Arizona represents our Judea, then the other states in the union are our Samarias. Part of our church’s plan for evangelizing the entire world is establishing soul-winning churches across America, which will in turn start more churches like ours.

I’m not talking about a denomination. When we send someone out to start a church, we cut the umbilical cord. We are independent, but if we send someone out, they will most likely be a lot like us.

I have studied maps, demographics, statistics, etc, and identified 53 key cities in addition to Phoenix, Arizona, that need churches that preach hard and have our vision. Obviously, this can be adjusted if someone decides on a nearby city for whatever reason, but these are just the base cities that I am suggesting:

1. New York City, New York
2. Los Angeles, California
3. Chicago, Illinois
4. Baltimore, Maryland
5. SF/San Jose Bay Area, California
6. Boston, Massachusetts
7. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas (Stedfast Baptist Church, Pastor Donnie Romero)
8. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
9. Miami, Florida
10. Houston, Texas
11. Atlanta, Georgia
12. Detroit, Michigan
13. Seattle, Washington
14. Phoenix, Arizona (Our church: Faithful Word Baptist Church)
15. Minneapolis, Minnesota
16. Cleveland, Ohio
17. Denver, Colorado
18. San Diego, California
19. Portland, Oregon (Verity Baptist Church Vancouver, Washington)
20. Orlando, Florida
21. St. Louis, Missouri
22. Morgantown, West Virginia
23. Charlotte, North Carolina
24. Sacramento, California (Verity Baptist Church, Pastor Roger Jimenez)
25. Salt Lake City, Utah
26. Kansas City, Missouri
27. Columbus, Ohio
28. Indianapolis, Indiana
29. San Antonio, Texas
30. Cincinnati, Ohio
31. Raleigh/Durum, North Carolina
32. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
33. Nashville, Tennessee
34. Jacksonville, Florida (*COMING AUGUST 6* Valiant Baptist Church, Brother Tyler Baker)
35. Louisville, Kentucky
36. Hartford, Connecticut
37. New Orleans (Faith Baptist Church in Violet, Louisiana, Pastor Joe Major)
38. Grand Rapids, Michigan
39. Columbia, South Carolina
40. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
41. Memphis, Tennessee
42. Albuquerque, New Mexico
43. Birmingham, Alabama
44. Richmond, Virginia
45. Fresno, California
46. El Paso, Texas
47. Honolulu, Hawaii
48. Omaha, Nebraska
49. Little Rock, Arkansas
50. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
51. Des Moines, Iowa
52. Boise, Idaho
53. Buffalo, New York
54. Anchorage, Alaska

As you can see, a few of those places are already covered. If we could start churches in the remaining cities that would do the same thing that we are doing, we could reach the entire country with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ideally, other churches in our movement will claim their home state or neighboring state as their Judea and send out pastors to nearby cities like we did with Pastor David Berzins, who was sent out to Prescott Valley, Arizona.

Pastor Berzins is doing a great job of knocking doors with his church in tri-city area where Prescott Valley is located. Small town soul-winning marathons are another way that each church can take responsibility for its home state. That said, some pastors will be sent out to Samaria, meaning some guys will want to go to a different state than where their sending church is located.

The goal is to have a like-minded church in these 54 cities within the next 9 years, and that each of these churches will repeat steps 1 and 2 (see previous blog post). If God allows us to accomplish that, then every door in America would be knocked at least one time by a competent soul-winner within the next 24 years.

Not only is our church sending pastors out and also hoping for “grandchild churches” to be started, but some of the preachers from the old dying IFB movement can still get in the battle. I came from that movement, and so did a few of the pastors on the above list. It’s always a blessing when one of my pastor friends or I come across another preacher who wants to be our friend and shares our vision.

We don’t just need soul-winning centers, but we need churches with pastors who preach hard on sin, so that the churches don’t become dens of iniquity. When people start getting the sin out of their lives, they become soul winners, so hard preaching is an integral part of an effective soul-winning program.

We are gaining momentum! Without the Lord we can do nothing, but if we continue doing what we are doing, I believe that by the year 2041, every door in America will be knocked. Other styles of Baptists are doing soul winning, too, but that’s just icing on the cake. I’m talking about just our church and our friends, reaching every person in the United States with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

A lot more guys are already being trained, but it’s not just the pastors who are going to get it done. We can’t do it on our own. Our job as pastors is to lead you by example and motivate you to help us to complete this task. Are you part of a soul-winning church?

Here is the Sermon: A Strategy for Evangelizing the Entire World.

A Strategy to Evangelize the Entire World 2: Jerusalem & Judea

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 8:1

Christ commanded us to evangelize the entire world when he gave us the Great Commission, and Acts 1:8 breaks down that job into four components. Number 1 is Jerusalem, and number 2 is all Judea. Numbers 3 and 4 are Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth, which I will cover in the next blog post. In this post, I will discuss our church’s strategy for covering the first two components.

1. In Jerusalem

Your Jerusalem is wherever you are, and for Faithful Word Baptist Church, that’s the Phoenix area. FWBC has a plan to systematically knock every door in our county (approximately 4 million people) and attempt to preach the Gospel to every person. We have a map on the wall showing our progress, and we have already highlighted a massive section of it. Some of the more receptive areas including the areas right around our church have been covered as many as seven times.

2. In All Judea

The job of evangelizing the world doesn’t stop with Jerusalem. The next component is reaching Judea, and for us, that’s the rest of Arizona. Our church has a small town soul-winning program, which has the goal of knocking every door in every small town as well as every Indian reservation in the state. We’ve already knocked every door in about 12 of the small towns, and we are planning to hit more of them soon. We have also done some soul winning on 18 of the 21 Indian reservations, and we are serious about our church (not another church) knocking every Native American door in the state. We have a chart and binder tracking the progress of our Indian Reservation ministry:

Soul-winners from FWBC down in Sells, AZ, knocking every door.

With many of the small towns, we were able to knock every door in a day or two. The larger cities in Arizona will take much longer to cover, so they will each need their own church to accomplish the task. I have a goal for there to be like-minded churches in 5 key cities in Arizona, which have been strategically selected based on population and location. We already have our church in Phoenix and Pastor David Berzins is doing a great job of pastoring and soul winning in Prescott Valley, but I am also hoping that over the next nine years we will also start churches in Tucson, Yuma, Flagstaff, and Bullhead City. I realize that there are already soul-winning churches in some of those places, but instead of counting on others, we want to try to do it ourselves.

There are other churches in Arizona and across America that are being used by the Lord, but they may not necessarily share our vision. We praise the Lord for any soul winning done by churches outside of our movement and consider it icing on the cake.

Are You Making an Impact?

Wherever your Jerusalem and Judea are, you ought to be involved in soul winning. Hopefully your church has a plan for reaching areas beyond the town where it is located, but as an individual, you can make an impact by going soul winning wherever your church sends you. Your next step might be taking the opportunity to attend one of our soul-winning marathons when we come to your state or Judea.

To be continued...

Here is the sermon laying out the strategy for reaching the entire world in our lifetime.

A Strategy to Evangelize the Entire World 1: Exponential Soul-winning

“But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Matthew 13:23

I believe that this verse about bringing forth fruit to the tune of 30, 60, or 100, is referring to actual soul-winning numbers. A fruit tree brings forth fruit after its kind, and a Christian brings forth other Christians. Ideally, fruit trees produce fruit every year, and those are realistic annual soul-winning numbers because people who go out once a week for over an hour in a receptive area will likely win about 30 souls per year. Those who are even more dedicated and go out for several hours might win 60 or 100 souls per year. If more people achieved even close to these numbers, we could easily evangelize the entire world in a very short time.

We know that the majority of people will never get saved, but when I say evangelize the world, I mean that everyone would hear a clear presentation of the Gospel. Reaching the world begins with winning one soul at a time.

Here’s the math. Let’s say that I am the only saved person in the entire world, and imagine that I decide to win just one person to the Lord each year. Not only do I get that one person saved, but I train him to be like me, meaning I teach him to be a soul-winning Christian.

After one year of that program, there are now two Christians in the world. Since I make that guy like me and he wins and trains another person, by the end of two years, we have four people. After six years, we have 64 people in our church. At that point we are still a small group, but once we get about 10 years in, there are 1,024 of us. Just to simplify the numbers, let’s say that we had 1,000 people at the ten-year mark. By the time we are 20 years in, we are up to 1,000,000! Keep in mind, these are not just converts but people who are each winning one soul per year. The number of soul winners keeps increasing exponentially until by the time we get to year 32, we have over 4 billion. Now we know 4 billion people aren’t going to get saved, but long before we get to that high of a number of people out soul winning, everyone in the world will have heard the gospel multiple times.

There are millions of saved people in this world, so when I look at these numbers, it shows me that the vast majority of Christians are bringing forth no fruit. They never win anyone to the Lord, and they certainly don’t train anyone to be a soul winner. This is why we need to shoot for winning 30, 60, or 100 people to the Lord each year instead of only one. Those are the biblical numbers, and that level of productivity will help make up for the Christians who do nothing.

Planting churches all over the United States and sending out foreign missionaries are important goals for each local church, but don’t underestimate your own personal reach. If you win enough people to the Lord, some of them will become soul winners themselves and reach people in their own circle of influence, which will likely extend to another city, state, or country. Whether you are a man or woman, a child or an older person, you can have a part in this task of evangelizing the world.

If you have never presented the Gospel or have gotten a little rusty, you can start out as a silent partner. Being a silent partner was how I learned soul winning at age 17. After a couple of hours of listening to an experienced soul winner present the Gospel, I started talking myself and improved over time. Some people are silent partners for months before they feel comfortable doing the talking, and that’s fine. The important thing is that you get started right away. Meanwhile, you can speed up the learning process by watching Pastor Jimenez’ Soul-Winning Seminar, which has a wealth of information beneficial to both beginners and experienced soul winners.

Here is the sermon: A Strategy for Evangelizing the Entire World