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Dear Leon and others who may have doubt,
I would like to respond to your questions and share my thoughts:
1.Question: Do we have any standards to measure revelation and doctrine
anymore? She claims to have ‘Revelation’ from God, in such a manner that her
book must be added to the cannon of the Bible!
• Her book should be read and examined against the revealed Scripture, the
Bible. It must be subjected under the authority of the Scripture.
• I don’t recall she actually said her book must be added to the canon of the
Bible. But I recall she asked readers to read and judge the message against
the Scripture. However, she did mention that this is “Jesus’ book”, simply,
message of Jesus in the book form. That leads us to consider the operation of
revelations.
• There are still revelations by God today. (1 Cor 14:26). But these
revelations or prophecies will always be subjected to the teaching in the
Scripture already revealed to us. The word ‘revelation’ here should not be
understood as the term used in the systematic theology, in which the word is
defined as the completed inspired word of God as recorded in the canon of the
Scripture. Rather it should be understood as prophecy as defined in the New
Testament (e.g., 1 Cor 14). Hence the words of revelation or prophecy should
always be judged by the church against the revealed word of the Scripture.
2. Question: She was used to write it in a very trance like manner, unlike
our understanding of the New Testament writers.
• From the book, she shared that she would go into a ‘trance’ or ‘spiritual
empowerment’ before she is brought into the spiritual dimension/heaven to
receive or experience the revelation Jesus would show to her. This is not
surprising. Other figures in the Scripture, e.g. John or Daniel went through
similar experience when they encountered Jesus in glorious form.
• After she has received revelations, she would then write it down. But I
could not recall that she would also write in a ‘trance’. Granted it is, we
are not sure what kind of experience the New Testament writers went through
when they wrote books in the New Testament.
3. Question: While Paul says that what he saw in heaven was too great for a
man to utter, she has no problem giving us details.
• Paul was not allowed to mention the words/things he heard in heaven. (2 Cor
12:4). However, John was asked to write down what he saw including the glory
and details of heaven in the Book of Revelation. What she has seen and
written down, in my view, does not contradict what Apostle John has written
in the Book of Revelation. Rather, her description looks more like filling in
the blanks into the structure/framework that is already there.
4. Question: She also has a message of salvation by works, a subtle
gnosticism to find God's favour unto salvation.
The message with regard to salvation that she so strongly put across (e.g.,
pp.33, 34, 46, 213, 244, 249) may be summarized as following:
“Only those who genuinely believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior
can enter the kingdom of heaven. Such genuine faith will be and must be
expressed in a life of obedience to the Word and purity of heart. Those who
claimed to believe but do not exhibit obedience to Jesus are deceiving
themselves and not saved!”
This is faithful to the revelation in the Scripture. (See appendix for my
study on the Doctrine of Salvation – entering the kingdom of heaven)
Overall reflection:
We have to treat what she said, or for that matter, any Christian's prophetic
utterance/instructive personal word of testimony, simply as a word of
prophecy. That means we have to weigh and judge if what she said is true to
the Scripture and from the Lord. The way we weigh and judge
prophecy/revelation is:
• To see that it does not contradict, rather it confirms the teachings in the
Bible.
• To see if the message is good, pure and holy. (Phil 4:8)
• To see if the message edifies us and strengthens our faith. (1 Cor 14:3)
• To see if the message causes us to love God more (John 14:21)
• To see if the message exalts Jesus Christ (Jn 16:13-14)
One has to evaluate to see if the message fulfilled these criteria.
Appendix:
Doctrine of Salvation - entering the kingdom of heaven
It is difficult to enter the kingdom of God
1. Mat 7:13-14 "The narrow and wide gates"
2. Mat 8:18 The cost of following Jesus
3. Mat 10:32 “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him
before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown
him before my Father in heaven.
4. Mat 10:37 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy
of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of
me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my
sake will find it.”
Who will enter the kingdom of God?
Only those who genuinely believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior can
enter the kingdom of heaven. Such genuine faith will be and must be expressed
in a life of obedience to the Word and purity of heart. Those who claimed to
believe but do not exhibit obedience to Jesus are deceiving themselves!
1. Mat 7:21-23. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the
kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in
heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in
your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then
I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
2. Mat 12:50 “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother
and sister and mother.”
- Only those who does the will of the Father will enter the KOG.
3. Heb 12:14-16 “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be
holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses
the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile
many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau…”
- Only those who are holy will see the Lord.
4. 1 Jn 2:15 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the
world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of
what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world
and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives
forever.”
- Lives forever – eternal life in heaven.
5. Rev 21:7-8 “He who overcomes will inherit all this (i.e., kingdom of
heaven), and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the
unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who
practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the
fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” - Overcome – a life
of faithfulness to Jesus and perseverance to the end.
6. Rev 21:27 “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does
what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the
Lamb’s book of life.”
7. Rev 22:14-15 “Blessed are those who wash their robes (present tense – keep
washing), that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through
the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts,
the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and
practices falsehood.”
- Those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life will keep
themselves pure
8. James 2:14-26 Faith and Deeds - Genuine Faith is Believing and Living.
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no
deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without
clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep
warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is
it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is
dead.
...v.18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your
faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe
that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You
foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was
not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered
his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were
working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the
scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited
to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a
person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for
what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a
different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without deeds is dead.” (Jas 2:14-26)
Comment:
1. Mere intellectual agreement to gospel is not enough to obtain salvation.
2. Faith is Believing and Living in the truth. Genuine faith shows in
Actions.
3. Not that works must be added to faith, but Genuine Faith includes works.
4. No one can be saved by works; no one can be saved without evidence of good
works.
Genuine Faith will be reflected in Godly Lifestyle
1 Jn 2:3-6 “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar,
and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is
truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims
to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”
1 Jn 3:7-10 “… He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is
righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has
been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to
destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin,
because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has
been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the
children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a
child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”
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