In 1999 my wife and I were experiencing a minor crisis in our lives. It was a matter of principle and fairness that had me searching for a way to "fight city hall" so to speak.In my researching as to how to accomplish this...
I kept returning to a website where the author referred to the Bible many times to make his point. Up until this time I had no desire or inclination to even consider the Bible for any guidance. In fact I (we) were very much involved in a New Age/ Occult lifestyle.
Within a few months after our biggest Halloween blow-out party, our whole view of God and the Bible was intensifying. The Bible references the site author kept quoting (albeit, mis-quoting) finally had my wife and I look at each other and said in unison "We better find out what the Bible has to say."
We discovered that we had several Bibles in the house. My wife’s sister who was a Christian managed to leave a Bible, plus my wife had a Catholic Bible and I think there was a Reader’s Digest KJV Bible too.
So just as any impatient reader would do, we wanted to find out how it ended, so we read the book of Revelation first! We did not understand it completely, but understood that most was symbolic in nature; however, when we came across the tribulations and troubles we both agreed that we were going to go through it. God in his mercy allowed us to read his word without the coloring and slant of man made doctrines.
Next up were the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We really liked the book of Matthew. Especially Matthew 24. This absolute feeding frenzy on God’s word had us reading up to 18 hours a day. I did not get much work done at the Planetarium where I was working as the head technician. Little did I know at the time, how God was educating me in the area of astronomy by having to program the digital star projector, learning all the constellations and the sun and moon activities etc.
After twenty or so weeks, we had gone through the Bible front to back. It was then that we confessed that we were indeed Christian and began to pray at meal times and such. All I knew was the Lord’s Prayer that I learned in elementary school back in the days when it was politically correct. It was around this time that I privately asked Yeshua to forgive my sins and to make a new person of me. Not long after this I had a dream like none other I have ever had. I mean this dream was so real that I still cannot discern like Paul said in:
2 Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
The dream is as follows: I was in a room that was laden with some of the most beautiful woodwork I have ever seen. As I looked around I saw there were several others present. My next focus was on a physical feeling I had. I noticed the garment I was wearing was an ever so white robe yet it was quite unique in such a way that not only did the robe cover me as it draped over my shoulders and arms, but it was like it was surrounding me with the sense that I was wrapped in it yet it still flowed with me. Only my head was exposed. The feeling of being hugged all over by this robe ended at my neck. Again my gaze was lifted toward the room and those standing around. All of a sudden the room drew silent and as I watched the others, they all parted to let someone walk between them. This person walked toward me and I immediately knew it was Yeshua. He walked right past my right shoulder and circled toward what appeared to be a window like opening on the wall. At that moment he bowed down before it and began to pray. I was immediately brought down to my knees and I began to cry. The crying was so hard that I could not see what was happening yet I knew that the others were bowed down too. As the intensity of crying increased it was as though my eyes were vomiting, and then my mouth started to cry the same way, and then my ears began to spill out too. This went on for what it seemed to be an eternity. In a blink of an eye I was sitting up straight in my bed. I was stunned by it all and to this day I can recall this event as if it just happened.
"Well, now that we are Christian, maybe we should look for a church…" was the leading. Through a few interesting connections, we attended our first church service. It was a small group of people starting up a fellowship under the auspices of the
It was also during our first day at church, a certain outspoken lady managed to share with us the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture. Now we were not experts on the Bible, but we read it enough to know that the Bible did not teach any such thing. In fact, we were very Berean in our approach. After the services we would go home and check the Bible against the notes we took or the recordings we had of the pastor’s message. Increasingly we were finding major differences between the Bible and what he was teaching.
It was not long after the pastor returned from a trip to
The topic of the Bible versions coupled with our ongoing studying which led us to the knowledge of the 7th day Sabbath, had the phrase "If you keep speaking like that, we will have no other choice, but to protect the flock."
We invited the Mormons from across the alley and other neighbors to come over for our Sabbath worship. Again we did not have hardly any doctrinal influence from others and we started our Sabbath observance on Saturday mornings and ended the Sabbath that night. However we still did some things like taking the children to the swimming pools and other commerce related things. After a year of house church, we received a hand bill for a prophecy seminar in our area. We were astonished that the pastor was teaching all the things we had learned from the Bible, plus he filled in some gaps too like the state of the dead etc. We were still uneasy about this SDA church because of its cult label and such, but my wife and I agreed that the first unbiblical thing we came across, we were out-a there! Our transition into the church was quite easy, as we had already given up meats a year or so prior. God made them smell really bad and we had to just get rid of it all.
Our children were enrolled in the church school which was a new experience for them as they were home-schooled up to that point. We toured around the city to see the other churches and settled into a diverse cultured church 30 minutes away from our home. Again, my engineering skills were put to use and I was catapulted into leading the media ministry as well as being ordained as an elder. Next was the acquiring and building up a television production system with the hopes of going live. A large piece of land right beside the church was also slated to house a production facility etc.
Around this time, some in leadership were doing some things that I was very uncomfortable with. I finally took my head out from the technical whirlwind to discover that the church had lost many good people and the diversity of the church was gone. We also noticed that many in leadership were not at all that strong on the church’s doctrines, especially health reform. I then walked away from a significant financial investment and cut all ties with that church. We attempted to get the local conference to investigate, but they just swept the matter under the rug.
Our membership transfer was delayed six months, but finally we were members of the church where we attended the first prophecy seminar. During the waiting period, we were attending a farewell picnic for some very dear friends. It was at this picnic that a gentleman gave me some websites to checkout. It was a couple of months before I found the paper he gave me. The one site of particular interest was http://www.4angelspublications.com . I was convinced of the truths I read and the evidences presented. I continued to study for five months. I was so excited I wanted to share this with all.
One night I was up late composing yet another email to the associate pastor trying to explain this to him, I was impressed to forward the link to the book The Great Calendar Controversy to World’s Last Chance. The reply was short and to the point that this was a very interesting study. I waited for replies from all I had forwarded this to, but to my joy, three months later, I came home from work and my wife told me that WLC had a new video and that it was beautiful. My jaw hit the floor as I watched for the first time, 3 Months In A Row. This was the best response I could have ever hoped for and more. All the struggles I had been going through with the pastors regarding these truths were gone when I saw this video unfolding before my eyes.
Recently I was asked to give a presentation before the elders of the church on the subject of the Lunar Sabbath. Some were actually paying attention and others were very squirmy. I know that there is a plan to have us kicked out of the church soon, but then again we have become used to "If you keep speaking like that, we will have no other choice, but to protect the flock."
Currently, the investment of video production equipment I left behind in the other church, God reimbursed me with an inheritance which allowed me to build a video production suite in my home. Production of a documentary of the Lunar Sabbath plus much more is in the works, and with your prayers may this light shine unto all the earth.
Blessings to you all and thank you Galal and the WLC team for your willingness to be willing servants to bring these truths to all the world.
I would also like to encourage all to share this info with everyone you know as well as those you don’t know. All it takes is just one email and you can help change someone’s world. ……………….or website : )
Mike Kemp