Pastor Michael Brigmond

Kissimmee, Florida

When I came into this truth, I was faced with many shocking revelations. One by one, the things I had been taught over the years began to crumble in the face of Truth. What I had been taught in a church that believed in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, with a dispensational point of view, could not stand in comparison to the Word of God.

When I searched the Scriptures to prove what I had always been taught, the Scriptures were not there to be found!!!

My feelings were bitter-sweet. On the one hand, I loved the Truth that I was now seeing, but I was very troubled, to the point of anger, because of the things I had been taught, things that were now proven to be wrong. I thought, "How could the world’s largest Oneness Pentecostal organization be so wrong on something as important as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ?" Or, "How could they teach, for truth, a doctrine the Apostles did not believe?" "Why would an organization with tens of thousands of ministers teach a doctrine less than 200 years old and declare that it represented the ‘True’ Apostolic message?"

I was troubled and confused. As I prayed and studied the Word of God the walls of deception began to crumble. The first deceptive wall to collapse was the "Pre-Tribulational Rapture". I read what Jesus said in Matthew 24. I read the Revelation of Jesus Christ as recorded by the apostle John. And I read the other books of the Apostles and the Prophets. I soon realized the Church will still be here even after the Tribulation begins. I began to move more into the belief of a Mid-Tribulational Rapture. It wasn’t long before I adopted the Pre-Wrath Catching away of the Church.

I thought I just about had it all figured out. But, then, the 1995 Apostolic Prophecy Conference came along. The Holy Ghost compelled me to attend that first series of meetings in Tampa, Florida. I left that conference stunned and somewhat ashamed at how little I really knew. Surely, I was moving in the right direction, going from Pre-Trib to Pre Wrath, but I couldn’t stop there because the Word of God declared we were going to go all the way through until the end. I never dreamed that so many other things I believed were also wrong. I had been deceived. All those years, I was being taught lies; false doctrine; even doctrines of devils.

At first I was mad at the men who had taught me such falsehoods. Then I realized they were in the same boat, duped by other well-meaning, albeit misinformed, preachers.

The next wall that came tumbling down was the teaching of Dispensationalism. The notion that God dealt with mankind in a different way in each of 7 different time periods, or dispensations. I filled up two different churches by teaching Search For Truth home Bible studies. I was teaching a lie. Search for Truth is based on the concept of Dispensationalism, not on the Apostles’ Doctrine. It teaches the ideas of John Darby, C. I. Scofield and Clarence Larkin. It does not teach what the Apostles of Jesus Christ taught.

Sometimes we taught in 3 different homes a week. People were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. You might say, "Well, brother, you did a good job because Acts 2:38 is all you need and you gave them that."

Let me tell you, after all the effort we put forth, in the last few years almost everyone of those people have backslid and are living worse today than when I first met them. Why? Because Acts 2:38 alone is not enough! It may get them in, but when they put their faith in false doctrine, like Dispensationalism and a Pre-Trib Rapture, it is not enough to keep them. They are not prepared for what they will have to face.

One by one the walls of false doctrine disappeared but I still could not fully grasp what was now being revealed. Like looking at a puzzle with an important piece missing. The picture was not quite clear. That all changed when I understood who we are.

I saw Israel and I saw the Church. God loved Israel and God loves the Church. Much of natural Israel, because of unbelief, was cut out of the vine and many non-Jews were grafted into the vine. Some of natural Israel, because they came to believe in Jesus Christ and fulfilled Acts 2:38, have been grafted in again. I now understood: The Church is the Israel of God.

There are no dispensations as had been taught. When one fully understands Replacement Theology, the position of the Church becomes clear. The Jewish people can still be saved, but they must be saved according to Scripture: By Repentance, Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance. (See Acts 2:37-38)

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is an everlasting Gospel. It is the ONLY Gospel. [][][][]