Friday, February 2, 2018

LOOK UP! YOUR REDEMPTION DRAWS NIGH...by Stephen Benton



THE PASTOR'S PEN


LOOK UP! YOUR REDEMPTION DRAWS NIGH...                                     
by Stephen Benton

          Good Morning and welcome to the House of Good News, the BIGGEST  LITTLE church in Los Angeles.
          My message to you is simple: "Earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints." Jude 1-3   I concur with Bishop R.P Paddock that the persecution in these last days will not be one of being tortured, thrown into a den of lions, or being used as entertainment in a Coliseum; it will be a doctrinal conflict. 
          Let's face it, this conflict is not being engaged by the world, it is contending against the established Church, that portion that no longer has an ear to hear what the Spirit has to say to it.
          God brought out a most profound truth in the class Thursday evening. He told us that instead of killing the Son in order to obtain the inheritance as the Jews did Jesus, today's Church is killing the Son by not receiving the message announcing his arrival.  Overall, the Church would like for this entire issue, when He is coming,  to just go away.  It won't--we will!
[Now that the year and date of his appearing to take his Church home has passed, the Day of Atonement, 2017, or Yom Kippur, it has. God has now taken his promise of a "catching away" off the shelf because of the Church's unbelief]*  
          God gave us another great truth in the Tuesday class. The truth he showed us was that if the Church actually believes that Jesus is coming soon, that we are indeed living in the latter part of the last days; it should at least begin preaching about the coming of the Lord.  If the Church shares the opinion of the secular world that the year 2000 is a benchmark year, based on a three and a-half year warning, the Church should have begun preaching about the coming of the Lord starting in June of 1996.**  Who would have thought that as the last days gained momentum that the Church would hedge their bets and become mute on the subject of the Rapture?  

          God later added more to me on that subject by letting me know that he has not been giving the Church a message to preach on the Rapture because he will be spewing most of this professing Church out of His mouth as promised in Rev. 3:16.  Remember, Jesus is positioned outside the door of this last Church Age, knocking, demanding, "if any man will hear my voice."  This Church has not heard his voice but it does hear and follow the voice of its pastors, and they don't hear or follow God's voice and that is why in these final days the established Church is going about business as usual.

          It has made future calendars, agendas for the next millennium, and plans that make void the coming of the Lord.  It will be in for a great surprise--Soon. (seeing as how the Church likes that word.)  It is bogged down in unbelief and, like Israel of old, it will not enter into God's rest simply because it did not believe and embrace the message of His coming when he sent it through his last days' prophet.

          There are those who hold fast to the fact that Israel missed only the promised land and that their souls were saved.  In our study of Jude 4-7, you will see how Israel's act of unbelief is listed with the angels who left their first estate, with Sodom and Gomorrah, and with those who crept in unawares.  All of those examples suffered an eternal punishment.

          Are all of you aware of what a great time it is in which we have been chosen by God, elected to salvation and placed in time by God with that number who shall not "sleep?"
          Listen to this message from the Lord:

          Regarding a scripture in 1 Thessalonians regarding "those who are alive and remain."  The subject is the Rapture.  The recipients of this message are you and me. God, through Paul, is addressing a special message to a group of saints living in a special time.  What is so special about it?  We are those who have been given the first messages announcing the time of the Rapture.  We have come to realize this message is not being received.  It has opened the door to a great fight of affliction and persecution in all of our lives.  Also, and more important to the verse above, many who first heard this message and then later drew back, have not "remained."  Once the present recipients of this message began to "draw back," the slide continues.

          The Lord saved me thirty plus years ago.  Throughout my journey, I thought the Rapture was the crowning event and so did the Church.  I had no idea that this entire scenario since May, 1994, when the Holy Ghost gave me the scriptures to determine when the event should occur, would play out this way;  that the very mention of the word: Rapture would activate the demons and those controlled by their spirit against the event.  Now the verse in Thessalonians makes sense.  Only those who are alive and have remained faithful to the announcement of the day will participate in that day.*** 

         Read  your  book on  page 140 (1997..."at the last Trump"  available on the blogger: http://godsfinalmessagetohischurch.blogspot.com/2016/08/1997-at-last-trump-chapter-7-by-g.html)  and you will see, as I did, that God knew all about this scenario and knew that the apostasy would officially begin with this message announcing the day of His appearing.  That word "remain" according to SG Benton's 1997..., means, "the idea of survivors in the midst of and around those who have fallen."  Many were "alive" when the message was announced, not all have "remained."  This phase of the Laodicean's Church history is the final phase before it is officially vomited out of Christ's mouth.

          Let me say this to you also, if you are anxious, unsettled, eager, afraid, excited, nervous, loose and tense, your feelings are those of someone living out their last hours who is groaning to be delivered from this body of death.  Nothing like what we are about to experience has ever happened before to anyone.  Now is the time to lean on the Rock of Jesus' words when  he said:
          "Upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

          The gates of hell will make their most ardent push against the Church in the following months.  Jesus said, "...shall not prevail against it." Those words let us know that those who are in his Church, who have remained until the final minutes before the Rapture, no matter what the enemy throws against us, "it shall not prevail against it."  Don't be afraid!  You and I are going to see God do wonderful things before we leave here and as the terror flies by day and night, "it shall not come near thee."  We may literally see thousands falling on our right and left hands but it shall not come near unto you.
          The time will soon be upon us.  Look for things to begin heating up as more and more earth changes and catastrophes continue to happen. Many military, political and economic changes are happening quickly.  We are receiving a subtle message from our coming invaders.  By the way, when things begin happening in earnest look up, for your redemption is at hand.

          Stay in the word; continue to assemble yourselves together for these final classes.  Listen to your cassettes, CDs and watch the videos. Old ones and new ones.  Love one another.  Pray for one another.

*updated by Shelley Benton, editor, in 2017.
**referring to the original rapture date given to Pastor Benton in 1994
***The Lord subsequently showed us that although a group believed the date, like Caleb and Joshua they will have to wait because of the unbelief of the Church.

This article was written in the THE WEEKLY WORD OF THE HOUSE OF GOOD NEWS
09/25/1997

To read more current revelations from Pastor Steve, check out his book published September of 2017 on Amazon.com:


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