To You, From My Heart

From the time in history identified as the Dark Ages, and continuing to this day, there has been the need among God’s people for the working of the Lord to reveal all the divine truths to His church. Many of these truths have been ‘buried’ both in understanding and practice, for centuries.

The long list of dear and precious saints who have been physically martyred, or otherwise cancelled by the so- called church, will only be revealed at the Judgment seat of Christ and the great white throne Judgment.

Consider the perpetual cycle that has been observed over the centuries. This cycle typically begins when believers acquire new insight from the Lord and Scripture but then the same believers subsequently, and unfortunately, add unbiblical boundaries and standards concerning what they have seen. Intentionally or not, they become the very persecutors of other believers who also have received additional light from the Lord on other themes in Scripture. Believers and religious groups who think they ‘have it all’ and claim the red phone, so to speak, now persecute subsequent generations of believers. This cycle truly continues on and on.

Much new light from the scriptures has come to believers over the centuries. However, much leaven, or corrupted thinking, has also been mixed into those areas where said believers lacked understanding. Unfortunately, much credibility and ‘airtime’ has been given to this leaven despite the lack of support from Scripture.

Dear saints, once something passes from a teaching to a steadfast doctrine people will fight for it and defend it to the death, even if it is in fact untrue. Church history is rife with this condition.

Consider this: We as the church find ourselves now five hundred years since Martin Luther opened the matter of salvation by grace through faith. However, after all this time we find ourselves still debating this one matter, that of the gift of salvation. In one sense, this ongoing debate over simple truths can be quite discouraging. We find the writer of Hebrews articulating this frustration in Hebrews 5:12: “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.”

For the vast majority of born again believers; the limited message which has been given to them is diluted and abbreviated. It goes something like this: ‘They are a sinner, so they need a Savior, so that when they die, they can go to heaven and not to hell.’

We as church leaders must honestly ask ourselves, ‘Are we truly preaching the gospel of the Kingdom as revealed in Scripture?’ A major statement, made by our Lord, concerning the end of days was that this gospel of the Kingdom would be preached to all nations and then the end would come (Matthew 24:14). A little time spent observing the many prognosticators on YouTube fails to reveal almost anyone siting this as a condition for the Lord’s return.

When the Scriptures are studied, we discover that which is preached for the most part is clearly not the gospel of the Kingdom. Rather it is a gospel of going to heaven to get a mansion. This is not the gospel we were told to proclaim.

The Lord’s prayer was that the Kingdom of God should come to earth. The dominant message of the church is completely the opposite. We mostly hear of believers desperately wanting to leave the earth and go to heaven. This desire is in direct conflict with the reality that the Lord is coming to set up His eternal Kingdom on the new earth, as recorded in many passages including 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1-2.

As a young Christian worker I was confronted with the failure of the church in regard to the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom. I have discovered through the decades that not only was the message preached by the vast majority either incomplete or untrue, but many other vital topics among us were found lacking proper discussion and clarity among us evangelicals. It was clear to me that the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) was not being preached by, or to, the masses. These teachings I refer to are not little matters, but rather key items which, if properly ministered, would serve to empower, equip, captivate, and separate the church unto the kingdom vision, rather than seemingly for the majority which are simply living a life, waiting to go to heaven.

Through many years it has been my personal experience to have traveled the painful road of being marginalized, shunned, banned, and defamed–all due to my simply standing against, and addressing teachings which are proved to be inconsistent with the whole counsel of God.

My inner being has experienced that which Paul refers to in Galatians 4:19: “My little children, for whom I labor [travail] in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” Despite these difficulties I have not been able to be dissuaded, although many times I have wanted to drop the whole thing. Nevertheless, there remains a consuming fire in my spirit which drives me forward as I continue to witness the blindness and destructive consequences of false teaching. This great loss to the saints individually, and to the church corporately, is a profound burden to me.

My experience is much like a new believer—in that there is a compelling desire to present the good news to anyone who will hear. I deeply long that the saints would know what Scripture actually says so that they could know true freedom rather than false liberty, escapism, religious entrenched fantasies; taught as truth, unsolved inner condemnation, false hopes and on and on! John 8:32 says, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Please understand me! this concern is not my doing! but rather, it is the Lord’s burden and care for His church. I truly see myself as nothing more than one of the four starving lepers, as recorded in 2 Kings 7, who discovered a wealth of riches beyond imagination. Thus, just as the lepers were compelled to notify their fellow citizens of the discovered riches, so I have been compelled in my spirit to tell those that are starving and floundering; due to lack of more complete truth. Many cannot even perceive their own desperate condition. They are being held in their starvation by the gatekeepers of incomplete teaching, lifeless doctrinal statements, human traditions, worldly culture, lifeless religious practices, pagan influence, and worldly defilement.

To this end, I have posted materials online which I have prepared from my study and experience over these past five plus decades of seeking the Lord. These materials can be read online or downloaded for free. I genuinely believe that if we could push aside all that we assume to be true, and see what Scripture actually reveals, we would be deeply humbled, sobered, and profoundly impressed with the contents of God’s ‘eternal purpose’ (Ephesians 3:11; 2 Timothy 1:9). I believe we would lay aside the distractions which so easily entangle us and run with endurance to gain the same prize which Paul pressed towards and desired to gain (Hebrews 12:1; Philippians 3:13-14). Remember, a prize is not a gift!

May the Lord have mercy and supply us with His grace to at least search out what we as individuals teach, and discover and correct that which is not true, and then have the Lord grant us joy and true hope which comes in believing the truth.

The Gardeners Field Rethinking the Harvest

I strongly appeal to you, and encourage you read this book which is more of an introduction to the many teachings common in today’s evangelical circles on key topics of scripture. Over the last fifty years I have discovered large discrepancies which I attempt to support from the whole council of God; avoiding the all too prevalent twisting of scripture which Peter referred to.

Saints, it is a very sobering thing to realize that we will be held to a stricter Judgment, as those who teach.

Bless you dear Believer.

As I present this to you, I am nearly 77 years old, and have spent more than thirty years in direct pastoral ministry and over 55 years wrestling with the truth growing up in a Baptist Church attending a Baptist Bible college from 1967 to 1971 I have further been heavily involved in personal evangelism, and church planting; 42 years of which has been in Winnipeg.

I deeply care for what is actually true in scripture, and I have personally observed the radical change in believers lives who have had the Lord grant them a more complete understanding of His eternal Purpose, and their vital role in it. I am not referring to anything strange, but rather a clear understanding of His plan for His church. Amen!

Dave Louden