Assurance of Faith: Its Importance, Hindrances and How to Increase it

By Reverend Mark Hunnemann

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Cor 13) Here and elsewhere the Lord urges us to test ourselves to make sure that our faith is real and sincere. The stakes are too high to make a mistake about this as the consequences are eternal. It breaks my heart to say this, but millions will die thinking they are saved but will wake up to their unspeakable horror in hell.

We must find a middle ground between being too shallowly self-assured on the one hand, and engaging in morbid introspection on the other—what the Puritans called having ‘an ingrown eyeball.’ Periodic self-examination is not only healthy, but it is commanded in scripture. However, I wonder how many professing Christians take the time to reexamine their faith to make sure it is genuine? On the other hand, there are many sincere believers who are tormented with lack of assurance, but it is rarely discussed in much detail these days.

Many sincere believers will die with a lack of salvation and this is sad. Having assurance of salvation is not necessary to be saved as some believe; but assurance is necessary to enjoy ones salvation and be most productive. By the way, John Calvin did not teach that assurance was of the essence of saving faith as some have asserted for centuries. There has been an extended dispute that he differed from the Westminster Confession on this matter but he didn’t. He defines faith, but then spends the rest of the chapter saying that nobody has this kind of faith! In fact, they are dealing with 2 different issues: Calvin was defining saving faith, and chapter 18 of WCF is about assurance of salvation. I only mention this because academics debate this and say: see they cannot even agree on this central issue. I am amazed at how many godly men I admire who misunderstand Calvin at this vital point. Whether assurance is of the essence of saving faith or is simply to be strongly preferred is of immense practical import.

Nor does assurance lead to presumption as others believe because all of our hope and confidence is based in Christ and the gospel as we shall see. How can those clinging to Christ be either proud or lax in their obedience? It is unthinkable.

What is the assurance of faith? It is the belief that I believe; faith that I have faith. It is a robust, deep and joyful conviction that I truly am united to Christ by faith. It has rightly been said that a deep sense of assurance leads to a sense of heaven on earth, amidst our frailties and attacks. It is the joy unspeakable of which the NT speaks. Do you enjoy this assurance or is it intermittent or even lacking then I pray you attain this precious pearl.

Some folks know all the cognitive facts of the gospel, and have truly rested in Him, but cant seem to get assurance that they have faith in their hearts. And this torments them.

Just as we should avoid the marriage guru who says that “if you only follow the 5-steps that my wife and I follow then you can have a wonderful marriage”, so too, we need to not be an ‘assurance guru’ because there is no cookie-cutter approach that equally works for everyone. We are individuals.

The gospel comes to every person the same way but it finds different hurdles or obstacles in every person. I think that we underestimate how deep people are psychologically and how that factors in their quest for assurance of salvation. Some have been so psychologically abused that they hardly have the emotional framework to fathom that God really loves them and that they really love Him. These issues have to be factored in and sometimes need counseling to process the pain. Otherwise, there will remain some blockage which will prevent the full flow of salvations joy. Some of you have experienced horrendous pain and that needs to be addressed as well.

It is an individual quest. John Doe’s assurance is fine for him but it won’t help me—I need assurance for me. And the same is true for YOU.

Have you ever heard of ‘referred pain’ in medicine? It is where one feels pain in one area of the body but the source of the pain is elsewhere. The complicated network of muscles and nerves cause the pain to ‘show up’ far from its true origin. Similarly, I have found that problems with assurance rarely have to do assurance itself but with something else. That is, the problem with assurance is ‘referred pain’—symptoms of an ailment whose origin lies elsewhere, and a good physician of the soul will enable them to isolate the true source. In the meantime, the problems with assurance are very real and terribly painful.

Let us briefly look at a few hindrances to assurance of salvation and how to deepen it; they are connected.

1. Let me first mention those who have false assurance and how that can be unmasked. Many think that if they made a ‘decision’ early in life but then live and believe any way they want for 50 years, will not inherit salvation, as only those who pursue after holiness and persevere to the end will be saved. Likewise, a lack of the Fruit of the Spirit is an indicator that one’s profession is empty. We are not talking about perfection but there must be some reality of the Spirit moving and changing a persons life for them to be truly saved. As Luther said: we are saved by faith alone but not by a faith that is alone. Only a lively trust in Christ is saving faith. Easy believism leads to easy assurancism, which is deadly.

2. The first hindrance to a robust salvation is setting the bar too high. Some think that unless they have some extraordinary revelation from God, some constantly intense feeling—then they cannot be saved. Surely a saved person will ‘feel like it.’ I am not downplaying the significance of feelings but our feelings can ebb and flow with our blood sugar or amount of sleep we get. One area that is often overlooked is ‘orthopathos’—right feelings that should flow from our reading of God’s Word and our love for Him. But the foundation for our salvation are God’s promises and not our feelings. True salvation will include: orthodoxy (right belief), orthopraxis (right behavior) and orthopathos (right feelings). To acquire and grow in assurance then we need to tend to all three.

If your feelings are lacking ask yourself this question: how consistent am I in reading God’s Word and prayer? There is no time when I feel more assured of my salvation than when I am immersed in God’s Word. The key to deep assurance is not extraordinary experiences but normal means of grace which would include the Lord’s Supper. But we need to take them seriously on a daily basis; bible study and prayer. These do not increase our salvation but they do increase the assurance of our salvation.

3. Perhaps the most common source of lack of assurance is fuzziness regarding justification. Justification is what theologians call an eschatological reality brought into the present. That is, the moment a person professes faith in Christ, the verdict of the Last Judgment is declared upon them—immediately and irreversibly. No amount of sanctification of 50 years of righteous living can add one iota or diminish one iota the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to me. When justified, two things occurred (a double exchange); my sins were imputed to Christ and His perfect righteousness is imputed to me.(2 Cor.5:21) Why didn’t Jesus just descend on Good Friday and die for our sins? Why the Incarnation and all the moment by moment perfect obedience to the Father and to the Law for 33 years?

Christ lived a life of perfect obedience to the Law for a reason. Most Christians think that salvation includes only the forgiveness of sins, but that is only half the blessing—half the gospel! Being forgiven would place us back in the garden but it would not give us a positive righteousness. Jesus was born and lived 33 years of perfect obedience to the Law so that He would then transfer that robe of righteousness to us the moment we believe. It cannot be augmented or diminished, nor can it be lost. We must not think that our sanctification will add anything to Christs righteousness because if we confuse our sanctification with our justification, then we will commit the same error as Rome. Justification will then become a process of growth or diminishment—that is terrible news. Justification is not a process but a declaration; the sentence of the last Day rendered in the present, which is so good that it is beyond words to describe how lovely that is! Looking at Christ as our righteousness is the only proper basis for assurance. We can sing for joy that we have assurance because of all Christ has done for us!

As Luther said, we are simul Justus et peccator—'at the same time righteous and sinful’. In ourselves we will have the remains of indwelling sin until we die and are glorified. But ‘in Christ’ the Father sees the perfection of His Son. He sees us as holy and righteous as Jesus is! For a Roman Catholic this is almost blasphemous but it is only the perfect righteousness of Christ that will stand up under the scrutiny of the thrice holy God on Judgment Day.

If you focus on yourself and forget about the imputation of Christs perfect righteousness then you are setting yourself (and sinfulness)up for problems with assurance of salvation. Satan will come along and accuse you that a true Christian would not still have so much sin remaining in them. Our assurance is based primarily on the gospel; the gospel of the dual imputation, which has largely been lost today by most pastors and preachers. In ourselves we are still sinful but we cling white-knuckled to the cross of Christ and His finished work…and HIS righteousness. Without that knowledge of double imputation the devil can make mince meat of your conscience; with it, we can be the more than conquerors that we are!

4.  If the beatitudes or the Fruit of the Spirit are being formed in you (not perfectly but some reality) then one can be assured that they have true faith. Or in 1 John, the apostle asks this very question: what are the marks of one who is truly saved, and he mentions several?  But my point here is simple: if you can see God slowly but surely changing your character then that should encourage you.

5. Then lastly, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit Himself bears witness with our inner self (Rom8) that we are God’s children. Some of you have forgotten what you felt like when you are unsaved, but on your lowest day of assurance as a believer, you have more assurance then a non-believer does on their best days. How can I say that? Because He changes our hearts—there is radical heart transplant in which He puts desires which were never there before. Notice how naturally we cry out “Father” when the unbeliever usually says ‘God.’

Service to God is influenced by assurance.

If a child is not assured that his parents love him then the motive for his obedience will be effected. ‘I must obey and then possibly they will love me… if I do this, do that, get an A on my report card, excel in sports, etc. Those who lack assurance will live in constant insecurity due to not knowing if they are well, secure. They may work very hard but it won't be with a smile..not with song in their heart. If a person is not assured that they are truly a child of God or may lose their salvation, then it cannot but help but have an psychological affect over a long period of time.

I wonder how many people on Facebook and elsewhere who have effective ministries are truly assured of their faith? One who is not assured will put too much of their self-worth and significance in their ministries. Since they are deep down insecure, then it may also rob them of energy for service. Many people are so inwardly bent and tormented about the status of their own soul that they hardly have any energy left to care for others around them. All their energy is consumed with self-worry about the state of their own souls, and sadly they may not even be aware of the fact that they are so self-absorbed—it has become so much a part of their psyches. Like a nervous hypochondriac they will waste all their time on self analysis, with little energy for God’s work.

But with a heart at rest in Christ, then one can be: 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Cor 15)

The bottom line, is that for a robust life of productivity for the Lord we need to have this heaven in our hearts of knowing that we know; believing that we believe; having faith that we have faith. The assurance of our salvation and that we have this saving faith! The Puritan Thomas Brooks (1608-1680) wrote perhaps the best book on assurance entitled: Heaven on Earth.

May the Lord give us this heaven on earth increasingly, for His glory and our comfort and joy.

Part two: https://eyeontheparanormal.blogspot.com/2019/01/why-dont-i-feel-like-i-am-saved-if-i-am.html

Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook forma

The Foundation of a Biblical Worldview

By Reverend Mark Hunnemann

Last time we asked the question: is it possible to access the mind of God? We noted that the beautifully staggering truth is "yes, we can"--that is precisely what the bible is...God revealing some of His mind to us. I wonder, as bible-believing Christians, if we sufficiently appreciate the astonishing wonderment of God speaking to us...revealing His mind to us? As we shall see, this self-disclosure of God provides the foundation for everything--certainly everything pertaining to our worldview.

A provisional definition of a worldview is best conveyed like this: to see with a biblical worldview is to see all of reality through God's eyes...to see it as He does. Or we could put it like this: a worldview is how we view God and the universe, and our relationship to both. I suppose if there is one thing unique about my book, it is that it teaches about the nature and importance of worldviews. Worldviews are like spectacles through which we view the world, and it effects how we think, feel, and behave. We almost always hold them unconsciously, unless we systematically discuss them as we are now. This is not secret knowledge, like gnosticism/occult, but it is rare, even among pastors, to know how to think with a full-orbed biblical worldview

In my book I list what I consider the seven components of any worldview...

1. What is the nature of God or ultimate reality?

2. What is your purpose in life?

3. What is the nature of reality?

4. Is history going anywhere?

5. What is the basis for morality?

6. What does it mean to be human (essential traits of being human)?

7. What happens to us after we die?

Let me ask three questions: do you see how utterly basic these questions are...how divergent the answers would be depending upon whom we asked...and how seriously impoverished and "lost" one's life would be if they lacked certitude regarding them? Sometimes stating a thing negatively can have some shock value which is conducive to learning...like this. "I have no clue as to what God is like...no idea why I should get out of bed because I have no clear purpose...I think reality is all in my head...morality is whatever feels right to me....humans are just apes with little hair...we are annihilated when we die...I think..."  Get my point??!!

Before I proceed any further, I believe that one of the best ways we learn is just by doing. So, the next time you read a novel, go to an art gallery, watch a TV program or movie, and so on, please ask yourself how they/it are "answering" each of the above seven questions. Obviously, the movie director is not going to have one of his cast say, "Hey, this is the worldview of this film...god is energy, pleasure is our purpose...and so on...!" It takes listening carefully to dialogue, and other factors, to pick up the explicit or implicit expressions of the seven worldview components. That is, put into practice the habit of viewing everything through a biblical worldview.   But that involves being able to spot the distortions in one's worldview spectacles,as they are presented on the silver screen or in the novel, ect...After awhile it becomes second nature. We need to develop a distinctively Christian mind if wish to have a substantive impact on our culture (Rom 12:1-2)

I want to introduce a philosophical term--epistemology--a branch of philosophy which deals with the validity, nature, and extent of human knowledge. Put another way--it deals with how we know, and how we know we know..Christians should know this term because it lies at the heart of what ails our country We are not experiencing a generation gap, but instead we are experiencing an epistemological gap (which at root is spiritual in nature). Which has led to what some call "culture wars"Let me explain.

One-hundred years ago there was a basically Christian ethos in our country.. If you were to ask the average person off the street any/all of the seven questions above, most would have given an answer that was roughly based on the bible. If someone disagreed with them in conversation, it was understood that one of them was wrong...or both were. Today the responses to the above questions would be all over the map, leaning heavily toward New Age/neo-gnostic beliefs. And to even gently assert that someone is wrong is taken as an offense...absolute truth lies bleeding in the street. Yes, it is an epistemological gap. How we acquire knowledge regarding basic issues has radically changed.

The seven questions above, which comprise one's worldview, are either answered by God's revelation or man's autonomous speculation. These differing presuppositions lead to radically differing conclusions..as we shall see. Is it not instructive that the first temptation was epistemological in nature? Says Satan/serpant, "C'mon Eve, use your autonomous mind to determine right and wrong...and you'll also discover that YOU are the real god....be a big girl and THINK FOR YOURSELF." How we gain knowledge is the key to everything...we either fear God and attain true knowledge of reality or we trust in ourselves and distort reality.

Where do you go to answer these questions? What is your final court of appeal in answering life's most basic questions? Do you look inward...to your intuition...your experience...what your heart says--or do you look outside of yourself to the Living God who created heaven and earth, who in His kindness and love, has spoken true-truth to us in His written Word?

Let's go to Psalm 119 to get just a glimpse into what the biblical worldview is. Our epistemic assumption is that we can access the mind of God, and this is done via His special revelation in the bible. ALL knowledge, certainly all the knowledge pertaining to the seven questions above, can only be answered by accessing the mind of God--because we are incapable of ascertaining the answers autonomously...

Please read these verses carefully, and in light of these basic questions. As a philosophy major, it was a beautifully stimulating experience to see the basic questions philosophers had been asking for millennia, and how the bible fit like hand-in-glove in answering them!

"Oh how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day." (119:97)

"I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts." (vv. 99-100)

"Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."(v. 105)

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your Word." (v.9)

"I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not Your commandments from me." (V.19)

"Righteous are You, O Lord, and right are Your rules." (v. 137)

"The sum of Your Word is truth, and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever. (v.160)

"Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding that that I may learn Your commandments." (v. 73)

"Forever, O Lord, Your Word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You have established the earth, and it stands fast. By Your appointment they stand this day, for all things are Your servants." (vvs. 89-91)

Please forgive my repetition, but these concepts are new to some, and they are vitally important for us to understand (for a whole slew of reasons) Epistemology accents the wonderment of having God's personal revelation to us--explaining who He is....who we are....the nature of the universe--and our relationship to both. Using just Psalm 119 let us give a brief review of a biblical worldview.

1. What is the nature of God or ultimate reality? (119: 89-91, 137) The word used for God throughout the psalm is LORD....which is Yahweh in the OT--this is the covenant Name of God. He is infinite/personal God who created the heavens and earth...all creation is His servant. Energy is not ultimate reality.

2. What is our purpose in life? Frankly, had Yahweh not revealed this to us, our lives would be utterly meaningless. (v.97) speaks of loving the bible of God, and the God of the bible..the Great Commandment is our noble purpose as redeemed humans. (v.73) God Himself made and fashioned us...we are not cosmic accidents or descendants of monkeys. And of course Jesus Himself declares that loving God is the greatest commandment. Think of all the alternatives we have come up with to replace loving God as our purpose (or dominant life value, as some put it)...as Calvin said, we are idol factories.

3. What is the nature of reality? It is not an illusion. Matter/energy is not eternal.

(v.89-91) Again, we see that there is a distinction between the Creator and His creation. There are two basic types of reality--the self existent and eternal Creator, and His creation which He created ex nihilo. The physical world is not the full circumference of reality--there is an unseen, spiritual dimension as well. I finally saw The Conjuring movie last night--about Ed and Lorraine Warren who were pioneer demonologists. The movie did a surprisingly good job of expressing the reality of supernatural evil.

4. Where is history going? LORD...Yahweh is the faithful God of the covenants--the flow of history (including your personal history) has meaning because history is His-story. The whole psalm points to a God who will hold us accountable for our thoughts, words, and deeds. (v. 19) that we are sojourners here, means that we are preparing to go home! Eastern thought tends to see history as moving in endless, meaningless cycles..NO!

5. What is the basis for morality...or how do we distinguish right from wrong? (v 9, 137, 160) A young person can discover right and wrong by meditating on God's word, which is entirely truthful. Because God is righteous, His laws are righteous..forever. We know that right and wrong are based on the unchanging character of God, as expressed in his written Word. If energy is ultimate reality, then there is no adequate basis for morality. Or if we base it on anything other than God's Word, then it is not a sufficient basis for morality.

6. What does it mean to be human (essential traits)?  v.73 God made us and fashioned us in the womb ( see Ps. 139--fearfully and wonderfully made!) Human beings are not self-referential...As John Calvin said, knowledge of ourselves and knowledge of God are inextricably bound together in a thousand different ways, since we are made in His image. We are certainly not animals or glorified monkeys. We are noble, but we are sinners as well.

7. What happens when we die? Again, we are called "sojourners on earth" (v. 19) We are just passing through this time/place before we enter our eternal rest. We are a body/soul composite, and when we die our soul immediately goes before the Holy Judge of heaven and earth. Death is determinitive of our eternal destiny--either eternity in heaven or hell. At the Last Judgment we will be reunited with our glorified bodies. Hence, any notion of "trapped souls" is repugnant to scripture and to God's holy character. Ed and Lorraine Warren got this issue wrong--unfortunately. Annihilation is also wrong-headed.

(89-91, 99-100,160) All of this discussion would be for naught if it were not for the truth of these verses.The infinite and personal God of the everlasting covenant is really there, and He has not remained silent. His Word is true truth (forever His Word is fixed in heaven) Every one of His righteous rules endures forever. Amen!

Have you ever heard someone say, "I have 35 years researching the paranormal."? I certainly have, and it is often (not always) used as a fact to buttress the force of their argument against what I or someone else has said that contradicted a claim of theirs. Here the psalmist states that he has more true knowledge than his teachers BECAUSE it is grounded in the granite of revealed truth, and not in the shifting sands of man's autonomous speculation.

I have mentioned this example before but it bears repeating: an unbelieving friend of mine, who specializes in getting rid of spirits who are hostile (and they stay busy all year), loudly proclaims two things: they have nearly 40 years of experience, and they have never, ever seen a demon! This is usually followed by a sarcastic, withering criticism of those who stupidly believe that all ghosts are demons. This person is my friend and it grieves me that they are so blind that they cannot even recognize demons when they are attacking or harassing them. Every classic criteria used to determine demonic presence has been met many times over, and yet they still refuse to see reality clearly...tragic, but quite common.If our worldview glasses are distorting our perception of reality, then decades of experience will only make one more foolish in their understanding of the world.

There are no answers to the seven questions above if our epistemology is not grounded in the Word of God. That is, if we do not look to God's revelation to learn what: God is like, the nature of reality, our purpose in life, what is right and wrong...and so on, then we have no adequate foundation for acquiring any knowledge. This may not be exciting, but please know that this is bedrock foundation for building a biblical worldview...reason for getting out of bed and not committing suicide. I am baffled by this optimism which is grounded in a worldview in which impersonal energy is Ultimate reality....that kind of optimism has both feet planted firmly in mid-air.    

Each question is SO basic...if only one is wrong or even partially distorted, it will seriously impact ones life. Yet the majority of people in the world have all of them (seven questions above) partially or totally wrong! Why? Because their epistemology is wrong. This is not rocket science...we either humbly look to God to answer life's most basic questions, or we pridefully look to ourselves...revelation or speculation. We DO have access to the mind of God through the Holy Bible--and that is the foundation of a biblical worldview! Please do try to watch and read with these questions in mind this week...

P.S I still need someone to help revamp my website...please! Thank you...   mark                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Biblical Authority By Whom?

By Paul D. Joao

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for

teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness

2 Tim 3:16

In the views of Paranormal and Christianity many people are unaware of the authority that is given that makes the verse above a reminder that people should be a grounded in a foundation of the Gospel but they are on aware of dangers of what is not told, in the world of the paranormal. In truth,  the world of Paranormal is a broad  and very optioned that when people discuses ideas and facts on cases and when it comes to help people, at times questions leaves people asking more questions in the first place. In additions are Christian ministries and groups that help people but at times, what Christian may say is not what the they want to hear. As a result, people debating with any aspects of truth but there is a question that people should ask, Should we have a Biblical Authority like a church father for questions in these modern days?

When we think of Church Fathers, what make them the authority figure in the first place, if we asked was it a combo of the Holy Spirit and people approved the person. Than we need to add that, that person would have understanding of the Bible in the original language, philosophy of Jesus Christ, and a person that loves the truth of the gospel. If we view that person as a Preacher that can get people to think of the topic and make a person to think of the topic among others, or the ideas of the topic that would make sense when people understand it. Does that person exit in these modern times, the answer is no. We spend time reading and hearing from so many people within the Paranormal and Christianity, more too often we hear the about the drama and how people who are helping others and what they are teaching goes against known real theology. Therefore, we must ask what is Real theology, it comes when a Church Father comes in handedly; think of the Reformation age when people had Martin Luther and John Calvin. Could we look at Walter Martin, Derek Prince, and Kurt E. Koch as a church father for the Demonology, or the preternatural aspect? In today’s Society people who want answers to the many questions that interring them to enter the fields of the paranormal as Christianity stands it’s an undeveloped level for a Church father stands, in regarding to what the level of a Church Father once stood for. For clarify on a matter, let us take a situation that may or not may have happen in real life?

As a precaution, this event did happen and names of people are not mention for their personal identification would not know for this paper. In addition, the story is not discussed the full details to protect the client’s claims of what happen.

As the story goes, a “Credited” demonologist male was helping several cases mostly woman and what the ladies said is “he” has helped  them on a phone or have visited their homes. Meanwhile, these women begin to talk to each other and form a friendship and they were trying to get help from this man, what they did not know is that the “man” has a history of problems with the paranormal creating a issue that where did he get his “credit” at. Due to the women who were trying to get help and often Paranormal teams have came to investigate the problem but it is a common problem is in each case a children has been injured, smells of odors be noticed. People behaviors been effected plus it appears that the demon has been traveling from each home to the next one. For a while, it would be quiet until someone mentions the demonologist's name it makes the matter worse for the family. If this is not common when a person who been helping would see that they the clients have a relief from what they been though. As for the demonologist, a reporter discovered that the man in questioned was a self-trained, and his “credit” that he received was a onetime fee and here you go type of fraud, leaving the women helpless.  If a person was wondering did  any one reported to a commission of a leadership sadly there is no police and “his” practice is still going on possibly more woman are being deceived by this man. Someone would think that people would stop him, but word is out there. What about the women, as a suggestion was made that several teams would investigate the locations and come together with the results and if necessity a priest would come to the locations for a house cleaning of some kind. Now let us say if the person is a demonologist is at fault what then, do people discredit to a point that people like clients want to harm that person/demonologist. Here is a story that happens to a man in real life and his “credits.”

In case with Mark Warnke story author of Satan Seller, it was his created Biography of his life, which he did not have. The created version was a great story as many people were following him for a number of years. The story goes he was intrigued with the Occult and learned from a man that taught him the secrets of a dark magic, as he raises from a member to leading a group to a higher levels then he seen God and learned about Jesus and traded all of his occult things for a bible. When he was in the Vietnam War, on one day thinking of all of the people being killing, for what? In his mind, he and Jesus was far away, Jesus never left him and he left to come back so he left the army and headed back to the States and formed his ministry. It was going great until the news brought out that he was lying and his ministry that was helping people did not trust him, with anything and he’s “credited” person was no more,  today he is known as a comedy preacher.    

How does these ties with a Church Father, it does because it’s a person who many can consider it as a judge as a person that oversees the ministries and helps people just like a bishop is a number of a churches. Someone that a person to watch the paranormal communities and its people from being deceive away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the misunderstood teachings of these people. The thing is what is “credit” means did not Apostles Paul went back to the Apostles in order to have the authority for his ministry. In the end, when it comes to the Christian Paranormal communities who watches “us” in reality because of the nature people are often to come up with their options and conclusions of what know and often using the Bible for guidance. If that is the case then people should have method or cannon of some sort to how to help the people from their Christianity Paranormal cases studies. Where people can format a plan on how they would achieve a great success in their “work” with helping people and create a similar style as a Church Father. Would that make a person a church father or a person that can teach people the Truths in the Christian Paranormal communities in the modern times?