Lesson 1
Why Study the Bible
AMBASSADOR CHRISTIAN COLLEGE‐ Dr. Keith Slough
INTRODUCTION WELCOME TO THE FIRST LESSON of the most fascinating Bible Study Course ever written! You hold in your hands Lesson 1 of a unique Study Course that is guaranteed to teach you not only the basic Bible Truths but the deeper truths of God, many of which are not taught in our seminaries! I'm talking about the "STRONG MEAT" of the Word of God! By the time you finish with this Bible Study Course I guarantee you that you will have more Bible knowledge than most of the ministers graduating from some of our most prestigious seminaries around the world! And that's a promise! For many years I have called myself a Bible Literalist - that is, one who believes the Bible is literally true and tries therefore to obey it literally. Most churches unfortunately do not take the Bible that literally. And most have what I call a "cafeteria style" religion. They pick and choose what doctrines and commandments from the Bible they will obey and ignore the ones they don't want to obey. With this first lesson of the PROVE ALL THINGS Bible Study Course, I am starting something brand new- never done before in this Ministry. I can PROMISE you one thing: If you continue being a subscriber to this Study Course, you will learn things from the Bible you have never heard preached before. And yet, you will be astonished to see these doctrines right there in your own Bible! -yet doctrines that somehow have been overlooked or neglected to be taught by many of our mainline churches! Remember that "sin" is the transgression of the Law (I John 3:4). God's Word is a book of Law. When we transgress His Word we are sinning. We are commanded to "study" to show ourselves approved unto God (See II Timothy 2:15). We are commanded to "prove all things" and cling to those things that are proven good and right (I Thess.5:21). We are commanded to "live by every Word of God" (Luke 4:4 KJV). We are told that to worship Christ using the traditions of men when we lay aside the commandment of God in order to keep those traditions, causes our worship of Christ to be IN VAIN! (Mark 7:7-9, 13). We are commanded to "earnestly contend for the Faith [the true Faith] which was once delivered to the saints"! (Jude 3). Are you doing these things? Are you obeying God's commandments? Sad to say, most professing Christians are only honoring Christ with their lips, giving Him "lip service." Jesus said that God desires people's worship "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). God's Word is truth (John 17:17). God's Law is also called "the Truth" (Psalm 119:142). To worship Christ in spirit and in Truth is to worship Him as the Holy Spirit leads and in obedience to God's Law which has never been destroyed, abolished, "done away," or "made void" (Matthew 5:17-19 and Romans 3:31). I want to welcome you to this wonderful and intense study of the Word of God. It is simple and easy to understand. You don't need a high school education nor do you need a high I.Q. But you do need a strong desire to OBEY GOD no matter what He shows you. You do need to be totally submitted to His will, no matter what that may be. You do need to be totally surrendered
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to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Are you? If you are, then welcome aboard. Together, you and I can finish the Work He has given His Church to accomplish and can take the truth to the whole world before He returns! Previously this Bible Study Course was running con-currently with our periodical publication called PREPARE. Therefore you may at times see this publication mentioned in this Study Course although now the Bible Course is separate from Prepare in its current issues. Now remember you must take the test (an open book test and therefore very, very simple) and then mail it back to us for grading before the next lesson will be mailed to you! As soon as your test has been graded it will be returned to you so you can study the correct answers along with your Bible. I can assure you that if you stick it out to the end, you will know more about the Bible than most full time pastors that you have ever met! I challenge you to find that out for yourself! Congratulations on your desire to LEARN the Holy Bible -the very Word of God. May God open your mind and heart to His Truth! Happy Studying!
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To Show Thyself Approved Unto GOD! The Bible Commands us to STUDY "the Word of Truth" (II Timothy 2:15) which is the Word of God (John 17:17). Now for many of you for the first time, you can learn how to truly study the Bible! Believe it or not, you CAN understand the Bible if you are truly willing to study it! Learn how!
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HE Bible COMMANDS us to "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, RIGHTLY dividing the Word of Truth"! (II Timothy 2:15). Jesus tells us in John 17 that the Word of God is truth. Therefore we are to rightly understand the Bible by studying it! An ordained minister once told me, "Keith, I hear you talk about studying the Bible on your radio program. I know how to read the Bible of course, but no one ever taught me how to study it!" How tragic! And yet we have ministers in our pulpits who are teaching you doctrines that they ASSUME to be correct but have never proven even for themselves! The Bible alerts us to those who do not teach according to the Word of God. Isaiah 8:20 states: "To the Law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them"! They may be sincere and, humanly speaking, "good men," but if they are not speaking according to the Law and the rest of the Bible (God's testimony to mankind) then they are in darkness and we are not to follow them! No where does the Bible tell us to be loyal to a church organization, or to a church tradition. Rather we are commanded to be loyal to "the Law and to the testimony" of the Word of God. Are you loyal to God? You may think you are being loyal to God by being loyal to your denomination, but God commands us to be loyal to His Word. How do you know you are obeying His Word and not the doctrines and traditions of men? Jesus said if we lay aside His Law -the commandments of God -and take up the traditions of men which do not come from the Bible, then we are worshipping Him Jesus Christ -in vain! Now is the time to "earnestly contend for the [true] Faith which was once delivered to the saints"! (Jude 3). Perhaps many of you have been receiving our other literature through the mail or have been regular listeners to the radio broadcast over the years. You have learned many new truths that you may never have understood before from attending weekly worship services in a local traditional or denominational church. Too many times we have seen that the larger the congregation gets the simpler the sermons become. The pastor knows he is talking to a larger audience, many of whom still need the milk of the Word -"which be the first principles of the oracles of God" (Hebrews 5:12). Therefore as the congregation grows many times larger, the more spiritual members of the church suffer for lack of good strong (spiritual) meat of the Word -the deeper things of God. Of course sometimes the pastor himself may be deficient in the deeper things of God and simply is not qualified to teach them. Some pastors are almost "evangelists" preaching only the "milk" of the Word giving a basic “Salvation message” each week. While that is the most
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important thing he can preach to save the sinner, he may also be neglecting the church member who may have been saved for some time and needs to "go on unto perfection" (Hebrews 6:1). So what does a growing and maturing Christian do? This is where real, solid Bible classes need to be conducted so that the more spiritually mature Christians do not get ignored and neglected. Yet in many congregations across America, that is happening! Perhaps it is happening in your church! Would you like to know the deeper truths of God? Would you like to truly STUDY the Word to show yourself approved unto God having no need to someday be ashamed when you stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, having rightly divided the Word of Truth? Now you can! Welcome to Lesson 1 of the Prove All Things Bible Study Course. Why did I choose that name? Let me explain. Back in the 1960’s I was challenged over some doctrines I had never heard of before. I had to know if they were true or not. But how could I know for certain? I then learned the scripture found in I Thessalonians 5:21 which commands us to "Prove All Things; hold fast that which is good." Starting then I began to really prove the things I had been taught by comparing the doctrines and dogmas I had learned in the denomination in which I was raised with the Bible! But then the question arose, Should I not also prove the Bible? And how can we do that until we first prove there is a God? So I put away the Bible and all religious literature and began to study science. There I found PROOF that God does exist! In the next lesson you will be taught how to actually prove there is a God from science! The next time you meet an atheist you will know how to answer him! The next thing I needed to learn was if God had left a revelation of Himself. So I began to study religious literature. The following lesson will deal with what I learned in my studies on the world's various "bibles" and so-called "holy books." I found absolute PROOF that the Bible is the inerrant and inspired Word of God! Then I needed proof that Jesus of Nazareth really lived, that He did indeed die as the Bible teaches and that He did indeed rise from the dead! I found proof that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah! -which you will see for yourself in a future lesson! From there on I took the Bible as the true revelation from God to man and began to prove ALL doctrines from the Bible alone -not from the traditions of men such as Roman Catholicism and Protestantism or even my own personal opinions and the opinions of others. All had to be laid aside in order to prove everything by the Bible alone! And that is how God led me to His Truth, and to truly understand His Word, the Holy Bible. Are you willing to learn and OBEY the truth of God? If so, you are about to embark on the most fascinating journey of a lifetime!! Nothing is more exciting than learning revelation From the Creator God! And this truth has been locked away in the Holy Bible which MOST of the world has never read and fewer still have understood!
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Why this New Bible Course For some time I have had in mind the need to publish a special Bible Study Course which would go into a "basic truth series" showing the readers what they needed to know to please God. For example, what commandments from the Old Testament are we still required to keep today? What does the future hold? Is the rapture before or after the Great Tribulation? When will Jesus return? What must we do to thoroughly PREPARE for these major events that may occur in our own life-time? This Bible Study Course will thoroughly prepare you spiritually and doctrinally so that you will be "accounted worthy to escape" the coming Great Tribulation (Luke 21:36) and all the terrible things that the Book of Revelation predicts will occur -possibly in our own lifetime! Many Christians have erroneously ASSUMED that all they must do to prepare themselves to escape the Tribulation period is to accept Christ -become saved and converted -and then they are guaranteed protection from the coming Great Tribulation. This is a very tragic teaching that will leave MILLIONS of naive Christians UNPREPARED to escape! We must do more than become a Christian! Why do the churches not point these truths out to their congregations? You will be shown what you must do to prepare for these coming terrible times prophesied in the Book of Revelation, in order for you to be "accounted worthy to escape all these things" From the pages of your own Bible through this Bible Study Course! Seriously, this Bible Study Course you are now beginning to read and study could save your very life! And the lives of your loved ones!! If you continue to study each lesson until you have completed the entire course (approximately 35 lessons in the total series), then you will indeed fully know what you have to do to be thoroughly prepared for yourself and for your family, to ESCAPE THE HORRORS of the coming Great Tribulation! Future lessons that you will receive as a student in this Bible Study Course will deal with proving the Deity of Christ (contrary to what some churches teach, especially the cults, who actually deny the Deity of Christ); which translation is the most accurate to use; the rules for understanding the Bible and avoiding manmade interpretations (scholarly exegesis and other rules but made simple for the layman to understand); the Scripturally guaranteed way to Prosperity and financial blessings -a must read for anyone who wishes to live a life with blessings! Then there will be a lesson on the "world to come" - the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ on this Earth and what the Bible says and does not say about "Heaven." (This is one of most inspiring articles you will have ever read!!) Then we will devote one entire lesson to the coming Great Tribulation and show you what you must to prepare for it so that you can be accounted "worthy" to ESCAPE all these things (Luke 21:36). Jesus does promise protection to those who properly prepare; though this is not being taught in most of our churches, believe it or not. You will see the proof of this yourself when you read that lesson. Another lesson will be on the Biblical identity of modern nations today. Did you know for example that both RUSSIA and the UNITED STATES are mentioned in Bible prophecies?
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Would you know where to look to find them? Most would not. Yet in the last days God has promised that He would give to His true servants these revelations (Revelation 1:1). While the wicked and those who follow the traditions of men will not understand, God's true servants will understand! (Daniel 12:9-10). You certainly will not want to miss a single exciting lesson! Then there will be articles on the power in the Name of Jesus to heal the sick and perform miracles. I have seen this power exercised. In fact, in our local Bible Studies (for those of you who live in the area) eventually we will be teaching you how to properly lay hands on the sick and see them healed by the power of God (Mark 16:18). One of the signs of the last days is that there will be those who have a form of godliness (of true religion) but will deny the power thereof. The Bible commands, "From such, TURN AWAY"! (II Timothy 3:5). Yet because we are not aware that the power of God is still in operation even in our day, that miracles and healing did not "pass away with the apostles" as some denominations teach, we are afraid to "turn away" because we don't know where to turn! I have personal knowledge of people who were on their death bed and due to "the prayer of faith" arose healed and are alive today. These future lessons that are coming along will astound you! Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also"! (John 14:12). You will not only learn how be healed yourself when you need healing, but you will also learn how to pray for others and begin walking yourself in the power of God!! These articles on faith and healing are some of the most powerful and astounding, lifechanging articles you may ever read! There will be additional lessons on what the Bible really says about the soul of man, the Great White Throne Judgment and the truth about hell. Where is it? Is it real? What does the Bible say about the punishment of the unrepentant wicked? Then there will be lessons on the New Covenant, Law and Grace, the popular religious holidays (yes the Bible addresses them also!) and the Festivals God commands His people to observe which will be observed in the Millennium when Jesus returns! Toward the end, there is one very special issue dealing with the awesome PURPOSE OF LIFE! Almost no church is teaching this. Almost no church understands it! What will you be doing for all eternity? Your purpose is not simply to insure that you get "saved" today. What is your eternal destiny? What is God's purpose in making man in the first place? What did He have in mind? What is the incredible purpose God had in mind when He created mankind on planet Earth? This one lesson is so breathtaking; it will be saved to near the very end of the series. Yet it is a lesson you simply cannot miss! You need to read it! I hope every one of you reading this Lesson One will want to continue receiving future lessons. What is the catch? Believe me, it is not a "price tag" on your subscription. Jesus said, "Freely you have received, freely GIVE" (Matthew 10:8). I have never "charged" for our literature. Yet at the same time I myself don't have the money to send our publications all over the United States as I am now doing. So how are we financed? God commands His people to support the Work of the Gospel. It is not optional. It is a scriptural commandment. Those few who have voluntarily given their tithes (in payment to God)
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to this Ministry have made these free publications possible to you! That is how I am able to offer them free of charge. Of course I am not hiding the fact that they do cost money. At least one of our Bible lessons is a lengthy 16-page edition. With postage, each individual copy of that lesson costs this Ministry over TWO DOLLARS to get it into your hands. It is not inexpensive. Then of course there is the cost of radio. I know that some of our listeners are on social security or are out of work and cannot "pay" for their own subscription. Today as I write, thousands across America have been laid off from their jobs due to the present economy. It is simply wrong to charge for God's priceless truth. Everyone should be able to read it whether they can pay for it or not. That is why I am praying to God to lay it on the hearts of His true followers who still have an income, to voluntarily share their tithes and freewill offerings to help make this publication possible for those who cannot afford to donate a penny. It is not God's will that any should perish (II Peter 3:9). He wants ALL to hear his truth! I am explaining this now because I want you to understand how this Ministry is financed. Not one person who subscribes to this publication is wealthy - and certainly I am not by the world's standards. No, most of our subscribers are considered "poor" by the world's standards. However God does command us to support His Work. Now as we must be good "stewards" of God's tithes that some few of His people have given to His Work of preaching His truth via radio and our publications and never be careless with God's money to do His Work, I simply want to know if you want to continue receiving this free Bible Study Course. How sad it would be for this priceless truth of God to be going to someone's mailbox only to be thrown into the trash without being read! We don't want this publication to go where it is not wanted. That is partially the reason why a test is included with every 3rd issue or so. I want to know subscribers are really reading and studying their Bibles along with this Bible Study Course. Therefore after every 3 issues or so, you will be sent a simple test to help you in your learning of the Word of God. All you need to do is take the test and mail it back to me. It is as simple as that. (Of course you will have to pass the test!) The test is an open book test (that is, "open Bible" as well as the lessons on which you are being tested) and once you send us back the test for grading we will then send it back to you with your test score so you can keep it for future reference. A passing grade of "70" will be necessary before you will be sent any future lessons. But this is very easy to do. This way by completing a simple test, you will truly learn the truth of God and not just "read" about it and then forget it. It is important that you really learn God's truth! This accomplishes at least two things: First we know that all who complete the tests successfully are genuinely reading the lessons and studying their Bibles as God commands us to do in Second Timothy 2:15, and secondly, we know that we are not wasting the few funds God has laid on the hearts of His people to give to this Ministry so others can learn God's truths. We must be good stewards of God's finances. It is simply wrong to be wasteful. This "Prove All Things" Bible Study Course will truly teach you things that many have not even heard about in our Seminaries! That is something I can promise you! But if you choose to
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obey God and really study His Word to "prove all things!' in order to hold fast that which is proven good (I Thess. 5:21) then you will begin feeding upon the STRONG SPIRITUAL MEAT that you will not get anywhere else. Astonishing? Don't take my word for it. Find out for yourself. By the time you finish these lessons, you will know the deeper truths of God that few people in our day have discovered. Are you interested? Do you want to learn more? Do you want to truly "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Peter 3:18), or are you content to remain a "spiritual babe" - never growing up but remaining only on the "milk" that most of us get from many of our churches? Jesus reveals in Revelation 12:9 that the devil has deceived the whole world. The only way to come out of the deception -to cleanse ourselves of the pollutions of false doctrines and the false religious traditions of men is by "taking heed" to God's Word (Psalm 119:9). God's Word will wash us clean of false doctrines and deception! Jesus wants to wash, cleanse, and sanctify His church "with the washing of water by the Word" (Ephesians 5:26). By studying His Word diligently we can arrive at the truth. However there is one serious warning I have for each reader. And you must take this very seriously.
A Serious WARNING! Jesus warns us to "take heed what ye hear" (Mark 4:24), for God will hold you accountable if you know His truth and do not obey it. It is better never to known the deeper things of God, than to know them and turn from them once God has called you to the way of righteousness and has shown these truths to you (II Peter 2:21-22). You are about to begin a journey into the very Truth of God. You will learn how to "prove all things" from the Word of God so that you are never again dependent upon what men teach you where you have to take their word for it. You will learn how to truly study the Bible for yourself! If at this time you don't think you want to obey God to study His Word "to show yourself approved unto God," a workman who needs not to be ashamed, but rather feel that you would like to continue being lulled to sleep by every wind of doctrine or the traditions of men, then I don't expect to hear from you after your third lesson with the test. You simply are not ready to prepare to learn to walk in the truth of God. But if you do wish to continue then I welcome you aboard. I can promise you this: it will be one of the most fascinating journeys you will have ever embarked on in your life! The things you are about to learn are simply wonderful! And you will see them proved from your own Bible! Jesus does not want us to force His truth on anyone who does not want it or is not yet ready for it (read Matthew 7:6). God's truth is precious like pearls. It is holy. And it must only go into the homes of those who truly want to hear. Do you want to hear the truth?
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The second thing is also serious. We must be willing to OBEY the truth we hear. Jesus said, "Unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath”! (Mark 4:24-25). If you heed the truth, more truth will be given to you. If you do not, then even the truths you have been shown will be taken away by the devil before it Can take root (Mark 4:15). It is important that you begin now praying to God for understanding with the promise that you will heed those truths He shows you and that you have found proved to be true from His Word, and then obey them (See Psalm 119:33~35). The tests are easy. Please don't neglect to consistently study these lessons with your Bible each week so you will not fall behind. You are about to begin the most rewarding and fascinating journey of your life! Congratulations on God's call on your life! I hope you realize what a tremendous PRIVILEGE you have been given - to be called to learn the deeper truths of God. I hope you will accept that call. Receiving God's call on your life will you give you the greatest blessings imaginable! And may God lead and guide you into all His Truth.
What is the TRUE RELIGION? The True Religion is the very religion of Jesus Christ Himself! It was the religion that He taught and lived by. Yet most professing Christians have inherited centuries of religious traditions NOT taught by the Bible, believe it or not! The True Religion is simply the RELIGION OF THE BIBLE the Holy Word of God!
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REETINGS to all our new students of this new Bible Study Course! Now this is NONdenominational. Therefore it will not teach you about Martin Luther, John Calvin or John Wesley. Rather you will learn the simple truth of God from the pages of the Bible itself! Let me encourage you to pray to God for understanding of His Word before you even begin studying His Word. Why should you study the Bible? Most people don't. So why should you? First you need to find out what the purpose of life is. Why did God create you? What is His Grand Plan for mankind? Do you know? Do you know any denomination that teaches it? Probably not! Yet in the last days God promises that knowledge will be increased! (Daniel 12:4). As you begin to learn how to properly study the Word of God you will inevitably learn the TRUE RELIGION for the Bible contains the true Religion of your Creator!
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Let me tell you that I have been studying God's Word for more than 30 years now. I was challenged on certain doctrines that I had never heard before. So naturally I had to go to the Bible to determine if they were true. But this was new to me. I didn't know how to study the Bible then. The denomination I had attended all my life had not taught us how to study the Bible. Yet the Holy Bible is the most important Book in existence! Our churches should reverence it enough to teach their members how to properly study it and to understand it. One of the reasons that most don't is because all churches of this world have accumulated much tradition over the centuries which cannot be found in the Bible. This is the reason the Roman Catholic church in the middle ages outlawed the reading of the Holy Word of God! Imagine that! A church telling people not to read the Bible! Such is unthinkable!! Yet it happened! It is a matter of historical record! Why was the Catholic Church so intensely FEARFUL of their members reading the Holy Bible? God commands us to study His Word to show ourselves approved unto God (II Timothy 2:15). Why then did the Roman Catholic Church SIN by forbidding people to read the Bible? What many people don't know is that there have always been true Christians outside the fold of the Roman church that continually tried to witness to Catholics to show them the Scriptures -the true Religion of Jesus Christ! Naturally this made the Catholic priests angry. For when their own members asked why the Roman church taught the doctrines it did, they only had "Tradition" as their answer. So they did their best to keep God's Word out of the hands of the people so they could not prove the doctrines being taught. TODAY you can prove from the Bible every single doctrine you believe! Are you willing to compare what you believe to the Word of God? To give you a few very simple examples of what I am talking about, does the Bible teach that Christ had a halo? Does it say He wore long hair? And how do bunny rabbits and eggs have anything to do with His resurrection? Was Christ actually born on December 25th? Does the Bible give this date? Is Jesus coming back before, during, or after the Tribulation? What is the Biblical method of baptism? These are just a few very simple questions that many have asked. Yet each of these questions are answered in the Bible itself! Anytime you find yourself disagreeing with what a Bible lesson teaches, grab your own Bible and prayerfully STUDY it for yourself. Remember these lessons are intended to teach you to study the BIBLE and not just the lessons. May God bless you and lead you into His truth!
Are We Living in the LAST DAYS? THE news is the most fearful we have ever heard since World War II! Are we living in that time referred to as “the beginning of sorrows?” are we now at long last approaching that time called “the last days” when men’s hearts will fail them for fear? (Luke 21:26). We don’t know. I am not saying we are. Yet in the last days the Bible predicts that PERILOUS TIMES SHALL COME (II Timothy 3:1). We are definitely now in perilous times! No one can deny it! And it appears that it is now growing worse with each passing week!
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Right now, the major news networks have been preparing America for a possible and some say even probable, NUCLEAR ATTACK on our country from Arab terrorists! This is simply unthinkable! Truly we are living in PERILOUS TIMES! Where will it stop? No one knows. Many Christians are wondering what they should be doing at this critical time in our nation’s history. First and foremost we should be PREPARING ourselves spiritually by living a holy life before God. Even prayer for our nation will do little good if we have iniquity (sin) in our lives! (See Psalm 66:18). So we must really seriously begin STUDYING THE WORD OF GOD as never before, and then obey the Word of God more than ever. We must now get SERIOUS with our relationship with Christ! I don’t want to cry wolf as so many “prophets” have done in years past, but at the same time are we blind to what is happening around us? Make no mistake! We COULD BE LIVING AT THE END TIME!!! And you and I must do everything we can now to study the Bible and really begin OBEYING IT! Christ offers protection from all these things that shall come to pass (Luke 21:36) but it is not offered to all Christians. It is offered to those who are LIVING for Him -not the backslidden! You will see the proof of this when you read your own Bible and study these lessons. Can you really afford to be careless in the last days? Now is the time to really get into your Bible! Congratulations on your desire to truly STUDY the Word of God and really, sincerely “Prove all things”! May God richly bless you as you continue to study His Holy Word to show yourself approved unto God! Happy Studying!
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