Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ)

Many questions are answer within certain pages in my different books. In making reference to which book and page I have assigned numbers to the books as follows:

It’s Time --------------------------------------- Book 1
The Vicious Circle ----------------------------- Book 2
What’s This World All About Anyway? ------- Book 3
A Reality Check??…Or What?? --------------- Book 4
Are We Sure We Know God? ----------------- Book 5

1. OK, what really - is this world about?
First off we need to understand that sin / rebellion began in Heaven with Lucifer, not with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Because our Creator made us with free-will choice and a mind to think for ourselves, our forefathers beginning with Lucifer, made the first wrong choices – of which the results ran down hill to us by way of Adam and Eve. But through it all, God knew what He was doing from the beginning. He knew what it would take to forever secure the universe from evil.

It’s called experiencing the results so as to forever turn us away from it – which has come to be known as the GREAT CONTROVERSY between God’s ways opposed to Lucifer’s ways. Yes it all began in Heaven with Lucifer, but the results are being played out here on earth - so much so that we children will never want to go there again. Remember that God will never take away our free will choice. So our state of mind must be so settled on God’s ways that we can not be moved because His ways have become a part of us.

This whole scene is best described in chapter 4 & 5 of Book 3 Along with 1 Cor. 4: 9 which describes this world as the theater of the universe.

2. Why are there so many religions?
The many different religions are a result of our free will choice. This demonstrates the same format within the mind of Lucifer when he was in Heaven. Something like, ‘my kid is better than your kid’ or my way is better than yours is. This is God’s way of revealing ourselves to ourselves by how we treat one another all in the name of religion. Which by the way, isn’t always very good.

This also has been Satan’s way of keeping us so busy trying to figure out how to please God in order to be saved. And to play that concept out, he also has all the religions of the world arguing over which one of us has the so-call truth. This is so designed as to keep our mind off of the kind of person God is. It’s like a room full of attorneys arguing over what it takes to gain forgiveness when that is not even the issue, because forgiveness from God has always been there, we have only to accept it.

And one more thing, we must remember that God is in ultimate control. Simply keep in mind that what’s being described is another part of God’s over all training in having us see what it means to love our neighbor as our selves.

Maybe some day we will figure out that the religion next door is our neighbor that God said to love as our self. (Love is always kind, never boastful or proud, never arrogant or rude, and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong.)

3. Do you believe that Jesus came to die for us on the cross?
Yes, Christ surely did come and He did die for us. But the question is what does that mean, what was really accomplished? Him coming to die fits in the concept that God is an all-knowing God, the alpha and the omega, He knew what it was going to take to really turn our minds away from evil. The comment that He died for us is normally interpreted as Christ taking our place in the death that we deserved. But what if we could view this as a scene on stage before the whole on looking universe as Christ demonstrating for us the results of our rebellious actions of killing the Creator of the universe? We, you and I, nail Christ to the cross when we rebel against His ways. Its design is to cause us (on earth) to feel the sting of death so as to forever want to turn away from evil. As for the rest of the universe, (unfallen worlds and the sinless heavenly angels) they had to witness how far Satan would go in trying to take over the Kingship of the universe.

4. Do you believe that God don’t kill?
That is a very good and also a very touchy question. Many will say that God surely has killed and will again. Some will say that God is angry with us for breaking the rules and we had better shape up and fly right or God will burn us in Hell. They will also say that God destroyed the wicked when they got to the place of being so bad that there was simply no hope for them – that in order to keep them from destroying the earth or contaminating everything or everyone, He had to destroy them. This is their reasoning for God causing the flood in Noah’s time which left only him and his family.

Others will say that God will not break His own rules of ‘thou shall not kill.’ They will say that the lord of this world / Satan did all the killing.

My thoughts on the above are to classify those concepts within the ‘legal camp’ view of God’s requirements. As for my understanding and view, the Great Controversy view, God has surely killed, but the question and issue is, for what reason? Along with that we also need to understand that God is the Creator of life its self, He can take it and He can give it back. After all there are many Bible stories of Jesus raising the dead. So if we could see God demonstrating what happens when force, might, and power are used in trying to change the heart and mind of humankind, just maybe we could understand God’s reasoning.

Let’s say that you have a very large family and some chose to rebel against your ways of family government – what would you do? Especially when you loved them and knew that their way of thinking would eventually, cause their own death. Did you get that? I said they would be causing their own death by ingesting poison. But Satan has painted the picture of God killing them for breaking the rules.

First off, we must remember that rebellion began in Heaven within the control center of the universe, not with Adam and Eve. Within this concept, God had to reveal that simply exterminating rebellion would not eliminate it. Stamping out sin / evil will not destroy it. Rebellion / evil comes from within the mind, our thinking. So God is out to change His children’s thinking – how would you go about doing that?

Within the Great Controversy View, God revealed that wiping out the entire world with a flood, more might and power than anything ever displayed, did not change a thing, because it wasn’t long and wickedness and evil was right back as bad as ever. Another one is that God said in early times, that if anyone was to knock your teeth or eyes out you were to do the same back to him or her. But when Jesus came, He said to turn the other cheek. The point being did knocking out the tooth and the eye of any one, improve anything? Again, demonstrating or giving evidence to the fact that might and power will not work in the changing of any ones mind.
God is seeking our intelligent service – pleading with us to see that His ways are right. To do right from a motive of obligation and fear is not doing right. That type of obedience can be achieved from a well-trained dog. God would prefer that we do right because it is right.
To simply answer the question if God kills or not, yes, God is responsible even if He has allowed it. We can try and lessen the fact with all kinds of theories, but wouldn’t it make more sense to give it straight talk?

Straight talk: God gives life as well as taking it. And since He is the Creator of the universe He can surely give it back. The bottom line purpose is for us to understand the WHY of this world. As 1 Corinthians 4:9 points out – “This world is the theater of the universe.” In other words, we are the lesson books before the on looking universe.

This world is the solution in solving the rebellion problem by producing the evidence that might and power will not work in the repentance of humankind. So what really changes the mind of humankind? Romans 2:4 – “Didn’t you know that only the kindness of God leads to repentance?”

5. How does the blood of Jesus save us?
This is one of my favorite questions and I know in many cases that one would say that He died to take my place in the death I deserved. I would never want to downplay that concept with those of you that hold that precious. But how about asking questions about how that works – how does the blood of Christ save us?

I’ve had people say that that’s just the way it is we simply need to believe it and we can be saved. While in any other walk of life we demand to have scientific evidence or at least common sense answers to how things work. But when it comes to spiritual things we seem to throw all that out the window.

But somewhere along the way I was taught that we need to be able to explain the hope that is within us beyond the memorized clichés.

Within the Great Controversy view of this world being the solution in revealing to the whole on looking universe the results of rebellion – there has to be more to Christ’s death on the cross than is being told. I see it as God’s plan to secure the universe from rebellion (sin) for eternity. Meaning that all of us, God’s children, are sealed in our minds within our free will choice, that God’s ways are right and true.

Act 16: 31 – Trusting God is what really saves us. Of course, realizing that WE are the responsible party in causing the death of Christ is part of the process of changing us and bringing us to the necessary level of trust.

This is a natural process from realizing that Christ put himself in harms way from us so that we could have an awakening as to the seriousness of death. The purpose of Christ sacrifice was for us to feel the sting of death from us causing it – we are the one’s driving the nails in His hands when we rebel against his ways.

6. Where did you get the idea that God has a management team?
I know some individuals are very concerned that I’m leading people astray by presenting the concept that God has a management team. They say it’s not biblical, and if I’m going to use the concept that it should be presented as a fictitious story.

My defense against this concern is stating that the Bible needs to be read as a whole where the truths about God and His ways come through within the stories. It’s as if one where searching for hidden treasure.

A few years back, this concept simply jumped out at me as I realized how God was working in bringing us back to trust in His ways. It came to me as I looked back on an experience I had within my own manufacturing company. Many of us business owners like to consider our employees as one big family, but as within most large families there are always family problems that need to be addressed. So in my family of workers the department leaders became, what we called, the management team.

And the experience that came to me was in a meeting we were having about a problem employee. One of the team members said, “I think we should just fire his…” But another team member spoke up saying, “Wait a minute, he’s one of my best workers, can’t we have a heart to heart talk with him?”

You see, within this type of setting the family members feel more a part of the family when even they are allowed some in-put. And of course, the father of any family is far more fulfilled when he sees his children working together for the good of all. And one more very important point; within this ‘family’ setting we see the father not as a dictator, but one that listens to his children with loving wisdom. Wisdom that comes through loud and clear about how he is going about wining us back to seeing that His ways are best. Because within our free will the only thing that will secure the universe for eternity is that we see God’s ways as right to the point of His ways becoming our ways. It’s sometimes called being AT – ONE with the ways of God.

I guess one basic question needs to be addressed at this point and that is – Are we trying to win back God’s favor in order to gain forgiveness or is God trying to win us back to His ways of rightness?

And one more – When was the prodigal son forgiven, when he came home or before he left home?

***The management team concept may seem far out for many, especially when only the book of this world’s history has been opened. But another view is likely to emerge when we open the history book of the entire universe. Of course, I’m referring to the fact that rebellion began in Heaven with Lucifer, not on this earth with Adam and Eve. (See more depth within question 1)
The evidence for this concept is outstanding when the Bible stories (Isaiah 14 & Rev. 12:7) of Lucifer, God’s leading angel, wanting to become the Most High is brought into the picture. More evidence seems to emerge when we consider Gabriel taking Lucifer’s place after his fall, as he was recorded going on certain missions. (Dan. 8:16 – Luke 1:19 & 26)

Of course, these things don’t necessarily suggest a full-blown management team; it’s only a small part of the picture. But as said before, when the Bible is put together as a whole with the central theme being about God’s character within the ‘Great Controversy’ - more of the picture begins to come into view.

When we focus on this controversy beginning in Heaven, it’s not hard to see the Father moving forward with a plan in how to win back the allegiance of His children. This is described in Romans 3: 4 as God putting himself on trial before the on-looking universe. It’s sort of like any of us having a large family with many internal problems, what makes the most sense on how to solve the problems – or what do you think would be the most effective way for securing the universe against evil for eternity?

Do you really think God is simply going to wave a magic wand at the end of time to wipe out sin? If that were the case, shame on God for not doing that in the beginning. No, it doesn’t work that way, for you see to wipe out sin or to exterminate rebellion will not eliminate it. The best example of this is to notice that wiping out the entire inhabitance of the earth with a flood didn’t solve a thing. Again, simply notice that not long after, the world was as wicked as ever. No, instead, within a free will choice – that God will never take away – we have to stub our own toe enough to never go there again, we must be so settled on God’s ways that we can not be moved?

Genesis 6 describes a picture of God being grieved that He made man, but when we put God in the place of being all knowing – do you really think He didn’t know what was going to happen? We need to understand that God is all-wise on how to change the minds of His children.
If you were God and you knew that your heavenly host of sinless angels hadn’t been convinced that your ways were totally right yet, what would you do? Wouldn’t it make sense to go along with their complains, even side with them, saying, “yes, I’m sorry I ever made them? Then go ahead in allowing them their in-put in solving the rebellion problem? We must understand that a good teacher, of which God surely is, does not do the students work for them. A good teacher (our God) assembles a certain set of problems (this world) that He knows will educate His students. Of course, not all students like the problems that their teacher puts them through, but later on in life, why are they praising their teacher for being wise enough not to listen to their complains?

The legal view is based totally on Christ doing everything for us – that the Father’s demands for perfection is handled by Christ being perfect for us. But I must ask how will that secure heaven against evil for eternity when the teacher has done everything for the students? Doesn’t this suggest that there is more to learn about why Christ came to die? Or do we think we have enough oil in our lamps? Remember the Bible story of the ten virgins? Five dug deep for more light (oil) while the other five thought they already had plenty.

I guess I could go on and on with the content of my books and CD’s in explaining where the Heavenly Council or Management Team concept came from, but why not just go there and see it first hand? And as for that matter, why get hung up on one limb of the tree when the whole trunk of the tree is all about the kind of person God is.

7. Does our salvation come through a legal method or a political platform?
What if I was to say that it didn’t make any difference? What we need to understand is that God meets us where we are. But most of all, God is in the business of training us children to be alert to recognize these differences as part of our learning.

Now most of us have heard that we will be learning more about God’s ways throughout eternity. In taking 1 Cor. 4:9 literally (this world as the theater of the universe) can you imagine the heavenly learning center as many places to view the actual cause and effects of this worlds history?

I mean the effects of all the different religions of the world where wars over all their differences have been fought for centuries. Imagine viewing the insignificance of their arguments over how salvation is achieved. Especially, when we come to realize that God will save all that trust Him, trusts in His ways.

Many of us have been exposed to very severe family feuds that have extended over many years, when it comes to the end with tears and hugs they can’t even remember what it was about.

The point being, that God must allow our ideas to run its course. He’s allowing Satan to be the lord of this world long enough for us to see the results of his way of government.

We simply need to realize that the GREAT CONTROVERSY is over God’s character and not over how we are saved. The legal view of salvation demonstrates the mass confusion caused when we put our attention on ourselves to achieve the requirements of gaining forgiveness. All the different religions that are into the legal view are likened to a room full of attorneys arguing over the details.

I see God saying, “OK my children, its time you moved on, you’ve camped around this mountain long enough. It’s time that you all come together with tears and hugs to realize that you love one another because I have first loved you. Remember I said you must love your neighbor as yourself?”

It might be well to realize that since we are at the end time, God wants us to put our attention on the main reason Jesus came. Remember God had to allow us to see the difference by having the arguments run their course. But through it all, like I said, it’s now time to recognize the meaning of John 17. Jesus said he had completed the work he was given to do - that of revealing God the Father to the ones he was given out of this world. Jesus was simply saying that God the Father loves you the same as He does. Awesome! Wouldn’t you say?

Of course, this suggests a political platform of a belief system that is all about the kind of person God is. It’s simply the last day message for a dying world that follows the bidding of Matt. 24:14. “When the good news about the government of God is taken to the world, then the end will come.”

The answer to the question in short is to simply understand that God meets us where we are, He knows our hearts and will save ALL that trusts in His ways.

8. Do I have to believe your concept about spiritual things in order to be saved?
Absolutely not, or any other set of beliefs for that matter. The main thing to understand is that God will save all that trust Him. Most Bibles list Acts 16:31 as saying, ‘believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.’ In our modern day meaning of words it would be better to use the word ‘trust’ instead of ‘believe.’ Because the word ‘believe’ has come to mean or can mean a leap in the dark, a bridge that one can take over having no evidence. Many a spiritual person will tell you to simply believe that Jesus has done it all for you so stop the worrying and just believe it.
I will have to say that is OK, for it is a stage of growth. God will meet each one of us where we are, but we do have the privilege to grow beyond that into the place of taking on solid food. This is where we can enter into the joy of understanding God in a broader way.

I believe God is about ready to enter the grand finally, the last teaching session (the 12th grade, so to speak) for the entire universe. The junior year session, quickly coming to an end, could be the timing for most all religions to realize the results of their exclusivity within their groups. Meaning that my kid is better than your kid is. It’s time to come away from arguing over who has the right key to Heaven and also who gets to set on the right hand of Christ in the New Kingdom. It’s time to realize that the other religion on the other side of the fence is really the neighbor that God was talking about that we are to love.

It’s also time to realize that the mission Christ came to do (John 17) is the same mission we should be focusing on. The people outside of all the different groups (the people on the street) need to hear the message that Jesus came to give. It’s the PEARL of great value – which is that God the Father is just like Jesus. (John 14: 8,9) That would mean that God the Father is just as loving and forgiving as Jesus is.

Since we are at the end of time it would be well if we could realize that we have an end time job to do, and it’s not to be arguing over who gets to set on the right hand of God in the New Kingdom. Instead, It’s about the character of God.

9. Why didn’t God answer my prayers?
A most fair question for those that have experienced being the victim of monstrous evil. Stories as coming from a women in her late thirties, saying, “How dare you tell me that God loves me when night after night I prayed for His protection from my own preacher father that for years was raping me night after night. The only protection I got was when I was fourteen, I ran away, never to look back.”

What a horrendous situation, truly a most legitimate question. How could we ever make God look good in this setting? I know I could be risking more anger from victims of such evil that don’t understand the full setting, but the answer simply explodes within my mind.

Can you imagine the Creator of the universe having such problems with the behavior of His children because He gave us free will choice? What’s he to do, how is he ever going to solve the problem? I mean seriously, how is God going to fix it?

Of course, we could say if God loved us he would stop all the bad things that are happening. But would that really eliminate evil within our free will choice. Yes, God could kill everyone that breathed evil, but stamping it out does not eliminate it. The truth of that is revealed within all the horror stories in the Bible. To wipe out the entire world with the flood didn’t change anything because history proves that it wasn’t long and the world was as evil as before.
It’s unfortunate that it has to be this way, but we are talking about our free will choice and the only way the universe is going to be free of evil is for us to be sick to the core over it. This is the only way that God can put enmity (hostility) within us against evil. This is an example like no other of what tough love is all about. We simply need to understand that God has tears streaming down his cheeks over having to put us through the results of evil.

Yes, I’m sure God would like to take the bumps out of our journey but we all know we wouldn’t learn the real reason for avoiding evil. It’s something like the stories that most of us have heard where a young person over many years had built a very successful business. Of course, it came through blood, sweat, and tears but they didn’t wanted to see their off spring have to go through what they did in order to be successful.

Unfortunately this is a very typical story - after the parent had past away, the children, of course, inherit the very profitable business. And in many, many cases how long do you suppose it took for the spoiled children to destroy it?

I’m not sure this helps, but we could think about how privileged we are to be a part of God’s solution in solving the problem of evil for eternity.

10. Why are churches in denial of one another?
When anyone of us is raised from childhood to believe certain things like:

• We alone have the truth those other religions believe in fairytales and are going to Hell if they don’t come to our side.
• God will only accept us when we believe certain things.
• We must meet certain levels of behavior before God will accept us.
• Our common sense and reason are flawed - only go by what the Bible says.
• Don’t look to the right of left, but leave the driving to the pastor or the church.

This is really Satan’s diversions in keeping us preoccupied with our own behavior based on fear to the point that we won’t have time to study God’s ways. Satan would have us dwelling on our own competitive spirit that says, ‘my kid is better than your kid’ – or that my way to Heaven is better than yours.

I know that many don’t like my concept of God allowing evil to run its course, but we must keep in mind that God really is in ultimate control. And this is simply God’s way of teaching us – wising us up to the diversion of Satan. Because Satan is there saying, “you want to be spiritual, I’ll give you all you want – in fact, I will rub your nose in it.

So off we go with every idea under the sun of how to win favor back with God. Again, saying that God requires this or that in order to be saved and I have the best set of rules. When in reality God is revealing to us ourselves in how we treat the other religion on the other side of the fence. Maybe some day we will realize that our neighbor on the other side of the fence is the one that God said we needed to love as ourselves.

There’s nothing harder than the human scull when it comes to changing our path of thinking. And we will believe what we believe out of fear of danger taught to us from childhood. But believing anything for many years doesn’t make it so. Believing in something because a person you respect says it’s so doesn’t make it so. If we can get past our fears, real truth will appeal to our common sense and reason when enough volume of evidence is revealed.

When presented with a tough question, the normal path of resistance is to change the subject as quick as possible, get angry and leave, or say that’s just the way it is. In other words, this type of behavior can be classified as denial.

One other thing, churches in general, especially denominational churches, and or the pastors that are in charge, will not allow any form of questioning to their belief system for fear of loosing a large portion of their membership, or fear of losing their job with the organization.

The bottom line within the question is that God is allowing this behavior in order that we might see ourselves in the act of condemning our neighbor on the other side of the fence. Our challenge should be in learning how to communicate with our neighbor in revealing a God that no one can dispute.

11. Why do most spiritual people say we are not to use our common sense and reason?
This is one to surely sympathize with because many an intelligent person has done despicable things that you would think they should have known better. You would think that their common sense and reason should have kicked in to stop the inappropriate act. And on we could go with our gut feelings about making decisions without proper evidence or the use of good common sense that simply didn’t end with good results.

I believe this is where common sense and reason takes a bad rap because we have applied it to misjudgments or decisions made within our emotions. So it’s now easy to come away saying, ‘see, their reasoning was flawed.’

But what we need to understand is that God’s ways are very reasonable and it’s Satan’s game to make sure that we don’t use our common sense and reason in making decisions about what God is like. I might add that we should know the difference between conscience driven common sense and reason and common sense and reason without no conscience at all.

An evil person might be reasoning within himself or herself for the best way to steal something, but when we take that setting and put it along side of thinking through decisions about spiritual things, we have simply fell into Satan’s trap.

What I’m suggesting is that it’s Satan’s game to set the stage for us not to think or reason with ourselves. Because it makes no sense that a loving God would require a blood sacrifice before forgiveness is granted – he had to make it seem as though it doesn’t have to make sense – because God’s ways are far above our ways. Just believe it.

I heard a statement that Hitler made to his Nazi Germany leaders ‘that they were blessed to have a nation of people that didn’t think.’ The point being, when Satan knows that his ways make no sense – he must go the great lengths to make it seem OK to kill masses of people all in the name of God’s will.

I’m simply trying to point out that it is very dangerous to take non-sense into our thinking and say it don’t have to make sense because it’s spiritual.

I once heard a sermon where the pastor made the statement that it made no sense that Christ took our place in death so we could be set free. He said it made no sense what so ever, but never the less, that’s the way it is, just believe it. Therefore wiping out common sense and reason.