From: Dozie
To: The Path of Truth
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2014 6:11 AM
Subject: About L. Ray Smith
Hello. I just started reading articles on your website. I came across the “False Teachers” page and I saw L. Ray Smith on the list of false teachers. But upon reading on what was written about him, it seemed the problem wasn’t what he taught per se but his perceived attitude. I want to ask, is there actually any of his teachings that you think is in error? I ask because I have read many of his articles and his teaching seems to be accurate. But I understand that it takes God’s revelation to know what is truth or false, so your input would be much appreciated. Thanks.
From: Paul Cohen
To: Dozie
Cc: Victor Hafichuk
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2014 8:09 AM
Subject: Re: About L. Ray Smith
Hi Dozie,
If you carefully read over our correspondence with Ray you’ll find several examples of teachings that were in error, such as denying that we can be saved in this life, overcoming and entering into the peace and victory of the Lord Jesus Christ here and now. That’s a biggee, isn’t it?
Ray also taught that Christ had abolished the weekly day of rest, the seventh-day Sabbath, as part of the “Old Covenant Law” that no longer applies to us. What kind of teacher steals from men what God has given us for our good?
“Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:19 KJV).
However, Ray did say a lot of true things. Nevertheless, he never knew the Lord. Ray wasn’t a man of God. And the purpose of being taught by a man of God is so you that will know the Lord. False teachers preach doctrine from themselves, which, even if true, doesn’t bring salvation but only the knowledge of man. True teachers preach Christ, the knowledge of the One Who saves you:
“For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5 KJV).
Yes, Dozie, we speak these things by revelation, and only by the faith of God can you know that to be so. Blessed are you if you do know, but understand that you’ll also be held responsible to walk in whatever God gives you. Otherwise, you will come under harsher judgment:
Luke 12:47-49 MKJV
(47) And that servant who knew his lord’s will and did not prepare, nor did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
(48) But he not knowing, and doing things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For to whomever much is given, of him much shall be required. And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
(49) I have come to send fire on the earth. And what will I do if it is already kindled?
It sounds like your heart is headed in the right direction. God grant grace.
Paul
From: Dozie
To: Paul Cohen
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2014 8:30 PM
Subject: Need some clarification
Hi Paul. Thank you very much for your response. I appreciate what you are doing on your website by God’s grace. I do have a few things, though, that I’d appreciate if they could be cleared up.
1. What does it actually mean to be saved? You mentioned “overcoming and entering into the peace and victory of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Could you explain what that means?
The Scriptures do seem to talk about salvation as an ongoing process in the lives of believers. For example, 1Cor. 1:18 says:
“For the word of the cross is stupidity, indeed, to those who are perishing, yet to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
The Scriptures also talk about salvation as something to expect. For example, 1Thess. 5:8 says:
“Yet we, being of the day, may be sober, putting on the cuirass of faith and love, and the helmet, the expectation of salvation…”
Or in Heb. 9:28 which says:
“…thus Christ also, being offered once for the bearing of the sins of many, will be seen a second time, by those awaiting Him, apart from sin, for salvation, through faith.”
Or in 1Pet. 1:3-5 which says:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, according to His vast mercy, regenerates us into a living expectation, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead, for the enjoyment of an allotment incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you, who are garrisoned by the power of God, through faith, for salvation ready to be revealed in the last era…”
But as to when the salvation process will be completed, or when salvation will be received or revealed, I don’t know what the Scriptures say about that. Ray taught that salvation is a process which begins when one believes, and it continues as the believer is being conformed to the image of Christ by the power of His Spirit, and the process is completed or consummated when one has come into the image of Christ. That last part, I’m not completely convinced myself what it actually means or when it comes to pass, but Ray taught that is when we shall be changed, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, receiving spiritual, incorruptible, celestial bodies, and immortality, as the Apostle Paul teaches in 1Cor. 15. Ray also added 1John 3:2 which says:
“Beloved, now are we children of God, and it was not as yet manifested what we shall be. We are aware that, if He should be manifested, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him according as He is.”
I’d appreciate some clarification on all that.
2. I’ve always wondered what it means to keep the Sabbath day holy, as written in the Ten Commandments. We are also told not to work on the Sabbath day. What does that really mean? The Jews during the Lord Jesus’ time on earth seemed to understand that commandment very literally, and in their eyes our Lord broke the Sabbath day commandment. Obviously, the Jews’ understanding of the commandment was flawed as our Lord never sinned. So, what does the Lord teach concerning this commandment? Does He reveal what it really means to keep that commandment, as He does with the adultery commandment?
3. You also mentioned that Ray never knew the Lord. He never knew the Lord, ever? At all? As you admitted, he did teach a lot of true things. These are things that vehemently contradict Orthodoxy; things that are difficult not to believe came by divine revelation. It’s hard to believe he came about all that understanding on his own. I always believed that no one person can have all the right teaching or know it all. Some things one understands correctly, some things one misunderstands. All knowledge comes from God and I believe it is His desire to teach us all, but I also believe the acquisition of His knowledge is a process, and that process is in His control. Even the Apostle Paul himself said in 1Cor. 13:9:
“For out of an instalment are we knowing, and out of an instalment are we prophesying. Now whenever maturity may be coming, that which is out of an instalment shall be discarded. When I was a minor, I spoke as a minor, I was disposed as a minor, I took account of things as a minor. Yet when I have become a man, I have discarded that which is a minor’s. For at present we are observing by means of a mirror, in an enigma, yet then, face to face. At present I know out of an instalment, yet then I shall recognize according as I am recognized also.”
I’d appreciate what you have to say about all this. Thank you.
Dozie
From: Paul Cohen and Victor Hafichuk
To: Dozie
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2014 10:25 PM
Subject: Re: Need some clarification
Dozie, in answer to your numbered questions:
1) Regarding salvation, read How One Is Saved and The Cross – Only the Death Sentence Will Avail.
You’re right, and you bring up good Scriptures, of which kind there are so many more – one was saved (if taking up one’s cross of Christ in repentance), is saved, is being saved, and will be saved. Salvation has a beginning, and is a continuous reality until the process is completed and we attain to the fulness of stature in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Many err, thinking they have complete salvation when making a profession of faith in Christ. They assume there’s nothing more required of them, but “to grow.” But this growth doesn’t happen on its own, without God’s work and implanted faith, just as a plant doesn’t grow without a seed first planted.
2) Regarding the Sabbath, select and read the appropriate writings from our section on The Sabbath.
3) Regarding Ray Smith, no, he has never known the Lord. You’re confusing knowledge of doctrine with Knowledge of God. The two aren’t the same. The Knowledge of God is when we know Him, because He knows us, which comes by taking up the cross and walking with Him. We become His friend and intimate, doing His thing instead of our own, unlike these the Lord spoke of:
“On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and do many mighty works in Your Name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:22-23 ESV).
The Lord didn’t know these who had done mighty works in His Name. We’re not aware that Ray had cast out devils or prophesied. And so what if he had knowledge not common to nominal Christianity?
“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2 ESV).
Which is the crux of the matter for Ray – he didn’t love God:
“And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he has come to know nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one has been known by Him” (1 Corinthians 8:2-3 EMTV).
By the way, Ray is by no means the only one in this day who has much good doctrine, yet doesn’t know the Lord. As a Scriptural example, consider the Pharisees who were apparently solid and sociable citizens (unlike the stereotype), highly devoted, gave alms, tithed, prayed, fasted, kept the laws and solemn feasts of God, made sacrifices, attended synagogues and temple regularly and spent much time in the Scriptures, knowing them well; they believed in the resurrection and the spirit world; they gave public testimony, preached at home and abroad and reached out to the “lost.”
An example of those Pharisees was Nicodemus:
“Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things?” (John 3:10 MKJV)
In all his study and education, Nicodemus didn’t have a clue about the Kingdom of God. Not that he remained that way – we later read that Nicodemus became Jesus’ disciple. God gave him the gift of faith from above to deliver him from confidence in man’s knowledge and faith. The same happened with Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee. In certain respects, Ray was a Pharisee – very knowledgeable, relatively speaking, with much good doctrinal understanding, yet he fell short of the glory of God. The Lord didn’t know him, and he perished.
You also don’t love or know the Lord, Dozie. That’s why you think “no one person can have all the right teaching or know it all,” which notion contradicts and withstands the testimony and power of the Scriptures. You’re walking in the knowledge of your carnal mind, which is death, not life:
Romans 8:5-8 MKJV
(5) For they who are according to the flesh mind the things of flesh, but they who are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
(6) For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace
(7) because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can it be.
(8) So then they who are in the flesh cannot please God.
1 Corinthians 2:14-16 MKJV
(14) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
(15) But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no one.
(16) For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
One Person does have all the truth and right teaching, and we are joined to Him by His faith (not doctrine – not even if true doctrine).
“But the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true and no lie, and as He has taught you, abide in Him” (1 John 2:27 MKJV).
Are you prepared to give up what you think is a golden treasure, to obtain the Pearl of Great Price?
Paul and Victor
From: Dozie
To: Paul Cohen
Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2014 11:13 PM
Subject: Response
Hi Paul. Thanks again for your response.
You know, not too long ago I would have been eager to argue some of the points you made, especially the point you made about my not knowing or loving God… But you are right. I do not know God, and I do not love Him. If I did, I wouldn’t be living the kind of life I’m currently living. I wouldn’t still be struggling with sin and living in defeat. I wouldn’t still desire the praise of men. I wouldn’t still love the world. I wouldn’t still be selfish and self-centered. I wouldn’t still be the sort of person I currently am.
But I do want to know the Lord. I’m tired of knowing mere doctrine. Doctrine does not give life. I know this first hand. If doctrine gave life, I’d have life. But I don’t. I need life. I need the Lord.
But it’s up to Him, right? It’s His life after all. He gets to decide to whom and when and how He imparts His life. When and how will He impart His life to me?
I keep wondering what God’s plan is for me specifically. I have this feeling that He has something in store for me. But what, or when, I don’t know.
Maybe you’re the vessel God wants to use to deliver me? I don’t know. Pray for me. Inquire of the Lord concerning me. It’d be great to hear what He has to say about me.
Much appreciated.
Dozie
From: Paul Cohen
To: Dozie
Cc: Victor Hafichuk
Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2014 7:55 AM
Subject: Re: Response
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26 MKJV).
Hi Dozie,
It sounds like something is changing for the better there, but you need to go further and take full responsibility for your actions.
You say you want to know the Lord and are tired of “knowing mere doctrine.” Ray Smith had lots of good doctrine; he knew about the reconciliation of all things, for example, yet his sin still destroyed him. The same thing is happening to you. Unlike Ray, however, you’re admitting you’re in sin and need the Lord. That’s a starting place with possibility of better things, if you’re prepared to hear, believe, and obey Him.
You ask:
“But it’s up to Him, right? It’s His life after all. He gets to decide to whom and when and how He imparts His life. When and how will He impart His life to me?”
Yes, everything is up to Him – He is Lord, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do. When the Lord came preaching and said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” He didn’t make exemptions for anyone or discourage His hearers by telling them it wasn’t possible to confess and repent of their sins. The grace of God was there for all – “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15 MKJV).
Are you reading the writings we’ve given you? Read Confession of Sin and Repentance, and let us know you’ve red them (along with Obedience). If you’re serious about getting right with God, you will receive instruction there on what to do. This is what He has to say to you.
Paul