I consider myself Philadelphian

Time to go to prayer with the Philadelphian based BBNRadio.org's Bible Broadcasting Network!

Family Altar

 

Go Eagles? Just kidding!

 

So I can turn out so Sardisean that God can’t get a spiritual blessing in there edgewise? Maybe a Calvinistic Sardisean that burns people like Michael Servetus alive for disagreeing with him!

“Jesus, Son of the Eternal God, have mercy on me." - Last words of Servetus before being burnt alive by Calvin and company.
“To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man.” - Michael Servetus... Sorry dude! You are in the midst of Sardisean times!

 

The Family Altar is a prayer program, the BBNRadio is a ministry. I have written the BBNRadio and thanked them that they are not overboard "Sardisean" and have supported them financially over $2,700 last year.

Impressionable young Christian? I would recommend a foot in the Philadelphian church age! Including teachings from John Bunyan, John Wesley! I have a web site that supports such teachings from the late and great RW Schambach (https://www.youtube.com/user/rockytopva) which is now at 2,760,563 views! As far as your bad words to me they were also given to John Wesley...

"One instance of this, of your greatness, has given me great concern. How can you, how dare you suffer yourself to be called Bishop? I shudder, I start at the very thought! Men may call me a knave or a fool, a rascal, a scoundrel, and I am content; but they shall never by my consent call me Bishop! For my sake, for God's sake, for Christ's sake put a full end to this! Let the Presbyterians do what they please, but let the Methodists know their calling better." - In a letter to Francis Asbury

Signed...

A knave, fool, rascal, scoundrel, but very much content!

 

In the begging of the 2 minute testimony below a lady describes being anointed in a RW Schambach crusade in which the anointing oil was applied liberally. She then testifies of a healing that took place.



The Philadelphian way! I am soul, mind, body, in such teachings! Every hair on my head is Philadelphian... Or I would pull it out!

 

If I did not sense reality in the experience I would probably feel the same way you do even to the point of believing all of this stuff of the devil...

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. - Ezekiel 16:49-50

1. Pride
2. Gluttony
3. Laziness
4. Uncharitable

And to make the long story short... They found nothing else better to do. They got bored with what may have been called good. This would have described me at one point of my life until I moved down to Virginia to spend a summer with my grandmother. I picked up the love of partying when I lived up north. Me and my friends would not hurt anybody, but we loved to get drunk, go bowling or something, and do a lot of laughing. I did not see anything wrong with it. One evening, while staying at Grannies, I went out with some young people and had a few. Well when I got home and thought I had successfully snuck into bed her light came on in her room. She did not say a word to me but her tears flowed down her cheek and began to flood her nightgown making for one of the most pitiful sights I do know. So... I fell in with the people and began to learn their lifestyle. The old generation of Pentecostal/Methodist Virginians would work the farms as well as other jobs. They did not have the time of day to get bored with their salvation and kept up a joy and an interest in their everyday life.

Pictured below is farmer I would work for in the hay field... Dallas would shout at work, shout in the hay field, and shout in church. He would also speak in tongues and run the aisles. He and his wife would operate a dairy farm and he would also work at the local ammunition plant. A very large soul his shouting would ring through the building. In the altar services he would kneel behind me in prayer and tears would roll off his cheek and onto my shoulders. A wonderfully large soul. Along with Dallas there were many others like him who would let the praises roll during church service. During the altar service old Evans Linkous used to weep like a baby. And if he were to look back to catch the amazed look in my eye he would weep, "The Holy Ghost! The Holy Ghost!" And point to all the souls being blessed around the altar. After I experienced these things for myself the people would make a fuss, or in the words of the Apostle Paul, glorify God in me. One day, after a beautiful autumnal week of beautiful Virginia fall and revival I lay on my bed with open door, listening to the Katydids sing their praises to God, reading Run Baby Run, with fireflies lighting up the mountain as they would fly, and heard the Spirit ask... "Put the book down" and then continue, "Where is all that hatred, strife, and bad feeling?" In which examining my eternal man there was nothing there but sheer beauty. I thought to myself... Oh my! I got exactly what those folks got!



And in the words of George Clark Rankin, "It was the third Sunday in September, 1866 (in my case much later), and those Church vows became a living principle in my heart and life. During these forty-five long years, with their alternations of sunshine and shadow, daylight and darkness, success and failure, rejoicing and weeping, fears within and fightings without, I have never ceased to thank God for that autumnal day in the long ago when my name was registered in the Lamb's Book of Life." - The Life of George Clark Rankin

Later on I would learn that Virginians were picking up their salvation here in Philadelphian ways for hundreds of years.

 

As with my old countrified granny, who had a heart as large as the great outdoors. They let me sleep on an old cot by the front door in the house pictured below. The house was very small but the way of life enormous. In the front yard down the hill was a garden from which we would eat like kings, including potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers in apple cider vinegar, sweet corn so fresh it had a crunch to it, fixed with cube steak, gravy, fresh baked bread, and banana pudding for dessert. They would work hard Mo-Fr, town on Saturday, and church every Sunday. The only thing that would break the routine was the occasional revival. They let me live with them on the condition I lived like they did. After coming home drunk that one time I was told, “Son, you can’t live like that and stay here!”

My Granny (black shoes) and a friend a long time ago... She had a very fragile heart!

 

Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. - Isaiah 50:10

Another unique teaching from the Philadelphian time was on Sanctification. To receive sanctification was to have received it with light. If the character was not there they would tell you to come back tomorrow night, and smile a little as they said it. So the experiences, or Methods, were three....

1. Salvation - A sinners prayer
2. Sanctification - With a Christ-like character
3. Witness of the Spirit - Whatever gift may follow

I believe this excludes names like Martin Luther and John Calvin, who could be just a ruthless as the Catholics before them. Or with Sardisean nature. I also believe this excludes the modern day Charismatic as sanctification is not taught these days. Salvation can be attained within the day. Sanctification may be acquired within the day, but with some it is a lifetime, and with others not at all. Our old pastor used to have to deal with unsanctified souls, usually within a congregation to make trouble. I also believe some Baptist as sanctified which was normally picked up in Christian retreats or Freewill-Baptist type footwashings.

@robycop3.... WIth some of the names you mentioned I cannot believe that some of those names were ever sanctified and I have not encouraged them. I believe also the difference between the Sardisean and the Philadelphian is that the Sardisean does not believe in backsliding but the Philadelphian practices it! I believe that the best of the Methodist church was with the Civil War generation and the best of the Pentecostal Holiness with the old WW2 generation. With the departure of the old WW2 generation I cannot discern much left of the old Philadelphian candlestick! RW Schambach, who served in WW2, would teach "saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost" and I support his teachings.

Some Methodist church districts are currently being led by female bishops and the results are disastrous... The Asbury United Methodist church is located in Wythe County, VA and I believe the setting of the old Cripple Creek Camp Meeting....The Life of George Clark Rankin

I follow them on Facebook, have listened in online, and have visited the church. A recent Facebook post went like this (in which if you read the comments I gave my two cents worth)...

As many of you may have already heard, our congregation was evicted from our Church grounds by a representative of the UMC yesterday for attempting to have a Drive In Worship Service and were threatened to be removed from the property by law enforcement if need be. We have not had a working relationship with the UMC for some time over Biblical Authority and were in the process of ending our relationship with the UMC. That relationship is now over. We will be Worshipping elsewhere. An announcement will be made soon about location. We ask that you pray for our congregation during this time. God is still moving in our midst and doing mighty things.

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