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Dear Friends and Mission partners

I was privileged to go to Congo, Central Africa to teach primary dental care for three weeks this spring. Here is a short video of a few highlights.

My host, Dr. Luc Mulimbalimba had one of his team members take some video. So, I thought I’d combine it with some of mine with a few photos. I hope you find it interesting.

Dr. Luc directs M.H.C.D. “Mission in Health Care & Development  –  in east central Africa with its main office in Bungoma, Kenya. http://www.mhcdafrica.com/. He is also a newly elected Member of Parliament for his state. They operate one hospital in Kinshasa (Capital), two dispensaries (Luvungi and Uvira), and about 12-14 smaller health stations in the surrounding region in Central Africa, as well as a couple of radio stations. They also direct feeding programs, orphanages, seed distribution etc. In fact they are doing many things. I spoke on the radio about four or five times, teaching dental health and sharing briefly about God love and Jesus’ death on the cross for all humanity. I was told the station reaches 5 million people.

I trained five students in filling teeth (using the A.R.T. technique) and two were introduced to dental extractions. Two additional students were taught A.R.T by one of the other students. Interestingly, one of my students is a major in the Congolese army. They all seemed very motivated to help their people. It was an honor and joy for me to teach them. I was told there was just one dentist in the whole district and that dental services were, for the most part, unavailable to the average person. What a blessing this will be.

In passing:  The people of Congo have greatly suffered as a result of conflict, violence, disease, and poverty. I had one older lady who I treated who has outlived her eight children and her husband. Can you imagine? Four sons were killed all at once in the Rwandan war. She has no one to care for her in her old age. You can just see the pain in her face. I treated another lady who lost five children. “Oh God – Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. May you greatly bless these ladies and all those who have suffered so much in this country and throughout the world. I thank you for your wonderful promises in the Beatitudes to bless all those who mourn, are hungry and are poor. (Lu 6:20-21).”

I was invited by Dr. Luc to return and partner with his mission to start an official dental school in Congo.

Please pray for God’s guidance in this possibility.

Thank you,

Gerry

Which is the Gospel?

(A) “Accept Me, believe in Me and serve Me, or suffer forever in Hell – You choose” – Jesus

(B) “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”  – Paul

What does the Scripture say?

“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed (Gal. 3:8 NKJV).”

This awesome Gospel promise to bless all nations is not an isolated occurrence. It is repeated five times in Genesis alone! (12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14) The Apostle Peter repeats it too and even specifies that the blessing entails all the families of the earth including each family member!

“…every one of you…” Acts 3:25-26.

The Apostle Paul, who proclaimed the “whole” counsel of God (Acts 20:27),whom Christ sent to bear His Name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel (Acts 9:15), states the Gospel in 8 simple words.

“Scripture…preached the Gospel… saying,

“1 In   2 you   3 all   4 the    5 nations   6 shall    7 be    8 blessed.” (Gal 3:8)

Jesus Himself confirmed this reality when He said:

“I, if I am lifted up from the earth (which He was when He was lifted up on the cross, and in His resurrection) will draw (literally “drag” in the Greek) all peoples to Myself (John 12:32 NKJV).”

The Apostle John confirmed it too:

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)”

Paul also proclaimed:

“At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow… and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:10-11 NASB) “…and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3).”

Every single human being on the planet “shall be blessed!” That’s the Gospel! That’s a matter to rejoice about, even to sing about! It is truly, as God’s angel said, “good tidings of great joy which will be to all people (Lu 2:10 NKJV).”

Paul also expressed the wondrous joy of the Gospel when he wrote:

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things! (Ro. 10:15 NKJV).” Glad tidings of good things – PEACE – that’s the gospel!

All the nations shall be blessed in Abraham’s seed (Jesus). This is the only message that is truly “glad tidings” – which makes “great joy” and true “peace” possible for any of us.  I say this for two reasons:

1. If God “elects” only some persons to salvation (as some assert) and torments all others forever, then we could never experience “great joy” and true “peace” unless we were 100% sure we were one of the elect, correct? And how many of us are that sure of ourselves?  And even if we were, true peace would still evade us because of our love for the lost. If we truly loved our neighbors “as” ourselves (as Christ commands), we could never have true joy and peace unless we knew that all whom we love will be saved with us. So the only Gospel which makes “peace” possible to any “loving” Christian is the Gospel as proclaimed in Galatians 3:8 – “all shall be blessed in Christ.”

2. If one must “measure up” to a certain level of moral perfection (as “over comers”) to escape an eternal hell, only a self-righteous person (confident in his or her goodness) could attain peace.  Anyone who feels “unworthy” in any way could never find peace.  I know I lived it.

So then, the “Gospel,” to be truly “Good News” to all believers, must of necessity be the “Gospel” as God proclaimed it to Abraham. Otherwise, the (A) gospel, above, would in truth be the worse news imaginable. The thought that eternal torture awaited the vast majority of the world’s people (whom we, in Christ, love as ourselves) is the most horrific news we could ever think of. I think that if you would think deeply enough about this you would agree.

To know more about God’s unfailing love for all humanity, visit HopeBeyondHell.net.

 

Is Billy Graham a “false teacher?” Some think he is. He was 79 1/2 yrs old (May 31, 1997) at the time of this interview. He openly confessed something about God’s mercy that many found shocking and heretical, and brought condemnation on him from many quarters. One internet preacher said “Billy Graham… is the chief deceiver in the world today.” Our dear brother paid a price for his candidness, but I am so glad he unveiled his heart.

It has been said that no one in the history of the world has shared Jesus Christ with more people than Billy Graham. I have a deep respect for him. At 88 yrs of age (August 2006), Billy Graham admitted, “As time went on, I began to realize the love of God for everybody, all over the world…the love of God is absolute.” (1)

Here was the greatest Evangelist of all time admitting that while He had preached the Gospel to millions of people across the globe, he had lacked something in his understanding of God’s love. And also, as we saw in the above video, He came to believe that God was truly present and active in all the cultures of the world. Was he saying that all roads lead to Heaven? No! He was simply acknowledging that Jesus was not beyond the reach of anyone! He saw that Jesus was revealing Himself to people even before they knew His name. Is that so hard to believe? He was simply agreeing with John 1:9 that says Jesus is “the true light that lightens every man coming into the world.”

“…God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him (Acts 10:34-35).” What does it mean to be “accepted” by Him? Maybe if Billy Graham had had more time, He would have given us His take on this. I admire him for his courage to speak His heart knowing full well how many would react.

Isn’t it interesting how so many of God’s servants come to understand His unlimited love for all people only in their twilight years of life or after they have been Christians for decades? I have seen this many times. It makes perfect sense. After all, does not the Holy Spirit lead us into more and more truth over time?

So then, was Billy Graham a false teacher?* Are those who believe that God will reconcile all humanity to Himself false teachers? If you want to know what makes a teacher a “false” teacher, I highly recommend this excellent and short article by George Sarris:

http://blogs.christianpost.com/engaging-the-culture/false-teachers-false-prophets-heretics-and-wolves-8725/#more

Also, I refer you to an article I wrote some time ago:

https://deep-valley.wp1.host/heresy-and-a-call-to-unity-2/

* The purpose of quoting Billy Graham is to show that this great icon of the faith, even in his retirement was still growing in His knowledge of God’s love. It was not to say that I agree that people are automatically saved because they respond to the moral light of their conscience.  Salvation comes only through accepting Christ, who is the only way and truth and life, though this will also happen in the life beyond this world after the resurrection of all people.

(1) Ref: Meacham, Jon. Newsweek Magazine. 14 August 2006. Excerpt from interview with Billy Graham. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14204483/.

My daughter, Nicole Beauchemin, speaks from her heart about what she believes. She asked “Don’t you think when God says “depart from me I never knew you”… that he might be talking to people who were only trying to escape hell? If you just look deeper, hope for something better, you might experience the peace, joy and freedom in loving God for the right reasons!” How this lines up with John’s letter where he says, “We love Him because He first loved us (1 Jn. 4:19).”