IS PETER "THE ROCK?

"

In order to rightly divide the holy scriptures, we need to

realize that the bible translators were not very
careful with their use of personal pronouns. In
other words, we have to search each verse to see
who "this" and "it", "he, she, they and them" refer
to. Peter was definitely "the stone" upon which the
first church was erected and later on, the organized
church, Catholicism was established. Peter was a
pivotal Apostle, no one with any spiritual insight will
deny.

However, Peter is not the Rock that Jesus referred

to upon whom Jesus built His church. When you
look at the scripture more closely, you will see that
the "rock" is not Peter but it is "what Peter said."
In other words, Jesus Christ built His Church upon
the fact that "He is the Christ, the Son of the Living
God"---and not upon Peter. In fact, Paul kind of
"took over" with the gentiles and Peter was more
significant with the Jewish believers. The "church
age" and the "age of the gentiles" are synonymous,
and clearly, the most significant leader of the early
church age is Paul, hands down!

Only one human being is "the Rock." That one is

The Fake Jesus was already written
"the Christ," who is also the Son of the Living God,
when I met La Tonya Holloway in
as Peter was inspired by the Father to declare. So it 2009.
is upon "Himself" that Jesus Christ has built His
church. In her review of the book,
she centers her comments
Consequently, we must also define "the church" to within her personal testimony,
see what the Lord meant when He declared that which has some similarities to

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"the gates of hell shall not prevail against "it." Who "DORIS."
is "it?"
LaTonya is a 35 year old African
Churchgoing Christians have wrongly assumed that American, brave and bold enough
"it" represents either their individual church, to let it be known that she was once
denomination, non-denomination or sect and that a client in telephone counseling
the gates of hell is a metaphor for the Satanic with me because "demons once
agenda. Commonsense ought to reveal to everyone spoke through her constantly and
consistently," even though she
that when the bible speaks of "the church", it was
FAITHFULLY ATTENDED CHURCH
not talking about either the religious system or the
FOR YEARS!!!!
buildings. In fact, "church" as we know it did not
even exist in those days. However, to keep her safe and
"under the radar," I changed her
The church is the Body of Christ, namely the elect name myself.
of God,----PEOPLE--- PECULIAR PEOPLE---chosen
before the beginning of recorded time to believe on To read her powerful testimony,
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whether they have ever click here
entered into a church building to assemble for what
we call "church" on either Sunday or Saturday
morning worship services or meetings. IN THIS LETTER
In anticipation of your question about the scripture IS PETER THE ROCK?
which says, "do not neglect assembling with the
saints," the writer was not talking about going to
THE STATE OF THE
buildings on a Sunday morning or a Weds. night
bible study. He was talking about PEOPLE---THE ORGANIZED CHURCH
ELECT OF GOD. We must assemble with each other
as often as is humanly possible. Now that we have
the internet, we can assemble 24-7!!!!! In fact, as
you read this mentoring letter, I am assembling DO YOU NEED A LITTLE PUSH
with the "church" RIGHT NOW, Praise God!!!! AS YOU PRESS TOWARD THE
MARK OF YOUR HIGH
To make my point, last evening, I "assembled" in CALLING IN CHRIST JESUS?
a Chinese restaurant with a former member of the
church I closed in the summer of '09, a young black I'M ONLY AN EMAIL OR A
woman of the ripe age of 30. My daughter preached
PHONE CALL AWAY
on New Years Eve in the year 2000 and this young
woman came forth and "joined the church." I have contact@pamsheppard.com
been her pastor ever since. She was rather active,
rarely missing a service in 9 years.
518-477-5759
The truth of the matter is that she found out last
night that "I am STILL her pastor, even though
"there is no building." With fear in her eyes, she
looked at me and expressed these words: 'I'm
going to have to go to a church, Pastor. I miss the
messages you used to preach and so I need to hear
a word from the pulpit cause I feel demons
prevailing all around me."

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 I "gave it to her, hard and raw." The Chinese
waitresses who stood a few feet away had their
eyes bugged wide open." My counsel went a bit
like this. "Doris--(not her real name) You listened
to hundreds of my sermons for years and not a word
I preached from the pulpit penetrated you and your
willful disobedience. So what makes you think that
"hearing a sermon" from a pulpit is going to help
you now?

"I poured out my heart to you, your sisters and the

rest of the young women in the church. I even
became naked before you as I openly shared my
own struggles with sexual sin.

You heard me but I knew that you didn't listen. For

years I prayed that God would keep you safe from
the lusts of your own flesh, yet you got pregnant for
a man you met at a bus-stop. You slept with the
him the same week you met him, you married him
against my expressed warning, you did not repent,
your attitude was "well, I'm pregnant, I'm getting
married, so---SO WHAT!!! You dragged ME into your
mess and I like a fool, solemnized a marriage that I
knew from the start was made in hell. Why?
Because "I didn't want to lose YOU as a church
member."

"Well, now I have no "church" to be concerned

about you or anyone else leaving. I have no
membership roll to protect or to impress anyone
with how many people allow ME to lead them. In
fact, I will be 67 years old reeeeal soon, so I don't
have the advantage of "time to mince my words."

After the scolding, I brought it down to where the

rubber meets the road with this question. "I
wonder even now if you are saved after hearing 9
years of my godly sermons, preached behind a
defiled pulpit?"

Then I put the cross in her face and the resurrection

of Jesus Christ in Her face.

Doris sat facing me at the table, genuinely wept

and repented.

Then I prayed, " Lord, expose the darkness and deliver

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 her from this captivity, particularly the stronghold
STILL in her mind that she "must have a man at any
cost, causing her to settle for any bum the devil
sends her way, even in the future yet unseen!!!

Outside her front door, Doris hopped out of that car

and left a big, greasy, smacking lipstick mark of a
kiss, right smack on my cheek. She had some pep
in her step as she strutted up her stairs with bold
determination to "stop the gates of hell from
prevailing against her."

WE HAD CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE STATE OF THE ORGANIZED CHURCH

I suspect that the gates of hell have already prevailed against the
organized religious system we call "church." If you read La
Tonya Holloway's testimony by clicking the link in the right hand
column after you finish this article, you will better understand why.

As a prophet of God, much of my evidence is both visionary and

intuitive. Yet, I was born with both a rational and a skeptical mind,
so I haven't thrown out my own good sense with any supernatural
bathwater. I try ALL of my prophecies by the word of God and by
simply "waiting to see if they come to pass." So I strongly believe
in the "watch, wait, and pray" approach before declaring
prematurely a "thus saith the Lord!" I have been spiritually wrong
in the past. Therefore, I am very careful to be both cautious and
objective where it comes to examining what "comes to me."

When I first started "seeing and hearing things" about the organized
church, I often did not understand the messages at the time they You need this important book!!!
were received, primarily because I was out of the will of God by
being in church, in the first place. For example, it was the first week To preview, click its cover.
in October, 1983. I was at the Atlanta Convention Center at a
Kenneth Copeland East Coast Believers' Convention. I was
absolutely star struck, not only with Ken and Gloria, but with those
preachers and teachers in their inner circle: Jerry Savelle, Billye
Brimm, the late John Osteen, Norvelle Hayes, and many more! I
bought up everybody's tapes!!!

Yet, one night in the hotel room after the days events were finished,
I was in the bed asleep when I was awakened by alarming sounds
that are difficult to describe. All that I can say is that It sounded like
a voice blasting on a deafening loud speaker, akin to a car security
alarm gone wile, ---- crying out three words through the sound of an
orchestra full of trumpets, coupled with the sound of hurricane
waves breaking through the hotel room walls. The voice bellowed:
COME OUT, SEPARATE. COME OUT SEPARATE. COME OUT,
SEPARATE. Over and over again.

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It was tooooo much for me. I jumped out of bed and hit the floor,
face down. When it finally stopped, I got up and kneeled before the
bed and cried, "Why, Lord?."
He didn't answer me, at least "not then." He answered about 20
years later, and continues to answer up until recently.

The next day at the Convention Center, Osteen preached, "Get out
of your denominational boat and "walk on water." In other words,
"come out, separate." I wrongfully put two and two together and
thought that Osteen was being used by God to lead me out of the
Denomination I was in.

So a week later, I handed in my resignation to the regional director

that had licensed me to preach. A few months, later, I preached at
home for 4 years but I was deceived into going back to the
denomination in 1987. I was so "charismatic" at the time, that it
never dawned on me the connection between the fact that I heard
the bellowing voice while at a word of faith convention. That's why
Christians are called "sheep." We can be "very stupid."

There were various times over the years that I thought what
happened that night in Atlanta 27 years ago was the devil.
However, today I know that it was God Almighty. To summarize a
long story, it has taken more than 20 years for me to find out what I
was to "come out and separate from."

Its really not THAT complicated. I was to come out from the word
of faith charismatics. I was to also come out from the traditional
denominationals, I was to come out of the entire organized religious
system. My thick religious head couldn't wrap my thoughts around
such a notion for more than 2 decades!!!!!!

To judge this "voice" of three words, lets look at some scripture.

Jesus speaks a parable about the kingdom of God being like a
mustard seed that grew into a huge tree with many "branches." In
this parable, the kingdom of heaven is not "the Body of Christ." I
believe that this word is actually a prophecy.

As a mustard seed of 12 Apostles, their preached word spread to

the entire known world of the first century AD. Once the church
became "organized" by the Catholics, it grew into "many
branches"===denominations, non-denominations, Christian cults
and sects=== as a result of the Protestant Reformation.

Who are the birds? Later on in Matt 13, Jesus reveals the meaning
of this symbol. The birds are THE DEMONS.

Translation? Jesus provided a brief history of the entire organized

church in this ONE parable in Matthew 13. The organized
church would become an abnormal monstrocity. And----quite
frankly---THAT IS, WHAT IT IS!!!!

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There are MANY other scriptures. Yet the most telling is once
again, the Lord's word to the 7 churches as recorded by the Apostle
John in the book of Revelation. I believe that each church is a
symbol of a church generation, in chronological order, ie. the
church at Ephesus is the FIRST church started by the Apostles, and
the church at Laodicea is the LAST church age.

Jesus called the last church age, "blind and naked, lukewarm,
financially rich and prosperous, and without any spiritual
discernment." Then in Chapter 18 of Revelation, He warns "Come
Out of Her, My People." For the most part, God's people are
members of the organized church system. So it doesn't take a
rocket scientist to figure out that the "her" we must come out of, is
the organized church.

Certainly the Holy Spirit has strived with the organized church
by His mercy and grace for at least 19 centuries. God's
mercy endures and He is truly longsuffering. Some of God's elect
today are members of churches. However, I suspect that "time has
run out" for the organized church primarily because my eyes
discern that "the gates of hell are prevailing." I see it everywhere.
While God's people are bragging "I'm blessed," the enemy is
mocking them with the plagues and proving, NO, YOU ARE A LIAR.
YOU ARE NOT BLESSED.

A churchgoing friend of mine has just died. She was one of those
who the enemy mocked. Raised in church, she was "churchified" to
the bone, Pentecostal, mouth filled with "I'm blessed" and "I'm
saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost." Then,
on Christmas Day, the enemy struck her down with a disease that
she could have prevented by simply taking care of her temple. First
she put up some lip service of positive faith confessions, which
then stopped cold when her condition worsened.

Without much ado, she died a death that I believe is unbecoming to

the elect of God. There was no victory in it. For some time, I knew
that she was religious and not saved. However, 3 days before she
died, the Lord showed me that He DID save her that very day.

It had to be this way. Because the truth coming from lips like mine,
she would never have believed, much less received. She fell victim
to the plague of Rev. 18:4. She did not come out of Her, so she
received of Her plagues. Yet God STILL saved her because He
chose her before the beginning of recorded time to be "one of His."

Regardless of what the enemy does, God does not lose the elect. He
brings His people home, whether in defeat or in victory--one way or
the other. Satan's job is to try and cause us to lose our salvation.
Those who blindly believe they are saved, God

eventually does save. But---so as by fires of suffering---because

they would not hear any other way.

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and needs of your audience.

UPON THIS ROCK!

7
 Whom do men say that I the son of Man am?
....Simon Peter answered and said "Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God...Jesus answered Peter with "upon
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!
Matthew 16:13-19

Sheppard's Counseling and Publishing Center, PO Box 356, East Greenbush NY, NY 12061 5184775759

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