For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing. (Acts 17:21)
Greetings from the Breakers,
The above verse speaks of the Athenians and how they sought only after those things which were “new.” Because of this, I used to think all things “new” were always bad. I’m “old school” and don’t like modern things at all. That’s why I’m so tired of the “NEWS.” It’s always bad news, and hardly ever good! (Like my grandfather used to say, “All the news media is for is to scare old ladies!” That’s about it).
But over the years, I’ve learned that not everything “new” is bad. Sometimes there really are some new things that are good. And these last two months I’ve been blessed with some of them. So here’s the NEWS from the Breakers.
NEW YEAR
Well, happy New Year everybody! It’s hard to believe it’s 2012 already, the year the ancient Mayans said would be our last. (Like a friend said to me jokingly, “Happy New Year in the last year of your life!”) But who knows what this year will truly hold. Hopefully, it will bring peace, righteousness, and the salvation of many souls to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. All I know is that last year (2011) brought a lot of violence (with the Muslim uprisings), a lot of wickedness (with the Occupy crowd and their defecating on police cars), and a lot of people turning away from the truth of the Gospel. Yet, we did see some blessings last year.
NEW DAUGHTER
The 18th of November, God blessed us with a new baby girl. Yep, another girl! We named her Elyse Lillian Trapp Breaker. She was a little late, but she came when God wanted her to. We feel so blessed with our new child, and thank God for his blessing us with such a healthy baby. Thanks again for all your prayers for Laura during her pregnancy!
NEW COMPUTER
Sometimes something bad happens just so that something good can come out of it. At least that’s what happened to me. In November, my old computer burnt up. I was devastated! My whole life and ministry is on that thing. Luckily, we were able to retrieve everything. (I highly recommend Carbonite.com!). And because it happened before Thanksgiving, I took advantage of Black Friday and was able to get a new laptop at a very low price! I’ve since got it up and running and have been busy writing new tracts, new articles, new books, etc.
NEW TRACT
I’m enclosing my new Gospel tract with this prayer letter entitled, “Got Forgiveness?” (It’s a play on words from the old ad: “Got Milk?”) I hope it will be a blessing to you. Every religion on earth claims to be the only one that can grant people the forgiveness of their sins (Except Satanism, of course, which encourages people to sin even more). However, RELIGION can’t offer anyone forgiveness. In fact, religion is the enemy of the Gospel. It was the religious crowd that killed Jesus Christ! So forgiveness does not come from a church, a priest, a ritual, or a vain religious prayer. It comes only through the Lord Jesus Christ, and faith alone in his blood atonement!
NEW BOOK
My book “What the BIBLE SAYS About Marriage Divorce, and Remarriage,” is now available on my online bookstore. I’m supposed to get 100% of the royalties on each copy sold, so buying a copy is a good way to help support our ministry. We hope more people we get a hold of the great truth of Marriage being a type of Christ and the Church, which is what I portray in my book. We’ve already seen many marriages fixed among Hispanics who’ve read it in Spanish, and we hope for the same in this English edition.
NEW WEBSITE
My Dad’s old website needed to be renewed. I decided I’d do so and redo it in order to remember Dad, and to keep his writings online. Also, I figured I’d use it for myself as well. If you desire to see it, it is: www.robertbreaker.com. My old website is still www.rrb3.com and with my new computer, I’ve been able to update it as well, and also add a lot of stuff about the Spanish Bible. I’m getting a lot of readers and a lot of good feedback. More and more are learning that the Valera 1602 Purified is indeed the best Spanish Bible.
NEW BLOG
My wife is so frugal and so good with coupons and ways to save money. With the many tricks I learned from her, I decided to make a new blog. It can be found at: www.savemulah.blogspot.com. There you’ll find many ways to save money, and who doesn’t want to save, especially in this horrible economy? Besides, the more money you save, the more money you can send to Missionaries, Amen?
NEW REFERENCE TOOL
In December I heard about a two volume set of a work by a man named Stephen Hite. He took eight different Spanish New Testaments and put them together in book form verse by verse, making it easy to study those translations and see what they say. His work is an invaluable tool for those seeking to study the truth about the Spanish Bible Issue, for some of those versions he included are not available today and haven’t been for over 400 years. To obtain a copy of his work, go to Octapla.com. It’s rather pricey, but it’s worth it to have access to those Older Protestant texts, many of which were the basis for our Valera 1602 Purified.
NEWS FROM A FRIEND OF MINE
Friends are few and far between nowadays. Even with things like Facebook, Email, Magicjack, and Skype, it’s still hard to get together with fellow Christians. So we keep in contact through the internet.
A friend of mine sent me an email about something that bothered him a lot, and I’m going to include it at the end of this prayer letter. I believe it’s an important issue. I hope after you read it, you will agree.
NEW STRUGGLES
With the new year brings new struggles, new problems, and new difficulties to overcome. But we welcome them and trust God to help us through them all. We greatly desire your prayers as well, as our desire is to continue serving the Lord and do as much as for him as possible. As always, our desire is to preach the blood, the book, and the blessed hope. In other words, stand dogmatically on the three great pillars of the Christian faith: Salvation, Sanctification, and the Scriptures. In short, preach the RIGHT GOSPEL, the RIGHT BIBLE, and the RIGHT WAY OF LIVING. What is the right way of living you might ask? That is living a sanctified, Spirit-filled life for the honor and glory of God. I’ll close with 2 Timothy 2:19: “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
Thanks again for all your continued prayers and support. We love you and are praying for you as well.
Robert, Laura, Emma and Elyse Breaker
1 Sam. 12:24!
CHILDHOOD EVANGELIZATION WITHOUT CHRISTIAN PARENT’S CONSENT?
We also have done a lot of questioning of many of the practices we see. (Prove all things, hold fast that which is good, Amen?) One of these is the custom of churches separating parents from their children in Sunday Schools and Church Services. My wife and I don’t like this. Our kids stay with us, period! (For we don’t know those people who want to take them and teach them in Sunday School and Children’s Church, nor do we know what they are teaching!)
It didn’t used to be like this. In the old days, families always stayed together in the congregation. But now they are pressured to separate from their children. Why is this? Could this be a problem?
We also are leery of childhood professions. It bothers us to hear people say things like, “I got saved at three years old!” That sounds very far fetched! Especially when we’ve seen so many pressure children to repeat a prayer, then they proclaim them saved because of it.
With this in mind, a preacher friend of mine wrote an article about this very subject, and how the modern Bloodless Gospel has infiltrated our churches, and is even being targeted at our children. I felt I needed to include his work in my prayer letter this time. I hope it is an illuminating article...
“The day I dreaded arrived today, when some Sunday School staff/Children’s Church worker came up to me and informed me that my 7 year-old son had gotten “saved”. He then put him on the spot in asking him to describe this life changing event to me, at which point my son looked at me with a “dazed and confused” look. To some people, this might have been a joyous occasion to hear of their son's salvation. But to me, it was one of my worst nightmares. Here is why.
The arrogance in our evangelism is alarming! Isn’t it God’s design for Dad and Mom to instruct, read the Bible to, and discuss biblical matters with their children? Yes it is! But all of the sudden, in Children’s Church or Sunday school, workers get this thing in their head that the children are there for them to push for a decision on spiritual matters and eternal salvation without even discussing these matters with the parents. (As if they know the child, or have anything to do with him aside from asking him questions and prompting him to raise his hand). They view it as “God brought them to me.” It’s a twisted view on the providence of God.
I asked the young zealous man how the salvation of my son came about. He gave me the spiel, which consisted of something along the lines of: “asking the children if they lie,” (they said, “Yes”), then he asked them if they, “believed Jesus died for them because of their sins,” to which most 7 year-old church kids also said, “Yes!” A show of hands was requested, and my son and another answered that they didn’t know if they would go to heaven. So, they were taken out of the class into a segregated room with this young man, who I do not know anything about. So then, he asked them to “Repeat this prayer,” which is to say, “Ask Jesus into your heart.” I was mortified!
I saw the youth in this young man, and tried to have some grace so I held my tongue. My initial thought was to quiz him as to what he actually covered with my son, and how long it took to do so. But nooo, Mr. nice guy that I am, I held my tongue. I mean after all, this young man is just doing what he is trained to do. He is just doing what is expected of an upstanding young Fundamentalist. This brings up a much larger problem that covers the whole scope of Independent Baptist Fundamentalism.
That man was simply wrong to do what he did, and he was simply wrong in his overall presentation of it. When we got home and discussed it with our son, we learned that he in fact, as I suspected, had NO IDEA of what was going on. He was basically following along and joining in the club.
Children are so impressionable and easy to manipulate which is precisely the reason they have parents!
I rang the assistant Pastor of the church, who is a close friend of mine, and explained to him what had happened. He understood completely, and my distress resonated with him but he never really offered a solution. I don’t really know a solution either. I mean it was an honest mistake by a young, well-intended, sincere man, but it just goes to show what I have been afraid of. It was later reported that a special meeting was called with the staff, and from now on, it will be with the parent’s involvement if there seems to be an interest in salvation by the child. But even with that, you understand, my continued apprehension and hesitation.
We are so presupposed to have the ministries and services like the next guy in the church down the street, so we start doing Sunday school, because it is just simply expected in today's religious society. We encourage young men and women to get involved in these various and assorted “gospel” ministries because it is expected. We have the segregated youth services and bus ministries, and if what happened to my son is what happens to any random child in the church, what are they doing to the bus kids year in and year out? These children do not have parents who ask questions, and they may well grow up with a false sense of security because they prayed a prayer without any understanding! Oh, the horror of it all!!!
How long have we been operating like this?
We separate the families. We separate the children from mom and dad and leave it up to Joe blow Fundamentalist to lead them to Christ without the parents. It’s just not right. I have been uneasy about it since I have had children. I never saw the danger until then. You trust these guys to instruct them properly on the gospel and eternal salvation, and instead you get coercion, urging for a decision to have a number to report, and all this one-two-three-pray-after-me garbage with a little bit of ask Jesus into your heart, which means what anyway?!? It is absolutely out of order and a total misrepresentation of what the gospel is.
The reality is my kid was just probably thrown into bus kid status, led away to some room, given some watered down gospel mumbo jumbo by some pubescent 17 or 18 year old with an itch to impress the pastor or the overbearing strict legalistic parents who also want to impress the pastor. My son was pressured into being honest. Then, he was pressured to not be left out when it was time to pray.
Later that night, I asked my son if he could recall any of the message to which he replied, “No.” He remembered talking with his friends before Children's Church, but not the message that supposedly led him to Christ. Again, it hits home when people take your kids and use coercion while they say it’s “conviction.” It’s all very cultic in principle.
This is not Bible salvation, or even a figment of it. I was so disturbed. Not angry, just disturbed that it has come to this. Well, who am I kidding, I was angry… to be more accurate. Judge me all you want. That’s my child you are perverting with your heresy. I’m disturbed that we have become so manufactured and transparent that we would target 7 year-olds as our converts.
Many church members and people like my self that feel it necessary to have a Church home, so to have that fellowship and times of worship, we are forced at every hand to assimilate to bogus traditions that we do not hold to within that church home. Whether it is being forced to go to church every Sunday if your kid goes to the Christian School associated with the church, or the deacons reminding you to send your kids to the Sunday School classes or your baby to nursery..., etc.
My son's salvation is too precious of a thing to have corrupted and distorted, no matter how well intended the people are! First time, shame on them, second time, shame on me. How can I ever just send my son to a Sunday school class or children’s church when they are separated from me, and they could be given very damaging instructions at any time?
…Shame on us, those for not ever saying anything, and those for acting like it doesn't exist. We are going to have hell to pay for all of this one day. We will be illuminated in the spirit of his mind. And we will know. To what extent, and the particulars, it is open for debate, but God will straighten ALL of us out at the judgment seat of Christ!”
*Disclaimer: I’m not against bus ministries, church Sunday Schools, evangelism, etc. I’m only questioning the way in which they are done. Further, I’m not telling church parents they must not send their children to Children’s Church, nursery, Sunday School, etc. That is the parent’s choice. However, I believe they should KNOW exactly who their kids are being taught by and what they are being told. Finally, I’m not saying that children cannot be saved. They most certainly can. However, they must be saved the same way adults are, by FAITH in the BLOOD ATONEMENT of Jesus Christ!
MY NEW TRACT:
Got Forgiveness?
Most religions teach their followers that they must do certain rituals and practices in order to find forgiveness and justify themselves before God.
But will God accept a Sinner and grant him forgiveness based upon something he does? What does the Bible say about this?
In the Bible, God does not grant forgiveness to anyone based upon what they do. For all that a man can do will never be good enough in God’s eyes. It is the work of a Sinner.
Romans 3:23 tells us, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” When the Bible says, “all,” it means A-L-L!
Every human being is a Sinner. And they can never please God, nor gain God’s forgiveness by their own merit. They cannot save themselves. This is why they need God to save them from their sins and forgive them. For without God, they are found unclean.
Isaiah 64:6 clearly tells us: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
No matter how “righteous” a man thinks that he is or has become by his many good works, he will never be righteous in God’s eyes. Why? Because the Bible tells us that salvation, or forgiveness, does not come by “works” rather by “faith.”
Romans 4:5 makes this very clear: “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
And again in Ephesians 2:8,9 we read: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
If it were possible for a man to gain God’s forgiveness through his own works, then that man would always brag upon himself and boast about how good he is, and not on God, and how great HE is.
Thus, God’s plan of salvation is not to grant man forgiveness of his sins based upon something man does, rather based upon what God did for man.
What did God do for man? The Bible tells us that he sent his son Jesus to die for the sins of man. John 3:16 states: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life [i.e. forgiveness].”
Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, came to this earth to suffer, bleed, and die as he paid for your sins in your place on Calvary. And God the Father accepted that payment for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Now, all those who come to Jesus through faith alone can be born again, and receive complete forgiveness of their sins. For only he can forgive you.
Speaking of Jesus, the apostle Paul said, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man [Jesus] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.”
And in Acts 26:18, God the Holy Spirit commands Paul in his ministry to, “...open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me [Jesus].
Again, we see that salvation or the forgiveness of sins is by FAITH. Faith in what? Faith in Jesus Christ. But it’s more than that. It’s faith in Jesus’ bloody sacrifice for our sins.
God has always demanded blood sacrifice for sin. In the Old Testament, it was the blood of a lamb. But Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God who died for the sins of the world (John 1:29). He shed his precious blood as an atonement for the sins of all mankind. And to receive God’s forgiveness, a Sinner must “trust the blood” of Jesus (Rom. 3:25) by Faith. For it is only the blood that gives us forgiveness of sins.
We see this clearly in Colossians 1:14, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”
God’s Forgiveness is only found through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And according to 1 John 1:7, only the shed blood of Jesus can cleanse a Sinner of all his sins, as it states: “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Romans 4:7 further says, “...Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.”
So how about you? Are you one of those “blessed ones” which this verse speaks about? Are you forgiven? Are your sins covered in the blood of Jesus?
If not, why not? The Bible speaks in Colossians 2:13 of those who once were lost but now are saved, and tells us of the contrast from before salvation to after:
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.”
You too can be one of those who now has been FORGIVEN of all your trespasses. But it’s not by something you do to try to justify yourself to God. Rather, it’s by what you do with what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross of Calvary.
Got forgiveness? Or are you still trusting you are good enough to get to heaven by yourself?
TRUTH STANDS ALONE MINISTRIES
740 MIKE GIBSON LANE
MILTON, FLORIDA 32583
