Chapter 8

Another Gospel

“A Great Deception”

John, after Christmas, went back to college at Iowa State University. The feelings of death persisted. To John, it seemed that if he did anything wrong the condemnation would be there. The Enemy had a plan that would change the true meaning of my Cross to his own prideful counterfeit. This part of the story, I’m about to share, is very sorrowful to me. John’s heart through this all belonged to me. His thoughts would be under attack to a great deception. My grace was with John, but was not clearly seen. John was entering a trial where he to could say, “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?”

This would be the beginning of a battle so intense that John’s father actually prayed for John’s death and to be relieved of his pain. The deception started with John wandering through the ISU library. John discovered a book called Transcendence. The book talked about a life that never ended, but was developed through a variety of lives. My eternal life is based on a relationship with me. This relationship must begin with an understanding of why I came and what I did. John’s true understanding of eternal life was changed through the adoption of this transcendence lie. The deception was completed by the release from dying panic attacks.

The illusions of power that had been started by the Enemy were now leading John to powerful occult teachings. John remembered my Gospel and yet he was trying to make it mesh with the teachings of reincarnation. The Enemy’s full offer would come through a book that is so deceptive I will not share its name.

The Enemy offered John the same lie offered to Adam and Eve. This book was discovered in the same area where Transcendence was found. It was as thick as a Bible. The book offered a path called The Great Way. It told how our thoughts can affect the world we live in. Our dreams could come true if we only seek and believe in them. It offered more and more control of our lives through believing in a spiritual power and not through a relationship with me.

The worst perversion of truth was how the book looked at my death and resurrection. The book’s teachings presented a fulfillment of man’s nature came through the cross. This cross would bring your male and female nature together to create the potential to become like God. The Enemy offered The Great Way to become like me, not in my character, but in the control of one’s life and the lives of others. John stopped reading my Word and became was fully absorbed in this book. For three years John tried to make all thoughts, teachings, and wisdom from every spiritual outlook work together as true.

There was a side teaching of the book that would created a great mental battle. The Great Way taught that a follower could learn to live without food or sleep. Another teaching was that to speed up your development you needed to let go of possessions and sexual relationships. A letting go of all sexual thoughts mimicked a form of purity, which was similar but different to My desire for believers. The meshing of male and female become a part of the Enemy’s greatest attack against John’s faith in and relationship with me.

John’s delusions grew in intensity as he received the need to be androgynous, as well as not eating or sleeping. John also had word disassociation. He would read things into words that were not true. An example came as John was letting go of possessions. While he was returning from classes John thought about the similarity between the word son and the word sun. He thought My return could come through looking at the sun. John’s delusion led him to stare at the sun. As he did this he gave away his billfold and money. It was by My grace that John didn’t go blind. This delusion about the sun would come and go throughout the next three years.

As the mind was attacked some true spiritual things were happening. John was grieved by the party lifestyle. He found it strange to wake up on a Saturday without a hangover. John tried to share his understanding of why I came. The group that had shared at John’s dorm meeting also came for follow up. John tried to convey his faith, but the Enemy’s delusions overshadowed his expression of My eternal life.

Three weeks after John came back to school. He was emaciated because of going without food or sleep. The delusional thinking was overwhelming. By My grace, John’s parents came to visit him at college. John had lost ten to fifteen pounds and was struggling with fear and confusion.