PASTOR SHEILA: I regret that the Alternate Translation Bible has distressed you, but am pleased with this opportunity to communicate with you.
I find very little of your "translation" (and I use that word VERY facetiously) to be accurate in the least. You obviously have used this opportunity to read your own theological ideas into the text instead of allowing the text to mandate what your theological ideas should be.
PASTOR SHEILA: Hebrew scholars will tell you that the Scripture can be understood on 4 levels. Jesus, Himself, said that He speaks in parables to some and clearly or, face to face, to others. The level of understanding in the Church today is a surface level of the Scripture. The Alternate Translation Bible is a spiritual translation of the Scripture.
There is no need for this type of a "translation" for it does not hold any sort of validity or authority, being the creation of an individual alone.
PASTOR SHEILA: Have you asked the Lord if the conclusion you have drawn is correct? And if you have prayed about it, how long have you waited for an answer? And if you have done the foregoing, asking for the truth, have you waited long enough to ensure that the Lord, and not your own mind, has answered your question?
I wonder, do you see the purpose of scripture to begin with? All of scripture is intended to point us to Jesus Christ, the virgin-born Son of God, fully God and fully man.
PASTOR SHEILA: I agree the purpose of scripture is to point us to Jesus Christ, the virgin-born Son of God, fully God and fully man, and his purposes for mankind. This message is in the Alternate Translation Bible, which is an extrapolation of Jesus' plan for the maturation of mortal man, but can only be understood by the mind of Christ, and much study and prayer.
On the contrary, you are yielding to a negative emotional response, and all emotional responses block true spiritual communication with God.
His death on the cross was payment for our sin, a debt that we rightfully owed to God.
PASTOR SHEILA: I agree that I owe a debt to God that I cannot pay, which is the price for deliverance from my own sin nature.
Jesus died so that His sinless nature [our new man] could be reproduced in mortal man [our new man]. This new, sinless nature [Christ in you, the hope of glory] must now destroy our sin nature [our old man] in order for us to appropriate eternal life. Paul experienced this saying, "I live, but not I [my sin nature is dead], but by the life of the Son of God [my new man].
Have you placed your faith and trust in Jesus for your eternal destiny?
PASTOR SHEILA: Yes, I have placed my faith and trust in Jesus for my eternal destiny, but my understanding of "eternal destiny" and how I shall ascend into it, differs from the present-day dogma being taught by mortal men, much of whose own understanding of Scripture is rooted in pagan religion.
The Spirit in the Church [in most instances] is Jesus' Holy Spirit, but the philosophy being taught [in most instances] roots back to Nimrod and Semaramis and the Egyptian philosophy of an afterlife. Christ Jesus is the only true teacher, and only the mind of Christ in a mortal man can recognize Christ Jesus and his teachings in another mortal man.
But very soon Christ Jesus shall appear once again in perfected flesh, and those who are still hearing out of their dead sin nature, even though the mind of Christ is available to them, shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live.
The hour for the maturing of the Church is at hand. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah desires to open the seven seals which are restraining our spiritual maturity so that we can grow up into Him.
Therefore, CORRECTIVE judgment [tribulation] is ordained for the Church, beginning with the elders thereof. Only the truth will set us free from our fallen mind, which consistently prefers doctrines that satisfy the emotions [flesh], rather than build up the spirit. We must worship our God in His Spirit and His Truth, which truth is found only in the MIND OF CHRIST, which is built unto us, and is not a free gift as the Holy Spirit is.
I will pray for you.
PASTOR SHEILA: I will pray for you, too. May the Lord, Jesus be glorified in us both, and may His truth be found in us both in the day that our sins are judged.
You may correspond if you would like.
PASTOR SHEILA: Thank you for your honest confrontation. Most in the Church today would have avoided it.
May your faithfulness to the truth as you perceive it be multiplied unto you, and may your hope in the Son of God produce His life abundantly in you, and may you receive the fullness provided for us through the sacrifice of the Son of Man.
Sincerely,
Sheila R. Vitale
