We as a family sincerely believe that the Bible is the unique Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and written by God fearing men to reveal the Thruth about our Creator and His plan for the human race and for you as an individual.

There are many Churches in this world, and many religions. Is it then possible to find out about the truth? Or do they all have the truth?

Well, let's start with the Christian faith. According to the Bible, God has a plan for this world, and the most important event in our history was when the man Jesus from Nazareth died on a cross almost 2000 years ago, and proved to be much more then an ordinary man by being raised from the dead with an uncorruptible body after three days in the grave. In his earthly lifetime he claimed to be the Son of God, born by a virgin, and thus having God as His real Father. He was the Son of Man AND the Son of God at the same time, bringing the two together in reconciliation. Jesus preached an astonishing message, and the New testament claims that he performed great miracles like healing all kind of sickness, turning water into wine, walking on the waves, casting out devils from demon posessed people, and even raising people from the dead! According to the gospel of John, he claimed to be the Way, the Truth and the Life, and he said that no one can come to God the Father except through him, Jesus. He also warned about false teachers and prophets to come into this world after He returned to Heaven for a certain period. (He WILL come back in the clouds of the sky and setting up His wonderful kingdom of peace on this earth, probably very soon!) According to Matthew 24 these false prophets and teachers will lead many away from the true Gospel, even by performing miracles. And in 1. Timothy the Bible warns that in the last days there will rise false teachers teaching doctrines of devils! And finally there will rise a person who the Bible sometimes names the Antichrist, who will have world dominion in the years preceding the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now what is the Christian faith all about?

Jesus said that this Gospel (good news) of the Kingdom shall be preached into all the world as a testimony to all ethnic groups, and THEN shall the end come! (Matthew chap. 24). And his last command to his followers was that they should go out into all the world and preach this gospel to all people, speak in tongues, casting out devils, healing the sick in the name of Jesus and baptizing those who beleives this message and teaching them the doctrines and the lifestyle that Jesus himself presented while being on this earth.(Matthew chap. 28 and Mark 16:16-20) And when this job is done, Jesus the Messiah, King of kings and Lord of lords, WILL return to our planet and set up his Kingdom here. All those who received the Gospel of Jesus and stood firm without backsliding, will inherit everlasting life. Those who did not believe, or where cowards, lustful and liars, will be thrown into the lake of fire, usually known as Hell. The will spend eternity there in pain and torment, and the saved will spend eternity with Jesus and God the Father. NO OTHER RELIGION can save people. In fact: NO CHURCH can save people either. This is a covenant between you and God. You do not need any mediator like a priest or (God forbid!) Mary or any saint! When you make this convenant to be a believer and a disciple of Jesus, the you must get baptized in water by full immersion. This is the biblical baptism! The tradition of many churches to baptize infants is based on false doctrines claiming that the water is saving people. Only by faith in Jesus as he is presented in the Bible, may save you. By beleiving in his blood to cleanse your every sin, and by beleiving that he died for you and rose again on the third day, being the Son of God, you are made righteous. And by confessing the Lord Jesus with your mouth you shall be saved. BUT: Jesus himself said that not every person saying 'Lord, Lord' shall be saved! We must also seek to please him, deny ourselves and follow his commandments. When we fall in sin (and we do!), we need to confess our sins to him and repent. Then He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

No one is saved by just trying to be a good person, keeping the ten commandments and have a high moral standard. The Bible says in Romans chap. 3 that all people have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but it also says that God want every person to receive Jesus as their personal Savior. To all those who receive Jesus, God gives them power to become the children of God! (John's gospel chap. 1, verse 12). If you read the whole chapter 5 of Paul's letter to the Romans, you will see that everybody is a sinner, but also everybody can be saved, because Salvation is a free GIFT. How? Well, there was a price to pay for our sins, and Jesus paid it. He left Heaven to be born as a child, lived a holy life without sin, and thus became the spotless 'lamb' of God that carries the sins of the world. When He was crucified on the tree at Calvary, he did it for you and me. The Bible says many places that he carried there our sins, sorrows, pains and sicknesses! Then He died and shouted: My God , My God, why have You left me? So he carried our punishment even to the extent that he went to hell for us! In hell he was in pain, suffering the full judgment for mankind. Now do not misunderstand: Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was of course physical, but it was also mental and spiritual. It was not the devil that tormented Jesus in hell, either. The devil is NOT in hell yet, he will be thrown there soon. But according to Isaiah chap. 53 it was God the Father who let His anger over sin hit his son. Sin is a criminal act in the eyes of God, and it MUST be punished. But in stead of punishing you and me, God chose to become flesh (1. Timothy 3:16) and carry that punishment for us! You see, Jesus IS God. And since He was without sin, the Bible tells us that death could not keep Him for a long time in it's grip, so, having loosed the pains of death, God the Father raised Jesus from the dead according to the book of Acts 2:24.

HOW CAN JESUS BE THE SON OF GOD AND AT THE SAME TIME BE GOD?

 Well, it is not easy for us to grasp the concepts of God - who He is and how He is. We need to realize that He is the Creator of all the universe, and we are merely some grains of dust in it! Still the Bible says that God created man in His own image. God said in the beginning, according to Genesis: Let US make man according to OUR image. God is ONE, but He has different sides of Himself. A simple image is to think of a triangle. It is ONE figure, but it has 3 corners, and three lines. Over and over again we find in the Bible that Jesus is expressing this unity and oneness. Like when Philip asks: Show us the Father. Jesus answers: I have been so long time among you, and still you have not seen me? He who has seen me, has seen the Father. And Jesus continues to talk about the Holy Spirit that came later to dwell in the beleivers, and He says that I and the Father will come and dwell in you, when it is actually the Holy Spirit! (John's gospel). John's gospel is starting by proclaiming: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things that are created are created by the Word, which is a title for Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

WHAT CHURCH SHOULD I JOIN?

Well, first of all, let me tell you that it is VERY important for a Christian to have fellowship with other beleivers. But many times people are led astray from the Bible, and sometimes churches may lead you away from God in stead of closer to Him!

The Bible says in Paul's letter to the Hebrews the Jesus is the expressed IMAGE of God! So when you want to know God, you must look unto Jesus. And I'm not talking about worshipping a picture or a man-made statue representing Jesus. NO WAY! According to the ten commandment (Exodus chap. 20), you shall not make any image of anything in order to worship it. That is idolatry! Jesus said in John chap. 4 that the true worshippers of God must worship Him in Spirit and in thruth! You do not need to go to a temple, a church building or the a holy place to worship God. You can worhip Him anywhere. Jesus recommend us to pray to God in a closet, in a privat place where we are alone with Him!

We have also seen that the Bible warns us about false teachings that would come after Jesus left, and that there should be a lot of heresy in the last days before the return of Jesus. 2. Thess. says that there shall be a great falling away before the antichrist arises.

In a historical aspect, it is very clear that the great publically and politically approved churches mainly have been false churches. It is very clear when it comes to the Roman Catholic Church. This organization has NEVER had ANYTHING to do with the living God! It is a mixture of old pagan worship and christian doctrines and morals. The Bible speaks in the last book - the book of Revelation - about a great Whore guilty of killing a lot of true christians, and having great political and financial power on an international level (Revelation chap. 17 & 18). The worship of the virgin Mary is just a fake. Of course nobody should worship or pray to ANY person except the Lord Jesus himself. But the catholics have been deceived. What they are actually doing, is worshipping the old heathen mother godess, known by names such as: Astarte, Diana, Isis etc. And the boy sitting on her lap with a sun around his head, is NOT Jesus, but the sun god Ba'al!

WHAT THEN ABOUT THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES?

We have great churches such as the Lutheran Church, the Reformed Church, the Methodist Church etc. that in the past have done many good things for the Kingdom of God. But today, most of these churches have fallen away for the true faith and obedience of the Bible, and have joined hands with the catholics and with liberal theologians, denying the authority of the Bible. Sadly, today most members of suchs churches are probably not born again, since they have little respect for the Word of God, and Jesus IS the Word! A true believer will always have a great respect for the Bible, and put it above all other opinions! If you love the Lord, you love the Bible. If you obey God, then you obey the Bible! It is that simple. The Bible forbids sexual relations before our outside of marriage, and it clearly states that homosexuality is a perverse an abominable thing! It furthers forbids women to have leading positions in the church and act as preachers (1. Chorintians and 1. Timothy chap. 2 & 3).

HOW TO LIVE AS A CHRISTIAN?

Christian faith and life is supposed to be full of joy, laughter and freedom! We are allowed to eat and drink what we want, not becoming drunkards, though. (Colossians 2:16) Mainly, we are allowed to do anything, as long as it is done in love for other people and through obedience to God's laws. All the Old Testament laws as presented by Moses have now been changed and replaced by the New Testament's ethics and morals. In some areas they are more strict in the New Testament (i.e. divorce and remarriage), but mainly it is very easy and pleasant to be a christian. Being born again by the water and the Spirit, we now have an inner motivation that helps us to please God. And we see very clearly that to follow the commands of the Lord makes life easy in the long run! We are saved by grace, accepted by God as we are, hidden in Jesus Christ. Yes indeed, we are made righteous as a free gift. 

Being a full gospel christian means to be filled with - or baptized in the Holy Spirit, and experience many wonderful things through this. Except from the extremely inspiring fact that God dwells in us, we may also experience how God can use us to extend His Kingdom and His purpose through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. And throug prayer and faith we may experience a supernatural life in the name of Jesus, including speaking in tongues, casting out devils, healing the sick, bringing forth prophesies etc. Wow! This is a great life! But we need to be willing to die from ourselves, yes even be ready to die physically, be mocked, be beaten, be put to jail, lose our property, our friends and family in the quest of fulfilling God's plan and purpose for our lives. To be a true christian is truly the most interesting and challenging life to live, and then we have the wonderful promise of a great reward in the life after death!

About Pastor John Kjetil Lode:

Born in N'gaoundere, Cameroon in 1967 as a missionary child. By the grace of God I have been saved and preserved as a christian since 1983. I was saved from a criminal lifestyle, and decided to be a disciple of Jesus. In the autumn of -83 I became a student in Lycee Corneille at Rouen, France. There I started to study the Bible intensively, and was led to a pentecostal Church in that city, called Eglise Evangelique. On June 10th 1984 I was baptized with true baptism, following my confession. In 1987 I studied at Word of Life Bible Center in Uppsala, Sweden. I started to travel to Romania during the reign of Nicolae Ceauscescu, smuggling Bibles there and preaching in pentecostal churches and house groups. Married Nancy in 1992, moved as missionary to Romania for almost 2 years as a family with 2 small children. Established at the Island of Karmøy, South West of Norway, we now have 5 wonderful children. In the last years I have been to India twice in missionary work, planting a church there and keeping pastor's conference, and working in Romania from time to time.I am an ordained charismatic missionary pastor, and also pastor in the Centru Crestin al Romilor movement in Romania. I now hold a cand. mag. degree as a teacher in religions and French language, and have written many theological articles and a book, plus translating several books into Norwegian. In have also made a translation of the old gothic style Norwegian new testament, and I strongly believe that the correct text to follow from the greek texts is the textus receptus, which is being used in the old King James Bible.

Though being a charismatic pentecostal christian, I have my obedience towards the Bible and NOT towards men, and thus I have been forced to preach and teach some doctrines that are not very popular in these kind of churches. But if I want to please men, I can NOT be the servant of Christ, says Paul, and I agree.

I have seen God's miracle power working through my own ministry many times, and I know that my redeemer lives! In the nearer future I will, God willing, also go to minister in Kenya.

Pastor John K. Lode preaching in a village in south India.

I am willing to preach and teach from the Word of God in all the world, so please feel free to contact me if you want me to visit you church or your area.

On the rigth side:

Pastor John K. Lode is praying for the inhabitants of a village in India where the gospel of Jesus has never been preached before. We saw hundreds of people saved in this area, and have now set up a church building there, which is being attended of a great number of families.

Under: Pastor John K. in the middle, in Munich, Germany.

 I met some wonderful street evangelists in Munich, Germany in September 2002. They were very bold and eager, preaching and giving out gospel tracts from Chick Publications. (I urge you to visit chick's website at www.chick.com ) 

The gospel is being preached to a guy that looks like a satanist. We have a much greater power then the satanists, because He that lives in us is greater than he who is in the world (that is the devil, called the god of this world).