撰文／Rupert｜圣灵月刊377期-2009.02｜主题／温良的舌（下）
哈利路亚，奉主耶稣圣名作见证：
在见证之前，我要先感谢神，让我有这个机会来到台湾和各位弟兄姊妹分享我如何来到真耶稣教会的经过。
虽然在我还是襁褓的时候，我的母亲就让我在其他教会受洗，但是我们家从未参与教会活动。我个人的信仰历程始于我10岁的时候，那时我的父母之间发生了一些冲突，朋友的母亲借此机会邀请我母亲、妹妹和我到她所信仰的教会。
那间教会广大地宣传“接受神进入你的心，你就能得救”的道理，我记得我和妹妹参加他们的主日学时，主日学的老师告诉我们说：“你若跟着我这样祷告，你就可以得永生，若你不跟我祷告，你就会进入永死的地狱……谁要跟着我祷告？”当然，我就跟着祷告，也深信我一定可以因此进入天国。
几年之后，我们加入这间教会，他们坚持《圣经》中的洗礼一定是入水的洗礼，所以在我16岁的时候，我在洗礼缸里又接受了一次洗礼，这是我第二次的洗礼。
信仰的考验却在我17岁时临到，父亲和我染上一种不寻常的病毒，这病毒的病状是会造成低血糖以及太阳穴的感染。很不幸的，连医生也无法了解我们的病因，而这病征持续了很长的一段时间。父亲因此失去了工作，也离开了母亲，而我从一位优秀的学生变成连连被当的学生。
我因此变得很沮丧，甚至开始和教会的青年一起抽烟、吸毒，也停止了聚会，而我吸毒的习惯却越来越糟糕，甚至后来因贩毒而入狱将近四个月。出狱之后，我停止吸毒，然后开始和一位女孩约会，很快的，她就怀了我的孩子。我的信仰就如此地经历了很长一段低潮期。
四年之后，我的主治医师用了份量很重的药消灭我体内的病毒。我终于恢复了健康，而我的成绩也慢慢回到原来的水准，差不多就在那时候，有一位教会的年轻带领者问我是否愿意回到教会，当然我是愿意的，因我为之前所做的事以及将神给我的丰富信仰弃之不顾而深深地感到愧疚。
因此有很长一段时间我一天数次向神忏悔，当然其中有一部分是为了我的女儿的命运感到懊悔，所以我决定尽我所能的改变我的生命，以取得神的喜悦。
我成为一位虔诚的基督徒，有时一天读经五小时，做长时间安静的祷告，传福音，而且将我所有的赒济穷人。而在那时候，我女儿的母亲却离我而去。
到我27岁时，神和我之间又发生了一个不寻常的意外。有一天母亲邀请我参加一个山边的基督教户外布道，当我到那里时，那些人的祷告声音让我大感惊奇，那是一种奇怪的舌音，我从未见过也从未听过，这情况让我有一点恐惧。
长话短说，在聚会最后的时候，我在众人以为我要认罪的情况下到前面祷告，但那位布道家却笔直的向在队伍末端的我走来，并且将他的手放在我因病而膨胀的肚子上，所有的人就开始为我祷告。有一股神奇的力量临到我身上，我被一种不可言喻的爱所充满，就如同神亲自显现降临在我身上一般。
在我一生当中，从未经历过这样的爱和喜乐，我沉醉在那样的爱中，而这样的感觉持续了三天，我过着在地如天的生活，喜乐之情像是从我心中爆开一样，即便到了今天，我不曾再有这种与神之间奇异的经验。一周之内，我的腹胀就消失了。
从那时起，我看了一个又一个奇迹，个人亦亲自经历很多很特别的奇迹。在我内心更深信神拣选了我，祂以一种奇特的方式与我的生命链接，而我也越加地虔诚了。
但这些奇迹最后却使我感到困惑了，也许是因为教会、同灵，以及我本身的经历不够或不成熟，这样的奇迹不再在我的生活和教会中出现。此时我也决定要找个安静且未经历“属灵恩赐”的教会。
直到四年前我38岁的时候，有天我工作的公司雇用了女性职员，我觉得这两位女生很奇怪，她们似乎是虔诚的基督徒，却不愿意参与我们办公室每周读经的活动。我又看到她们所属教会的名称是真耶稣教会，对我而言这个名字还真酷啊！
当时我正想我应该到一个有圣灵的教会去，我不能在神面前隐藏自己，也不能不为祂所用。我想真耶稣教会有圣灵，所以我应该要去真耶稣教会。我请新同事中的一位带领我，并开始参与她们的教会聚会。
此后数周我都会到教会跪下来用我的“灵言”祷告，而他们用他们的“灵言版本”祷告。我心中很惋惜，他们不能用我这样棒的祷告语言，他们的灵言只是持续一个声音，但是为什么他们称自己是真教会呢？是不是有人蒙骗了他们。
直到有一次特别聚会，我们有很多次的祷告，在一次三十分钟的祷告之后，我的舌头累了，嘴巴也酸了，而他们仍然邀请我到前面祷告。我心中不悦，不晓得该怎么办，虽然我不晓得基于什么理由，但他们一直要我到前面去祷告。
我到前面祷告时，仍用我原来的舌音祷告，但因为我已经累了，于是我只做无声的祷告，并在心中呼求“圣灵啊，请为我祷告”，当我一说完，一股电流穿过我的身体，然后我的舌头就开始转动，身体也开始振动，神的安慰临到我，我同时感觉到无可言喻的喜乐和惊讶。
当神向我显明的时候，我立即知道这是真教会，但这样的认知对我而言是不合理的。
借由我所领受的圣灵，我知道神已将我安置在祂的教会里，即便我还有许多事情不明白，特别是为什么他们叫真耶稣教会，也许神是将我放在这个教会以更正他们。
我强烈地相信，如同耶稣在中的祷告，所有的教派应该合而为一，我觉得我们教会将自己从众教派中分别出来是错的，所以我原本的目的是要说服教会，没有任何一个教派的教义是比别的教派好的，我们应该要对别人的意见有较多的宽容以达到合而为一的目的。而最重要的事莫过于“相信基督耶稣”。
当然教会的弟兄姊妹都希望我再次受洗，为了让他们内心平安，我愿意再受洗；但是为了神，我想我不应该再受一次洗，因为我已经受洗两次了。再次受洗不但与我的信仰违背，同时也与其他基督徒的信仰违背，更重要的是，这对神而言是错的。
那一年暑假，张恩哲长老来加拿大访问，我很高兴他跟我有了一些辩论，因为我想要明白我在神面前是否可以接受再次的洗礼，也希望教会弟兄姊妹的心中能有平安。但在他的申论中，我感到神的爱是如此地强烈，以致于我几乎认为他在跟我说英文，甚至其中一句话，我几乎确信我是以英文了解的。
最后，我终于被他的一个论点所说服了，他说“如果为你施洗的人没有圣灵，他如何有这个权柄为你施洗？”我完全认同张长老的这句话。神的教会是属灵的教会，所以需要有圣灵的权柄。
第二天，我便同意接受洗礼，但老实说，我心里仍有一些担忧，我这样做在神眼中是否是对的呢？因为我只是用《圣经》来做辩论，我在地上而神却是在天上，或许神并不会真的很高兴我再次受洗吧?!
为了给自己再一点时间思考，回家后我寄了一封电子邮件给我一位很亲近的属灵同伴，讨论关于张长老所引《圣经》中得到圣灵的使徒便有赦罪的权柄一事。当我寄出这个邮件后，发现我不小心引错了经节，但为时已晚。
我的心情沉重，我想我的朋友一定觉得，我已经迷失了，也或许我真的已经迷失了。但当我回头看那个我所寄出去的经节时，我感到很震惊，因为我所引用的那个经节是：“你要受我所受的洗。”
在那个时刻，我觉得圣灵向我辩证，神已经自己证明了这个洗礼。三个月后，当我发现真教会是创建在圣灵直接向魏保罗发言，说“你们务必领受耶稣所受的洗”，而这正是神在我所发出的电子邮件中向我所说的话，这让我感到无比地雀跃。
我立时了解到符合真理的洗礼、圣餐礼、和洗脚礼都必须是根据耶稣基督亲自做的示范并交代门徒遵行的。透过《圣经》，我们可以知道使徒时代完全合一的教会，是经由遵从耶稣的榜样而设立的。这就是《以弗所书》中所说的一主、一信、一洗的那一个洗，是所有信徒都认同的，也就是基督耶稣所祈求的完全合一。
借由这样震撼人心的启示，我联同爱明顿教会的弟兄姊妹立即写了一封信给在爱明顿的其他四百间教会，解释基督所祈求的“在主里完全的合一”，只能、也只可能透过遵行耶稣亲自示范的洗来完成。我很讶异于其他教会所做的回应，在回复中他们表示了初步的认同，多数教会很兴奋知道有一个方法能够实现基督的祈求和神的意愿。
现在在爱明顿市，我们仍继续努力追求能让所有的教会都联合于耶稣基督亲自做的榜样中，而摒弃人所创的宗教，这样所有的信徒才能如基督所祈求的，在主里合而为一，也就是神所希望的，选民和祂的联合。
因为我们也注意到加拿大的宗教气氛较台湾开放，多数加拿大的教会不很在意他们的基本教义，他们认同教会的合一远比教义来得重要。所以我们需要有耐心的继续将真理以正向的方式传达出去，也期望你们能为我们代祷！
至于我个人，我绝对相信，未来神将在西方教会中重用本会。我也深信，依着神的时间，我们的基本教义一定会将不分黑、白、黄各种族的真信徒带到神的救赎中。而这也是为什么我们的教会能有圣灵，这真理的灵为印，与我们同证神的真理。我们教会是由神所创建，为众信徒重申救赎的真义，而这是我心所期盼的。
至于我的家人，母亲有时会来教会，女儿则相信我们的教义，却还没有来教会，但我相信我们终会全家信主。
这就是小弟的见证，我很高兴有这个机会与你们分享，身为你们的加拿大白人弟兄，感谢主让我能蒙福找到真理，我很感谢大家带给我们这个真福音，这是唯一合神旨意的福音。让我们一起献上我们的感谢，也祈求这个生命之河能继续绵延下去，让救赎的门大开。愿一切荣耀归于我们的主耶稣基督。
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以上为加拿大Rupert Cass弟兄于2008年8月12日，在真耶稣教会社会组神学训练班分享的见证。
Hallelujah, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I testify.
But before I begin I would like to thank God for this opportunity to come here to Taiwan and to share with you Gods leading of how I am able to stand here today with you as a brother.
Although my mother had baptized me as a baby in the Catholic church, our family never went to church, and so my personal journey of faith really began when I was ten years old. My mother and father were having some marital difficulties and my friends mother used the opportunity to invite my mother and sister and I to church.
The church was strongly evangelical, and simply preached that you need to “accept Jesus into your heart,” in order to be saved. I can remember my sister and I in the Sunday School class, and the teacher saying, “if you say this prayer, you will go to heaven forever, and if you dont say this prayer you will go to hell forever,”…”who wants to say the prayer?” So we said the prayer, and that was it I thought, I was guaranteed to go to heaven because I said that prayer.
And a few years later after we joined a Baptist church, and of course the Baptist church insists the biblical baptism must be underwater, and so this time when I was sixteen years old, I was baptized in a baptismal tank. So this was actually my second baptism.
But the test of my faith came when I was about 17 years old, my father and I both became sick by an unusual virus. The symptoms of this virus are very low blood sugar and also a sinus infection. Unfortunately, the doctors did not understand the illness, and as a result both us remained ill for a long period.
My father lost his job and left my mother, and I started failing school even though I used to be a straight A student. I become depressed and actually starting smoking drugs with my church youth group, I soon stopped going to church, and my drug habits grew worse and worse, until soon I was dealing drugs and spent almost four months in jail.
After I got out from jail, I stopped taking drugs to alleviate my suffering, and I starting dating a girl who soon became pregnant. My faith had taken a very long fall.
However, after four years the doctors were able to give me sufficient medication to kill the virus. My health came back and my grades went back up, and about that time an youth leader asked if I wanted to start going back to church.
And so I did, and of course I was deeply sorry for the mess I had made of my life and for abandoning my faith in God. And so I would say sorry to God several times a day, for quite a long time. I think in part of course I was especially sorry for the fate of my daughter. And I was determined to do everything I could do change my life and make my life pleasing to God.
And I became a very devout Christian, reading my bible, sometimes five hours a day, praying for long periods in secret, evangelizing, and giving all I could to the poor. My daughters mother however, was no longer interested in me and went her own way.
But when I was about 27 years old, I had an unusual encounter with God. My mother invited me to a Christian campmeeting close to the mountains. And when I got there I was so surprised, all the people there were praying in some sort of strange tongues. I had never seen, or even heard of this before, and was actually a bit afraid.
To make a long story short, I ended up going to the front with some others thinking I would confess my sins. But the preacher right away came to me at the end of the line, and laid his hands on my stomach, which had become bloated out from my illness.
And then all of the people prayed for me, and all of a sudden this incredible power descended on me, and I was filled with this incredible love, it was like the very presence of God Himself descended on me. I have never in my life experience such love, and joy. I became intoxicated with this overwhelming love.
And this went on for three days, I was literally in heaven on earth, and joy just seemed to burst my heart apart. And still to this day I have never experienced anything even like this encounter with God. And within a week my stomach, which the preacher, laid his hands on, was completely healed.
So from that point onward I began to see miracle after miracle, and outstanding personal miracles became as common as birthday parties. And I began to get this deep and inner conviction that God in fact had chosen me, and was very interested to be involved in my life, and so my devotion became even stronger.
But eventually the experience of miracles became confusing for me, maybe because of the experience or immaturity of church members, including myself, and the miracles seemed to stop both in my own life and in the church I attended, and I decided to start attending a quieter church that did not experience spiritual gifts.
Until one day, about four years ago, when I was 38, two sisters from our church, got jobs at the office where I worked. I thought these girls were very strange, they seem to be very devout Christians, but why did they not want to come to our weekly office bible studies? And I saw the name of the church they belonged to “True Jesus Church.” Thats a pretty cool name I thought.
Then I started thinking to myself, I need to start going to a church that has the Holy Spirit. I cannot hide myself from God, and from His purposes. And I thought to myself, I think the True Jesus Church, whatever it is, has the Holy Spirit, I need to go there.
And so I asked one of the sisters to invite me, and started to go to TJC. And so week after week, we would kneel down and pray in tongues, I would pray in tongues in my “prayer language” and they would pray in their version of tongues.
And I thought to myself its too bad they cant pray in tongues as good as I can, they just keep making the same sound. And why do they keep calling themselves the “True Church,” have they deluded by someone?
Until one weekend we were having special services with lots of prayer. I got tired of praying in my prayer language, my mouth was getting sore after about half an hour. But they wanted me to keep on praying. I was getting exasperated. And so I didnt know what to do.
And they were beckoning me to come to the front with others but I did not understand why. And so I went to the front and continued to pray in prayer language but in my exhaustion I made to God one simple silent prayer, “Help me Holy Spirit.” No sooner than I finished saying it, a shock went through my body and the back of my tongue began to roll as fast as fan and my body began to vibrate.
And the comfort of God went through me. I was overjoyed and scared all at the same time. And in that moment by the presence of God I knew instantly, “I am in the True Church,” this makes no sense to me at all, but I know I am in the true church.
And so by the Spirit I received I knew that God had put me in this church, but I did not understand many things. Especially why they called it the “True Jesus Church.” And I began seeking very hard to understand, and actually I thought maybe God had me here to correct the church, ha ha. Because I of course strongly believed all Christians should be in unity even as Christ prayed in John 17.
And I thought that our church was very much in error in the way we separated ourselves from other believers. And so initially of course my goal was to convince the church that no ones doctrine is really any better, and that we should be more tolerant to other opinions for the sake of unity. And that really all that matters is that you “believe in Christ.”
But of course my brothers and sisters wanted me to rebaptize, and for the sake of their peace I wanted to, but of course for the sake of God I thought I could not, I cannot rebaptize, this is wrong. I had already been baptized twice. To be baptized again, would not only deny my faith but the faith of all other Christians, and this would be wrong before God.
And so in the summer when Elder Chang came to visit he began to challenge me, and I was so happy he was arguing with me, because I wanted to know if there was anyway before God, that God would allow me to rebaptize and give my brothers and sisters peace.
And the love of God was so strong in his arguments that I actually thought he was talking to me in English. So much so that at one time I was convinced that he even spoke to me a sentence alone which I understand in English.
And finally he said one thing that convinced me. “if the person that baptizes you does not have the Holy Spirit, what authority does he have to baptize.” And so I thought “Yes” hes right, Gods church is a spiritual church and has to be established in spiritual authority.”
And so the next day I agreed to baptize, but to be honest I was still somewhat afraid if I had really done the right thing in Gods eyes, because I was only using arguments from the bible, and I am only on earth, and God resides in heaven. And perhaps God Himself was not truly happy with my baptism.
And so to console myself, when I went home I sent an email to my closest spiritual friend defending my decision to baptize with the Elders argument, that the disciples received the authority to forgive sins when they received the Holy Spirit. But after sending the message I realized I accidently typed the wrong Bible verse. And it was to late to change my message.
And so my heart sank, I thought, my friend will now think I have really lost it, and maybe I really have lost it. But when I looked up the verse I really sent I got a shock, because the verse I had sent to him in my defense read “you will indeed be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.”
And in that I moment I felt the Holy Spirit was speaking to me that God had approved of my baptism. And I felt this incredible peace. A peace that grew into tremendous excitement three months later, when in fact that I found out that our church was established y the Holy Spirit speaking to Paul Wei “you must be baptized with the baptism of Jesus.” The same message God had spoken to me through my e-mail.
And then I understand the truth. The commandments of Christ: baptism, communion, and footwashing are all according to Christs example. Through the bible we can see the church of the apostles was established in “complete unity” （John 17） through following the example of Christ.
And this is the one baptism of Ephesians, the only baptism in which all believers can agree to unite, “one lord, one faith and one baptism” and come to the complete unity that our Lord Jesus Christ prayed for.
And so with this revelation and excitement, along with my brothers and sisters in Edmonton, I immediately sent a letter to all 400 churches in the City of Edmonton, to explain that the “complete unity” Jesus prayed for can only could only take place in the “one baptism” of Jesus own example.
And I was very surprised by the response, all the churches I sent the letter to, from those I talked to basically agreed at first their first read and, many were very excited that there truly is a way to fulfilling the will of God and the prayer of Jesus Christ.
And so in Edmonton now we are continuing our efforts to persuade all churches and be united by the example of Christ, and to put away the observance of religious days that have been created by men, so that all believers can truly come back to complete unity as Christ prayed, and so that all believers can truly come into the relationship that God wants with His people.
Because we also see the spiritual climate in Canada is perhaps much more open than in Taiwan. As most churches in Canada disregard the significance of their own doctrines, and hold the unity of churches as more significant than protecting their own doctrines.
So we simply need to continue our delivery of the truth in a patient and positive manner. And so this is something I hope you can pray for.
And on a personal level I most definitely believe God is going to use our church in a very significant way among western churches in the years to come. And I truly believe, the basis of our doctrine, must in Gods timing drive the way to unity for all true believers of Christ, both black, white and Chinese, all whom Christ has chosen for salvation.
And so this is why our church retains the testimony of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit which resides in our church to testify to the truth. That our church was established by God to reestablish the true doctrine of salvation for all believers, and this is something I am so excited about.
As for my own family, my mom is coming sometimes to the church and my daughter believes the doctrine of our church but still needs to come to church, but I have confidence my family members will eventually come.
So this is my testimony, I am excited to share with you, as one of your first “white Canadian” brothers, blessed by God to find the truth. And so I want to thank you for bringing us the true gospel. The only gospel that can fulfill our Lords desire, so let us give thanks to God, and pray that the river continues to flow, that we can be excited that the door of salvation is opening. May all glory be unto our Lord Jesus Christ.
Testimony provider: brother Rupert Cass
Date: 2008/8/12
Location: Taiwan GA, Taichong, Taiwan