Tony Cirigliano Ministries

I hope this newsletter finds you doing well in our Savior. Yahweh has been blessing this ministry that you partner with us in. On Friday night October 13^th and Sabbath October 14^th we held an experimental Great Controversy week-end. I am working on having short evangelistic series that can be done on a week-end. I appreciated so much working with Pastor Andres Sequera and his lovely wife Roxanna. Their support was very much appreciated. Pastor Andres also has a growing Spanish congregation, yet he was at every meeting and also provided the music. The week-end began Friday night with the power point presentation When Paganism Got Baptized.

There was a good attendance for a Friday night service. In fact, for all the meetings there was good attendance considering that it was a long Sabbath. For worship hour the message was The Colossal Hoax, then after a great fellowship meal, I presented the message The Return of Jesus and the Millennium. Then after a short break, I presented the message Mr. 666 & His Mark then closed the seminar with Knocking on Heaven’s Door.

We had special envelopes made out and had a drawing at the end of three of the five meetings. One lady checked that she wanted to join the church by profession of faith and another young boy checked that he wanted to study with the pastor for baptism. Two other visitors who were friends of the Radio Station manager said they thoroughly enjoyed Friday night’s message but had to work on the Sabbath. They will get the CD so they could view the other meetings. We did learn a lot about the length and timings of the meetings. As a result, I am now working on a Great Controversy Series that will be taken directly from The Great Controversy (a few slides per chapter) and the entire presentation should be able to be done in three 45 minute sessions, and it will have everything necessary for immediate baptism or a setting of a date for baptism when more time is needed. This week-end would be a great follow-up to the Soul Winning Made Simple Seminar. Again thank you Pastor Andres and Roxanna and the great people of the Haw River SDA Church for their sticking by for a long Sabbath. From the comments we received, the messages were a great refreshing for the members too!

I am excited that the new book Bible Prophecy Made Simple is finally being printed! It has been a long wait, and the Lord has provided the funds and the spirit to complete this book. As a pastor I found out through evangelistic experimentation that I could get the same results from nine meetings that I did from twenty-six meetings and the shorter meetings were better attended and did not do as the Little Horn did that is “wear out the saints of the most high.” This book has the nine meetings I boiled down my 26 meetings in it. It has 25 of the most important illustrations in it, and when you hand it to someone and ask them to do you a favor and give you their opinion of the book. What you are doing in essence is taking them through an exciting evangelistic campaign!

A church can paste a label in the back of the book inviting the reader to call a phone number requesting notification as to when the next evangelistic series will be held in their area. The book could also be given to interests prior to an evangelistic series. The book will retail at the ACBCs for from between $10.00 and $11.95. Churches can pre-order now and pay just $7 each. I will tie this in with my Soul Winning Made Simple Seminar as another way to witness. I am working on a special letter that will go with the book asking the reader to do the one who gave them the book a favor and read it and give his or her opinion of the book! It will work great. I can see it by faith already!

Week-ends for 2007 are now being booked. Call for a date and let’s work together to win souls!

Commenting on John 6:37, Ellen White wrote: "The message from God to me for you is 'Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out' (John 6:37). If you have nothing else to plead before God but this one promise from your Lord and Saviour, you have the assurance that you will never, never be turned away. It may seem to you that you are hanging upon a single promise, but appropriate that one promise and it will open to you the whole treasure house of the riches of the grace of Christ. Cling to that promise and you are safe. 'Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.' Present this assurance to Jesus, and you are as safe as though inside the city of God" (Manuscript Releases, vol. 10, p. 175).

Feed The Shepherds Update

Have you checked out http://cleartruths.com/ReceivedTruth.htm ? Over 300 pastors have received the Doug Batchelor DVD and Pastor Kevin Morgan’s CD. As far as I can gather approximately 36 ministers are doing the studies on-line at http://wbaj.net or have ordered material from Amazing Facts. As soon as our new book Bible Prophecy Made Simple which is now being printed is finished we will test sending it to some ministers for their reaction. Quite frankly the response from the DVD has not been as marked as we would like. Pray for this ministry and if you are impressed to do so, have your church send some of these DVDS to ministers in your area. The cost for the book or the DVD is $10 per pastor or church. Send donations to TCM, 887 Seven Oaks Rd. Boone, NC 28607. We have the list of churches for every city. The truth of God’s Word will never return void!

Want to Help Your Church Grow?

Want to do something for your church that will help it become stronger in faith, grow in numbers and be drawn closer together? Then ask your church board to consider sponsoring a Soul Winning Made Simple Seminar. At the seminar they are will hear many powerful, inspiring and encouraging Bible and Spirit of Prophecy quotes. They will hear powerful conversion stories. They will learn how to get Bible studies; how to lead people to the Savior; how to do friendship evangelism; how to give their testimony in an evangelistic way, how to pray with someone to lead them to Jesus, etc. It will change your churches’ witnessing experience forever! As the young people say, “it’s all good!” We are setting dates for 2007 now!

“There is not a point that needs to be dwelt upon more earnestly, repeated more frequently,

or established more firmly in the minds of all than the impossibility of fallen man meriting anything by his own best good works. Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone.” – Ellen White in Faith & Works, p. 19.

We live in an age of “neurosis.” Neurosis is defined by the dictionary as a “functional disorder of the mind or emotions.” The causes are legion. Many of the neurosis of the age are religious in nature and run the international gambit from Waco to Baghdad and from Rome to Rwanda. If I might take the liberty, I would like to address a neurosis I will call salvational insecurity that plagues many Christians including Seventh-day Adventists. Let me first say, a little fear is necessary in such an important thing as our eternal destiny. The Bible does say, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12) We should always have a healthy fear and reverence for Yahweh the Lord, and never should we take sin lightly or deny the Lord’s ability to give us victory in our Christian walk. But we also must never deny the truth of the gospel and the salvational security it provides.

There are many who profess Christ, yet do not know they have eternal life or that if they died, their eternal salvation would be assured. I know this from being an ordained minister in the Seventh-day Adventist Church for the last 21 years, and from traveling around the country giving gospel worker training classes for almost as long... This salvational insecurity is the neurosis I want to address in this article.

First of all, the Bible makes it very plain that we can KNOW that we have eternal life. In 1 John 5:9-13 it is written: 1 John 5:9 if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. ¹⁰ He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. ¹¹ And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. ¹³ These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

We can know that we have eternal life because eternal life is in Jesus, and if we have Him, we have eternal life! The gospel saves! But let’s define the gospel. This is how Paul defined it in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15 verses 1-4: “Moreover brethren I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; ² By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. ³ For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; ⁴ And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” According to Paul, the Gospel is the good news about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:1-4.) Paul said if we believe the gospel, the good news about Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, then we are saved! In Romans 10:9-10 the gospel apostle wrote it very plainly: If thou shalt confess with they mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raise Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. This is plain Bible and plain Pauline theology. He said that when we believe with our heart in Jesus, it leads to us obtaining righteousness, and when we confess with our mouth our belief in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have salvation!

For Seventh-day Adventists, the writings of Ellen White sometimes are misunderstood and can be a cause of salvational insecurity. The Lord’s servant Ellen White knew perfectly well that man could not earn, merit, or in any way add to the saving work Jesus did by his life, death, and resurrection for us, and she knew that we are saved when we trust Jesus and believe by faith alone in the atonement He made. This message in her writings became even clearer after hearing and staunchly defending the “most precious message” of righteousness by faith presented at the 1888 General Conference Session by A.T. Jones and Elder Waggoner. Her books written after 1888 give testimony to this fact. Books like Steps to Christ, Desire of Ages, Christ’s Object Lessons, and Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, and in the entire Conflict of the Ages series are rich in the theme of righteousness by faith alone. I have gathered some statements from her 1888 materials that are truly striking on this subject. Here are three of the many quotes I found:

“If you would gather together everything that is good and holy and noble and lovely in man, and then present the subject to the angels of God as acting a part in the salvation of the human soul or in merit, the proposition would be rejected as treason! “ – Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, p. 816.1 (Also in Faith & Works.)

Again in 1888, she wrote: “There is not a point that needs to be dwelt upon more earnestly, repeated more frequently, or established more firmly in the minds of all than the impossibility of fallen man meriting anything by his own best good works. Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone.” Ibid. p. 811:2.

Again in her 1888 writings “Let the subject be made distinct and plain that it is not possible to affect anything in our standing before God or in the gift of God through creature merit. Should faith and works purchase the gift of salvation for anyone, then the Creator is under obligation to the creature. Here is an opportunity for falsehood to be accepted as truth. If any man can merit salvation by anything he may do, the he is in the same position as the Catholic to do penance for his sins. Salvation then, is partly of debt that may be earned as wages. If man cannot, by any of his good works merit salvation, then it must be wholly of grace, received by man as a sinner because he receives and believes in Jesus. It is wholly a free gift. Justification by faith is placed beyond controversy. And all this controversy, as soon as the matter is settled that the merits of fallen man in his good works can never procure eternal life for him.” Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, p. 812:2.

Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. As the second Adam. Jesus has already lived a perfect life for us, and was not only our substitute and surety, but tasted death for every man, woman, and boy and girl. He paid the price for our sins when He died on the cross over two thousand years ago. He made it possible for all that believe in Him to be saved, and to know they are saved!

It may be often heard, but seems to need to be oft repeated that obedience shows that we are Christians, and that we love God. It is not a method to become a Christian or a means of earning salvation! Like the old example so succinctly states, apple trees make apples because they are apple trees, not to become apple trees. Christians obey God’s law and His word because they are Christians by faith, not in order to become Christians. Understanding this simple principle can make the difference between being a happy, joyful upward moving victorious Christian, or a Christian groaningly plodding toward heaven with the neurosis of salvational insecurity hoping to be good enough one day to please God!

Here are some texts to help us understand the good news of salvation full and free.

Galatians 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Romans 5:18-19 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Now what about the last generation, about perfecting character, dress reform, diet reform, etc? Don’t we have to do or not do all these things to be saved? Don’t these things have a part to play in the salvation of the human soul or in merit? Be very careful here! Remember the quote that if we present these things to people as having a part to play in their salvation, then we are guilty of “treason” against God! That’s what we just read from the inspired pen a few paragraphs above this one! If it’s treason to present it to the angels, it surely is treason to teach it to men and women! Agape love will inspire us to live right, and eat right because we will be in love with Jesus and have His power inside us when we receive Him and are born again! He will then work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure! Victory over sin and the beauty of holiness are the fringe benefits we get from being Christians, not a means to become Christians. Of course we are to teach the truths of the Bible about dress, prophecy, health, etc. But we are first to lead the student to Jesus, then teach him or her rest in the light that streams from the cross of Calvary.

Let me state my belief about the last generation of Christians. I believe that they will be so in love with the Lord Jesus that the temptations of the devil will be as if invisible to them! They will have the privilege to be living when the final events provoke their faith and increases their trust and dependence on the Lord. Like Jacob wrestled with the Lord when his life was in danger they too will wrestle with the Lord. “So in the time of trouble, if the people of God had unconfessed sins to appear before them while tortured with fear and anguish, they would be overwhelmed; despair would cut off their faith, and they could not have confidence to plead with God for deliverance. But while they have a deep sense of their unworthiness, they will have no concealed wrongs to reveal. Their sins will have been blotted out by the atoning blood of Christ, and they cannot bring them to remembrance.” PP, pps. 202-203. Notice that those living in the time of trouble will have a “deep sense of their unworthiness,” and they will have confessed known sins. It is because they have confessed their sins, and because their sins have been blotted out that they can go through this time without being “overwhelmed.” They win the victory because their sins have been confessed and blotted out by the blood of the Lamb!

The parable of the Ten Virgins is a parable for the last days – just before the Savior’s return. If we use Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins as an example regarding the experience of the last day church, then we can see that those living in the time just before the Lord’s return will awaken and trim their lamps when the loud cry that the bridegroom is coming is heard. They receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as they see and hear that the bridegroom is coming! I believe that the trimming of their lamps is the latter rain finishing touch that prepares them for the marriage supper of the Lamb! Those who have been “born again.” by faith have oil in their lamps. The oil represents the Holy Spirit which is given to believers when they receive Jesus Christ by faith, and are converted and baptized. See Acts 2:38. Although they too slept, they had a conversion experience when they received the oil they hold in their lamps! Like the loud cry that the “bridegroom cometh,” it will be the events of the last days that will awaken God’s remnant people. This awakening and wrestling with the Lord will cause them to earnestly seek for the victories of faith in their life, and they will then truly hunger and thirst after righteousness. They will be filled with righteousness by faith, and not by their works of merit. They will vindicate the character of God under the power of the latter rain. They will do it as saved believers who know their Lord and trust in Him, and not as people trying to be good enough for the Lord to love them and save them! Understand this and you will avoid the neurosis of salvational insecurity. If you are right with Jesus now by faith and confession of sin, then you will be right with Him should he come today, or whatever day! Day by day ask the Lord to forgive your trespasses and cling to Him and you are ever safe!

Remember that Paul said the gospel consists of the truth about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He said that if we believe with our heart in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we will be saved. If those living in the last days are saved by a different gospel that requires men and women and boys and girls to do things which Paul never made part of the gospel, then it is another gospel and Paul said if we or even an angel preach another gospel, we will be “accursed.” See Galatians 1:8-9. Those saved in the last days will be saved by the same gospel Paul preached because there are not two gospels - only one! The same gospel that saved men and women and boys and girls before you or I or Ellen White were ever born, is still saving men and women and boys and girls in the same exact way! It will be the same gospel that will save people in the last days too! That’s why it’s called the “everlasting gospel.” Truly believing this good news will transform the life. In fact, it is the secret of holiness we are told! Let me close with this quote from the inspired pen: “Those who receive the Savior become sons of God. They are His spiritual children, born again, renewed in righteousness and true holiness. Their minds are changed. With clearer vision they behold eternal realities. They are adopted into God’s family, and they become conformed to His likeness, changed by His Spirit from glory to glory. . .Accepting Christ as a personal Savior, and following His example of self-denial – this is the secret of holiness.” 6BC, pps. 1116-1117.

( ) Sacred Name KJV Bible with the true names of the Father and the Son restored. Leather $49.00

( ) Soul Winning Made Simple Power-point CD with Sound CD. Go through the seminar in the privacy of your own home or with a small group! $49.

( ) Soul Winning Made Simple Power-Point with Bible studies, reaping meetings, and copyright permission $149.00