Dear Sir:

    You asked that I explain my statement "In Your State." Mankind does not know what its state is. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, Jeremiah 17:9.Only God knows our hearts. Our responsibility, then, is to know God through His word. This is the condition that I say that you do not know. You are lacking in the true wisdom of His Word. I have checked the several translations that I have and all are at least close (an understatement) to the original with one being the closest. I realize that the only inspired manuscripts are the original Greek and Hebrew. We don't even have the originals to compare the copies to. The translations are what the masses have to work with. I trust my copies of the translations to give me at least the basics, and a more, of God's original intent. God's original intent from the beginning was to have fellowship with man, His creation. But He wants man willingly not as a (Calvinistic) puppet; otherwise we would not have needed Jesus Christ to die as our savior. You do believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son and that He died and rose again, don't you? This is also a Bible basic. If we are all going to be in heaven anyway what was the use in a savior dying. After all He was part man and part God. He had the body that was mortal and the spirit that was immortal. He could have just said the word and went bodily into heaven to be with the Father instead of dying on the cross, for us. When we have to pick apart the intricacies of word meanings to find what we think is the true picture we have, in most cases, gone too far. We have past the meaning and the intent and gone to our own little corner of ear tickling, pabulum, don't get doctrinal on us kind of Bible interpretation. The plain meaning of the Bible is, man needed a savior, man was shown for four thousand years that a savior was coming, now that the savior is here believe and obey Him. That second part is the stickler. Most people want to believe in Him but the obey part gets them in trouble. Why should we act right if there is no punishment and reward system? We all should do as we please here in this life, however long or short it is, because we will all be in heaven eventually reaping the reward, for which we never worked for. How do we get to heaven anyway? You seemed to say, in your literature, we can just sit back and it will eventually come to us. Why then is there stipulations set forth in the Word of God. The Gospels say; "I tell you no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish… Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins... He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but h who does not believe will be condemned... And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of The Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Acts records it several times. "Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit... Nor is there salvation in any other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved… And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord." The letters also tell of this salvation. "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ… There is also an antitype, which now saves us-baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh,but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities having been made subject to Him." Why all this if God through Jesus Christ were not trying to warn us to avoid the penalties of that second death spoke of in Revelations. There is no