The 12-Year Betrayal: Inside the Bryan Meadows and Stephanie Prescott Scandal
Abuse or Adultery? The Conflicting Narratives of Atlanta’s Embassy City Church
A House Divided: How Bryan Meadows’ Secret Life Remade the Megachurch Landscape
The Price of “Toxic Submission”: Stephanie Prescott Breaks Her Silence on Bryan Meadows
From the Pulpit to the Playbill: The Controversial “Restoration” of Pastor Bryan Meadows
Twelve Years in the Shadows: The Scandal Rocking Atlanta’s Embassy City Church
Daniel Whyte III, President of Gospel Light Society International, says what is shocking about this fiasco is that it is not shocking—especially to those at Bcnn1.com. We receive 10 to 20 reports like this from across the country and around the world every day. We receive so many demonic and tragic reports that we cannot cover them all, nor do we want to, as it is the same “satanic foolishness” over and over again.
Whyte notes that while he has read about the “falling away” of the church throughout his nearly 50-year ministry, he never expected it to be so devastatingly abrupt. Twelve years? That is as long as many marriages last. That is a quarter of a lifetime spent living in adultery. Did the wife truly know nothing?
Whyte insists that Pastor Meadows should “take several seats” and never enter ministry again. Furthermore, he argues that Ms. Prescott should never have been in ministry in the first place; she should seek therapy and cease using the “abuse” claim. In his view, it is not abuse—it is adultery. She was not a child when this began; she was a grown woman.
Regarding the wife: if she is truly innocent, it is one thing to forgive a one-night stand or a brief lapse, but twelve years is a flagrant marital and technical foul. At the same time, the wife who stands by her man often wins in the end, so Mrs. Meadows must do as the Lord leads. To end this “satanic foolishness” engulfing the church, all born-again, saved, God-called pastors must heed Acts 6:4: “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” Pastors should start daily online prayer services, reading the Bible with their congregations and the world, while ensuring that only their wife and family are present in their homes or offices.
Atlanta megachurch senior pastor Bryan Meadows revealed during a hard-hitting interview with Jessica Laine MacDonald four days ago that he had a 12-year “affair” with a co-pastor, sparking rage and condemnation online. Now, Stephanie Prescott, 34, has stated for the first time to The Roys Report (TRR) that she was the object of Meadows’ illicit misconduct. But she’s not calling it an affair; she says it was “abuse.”
“Now I understand it was grooming, abuse of power and clergy sexual abuse,” she told TRR. “I would love to see this article help other women learn from this.”
Meadows, who also uses the title “apostle,” founded Embassy City Church in 2011 with his wife, Patrice, who’s also a senior pastor.
Prescott, who was also there at the founding of the charismatic church, discussed her alleged abuse in a YouTube interview last June with Bishop Demetrius Sinegal, senior pastor of Reformation Culture Church.
But she didn’t name her abuser; she instead talked about how an unidentified man “drew her in.”
Stephanie Prescott is interviewed by Bishop Sinegal on Prophets Arise about her alleged abuse by Embassy City pastor Bryan Meadows. (Video screen grab)
Six years her senior, she said, he became her spiritual father. He told her she had a special preaching gift. When he first crossed boundaries with her by inviting her into his office alone to ask her about her “sexuality,” she told Sinegal she was shocked and confused.
She told TRR her purpose in not naming Meadows last June wasn’t to protect him. She just wanted to focus on connecting with women in the broader church with similar stories.
Prescott also didn’t reveal his real name in a book she released a year ago: “95 Theses to The American Church: The Confrontation of Spiritual Abuse, Idolatry, and Mass Deception.”
“Now I don’t mind confirming it was him — Bryan Meadows,” she told TRR today.
Meadows didn’t respond to TRR’s request for comment about Prescott’s revelation.
In his interview with MacDonald, which has 71,000 views to date, Meadows did not tell the name or age of the other woman.
“I had an affair. I stepped out on my wife,” Meadows told a clearly skeptical MacDonald. “It was something I knew was wrong.”
The interview wasn’t the first time Meadows has referred to his adultery publicly. It was part of a live one-man show he performed a year ago called “My Whole Truth.”
But that show did not have near the impact as MacDonald’s video — a ratings hit for the broadcaster who took over the Christian relationship podcast, Hardly Initiated, from Tysean Jackson and Ryan Catchings last month.
MacDonald chose Meadows for her first interview.
She spared few words in questioning his misconduct and lack of transparency with his church.
“Somebody was saying,” she said while apparently reading a social media post off her cell phone, “why does he want a public position but private contrition?”
He responded, “My contrition was public; they just didn’t stay around long enough to see it.”
But an “apology video” that Meadows said he had posted no longer seems available on his YouTube channel.
In his interview with MacDonald, the preacher said he took a sabbatical two years ago for counseling and marriage repair after his “head prophet” exposed him in 2024. His misconduct had lasted 12 years at that point.
Meadows placed some of the blame for the relationship on the woman, saying he was lonely and leaned on a friend. “That friend created space for us to do something that wasn’t right,” he said.
That excuse didn’t sit well with interviewer MacDonald, a former boxer, experienced journalist and a financial mentor. She also used to attend Meadows’ church, and Meadows did MacDonald’s premarital counseling and officiated her 2024 wedding.
“In our vows, you talking about not committing adultery … and it’ s like, this whole time? Apostle, no, no,” MacDonald said. “It was so hurtful to me.”
When she learned about what he had done, “I specifically felt … how can he lead our marriage when he is not being faithful in his own?
MacDonald’s 88-minute interview provoked an especially immense outpouring of anger from Black Christians on social media. It also spawned multiple companion videos by other YouTube personalities speculating on the woman involved and Meadows’ qualifications as a spiritual leader.
“Bryan Meadows coming out is not the full picture,” said Abednego Lufile, a retired professional basketball player turned YouTube preacher.
“What you are hearing has not even scratched the surface. My wife and I — the messages we have received today: It is satanic, diabolical, unbelievable, Jezebelic, Molech-type stuff … Either you believe the man of God who has been hiding this and lying for 12 years, or you believe the other women and stories that they encounter.”
‘I am a loyalist’
In the interview, Meadows said he and his wife invited a woman to live with them early in their marriage, when he was in his 20s. He said he spent time home alone with her when his wife was at work, and she was involved in church ministry. After an emotional bond turned into “the breaking of boundaries,” Meadows didn’t disclose who made the first move.
However, in her interview with Sinegal, Prescott pinpoints Meadows’ grooming “to where my guard was let down.” She said she was estranged from her own father, which made her lean on Meadows’ spiritual fathering even more.
Then one day, Meadows kissed her, she said. This was the start of a “13-year long enmeshment.” (Although Meadows said the relationship lasted 12 years, Prescott said the timeline included an extra year.)
Meadows had admitted to MacDonald that, after an “initial infraction,” he didn’t break off relations with the co-pastor. He personally liked her and wanted her serving at his church.
“I am a loyalist, all right?” he said. “If I love you, I love you. I’m fighting for you. I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.”
But Prescott’s version spoke of betrayal, not loyalty.
While she as engaged in this abusive relationship with her pastor, Prescott said she was dating a man but wasn’t sure she wanted to marry him. Confusingly, Meadows convinced her to marry her boyfriend, whom Meadows called a spiritual son. Meadows even officiated their wedding, while continuing his misconduct with Prescott, then 21.
“It was just so many layers of betrayal,” she said. “My betrayal against my husband, his betrayal against his spiritual son, and then, of course, the boundary crossing and leadership.”
Even MacDonald pointed out to Meadows that he betrayed his own wife.
Meadows responded that he compartmentalized the two relationships and was still able to treat his wife well, while pastoring the church competently. Still, the illicit relationship became addictive, he admitted. Other pastors got wind of it, even before his wife did.
“When I first started dealing with this, I didn’t deal with this and try to hide it,” he said.
However, he didn’t clarify who the pastors helping him were, and what, if anything, they did in response.
But MacDonald said Meadows still led a double life. When MacDonald and her husband were in counseling with Meadows two years ago, MacDonald’s husband asked Meadows about rumors of some sort of scandal. She said Meadows told them not to believe everything they hear.
“I thought you were just overworked and resting and on a sabbatical because of that, not because of what happened,” she said.
Missing from the Meadows interview was any mention of adult clergy sexual abuse (ACSA), the correct term for pastoral “affairs” with someone under their care. ACSA is illegal in 14 states plus the District of Columbia, but not Georgia.
Pastors who term their sexual contact with someone under their care as “affairs,” minimize the power dynamic of spiritual authority, says Kate Roberts. She is an attorney representing survivors of sexual abuse and co-director of Restored Voices Collective, an advocacy group for sexual abuse victims.
Pastors may even use “position-leveling” to make it seem like the victim was their equal, Roberts said.
“The pastor who has violated the congregation’s trust in some way — it’s in their best interest to be able to frame it as an affair because that enables them to escape accountability for the fact that they have actually engaged in abuse,” she said.
“There’s a level of control over the person who’s under your care. In that situation, there can’t be consent. The responsibility to maintain boundaries is with the person who is in a position of spiritual authority.”
Prescott, who first got involved with Meadows when she was 19, said she didn’t have the strength to escape him. His abuse eventually destroyed her marriage, she said.
Even after counseling and an “unraveling process” following the divorce, Prescott still felt powerless to leave Meadows. When she told him she wanted out, Meadows would throw a tantrum, she said. The only thing that stopped the abuse was when someone in authority at Embassy finally stepped in.
‘Exposure is a blessing’
On Father’s Day weekend of 2024, Meadows said the church’s head prophet confronted him about his relationship with Prescott.
A friend of Prescott’s — in whom the co-pastor had confided — left the church and was starting to talk about the situation. Word apparently got to the prophet through the grapevine.
At first, Meadows said he thought he could deny it all, but the prophet pressed him.
“Exposure is a blessing,” he said. “I had no choice but to be honest and to confess in front of my wife, in front of other parties.”
Prescott called the exposure her “deliverance.”
“There was this relief and just feeling of not carrying that because I had been carrying it for so long,” she told Sinegal.
That next Sunday, Meadows said he announced in church that he was “struggling” and needed a sabbatical but didn’t go into details.
It’s unclear how much, if anything, other leaders in the church knew at that point, but they should have hired a third-party investigator, Roberts said.
“The third party should … evaluate not only the abuser’s actions but also the church’s failures in protecting others from that abuse,” she said.
Prescott said church officials did the opposite and forced her to resign. She asked to speak with the board to share the “major damage” that Meadows caused in her life and was promised a meeting. A month passed, but the meeting never happened. Meanwhile, she noticed Meadows met several times with the board.
“They were working out active plans for his restoration,” she told Sinegal.
For a few weeks, the church’s Facebook page showed other speakers providing the Sunday sermons in Meadows’ absence. Then in September, Meadows returned to preach a series on family. In October, he announced in a now-deleted Facebook post that he’d been through counseling, deliverance, forgiveness, healing and learning.
“(I)t’s been rough, but I’ve never felt this healthy, this loved, this supported, this focused, and this free … it’s time to work,” he wrote.
That December, he announced he would be selling tickets for a one-man tell-all show called, “My Whole Truth,” at Atlanta’s 7 Stages Theatre in January 2025.
“From Buddhism, Sexual Abuse, Homelessness, Molestation, Infidelity, Betrayal … this has been the most difficult, gut wrenching, beautiful season… and I almost didn’t survive,” Meadows wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post.
He told MacDonald that he talked about the exposure of his infidelity at that show.
“Wait, wait,” MacDonald said. “After everything with your wife … you made a show about it?”
Had he cleared this show with his church leaders, she asked.
Meadows said he asked his counselor and wife, but not his church leaders because he didn’t do the show in the church.
“I wanted to be able to tell my journey in an uncut, raw, transparent way that would probably not be well received in the church,” he said.
On April 18, he’ll do a second one-man show called, “Good Grief” about “the grief, the pressure, the loss, the laughter, and the sacrifices that come with carrying people, vision, faith, and responsibility.” In-person tickets range from $71 to $241.
Meanwhile, Prescott said she spent the next six months alone, dealing with losing her husband, pastor, job and ministry. She said God then started to restore her life. Three months ago, Sinegal hired her onto his staff as an associate pastor.
She still questions whether Meadows’ church leaders should allow him to preach and pastor when his church never reckoned with how he harmed her.
When asked by Sinegal to identify the attitude in many churches that allow such abuse, “toxic submission,” she responded. “Idolizing the one man instead of the many different parts of the body … we kind of position people in a way where they are more easily abused.”
To read more, click here: https://julieroys.com/atlanta-megachurch-pastor-admitted-12-year-affair-with-his-co-pastor-today-his-victim-went-public-calling-it-abuse/
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Daniel Whyte III has been preaching the Gospel for over 46 years and is the founder and President of the over 42-year-old Gospel Light Evangelistic Society International, Pastor of the over 38-year-old Gospel Light House of Prayer International, and Founder, President, and Editor-in-Chief of the over 22-year-old Black Christian News One (BCNN1.com)—reaching millions with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, discipleship preaching, and the whole counsel of God around the world by any means necessary, “Crying in the wilderness,” and “Exiled on the Isle of Patmos.”.
Daniel Whyte III was honored by being named one of the 17 most notable alumni in the history of the 134-year-old Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas, and one of the 69 most notable alumni in the history of the 53-year-old Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Daniel Whyte III holds the following degrees from these universities:
- Doctor of Ministry (D.Min., in progress) – Liberty University John W. Rawlings School of Divinity, Lynchburg, VA
- Master of Theology (Th.M.) – Liberty University John W. Rawlings School of Divinity, Lynchburg, VA
- Master of Divinity (M.Div.) – Liberty University John W. Rawlings School of Divinity, Lynchburg, VA
- Bachelor of Arts in Religion (B.A.) – Texas Wesleyan University, Fort Worth, Texas
- Bachelor of Theological Studies – Bethany Divinity College and Seminary, Dothan, Alabama (Honors: Summa Cum Laude)
Daniel Whyte III was also honored to sit with presidents and world leaders by being invited by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to attend the homegoing of Dr. Billy Graham.
He is the Essence national best-selling author of Letters to Young Black Men and the Amazon best-selling author of Letters to Young Black Women (African-American category). He has authored over 100 books.
He is also the founder, president, and editor-in-chief of the 20-year-old BlackChristianNews.com (BCNN1.com), which has impacted every denomination in the evangelical and Christian world and has influenced presidents, the U.S. government, governments around the world, and the public square. BlackChristianNews.com has been named the #1 Black Christian website and blog in the world for four years running by the independent Feedspot and is on the list of the top 60 Christian news sites in the world—red, yellow, black, or white.
He has preached the Gospel and the Word of God in person across America and in over 24 countries to thousands of people. He has preached the Gospel and the Word of God to millions of people around the world with the help of the internet, preaching live and on-demand multiple times a day for over eight years, to this very day. His mottoes are “Crying in the Wilderness,” “Exiled on the Isle of Patmos,” and “Preaching the Gospel by any means necessary,” all for the glory of God and Jesus Christ.
Daniel Whyte III is the president of the over-40-year-old Gospel Light Evangelistic Society International and the over-37-year-old Gospel Light House of Prayer International. He is known worldwide as the prophet who predicted the Coronavirus Plague over 10 years before it hit in recorded preaching and writing. God also led him to guide thousands through the Coronavirus Plague that killed over 20 million people because of the sins in the Judas-Laodicean church.
Daniel Whyte III’s greatest blessing in this life is his “quiver full” of 10 children—Daniella (Danni), Daniel IV, Danita Evangeline, Danae Mary-Louise, Daniqua Grace, Danyel Ezekiel, Danyelle Elizabeth Breedlove, Danielle Tekeela, Duran-Daniel, and the first Daniel IV (deceased and in heaven with the Lord)—along with grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Daniel Whyte III has been unblissfully but sexually satisfyingly married to his first and only wife, Meriqua Whyte of Christiana, Jamaica, for over 37 years since December 19, 1987. Jesus Christ said: “And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” Even though many evangelicals, charismatics, and Protestants try to act as if these words of Jesus Christ are not a reality in our modern Christianity—primarily because of the Satanic-driven prosperity gospel and an over-positive philosophy, which is a lie not based in reality or biblical truth—the words of Jesus Christ are true for every person who preaches the Gospel. The outcomes of the Gospel are a changed life and opposition from family, lukewarm Christians, Laodicean-Judas pastors and churches, the world, and the devil. This is a reality in our present evil world.
While Daniel Whyte III thoroughly enjoys his married life because he did not allow his wife to have her way at any point and was and is solidly and biblically the head of his household throughout the marriage—often quoting Joshua, “As for me and my house, we’re going to serve the Lord” “up in here!”—and because his wife never failed in the very important area of sex, which he got married for in the first place to avoid sinning against God, he has especially enjoyed the privilege and joy of raising his children in the Lord virtually by himself. He served the Lord with them every day of their lives, from the time they were born until they graduated from college, became adults, and moved on.
However, his wife, Meriqua Whyte—motivated by Satan, with a Pharaoh-style pride mixed with the well-known female Jamaican-style pride, stubbornness, rebelliousness, and witchcraft—has been his greatest Judas enemy in the world and has been what Paul spoke of: a “messenger of Satan” and a “thorn in the flesh.” Amazingly, and by the grace of God, that Satanic evil opposition has spurred Daniel Whyte III on to preach the Gospel probably more times than any man on record. God has honored him because he did not “hearken to the voice of his wife.” Whyte tells other Christian men to only hearken to the voice of God and Jesus Christ—not to their wives, as so many thousands of church men have been taught by pastors and other older men throughout the years. Remember, we are in this worldwide, multi-generational mess because Adam hearkened to the voice of his wife and not to the voice of God.
Before they were married, Daniel Whyte III told his wife Meriqua Whyte that they would not do family life as her parents did, because their married life was hellacious and ended in divorce, as did some of her other family members, including the aunt she was living with. He also told his wife they would not do family life as his parents did, because it was also hellacious and out of order since his mother was the head of the household, not his father. But thanks be to God, they never got a divorce. Whyte told his wife before they got married that they were going to do it God’s way according to Ephesians chapters 5 and 6, or no way at all. And then he asked his wife, “Are you willing to do marriage God’s way according to Ephesians chapters 5 and 6?” And she said yes. Whyte told her before they got married that if she did not live up to her end of the deal, all bets were off.
Because Daniel Whyte III’s wife, Meriqua Whyte, was so proud, unsubmissive, stubborn, and rebellious after they got married, God led him to read Ephesians chapters 5 and 6 every day in their family devotions throughout their marriage. In the first year of their marriage, Daniel Whyte III also gave his wife a list of verses for women from the Word of God for her to read, which she still reads to this day. He also bought her many books to read to help her be the wife God wanted her to be.
Whyte realized early in the marriage that his wife was not a born-again, saved person even though she lied and said she was before they got married. After over 37 years of marriage, she is still not saved, never bearing any fruit of a saved person, to the point of not even wanting to tell her children, “I love you” and not wanting to hug them when they were little children, even after her husband told her to do so. She also hated the daily family devotions that her husband led and tried to hinder them. She also demonically hated and tried to hinder every Gospel preaching service to this very day.
However, only by the grace of God, they are still married, and despite the devil constantly working through his wife to try to hinder him from preaching the Word of God, he is still preaching the Gospel and the Word of God live and on-demand. His ministry reaches over 148,800 people per month with over 21,000 unique views per month, reaching 149 countries, preaching the Gospel and the Word of God in 2 to 3 services a day, 7 days a week. Glory be to God!
Mrs. Meriqua Whyte’s Apology to her Husband and Their 7 Children for not Being a Biblical Wife or Mother
Mrs. Meriqua Whyte, the Wife of Daniel Whyte III, Gave him the Best Father’s Day Gift Ever About 10 Years Ago When She Unexpectedly and Voluntarily Apologized for the First Time to Him and Their 7 Children for Not Being the Wife, Mother, and Christian Example of the Woman She Should Have Been Over the Past 37 Years of Marriage
Here is what Mrs. Meriqua Whyte wrote ten years ago after verbally apologizing to the entire family on Father’s Day, right before church service:
Over thirty years of marriage. Over thirty years of ups and downs. Over thirty years of trying to make our problems a personal thing between my husband and me. Thankfully, he did not allow me to do that and kept telling me it was between God and me—over thirty years of acting on my feelings and not on what the Bible says. Over thirty years of refusing to obey God’s simple command to a wife—to be obedient to your husband in all things. Over thirty years of disobedience, rebelliousness, stubbornness, lying, and dishonesty, all rooted in pride. Over thirty years of simply not choosing to mature as a Christian.
God has been dealing with me for over thirty years now about changing my attitude and behavior as a wife, which has manifested itself in disobedience, rebelliousness, stubbornness, lying, dishonesty, having an ungodly attitude and spirit, and simply not being the wife, mother, or example of a Christian woman that I should have been throughout the years. (By the way, for those of you who may be thinking that my disobedience, rebelliousness, stubbornness, lying, and dishonesty have resulted in adultery, I will say here that I have never committed any adultery or had sex with another man besides my husband, Daniel Whyte III, since I was born.)
God kept telling me I needed to stop my rebellious and stubborn behavior, apologize to my husband and children, and get my heart right with him, my husband, and my children. He sent others my way to tell me how to behave:
- My husband, but I didn’t want to hear it from him
- Other Christian women speakers
- Other preachers
- Books and other materials, but I would not take heed
I knew what to do, but I chose not to do it. The devil had me thinking and believing—as he is having a lot of wives and mothers think and believe—that your relationship with your husband and how you respond to him, whether positive or negative, will not affect your relationship with your children or your relationship with God. I say without hesitation that this is one of the devil’s lies, and sad to say, many wives and mothers are falling for this lie.
Another lie of the devil that Christian wives are falling for is that you can still have a strong relationship with God without being submissive to your husband. Lie! Lie! Lie! There is no truth to this. I know because I have experienced this and am still experiencing this as I am going through this breaking process, which is not happening overnight.
Even throughout my years of rebelliousness, stubbornness, and pride, I still kept praying the prayer I used to pray daily before I got married: “Lord, make me be exactly what You want me to be. Lord, break, make, and mold me into what you want me to be.” Well, God took that prayer seriously, and once you accept Him, He will begin the breaking process. It’s up to us how long that breaking process will take. For me, sad to say, it has taken over 30 years, and the breaking is not complete. In what way is God breaking me down right now? Well, our children have grown up. The three oldest have gone through and are still going through college, have gotten their degrees, and some are working on their second, third, and fourth degrees, launching their careers and moving out. God slapped me into reality and truly intensified the breaking process. My husband told me before our first child was born and repeatedly while the children were young that my job was to love our children and make positive memories with them and that if I did that, I would have a wonderful relationship with them as adults in the time to come. Well, I disobeyed God and my husband, who did not let up on his duties. And he has a wonderful relationship with our children, even the girls, and I don’t. However, God led me to finally break the day before Father’s Day, and while I was helping my husband get dressed to preach, I asked him if I could apologize to him and the entire family. That’s the first time I ever did that on my own. Throughout the years, he has always told me that I needed to get my heart right with God, him, and my children; otherwise, I would never have the joy and peace of the Lord in my life. However, I kept on lying and denying that I was the problem.
Here is what I said to my husband and children on Saturday afternoon, June 17, 2017, the day before Father’s Day. My husband told the entire family that this was the best Father’s Day gift I have ever given to him:
“Daddy, children, I apologize for not being the wife, mother, and example of a Christian woman I should have been throughout the years. I have shown nothing but pride, disobedience, rebelliousness, stubbornness, and a bad attitude and spirit toward God and my husband in front of you. My disobedience and rebelliousness have caused much unnecessary unrest and upheaval in the family. As my husband told me, things could have gone much better if I had obeyed God’s word from the beginning. Please accept my apology, and I am asking you to forgive me.”
The diminishing of peace and joy in my life throughout the years I brought on myself. Not having a proper relationship with God, my husband, and my children, I brought on myself—all because I chose the disobedient route. My number one desire is to live a life of peace—peace with God, my husband, and my children. I have learned that peace will not come as long as I live in disobedience, rebelliousness, stubbornness, and pride.
I will end this with two notes: (1) Happy Father’s Day to my husband: you have been a great husband and father. (2) Happy Children’s Day to my children: You all have been great children. I have no complaints whatsoever against my husband and, of course, children; you have never been at fault. My bad behavior is all on me, and I’m sorry I put you through this. May God bless your lives, and I love you.
Ephesians 5:22 – 6:20 (KJV)
Below is the passage in the Bible that Daniel Whyte III read in their family devotions every day for decades. It covers the biblical duties of the husband, the wife, and the children, and includes how to fight against the devil who is seeking to destroy the family.
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
2 Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;
3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:
8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
9 And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
The Gospel in a Nutshell
If you were to die today, where would you go: Heaven or Hell? If you’re not sure, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
Jesus Christ said the most important words ever spoken in the history of the world when He said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
Read further right here:
The Most Important Question in the World: Have You Been Twice Born?
This is the “Chief of sinners,” Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International, with the Gospel Light Minute X Podcast #447, titled, “The Big Question.” I’m here to remind you of what the Bible says: that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” like you and me.
“Have You Been Born Again?”
The question is not, “Have you joined a church?” or “Are you trying to do your best?” or “Do you have religion?” but, “Are you twice-born?” Jesus Christ said in John 3:3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
We enter the physical world by birth. Spiritual life, likewise, is entered with a birth. We become members of a human family by birth; we become members of the family of God by birth, by being “born again.” There is no other way to get into the human family except by birth, and there is no other way to get into God’s family except by the new birth. Neither education, nor cultivation, nor reformation, nor “turning over a new leaf,” will accomplish this. What is needed is not a new “leaf” but a new “life”! “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
A New Nature Needed
By physical birth, we become partakers of human nature; by being born again, we become “partakers of the divine nature.” A Christian is the product of a divine “begetting.” The second birth is not an improvement of the old nature; it is the imparting of an entirely new nature. The old nature is hopelessly corrupt and incapable of ever being made fit for His presence. The new birth requires a creative act of the Holy Spirit. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.”
Not “Trying” But “Trusting”
“Trying to follow Christ” is not Christianity. Christianity is not imitation of Christ; it is the indwelling of Christ. Christianity is not trying to do anything. It is trusting Christ, who has done it all! He has “finished the work,” and there is nothing left to do but simply to receive and trust Him. He shed His precious blood on the cross, and the work is all done once and forever! Cease trying and begin trusting! Believers will progressively become more and more like Christ, but by His power, not their own.
What Must I Do To Be Saved?
Simply “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” The Bible says in 1 John 5:1, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” The Bible states in John 1:12-13, “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
You are born again, you become a Christian by trusting a Person—receiving a Person. The very moment you do this, the Lord Jesus Christ comes in and life begins!
What Is Meant By “Believe”?
To “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” means more than simply believing the historic facts concerning Him. Intellectual belief about Christ is not sufficient. The belief that brings salvation must be “with the heart,” that is, with the whole being. This belief also includes repentance: “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Bible states in Acts 17:30, “God… now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.”
The faith which saves, then, includes the necessity to repent and to receive Christ as Savior and Lord, to rest upon Him alone for salvation. It means to trust Him so utterly and completely that, if He should fail, there would be no hope at all!
May I Know That I Am Born Again?
This is an important question. We know that we are born again by the testimony of God’s Word. God says in John 5:24, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as explained by God’s Word? If so, then you are saved, you are “born again,” you have “passed from death unto life.” God says so! Take God at His Word, and go on your way rejoicing!
One Final Word
You may “belong to a church,” you may be “trying to do the best you can,” you may be “striving to live right.” Your outward life may be the model of moral correctness, and you may be looked up to, honored, revered, and respected. Yet, if you have not been “born again,” you are just as lost as if you had never heard of Christ. Yes, you may teach in the Sunday school, read the Bible, sing, shout, “feel happy,” and all the rest—but if you have never been “born again,” you are still in your sins and a stranger to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you want to be saved from the wrath to come and from an eternity in Hell, and if you believe that Jesus Christ suffered, bled, and died on the cross for your sins, was buried, and rose again from the dead, and you are willing to trust Jesus Christ with all of your heart so you can go to Heaven, please pray with me what is called the sinner’s prayer:
Holy Father God, I acknowledge that I am a sinner and I admit that I have sinned against You and that I have broken Your Ten Commandments. I have lied before. I have stolen things before. I have lusted after people and things before. I have dishonored and disobeyed my parents. I have taken Your holy Name in vain. For Jesus Christ’s sake, please have mercy and grace upon my soul and forgive me of all of my sins, my failures, and my faults. As I now believe in Your Holy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that He suffered, bled, and died on the cross for my sins, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and help me to repent of my sins past. Help me to turn from my old, evil life and follow You in the new life. For it is in Your Name I pray. Amen.
