Hello Mike and Sandi,
I have a question.  I get articles from J. Preston Eby that seem to help me in some of my understanding, but am concerned that I may not recognize error when I read it. Is there a specific area that I need to be aware of? And in your opinion would it serve me better, since I am trying to rid myself of supposed old truth, to learn new truth. To avoid Eby’s teachings? Will appreciate your response. Hope all goes well with you and yours.
YBIC.
L___

Hi L____,
Thank you for your question.

You asked about J. Preston Eby. I have become fairly well versed on Mr. Eby because my daughter married a man who is a student of Mr. Eby. At first I, too, was taken with Mr. Eby’s apparent deep spiritual knowledge. And I do mean deep. But as I talked to my son- in- law over the months and years, and as he gave me more writings and more tapes of Mr. Eby’s doctrines, I began to detect some very unscriptural doctrines there in the mix. I will name but three for now.

1) Mr. Eby’s idea of God’s sovereignty is that God is indeed responsible for all the good we do and we can take no credit at all for that good. God is the ultimate cause of any good we may ever accomplish even though it may seem to us that we were the ones who accomplished any good thing in our lives. But it simply has not been given to Mr. Eby to see and accept the fact that the evil done in this earth is also the workings of the Great Cause of all things. What is so very sad is that Mr. Eby has been confronted on this topic over and over as the years have gone by and he will not allow that God actually says “I am God… I… create evil… even the wicked for the day of evil” (Isa.:45:7 and Pro.16:4).
2) Mr. Eby believes in something he calls “the law of circularity.” He teaches that we all existed as spirits before we came into this world, and he actually believes that even after we die our spirit is still conscious and “in the bosom of Abraham.” He quotes as proof of this “I am not the God of the dead but of the living.” He does this in spite of all of the scriptures which state plainly that “the dead know not anything,” and the verse which tells us that “He speaks of those things which are not as though they were.” God was always telling Moses “I have given them into your hand” long before Israel ever went into battle. Mr. Eby will tell you that he does not believe in immortal souls. But as you will eventually learn he does believe in immortal spirits.
3) Mr. Eby believes in the unscriptural doctrine of unknown tongues. I have written several letters on this subject which are posted  on iswasandwillbe. com

I hope this gives you a little help in your studies. I have finished a series of studies on the law of the offerings. In these studies I have come to see and appreciate the fact that all of these deep spiritual truths about our Lord which are revealed in the law of the offerings were all revealed while Israel was yet in the wilderness. Paul tells us in 1Co 10 that “all of these things happened to Israel and they are written for our admonition.” With that in mind, it becomes clear that we can and many times do learn many deep truths about our Lord while we are still in Babylon.
I was in the Armstrong organization’s World Wide Church Of God for 10 years and learned many things about God and His word which my Pentecostal upbringing had not shown me. But even in the Pentecostal church I had learned that God had thought enough of me to send His only Son to die for my sins and provide a way to redeem me from those sins. Later I started attending the Concordant Conferences and was taken with the concept of universal salvation. There, too, I came to know even more about our Lord’s love for His creation. But while the Pentecostals taught of God’s love, they taught an eternal hell. While the God of the Armstrong’s seemed more loving, their God was a God who would annihilate His enemies. The Concordant God was a God who was going to save all. This I really liked. But eventually I came to see that their doctrine was that “nothing you do or don’t do can in any way affect your standing with God.” This doctrine of course is just the opposite extreme from my Pentecostal, orthodox Christian, doctrine of eternal hell fire. Mr. A. E. Knoch’s Concordant doctrines are nothing more or less than an outright denial of judgment. The end result is that it is a doctrine which “turns grace into lasciviousness.”
What it all amounts to is that while we are in Babylon we are right where Israel was while they were still in the wilderness. So it is while we are yet in Babylon, yet in spiritual Babylon, that we learn many valuable lessons which are needed to prepare us for the day when we come to realize that it is true that “judgment must begin at the house of God.”
Please stay in touch.
Mike