Sean Kehoe, Bible teacher, of Real Christianity

My name is Sean Kehoe. This website contains the books that I have written so far and there are more in the pipeline. I was born in 1962 and was brought up in the Roman Catholic church until I was 19. However, in my first year of university I began to study the Bible for the first time, with the help of a friend. I had never previously read, or even owned, a Bible in all my years as a Catholic. That is actually the norm. Indeed, even priests tend to know very little about the Bible, let alone their congregations.

I realised during that year that although Catholicism contains some elements of Christianity, it primarily consists of a lot of man-made rules and traditions which do not come from the Bible. On the contrary, they are in many ways the very opposite of what the Bible says. Even worse, I realised that much of the beliefs and practices of Catholicism came from paganism and are occultic and idolatrous.

Most importantly, I realised that despite having gone to church for all those years, I was not a real Christian and was not ‘saved’. I had never repented of my sins or understood the genuine gospel. All I had was a man-made substitute for the gospel. Therefore, I was still unforgiven, facing God’s wrath and eternal separation from Him. I then became a Christian on 8 June 1981. Shortly afterwards I left the Roman Catholic Church when I realised that I could not change it and that the truths that I had learned from the Bible were not welcome there, to put it mildly.

My career and how it influenced me

After graduating in 1983 with a degree in law and economics I went into the Police Force, where I worked for three years as a Constable. Those were very valuable years when I probably experienced more unusual events and came across more strange, disturbed and damaged people than one would normally meet in a lifetime.

After those three years I left the Police and became a Solicitor (lawyer). From 1987 to 1999 I worked in four different law firms as a commercial litigator, ending up as the Managing Partner and Head of Litigation in a medium sized firm. I felt at that point that God wanted me to set up my own law firm, which I did. It grew rapidly over the next 13 years and was for me a constant source of life lessons.

That was particularly so when it came to handling staff of every kind, both good and bad, including some who were exceptionally devious and cunning. Given that I had over 80 employees at the peak of the business, I was never short of problem staff, or of the headaches they cause. The things I learned from tackling and removing them have found their way into my books at many points, especially Book Six entitled “How to Identify and Handle Wicked People”.

Becoming a Bible teacher

I felt in 2007 that God wanted me to start to write. In the beginning, I only ever planned to write one book in which I would explain the real gospel, as opposed to the watered down “seeker friendly” gospel which is presented by most churches, at least in Great Britain. However, the writing project gradually grew until it became a series of books on a wide range of issues.

I wanted to try to tell the truth about what the Bible actually says, no matter how radical, politically incorrect, unfashionable or unpopular those truths might be, or what denominational traditions they would cut across. For five years, I wrote part-time while I ran the law firm full-time. However, in summer 2012 I decided, for a number of reasons, to sell the entire firm. So, from then on I have been able to write full-time, which is much easier.

What are my qualifications to write or teach, given that I am not a “clergyman” or a paid church leader? I suppose that the main thing I have to offer is that I have spent 40 years in Bible study. Throughout that time I have also been in a wide range of churches of very different denominational backgrounds, which is actually quite unusual.

I never planned to change denominations like that. I believe God deliberately intervened to move me around every few years from one type of church to another so as to give me a broader perspective. It was probably also to open my eyes to be able to see the seriousness of the problems within most of the churches in Great Britain. The doctrinal errors, and even apostasy, are by no means confined to any one denomination. It is depressingly widespread and entrenched. Moreover, it is getting worse, not better.

On a more positive note, as a young believer I also did a lot of campus evangelism and discipleship work with a superb group called Insight Ministries. That was a charismatic off-shoot from The Navigators and was a genuinely good ministry which did a lot of valuable work, focusing on training disciples, not just making converts. They gave me a solid grounding. Indeed, the things they taught me, especially about my duty to study the whole Bible for myself, helped to protect me from being deceived by the incompetent and false teaching to which I was subjected in later years.

Other factors that have influenced me

On top of all that varied experience within churches and in my working life, I have also spent many years actively involved in politics, first in the Labour Party, which I joined when I was 15, but later in the Conservative Party, where I was a Borough Councillor and Association Chairman. For many years I wanted to become an MP and made quite a bit of progress in that direction. I was appointed to the approved list of would-be parliamentary candidates and then shortlisted for a number of winnable and safe Conservative constituencies.

However, I abandoned that aim in 2002 and chose to focus on my business. My main reason for no longer seeking to be an MP was that I concluded that someone as incurably frank and politically incorrect as I am could not survive long in the modern Conservative party. It has become a surprisingly socially liberal institution and is unrecognisable in comparison to what it once was. I knew that sooner or later I would inevitably be deselected for saying what I believe. Indeed, I have already seen that happen to others.

At various times I have also got involved in campaigns on social or moral issues. For example, I was a member of a pro life/anti abortion group called LIFE and I spoke on the issue of abortion in various churches. I have also got involved, via The Christian Institute, in legally representing Christians who faced discrimination or the curtailment of their religious liberty. That too was an eye opener in terms of the erosion of our freedom of speech on issues of faith in Great Britain. I have also been a governor of a number of schools and was a member of the Research Ethics Committee for a large hospital. I have also been a member of various other groups and committees over the years.

I am married with two grown-up children and , since 2008, have attended an evangelical church. Prior to that, as stated earlier, I have over the years, and in various towns, also been involved in Pentecostal, Charismatic, Baptist, FIEC and even Anglican churches.

The need for genuine teaching of the whole Bible

In all of those churches, from the early 1990s onwards, I have become increasingly frustrated at the lack of rigorous, authentic, balanced Bible teaching. So many preachers confine themselves to a small percentage of the Bible and avoid anything controversial or out of step with current social attitudes. It is a kind of self-censorship, based partly on fear of their congregations and also partly due to the constraints of their denominational traditions, which they seek, consciously or unconsciously, to uphold.

The net effect is that they don’t teach the whole Bible. They are also very often willing to compromise, wherever necessary, in order to protect their own ministries and avoid losing members. I was also disturbed by the general worldliness and lukewarmness of so many churches.

I have been even more alarmed by the extent of the insecurity, manipulation, desire for control and abuse of authority on the part of a very large number of church leaders. I have either personally witnessed these forms of behaviour or been told about it by others. Sadly, it is a real problem and it is growing. All in all, I feel an increasing conviction that we are living in the apostate days at the end of this age, about which the Bible warns us.

These dismally negative experiences of church and especially of the growing levels of biblical illiteracy, even amongst leaders, have prompted me to write this series of books and to distribute them free of charge via this website. My hope is that it may make some contribution towards informing people about the real gospel message, as opposed to the watered down, wishy-washy substitute for a gospel which is now presented in so many churches in Great Britain. I also want to tell the truth about the Bible generally and to counteract the man-made ideas and unbiblical traditions that are so widely promoted.

I have been especially grieved by the indifference and even hostility within most churches towards the nation of Israel and the Jewish people in general. Within Great Britain in particular, the influence of “replacement theology” is growing. That is the misguided belief that the Church (as a whole) has replaced Israel and become the recipient of all the blessings that were promised to it, such that God no longer has any plan or purpose for Israel or the Jewish people. That teaching is profoundly wrong and leads those who believe it into all sorts of other associated doctrinal errors. Therefore, another of my aims is to speak up for Israel wherever I can and to expose and explain the falsehood of replacement theology.

Like every other Bible teacher I make mistakes and there are many gaps in my knowledge. However, I genuinely want to be told about my errors or omissions. Indeed, it will do me good. If you feel there is any such error, or anything which I have understated, overstated or mis-stated, then I would urge you to email me and let me know about it, however big or small it may be.

I would wish to emphasise that invitation because my own experience, whenever I have tried to challenge or correct a preacher privately, one to one, or even to question them, has not been positive. They have tended to resist and even resent it, no matter how gently and politely one speaks. Sadly, that kind of defensiveness is the norm. To such men it seems to be more important to seek to ensure that they are seen to be right than it is to find out whether they are right.

Therefore few people would ever dare to point out any error or imbalance to a preacher because they would expect, with good reason, that it would not be welcomed.

I am determined not to take that approach or to react in that way. Therefore please accept my assurance that I really do want to be corrected, anywhere that correction is needed. And, if after checking in the Bible I come to agree with what you say, I will then alter the book(s) and/or the website accordingly. You can email me using the Contact Us page or the Feedback page.

So far as my private hobbies and interests are concerned, I am a season ticket holder at Nottingham Forest, a keen student of World War Two and a prolific reader, especially concerning history, politics, theology, English literature in general and the works of Anthony Trollope and PG Wodehouse in particular.