WISDOM OF THE WORLD

             VERSUS
THE WISDOM OF GOD
 
A few years ago, I saw a documentary program about the Dead Sea Scrolls that left me completely uninterested in the subject. The main speaker, a female theologian, made a strong case that the Qumran community, which produced those documents, was a Gnostic congregation that believed in salvation through knowledge – and secret knowledge at that. 

Now for those of us who believe that salvation is a matter of faith and grace from God, it placed that program outside our area of interest.  For no one who believes in salvation through knowledge can be taken seriously as far as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is concerned.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

Gaining salvation through knowledge would shift the focus from God to the individual, and from grace to works. The more knowledgeable one would become, the more merit he would acquire, and the surer he would be of salvation. Thus, the wise of this world, the wealthy, the high fliers, the inheritors of titles and positions, would be in a good position to ensure for themselves a nice place in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Bible, however, is telling us a different story.     

 

1 Cor 1:26  For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble,

1 Cor 1:27  are called.   But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the

1 Cor 1:28  world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not,

1 Cor 1:29  to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

 

Acts 3:17 "Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it [crucified Christ], in ignorance as did also your rulers.  But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets,

Acts 3:18  that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.  Repent  therefore and be converted,

Acts 3:19  that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence

Acts 3:20  of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the

Acts 3:21  times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

 

Luke 24:19  And He said to them, "What things?" So they said to Him, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief

Luke 24:20 priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.

 

John 7:46  The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!"

John 7:47  Then the Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived?

John 7:48  "Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?

John 7:49  "But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed."

John 12:42  Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him,

John 12:43  lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

 

So, when it came to the most important decision of their life, the wise of this world, the rulers, the Pharisees, the priests, failed abysmally. They claimed that they knew the law, yet they killed the Prince of life contrary to the law.  Even those who believed in Him refused to confess Him before the people, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: “for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God”.   If you think that this was a problem peculiar to the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, you do not know what has been happening in the world ever since.  How many wise, how many academics, how many rulers, confess Jesus Christ before the people today? We know of none. That is, we know of none who confess the Christ of the Gospels, for there are some who confess a christ which is foreign to the Scriptures.

If an academic were to confess Jesus Christ in one of their forums today, and said that he believed in God and in His word, the Bible, he would be ostracized from their midst and never asked to speak before them again.  He would most likely loose his job too, for universities have no room for those who confess God in their midst. 

Tertiary institutions – universities, colleges, seminars, institutes of higher studies – are supposed to be the repositories knowledge in our time, yet they treat with derision and contempt the very source that would grant them the wisdom of God, the one and only wisdom worth striving for.   Jesus Christ, the disciples, the prophets, gained that wisdom by obeying God and by meditating on His law.  Such is the nature of God’s law, that it imparts wisdom to those who mediate on it and seek to understand it.   

 

Psa 119:97  Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.

Psa 119:98  You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are

Psa 119:99  ever with me.  I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are

Psa 119:100  my meditation.  I understand more than the ancients, Because I keep Your precepts.

Psa 119:101  I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word.

Psa 119:102  I have not departed from Your judgments, For You Yourself have taught me.

 

Yes, God personally teaches those who keep His commandments and are receptive to His wisdom.  He makes them wiser than their enemies, and wiser than their teachers.  The Pharisees of Jesus time wondered how He acquired such wisdom and authority when He had not been one of their pupils and never attended any of their rabbinical colleges.

 

Mat 7:28  And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished

Mat 7:29  at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Mat 21:23  Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?"

 

Instead of inquiring how they too might acquire that kind of wisdom and authority, they were angry that they had been bypassed in the process.  Later, they had a similar problem with the Apostles.

 

Acts 4:13  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

Acts 4:14  And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 

Acts 4:15  But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying,

Acts 4:16  "What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 

Acts 4:17  "But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no

Acts 4:18   man in this name.” And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 

Acts 4:19  But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to

Acts 4:20  God, you judge.   "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."

 

Now how did these “uneducated and untrained men” gain such power and wisdom? They gained it through the Holy Spirit.  And why is no one receiving this power and wisdom today? Because they don’t seek it the right way, don’t believe in the Holy Spirit, and don’t meditate on God’s law anymore. 

Jesus Christ said: "I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4).  This is that night. This is the darkest spiritual hour in all of human history. Yet judging by the number of religious books and programs that are available today, one could easily think that we live in the greatest spiritual age ever.  A spiritual age it is indeed, but by the wrong spirit.

 

 

 

 

             JUSTICE FOR ALL,

EQUITY FOR NONE

 

Seven years ago we wrote:

 

“Human beings have an uncanny ability to discuss things when they get to a crisis point, then leave the problems to others to resolve.  This time, however, the problems will not be resolved by others.  The world is no longer facing temporary local problems, but intractable worldwide problems.  It is no longer a question of survival, but one of salvation.  But science cannot save; only God can.

Human beings, however, have decided that there is no room for God in their deliberations.  Even when the world is crumbling around them, when it is becoming obvious that life itself is in danger of extinction, they will not turn to the only source that can save them.  They seek immortality through "scientific" methods such as cryogenics (deep-­freezing of the corpse in the hope that one day scientists will discover the secret of immortality, cure their diseased bodies and revive them to eternal life), and perpetual replacement of body parts with robotic devises or genetically cloned body parts.  That is the kind of immortality science offers humanity.

That educated people can come up with such absurdities is a witness to the bankruptcy of our educational system.  That is the effect of compartmentalizing our tertiary studies in rigid disciplines without any relation to each other.  It should be obligatory for all university students to study humanity subjects.  As it is, we get medical graduates without ethics, lawyers without morals, and scientists with distorted visions of the future.  They need to study not just any humanity subjects, but the good old fashion classics, philosophy, and religion. 

During my University studies, the head of the Religious Studies Department once said that "time was when in philosophical studies people talked about God and the meaning of life, about ethics and values, but no more." These days they have a "Theory" that if people understand what they study, it is not worth studying.   Searching for truth, God, and a moral purpose in life does not go well with evolutionary thinking.  In the struggle for survival there is no room for compassion, altruistic feelings and transcendental goals.  Hedonistic materialism and the pursuit of mindless pleasures are the things that count in our "enlightened" society.  That is why humanity finds itself on the brink of catastrophe.” (The Christian Herald No 3, p. 4)

 

Have things changed since then?  Surprisingly, the one institution that we thought would be immune to such suggestions, given its history and pedigree, the University of Sydney, has indeed taken this path.  A prerequisite for their medical students now is a degree in humanity subjects.  Now they need to do the same with their law students.  But that may be easier said than done, for lawyers and humanity may prove to be a contradiction in terms. 

Three years ago, my wife of fourteen years said that she could no longer cope with the demands of this work and wanted a divorce.  The Jewish side of her family, who never quite came to terms with the fact that I was preaching Christ, prevailed over her in the end.   So I was asked to go to court one day to settle the question of our property.   But about a month earlier, I received a court subpoena from her solicitors, demanding all documents, receipts, and writings, associated with this work, from the very beginning up to that time.  I did not understand why they needed everything, instead of just the documents pertaining to our finances, but I had no choice, I had to comply with their request for you cannot disobey a court order.  So I handed over to her solicitors five boxes of documents.  

I always assumed that the courts would settle the question of property on the basis of each one’s contribution, benefits from marriage, and future earnings potential. I had never been in a court before, and I did not know that in the adversarial system, which operates in this country, and much of the English speaking world, justice is not the main aim of the game, but determining winners and losers. Once you begin a case, lawyers take over, and you become a pawn in their hands.  The problem is, their aims seem to be completely different from yours.  They have no notion of fairness or respect for the other person’s dignity. Their only concern is to win at all costs.  That’s how they get a reputation for themselves.        

I went to court alone, believing that the judge would be able to deliver a fair verdict based of the facts before him. Instead, he ignored much of what I said, and paid much attention to what my wife’s high powered legal team said.  For my wife, who herself was a lawyer, brought along another solicitor and a barrister.  Obviously she knew something about the justice system which I didn’t.  For two whole days they grilled me on just about everything they could think of.  They wanted to know what were my beliefs, what I wanted to achieve, what was the purpose of this work, why I wrote what I wrote, and dozens of similar questions.  When they finally got to our finances, they could not believe that in seven years our donations amounted to less than a hundred dollars.

I tried to explain to them that everything we did was for free, that we never requested contributions from anyone, that we followed the Apostles of Jesus Christ who preached the Gospel for free, that this work was in fact prophesied to be done by poor people (people “clothed in sackcloth”, as the Scriptures put it), but the more I tried to explain these things to them the more incredulous they became.   They could not believe that after sending out thousands of letters and magazines over many years we received so little in reply. They concluded that I was not telling the truth and that I must have had secret bank accounts.   And so they sent out subpoena to the local banks asking them to provide details of all accounts in my name and the name of this Foundation.  When the results came in, and they found nothing, they concluded that I was mad. That suited them well, for then they could claim that I squandered money on a work of no value, and therefore my wife was entitled to much of what was left.  

The judge’s verdict was so outrageously skewed in her favor, it became obvious that the intent had little to do with equity and justice, and everything to do with bringing this work to an end. 

About a year earlier, I was pensioned off from my work as Teacher/Librarian after injuries received in a car accident six years earlier caught up with me and I was no longer able to stand up for hours in front of students.

With the money received as compensation from that accident, I immediately paid off the mortgage on our house.  Yet my wife, who was due to inherit a property worth in excess of a million dollars, whose salary was ten times the size of my pension, who could have purchased a bigger and better house in less than three years, was given the lion share of our house too.  During our marriage, I supported her while she obtained three university degrees. Yet none of that had any bearing on the judge’s final verdict.   

That decision forced me out of Sydney, for with the little that I received, and my meager pension, I could no longer live in that expensive city.  Then, unbelievably, about a month later, I was asked to go back to court. Her legal team had decided that I lost the case, and therefore I had to pay her expenses and legal fees too.  The judge, of course, agreed. 

Like Pilate, at the time of Jesus Christ, he knew that he was delivering an unjust verdict, but did not have the moral strength to stand up to his peers and say: “look, this is not right, what we are doing here is wrong, this is not justice but a mockery of it, so let’s do things right.”  Instead, he looked at me and said: “I am sorry to do this to you, Mr. Sbarcea”.  He understood how crooked and painful his decision would be, yet he still went ahead with it.  I then replied to him, “You are doing it to yourself, Sir”.

It took me two whole years before I recovered sufficiently to produce another edition of The Christian Herald.

But my case is not unique. About the same time, another famous case was doing the rounds in the media.  A woman had won a property settlement against her husband for the value of $500,000.  Then she received a bill from her solicitor for the amount of $480,000.  She took him to court and asked him to prove how he acquired such a bill. He couldn’t. He told the judge that he kept the expenses all in his mind.  You guessed it, he won the case, and she had to pay additional legal costs. 

Hardly a week passes by without the media highlighting more cases of gross miscarriage of justice. It is as if the judges have declared war on society and on decent citizens.  A huge front page headline titled, ROUGH JUSTICE, told the case of a shop owner who apprehended a thief and held him bound until the police arrived.  He was a repeated victim of this thief and his gang, yet the court charged the shop owner with assault and let the thief go free (The Daily Telegraph, August 8, 2000).  By contrast, three days earlier, a cookware company terminated a contract with a “flamboyant celebrity” after he breached the contract by “promoting products of a rival company, failing to appear at promotional shows, offending potential customers . . . and making vulgar remarks about the audience.”  The judge ordered the company to pay him $100,000 for breach of contract.  The man is a high profile homosexual.

Astonishingly, although everybody seems to know the truth about the justice system, no one can do anything about it.  A cartoon in a mass circulation newspaper, has a man lying on a bed in a doctor’s surgery. The doctor assesses him and says: “High IQ, no ethics, chronic liar. . . have you considered law?” (The Sun-Herald, July 20, 1997).  Another cartoon has two women talking in a waiting room.  A sign above them says, “How to recognize a psychopath in your workplace”.  One of them pointing furtively to a man behind them says: “Apparently he’s a corporate lawyer in his spare time” (SMH, August 8, 2000).   

Given such appalling reputation, you might think that universities would have a hard time filling quotas in their law faculties, when in fact the opposite is true.  Law schools are bursting at the seems, while education, humanities, and others, must lower their entrance marks in order to reach their numbers.

This profession is good at making money, but not so good at delivering justice. They are rich in the wisdom of the world, but extremely poor in the wisdom of God.  When I looked into the Scriptures, I was really surprised at what I found there about this profession.  God knew what would become of these people from the very beginning.  Here are some examples. 

 

Eccl 3:16  Moreover I saw under the sun: In the place of judgment, Wickedness was there;

Eccl 3:17 And in the place of righteousness, Iniquity was there.   I said in my heart, "God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work."

 

Isa 59:4  No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive evil and

Isa 59:5  bring forth iniquity.   They hatch vipers' eggs and weave the spider's web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.

 

Luke 11:44  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”  Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him,

Luke 11:45  "Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also.”

Luke 11:46  And He said, "Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

Luke 11:47  "Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

 

1 Cor 6:1  Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before

1 Cor 6:2  the saints?  Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?   Do you not know that we shall judge angels?

1 Cor 6:3  How much more, things that pertain to this life?

 

James 2:1  My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with

James 2:2  partiality.  For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes,  and you pay attention to the one

James 2:3  wearing the fine clothes and say to him, "You sit here in a good place," and say to the poor man, "You stand there," or, "Sit here at my footstool," have you not shown partiality

James 2:4  among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

James 2:5  Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

James 2:6  But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?

James 2:7  Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?

James 2:8  If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you

James 2:9  do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

James 2:10  For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

James 2:11  For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

James 2:12  So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.  For judgment is

James 2:13   without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

 

But in the end, righteousness, truth and justice will prevail over the whole earth.

 

Zep 3:5  The LORD is righteous in her midst, He will do no unrighteousness. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He never fails, But the unjust knows no shame.

Isa 60:17  "Instead of bronze I will bring gold, Instead of iron I will bring silver, Instead of wood, bronze, And instead of stones, iron. I will also make your officers peace, And your magistrates righteousness.

Isa 61:8  "For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery for burnt offering; I will direct their work in truth, And will make with them an everlasting covenant.   For as the earth brings forth its bud,

Isa 61:11  As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

 

If you have a concordance, look under such terms as, justice, judges, rulers, priests, and the like, and see what you can find, for there is a lot more in the Bible about them.  This is what Jesus Christ thought about lawyers too.   

 

Luke 18:2  "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.

Luke 18:3  "Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 'Get justice for me from my

Luke 18:4  adversary.’ "And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not

Luke 18:5   fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.”  Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said.

Luke 18:6  “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him,

Luke 18:7    though He bears long with them?  I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.

Luke 18:8   Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"

 

Jesus Christ knew that judges had no “fear of God, nor regard for man”. That is why He warned them: "with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you” (Mat 7:2).

Our current affair programs have reported several times that many of our country towns are in the grip of an unprecedented crime wave mostly by roving youth gangs of Aboriginal descent.  They terrorize the population, steal, break into houses in full daylight, even bash people in their own homes, yet when they are apprehended and brought before the courts many are let free because the level of proof required by the courts is almost impossible to achieve.  No one is more frustrated at this state of affairs than the police, who often put their life at risk to arrest these lawbreakers only to see the courts let them go free.  Too many are in custody, we are told, and so the judges find all sorts of excuses for not incarcerating any more.  They fear more bad publicity from that meddling institution called the United Nations.

 

“The Immigration Minister, Mr. Ruddock, forced to defend Australia’s record on Aborigines to a United Nations committee last month says it is ironic that the committee is headed by someone from the United States, which not only has mandatory sentencing but allows capital punishment of juveniles. . .   He defended the Government’s decision not to invite CERD committee members, including American lawyer Gay McDougal, into the country last year . . .   “That sort of examination might have been appropriate in countries  . . . where grave human rights abuses are occurring, but in the context of our situation the committee had already demonstrated an unwillingness to listen or read all the material put before it,” Mr Ruddock said” . . . The Government announced last week after the latest critical CERD report that it would institute a “whole-of-government review” on the operation of the UN treaty committee system, as it related to Australia.  The Prime Minister justified that decision yesterday by saying “UN committees have not behaved well – the [CERD] committee totally ignored what the Government put forward.”  (SMH, April 3, 2000).

 

Our Government would do well to come out of that institution altogether, and stop wasting money on it for its days are numbered.  Remember what they did six years ago?  This is what we wrote then. 

 

“The slide into the precipice has been accelerated by the recent decision of the United Nations to become the moral and spiritual policeman of the world.  Not in upholding God's law, but Satan's rule.

The case of the Tasmanian homosexual who took his case to the United Nations is well known. The UN Human Rights Committee demanded that the Tasmanian Government overturn its anti-gay provisions from its Criminal Code because they violated "basic human rights".

 

"'I am amazed that a UN human rights committee would consider it a basic human right that people should be able to commit sodomy,' said the Tasmanian Attorney-General, Mr Ron Cornish.

[But] a Melbourne University law lecturer who has been an adviser to the Tasmanian gays, Mr Wayne Morgan, said the UN findings on sexual orientation made it likely that other cases of discrimination on similar grounds from other countries would succeed."  (SMH,  April 12, 1994).

 

Of course! All that is needed is for the ground to be broken in one country and the floods of hell are opened everywhere.  People may well remember that the first public demonstrations by the "gay liberation movement" took place in New York in the early 1970's. Only two decades later this cancer is well established all over the world and upheld by many national, and now international, governing bodies.  In all major world centres, the most vocal and visible demonstrators are those demanding their "liberation":  "homosexual liberation", "feminist liberation", "lesbian liberation", "animal liberation", "paedophile liberation", "gluttony liberation" and now "transgender liberation".

The day the UN Human Rights Committee decided for homosexuality, the Australian public broadcasting network - the ABC - presented a lengthy panel discussion on the plight of the transvestite people ("transgenders", as they like to be called). They were complaining that the UN decision does nothing for them. Being free to do whatever they want in private is not enough. They want to be able to go out in public, tell people about their gender preferences, and be loved for it.  But when they do that, they say that they usually get bashed, and they wonder why? Now, they want the United Nations to do something for them too.  And, nice and obliging as those at the UN are, they will no doubt find a way to uphold the transgenders' "basic rights" too. (The Christian Herald No 4, p.2).  

 

No institution that takes as its role the imposition of Satan’s rule upon the world, can expect to survive very long.  God has not recorded the example of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible for nothing.

Now they take issue with mandatory sentencing laws.  Such laws operate in many countries of the world  the United States, Wales and Scotland, being only some of them – yet the United Nations has singled out Australia.  Why? Because certain radical elements from the Aboriginal community don’t like it.  They can no longer get away with a slap on the wrist for repeated crimes, but are locked up behind bars as they should.  These laws are not directed against Aboriginal people, but against all lawbreakers.  Interestingly enough, these laws are popular even in Aboriginal communities, who more often than not, suffer more at the hands of unruly people than the while people.   But these laws are not popular with United Nations. Why?  Well, would Satan like to see people living safely, peacefully and in harmony with each other?  He does his work through his servants, and anyone who thinks that homosexuality is good for people, and protects lawbreakers against the community of decent citizens, is his servant.  It may surprise people to know this, butt the mandatory sentencing laws – “three strikes and you are out” – are in fact based on Christian principles. 

 

Mat 18:15  "Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.

Mat 18:16  "But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’  “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church.

Mat 18:17  But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

 

Titus 3:10  Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition,

Titus 3:11  knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.

 

In Islamic countries where the Sharia law is enforced they do not have “three strikes and you are out”, but one strike and you are out.  Even to the point of losing one’s head. But has the UN railed against that?  No! Instead it has taken Australia to task, a Christian country with a great democratic tradition.  As one might have expected, anything Christian is anathema to this organization.  By forcing homosexuality on the world, and taking the side of lawbreakers, the UN has revealed its true colors and the master it serves. A leading Aboriginal figure understood the true causes of his people’s problems, and delivered an astonishing lecture recently.  But would the UN leaders take note of this? We doubt it.

 

“Aboriginal leader Mr Noel Pearson has lashed out at much “progressive” thinking on Aboriginal issues, saying it is destructive and compounding misery.  He attacked treating substance abuse as a symptom of disadvantage, and said high levels of Aboriginal incarceration require the restoration of social order and law enforcement rather than just legal aid.  Mr Pearson said the indigenous experience of the welfare state has been “disastrous”.  “A rule of thumb in relation to most of the programs and policies that pose as progressive thinking in indigenous affairs is that if we did the opposite we would have the chance of making progress,” he said.

Delivering the “Light of the Hill” Ben Chifley Lecture in Bathurst at the weekend, Mr Pearson said people who wanted to be progressive today “are in objective fact regressive in their thinking.  This is especially and painfully obvious if you know the situation in the Aboriginal communities of this country.”   “Petrol sniffing is in some places now so endemic that crying infants are silenced with petrol drenched rags on their faces.  In one of our communities in Cape York, among the less than 1,000 people there were three murders within one month a few months ago. And we don’t know what to do.

“Progressive” thinking about substance abuse, such as alcoholism, held it was “only a symptom of underlying social and psychological problems”. “But addiction is a condition in its own right, not a symptom. It must therefore be addressed as a problem in itself.”    The “symptom theory” absolved people from their responsibility to deal with addiction.  “Worse, it leaves communities to think that nothing can be done to confront substance abuse because of its purported causes: dispossession, racism, trauma and poverty, are beyond reach of social resolution at present.”   The “progressive” response to the level of Aboriginal jailings had been to provide legal aid.  “This progressive response – providing legal aid support services – has not worked . . .  In fact Aboriginal legal aid is part of the criminal justice industry . . .  It is like a sausage machine, and human lives are processed through it with no real belief that the statistics will ever be overcome.  The truth is . . .  the real need is for the restoration of social order and the enforcement of law.”   On welfare, he advocated its reform, not its abolition.  A new consensus was needed about welfare built on the principles of personal and family empowerment and investment and the use of resources to achieve change.  Our motivation to reform welfare must be based on the principle that dependency and passivity are a scourge and must be avoided at all costs. Dependency and passivity kills people and is surest road to social decline. Australians do not have an inalienable right to dependency; they have an inalienable right to a fair place in the real economy”(SMH, Aug.16, 2000).

          

This lecture is almost like the sermon of a good Christian.  His forthrightness and courage in delivering such a speech in the current environment can only be applauded.  Mr. Pearson understood that the current situation in which justice is being administered with regard to  “underlying social and psychological problems” does not lead to harmonious relationships between Aborigines and white people. Decent and honest citizens, whites and Aborigines alike, have little incentive to obey the law when they see that lawbreakers go free and justice is being delivered with partiality. Communities suffer when criminals go unpunished.  As Mr. Pearson noticed, the justice system is now part of the problem rather than offering solutions to it.  Yes, the justice system and the United Nations are now two good bedfellows.  Few people realize that the current social problems in Australia and around the world are a reflection of the prophecies spoken by Jesus Christ for our time.    

 

Mat 24:12  "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

Mat 24:13  "But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

 

Yes, because lawlessness abounds most people have become insensitive to what is happening around them.  But that is something Christians cannot afford to indulge in. They cannot despair, cannot allow their love to grow cold, and cannot lose faith in God’s ultimate judgment.  We must endure to the end if we want to be saved.  For God does take note of what is happening in the world at present, as He has always done. 

 

Mal 3:14  You have said, 'It is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, And that we have walked as mourners before the LORD of hosts? 

Mal 3:15  So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; They even tempt God and go free.”

Mal 3:16  Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name.

Mal 3:17  "They shall be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him." Then you shall again discern between the righteous

Mal 3:18  and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

Mal 4:1  "For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," Says the LORD of hosts, "That will leave them neither root nor branch. 

Mal 4:2  But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; And you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.  You shall trample the wicked, 

Mal 4:3  for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this," says the LORD of hosts.”  

 

 

 

 

 

 

HYPOCRISY IN HIGH PLACES

 

At the end of my court case, I went before the Almighty, as I often do, in supplication and worship, asking Him whether I should appeal to the High Court, believing that I had a good case of getting a better result there.  But the Almighty answered that I should get back to the Scriptures and not even think of going before their courts again. So I went back to the Scriptures and, as usual, I received yet more revelations. The day they sent me their court subpoena, was exactly seven years since I mailed out the first edition of The Christian Herald  to the world (that is, three and a half years by two).  The prophecies of Daniel 12, follow those of Revelation 11, and that is why the prophecies of Matthew 24 did not quite follow the pattern we expected.

If you do not know which prophecies we are talking about, or how to look at them, wait for our next edition when we will write about them in detail.  What is important to know now is that the world has been granted a few more years in which it could mend its ways and draw closer to God or be plunged into the greatest tribulation ever. It cannot afford to waste this opportunity for there will be no other chance.  

Humanity has simply not learned the lessons of the past. Two of the most important lessons recorded in the Bible for posterity were in relation to the abominable practice of homosexuality. The case of Sodom and Gomorrah is well known to the world, but what is not so well known is the case of the Israelite tribe of Benjamin. It is a fairly long story, but very instructive for the time in which we live.

 

Judg 19:11  They were near Jebus, and the day was far spent; and the servant said to his master, "Come, please, and let us turn aside into this city of the Jebusites and lodge in it”. 

Judg 19:12  But his master said to him, "We will not turn aside here into a city of foreigners, who are not of the children of Israel;  we will go to Gibeah.”  So he sent to his servant,

Judg 19:13   "Come, let us draw near to one of these places, and spend the night in Gibeah or in Ramah.”

Judg 19:14   And they passed by and went their way; and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. 

Judg 19:15  They turned aside there to go in to lodge in Gibeah. And when he went in, he sat down in the open square of the city, for no one would take them into his house to spend the night. Just then an old man came in from his work in the field at evening,

Judg 19:16  who also was from the mountains of Ephraim; he was staying in Gibeah, whereas the men of the place were

Judg 19:17  Benjamites.   And when he raised his eyes, he saw the traveler in the open square of the city; and the old man said, "Where are you going, and where do you come from?"  So he said to him, “We are  passing from Bethlehem in Judah toward the

Judg 19:18  remote mountains of Ephraim; I am from there. I went to Bethlehem in Judah; now I am going to the house of the LORD. But there is no one who will take me into his house, although we have both straw and fodder for our donkeys, and bread

Judg 19:19  and wine for myself, for your female servant, and for the young man who is with your servant; there is no lack of anything."  And the old man said,

Judg 19:20  "Peace be with you! However, let all your needs be my responsibility; only do not spend the  night the open square.”

Judg 19:21  So he brought him into his house, and gave fodder to the donkeys. And they washed their feet, and ate and drunk. 

Judg 19:22  As they were enjoying themselves, suddenly certain men of the city, perverted men, surrounded the house and beat on the door. They spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, "Bring out the man who came to your house, that we may

Judg 19:23  know him carnally!"  But the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, "No, my brethren! I beg you, do not act so wickedly! Seeing this man has come into my house, do not commit this outrage.

Judg 19:24  "Look, here is my virgin daughter and the man's concubine; let me bring them out now. Humble them, and do with them as you please; but to this man do not do such a vile thing!"

Judg 19:25  But the men would not heed him. So the man took his concubine and brought her out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until morning; and when the day began to break, they let her go.  Then the woman came

Judg 19:26   as the day was dawning, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was, till it was light. 

Judg 19:27  When her master arose in the morning, and opened the doors of the house and went out to go his way, there was his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.   And he said to her,

Judg 19:28  "Get up and let us be going." But there was no answer. So the man lifted her onto the donkey; and the man got up

Judg 19:29 and went to his place.   When he entered his house he took a knife, laid hold of his concubine, and divided her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.

Judg 19:30  And so it was that all who saw it said, "No such deed has been done or seen from the day that the children of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, confer, and speak up!"

Judg 20:1  So all the children of Israel came out, from Dan to Beersheba, as well as from the land of Gilead, and the congregation

Judg 20:2  gathered together as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.   And the leaders of all the people, all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand foot soldiers who drew the sword.

 

Judg 20:12  Then the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What is this wickedness that has occurred among you?”  Now therefore, deliver up the men, the perverted men who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death

Judg 20:13  and remove the evil from Israel!" But the children of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brethren, the

Judg 20:14 children of Israel.   Instead, the children of Benjamin gathered together from their cities to Gibeah, to go to battle against the children of Israel.  And ten thousand select men from all Israel came against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce.

Judg 20:34   But the Benjamites did not know that disaster was upon them.  The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel.

Judg 20:35  And the children of Israel destroyed that day twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjamites; all these drew the sword Judg 20:48  And the men of Israel turned back against the children of Benjamin, and struck them down with the edge of the word; from every city, men and beasts, all who were found. They also set fire to all the cities they came to.

 

The Benjamites did not know that that disaster was upon them, and the whole tribe was punished, both men and beasts, because they would not give over to be punished those who engaged in that unspeakable practice. There is no compromise with God against this sin. It has to be eradicated from the face of the earth, or the whole world will face the consequences.  The United Nations, the upholder and enforcer of this sin, is heading humanity towards catastrophe.  

Earlier this year, Australians wake up to read with incredulity the following headline in one of their major newspapers:

 

“It’s okay to be gay, judge tells boys”.  “Homosexuals deserve acceptance, are no better or worse than any other people, and it is “totally unrealistic” to expect them to remain celibate, Justice Michael Kirby said yesterday.

The High Court judge – who has “outed” himself as a homosexual – was addressing students as St Ignatius College, Riverview, the prestigious Catholic private school” (Sydney Morning Herald, February 25, 2000).    

 

Two months later, this High Court judge wrote in the same newspaper:

 

“Let us here resolve together, those who are psychiatrists and psychologists, that the new millennium will see an end to the giggling. And to the alienation of, and patronizing indifference to, “those people”. Instead, what is needed is the adoption of a proper scientific, analytic approach to the issue of human sexuality. . .”   When any of us, psychologists, psychiatrists or lawyers, confront the ugly face of homophobia, it is surely our duty in the new millennium to reject it.” (SMH, April 28, 2000).  

 

It is his duty, the duty of psychologists, psychiatrists, and lawyers, to confront “homophobia”, and reject it.  And what do they regard as “homophobia”?  Anyone who speaks against this unspeakable practice is “homophobic”.  Since I have continuously spoken against this sin, as against all sins, you can imagine what would have happened if I ended up facing this High Court judge. That is why the Almighty did not allow me to go any further with that appeal. He knew that it would have been like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. I may well have ended up behind psychiatric bars, for how else do lawyers and psychiatrists deal with the people who refuse to reconstruct themselves according to their wish?  The question is, would the medical profession respond to the call of this judge to confront what he calls the “ugly face of homophobia”? 

Two years ago, the president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Kerryn Phelps, went to New York in order to get “married” to her lesbian partner.  In Australia we now have a homosexual High Court judge, a lesbian president of the Australian Medical Association, homosexual Members of Parliament, church leaders who call for homosexuals to be ordained to the priesthood and, of course, the largest homosexual festival in the world – the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.  It is not a mere coincidence that the Almighty raised this work in this land?  He wanted us to be close to the action, to see with our own eyes the morass into which humanity has fallen, and to cry aloud the sins of these people. Living in this country has become a great vexation of the spirit for us. 

Last year, this High Court judge, “outed“ himself after keeping his homosexuality secret for 30 years.   

 

Top judge reveals gay life”  “High Court judge Michael Kirby has outed himself by providing details of a 30-year homosexual relationship to society bible Who’s Who In Australia.  Juastice Kirby, 60, has listed retirement newsagent Johan van Vloten as his partner in the 1999 edition of Who’s Who and revealed their relationship began in 1969.  The statement shows their union predates by 15 years, changes to the NSW law decriminalizing homosexuality in NSW.” (The Sun-Herald, April 18, 1999).  

 

He was appointed to the High Court position on the premise of an unblemished record and lifestyle, yet, at the time of his appointment, he was engaging in what was then a criminal activity.  And what did our leaders, political and religious, do when they read about that?  They congratulated him.

 

“While the judge was congratulated for his courage – and even morals campaigner Fred Nile MLC said he was glad Kirby had come out – the collective response was rather more of a yawn.  All hell would break loose if a Supreme Court judge in the US declared himself a homosexual. In this country, no one even admitted to be surprised by anything anymore.” (Elizabeth Wynhausen, The Australian, April 26, 1999).    

 

In America they don’t have homosexual Supreme Court judges.  What they do have instead is homosexual “marriages”, and “Christians” who demonstrate vociferously demanding the right to carry arms. It makes you wonder what christ they serve, for it is not our Christ.  This is what Jesus Christ told His followers:

 

Mat 26:51  And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.

Mat 26:52  But Jesus said to him, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

Mat 5:39  "But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

 

If you think that these problems are peculiar to the English-speaking world, what do you make of this?

 

MUNICH: Two lawyers have asked German family Minister Christine Bergmann to classify the Bible among the books considered dangerous for children because of its violent content.  The Bible contains passages of “a gruesomeness difficult to exceed”, glorified as the will of God, lawyers Christian Sailer and Gert-Joachim Hetzel told the minister on behalf of parents.

“It preaches genocide, racism, enmity towards Jews, gruesome executions for adulterers and homosexuals, the murder of one’s own children and many other perversions,” they said.   The book should be banned for children unless the “bloodthirsty and human rights-violating passages” were removed.”   (The Australian, August 3, 2000).

 

The German lawyers want the “human rights-violating passages” removed from the Bible.  Now who determines what “rights” human beings have, lawyers or their Creator?  They never speak of human duties or obligations, only of human rights, the very opposite of what God has been telling us in the Bible. There are no inherent rights for human beings, only obligations: the obligation to be decent, civil, loving, charitable, helpful, respectful to parents, obedient to God, etc. 

Jesus Christ, His Apostles and the prophets never talked about human rights. Only Satan insisted that Adam and Eve had the right to experiment and decide for themselves what is good and what is evil, in order that they may be like God.  Now the United Nations is peddling a similar doctrine.  Man has become his own god and the measure of all things, and that is why humanity is on the brink of catastrophe.   Jesus Christ said:

 

Mat 22:37 " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'

Mat 22:38  "This is the first and great commandment.

Mat 22:39  "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

Mat 22:40  "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

 

If people observed these golden rules there would be no need to talk about human rights, for everyone’s “right” to a decent untroubled undisturbed life would be guaranteed.   

The Almighty placed human beings on this earth and allowed them to follow their own way for a while so that they may learn that without obedience to His laws life becomes unbearable.  He promised a better and more fulfilled life in a different world for those who love Him and obey His laws.  You will not find a single place in the Bible that says that human beings have the right to do one thing or another.  The word ‘rights’ is found only once in the Bible.  Here it is:   "If he takes another wife, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marriage rights” (Exo 21:10).  Other than that, any claim that human beings have inherent rights is not from God but from the Devil. The concept of human rights goes hand in hand with free moral agency, both of which are contrary to God’s principles.

The United Nations reveals its own colors, and the master it serves, when it insists that homosexuality be permitted in all countries of the world. The European Union too, takes pride in enforcing this rule. One of the first conditions it placed on the countries of Eastern Europe that sought its membership was that they legalize homosexuality.  And to complete the trilogy, the European Court of Human Rights decreed this: “The British Armed Forces were forced to drop their ban on homosexuals last January after a ruling against Britain at the European Court of Human Rights” (The Sun-Herald, September 3, 2000).

It is hard to believe that these things are happening before our very eyes, that Satan has managed to dominate the leading institutions of our time to such degree, but there they are, enforcing his rule without giving a thought what consequences this may have upon the world.      

Jesus Christ foresaw these things, and that is why He spoke of a Great Tribulation that would bring this world to a crushing end, and usher in a wonderful new world. But only for those who have not known the depths of Satan.  

 

Rev 2:24  "Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of

Rev 2:25  Satan, as they say,  I will put on you no other burden.  "But hold fast what you have till I come.

Rev 2:26  "And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations;'He shall rule them

Rev 2:27  with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels'; as I also have received from My Father.”

 

Many leaders are angry with me for suggesting that they have no place in the Kingdom of God, but isn’t this what the Scriptures say?  “He who overcomes. . . shall rule the nations with a rod of iron”.  Not those who acquiesce in enforcing Satan’s rule upon their own people, but those who stand up to him, who refuse to bend their knees to this pagan god and have anything to do with him.      

One day before the High Court judge addressed the students of that elite Catholic school, telling them that it is all right to be gay, the Catholic and Anglican Archbishops of Sydney released the following common statement.

 

 “Sydney’s Anglican and Catholic archbishops have joined together to attack the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Grass.  It is believed to be the first time the leaders of the two biggest Christian churches have spoken out against the Mardi Gras.  After saying very little during the event’s 22-year history, they have advised the people of Sydney to avoid the March 4 parade, saying it is little more than a highly erotic and gross way of promoting a homosexual lifestyle.” 

“Both church leaders had been mainly silent on the Mardi Gras over the years . . .   The Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, Cardinal Edward Clancy, has spoken out against Mardi Gras in the Catholic Weekly newspaper that will be circulated in churches on Sunday. He says the churches teach that homosexual practices are contrary to the moral law.  Homosexual people are required to exercise self-discipline and to avoid such conduct . . .The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev Harry Goodhew, has issued a statement indicating his support and agreement with Cardinal Clancy’s statement. It is being mailed to Anglican rectors in Sydney today and will be published in the church’s Southern Cross newspaper next month” (SMH, February 24, 2000).

 

When we began our work a decade ago, people found it hard to believe that we did it because we saw a void which was not being filled by the custodians of our moral and spiritual standards. Well, here is the proof of it. It took 22 years for the Catholic and Anglican Church leaders to speak against the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

We are an awfully small organization by comparison, but we made sure that our voice was heard in every corner of the world, and continues to be heard.  We are weak and small in the world, but we are strong in the Lord, and if the Lord be for us, who can be against us?  It is to be noticed that Cardinal Clancy and Archbishop Goodhew did not speak against homosexuality as such, but against the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras for being “a highly erotic and gross way of promoting a homosexual lifestyle”. Presumably if it weren’t promoting a homosexual life style in such an erotic and gross way, it would be all right. They went on to say that “homosexual practices are contrary to the moral law.” Pardon? Men of God speak of the moral law, instead of the law of God?  In all of their statement, they never mentioned God or His divine law against homosexuality. Moral laws are usually devised by human beings They change with time and vary from society to society. But God’s spiritual laws are universal and immutable.  The moral laws of some primitive societies involved cannibalism, bestiality, and prostitution.  That was their moral law, they approved of it, and they loved it. In New South Wales homosexuality is now legal.  So which moral law were they talking about?

It is God’s spiritual law that says homosexuality is evil and contrary to nature. You can’t break that law for it breaks you instead.  Don’t be surprised to find that the Catholic and Anglican Church leaders are trying to shift the ground towards a more flexible attitude towards homosexuality, even though on the surface they appear to condemn it.

Now do you think that these leaders knew that the very next day, a High Court judge would deliver that kind of speech at a top Catholic school and countermand everything they said a day earlier? For if they knew, their hypocrisy would stink to high heaven and bypass even that of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.

Having worked in education for many years, I can tell you that schools do not invite guest speakers on an adhoc basis. Such visits interfere with the normal school calendar, and require advance planning. Nor do they invite people unless they have a pretty good idea of what their speech is going to be about. 

It is inconceivable that the headmaster of an elite Catholic school would embroil his school in that kind of controversy without the knowledge and approval of his superior.  Why then did Cardinal Clancy approve of such a speech? If he was against homosexuality, why did he not wait another day until the judge made his speech, then condemn that together with the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival? That would have made more sense, wouldn’t it?

The point is, if he had spoken a day later, it would have appeared that he was in opposition to the High Court judge.  He would not have wanted to do that for we all know how many scandals the Catholic Church is embroiled in on behalf of it’s errant homosexual priests.  By speaking ahead of the judge, it served several purposes. It barred any queries from parents who pay upwards of ten thousand dollars per year to have their children educated in a school which tells them that it is all tight to be gay; it answered the parishioners who may have wondered why their leader had never spoken against this sin before; it advanced the interest of the High Court judge who sanctioned homosexuality on the hallowed grounds of a top Catholic school; and it sent a message to those who might consider seeking compensation against the Catholic and Anglican Churches for homosexual abuse at the hands of their priests.  Who in their right mind would now go before the High Court to seek redress against homosexual abuse, when a High Court judge says that those who think that homosexuality is evil need psychiatric treatment?   This judge had attended an Anglican, not a Catholic school in his youth, so any claim that he might have revisited an old boys school does not apply. Clearly he was specifically invited to this Catholic high school in order to advance the cause of homosexuality, and to send the message to those who still think that this practice is wrong and evil that a new rule applies now.   Strange things are happening in this world indeed!

 

 

 

 

 

              INTO THE SHIPFOLD THROUGH THE BACK DOOR

 

We all know that the Catholic Church is faced with a mountain of claims for compensation all over the world from people who were abused as children while in its care, but what about the Anglican Church, why are its leaders aligning themselves now with their Catholic counterparts? Surely they could not be in a similar situation, could they?  Well, we don’t have the latest developments within the Anglican Church of Australia, but it could not be all that different from what is happening with its sister church in Canada.

 

Abuse sinks church.  The Anglican Church in Canada is braced for bankruptcy, submerged by claims for damages for the alleged sexual abuse of native Canadians in its children’s homes amounting to $C2 billion.  Legal fees are rapidly eating into its reserves and attempts to persuade the Government to bail it out have so far been unsuccessful. The church’s 26 homes, some operating since 1820’s were closed in 1969.” (The Sun-Herald, June 4, 2000).    

 

Can you see why these churches are desperate to change people’s attitude toward homosexuality?  It is their only salvation, otherwise they would all go bankrupt.   The largest “Christian” churches are fighting for survival unless they ‘normalize’ homosexuality.  The claims against them are unlikely to subside even after the current spade of court cases are settled, for they are reeking with homosexual priests.  And if they are not now, they will soon.  For while Archbishop Goodhew was condemning the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, the new Primate of the Anglican Church in Australia, was calling for homosexual ordination to the priesthood.

 

“Gays and females on primate’s ‘to do’ list”  “The Anglican Diocese of Sydney was moving towards female ordination but more slowly than the rest of the church, the new Primate of Australia, the Most Rev Dr Peter Carnley, said yesterday. He also said that he would address the issue of the ordination of homosexuals.  There has been criticism of his appointment from conservative elements within the diocese.   Dr Carnley, who will be installed at St Andrew’s Cathedral on Sunday, said of women’s ordination: “there are women deacons, women are in positions they were not in 10 years ago. I think Sydney is moving.” 

He said the church should strive towards organizational unity.  Suggestions that Sydney diocese, which had held out against female ordination, would split from the rest of the church were not new.   “But I think there is a Gospel imperative to be one,” he said. “That is in John 17, that we should be one, that others would believe in the unity of God.”

Dr Carnley said his views on theology had been “around for 20 years at least “. They had been expressed in his book, The Structure of Resurrection Belief, published in 1987.   He believed in the Christian salvation, which was not a place, not a state of happiness, but a relationship with God that is entered into through Jesus Christ.” (SMH, April 28, 2000). 

  

The bishop who ordained the first women to the priesthood when he was head of the Anglican Church in Western Australia, now wants to ordain homosexuals to the priesthood. He is in a better position now, for he is Primate of the Anglican Church over all of Australia.   Now take another look at his definition of salvation, for it is a classic example of what happens to people who depart from the ways of God. They simply become blinded to the truth of God.  How else can one explain Dr Carnley’s statement that salvation is not a place, not even a state of happiness, but a “relationship”?  If he is right, then salvation is all about this world and nothing else.

Has he never heard of the term, Kingdom of God, never heard or Jesus’ promise that He would go away and prepare a place for His followers, never heard of a new heaven and a new earth, never herd of a marriage between Christ and His bride, the Church, never heard of a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven to a new earth, never heard of Jesus’ promise to His Apostles that they would sit on twelve thrones over the tribes of Israel, never heard that those who follow Jesus Christ now would become kings and priests in His Kingdom?  There are a lot of things Dr Carnley has never heard of.   Seven years ago, this is what I wrote in The Christian Herald No 3.

 

“My lecturers in the Religious Studies Department were not some unknown entities or insignificant personalities.  Most of them held important positions in Christian denominations.  One of them is now head of the Anglican Church in one of the Australian states.  He was the worst offender as far as the Bible was concerned.  During the week they were "demythologizing" the Bible to us (taking out the supernatural), and in the weekend they were preaching from it to their followers. Great sermons, no doubt!  My strength came from the fact that I was studying both religions and ancient history.  Surprisingly, I found that the lecturers in the Ancient History Department had more confidence in the Bible than those from the Religious Studies Department.  The historians had little doubt about the authenticity of the New Testament writings, but the theologians were still searching for the "historical Jesus".  Interestingly, those who lectured us on Hinduism, Buddhism, other eastern religions, and Islam, never thought of "demythologizing" their sacred books. They always spoke with reverence about their faiths. Not so the Jewish and Christian theologians” (TCH No 3, p.38).

 

The man of whom I said then that was the worst offender as far as the Bible was concerned, was none other than Dr Carnley. I did not name him in 1993 out of respect for the fact that he was my lecturer (though not for what he taught me), but now that he has embroiled himself in such controversy and raised the stakes so high, I don’t think it matters anymore.  I believe that it is better if we bring our opinions into the open so that we discuss our differences.  It may be that he who is wrong may take the opportunity to repent and change.  After all, what do the Scriptures say? 

 

James 5:19  Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns

James 5:20  a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

 

Dr Carnley quoted John 17, “a Gospel imperative to be one”, in order to maintain unity in the church. I think a more appropriate explanation would be that he did so in order to silence his critics.  His use of John 17 for this purpose is a total misquotation of the Scriptures.  Could Jesus Christ have called for unity behind a doctrine of homosexuality?  This is what He said:

John 17:20  "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one,

John 17:21  as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent

John 17:22  Me.   "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:

John 17:23  "I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

 

Being one with Jesus Christ and the Father means being one in Spirit, truth, faith, and holiness, not in perversions that are an abomination to God and His children. One cannot be one with God, if he does not obey His commandments.

 

Mat 19:16  Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have

Mat 19:17  eternal life?”  So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."

 

Here is proof that Dr Carnley’s assertion that salvation is “not a place, not a state of happiness, but a relationship with God” is false, for Jesus Christ pointed the way by which we may “enter into life”, not into a “relationship”.  That salvation is about another world is also proved by the Apostles’ writings.   

 

1 Cor 15:12  Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no

1 Cor 15:13  resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

1 Cor 15:14  And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 

1 Cor 15:15  Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He

1 Cor 15:16  did not raise up; if in fact the dead do not rise.  For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.

1 Cor 15:17  And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

1 Cor 15:18  Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

1 Cor 15:19  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 

1 Cor 15:20  But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 

1 Cor 15:21  For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.  

1 Cor 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

1 Cor 15:23  But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.

1 Cor 15:24  Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule

1 Cor 15:25  and all authority and power.  For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 

1 Cor 15:26  The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

 

Down through the centuries, thousands of people have sacrificed their life in order to attain immortality, yet now the wise of this world are telling us that their sacrifice was in vain, that Jesus’ sacrifice was in vain, that the Scriptures are false, that the Gospel preached by John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and the Apostles, is not true.

Is it a mere coincidence that with the appointment of Dr Carnley to the position of Primate of Australia, the High Court judge Michael Kirby came out strongly in condemnation of those who think homosexuality is evil, and a lesbian lobbied heavily to become the Federal President of the Australian Medical Association?  They work in tandem, knowing exactly what they want, what they are doing, and where they are aiming. 

When he addressed the students of St Ignatius, Michael Kirby said: “I for one deny that I am ‘intrinsically evil”.  Well, he may deny it, but if he engages in practices that are described in the Scriptures as evil, he must be prepared to wear the tag assigned to him by God.  Does he want to send people who disapprove of homosexuality to psychiatric treatment out of the goodness of his heart or out of an evil intention?  This is what the Scriptures say of such people, now what we say.

 

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who

Rom 1:19  supress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God

Rom 1:20  has shown it to them.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

Rom 1:21  because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Rom 1:22  Professing to be wise, they became fools,  and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like Rom 1:23  corruptible man; and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Rom 1:24  Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies

Rom 1:25  among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Rom 1:26  For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for

Rom 1:27  what is against nature.   Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which

Rom 1:28  was due.  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a

Rom 1:29  debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are

Rom 1:30  whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to

Rom 1:31  parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who knowing the righteous

Rom 1:32  judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.  Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, 

Rom 2:1  for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

Rom 2:2  But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

 

Should such people be judges and priests over us when the Scriptures say that “those who practice such things are deserving of death”?   They have done their best to frighten and silence their critics, and that is why it was necessary for God to raise a work at this time not associated with any of the existing churches or religions. For if other churches refuse to do their job, we shall never stop crying aloud the sins of the world, and never pull back from our mission.  As we said,  we may be small and weak in the world, but we are strong in the Lord.  And if God be for us, who can be against us.

 

Rom 8:33  Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is he who condemns? It is

Rom 8:34  Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes

Rom 8:35  intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Rom 8:36  As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."

Rom 8:37  Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded

Rom 8:38  that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present,  Rom 8:39  not things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

      

During my university days, I used to be deeply grieved by the kind of publications I had to study for my theses, but I could never tell them about it.  It was my luck that I went to university in my thirties, by which time I had already acquired a strong belief in God and in the authenticity of the Bible.  But I used to feel sorry for my younger colleagues who had no such experience, whom I could see that were being negatively affected. 

As far as I could ascertain, Dr Carnley did not believe in the virgin birth, in a bodily resurrection, in the Holy Spirit, in the end time judgment, in a transcendental purpose for human life, nor indeed whether Jesus Christ was a historical figure.  His favored author was a certain Lutheran theologian called Bultman who specialized in “demithologizing” the Bible and questioning the historicity of Jesus Christ.  As a good Christian, Dr Carnley sought to enrich us with Bultman’s theology too.  

A few years later, I was astonished when I saw him being enthroned as head of the Anglican Church in Western Australia. I was astonished because as an academic he might have had an excuse in exploring all kinds of un-Christian and unsavory ideas, but not as a man of the pulpit.  Sure enough, not long afterwards he became the first Anglican Bishop in the world to appoint women to the priesthood.  One of his new “priests” said in a television interview soon afterwards that she was almost late for the ordination because she took time to feed her two young twins.  Does that tell you anything? Imagine how inspired her congregation would feel if she had to run from feeding her children to conduct their religious service.  As it happened, I had the chance to observe her perform a Sunday service too.  Everything followed a prescribed routine.  Even a stranger from the street could perform such service after a few hours of training, except perhaps for the final address to the congregation. But these days you can buy entire books or CD Roms full of nothing but sermons.  Is it any wonder that the strength of people’s beliefs resemble the quality of their religious services?  People are not fools: in time they could see whether their religious leaders are genuine servants of God or mere impostors. That is why they are leaving these churches in droves.

After he became Primate of the Anglican Church in Australia, Dr Carnley started talking about ordaining “non-practicing” homosexuals to the priesthood. “Non-practicing” homosexuals?  Does he not know that as far as God is concerned there is no such a thing as “non-practicing” homosexual?  You are either a homosexual, or you are not.  Just like you are an adulterer, or you are not.  For when you repent, your slate is being wiped clean.  You do not become a “non-practicing” homosexual, just as you do not become a “non-practicing” adulterer, a “non-practicing” fornicator, or a “non-practicing” whatever.  You are a Christian, or you are not, otherwise we are all “non-practicing” one thing or another.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                      SIN MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK
 

There are many definitions of sin in the Bible, but generally speaking, any departure from the laws of God is considered sin.  “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4).  Here then are God’s straightforward laws to humanity.  Breaking these laws gives us the first definition of sin. 

 

Exo 20:1  And God spoke all these words, saying:

Exo 20:2  "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Exo 20:3  "You shall have no other gods before Me.

Exo 20:4  "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

Exo 20:5  you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Exo 20:6  but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Exo 20:7  "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Exo 20:8  "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Exo 20:9  Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

Exo 20:10  but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Exo 20:12  "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

Exo 20:13  "You shall not murder.

Exo 20:14  "You shall not commit adultery.

Exo 20:15  "You shall not steal.

Exo 20:16  "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Exo 20:17  "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

 

Keeping the Ten Commandments was linked by Jesus Christ with eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

 

Mat 19:16  Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have

Mat 19:17 eternal  life?’  So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."   He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said,

Mat 19:18  " 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,'

Mat 19:19  'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.””

Mat 19:20  The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?"

Mat 19:21  Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

Mat 19:22  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Mat 19:23  Then Jesus said to His disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the

Mat 19:24  kingdom of heaven.  "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."   When His disciples heard it,

Mat 19:25   they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?"  But Jesus looked at them and

Mat 19:26  said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

 

Notice how Jesus Christ listed all six commandments that regulate man’s relationship with man, but none of the first four that regulate his relationship with God. There are several reasons for that.  The first one has to do with the fact that by that time the Jews were making a great deal of observing the first four commandments.  So much so that they almost forgot about the rest. This is what Jesus told them in regard to the fifth commandment.  

 

Mark 7:7   And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

Mark 7:8   "For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men; the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."

Mark 7:9  He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.

Mark 7:10  "For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who curses father or mother, let him be put  to death.’ 

Mark 7:11 "But you say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban"; ' (that is, a gift to God),

Mark 7:12  "then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making  the word of God of no effect

Mark 7:13  through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do."      

 

The Jews were more concerned with their tradition and with ritual purity than with honoring their parents. It is for this reason that God told them that they worship Him in vain, ‘Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'

The question of tradition always comes into the discussion when I talk about religion with my Orthodox countrymen. They assure me that they would never depart from the tradition of our parents because that would be a sin.  The implication being that I have already committed an unpardonable sin by doing so. 

Quoting the Scriptures to them is of little consequence. The priests know better; they would never preach anything that is not Scriptural they assure me.  Besides, the church has received additional revelations since the New Testament was completed. Quoting Revelation 22:18-19 to them, which forbids any addition to the Scriptures, is also of little consequence to them.   When Jesus Christ told His disciples that, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God", they immediately replied, "Who then can be saved?"  Jesus looked at them and said, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Mat. 19:24-26).  In other words, the process of salvation is all in the hands of God. That is why the sooner you abandon yourself to Him, and let Him mould you as He wishes, the sooner you achieve your goal in this life and the easier it is for you in the end.  The final outcome is nothing less than implanting the mind of God in you as He implanted it in Jesus Christ.

 

Phil 2:5  Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

Phil 2:6  who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,

Phil 2:7  but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 

Phil 2:8  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

 

Now let us get back to the definitions of sin.  Another reason Jesus Christ did not quote the first four commandments is that He knew that some Samaritans, who supposedly worshiped a different God, were more righteous than the Jews.

 

Luke 10:29  But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Luke 10:30  Then Jesus answered and said: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.”

Luke 10:31  Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the

Luke 10:32  other side.”  Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on

Luke 10:33  the other side.  "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw

Luke 10:34 him, he had compassion.  "So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

Luke 10:35  "On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'

Luke 10:36  "So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”  

Luke 10:37  And he said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

 

Later, the Apostles said a similar thing about the Gentiles.

 

Rom 3:9  What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.

Gal 3:22  But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Rom 2:12  For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be

Rom 2:13  judged by the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified;

Rom 2:14  for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not

Rom 2:15 having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)

Rom 2:16  in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

 

Which proves that all human beings will be judged on the basis of the life they led in this world, irrespective of their religion or nationality.  Now we shall look at other definitions of sin.

 

Prov 21:3  To do righteousness and justice Is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

Prov 21:4  A haughty look, a proud heart, And the plowing of the wicked are sin.

 

First a reminder to the Jews that their sacrifices without righteousness and justice are useless, a point confirmed in both the Old and New Testaments.  

 

Heb 10:3-7  But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.  Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for me.  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come; In the volume of the book it is written of Me; To do Your will, O God.'"  (Quoted from Psalm 40:6-8).

 

Then we are told that a haughty look and a proud heart, or in more common parlance, arrogance and conceit, the marks of self-centeredness, are also sins. 

 

Prov 24:8  “He who plots to do evil Will be called a schemer.

Prov 24:9  The devising of foolishness is sin, And the scoffer is an abomination to men.”

 

Scheming against other people, making them the object of mocking, derision and scorn, are sins too.  

 

Isa 31:7  “For in that day every man shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold; sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.”

 

This is in conformity with the second commandment, which prohibits the making and worshipping of images. Have you seen how faithfully the Catholic and Orthodox Churches observe this commandment?  Or how dedicated to this commandment were the people who built those gigantic medieval Cathedrals?  Some of the statues, images and gargoyles, which they placed on those buildings, are so grotesque they give you nightmares, let alone engender a feeling of tranquility and contemplation.   

 

Jer 16:10  "And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?'

Jer 16:11  "then you shall say to them, 'Because your fathers have forsaken Me,' says the LORD; 'they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law.

 

Departing from the God of the Bible and worshipping other gods is a great sin.

 

Lam 4:6  The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people Is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, Which was overthrown in a moment, With no hand to help her!”

 

Because prohibition against homosexuality is not listed among the Ten Commandments, some may have thought that this is not a sin.  Well here is its direct association with the word sin.  But departing from the true God and going after pagan gods is a greater sin than homosexuality.  That is because from the first sin it is impossible to recover, whereas from the second one can always turn back and repent.

 

Ezek 33:14  "Again, when I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful

Ezek 33:15 and right,   "If the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

 

Taking pledges, stealing, and robbing, are sins deserving of death.  But restoring them puts one in good terms with God.  I often think of what happened to me some three decades ago when I dared go to the headquarters of the Worldwide Church of God and tell them that what they were preaching was unscriptural.  They promptly expelled me from their church and locked me out of my own flat. That’s what their god teaches them to do.

You have no idea what lengths they go to find out what I am doing and preaching these days, and the things they do to make me sin.  I feel sorry for them, for it must be awful having to live with that kind of conscience for so long.  But their case is typical of those who depart from God, who then desperately try to justify themselves in their own eyes.   Recently, I received the following letter from one of their ministers in Africa:

 

“Dear father Grigore”, “Greetings in the wonderful name of Jesus full of grace and truth. 

- I went through TCH No 8 and decided to ask your forgiveness.  Knowing full well that I lost my salvation and went astray after joining hands with those who persecute the Church of God, and the Word of Truth.

- Really I denied that you are not Christ, but according to what I have read about you in TCH No 8, and what happened for you, the judge’s action against you which fulfill 1260 days, I feel sorry and burdened in my soul as a prodigal son, to come back and ask you to forgive me and accept me back into this Light of Truth, for I know now for ever that there’s no favor [?] than this!

- Please consider our souls, and our people, so that you may come one day to prove us, and see if we are worthy to become part of God’s Kingdom.

- I know, no one brings me in the COG and no one can put me away of it unless I have sins against God, which is exactly what I did in 1997.  I really repent for Dishonest tongue (underlining in the original) and for the lies, and hypocrisy. I’m sorrowful that Devil used me to steal God’s money sometime back; May God have mercy for me . . .  I hope you forgive me and accept me back, since I open my heart for the Lord and tell & repent from my sins!

Please forgive me. Let God forgive me also. This is all for now. Hopping your reply if the Lord willing.

Your Prodigal Son ! EDS

 

On the surface, this may appear to be a genuine act of repentance and heartfelt request for forgiveness.  He knows that as a Christian I am under obligation to forgive. This is what Jesus Christ told His disciples. 

 

Mat 18:21  Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?

Mat 18:22  Up to seven times?”  Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

 

But did you notice the reason for his “road to Damascus” conversion?  “Really I denied that you are not Christ,” said he.  Turning the two negatives into a positive, what he meant is that he denied that I am Christ.  But I have never said that I am Christ.  I am not Christ now, I was never Christ in the pat, and never will be Christ in the future!  Anyone can read TCH No 8 and see that I said no such a thing in that edition, or in any of my previous editions.  What I have maintained from the very beginning is that I am merely one of God’s children, and therefore Jesus’ brother, only of a lesser worth and lower rank.  By accepting his supposed act of contrition and repentance, I would acknowledge that I am Christ, and therefore I would be committing blasphemy. Can you see how devious they are and how unashamedly they do the work of the evil one?  

He mentioned that in 1997 he had a dishonest tongue, told lies, was a hypocrite, and allowed the Devil to use him to steal money from us.  What he did then was that he sent us a letter, telling us in desperation that he, his family, and a few other people, who had supposedly turned to God recently, were starving to death because major floods destroyed their means of living.  That year much of Africa suffered devastation as a result of floods, so we believed him, especially since he sent us newspaper clippings and pictures to prove that what he was telling us was true. 

We wondered why he had chosen us and how he had heard of us, but you don’t ask such questions of starving people.  We decided to help them first and ask questions later. 

From our little resources, we put together about $2,000 and sent it to them urgently.  Immediately afterwards we were flooded with similar requests from other people.  But when we did some inquiries, we discovered that he was in fact a minister in the Worldwide Church of God, and was doing their work of deception and trying to send us broke. 

Now he is coming back to us telling us that he repented of what he did then, but did not think that repentance requires a restoration of what, by his own admission, he stole and acquired by dishonest means.  

The leaders of that church seem to think that by making me sin, they would be justified in the sight of God for what they did to me back then in the early seventies.  Obviously, they have never read this?

 

Mat 18:6  "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

 

Does anyone doubt that the following words of Jesus Christ refer to the “Pharisees” of our time? 

 

Mat 23:15  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”

 

Or that these words of Apostle Paul refer to the same people?

 

2 Cor 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

2 Cor 11:14  And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.”

 

The battle between the children of light and the children of darkness continues unabated.  But through Jesus Christ we shall overcome it for He said: "I will never leave you nor forsake you"  (Heb 13:5). 

 

Eph 6:12  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

 

Now back to the definition of sin.     

 

Mat 12:31  "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.”

 

Here we come across the first case of an unpardonable sin: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Now what exactly were the Pharisaic Jews doing that constituted blasphemy?  They accused Jesus of being possessed by a wicked spirit and that He performed miracles by the power of the Devil.

 

Mark 3:28  "Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they

Mark 3:29  may utter;  but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to

Mark 3:30 eternal condemnation”; because they said, "He has an unclean spirit."

 

Which means that if the Holy Spirit guides someone, and preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ in conformity with the Scriptures, yet he is accused of being a false preacher, the accuser commits blasphemy.      

 

John 9:41 Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin

John 15:22  remains.  "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no

John 15:24  excuse for their sin.  "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.

 

Denying the work of God, whether this is manifest in the form of miracles as was the case of Jesus Christ, or in the form of plagues and disasters as is the case with the end-time prophets of God (Rev. 11), or even denying and rejecting the Gospel of the Kingdom of God when you hear this being preached, is a major sin.

 

 1 John 1:8  “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

 Eccl 7:20  For there is not a just man on earth who does good And does not sin.”

 

Here is the first step on the road to repentance: acknowledging that one is a sinful person.  For contrary to the general belief, everyone is born with a sinful nature, even though he had not yet committed any sin. 

 

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

Rom 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Rom 5:13  (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law . . .)

 

You were conceived in iniquity, and born with a carnal nature.  Which means that even if you had never sinned, which would be impossible, you would still not qualify for the Kingdom of God.  Why?  Because you are carnal, and carnal people are at enmity with God.

 

Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed

Rom 8:8  can be.  So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Rom 8:9  But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Rom 8:10  And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

 

Here is the Scriptural definition of a Christian: “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”  In other words, the presence of the Holy Spirit makes you a Christian, not membership into a particular church or adherence to a particular creed. 

When you repent and are baptized, God implants His seed in you, the Holy Spirit, and a new person begins to grow inside you, a spiritual person.  That is what Jesus Christ meant by being “born again”.

 

John 3:3  Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

 

One has to be born first, and make good progress towards attaining a godly character, before he can see the Kingdom of God.   You are merely the clay in God’s hands, a fertile ground for the Holy Spirit.  When that work is finished, and you reach spiritual maturity, God simply takes you out of this world: “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints” (Ps. 116:15).  That way you are being spared any further temptations, and can no longer sin and lose your salvation. 

 

Rom 7:16  If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

Rom 7:17  But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity

Rom 7:24  to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body death? 

Rom 7:25  I thank God;  through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

Here Apostle Paul tells us that he too struggled with his own carnal nature.  A reflection of the internal battle that takes place inside everyone who turns to God in repentance. Along the way, we are all tried and tested until we reach the required strength of character.  As Apostle Peter wrote:

 

1 Pet 4:12  Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange

1 Pet 4:13  thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His

1 Pet 4:14  glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.  If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. 

1 Pet 4:15  But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters.

1 Pet 4:16  Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.

1 Pet 4:17  For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?  Now “if the righteous one is scarcely saved,

1 Pet 4:18  Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?"  Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of 

1 Pet 4:19  God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.

 

It is the strength of your character that determines your position in the Kingdom of God.  That position is for eternity, therefore it is worth making any effort to overcome human nature and develop godly character while still in this world. Nowhere is the saying ‘mind over matter’ more applicable and appropriate than in this case.     

 

Rom 2:12  For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the

Rom 2:13  law  will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of

Rom 2:14  the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves . . . “

 

Here the Gentiles are placed in the same category as the good Samaritans. By instinct, they observe the law of God, and that makes them worthy candidates for salvation, alongside the pious and faithful of Jews.

 

James 2:8  If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself,"

James 2:9  you do well;  but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

James 4:17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

 

If you know how to do good and refuse to do it, is a sin. This is a very broad category, but one which indicates that you cannot sit on your laurels and say, I have done my duty, I have overcome the world, I have achieved control over my own human nature, now I can take it easy, enjoy myself, and wait for the salvation of the Lord.

There is so much good that needs to be done in this word, one hardly knows where to start.  As a suggestion, you can start by supporting this work, for we can do with helpful hands in every country of the world.  There is no other work more worthy of your support than this one. For if we do not succeed in our mission, this world has had it.  

 

Mal 4:5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

Mal 4:6  And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse."

 

 

 

 

 

                  THINKING IS NOT SINNING

 

Many people are in a terrible dilemma about recurring thoughts, which they think will lead them to hell. They do not realize that mere thoughts are not a sin unless they are fulfilled. Take a careful look at the following Scriptures:

 

Job 31:1  "I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young

Job 31:2  woman?  For what is the allotment of God from above, And the inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

Job 31:3  Is it not destruction for the wicked, And disaster for the workers of iniquity?

Job 31:7  If my step has turned from the way, Or my heart walked after my eyes, Or if any spot adheres to my

Job 31:8  hands, then let me sow, and another eat.”  Yes, let my harvest be rooted out.

Job 31:9  "If my heart has been enticed by a woman, Or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,

Job 31:10  Then let my wife grind for another, And let others bow down over her. 

Job 31:11  For that would be wickedness; Yes, it would be iniquity deserving of judgment.

 

Here we have four statements of intent which are not sins unless carried to fruition: “If I made a covenant with my eyes”, “ if my heart walked after my eyes”, "If my heart has been enticed by a woman”, and “if I have lurked at my neighbor's door” (presumably to entice his wife).  A similar sentiment is expressed in the epistle of James:

 

James 1:14  But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

James 1:15  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

 

Only when the desire has conceived does it gives birth to sin. Only then have you fallen from grace, not when fleeting thoughts pass through your mind.  This is how we must view the following statement of Jesus Christ too.

 imself had to say o this topic.

 

 

 

Mat. 5:28 "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

 

If you look at a woman and think that she is beautiful, it is not a sin, but if you look at her and begin to lust after her, it becomes a sin.  All this is a reflection of the tenth commandment. Do you know which one that is?

 

Ex. 20:17  "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

 

People tend to think that the sixth and seventh commandments (against killing and adultery) are the most difficult, when in fact they are the easiest.  The most difficult commandment is the tenth, for it deals with intent rather than acts.  There is a long way from intent to act.  You can always turn back before committing an act, but it is not so with your thoughts. You must control and sift them before they become enshrined in your mind, and you become obsessed by them and become their slave.  It is a struggle which only you and God know about, but one which you can only win with the help of the Holy Spirit.

 

John 14:15  "If you love Me, keep My commandments.  “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another

John 14:16   Helper, that He may abide with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because

John 14:17   it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

 

If you keep the commandments, you receive the “spirit of truth”, the Helper, who will abide with you forever.  But after you receive Him, you must feed Him a steady stream of spiritual food, otherwise you quench Him. 

 

1 Th 5:16  Rejoice always,

1 Th 5:17  pray without ceasing,

1 Th 5:18  in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Th 5:19  Do not quench the Spirit.

1 Th 5:20  Do not despise prophecies.

1 Th 5:21  Test all things; hold fast what is good.

1 Th 5:22  Abstain from every form of evil.

1 Th 5:23  Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Notice carefully how Apostle Paul spoke of “spirit, soul, and body”.  Some fundamentalist churches deny that human beings have independent souls. They say that their bodies are their “living souls”.  Which means that after death when the body disappears there is nothing left which can be resurrected.  But what did Jesus Christ say?

 

Mat 10:28  "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

 

So body and soul are different entities.  And while human beings can kill the body, only God can destroy both body and soul.  What does that tell you about the notion, popularized by virtually all religions, that human souls are immortal?  That is the difference between true Christianity and other religions.  Here is more proof of it:

 

Ezek 18:4  . . .  “The soul who sins shall die.

Ezek 18:20  "The soul who sins shall die”. . .   

 

The souls that sin shall die – be wiped out forever – in a great lake of fire, not be tormented forever in hell, or in a never ending chain of incarnations in various forms of life.  Other churches say that the Holy Spirit is a non-entity, an object, a nebulous power by which God directs and creates things.  In so doing, they deny the personality of the Holy Spirit and deny the Trinity, a doctrine clearly enunciated by Jesus Christ. 

 

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

Mat 28:19  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the

Mat 28:20  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." Amen.  

 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – could anything be clearer?  Aren’t the words of Jesus Christ enough to convince anyone of the truthfulness of this doctrine?  If you do not understand something, why make it worse by denying it altogether?  Because by denying the personality of the Holy Spirit, you deny your own salvation (For a comprehensive discussion on this topic, see The Christian Herald No 5).  It is for this reason that people are no longer able to discern truth from falsehood, or to “test all things” and “test the spirits”.

 

1 Th 5:19  Do not quench the Spirit.

1 Th 5:20  Do not despise prophecies.

1 Th 5:21  Test all things; hold fast what is good.

 

1 John 4:1  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

1 John 4:2  By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,

1 John 4:3  and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

 

In this passage we come across another puzzling statement: “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh . . . every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God . . . is the spirit of the Antichrist”. 

Few people understand how Jesus Christ “has come in the flesh”.  He does so through the Holy Spirit.  For just as the Father lived in Him through the Holy Spirit when He was in the flesh, Jesus lives in us through the Holy Spirit while we are in the flesh. The presence of the Holy Spirit makes us temples of the living God.

 

2 Cor. 6:16  And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people." 

 

This is what sets aside those who are tuned in to the wisdom of God from those who wallow in the wisdom of this world; those who are guided by the spirit of truth, from those who are guided by a spirit of error.   

 

1 John 4:4  You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the

1 John 4:5  world. They are not of the world.  Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

1 John 4:6  We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of

1 John 4:7  truth and the spirit of error.  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of

1 John 4:8  God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

 

1 John 5:1  Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.

1 John 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.

1 John 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 

1 John 5:4  For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world; our faith.

1 John 5:5  Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

 

Other people preach that one is born of God not while living in this world but after being resurrected into the Kingdom of God.  But take another look at 1 John 5:1.  “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God”.  If you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Christ, you are already born of God now at this present time.  For you cannot say that Jesus is the Christ unless God has revealed this to you.  And He would not reveal this to you if you are still in the flesh and not in the spirit.

Mat 16:13 “When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men

Mat 16:14  say that I, the Son of Man, am?”  So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others

Mat 16:15  Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

Mat 16:16  Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Mat 16:17  Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”

 

One cannot achieve a qualitative salt from the wisdom of the world to the wisdom of God unless he repents and reconciles himself with God first.  But repentance is a mature conscious act, not something for children.  While children can be blessed and confirmed in one’s faith, as Jesus Christ did with those who were brought to Him, that does not represent an act of repentance and of receiving of the Holy Spirit.

I am often asked in this context, what about the children who have died in infancy having never sinned, where are they going if not to heaven?  Aren’t they entitled to a life like the rest of us?  The answer to the first question is, they are going nowhere, and to the second, no one is entitled to anything.  One has no automatic right to eternal life any more than he has the right to this life.  We are God’s clay, and He does with us as He pleases.

 

Rom 9:19  You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted

Rom 9:20  His will?”  But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?  Does not the potter have power over the clay,  

Rom 9:21  from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

 

Young children have never sinned, but they are still made of carnal nature and therefore not automatically qualified for the Kingdom of God.  But neither are they candidates for the hell fire.  We do not know much about God’s judgment, but what we do know is that it is not going to be a rushed affair.  God has eternity before Him, and can take as long as He needs to determine whether one deserves a place in His Kingdom or not.  He could see the nature of human beings from the very beginning, and thus can determine who should be granted the Holy Spirit and transformed into a new person and who should not.  The Holy Spirit can transform one into a new person in a fraction of a second.  Children who have never sinned stand an infinitely better chance of immortality than those who have grown to maturity and wasted their life. 

A Jewish rabbi once made the following witty remark. “When my baby was little I held him up in arms and could not see how God would ask Abraham to kill his son.But now that he has grown into a teenager I can see it.”   

This may be light hearted, but it proves the point that children are made of carnal nature too, and that predisposes them to sin as soon as they are capable of it. Human nature needs to come under the control of spirit nature if human beings are to be saved.  They need to be “born again” as Jesus Christ clearly stated it.

He also said:  "The last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen" (Mat 20:16).  This seems to indicate that not all are called, and of those who are only a few are chosen for eternal life. Some are probably so evil that God doesn’t bother to call them to repentance anymore.  But of those who are called, only those who “overcome to the end” will be granted a place into His Kingdom.

 

Rev 3:21  "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

Mat 10:22  "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.

 

Not all human beings are destined to become priests and kings in the Kingdom of God, but only those who are called to repentance at this time.  The task of overcoming in this world full of temptations is commensurate with the position that will be granted them in the Kingdom of God if they succeed.   

 

Rev 5:9  And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,

Rev 5:10  and have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth."

 

The rest of humanity will be judged at the end of time and granted a place in the Kingdom of Heaven according to their deeds.  Apostle Paul made an analogy here with the stars of heaven. 

 

1 Cor 15:41  There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star

1 Cor 15:42  differs from another star in glory.  So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in

1 Cor 15:43  corruption, it is raised in incorruption.  It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in

1 Cor 15:44  power.   It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

 

People of all nations and religions know the difference between right and wrong even without the Holy Spirit.  They can all aspire to do good, and even if they do not attain perfection in this world, they stand a good chance of being granted a place in the Kingdom of God on the basis of their present life.   

When God grants repentance to someone, it has important implications for his salvation.  One cannot come in and out of repentance at will.  One cannot repent, and not repent, and then repent again.  The prize for those who are called to repentance at this time is great, but so is the punishment for those who turn back. 

 

Rev 1:5  . . . Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

Rev 1:6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

 

Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have

Heb 6:5  become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to

Heb 6:6  come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

 

Those who refuse to turn to God when their call for repentance comes, and refuse to grow in grace and knowledge, become God’s enemies and lose their salvation. That is why Luke’s parable about the talents ends with: “bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me'" (Luke 19:27).

This does not mean that after repentance you will never sin again, because most certainly you will.  But if you remain faithful and in a repentant mood you will rise up and keep going and overcoming to the end.  As the Scriptures say:

 

1 John 5:4  For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world; our faith.” 

1 John 5:5  Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

 

Mat 10:22  "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

 

Rev 2:7  "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”

 

Mat 28:19  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the

Mat 28:20  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." Amen.

 

 When you give in to temptation, remember, not all sins are terminal. You can recover from some, but not from others.  You cannot recover from blasphemy for example. That is why when you speak about God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, you better be careful what you say for you could be digging your own grave. 

 

1 John 5:16  If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about

1 John 5:17  that.  All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

 

Studying the Scriptures, praying and worshiping God, gives you the strength to overcome sin, and renders you approved in His sight. 

 

2 Tim 2:15  Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

 

By “word of truth” he did not mean just the New Testament, but the entire Bible. In his first epistle to the Corinthians, Apostle Paul wrote: 

 

1 Cor 10:1  Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all

1 Cor 10:2  passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same

1 Cor 10:3  spiritual food, and all drunk the same spiritual drink.  For they drank  

1 Cor 10:4  of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

1 Cor 10:11  Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

 

Did you notice who guided the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt? Jesus Christ! Indeed, He was the God of the Old Testament, as we have comprehensibly proven in The Christian Herald No 5.  Send for your free copy now.

“All these things happened to them as examples”, said Apostle Paul.  Examples for whom? For the Jews? He was writing to the Corinthians.  They were examples not only for the Jews, but also for the Corinthians, the Gentiles, and the whole world.

 

Zec 2:10  "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst," says the LORD.  

Zec 2:11 "Many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.

 

Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall become His people and that is why they need to be familiar with His Gospel.  Apostle Paul knew these things, not the least because Jesus Christ taught him.

 

Gal 1:11 “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

Gal 1:12  For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Cor 15:9  For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the

1 Cor 15:10  church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

 

Yes, by the grace of God we all are what we are.  But His grace cannot be taken for grated.  We must do our part to deserve it, and complement the work that God is doing in us.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                 THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 

                     REVEAL THEIR SECRET AT LAST

 

One of the best-documented periods of the ancient world comes from the time of the Roman occupation of the Holy Land during the ministry of Jesus Christ. Great literary, historical, and religious works from that period have survived to our time. They give us a pretty clear picture of what that world was like. We know their form of government, their justice system, military organization, social structure, customs, religious beliefs, mode of transport, clothes, food, etc.  Yet in spite of this wealth of information, the Dead Sea Scrolls, which come from that period, continue to baffle scholars from around the world. 

It is as if the Qumran people, who produced these documents, lived in void, leaving us no trace of their true identity, or why they chose to move away from Jerusalem and live near the Dead Sea. 

They seem to have gone out of their way to hide from the world their true identity and that of their leaders. They spoke of a Teacher of Righteousness and a wicked priest, but without telling us who they were, or giving their real names.     

Astonishingly, this very secrecy gives us the best clue about their true identity.  But in order to understand that, we need to look at a few important historical developments within the earliest Churches of God. 

Many people may be surprised to discover that the Scriptures speak of three kinds of Christianities for that period, quite different from each other: the Christianity of Apostle Peter, of Apostle Paul, and of James.  We will look at each one separately, beginning with the first. 

 

 

                                                            THE CHRISTIANITY OF APOSTLE PETER

 

The very first Church of God was established on the day of Pentecost in the year of Jesus’ crucifixion and ascension to heaven. It is not entirely clear what year that was: the date varies between the years 27 to 33 AD.  Fundamentalist Christians think it was earlier, traditional Christians think it was later.   From our point of view it doesn’t matter, the difference is not all that great to matter.  What maters though is what kind of Christianity that was, what were their beliefs, practices, and form of organization, and what transpired of them in the end. 

In the book of Acts, we have the description of a unique event which would change the lives of those involved, and affect the history of the entire world from then on. We refer, of course, to the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.    

 

Acts 2:1  When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

Acts 2:2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they

Acts 2:3  were sitting.   Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.

Acts 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

Acts 2:5  And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.  And when this sound

Acts 2:6  occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.

Acts 2:7  Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, "Look, are not all these who speak

Acts 2:8  Galleans?  "And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?

Acts 2:9  "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Capadocia,

Acts 2:10  Pontus and Asia,  "Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome,  both

Acts 2:11Jews and proselytes, "Cretans and Arabs; we hear them speaking in our own tongues the  wonderful works of God.”

Acts 2:12  So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "Whatever could this mean?"

Acts 2:13  Others mocking said, "They are full of new wine."

Acts 2:14  But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in

Acts 2:15  Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. "For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the

Acts 2:16  third hour of the day.  "But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel . . .

Acts 2:22  "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know;

Acts 2:23  "Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands,

Acts 2:24 have crucified and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because I tnot possible

Acts 2:25  that He should be held by it.  "For David says concerning Him: 'I foresaw the LORD always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.

Acts 2:26  Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.

Acts 2:27  For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 

Acts 2:28  You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.'

Acts 2:29  "Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and

Acts 2:30  his tomb is with us to this day.   "Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he,

Acts 2:31  foreseeing  this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor

Acts 2:32  did His flesh see corruption.  "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.

Acts 2:33  "Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,

Acts 2:34  He poured out this which you now see and hear.  "For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: 'The

Acts 2:35  LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool."'

Acts 2:36  "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified,

Acts 2:37 both Lord and Christ.”  Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the

Acts 2:38  apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"  Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Acts 2:39  "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

Acts 2:40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation.” 

Acts 2:41  Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to

Acts 2:42  them.  And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in

Acts 2:43  prayers.  Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

 

 Here now are the main characteristics of this congregation:  

 

1)        It was established by Apostle Peter, the Apostle to the “circumcision”;

2)        They were all Jews.  The Gentiles’ time would not come until more than a decade later;

3)        They believed in prophetic fulfillment and determinism: things happened according to the will and foreknowledge of God;

4)        They did not believe in life after death.  David, the famous king of Israel, “did not ascend into the heavens”.  If a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) did not ascend into the heavens, you can be sure that no one else did. This is confirmed by John 3:13. "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven”. 

5)        They believed in resurrection from the dead. Although this is not specifically spoken of in this passage, the fact that they were yet to receive their promised inheritance meant that they would have to be resurrected at a future time.  Later writers spoke in detail about future resurrections.

6)        The expression, “as many as the Lord our God will call" implied a certain kind of exclusiveness.  Not all people would be called, and not all would become part of God’s elect. 

7)        From the Gospel of John, we know that Apostle Peter believed that Jesus Christ would return soon.

 

John 21:20  Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on  His breast at the supper, and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays You?"

John 21:21  Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?"

John 21:22  Jesus said to him, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me."

John 21:23  Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?"  This is the disciple who testifies of these things,

John 21:24  and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true.

 

Clearly, Jesus wanted His followers to be prepared all the time, believing that His return would be imminent.  That way they would remain on guard and eschew the danger of becoming complacent and lukewarm, and thus easy pray to temptations (See Rev 3:14-19).

8)        This congregation was organized on the principle of communality.

 

Acts 4:32  Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.

Acts 4:33  And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace

Acts 4:34  was upon them all.  Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles feet;

Acts 4:35 and they distributed to each as anyone had need.

 

9)        Apostle Peter’s congregation retained many of the Jewish customs and practices – circumcision, dietary laws, washings, etc.  Some of them were justified, as they had become ingrained in the Jewish tradition and culture, but others became a source of confusion and contention between the Apostles when the Gentiles were converted.  

 

Gal 2:11  Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed;

Gal 2:12  for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.  And the rest of the Jews also played the

Gal 2:13 hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.

 

Paul withstood Peter “to his face” when he did not behave towards the Gentiles in an appropriate manner, and treated them as second-class citizens rather than as brothers in the faith.  Now notice carefully, Apostle Peter behave that way only after certain Jews came from James.  James was conducting a different kind of Christianity than that of both Peter and Paul.  James was the Lord’s brother, but he was not one of the original Apostles.  He was not privy to the teachings of Jesus Christ, and was more deeply rooted in the Jewish traditions than were the other Apostles.  When he took it upon himself to tell the Apostles how they ought to organize their congregations, they did not like it. Notice what happened when they convened a council in Jerusalem to determine the question of circumcision for the Gentiles.  

 

Acts 15:6  Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter.

Acts 15:7  And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: "Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 

Acts 15:8  "So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us,

Acts 15:9  and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. "Now therefore, why do you

Acts 15:10  test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

Acts 15:11  "But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as  they.” 

Acts 15:12 Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. 

Acts 15:13  And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, "Men and brethren, listen to me:

Acts 15:14  "Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His

Acts 15:15  name.”  And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:  ‘After this I will return,

Acts 15:16  And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will  

Acts 15:17  set it up;  So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called

Acts 15:18  by My name, Says the LORD who does all these things.’  "Known to God from eternity are all His works.

Acts 15:19  "Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write

Acts 15:20  to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.

  

Apostle Peter would have been happy to let things stand the way Apostle Paul organized them, but then James stood up and added his bit.  He said that the Gentiles should “abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.”  And what did Apostle Paul do with that advise?

 

1 Cor 10:25  Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience' sake;

1 Cor 10:26  for "the earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness."   If any of those who do not believe invites you to diner,

1 Cor 10:27  and you desire to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no question for conscience' sake.”

Not exactly what James had suggested, is it? Apostle Paul clearly felt that he knew better, and rightly so, for he was the most educated of them all, and the best qualified to determine the correct standards for the Gentile Churches of God.  After all, he was the Apostle for the uncircumcised, not James.

 

Gal 2:7  “But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter. . . “

 

This brings us to the Gentile Churches of Apostle Paul.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                             THE CHRISTIANITY OF APOSTLE PAUL

 

Apostle Paul took great responsibility upon himself when he set up the Gentile Churches of God on principles which differed from those on which the Jewish Churches were established.  The fact that his Christianity survived to our time, tells us that he was rightly inspired by the Holy Spirit.

He had to do battle on two fronts: on the one hand he had to overcome the Gentiles’ hostility towards a new religion and a new God, and on the other he had to withstand the opposition from his own people for going over to the Gentiles and preaching that those who believe in Jesus Christ had become the new chosen people.   

 

Gal 1:6  I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,

Gal 1:7  which is not another;  but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Gal 1:8  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be

Gal 1:9   accursed.   As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you

Gal 1:10  than what you have received, let him be accursed.   For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

Gal 1:11  But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

Gal 1:12  For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

Col 2:16  So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths,

Col 2:17  which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Col 2:18  Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body,

Col 2:19  nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

Col 2:20  Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world,

Col 2:21  do you subject yourselves to regulations; "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,"

Col 2:22  which all concern things which perish with the using; according to the commandments and doctrines of men?

Col 2:23  These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.  

Col 3:1  If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 

Col 3:2  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

Col 3:3  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

 

Apostle Paul enhanced his authority by emphasizing the fact that he was taught directly by Jesus Christ.

 

Gal 1:13  For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to

Gal 1:14  destroy it.  And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

Gal 1:15  But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through

Gal 1:16  His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I  go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me;

Gal 1:17  but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

Gal 1:18  Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.

Gal 1:19  But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

Gal 1:20  (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.)

Gal 1:21  Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

Gal 1:22  And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ.

Gal 1:23  But they were hearing only, "He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.” 

Gal 1:24  And they glorified God in me.”

 

He performed a complete turnaround from his opposition to Christianity when Jesus Christ entered his life. It was only then that he understood the meaning of the new religion and the need for a New Testament

 

Gal 2:1  Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me.

Gal 2:2  And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain.

Gal 2:3  Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.

Gal 2:4  And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even

Gal 2:5  for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

 

Remember the term “false brethren” when we discuss the Christianity of James, for these Jews clearly believed that they were Christians.  They felt that they were empowered to preach their brand of Christianity to the Gentiles, and since they came from Jerusalem that authority could only have been from James. But more on this later. 

 

Gal 2:6  But from those who seemed to be something; whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man; for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me.

Gal 2:7  But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the

Gal 2:8  circumcised also worked effectively in me towards the Gentiles), and when James, Cephas, and John,   

Gal 2:9  who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 

Gal 2:10 They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.

 

Notice how in describing his trip to Jerusalem, Apostle Paul mentions the circumcision, but says nothing about the restrictions on food suggested by James.  Knowing that he had done the very opposite, He tried to be diplomatic by mentioning James first alongside Cephas and John.  

 

Gal 2:11 Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed;

Gal 2:12 for before certain men came from James,  he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.

 

After placing James in a positive light at first, he is now being mentioned in connection with those “false brethren” who were introducing wrong ideas among the Gentiles.  Peter knew that restrictions on food were unnecessary (He had visions from heaven about that. See Acts 10), but was not in the mood to fight James over this issue. But for Apostle Paul this was an important mater. He was the Apostle to the Gentiles and treated them as worthy companions in the faith. He did not like Peter’s attitude towards them, nor did he think that hey needed to be circumcised or to observe the dietary laws of the Jews.   

 

Gal 2:13  And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with

Gal 2:14 their hypocrisy.  But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, "If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as Jews?  

Gal 2:15  "We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the

Gal 2:16  works of  the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

 

Here he stressed the fact that people are not “justified by the works of the law but by faith”, a point he also emphasized in his epistle to the Romans: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Rom 3:27-28) .

James however, took issue with this concept and wrote, “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:17-18).  The truth is, they were both right, and that is why the Holy Spirit preserved both their writings.  For the grace of God comes without regard for any works, but once you are called to repentance, you are expected to produce works as proof your faith.    

 

Gal 2:17  "But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin?

Gal 2:18   Certainly not!  "For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 

Gal 2:19  "For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.

Gal 2:20  "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 

Gal 2:21  I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?

Gal 3:2  This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 

Gal 3:3  Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

Gal 3:4  Have you suffered so many things in vain; if indeed it was in vain?

Gal 3:5  Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of

Gal 3:6  the law, or by the hearing of faith?  Just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ 

Gal 3:7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

Gal 3:8  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand,

Gal 3:9  saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."  So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

Gal 3:10  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them."

Gal 3:11  But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith."

Gal 3:12  Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them shall live by them."

Gal 3:13  Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed

Gal 3:14  is everyone who hangs an a tree”),  that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

 

By telling the Gentiles that works could not save them, Apostle Paul came in conflict with James who, as we saw, believed that works do have an important role to play in the process of salvation.  Now although it my appear that they were miles apart on a number of issues, their writings fit very well together into the general Christian framework.  For although they had differences, they were not conducted in a spirit of hatred, but in a civilized and friendly manner. James may appear to have had the weaker case, but in fact he merely complemented what Paul said.  His epistle represents an important contribution to the New Testament.

 

James 2:14  What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save

James 2:15  him?  If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you

James 2:16  says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are

James 2:17  needed for the body, what dos it profit?   Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 2:18  But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I

James 2:19  will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons

James 2:20  believe; and tremble!  But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

James 2:21  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

James 2:22  Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?

James 2:23  And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God.

James 2:24  You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

 

Their writings harmonize and complement each other wonderfully when seen in their proper context.  This was the time when the Holy Spirit was putting together the New Testament.  The people who wrote those epistles, had no idea that they would end up forming the bone of the New Testament, and become part of the universal Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Gal 3:15  Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds

Gal 3:16  to it.  Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of

Gal 3:17  one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ.  And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.

Gal 3:18  For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Gal 3:19  What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

Gal 3:20 Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.  Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly

Gal 3:21  not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.”

Now which law was Apostle Paul referring to here?  Which law had been nailed to the cross? (Col. 2:14).  Not the Ten Commandments for sure, for Jesus Christ said: "If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:15-17).

If you do not keep the commandments you cannot receive the “Helper, the Spirit of truth”, and without Him, you cannot make any sense of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.  It is for this reason that traditional Christianity’s understanding of the Scriptures is so abysmally low.  Remember how when a young man asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life He told him to keep the commandments (Mat. 19:16-19).  Therefore, if you want to receive the Holy Spirit and attain eternal life, you must begin by keeping the Ten Commandments, including the fourth one, which refers to the Sabbath. Traditional Christians say that the Ten Commandments have been done away with, and shifted the day of worship from the Sabbath to the day of the sun.  Can you see now why their understanding of the Scriptures is so abysmally low?  

It you do not keep the commandments, you cannot receive the Holy Spirit, and without the Holy Spirit you cannot be a Christian. If you are not a Christian you cannot attain eternal life, “for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). 

It was the law of animal sacrifices that has been nailed by Jesus Christ to the cross.  The blood of animals could not wipe out the sins of human beings.  It was His blood that atoned for our sins.

Proof of this is the fact that this law was given “four hundred and thirty years” after the Israelites went to Egypt.  The Ten Commandments have been in force since the beginning of the world.  Both Abraham and the Gentiles of his day kept them. “And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? How have I offended you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done". Read the entire story in Genesis 20, for it is wonderful, and see how strictly the Gentiles observed the law of God. 

It was the law of sacrifices that was introduced for the first time at the time of the Exodus, “till the Seed should come”. In other words, it was introduced to lead us to Christ, and make us understand the meaning of His sacrifice.  That is that law that was nailed to the cross, not the Ten Commandments.

 

Gal 3:22  But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to

Gal 3:23  those who believe.  But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which

Gal 3:24  would afterward be revealed.  Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be

Gal 3:25  justified by faith.  But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

 

Yes, it was the law of sacrifices that was “our tutor” till Christ, for if the Ten Commandments had been annulled we could commit blasphemy, murder, adultery, etc., and still be saved.  

 

Gal 3:26  For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Gal 3:27  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek,

Gal 3:28  there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ.

Gal 3:29  And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

 

 The Jews were very upset when some of their contemporaries took the Gospel to the Gentiles.  They couldn’t bring themselves to think that the Gentiles could be as good as they were, and were willing to commit murder in order to maintain their exclusivity. "Then He said to me, 'Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles. And they listened to him until this word, and then they raised their voices and said, "Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live!" (Acts 22:21-22). 

 

Gal 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with

Gal 5:2  yoke of bondage.  Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.

Gal 5:3  And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.

Gal 5:4  You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from

Gal 5:5  grace.  For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

Gal 5:6  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

 

Gal 5:12  I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!   For you, brethren, have been called to liberty;

Gal 5:13  only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Gal 5:14  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Gal 5:15  But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

Gal 5:16  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you

Gal 5:18  do not do the things that you wish.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry,

Gal 5:20  sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,

Gal 5:21  heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Gal 5:23  gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Gal 5:24  And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Gal 5:26  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

 

So then, there are three major differences between the Christianity of Apostle Peter and that of Apostle Paul. Paul’s Christians were not required to circumcise themselves, to observe the dietary laws, and were not pooling their possessions to live communally.  Now let us look at some of their common points. 

 

1)        They both believed in the imminent return of Jesus Christ.  Apostle Paul wrote:

 

1 Th 4:16  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the

1 Th 4:17  trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

 

2)        Neither believed in immortality of the soul, or in going to heaven after death.  Instead, they both believed in resurrection from the dead and in an end-time judgment of God.

3)        They were both deterministic in nature.  They believed in prophetic fulfillment, and in predestination. 

4)        They both observed the same Holy Days.  These were the Holy Days given by God to Moses. (We have discussed this subject in detail in The Christian Herald No 4. Please send for your free copy).  It is to be noticed that none of the Holy Days observed by present day Christianity was observed by the Apostles and the early Christians, and none is mentioned in the New Testament.  What the Christians observe now are Roman holy days imposed on Christianity about three hundred years later when the Roman Empire supposedly became Christian. 

Now while Apostle Paul resisted any attempt to impose Jewish customs on to the Gentiles, he unhesitatingly adopted the Jewish Holy Days for his Christians. He even made the point that it is to them that the Gentiles must look if they want to know which are the “oracles” of God. 

 

Acts 7:38  "This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us.

Rom 3:1  What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?

Rom 3:2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.”

 

 He knew that the Sabbaths were signs between God and His people, the signs that identify the people of God.

 

Exo 31:13  "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.

Exo 31:16  'Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a

Exo 31:17  perpetual covenant.  It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.'"

 

The term “Sabbaths” refers to all of God’s Holy Days – the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles and, of course, the weekly Sabbath.     

You may have heard the term, ”the lost Ten Tribes of Israel”.  They became lost, or better said, lost their identity, when they separated from Judah, and their king set up a new religion and adopted new holy days for them.  

 

1 Ki 12:26  And Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom may return to the house

1 Ki 12:27  of David:  "If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam

1 Ki 12:28  king of Judah.”  Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!"

1 Ki 12:29  And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

1 Ki 12:30  Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one

1 Ki 12:31